Percy and Kassorith found the guide waiting for them by the cave's entrance – right where he'd said he'd be. The Violet looked mildly displeased, probably because they'd taken their sweet time in the treasury. In their defence, he had told them to stay as long as they wanted – though he probably hadn't expected them to examine nearly every orb on the shelves.

'Well… it's our first time here. Excuse us for being curious,' Percy thought with a mental shrug, not feeling even a hint of regret.

Either way, the guide said nothing, merely leading them to a cavern on the side of the pillar – this one only containing a small room with a single bed. Normally, the second round of the tournament was supposed to commence the moment the first ended. Contestants weren't meant to rest until the third or fourth round. However, the organizers had decided to make an exception, giving Kassorith a few extra hours to recover, in consideration of the fact that his previous fight had lasted nearly a week. The spectators and the other participants wouldn't be thrilled to wait even longer, but it was only fair.

Of course, Percy and his host didn't actually need to sleep – but they still pretended to, closing their eyes and relaxing their minds. It was tempting to dwell on the sweet rewards still waiting for them in the treasury, or the powerful opponents ahead, but Percy tried to shut it all out.

'Letting my excitement sabotage everything would be idiotic…'

In the end, the break felt far too short. The guide "woke" them after what Percy could've sworn were only a few minutes. Returning to the arena, he quickly noticed that only about half the competitors remained – which was only to be expected now that the first round of the tournament was over. However, he also recognized all the same faces as before, meaning that the organizers hadn't shuffled the participants between blocks yet.

'I guess we'll have to eliminate most of the people in the neighbouring brackets first, before they bring the winners together for the finals…'

Percy didn't know how many elite disciples had registered for this regional tournament in total, but he doubted it was exactly two hundred and fifty-six. That meant some would either need to fight an extra round, or skip one altogether.

Both scenarios were acceptable.

An extra match made winning harder, but likely came with another reward from the treasury. At least, Percy hoped the Thess'kalans were sensible – and generous – enough to structure the event like that. Regardless, Kassorith wasn't in either such group. According to what they'd been told during the sign-up, they'd only have to go through eight rounds in total – seven of them left.

Realizing that everyone had been waiting for them, Percy cast the pointless thoughts aside, slithering to the centre of the arena along with his host. There, they came face-to-face with a burly man Percy recognized – the lava user who'd fought right before them in the previous round.

In hindsight, Percy regretted not paying more attention to that fight.

'At least we know his affinity,' he told his host with a mental sigh, Kassorith echoing the sentiment.

The White announcer didn't waste time declaring the start of the battle.

Kassorith manifested a hastily-forged greatsword, taking to the air. Their opponent had already started launching balls of molten stone, twice the size of watermelons. The glowing liquid that splashed from every missed hit quickly began pooling at the floor of the arena. Percy had to admit that the constructs had looked slower and clumsier from the outside. It was a different story entirely once he found himself on the receiving end. The scorching spheres flew deceptively fast given their density, and the lava user controlled their paths with a precision no earth mage should have been capable of.

Luckily, Kassorith wasn't a slouch.

Percy had trained alongside his host many times, but this was his first time seeing him pushed to his limits. The Blue was more agile atop his metallic weapon than even the air mage Percy and Micky had faced after leaving the Valley – one of the fastest opponents they'd ever dealt with. The thick walls of domain-infused steel Kassorith manifested on a whim were also much harder to pierce than the defences of the earth mage who had forced Percy to develop his Second Parade. Kassorith was able to shift between offense and defence with greater ease than the water mage had.

Stolen novel; please report.

Overall, Percy could say with confidence that none of the dozens of Blues he had slain on Remior would have been a match for Kassorith. He and Micky could currently take on three of them at a time – but even so, he wasn't confident they would win against the Thess'kalan.

Sadly, that alone wasn't enough to make Kassorith into an elite disciple – a title that their opponent absolutely deserved.

The lava mage fought aggressively, trying to drive them to a corner with precise, coordinated formations of liquid meteors. The extreme heat softened Kassorith's metallic shields, the first strike leaving a deep dent in each one, the follow-ups almost always ripping them apart like paper.

Kassorith was allowed to fly outside the arena as long as he didn't land elsewhere – but so was his opponent. Riding a relatively cold slab of stone atop a rolling carpet of magma, the burly mage pursued them across the sea of clouds and mist surrounding the stadium. Runic formations hovered nearby, likely transmitting the fight to the spectators.

The lava mage was gaining ground – or rather, air. And a difference in mana reserves that kept growing with every spell the two sides cast. Kassorith was struggling to keep up with a true Violet-level opponent on his own – the burly man being nothing like that one-trick pony of a woman that they'd eliminated before.

'Help me! I can't win this by myself!'

Percy sighed. This wasn't ideal, even though they had expected it. Left with no other choice, he tried to pitch in in subtle ways, trying not to reveal Kassorith's secret advantages so early. Using his Instantaneous Imprint spell, he engraved runes onto his host's constructs, but did so by allowing his willpower to sink deep beneath the surface of the metal, thus hiding the symbols from plain view. It made it impossible for an outsider to pry into what he was doing, but Percy's clever trick wasn't without its cost.

The extra hoops he had to go through severely impacted the quality of his enchantments.

Percy only managed to plant a few hardness and force absorption runes into the shields, allowing them to last a little longer. Equipping the swords with some sharpness and lightness runes gave Kassorith a chance to launch a better counterattack, finally putting some pressure onto his opponent. Whenever his host was about to get hit, Percy even coated their body with an additional layer of willpower, easing the mental strain.

There was only so much he could do without revealing their unusual advantages, but his contribution seemed to tilt the scales slightly. Before long, Kassorith stopped getting pushed back, placing the lava user on the defensive.

'Try to keep a few good swords on the side. I'll help you prepare the finisher,' Percy advised.

It wasn't going to be easy – because the two Blues were almost evenly matched, even with Percy's thumb on the scale. Still, Percy took control of some swords and had them float behind his host, slowly covering their interiors with more complex runes. Enchanting the constructs with the full unit cell that he intended to use later on in the tournament was out of the question. He didn't think he could insert too many of his runes inside the swords without compromising their structural integrity either.

But he did what he could.

'Now! Go for it!' he exclaimed as soon as he felt they were ready.

Kassorith didn't hesitate. They might not always see eye-to-eye, but the Thess'kalan probably trusted the potency of Percy's runes, having seen what they could do during their training. The Blue added a few unruned stone swords into his formation – mostly to get rid of the excess earth mana in his body – before coating the rest in a torrent of lightning mana. Indigo bolts danced across the metal blades, turning them red-hot, then white.

With little warning, he hurled everything at the lava mage – who clearly didn't expect such a bold all-out attack. That said, the burly man maintained his composure, grinning at what he clearly thought was a dumb move. Emptying over two thirds of his reserves, the lava mage shrouded himself in a thick sphere of liquid rock, likely confident it would block the spell and leave Kassorith vulnerable afterwards.

Under normal circumstances, he wouldn't have been wrong. Earth mana – and all its permutations – was excellent for defence. A Blue's all-out attack would usually lose to an equally powerful barrier cast by an earth user. Unless, of course, the attacker wielded some extremely lethal rare affinity like space or soul.

Sadly for the burly man, there was nothing normal about his circumstances.

Even leaving aside the fact that Kassorith specialized in offense, his attacks packed more of a punch than usual right now. The enchanted swords reached the magma sphere in a flash due to their reduced weight, their edges screaming through the air like solid bolts of lightning. Their sharpened tips pierced through the liquid shell like hot knives through even-hotter butter, the extreme heat threatening to melt them mid-flight. But many of them survived – thanks in no small part to Percy's hardness runes.

Kassorith and Percy held their shared breath, the result not immediately clear. Soon, the sphere began to dissolve, revealing their opponent. Most of the swords had been destroyed halfway through, several tons of liquid steel having been swept away by the flowing lava.

Still…

A few patches of rapidly-cooling metal clung to the man's scales like silver flowers in full bloom. The man winced as some of the heat seeped through, but the constructs hadn't pierced his skin, nor had they scorched his flesh. Colourful runes covered him from head to tail, protecting him. These weren't from the Vault of Magic – nor had they been drawn by Percy. They had been written in the Thess'kalan runecrafting language, and the thick, potent mana coursing through them clearly hadn't been produced by a Blue.

Or a Violet.

Or a White.

Or even a demigod.

They had come from the stadium itself – the handiwork of a god – saving the contestant from certain death.

Kassorith's second match was over.

They had won.

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