The Divine Wolf... or?

Chapter 102: Tournament Underway!

Waking up the next day, Ark was both anxious and excited. It didn't really cross his mind before, but what if he didn't win the tournament? What would he do then? He wasn't really sure, but he didn't really think that would happen, he had a great deal of confidence in himself, especially considering the age group he was competing with.

If he didn't win, he would probably just try and sneak into the palace to break Arduin out of there, he hoped it wouldn't come to that though.

Thufrat and Alenia hadn't woken up yet, and Ark just ate some breakfast by himself and waited in his room. The tournament would start at noon in a big arena constructed outside of the noble district, and since Ark didn't have a lot of time in his human form, he had to wait until then before going out, just in case of any unforeseen circumstances.

Ark wasn't particularly bored though, being alone was nice in its own right.

Thufrat and Alenia eventually woke up, and they waited with Ark inside of one of the rooms they had rented. When there was only half an hour left before the start of the tournament, they all left the inn together. Just in case, they split up halfway there and went their own ways.

They would help Ark run away with Arduin later if everything went according to plan, but for now, they would just watch the tournament from the crowd. If he didn't win, then there would have to be a change of plans.

The tournament itself was actually just the finals, which meant that only the ten strongest youths across the kingdom would battle it out. There had been numerous smaller elimination tournaments across the kingdom before this, and today was the finals. Luckily Torment of the Fallen was a very influential organisation, and they had managed to give Ark a spot in the finals very easily.

How they managed to do it was very easy, they had sent someone to participate in the qualifiers under an alias. All Ark had to do was wear a specific mask which he had gotten the day before. Along with the mask, Ark had also gotten a small token imbued with a special type of mana. This token was needed to identify him at the tournament.

When he was getting close to the arena, Ark entered a secluded alley and gently put on the mask which he had stored in his spatial bag. He then conjured up some ice to see what he looked like. After seeing the pitch-black mask with beautiful silver engravings on top of it, Ark nodded softly and then went on his way again.

The streets near the arena were very crowded with both commoners and nobles alike, but Ark managed to easily squeeze his way through. The arena's size was daunting, to say the least, it looked more like the colosseum of Rome rather than an arena. There were multiple entrances to the arena, but the one Ark used was a pretty small side-entrance.

After going through some procedures, he soon arrived inside of the large arena. The place the participants were sitting in was a small lounge that was right next to the stage where they would be fighting.

Eight other participants had already arrived and were sitting wherever they pleased. When Ark entered, he attracted a lot of attention. Not just because he was a participant, but also because he was wearing a mask to cover his face. After sitting down in a remote corner, Ark observed the other participants a little. Out of the eight, five of them were male, while the remaining three were all female.

Most of them seemed to be warriors of different sorts, mostly knights, while there were only 2 magicians. Judging by their equipment at least. Ark couldn't be 100% sure.

About ten minutes after Ark's arrival, the last participant finally showed up as well. The last participant was also a girl, but judging from her equipment, Ark was almost certain that she was a commoner, which was pretty surprising. To be able to come this far without proper training or anything of the sort was actually very commendable, and Ark's impression of her was naturally a step higher.

She was fairly beautiful as well, but compared with the other women here, her beauty was a lot more natural, which Ark could appreciate a little more.

Unlike Ark, most of the other participants' views were pretty different. Only two other people present seemed sensible enough to not look down on her entirely just because of her apparent social status. Would that even matter in a contest of strength? No, not at all.

As time passed, the rowdiness of the crowd naturally became worse and worse, they all wanted to see what the strongest youths of their kingdom had to offer.

All of a sudden, the rowdy crowd started to quiet down, which prompted the youths to direct their gazes at the stage. A middle-aged man was slowly walking on the stage. Stopping in the middle, the middle-aged man looked out over the crowd.

"Is everyone excited?"

His loud voice reverberated throughout the arena, and the once silent crowd broke out in stupor a second later. The man laughed a little, before he made some gestures with his hands, trying to tell the crowd to quiet down again.

"Since everyone seems to be excited, why don't we start with the first fight of the day then? I welcome to the stage, Silver Gaze!"

The crowd applauded when they heard the nickname, but no one got too excited, most people had never heard of this name before. Unlike the crowd, Ark was surprised. It seemed like he had to take part in the very first battle. He didn't waste any time, and before anyone could react, he disappeared with a gust of wind.

Suddenly seeing a masked man appear on stage out of nowhere shocked a lot of people, especially the participants themselves, wasn't he right next to them just a couple of seconds ago?

Ark only stood quietly on one side of the stadium, awaiting what came next. Even though people couldn't see his face, his piercing gaze was noticed by a lot of people, even though he was fairly far away from them. The nickname was actually quite fitting.

The middle-aged man was a little surprised by Ark's sudden appearance as well, but he adjusted his mindset accordingly.

"And let us now present the challenger, welcome Allastir, Nature's Warden onto the stage!"