Tournament Rounds

Note: Some references if you can find them Note²: Words in italic are characters thoughts

Continuation
After some time of run, Damon had not dropped a single sweat from his body with a smile on his he still continued to run, there were various lacrimas inside the Seven's Coliseum at the end of the course so the public could watch the participants, some just murmured how weak some of the mages were simply because succumbed to the exhaustion since the road was long making it fair for them to sccumb. Sometime after it, people heard a strong noise much like a explosion but following that, things were seemgly calm, but then people looked as they heard the big door of the colisseum opening suddenly, it was the first participant to arrive, he was a man with black hair having various strands of gray, a toned body, a long sword and wearing red monk clothes, it was unbeliavable, how fast and skilled was he? After finishing the road the participants still needed to pass through a little labyrinth and the catacombs yet this guy passed through them without anyone seeing it, he apparently had some bruises and burns in his clothes. That man could only wait now until the rest of the participants arrived. And after him, another person quickly arrived, it was Damon, people looked at him, one hour ago he was at the first part of the Trial, then now he quickly arrived in the destination he must be very fast and skilled as well some thought, but there was something strange with him, he has a bit of blood in his forehead and there was a white sash wrapped around his left arm some thought he must had fell over the place or he was just an idiot.

The announcer near the top of the colisseum began to announce "Annnnnnnd we have our firs two mages!! According to our archive, the big guy here is named Bishop Laxal, he is 40 years old, apparently an very powerful mage, he is know by his alias Death Hunter!!! What an amazing name! Cheers for him!!" Just as the Announcer said lots of people began to shout Bishop's name in a fan'ish' manner "The other one is named Damon D. Draco, he is 21 years old, another known mage!! He is know by his alias Hybrid Dragon!! AMAZING!! CHEERS" People cheered at Damon too just as loudly as they did when Bishop arrived. After them, many mages began to arrive too, but apparently they weren't the expected so the ones who had arrived already still needed to wait.

Upon this, Bishop only sighed as he continued to walk towards a bench which appeared upon the Announcer's action, after coming closer to it, Bishop just sits while waiting for the rest "This better be worth waiting" He thought while wondering how much time the others would take to arrive in the colisseum. Damon approached one of the benchs as well, sitting in it with a thoughtful face sometimes taking a look at Bishop and then at the public, with his sight he noticed his team was already within the bleachers, but even though he received all the cheers and stuff, Damon couldn't take his mind of what happened sometime ago inside the labyrinth.

Within The Labyrinth (Flashback)
Damon had already arrived at the second half of the labyrinth, that thing was damn messy to walk around any wrong choice and you wouldn't arrive at the end, luckily Damon had discovered its secret, no one could get out of it unless they find the Runners as called by Damon, they were like the Instructors of the Trial yet you had to find them, there were three of them and each one knew the correct exit to the labyrinth however they runned around and would rarely pass near the exit.

All that was needed to be done was either beat them up to gather information or steal an map since they apparently had one, but Damon decided to go by the peaceful way he was just gonna follow them until they passed near the exit. How did he do that? The Instructors had to run constantly with this they were sweating a lot and this produced an odor strong enough for Damon to follow. Why follow? He wanted other participants to win too so he could have some good battle.

Using his ears Damon was capable of keeping track of other people, however by doing this he would turn off his attention from the instructors just for a few moments since he couldn't lose their scent. There weren't many participants in the labyrinth so Damon decided to keep himself close to the Runners, however, after following the scent for some time it had decreased out of nowhere Damon after realizing it quickly increased his pace to catch up with them to see what was up and then after he took sight of them, he saw it, a tall man with black-gray gair, red clothes and a sword had blood in his hands while one of the Instructors was down in the floor barely counscious with a pool of blood right under him.

With his eyes widened some veins popped in Damon's head as he quickly dashed towards the man with care so the latter wouldn't notice. Bishop quickly felt someone's presence in the place, he just frowned as he saw some noises of someone running, however as he turned around it was too late, moments before he did turn Damon had already turned his entire leg and coated it with shadows "Shadow Dragon's Iron Kick!!" Shouted the Dragon Slayer angrily while hitting the man in the face with a powerful kick using his magic, the attack was powerful enough to make the other mage bleed from his mouth and fly away with his upper teeth pressed against his lower teeth, Bishop then hit an nearby wall as he was shoved deeply into the wall "What the hell do you think you are doing?!" Shot the Hybrid Dragon again.

"Oh its one of the participants! Hybrid Dragon Damon!" One of the intrusctors said while picking up the one who was covered in blood "He is battling Death Hunter Bishop! Help me here" The First instructor said to the Third Instructor as the two picked up gently the Bloody One as they put him resting on a wall "We should try to help him! Third!"

"Why is he helping us anyway...? Does he know about the Labyrinth..." The Third one wondered with his widened as he looked at Damon and at Bishop who now got out of the wall with his mouth and nose bleeding.

Just as Bishop got out of the cracked wall, he fixed his clothes using his right arm while his left arm was sustained by a part of his kimono "Someone strong...has arrived" Bishop said as he finished with his clothes and tried to fix his glasses. With a non-happy and bloody face Bishop took a look at an angry Damon who had veins in his forehead "Why are you angry kid?" He asked like it was the most common question.

"Damn you!! Why were you attacking the instructors?" Damon clenched his teeth while looking at the tall man with his angry expression, yeah, Damon didn't like the idea of no one getting to the next round, it would make everything pointless and there was also the intructors' lives and yeah that was their job during this round, no one needed to be brute or anything with them "I am gonna beat the crap out of you"

"Ohhh you want to fight huh...could you do me a favor then?" Bishop asked in calm tone as he let out a weak laugh "My left arm is uncapacitated and my right arm is kind of dumb, respect the elders, could you fight with your legs?" Laxal asked another question this time with a wide smile on his lips, that smile was definitely of an sarcastic person. The man grabbed the sword which was in its sheath at his wrist and put it in the floor.

Damon clenched his teeth with more force and with an very angry face he jumped towards Laxal while turning both his arms in a black tone quickly hardening them with his shadows, Damon stretched his right one backwards as he prepared a punch to then quickly throw said punch at Bishop's face however the latter fastly moved his right arm upwards and deflected the blow away with an elbow while he had a grin on his face, Bishop tried to counter-attack with a powerful kick to Damon's ribs but the Dragon Slayer transferred the Shadows from his upper limbs to his legs and counter-attacked as well with a kick although it barely stopped the impact from pushing him away.

Bishop jumped at Damon and threw another kick at his legs this time so he could take down the Dragon however Damon was faster and jumped to the air to avoid the leg's swing, Bishop noticing this closed his hand into a fist and hit Damon's stomach making the latter cough saliva with blood as he was pushed back towards an nearby wall crashing it.

"We should be disclassified by now, hahaha!" Bishop laughed with a fake smile as he gave a death glare to the Instructors as a sign they should shut up and not tell anyone, since that was the only way they would be disclassified there since there are no Video Lacrimas inside the Labyrinth.

"They are very agile" The Third Instructor pointed out with widened eyes, the fight had just begun but it was indeed impressive so far "Oi First, put your eyes in the fight, so we won't be distracted and if one of them flies towards us, we pick Second and run, ok?!" Third said while trembling as he put attention to the fight.

"S-Seems li-like a deal, dude" The First Instructor answered as he too had put his attention towards the fight. Damon had got up from the wall while cleaning his bloody chin, he looked up to Laxal who made a hand gesture meaning Come On, upon seeing this Damon covered both of his legs with shadows as he dashed again at the Dark Mage before him.

Bishop just smiled as he fastly spinned in a 360º degrees and tried to deliver a roundhouse kick towards Damon's face by using his right leg only for the latter to attempt to block it using his right arm, after blocking it successfully Damon was left defenseless and Bishop who had his right leg touching the ground again tried to kick Damon's ribs using his left leg, Damon noticing this quickly hardened his rib chest with shadows blocking Laxal's attack again successfuly, Bishop taken back by the impact his leg had was the one defenseless now.

Damon with a bloody grin printed in his face quickly hardened his fist and falcon punched (Yes) Bishop's face with immense strength "Take this you damn fucker!" Damon shout while the delivered the punch with his teeth clenched sending Laxal flying backwards and hitting another wall completely shoving his upper body in it "Tch" Damon complained as his phalanges were slighty numb.

"Did he defeat the Death Hunter?!" The Second who was feeling better asked with widened eyes while he was also breathing heavily "I just have the feeling we shouldn't be here near these two" The First and Third Instructors looked at him with a confused face, the Second one just stood silent.

Bishop who was already angry got himself out of the wall with a bit of diffulty since he was deeply encased into it, he cracked his neck a bit and fixed his glasses although one of them had a crack in it, Laxal just sighed as he began to slowly approach Damon with a angry face, the latter just frowned upon the act as he covered his fingers with shiny flames and then began to accumulate them at the point of his fingers causing a little combustion as he released lots of Fire Bullets towards his opponent "Flame Dragon's Finger Pistol!" Laxal began analyzing the amount of projectiles tried to evade them by doing several 360º degrees spins making the bullets pass nearby him.

Damon clenched his teeth at the sight and using his hands, he tooks control of the bullets managing to make them turn around in a swing luckily before they hit the wall, he then launched several towards Bishop's head but the man lowered his neck making the bullets pass without him, Damon then commands several other bullets to his now lowered face only for Bishop to raise his head quickly what made the Dragon Slayer repeat the sequence again what resulted in the man lowering and raising his heads while he moved fastly with his legs. Damon sent one from above to hit his shoulder but Bishop managed to lower it so he could evade, while this the Hybrid Dragon just created more bullets so he could have a better chance of hitting the Older Mage, Damon then made a bullet come from below him to try to hit his chin but Bishop pushed his head back avoiding it "He is quite skilled, but not enough"' Bishop thought while evading the bullets.

"My chance"' Damon thought as he commanded several bullets to hit Laxal at the same time. Luckily for the latter he was near his word and with his feet he kicked it towards the air and grabbed it with his right hand as he took it out from its sheat, Bishop then began an assault at the attacking bullets by cutting them up in half using his swordsmanship and accuracy "Let me give you some more!" Damon shout as he released far more bullets and as Laxal was about to deliver a powerful slash, the Wavy-haired man then put his palms open in his front "Pyro's...Essence" Upon saying this, all of the bullets surround the place started to ignite tremenduously as the scene happened slowly, all the explosions happened at the same time forming a bigger one which brighted the entirety of the labyrinth and made a noise loud enough to be heard from the Colisseum.

The Three Instructors made wide surprising face faults as they were thrown away by the explosion, Damon himself stood there as he could endure the impact, he had a wide grin in his face and just then the brightness went away revealing Bishop who was still there but with several burns in his body, he just sighed as he looked towards Damon "It seems things won't go as short as I wanted, good job kid, it was an entertaining fight, but now I need to the colisseum!" Bishop said while turning towards the big door.

"Oi, I won't let you get away easily!" Damon shouted with now an angry expression as he tried to block Laxal's path, the latter upon witnessing this act quickly disappeared and reappeared above Damon with a closed fist, Bishop then said coldly "Don't stand in my way" As he tried to punch Damon only for the latter to harden his arm with shadows and block it up, but then Damon noticed his mistake, as Bishop's fist started the contact with Damon's arm, the Younger Mage quickly heard a not so loud cracking noise. His arm's bone was gonna be ripped in two, Damon's eyes widened while he clenched his teeth with force as he tried to deflect Bishop's fist which went directly to hit the ground, there, the impact was so powerful it made a wide yet shallow crater in the ground, Damon instinctively moved his body out of the way and Laxal disappeared and appeared at the big door to open it. Damon's mouth opened as he gasped just a bit, what if he had insisted to continue the fight? After being taken out of his thoughts, Damon just procceded to cover his damaged arm with a white sash he had in his pocket and then he got past the door

Colisseum (Present)
"Oh no, whats the meaning of this?!" The Announcer shouted surprised as he looked towards the Arena, those weren't the numbers of participants he expected, out of 1000, only 90 had passed the First Ordeal "Ugh...unbelievable my people!" The crowd then began to pay more attention to him "Apparently, now the judges had changed something! And it is due to the amount of participants!!" Everyone gasped as they focused their ears in what the Announcer had to say, after clearing his throat, the Announcer shouted "WE ARE GONNA HAVE ONLY TWO BATTLES!!" Everyone stood at shock upon the news, they wanted to see more battles, but apparently, it wasn't possibly anymore.

"At least, less time wasted" Damon thought as he got up from the bench, he was prepared for the Battles at the least, so far, his only obstacle was that man, Bishop Laxal the Death Hunter, Damon shivered with a grin in his face due to the excitement as he couldn't wait to fight all out.

To Be Continued

''In the next chapter, the two battles will be shown finally and selected people for each will have to fight each other in a Royale to death! Damon is quite excited to face that guy!''