Blue Phoenix

Laughter rung through the air as the middle aged man from before strode towards the stage closely followed by the rest of his entourage. Throwing a glance filled with pity at the team, Hui Yue saw that the man who had his hand cut off by Sha Yun managed to reattach it.

Seeing how he reattached it, Hui Yue could instantly tell that the next thing the man would lose was not going to be his hand, but most likely his head. Sha Yun hated when her work was undone.

Usually, a group battle such as this relied a lot on teamwork, however Hui Yue and his entourage had never truly tried battling the way they were expected to today, instead they usually did their own thing and did their best to not get in each other’s way.

Having made their way to the stage, the gates suddenly opened and the audience was flowed through the entrances, ready to sit at their reserved seats and see the battles they had paid a lot to see.

The first row was filled with mercenaries and everyone’s eyes were glued at both Hui Yue’s team and the opposing team, both were allowed to walk around as they wished as long as no fighting commenced.

Standing in a corner, Hui Yue gazed upon the many people who found their places before he finally opened his mouth saying, “We aren’t really used to battles like this,” A sigh escaping his lips as he once more glanced at their opponents.

“It’s not going to help us if we try to fight the way the others do,” He continued while analyzing their options. “What I suggest is picking one each and just getting rid of that person. If we have problems call out.”

“As if we will need help,” Deng Wu laughed with a low voice, looking at their opposition with disdain. Even Wang Ju Long nodded her head, agreeing with the loud boy. By her side Little Poppy was waiting patiently for the battle to begin, poison dripping from the wolf- fanged thorns.

Hearing the plan, Xie Lan’s face twisted in surprise. There was no strategy, no dual attacks between the group members, not even an emergency spell formation. It seemed as though they would spending more time competing with each other than assisting the ones in trouble.

“Oh yea, Xie Lan,” Hui Yue suddenly seemed to have remembered the older woman, and she prepared to be told to get rid of the leader, however she was shocked when she heard his next words, “Although you’re much stronger than us, scale down your attacks. We don’t want everyone to know that we have a King ranked specialist in our team.”

Having said that, Hui Yue paid no more attention to Xie Lan and the woman was left alone, stunned by the conflicting personalities from the leader of this group. She truly did not understand these weird people, but somehow a smile appeared on her face as she looked forward to the battle.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” The man in the middle once more spoke and as soon as the first word left his lips, everyone quieted down. Their eyes were glued onto the stage and expressions of excitement appeared on their faces, bloodthirst appearing in the arena.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” The man repeated, this time with a smile on his face, “I would like to introduce you to the two groups who will properly start off this tournament. First, on this side, is the Mountain Mercenary Company. We all know them and adore them. They are the first seeded team this year.”

“Against them are the strangers. The newcomers who have caused our calm city to be shaken to the core! The ones people knows nothing about. The Black Cloaked Mercenaries! Who would have imagined that they had the qualifications to become a seeded team!”

The introductions were both answered with roars and cheers from the audience as they looked down, yelling out the two team names.

Under the cheering and loud roars, both teams slowly made their way towards the middle of the stage and all sounds stilled, as they noticed that Hui Yue and his team had no intention of removing the cloaks which were covering them.

This caused a great increase in cheers from the audience as they adored mystery, but the other mercenaries were frowning as they saw this. All of them having expected that the cloaks would be removed, revealing some information about these mysterious strangers.

Were their cloaks perhaps able to absorb all the energy thrown their way? However even if they could protect the five members of the mystery group, how was it possible for them to use their energies when it was completely suppressed beneath the cloaks? Every mercenary was vexed as none of them knew how to deal with the group which was standing there, looking completely ignorant.

Standing on the stage, Hui Yue looked at the five mercenaries in front of him which stepped onto the stage and he could not help but feel surprised that not everyone from the previous group had come. After all, it seemed that these fights were for the sake of lowering the population within the town and allowing the audience to clench their thirst for blood, he had not expected it to be an even fight.

“That old man in the middle,” Hui Yue said while his cloaked hand pointed at the old man from before, the one who seemed to be the boss. “He is mine.”

“Fine,” Deng Wu answered, his hand pointing at a woman. Her face had nice features but her overall beauty was just about average. “She is mine then.”

“I’ll take that guy,” Wang Ju Long said as she pointed at a guy at the back, a guy who was clearly the expert with affinity to the wood element.

“The guy without a hand,” Was the one Sha Yun pointed at and although the guy had a hand right now, he was clutching it with his other hand, fear apparent on his face. As to why he had been chosen as one of the participants, Hui Yue could not guess. After all, he had been defeated thoroughly before, both physically and mentally. Staying here was equal to death.

Sighing deeply Xie Lan understood what Hui Yue and the others were doing, and although she felt that it was childish she quickly joined in, “The one on the left is mine,” She said with a sigh, refusing to point at the girl who was looking confused.

It was not only her who was confused. The entire audience was shocked as they heard the voices, and the opposing team was confused as to why they were being pointed at each. Only a few of the mercenaries within the arena guessed the purpose, and smiles appeared on their faces. These strangers were definitely quite different from anything they had ever seen before.

“So my dear cloaked friend,” Hui Yue started as he stood next to Xie Lan, “Does your master prefer dead opponents, or that they stay alive?”

Calling out Xie Lan’s name in the middle of an arena packed with people was a dumb thing to do, the same with Xu Piao’s, so instead Hui Yue alternated slightly. Hearing the way he had phrased the question, gratitude was seen in Xie Lan’s eyes as she answered, “Although we prefer them alive, sometimes that is not possible. Keep them alive unless you cannot win otherwise.”

Hui Yue nodded his head. Killing an opponent was not hard. The only thing it required was determination and a swift attack.

Defeating an opponent while leaving them alive was much harder as one needed to constantly keep their energy tightly controlled, only releasing enough to win, but not enough to seriously hurt. Not only that, the opponent clearly did not care for Hui Yue and his team, making them attack with their most ferocious attacks at once.

Everyone within the arena was watching with baited breath as their hearts were beating erratically. All of them were having an impact on each other, creating an intensely hyped feeling as everyone was excited to see just how these seemingly weak black cloaked cultivators would fight.

While most of the audience and only a few of the mercenaries had heard the black cloaked team call out the opponents, most of them completely ignored it, not understanding what the pointing was about.

A few of the mercenaries were, however, perfectly aware of what was implied by their strange actions, and so was the host.

The fight they were about to participate in was a group fight, and while most mercenaries who understood the call felt disappointed in the black cloaked group, the host had a knowing smile on his face as he mumbled to himself.

“Let the fight commence!” The host said with his normal voice before he quickly withdrew, standing down from the stage, his eyes alert as he looked at every movement made.

The opposing team did not instantly throw themselves at Hui Yue and the others, instead, they started their incantations and summoned their elemental flames, causing a slight hue of different colours to appear around their bodies which created a spiritual energy shield.

Looking at Wang Ju Long, a smile appeared on Hui Yue’s face as he saw how she was standing seemingly inattentive, but the oversized poppy by her side had its vines dug into the stage, slowly making its way towards the person Wang Ju Long had previously called out.

Sha Yun was staring at her target and slowly her entire tail was visible to the audience and the opponents, causing them all to suck in some air in surprise. This was without a doubt a demon beast hiding beneath the cloak. Could all of them be highly intelligent demon beasts?

Deng Wu was also busy, his hands had multiple inscriptions in each hand. Since they were not intending to kill, Deng Wu had no soul shadows in his hands, instead he carried around various attacks he stored within the inscriptions before and right now he was releasing one after another, getting them ready to use.

Hui Yue was standing there not having used any of his abilities, however only after great consideration did he summon Black Blood from his memory stone. This was the first move which the audience saw from the black cloaked group.

As soon as Hui Yue drew the dagger, vines shot up from under the stage surrounding and subduing the man whom Wang Ju Long had pointed at before. The poison from within the thorns entered the man and he was unable to continue the fight. Having gotten rid of their expert with an affinity for Wood, the entire group was far better off.

As soon as Wang Ju Long’s Big Poppy got rid of her target, the girl snorted as she looked at Deng Wu. Although her face was hidden inbeneath the shadows of the cloak, it did not require much thought to know that she was smirking, clearly very satisfied to be the first one to get rid of her target.

Having accomplished her task, Wang Ju Long sat down on the stage, called her flower towards her and started observing the rest of the matches as they were happening around her.

Anger fueled the opposing party and with gritted teeth they rush towards Hui Yue, their eyes bloodshot from seeing how easily one of their team members had been disposed of.

Even if they were angered, they were still seeded competitors in this tournament. Sha Yun’s tail was like a whip, constantly attacking the man whom she had put as her target, blood appearing on his skin whenever he was not swift enough to dodge. Considering that he was able to dodge some of her attacks showed Hui Yue just how lenient she was being.

This team was not one which had a lot of strength within their roster. The reason they were seeded was because they had a silver emblem, but unlike Hui Yue, their silver emblem had been gained through constant hard work and one mission after another until they finally gained it. It was nothing like Hui Yue and his group which had gotten it straight away.