Carefully and slowly more and more insects rained down dragging her slowly backwards Minutes passed and Randidly’s jaw was sore from clenching it for so long But he did not relent because his was a spear that would only advance
Dian neared the edge in spurts and long dragged out periods of inaction When she had gotten so close that her heel was only a hair away and although her strange energy continued to devour it was only ? as large as it had been to start Randidly roared clenching his hand into a fist and mirroring it the group of insects above tightened into a stronger formation Then he threw that fist and they descended in a huge crushing wave still as many insects remaining as he had thrown already to be devoured They were seemingly endless and Randidly marveled at the power of Inspiration
But Dian too was not without tricks Her energy surged brighter a flickering defiance in the face of the numerous bugs It rapidly sucked up the ones there and seemed to keen its vicious hunger
When the fist of insects descended however it was smothered
There was no other logical outcome
Randidly felt her in the middle of the swarming insects keeping her energy around her trying to protect herself And he felt as she overbalanced and suddenly tilted backwards driven over the edge slowly falling with only the collapsed stage behind her
Dongg
A familiar bell rung and a voice spoke The qualifier is over All contestants cease attacks so the winners may be determined
Randidly almost shrugged helplessly as his huge mass of insects swarmed but suddenly a coughing man was in front of him holding a spear It was a long ornate thing of brass and the man simply tapped the spear on the ground still coughing and a wave of force flew forward
The insects cracked and fell and then disintegrated to dust
Dian was there covered in bite marks and scratches but she was still falling As Randidly watched she tumbled off the edge and out of sight
The coughing man turned to Randidly then looked at the spot Dian disappeared He teleported over to the edge looked down then shook his head Then the man reappeared on the far side where Tartet stood panting After giving Tartet a brief once over the man nodded then looked at the sky and spoke
Stage 7 will not need overtime There are only 3 individuals remaining on the stage
Three Randidly whispered confused Apparently the coughing man had very powerful hearing because he frowned at him for several seconds
After a while he seemed to relent yes three For although the stage collapsed the piece the girl fell onto was still unbroken It counts
Silent and prideful Dian climbed back over the edge to stand on the stage with the rest of them
Randidly smiled at her showing his teeth like a predator would Their eyes held for several long seconds Then Dian shrugged her own smile narrow and sharp After a moment of consideration Randidly said nothing further It would likely be pointless to argue with this strange middle aged man
And besides even though this woman clearly had a vendetta against him for some reason she wasn’t insufferable like some of the other insignificant characters he had been forced to deal with since coming to Shal’s world
Although it was hard to know whether he only thought that because she was objectively attractive But Randidly didn’t think that was affecting his decision all that much Having strong rivals to push you forward was necessary in his experience His experience reading martial arts fantasy anyway And he wouldn’t be caught unawares by her poison again Randidly would be much harder to kill going forward
Another stray thought popped up as the three of them drifted closer to the middle aged man Randidly wondered what this world was called He assumed it would have a name And it was beginning to get annoying to not be able to think of it as something other than Shal’s World
As his thoughts continued to scatter in the wake of his earlier spell his brain was hit with the brutal sledgehammer of exhaustion Randidly winced recognizing this as a system generated status that represented the fact he had overdrawn himself to control the vast swarm of insects He had only been under this a few times in the past during his Root Avatar training usually after a long night of engraving and it had never been this painful There might be a potion that was able to address this issue but Randidly wasn’t familiar with it
Besides some rest would probably do him some good He had earned it
Chapter 137
A voice boomed out above him drawing his attention upwards The Tassles will now be updated to display the winners of the respective stages To those who have made it congratulations You have earned your way to the Northern Regional Tournament for the Spearman School Bring us honor
Once again seemingly expanded to an even larger size their Tassles unfurled Randidly’s Emerald and Gold Tartet’s Piss yellow and Black and Dian’s Red Violet and White They were all eyecatching each for their own reason especially when compared against the sea of red oranges and goldens that fluttered on the other stages The one other color of note was a sky blue with black lettering which seemed to be on the stage directly opposite theirs on the other side of the observation tower
The old man nodded to them all then gestured imperiously for them to follow and then began striding away walking towards the viewing tower The three glanced at each other eyes narrowed Especially between Dian and Randidly who both felt their own immediate weakness after their previous confrontation and also the other’s weakness If there was any good opportunity to strike it would be now
Violence from you will be met by violence from me The man remarked once again coughing after he spoke not even turning around
Tartet just snorted and walked forward Idiots We have time enough in the tournament Why are you so hasty to die without an audience There is no honor in that
Moving stiffly Randidly walked forward to follow his skin prickling as he allowed Dian to be behind him But he felt instinctively that displaying weakness here was not what he wanted Instead better to let her see how little this bothered him Even though Randidly didn’t know how good of an actor he really was
And when he felt a hand settle around his elbow he barely suppressed his instinct to lash out
You Dian said frowning at him her sharp features narrowed even further as she struggled inwardly with something Finally reaching a decision she lowered her hand and finished somewhat lamely what is your name
Ghosthound Randidly said somewhat at a loss Dian raised her hand and ran it through her spiky red hair which was sticking up in all directions covered in dirt blood and insect ichor Then she nodded seriously and walked away
Somewhat confused Randidly lengthened his stride and followed until all three of them were walking in line
There was a rather tedious ceremony after they ascended to the topmost floor of the viewing tower and each was given a medallion that would serve as their ticket of admission into the tournament The winners from each stage stood seperate 23 in total due to a few stages having less than 3 but all stared at the Stage 7 victors with their distinctive Tassles over their heads
What Randidly found most interesting was that although he was given a cursory glance which was a little more than Tartet’s brief glance it was Dian that received most of the attention But she held her head high and received the stares without batting an eyelash Which was for the best because one of the things that Randidly liked most about his time here in Shal’s world was how little attention he received But it appeared to be slowly changing
Still Randidly remained optimistic After all they would probably go to another city for the Regional Tournament And based on what Divvit said Randidly would be forced to face opponents a level higher even higher than Dian and Tartet With that sort of competition hopefully he would no longer attract attention
But then again Randidly resolved himself to receiving it Because it wasn’t participation in the Regional Tournament that was necessary It was placing within the Top 8 Under the thunderous applause Randidly walked out the the arena struck by how ridiculous this all seemed But then again this was another world And here strength and honor were what earned accolades