Noah took one of the chairs by the long table before the window, getting comfortable as people slowly started to filter into the stands ringing the enormous arena. He idly snacked on some of the food that Lee hadn’t gotten around to yet as he waited for the tournament to start. The food was actually surprisingly good.

Nobody could say that the Prophet had cut any corners. Even the free stuff was high quality. They’d yet to pull the rope to see what exactly it would do, but the idea was getting more tempting as time passed by. No matter how much food there may have been in the room, there still really wasn’t all that much to do.

Minutes turned to an hour. The stands filled at an incredible rate. People poured in from portals that popped into being all around the seats like ocean waves swallowing up a sandy beach. At the rate things were going, the massive arena would be full before two hours had passed.

Noah watched them idly, his fingers drumming against the table. A part of him wondered if any of his students were up there. But he knew they weren’t. Everyone was in the tournament, somewhere in the other competitor rooms. There was always the chance that some of them weren’t here at all — but he didn’t even want to consider that possibility. It led down a road of far too many questions. None of them were questions he could afford to concern himself with at the moment.

All he could do was make sure he put on the biggest show possible to make sure that his people — no matter where they might have been — would have no choice but to hear about his return.

Unfortunately, he’d only partially figured out the strategy for that. Defeating other Rank 5 mages probably wasn’t going to make a huge splash no matter how he did it. He was going to need to take out some Rank 6s as well, and in a manner that got people talking.

In a manner that left no doubt to his students who he was.

More time passed. The stands filled further still until practically every seat had a person within it. There were so many people that Noah couldn’t even properly comprehend the number. He’d never been to an event this big in his life. There didn’t even seem to be an end to the crowd. It just stretched on and on.

He was pretty sure there must have been some kind of imbuements on the arena to dampen unneeded noise, because the air was surprisingly still despite the sheer magnitude of motion within the crowds. Noah couldn’t hear anything but the crunching sound of Lee scarfing down the final scraps of food — as well as a few of the plates and all the silverware.

And then, out of the corner of his eye, something caught Noah’s attention. A shimmer of darkness at the top of his vision. He leaned forward, pressing his face to the perfectly clear window to peer up into the sky. There was a small stone platform, roughly three feet in diameter, floating down from the heavens.

It looked like a small, inverted mountain. Jagged rock jutted down toward the ground, shimmering runes spinning in the air around it in a strange imbuement technique that Noah had never seen.

“Whoa,” Fist said, walking up to the window alongside Noah. Everyone else in the room noticed their movement and moved closer to the window to watch as well.

The platform lowered from the clouds, slowing as it drew up directly above the arena. Its top was perfectly flat, with no adornments whatsoever. There was no railing or other safety features that really should have been mandatory for a chunk of flying rock. The only thing on the platform was a lone man of small stature.

But what a man he was.

The first thing Noah’s mind was forced to notice about the man was his mustache. It was thick, bordering on massive, and covered up nearly half of his face. The facial hair bore a strong resemblance to a pair of inverted croissants that had been glued onto the man’s features.

But it seemed he’d used all his good genes on the mustache, because the rest of his head bore a striking resemblance to a bowling ball. It was round and perfectly smooth, without so much as a single unneeded strand of hair. That, of course, included a very obvious lack of eyebrows.

It took Noah a moment to even dare let his eyes wander. The middle-aged man wore white robes with armor padding over his vital sections and a pair of massive shoulder pauldrons. His outfit was something between functional and ceremonial, though it might have been considerably more effective had it been on a man about twice his height and stature.

“I think that guy stole his dad’s gear,” Lee observed.

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

“That’s rough,” Brayden said. “You reckon they just didn’t have anything that fit him? Or is he a replacement for the real guy that couldn’t make it because of some last minute emergency?”

“I’m inclined to believe the latter,” Noah said. “How do you think he walks with that weapon glued to his face? It’s huge.”

“I don’t know,” Fist said. “I think it looks charming.”

“The clothes? Or the caterpillar?” Lee asked.

“Both,” Fist replied.

Before anyone could say anything else, the sound of a man clearing his throat rolled through the air. Noah nearly jumped out of his seat. It would have been wrong to say that the voice was loud. If anything, the volume was perfectly normal. The problem was that it seemed to come from literally every single direction at once.

“Welcome, everyone. Please, direct your eyes to the center of the arena.” The man on the platform raised a hand into the air. “My name is Baun. It’s a pleasure to be standing here today before you all.”

Then the air above him shimmered. A massive shimmering image appeared in the sky above Baun. It was a perfect image of him, three-dimensional and surprisingly solid-looking. The image moved as Baun did, waving to the crowd as a smile peeked out from beneath his mustache. 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

A rumble rolled through the stands. Even though Noah couldn’t hear a single thing from outside, the he noise and commotion from the crowd must have been loud enough to literally shake the earth.

“That guy famous?” Brayden asked.

“Dunno,” Fist replied. “I’ll be honest. We’re usually off in some shithole on a mission. I don’t keep up much with modern celebrities and such. Maybe people are just excited for the tournament to begin.”

“Tournament of Heaven’s Path is where I got my start many years ago,” Baun said, his voice still coming from every single direction all at once. “So I am beyond honored to be standing here as one of the announcers for it this time around. I would like to start this by thanking Prophet Vivian for honoring me.”

“Guess he’s not from the Coral Empire,” Brayden said with a small frown. “But wasn’t the last tournament ages ago? That guy must be ancient.”

Baun let his hands lower. “Without any further delays, I would like to begin by explaining the rules for the first rounds of the tournament. As I’m sure you all know, there are a lot of competitors here today. All of them have put in a great deal of effort to stand here… but not all of them can proceed. Everyone here today is a powerful mage in their own right. But being powerful is not sufficient. The Touranemnt of Heaven’s Path is meant to find the greatest of the greatest in upcoming talent.”

“Melee,” Brayden said, crossing his arms in front of his chest. “It’s going to be a melee. That’s the only way they’ll be able to get rid of enough people to have this thing finish within a month.”

“The first round will, of course, be a group battle,” Baun continued. He turned in a circle, causing the massive image of himself to spin so that its eyes swept over the entirety of the crowd ringing him. “There will be multiple sections for every group, as we have far too many participants to do all of them at once, even after splitting off into 5 arenas.”

Holy shit. There are 5 arenas, all this size? How fucking big is this tournament?

“Now, it’s important to note that this first stage will not be a standard group battle,” Baun continued. He stroked his mustache with both hands in a motion strikingly similar to trying to jumpstart a failing lawnmower. “There are a great deal of different skills represented by the mages here today. As such, we want to make sure everyone has a chance to show the true strength of their powers. This first round will have 100 victors in every section. Furthermore, once the combatants have made their way down to the arena, they will have 10 minutes to prepare before any combat is permitted to begin.”

Another rumble shook the crowd.

Noah’s eyes narrowed as he realized exactly what Baun was getting at.

“It’s going to be a team fight,” Noah muttered. “That prep time is for people to communicate and form into groups, isn’t it? They want to play into the politics or something?”

“Politics are drama,” Fist said. “Makes sense to me. Lets you figure out if you’ve got any allies in the crowd and group up with them. Cool idea. I like it.”

Brayden glanced at Noah out of the corner of his eye. “What do you think the chances are…”

“Not high,” Noah said. He knew what Brayden was thinking. But with an unknown number of groups for every tier, the chances of Lee getting placed in the same battle with any of their students was pretty damn low. And it was entirely impossible for Noah and Brayden, as they were in the entirely wrong tier of the tournament as Rank 5s.

But that wasn’t all. Noah didn’t miss the actual setting of the first round. His group were newcomers to Coral Empire. This whole setting heavily favored people that had come with really large groups or had established alliances in the area. Anyone who was just visiting for the Tournament or hadn’t come with a large entourage was going to find themselves at a pretty significant disadvantage.

Is the Prophet trying to intentionally stack things in favor of her own people?

“The rules of the first round will be simple,” Braun continued. “Combat will continue until combatants are either knocked unconscious, rendered unable to continue fighting, or surrender. We have a large number of healers ready for any severe injuries. Killing opponents is strongly discouraged and, if deemed an excessive use of force, will be dealt with accordingly. Remember, combatants. This tournament is to prove yourself and your worth. Part of that worth is honor. Furthermore, killing anyone after they have surrendered will be punishable by death.”

About what I expected… but those rules do have a loophole in them. You can kill your enemies if it looks like the fight is close or if you have no other choice. Basically, as long as it feels reasonable. That’s a pretty loose restriction.

This is going to be bloody.

“Now,” Baun called, his smile emerging from behind his moustache like the sun peaking free from a bed of clouds as a dangerous glint passed through his eyes, “it is my pleasure to announce that the Tournament of Heaven’s Path has officially begun!”