Proving Ground

"Thank you for your help Noel. I think I have it from here." James said with a smile to his love as she hesitated for a moment before finally taking the needles off of Robert's neck.

When she did there were a few tiny holes in his neck leaking small drops of blood and showing the potential damage she might have been able to inflict on Robert if given the chance again.

"It seems as though you don't believe I'm even close to ready for the tournament and surely words won't change anything you think so why not fight me right now?" James suggested as he leaned back slightly in his chair.

Everyone in the room besides the Patriarch, Matriarch, and James' wives were surprised by this offer and many of them even thought he was stupid. Even someone quiet like Seele couldn't help but speak up in concern, "J-james he's a Core Disciple of the sect and you are only an Inner Disciple! We are split in these ways by power level so it's certain that he's stronger than you." Seele said nervously as she looked at James and Robert who seemed to be thinking about it.

"I will fight you." Robert suddenly said before James could respond to Seele. The panic on her face and many of the other Elders was apparent when he said this because James was either going to be embarrassed for backing out of the fight or killed when they actually fought, or so they thought.

"However, what's in it for me? I see no value in fighting you while you have much to gain if you somehow beat me." Robert said with a smile as he kicked up his feet this time clearly not having done this for the first time in his life.

'Guess he likes to take things from those of lesser power than him.' James thought with a smirk as he turned to Noel and Cara to see what they were thinking. When he glanced over he was happy to see that both of them had confident smirks while looking at him clearly telling James he should go for it.

"I think you might want this." James said with a smile as he pulled out his only sword artifact Blood Obsession. As of late he hadn't really practiced with it and only used it as a normal sword since he thought he had gotten as far as he could for the moment with the abilities of the sword.

Patriarch Colton's eyes widened when he saw James offering the treasure he had given him early on for the fight but that only solidified who he thought was going to win in the end.

Robert was just as shocked since he could feel the aura coming from the sword letting him know it was an artifact. While artifacts weren't the rarest thing in the world at Bloody Obsession's level it was still to the point only two or three had them in the Core Disciples, not including Robert.

"W-where did you get that? Actually, it doesn't matter. That will work as compensation if I win the fight." Robert said with confidence as he stood up from the table clearly ready to take Bloody Obsession off of James' hands.

Soon after James stood up as well full of confidence which shocked someone like Seele who thought he would have tried to run away by now and was wondering if he was thinking up some sort of plan to get out of there.

The group made their way outside of the hotel and toward the backside of it where there was a small enclosed field that looked similar to the arena but on a much smaller scale. Places like this could be found all around the city due to its popularity being from the sect tournaments.

Before the matches even begin many of the leaders in the city knew that there would be fights between all of the groups so they set specified areas for them to fight so they didn't accidentally cause any damage to the actual city.

"Now everyone me and Noel will be the ones to reside over this fight. If either of you verbally quit or are knocked unconscious we will declare the winner. Both parties agree to what's at stake correct?" Patriarch Colton said as he stepped forward in the middle of the small arena.

James and Robert had taken different sides of the field and were facing one another while both drawing weapons. James was surprised to see that Robert didn't use the conventional sword but instead used a sort of great sword that was even bigger than his own body.

""I agree."" They both said at once before Patriarch Colton sighed and finally gave them both the signal to start the match.

When this happened Robert immediately sparked his Qi letting it shoot out of his Dantian and covering his body to show the full strength of his aura to hopefully try and scare James away.

His aura continued to soar in strength as Noel began gauging his strength before his aura finally stopped at the strength of a Stage 4 Knowledge Realm cultivator.

When Cara and Noel realized the strength of Robert they both had sly smiles on their faces as they knew the outcome of this battle. If he had already made it to the next realm then they would have been fearful of James' safety and stopped the fight.

Noel would be happy to hand the sword over if it meant keeping James safe since she knew that she could give him many things much more powerful than Bloody Obsession.

"So you want to have a battle of auras? That's fine by me." James said with a smile confusing Robert as black Qi shot outside of James' body and began covering him.

Slowly the strength of James began to rise and rise surpassing what the thoughts of people like Seele thought his strength was before coming to his strength earlier today of Stage 1 Knowledge Sea Realm.

However, before Robert could speak James made a focused face as it slowly rose once again until it was one stage higher at Stage 2 Knowledge Sea Realm which he had gotten hours prior.