Rankings

Now that the Havocking Bunnies were matched in a four-versus-two, the fight was already halfway won.

It would take a considerable amount of bad luck and blunder for Evan's party to mess up now!

Luckiness was in fact one of the things that his party had been awarded as an additional benefit for scoring a collective S-rank on Lord Brickwell's D-rank Exclusive party Quest.

Although Luckiness provided no benefits in combat, it was still a nice boon to gain 15 immensely valuable Luckiness points each from the Lesser Potions of Luck they had received from Lord Brickwell for their efforts in bringing back an intact Ruslow the Assassin.

Also, because of the highly regarded S-rank score, a linked Quest had been offered to Evan and his party! Although, Lord Brickwell still had to 'investigate' the matter, most likely referring to the defeated Assassin, before he'd issue a formal request.

"Give me three days. I'll have a new Quest ready for you by then." He'd informed the 'Bunnies'.

Back on the battlefield, the remaining Warrior Guardian in the outer region of Rising Demon Peak stood no chance against an unchecked Warrior Shieldbreaker and a magically attuned Priest Healer.

The same applied to the Rogue Stalker that had to go up against two highly persistent opponents, namely a newly distinguished Ranger Scouter and an unknown 'melee/ranged thingy with a weird banana-shaped weapon'.

Taking those circumstances into account, the battle ended in total victory for the Havocking Bunnies when the Rogue Team Leader finally fell.

"Boom."

[Fatal! -176 HP]

[+2 PTPs]

'He only had a total amount of 176 HP? That's squishy even for a halfling Rogue.' Evan and Sightseer collectively thought as they both shrugged.

"Thanks for the help, Sight." Their knuckles bumped.

—

[Victory!]

[Team 3 Havocking Bunnies has gained 16 PTPs, with 16 PTPs as the final score!]

—

The opposing Relentless Iron Fists were off to a really bad start.

—

[Defeat!]

[Team 10 Relentless Iron Fists has lost 5 PTPs, with 0 PTPs as the final score!]

—

The Relentless Iron Fists sighed in relief once they saw that the final score didn't go into the negatives. They still had a chance to amend their loss, albeit a small one.

As both teams returned to the Colosseum arena, they noticed that they were amidst very few other returning teams.

Their curiosity drew them toward the three separate scoreboards, trying to locate the four-versus-four one.

—

[4 versus 4 results]

[Round 1:

1st: Team 4 (Dragon's Prodigy) – 16 points

2nd: Team 3 (Havocking Bunnies) – 16 points

3rd: Team 9 (The Enigmas) – 0 points

4th: Team 10 (Relentless Iron Fists) – 0 points]

—

"Huh, someone finished before us." Camille faked her astonishment to a moderate degree.

The Havocking Bunnies inspected the arena and located the two other four-man teams that were present.

It was clear which team was the victor by the way they behaved and postured themselves.

"Wow, four draconians!" This time her exposed surprise was genuine.

"So that's Dragon's Prodigy." Evan muttered. "They're team 4. Isn't that our opponents in the fourth and final round?"

"Ugh, yeah. We're up against team 8 next, then team 6, and lastly team 4." Facebasher informed while examining their bracket.

Though none of the members of Dragon's Prodigy were flaunting their levels and specific classes, just like Evan's team, there was a possible alternative to the matter as everyone's player names were still openly being displayed.

"Rankings." The Havocking Bunnies said in unison.

As suspected, the members of Dragon's Prodigy were all rankers in the Edin Region.

Though none of them were in the top 10 regional rankings like Sightseer and Evan, they possessed two players in the top 50s.

One of them was a Mage Warlock that ranked 30th in the regional rankings, most likely close to reaching level 15.

The other one was confirmed as a Rogue Trickster, considered as a level 15 since the player was currently ranked 21st, only two positions below Facebasher's 19th place.

"Though they're ranked lower than us, we shouldn't underestimate them, seeing that they still managed to finish their fight before us." Sightseer acknowledged.

"Yeah, but don't we have the strongest team in the tournament?" Camille verbally challenged. "I mean, come on. All of us are in the top twenty of the regional rankings. We're ranked second, sixth, fifteenth, and nineteenth." She announced with her worst grin, just loud enough for everyone on the arena grounds to hear.

Of course, this immediately caught the attention of four draconians and the two other four-man teams.

Evan, Facebasher, and Sightseer palmed their faces.

If the opposing teams hadn't thought of checking the rankings, they would definitely be doing it now.

What was worse, it was still too early to tell whether there were other top rankers within the four-versus-four bracket because of all the unfinished matches. Without knowing all of their opponents, the Bunnies held a lot of suspense, evidently aside from their fearless Healer.

Was she trying to become the first target in the next match?

Furthermore, going through the rankings of all the 136 participants wasn't a menial task, and thus Evan's party decided to spare the search for potential rivals for later, once the favorites and bracket leaders were more obvious.

Identifying the number one ranker in the Edin Kingdom would have to be postponed. For now, he or she wasn't among the round 1 completed teams.

"I wonder which bracket Firion's team is in." Evan pondered once he remembered that his old 'classmate' had been boasting about his participation in the New Braves tournament.

"Haha! Me too! I have no idea what he looks like in-game though." Facebasher replied.

"Wasn't he a Rogue Thief?"

"Yup."

"Rankings." Their voices echoed.

To their surprise, no sylvan Rogue Thief appeared in the regional rankings.

"Huh, wasn't he supposed to be a level 13 three or four days ago? Did he quit playing after all that?" Facebasher questioned.

Camille pressed her cheek next to Facebasher's to get a better look at his status window that displayed the player rankings. What Facebasher didn't know was that he'd just amassed thousands of haters.

"How dare he stand so close to my queen!"

"WTF! I'll kill that f**ker! *angry emoji*"

"I wish I was Facebasher right now *crying emoji, crying emoji, crying emoji*"

"Sigh… the benefits of being a top ranker…"

Hundreds of chatroom users received warnings for obsessive spam and using prohibited swearing. Some users were even banned entirely for repeated offenses!

Sightseer positioned herself on Facebasher's other side, depleting the last drop of tolerance among Camille's livestream viewers.

Facebasher even started to receive in-game messages. Unbeknownst to him, some of them included death threats.

"Strange. You're right. Can't find him either." Evan confessed.

In the distance, plenty of domes still circled across the mountain ranges across the northern border and Rising Demon Peak as most fights were still in progress. By now, all of the domes had grown so small that not even larger archery practice arenas would fit inside them.

The Bunnies tried to narrow down the matches and found a couple of interesting teams in each respective bracket. Though, gathering crucial intel about the better or winning teams wouldn't help much if their players hid their most lethal skills and proficiencies.

"We'll have to analyze the stand-out teams tonight, and practice some countermeasures." Evan said.

They all decided to pay extra attention to team 8, their next opponents.

One by one, newly concluded matches were given points, setting the scores for day one of the preliminaries.

By the time every team had returned to the Colosseum, the announcer finally delivered his last speech of the day.

"And thus, day one has concluded! What exhilarating fights!"

The audience all cheered with a fervor that had only increased. Favorites among the teams were chanted across the Harshwood Colosseum, the fans trying to muffle out their rivaling teams with louder and louder voices.

Even the princes and princesses joined in on the fun.

"Rictus Phantoms, Rictus Phantoms!"

"Havocking Bunnies, Havocking Bunnies!"

"Aurora Immortals, Aurora Immortals!"

It took several tens of seconds before the announcer managed to unruffle the crowd to a tolerable silence.

"I believe it's time to unravel the tournament rewards!"

Evan's eyes lit up at the sound of that.

"Among the thirty-six teams, only six teams will have the opportunity to enter the single-elimination stage, regardless of which bracket you're in! It all narrows down to which team has the most points by the end of the round robin stage!

Those six teams are guaranteed a reward, and each team member is granted one Unique Weapon placeholder of their choosing! High Majesty the King himself has opened his treasury for this occasion!"

It was time to give this geezer a genuine round of applause.

"Now. I won't keep you waiting any longer. Here are the rewards for the top 10 individual finishers of the New Braves Preliminaries!"

A giant hologram materialized once again.

—

[New Braves Preliminaries:] [Top 10 Rewards]

…

[7th place – Lesser (STAT) Accessory Placeholder; 1.000 Aerth coins; 1 Heroic Merit

8th place – Lesser (STAT) Accessory Placeholder; 800 Aerth coins; 1 Heroic Merit

9th place – Lesser (STAT) Accessory Placeholder; 600 Aerth coins; 1 Heroic Merit

10th place – Lesser (STAT) Accessory Placeholder; 500 Aerth coins; 1 Heroic Merit]