First Day of the Competition (2)

Once the second match was over, Kate stood up from her seat. Everyone except Lilia was confident she would win easily, so they only wished her good luck and maintained serenity. But Lilia was still worried that her little girl might be injured and tightened her grip on Bartos' hand.

"Don't worry, she'll be fine."

Bartos tried to comfort her, an attempt that only resulted in Lilia forcing a smile. Seeing this, Bartos only continued to hold her hand and looked towards the stage.

Out of the three, only Kate had reached the fifth level in the Mortal Realm so the winner was too obvious. Even so, Ren and Tia didn't want to lose without a fight. The moment they saw each other on the stage, they nodded their heads and decreased the distance between them while facing Kate from the opposite side of the stage. Though it was expected, it still worried the Heaven clan when they witnessed this scene. One-on-one, Kate was obviously better, but if the two of them worked together things might get tricky. The Mortal Realm had the shortest power gap between levels so teamwork could overcome that difference. As many of those in the Heaven clan hoped their teamwork would be bad enough to ruin them, the match began.

Ren rushed at Kate first, while Tia stayed close behind. The audience expected that there would be a fierce battle happening next, but that guess was completely off. As soon as the other two reached within two cales of her, Kate stomped with her right foot. It was enough to shake the stage, but that should have been a minor inconvenience, and yet it caused Tia and Ren to be blown off the stage. The two were still conscious and yet before they knew it, they were already off the stage.

"..."

No one could speak, they could hardly believe what they seeing. Even the referee blanked out for a couple seconds before announcing the result.

"Winner: Kate of the Heaven clan."

"Just some small fry."

Once her victory was confirmed, Kate paraded her arrogance and strutted boldly back to her area. Though there was a single difference in level between them, it shouldn't have been enough to instantly knock away her opponents. It seemed like there had to some trick behind it, but only the Earth Realm cultivators had seen through it. Kate had perfectly tied her stomp together with her aura to startle her opponents. This might not seem like much, but one must know that neither her aura nor the stomp would have generated that much force. By using them together she had actually provoked the primal instincts of the two and caused them to hastily back away in fear. It seemed like it was a simple trick but even ignoring the difficulty of it, just the fact that her opponents didn't even try to get back on stage proved how defeated they felt.

"What a lass!"

"Indeed."

Not only Kalos, but also Kaitlyn, the Matriarch of the Glaize clan praised her. This praise made all of the Heaven clan members feel proud. Even Nalos was shocked by her ability and had no choice but to feel proud of her despite their disagreements. However, there was one who felt pressured by this power. When Nathan looked at Olly's pathetic display, he only felt disdain, and even though Kate had a higher cultivation than he did, he expected that she would also have a hard fight. But instead she showed that she was in another league from her opponents, and him. As he saw her power, he finally felt fear; fear that the position of Patriarch would no longer be in his future.

"That's my girl."

When Kate came back to her seat, Lilia was the first to welcome her with a hug. Though Kate felt a little embarrassed by this public display of affection, she didn't resist. When she was released from her mother's clutches, Kate looked at Shui.

"What do you think about your big sis? Cool, ain't I."

"Yeah yeah, definitely."

He said it in a playful tone but Shui was also impressed by Kate's technique. Though he could simply cause them to become unconscious by pressuring their lungs with his aura, Kate's method was something he hadn't thought about before.

"I know right. That was something I came up with for the sake of getting out of those spars against weaker kids. I call it 'sweep the trash'."

Putting aside her naming sense, Shui had to change his evaluation of Kate after this display. She made such an innovative technique because of such trivial circumstances; he didn't know if it was a waste or ingenius but it was definitely cool.

The next match would end round one, but there would still be a break and then round two which functioned as the semi-finals. Though every match was normally given relatively the same amount of anticipation, after Kate's performance some of the audience couldn't help but hope for more in the next match. After all, there was someone else in the ten and under category that had reached the fifth level in the Mortal Realm.

"Don't hold back. Finish it as quickly as possible."

"Yes father."

Rune swiftly responded to his father's expectation. Even though he might have the same cultivation as her, he knew he wouldn't able to show the same dominance Kate did even with his special aptitude. Even worse was the fact that he was ten and she was eight, so it was obvious who was more talented. The only thing he could do was defeat his opponents as quickly and as overwhelmingly as possible so that he didn't look weak.

When the fourth match began, Tis and Toff looked intimidated by Rune, but they didn't choose to work together. Putting aside the fact that the other clans looked down on the Heaven clan, Toff was still in the third level in the Mortal Realm so he wouldn't be much help. However, Rune wouldn't be able to fully display his power if he defeated them one at a time.

"Hey you two, if you're just going to stand there then you might as well give up. I don't have time to waste on cowards."

Though they knew they were no match for him, Tis and Toff felt a fire being ignited inside their hearts with his words as the spark.

"Hmph, just a little girl and some backwater trash."

The two of them dashed towards him in disharmony, only the determination to beat him up united them. As they kicked, punched, elbowed, kneed Rune, the fuel that was driving them got drained by his indifference to their attacks. No matter where or how they attacked him, he didn't bulge. No matter how desperate they got, he remained unflustered.

After a few minutes, they stopped to catch their breaths and Rune spoke once more.

"My turn."

His two words frightened them into action but they couldn't change the results. Rune took two heavy steps and a fist to knock Toff off the stage, and then he used one uppercut to blow away Tis' guard followed by another punch to get rid of her consciousness.

"Winner: Rune of the Clite clan!"

Rune showed the imposing strength of his body, winning the acknowledgement of majority of the audience.

"An innate saint body, huh?"

"Spot on Nalos. I guess you can recognize good talent when you see it."

Kalos went on to brag to Nalos about Rune's stone saint body. Though one could cultivate a saint body, there were those who were naturally born with them due to irregular mutations caused by the natural environment. Innate saint bodies were usually found in beasts, but there were several cases among other races including humans. Anyone with a saint body would find body cultivation in the saint boundary much easier so Shui did feel a tiny amount of jealously when he realised Rune had one. However, even with a saint body one didn't instantly become unrivalled in the same level, Shui was sure Kate would prove that.