Chapter 14: I Will Show You

Razil swayed in his seat, his head was so light that it could carry the rest of his body and fly circles in the hall. His face brimmed with giddiness.

BANG!

The armrest of Don's seat was crushed to smithereens in her grip.

'Calm down!' Superintendent Ten's voice reverberated in her head. 'Nothing can be done to change it!'

'Ten!' One word of endless pleading echoed in Don's sea of consciousness, the farthest she could shout without uttering sound to the outside world, so distressed and livid she left out the honorific title.

'There are things you don't know, Don, things I haven't fully explained to you! I'm ordering you, stay seated!'

With that, superintendent Ten forced silence to revisit Don's mind.

But even if Don herself did not say a word, the crowd of spectators, backers and participants who lost in the previous rounds, were too flabbergasted to be able to stay quiet.

A chatter of subtle voices, trying to understand the meaning of Talhera's announcement, spread like a wildfire in the west side of the hall and anyone who said a word done so while being inconspicuous. No one after all wanted to be the person to directly undermine the elders and Supreme Rulers.

"Zechariah Takeda, Zax Zel and Linor ... of the ten participants remaining, they are the three randomly chosen for the three way battle?"

"What the hell ... This selection, in comparison to the previous three way battle, is too messed up".

"This decision ... It cannot be coincidental. Zax won the first three way battle. Can any of the seniors present here today, recall a past competition having the same participant fighting in both the first and second three way battles?"

"Forget about a participant fighting in two three way battle, never in the history of the Martial competition was its structure altered after the first round has begun".

"I still cannot digest it ... And I'm sure none of the friends here is blind, either. Zechariah Takeda, Zax Zel and Linor, together with the Molten Core's representative, Neyrar, are the top contenders most likely to succeed the top three places. Pitting three of the four against each other ... regardless of who will win, the end result of the competition would be unpredictable".

"Indeed. No one other than these three can threaten Neyrar and after their fight, whoever will win should be so weakened, it is doubtful he or she will manage to contend for the second place".

The crowd was one mind, but no matter what was said they were all ignored by the fourteen elders, as well as the three Supreme Rulers.

While everyone composed themselves and with effort tried to understand the will of the elders and Supreme Rulers, only few people, those that either came as supporters or sat close to the three pivotal participants, noticed the mutual stiffness of Zechariah, Zax and Linor.

Zax sat in his seat, unresponsive to Anet's and Susuya's mixed words of protests and encouragement. In his mind flashed a sequence of thoughts not that much different than the thoughts in Zechariah's and Linor's minds.

They were not dense, nor obtuse.

'Something wrong with the competition, this three way battle cannot be randomly picked. Moreover they did not even give a reason for advancing it'.

'Old timers, are you taking this junior for a docile child?'

The lack of explanation awakened a reciprocal sense of rebelliousness within the three.

'This coldness!' Zax eyes wanted to shift left and up, to the elder, so called best bodily cultivator in Kingdom Earth, Neyrar's Mor and the man who throughout the competition treated him eerily with his gaze.

The chilly hostility embedded Elijah's Soul Sense. It swept Zax for a single instant, as if curious about his reaction to the three way battle announcement, but not wanting to overexpose his interest.

Zax did not dwell on Elijah's probe. The next thought to manifest in his mind ran shivers down his back.

'My opponents this time ... are these two... '

He spectated Zechariah's and Linor's fights. He observed all the battle in the competition till now with keen curiosity for the different fighting styles and Martial techniques rather than with the intent to learn the methods of his potential opponents.

Scenes of Zechariah's and Linor's fights played in his head. The more Zax watched, the deeper he recalled them, the more his stiff hands clenched tighter and tighter to the form of two bulging fists.

'Zechariah and Linor, they won't permit me to hold back, won't they?' Slowly Zax released the pressure from his hands and loosened his whole body on the seat. The next moment feelings of exultation, anxiety, eagerness, impatience and lust for battle washed over him.

'Finally!'

Finally, the participants he awaited to meet, those with the strength to challenge and if not careful beat him, were right in front of him.

Zax got up from his seat and stood like an unshakeable pillar. Zechariah and Linor got up virtually at the same time as Zax, as if to prove how much their minds were in sync with each other.

The sounds of chattering subsided to a hush. The crowd stared at the three with bated breaths. Everyone had something to say about the alteration and selection of the three way battle, but the response of only three people was the one that mattered.

Each of the three took a step forward, and a second step and a third step and so on ... closing the distance to the fighting stage.

Talhera called their names, but had not yet declared the beginning of the fight. Nevertheless, even if she wanted to her voice did not come out.

As the three approached the fighting stage in moderate steps, they each emanated a piercing atmosphere that covered the hall like a rain of scalding needles.

Nearly all of the spectators, backers and participants shuddered in their seats. Their blood boiled in their veins, making them feel both pain and thrill.

Zechariah and Linor made a swift move with their hands and blue pebbles, Blue Stones, appeared in their palms.

The Blue Stones transformed to two blue towers, fifty five centimeters tall and two meters and ten centimeters tall.

Linor extract two maces with blunt but heavy blades.

Zechariah took out a long scythe with curved World Gathering Bone for a blade.

The two towers shrunk back into two Blue Stones, but no one noticed. Everyone fully concentrated on the two's weapons that were revealed for the first time in the competition and gulped.

The air in the hall became more intense by several fold.

Zax was not proficient in weaponry, only the use of his physique. When he saw the Blue Stones he guessed that his opponents are about to show some sort of weapons, the indication of their resolve to go all out.