Ol’ Fang’s Clash

"Oh wait, seems like I made a mistake. You're already quite familiar with what it means to be shameless if I may say so, Marquis Falni." Ol' Fang snickered.

Marquis Falni was once involved in a case of his son kidnapping and abusing a young girl who lived on the streets of the capital. When he was called out for the crime, the marquis shielded his son and retaliated, denying all accusations while claiming that the young girl was demented and possibly mistook his son for the real perpetrator. At the same time, he bribed the judges involved in the trial and had the girl arrested under the charge of defamation of name.

If it wasn't for Darius, who happened to be in the capital at that time, interceding in the case, the young girl would be rotting in prison even till this moment.

Although the court judged Marquis Falni's son innocent, those in the know, specifically the top nobles in the area, knew that the young lord of the Falni family was guilty.

"You dare?!"

Marquis Falni suddenly stood up while radiating his aura steadily. He didn't unleash it wildly after all, there were a lot more powerful figures than himself in this place. If Marquis Falni released his aura wildly, it would be taken as an insult and a sign of disrespect to these figures.

"Ho~" Ol' Fang smiled, looking entertained by the marquis' actions.

"I may not be a true duke like my dear friend, but I am representing his authority. Marquis Falni, can I take this action of yours as you challenging the Arnhaunt duchy?"

The VIP section suddenly turned cold as both parties stared at each other. Marquis Falni's escorts, which included his brother and his trusted bodyguard, both glared at Luther and Aaron who stood beside Ol' Fang. As for Marquis Falni and Ol' Fang, they remained staring at each other, their auras targeted at the other.

"That's enough." Duke Graham spoke.

He was technically the highest and oldest authority here, except for the prince Federin who was in place for his father the king, and as a close friend of the Darius, was one of the few who could rein in Ol' Fang in this situation.

"Alright." Ol' Fang smiled and turned back to glance at the stage.

Seeing that Ol' Fang had stepped down, Marquis Falni couldn't push the matter any longer as it would be childish and also disrespectful to Duke Graham who was a true duke.

At this point in time, Asher's battle had concluded. Mischael fought till the end but with Asher keeping him busy, he couldn't shatter the ice mask covering his face. The result was as expected; Mischael fainted on the spot and the official had to end the battle, rewarding the win to Asher.

The tournament continued as normal although emotions were disturbed. The supporters from Red Maple cheered at the cost of their voice, not just for Asher but also for the other denizens who managed to make to this far. In total, there were three of them; Asher, a young boy from one of the count families of Red Maple, and Raven.

While the visitors from Red Maple province were in celebration, the citizens of the capital were still a bit shocked, but the majority of them went on unaffected. In the end, Mischael was just one participant from the capital; there were still the twin princesses, who were favourites, as well as prince Wendel.

As the tournament went on, the citizens got to see more of the younger generation. Aurora, Lyn and Emma all got through their battles with ease as their opponents surrendered right immediately. However, Hanru, Koln and Raven weren't so lucky to have their opponents immediately surrender. Being students of the Second Dawn Academy, it was natural for them to be underestimated and not feared by the others. Even Ethan Croft experienced the same since he got paired up with a marquis' son in his first battle. As for Alex Sutton, his group, O, was the toughest and right away, he got paired with one of the direct descendants of a duke in his group.

In the end, every one of them managed to win their first battle, including Alex Sutton and Ethan Croft.

All sixteen groups eventually performed once, taking ninety-six minutes to do so, which was just six minutes more than an hour and a half. The time was now 10:36 AM and the crowd, despite witnessing eighty fights, were still pumped for more.

Without a second to waste, the second cycle began with groups A and B returning to the stage once again. Having rested for over an hour, most of them were back to peak form or at least close.

There was no suspense in Wendel and Ashton's battle since their opponents were none of the other noteworthy characters in these groups. The only difference that happened this time around was Wendel's opponent also giving up unlike the last one. It seemed like Wendel's performance in his first battle had cemented his strength and sent a warning to his opponents. This was even more so after it was revealed that his previous opponent had suffered quite serious injuries. Despite being treated, it resulted in an obvious drop in strength since it wasn't treated properly but hurriedly.

As such, both Ashton and Wendel's opponents surrendered right away.

When it was Asher's turn, his opponent was a student of the Second Dawn Academy so there was no suspense as the opponent gave up right away. The same held true even in his third cycle match and in this fashion, Asher had completed a day's worth of the tournament.

Although Asher had things easy, others didn't.

Lyn faced Ethan on her second match but beat him with ease despite the latter's attempt to push for a draw. She similarly faced the second direct descendant of a marquis and won the match, joining the 3/3 gang. Hanru also dominated his group as there was no challenge there to him, while Raven won all matches too. The same went for Wendel and Ashton.

Aurora and Koln didn't meet at the end of the day, but the latter ended up facing the direct descendant of a duke in his third match. Surprisingly, Koln came out on top in the battle, attracting attention from both Duke and Marquis families. Alex Sutton finally had a breather as his last two opponents were not difficult for him.

Emma Saunters, however, had to battle a branch member of the Wesley and faced the direct descendant of a duke in one battle which ended up being the highlight of the day. Although her opponent was a descendant of one of the 'lesser' dukes, he was the only son and as such, was easily the focus of his family's resources. Hence, the young boy was easily one of the strongest participants in the contest.

[1] Reminder: Side families are families directly related to the main family. For example: the family of the brother or sister of the current family head classify as a side family. As for branch families, they're families that have branched off from the main family, or families that their relationship with the main family is quite thin. For example, imagine a family of three generations, the current family head, who is of the third generation, would make up the new main family. His siblings would make up the side family. As for the side families in the time of second and first generation family heads, they would now count as branch families.