The Tale of the Void Emperor

The matches to re-determine the rankings went on for one and a half-day.

Athan's current ranking was fourteen. He gave up most of the matches and just secured his foothold at rank 14 pillars.

Celesti's rank was surprisingly twenty, and Erina's rank was nineteen.

Of course, Athan's aim was rank one, but he already thought of what to do to get rank one without running out of his abyssal darkness.

In this one and a half-day, Everyone got a chance to fight with each competitor. Well, not everyone fought each battle because they were aware of who they can beat and who they can't after observing many fights. So, when they were matched with someone stronger than them, they readily gave up to save their strength for the next battle.

" Now, We will be moving to the second phase. "

The middle-aged man said before looking at the competitors from rank 20 to rank 30.

" Rank twenty to rank thirty, Do any of you have any dissatisfaction regarding your rank? If so, then you can challenge people that are ten ranks above you. You all have two challenge chances. The thing to note is that you won't get to use your second challenge if you failed in your first challenge. "

Hearing that, the competitors from rank 20 to rank 30 started to contemplate. One of them raised his hand and asked, " The rewards for those in the top 30 are the same, right? Regardless of their rankings in them? "

Hearing this question, All other competitors picked their ears as this was an important question. The rewards in the top 50 were the same, so it might be possible that the rewards in the top thirty were also the same for all competitors from rank eleventh to rank thirty.

The middle-aged man smiled, hearing the question, and nodded, " Good question. I was about to elaborate on it after one of you raised a challenge. "

After that, the middle-aged man told them about the rewards, " They are the same but not the same at the same time. One of the rewards is about staying in Swathi Wind Pool. In this reward, If you have a higher rank in the top thirty, then you can stay a bit longer in the pool. Rank eleventh can stay for ten minutes, and the subsequent rankers will stay in the pool for five seconds less. "

" Five seconds? are you kidding me? What difference does it make? Tsk. "

" Uh...This doesn't really make much of a difference to the ranks in top thirty. "

The competitors ranked from eleventh to thirty started to talk about it, and some even complained in a low voice.

" Cough..."

The middle-aged man caught the attention of all competitors with an echoing cough before he spoke with a smile, " So? From rank twenty-one to rank thirty, Do any of you want to challenge someone of higher rank? "

The competitors who were in rank twenty-one to rank thirty had low morale to fight after hearing that there wasn't much difference in the reward in the top 30. Surely, they knew that the rewards of the top ten were higher, but they also knew that they weren't capable of defeating those competitors after observing and fighting many matches.

So, none of the competitors who ranged from rank twenty one to rank thirty challenged anyone.

The middle-aged man nodded before he asked the competitors, who ranged from rank 11 to rank 20.

" Competitors from rank eleven to rank twenty, Do any of you want to challenge someone of higher rank? "

From rank 11 to rank 20, There was two-division of clear strength. All those who were rank 15 and up were clearly stronger than competitors of rank 16 and lower. So, None of the competitors from rank 15 to rank 20 were interested in challenging the people of higher ranks.

Celesti and Erina were surprised by Athan's performance despite his low order base. Especially Celesti was dumbfounded when Athan made someone who was stronger than her scream surrender.

" I want to challenge rank ninth. "

Everyone's attention turned towards the person standing on the twelfth rank pillar. He was a tall man with one eye on his face and one tail behind his back. His eight was 7 ft. But he was very slim. His body and skin were a wooden structure with dark brown color.

Both rank 12 and rank 9 jumped on the square battle platform.

" FIGHT...ON! "

With this signal of the middle-aged man, The two started fighting.

Rank 9 competitor had a rough and stony body with 5ft height and looked fat.

Athan observed the fight as the first one to attack was rank 9. He saw the stony guy conjuring several fast-spinning grey blades before shooting them towards the rank 12 tree man.

The tree man had a calm face as his body shined in a dark green hue as he stretched both of his hands forward.

*Shooooooooo...*

A green gas conjured before turning into a cloud. The grey blades hit the cloud and...disappeared.

Seeing this, Stony man roared before he charged towards the tree man with both of his hands transforming into long stony spikes that were metallic black in color.

But the tree man was still calm as he simply waved his right hand while putting his left hand inside the dark green cloud.

*Siiiii...*

The cloud suddenly became bigger and started seething before releasing dark green water drops towards the incoming stony man.

The stony man used his hands as a shield as he was confident that his black crystal hands could block this attack.

But when the attack finally hit him, He realized that the tree man had always hidden his strength in the previous battle.

*Chriiiiii.....*

" Aaaaargh.....Y-yu hid your strength. "

The stony man's hands started to rot as he spoke while enduring the pain.

The tree man didn't reply, but Athan noticed that he appeared slightly exhausted. Nonetheless, The tree man waved his hand again, and this time, the whole cloud shot towards the stony man.

The stony man gritted his teeth before he consumed all of his order force on defense and turned his entire body into black stone before the cloud hit him as there was no way he could avoid this nimble cloud controlled by the tree man.

He felt that he should be able to block it and also ram into the tree man since he put all of his power into making his body stronger.

Seeing this, The tree man frowned and thought, ' This guy....couldn't he tell the difference in our power and how my power counter him? Why is he courting death? '

The middle-aged man floating in the sky was also speechless at the delusional confidence of this rank nine stony man. But, he didn't intend to stop the fight. It was simply the fault of the stony man since he couldn't make the correct judgment.

The stony man met the big cloud head-on before finally realizing his tragic end.

" Arrrrghhhhhh....I-I GIVE UP.! "

Hearing this, The tree man hurriedly dispersed his power as it was against the rules to continue attacking once the opponent surrendered.

The stony man simply fainted after shouting as he lost his consciousness while getting severely injured.

The middle-aged man sighed and waved his hand as the stony man got absorbed in the ground to get the treatment. The stony man will get treatment from the organizer of this competition since he was in the top 30 and will participate in the Penta region tournament.

The tree man became the winner and jumped onto the rank nine pillar.

" Anyone, who wants to challenge higher ranks? Though you can only challenge the ninth rank competitor after thirty minutes. "

Since tree man fought a battle just now, he gets a thirty-minute break.