“The city gates are now closed!” An emotionless female voice echoed in the minds of all living beings in the ancient capital, and countless necks turned in confusion, searching for the speaker, “The tournament shall begin!”

  Every single body inside the walls of the old city began to glow and disappeared from where it stood.

  As soon as Kilian felt solid ground beneath his feet again, the glow quickly subsided, and his vision revealed a variety of creatures, which had different glistening numbers on top of their forehead

  Now and then, a slightly higher one flashed up, occasionally one between ten and twenty, and the one to five seemed to shine from all sides.

  He was in a huge, seemingly endless hall with a black marble floor, and no matter how far into the distance he looked, there was no wall or barrier to be seen.

  “Each of you has been judged according to your talent and current strength! You will find this value on the forehead of every participant. The first part of the tournament is an open battle, and there is only one simple rule: Reach one hundred points by any means possible! Everyone is worth the number on their forehead! You lose upon death, unconsciousness, or if you crumble the small talisman that should now be hidden in your right hand!” The voice explained, and after a short pause added, “That’s all! May luck smile upon you!”

  The countless Qi-Gatherers in the arena placed the small talisman into their magical artifacts, and almost as if on cue, masses of faces turned towards Kilian.

  “80 points in one fell swoop!” Said an orc with his axe already raised high, as he looked at the young blacksmith like a piece of meat, “An offer like this must not be passed up!”

  Ten warriors, all with low numbers on their foreheads, rushed towards Kilian together to overwhelm him with their superior numbers; the others, with higher numbers, were somewhat more cautious, perhaps also a little bit smarter, and wanted to assess the situation first.

  “There must be a reason why he’s worth so much!” Murmured a young foxgorl with the number thirty written on her forehead, and when she too became the target of various warriors, she said with a seductive smile, “You don’t want to attack a small, defenseless girl, do you? Please, all of you can be my big brothers and protect me! I’m completely helpless on my own!”

  As she spoke, various scenes played out before the attackers' inner eyes, in which they had lived a wonderful life with the beautiful foxgirl, raised children, and died old together.

  An intoxicating scent, slowly rising into their nostrils, robbed them of the last remnants of their reason, and they fell under her bewitching spell.

  They saw her soft, almost furless skin, her small, reddish-brown fox ears, and her delicate wrists and ankles, on which, as if framed by a cuff, her fluffy fur grew.

  From the tailbone, over her shapely buttocks, grew a glossy tail that swung sweetly back and forth with the gentle movements of her buttocks.

  “Don’t worry, my beloved! I will protect you!” Shouted a dozen Qi-Gatherers, who had previously been ready to attack her, as if with one voice.

  They saw only themselves with the beautiful woman in their arms and surrounded the seductive beastwoman, while she produced a comfortable armchair out of nowhere, sat down on it, and looked at Kilian with interest.

  None of her defenders seemed to notice the others around them, for in their world, there were only themselves and their beloved, whom they wanted to protect from any danger!

  Only the incoming attacks around them briefly brought the defenders back to reality, but once the blow was parried, they immediately sank back into the foxgirl's illusions.

  “Illusion magic, and to make matters worse, a scent that robs you of your free will?” Kilian wondered as he watched the scene unfold out of the corner of his eye and took a deep breath to prepare his attack, “The fox people’s abilities are not to be underestimated, but her form is more human than fox-like! Her blood must be mixed, and yet she possesses such pronounced abilities! I should be cautious around her!”

  “ROAR!” He directed some Qi to his vocal cords after he had finished his thought and shouted at the attacking warriors with the battlecry of a dragon, while the enchanting figure on her small throne continued to watch him with glittering eyes.

  The arena was immediately plunged into chaos, followed by a deep silence.

  The Qi-Gatherers directly in front of him began to bleed from their ears, noses, mouths, and eyes, and slumped over with pale faces.

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  It was uncertain who was still alive and who was not, but now all participants of the tournament were focused on the young warrior of the Inner Academy of the Kong Clan.

  The Qi-Masters, who stood further away, covered their ears with pain-distorted faces to protect themselves, and even the warriors enchanted by the foxgirl awoke from their illusion and stared at Kilian with open mouths.

  “That should be just under thirty points!” Said Kilian, his voice now slightly hoarse, while he scratched his neck and pierced the surrounding people with his gaze as if he were a predator on the hunt: “Who wants to go next?”

  “How terrifying!” A gentle voice sounded behind him, and an intoxicating scent filled his nostrils, “But you’ve ruined all my preparations! Who will protect me now? Do you want to be my big brother…or…perhaps even more?”

  He turned around abruptly and stared into the enchanting, purple eyes of the foxlady.

  “You should be Aurelia, am I right? The leader of the Qi-Gatherers of the league of beastmen?” Asked Kilian, and his heart fluttered slightly when he inhaled her intoxicating fragrance, but his eyes stayed clear as he replied, “It is a pleasure to meet you, but I hardly think you need a protector!”

  “A strong will, powerful too, and a cool head! You're still a bit young, though! But that shouldn't be a problem by the time we leave these ruins, and by then we could get to know each other a bit better. Should I congratulate the Kong Clan or the Arian family on having such a monster in their ranks?” She smiled even more seductively, walked slowly towards the boy as if hunting tasty prey, and added with a sudden change in her expression: “But what if I would like the feeling of being protected by a strong man?”

  Kilian took a half step back, his mouth open, while Aurelia sniffed with her sensitive nose: “I like your scent much better than that of these hooded figures… They smell of decay and death! You, on the other hand… smell goooood! Hehe! I'm starting to like you more and more, my little hero!”

  “What are you trying to say?” the young warrior asked, confused, trying to understand the foxlady’s words, and did his best to suppress the emotions boiling up within him.

  “The League of Beastmen usually acts neutrally…” She murmured again, still sniffing, “But young heroes seem to be my weakness! Hehe! This time, we will fight the Enclave with you!”

  “As you command, Lady Aurelia!” The voices of various beings who had mingled among the groups of people echoed from every corner, and their swift attacks killed some of the careless warriors of the Orcs and the Lupus Clan before they could gather into a safe formation.

  “So, after a long silence, the League is finally turning against us? You really want to go down in history as the losers and choose death?” asked a quiet, icy voice, and one of the figures shrouded in black, who had remained silent until now, threw back his hood: “With that, you have sealed your fate!”

  The necromancer also had a shimmering eighty on his forehead!

  The same as Kilian!

  But no one dared to attack him, even though a victory against him would almost guarantee direct entry into the next round of the tournament.

  The cold, putrid Yin-Qi surrounding him and the dangerous, horrifying smell of death deterred all those who dreamed of a quick victory.

  Kilian's previous victory against ten warriors simultaneously was still branded into the minds of the competitors, and most of them thought, "You're not worth that many points without the corresponding power!"

  “But first, all those weak little bugs which have gathered here have to be crushed!” He said, and with the movement of his finger, three icy corpse puppets appeared before him, “The legacy of the necromancers and the dragonlords does not belong in the hands of untalented extras!”

  The next moment, the three bloodless puppets stormed into different groups of fighters and began to destroy everything in their paths!

  Dozens of screams from humans, beastmen, and elves filled the arena, and as if on cue, chaos erupted again.

  A gleaming blade sliced through two human bodies in one blow, causing them to slump motionless to the ground.

  A gigantic club crushed a birdman of the League of Beastmen beneath it, and a long, blood-soaked spear impaled two elves and finally ended his path, stabbed into the great chest of a giant.

  Laughing, the necromancer waved his fingers back and forth as if conducting an orchestra, becoming increasingly ecstatic.

  Kilian angrily raised his pen and was about to rush to the aid of his allies when the three dolls disappeared again, and the necromancer began to shine brightly.

  “That’s already a hundred points?” he asked, with some reluctance in his voice: “Too bad…I wanted to squash even more insects!”

  As he disappeared from the arena, an icy cold prevailed, and only his softly murmuring voice could be heard: “Now I’m already one step ahead of you, Kilian Arian! I’m Duncan, and I’m going to enjoy destroying you! Hahaha!”

  “For the enclave!” A jubilant cry broke the silence, and immediately the next shout followed, “Follow the young master!”

  Dozens of icy-cold-radiating moving corpses appeared before a horde of orcs and wolfmen who were already growling menacingly at their enemies.

  “Surely not!” Thrym roared deeply, raising his club while a silver fifty shimmered on his forehead: “Show these bastards what we do to cursed grave robbers!”

  His allies, already aware of Yin-Qi's weaknesses, began either to employ various fire techniques, activate the enchantments on their weapons, or perform purification rituals against dark forces.

  Yang-Qi was extremely effective, but not the only way to deal with the necromancers, just the way the dragonlords did.

  But humans, elves, and other creatures had also accumulated a great deal of knowledge over the years, and thanks to Kilian's warning, they were able to prepare in time.

  He had enchanted his friends' weapons himself before he had forged his new staff and created a completely different situation than if the allied forces hadn't known about the return of the necromancers.

  “I’ll take care of as many puppets and their masters as possible!” Kilian roared, and with silver-shimmering eyes, he began to write two powerful words in the air: “AUD AED!”

  Many of the walking corpses burst into flames the next moment, and a golden glow illuminated the arena.

  “My training has paid off!” The calligrapher reflected, thinking of his new fighting staff, “Without the golden flames, I would never have been able to melt the small stone, and now I can even control them to attack!”