Scarlet

Well, that’s certainly one way to end the first half of the ascension tournament.

After Titania vanishes, King Oberon quickly picks things up and shows the rules of the next competition. Which is some sort of test to see how well the fae and partner competitor pairs know each other. And it’s one competition that almost everyone does pretty closely on in terms of success. Although some a little bit better than others.

Surprisingly, me and Tar end up being almost directly in the middle in terms of how well we do. Probably because a lot of these demons are a lot older than us.

Of course, the audience never grows to the excited fervor it was at before. Both because Oberon is doing the announcing again, and because of what Titania did. Just dropped all of that info and vanished without a trace.

The seventeenth competition of the tournament is a maze that’s rather similar to the maze I did in the first ten competitions. What with the finishing puzzles to get to the next room thing. But this one our partner is our fae instead of someone else.

And there are no monsters this time around. Just a time limit that sends you back to a previous room if you don’t finish in time.

I ignore everything though and break through to the end again just like the last time.

To Oberon’s irritation.

He doesn’t say anything this time. But I see his eyebrow twitching, so I know he’s upset.

After the maze is the eighteenth competition. Which is just a single very difficult puzzle that we have to solve, with whoever finishes first being named the winner. And then second place, and third after that.

A puzzle that Aria actually wins, surprisingly enough.

I end up in third though.

Because Xyvandra gets second this time.

Meanwhile the nineteenth competition is another quiz. Just that this one focuses on anything fae, human, or demon related, with an especially large focus on the war between humans and demons.

And just like the last time, Leonidas wins this one. Except that I don’t even place in the top three this time. Instead second place goes to Xyvandra, and third is a tie between Amelia and Vorgrim.

Kind of unfair having those four who are all much older and actually experienced a lot of this history themselves in it.If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

Then we finally move onto the twentieth competition. Or rather, we stop for the day before doing it. Because we managed to fit every other competition after the fourth in a single day.

Certainly goes to show how much shorter these are compared to the combat competitions.

But King Oberon does at least show us the rules for the twentieth competition before closing things out for the night, not even bothering with the duels this time around. Probably because he just wants to leave by the looks of it.

He’s been a lot less enthusiastic since returning after Titania left.

Anyways, I look up at the rules before frowning.

Huh.

Interesting.

Tag-Team Elimination

Description: All of the contracted competitors will be placed within one large arena and given three marks. Each of these marks will count as lives for the competitors. Meanwhile the fae will all be placed each in a puzzle room of their own, where they will be required to complete puzzles until they reach the end of the puzzle room and escape. However, the competitor teams will be eliminated whenever the competitor loses all of their marks, and they will be given another mark for each mark puzzle completed by their contracted fae.

Rules: Anything goes. Those who have all of their marks erased will be eliminated from the round. All competitors are required to use the anti-death clause within this competition.

Goal: For the human and demon competitors, survive until the end of the Competition without getting all of your marks erased. For the fae competitors, complete every puzzle until the end of the Competition or until your contracted partner loses all of their marks.

Rewards: All competitors will accrue points for every ten minutes of the competition they last through. Bonus points will also be awarded for every mark a competitor manages to save by the end of the competition. Further points will be awarded for every puzzle the fae of the duo manages to complete. And the first fae to escape the puzzle room will be given one three hundred points. Then the second fae to escape will be given two hundred and fifty points, and the third to escape two hundred points. Lastly, every duo that manages to keep at least a single mark until the end will be given one hundred points.

Very interesting.

That tournament relies on both the fae and the human or demon to win. The fae to actually win the race, and the human or demon contractor to survive so that their fae can win the race.

Of course, the contractors can also just go around hunting the other contractors, killing all of them so that they won’t be able to win.

But… I honestly can’t help but feel excited for this competition.

Because it’s my first combat oriented competition – for me at least – that I get to compete in after my lovely little powerup.

A powerup that includes attacks that don’t require my Red Plague, and are therefore safe to fight others with.

Without permanently erasing and then eating them, of course.

“Guess you haven’t gotten your battle-fix yet in this tournament,” Tar comments, making me turn my head to glare at him as we both stand on our tower.

It’s not my fault I haven’t been able to test out my powers yet on someone else. Anyone would want to test out a transcendent skill after getting one.

“Scarlet…” Tar mutters, sounding exasperated for some reason. “You’re in the level 2300s and you have Dragon Slayer now, which gives you a fifty percent bonus to your stats. Do you think anyone here would survive even being punched by you now?”

I stare at him without saying a word for a while.

Oh.