Divinity

--- [Alex’s perspective]

“The second round will be a tournament.” – Leanne

A tournament?

Okay…

More fighting then.

That’s to be expected of course.

Combat ability is the most important thing for a hunter.

“The tournament will consist of a series of one-on-one matches, five of them to be exact.” – Leanne

Just five?

It’s not a bracket type tournament then…

“Two of you will be randomly selected to be team leaders, you will then alternate between choosing your teammates. The one who goes first is randomly chosen too.” – Leanne

Okay, so it’s a team game then.

That means me, Shin and Lett can be on a team together!

Well…

Unless two of us are chosen to be team leaders…

“You will win your match if your opponent is either unable to continue fighting, or they surrender. There are no rules against killing your opponent, so if you feel like you’re in danger, just surrender. If you don’t stop when your opponent surrender, I will stop you myself…” – Leanne

Although I hope it doesn’t come to that, I must admit it would be cool to see a B-rank hunter in action…

She’s higher ranked than Vic.

Higher than even big bro…

I haven’t even seen Vic go all out, let alone a B-ranker…

“The winning team, so the team that has three or more wins, will have a chance to rank up.” – Leanne

Chance?

Winning isn’t enough?

“Not only do you need to be on the winning team, but you also have to win your fight. If you meet both of those criteria, you rank up. Meeting only one of them is not enough; it must be both. So, make sure that you pick powerful teammates, you can’t win on your own.” – Leanne

Interesting…

So just being on the winning team isn’t good enough.

Even winning your own match isn’t enough either.

You have to do both…

That means only between three and five of us are going to rank up, the rest will stay F-rank.

That’s half of us at most.

The odds are certainly stacked against us…

We have to make sure that all three of us gets on the same team, if we don’t, then it’s impossible for all of us to rank up…

“After the teams have been chosen, the matchups will be randomly decided. Does anyone have any questions, or are you all ready to go?” – Leanne

She waits for a couple seconds, but no one seems to have any questions.

“Alright then, let’s begin.” – Leanne

She lifts her hands, and a stone wheel raises up from the ground.

Using her finger, she starts inscribing our names on the wheel.

“Now then, let’s see who the first team leader is.” – Leanne

She spins the wheel…

“Aaaaaaaaand… Shin Magnum, you’re one of the team leaders.” – Leanne

Shin…

Okay…

Please just don’t be me or Lett next…

Please…!

She spins the wheel again, and as it slows down, my anxiety rises.

It’s hard to tell, but it looks like it’s going to land on my name…

…

But…!

“And the second team leader will be Leon Adamas!” – Leanne

I let out a heavy sigh of relief.

My name was right before his, it just barely landed on his instead of mine.

It’s like a gust of wind in the wrong direction could have slowed it down enough for it to land on me…

She makes another wheel and puts only Shin and Leon’s names on it.

“This one will decide who goes first.” – Leanne

She spins it and quickly enough we get the answer.

“And it looks like the person who will be starting is Leon.” – Leanne

The two team leaders step forward and look back at the rest of us.

“Hmmmm…” – Leon

Who is he going to pick?

“I guess I’ll go with Kuro first, that strength of yours is nothing to scoff at.” – Leon

“Alright. Kuro, you’re on Leon’s team. It’s your turn now, Shin.” – Leanne

He looks a bit conflicted.

I can understand why thought…

Does he pick me?

Or does he pick Lett?

“Don’t worry so much about it, Shin. Just pick Alex first, then me next round.” – Lett

“… Alright. I’ll go with Alex then.” – Shin

Leon looks over at me and Shin, and says something very worrying…

“Sorry guys, but I actually want to win this.” – Leon

He’s not gonna do what I think he is…

Right?

“It hurts my pride knowing I wasn’t the first to return, but I suppose she was able to do it for a reason. My second pick will be Lett.” – Leon

????!!!!!

That little…!

He separated us!

We can’t all rank up now, it’s literally impossible…

It’s either me and Shin, or Lett…

Not all three.

“Leon!” – Shin

“What?” – Leon

“…!” – Shin

“Now now… Leon can pick whoever he wants, Shin. Don’t forget that. Lett, you can get behind Leon now.” – Leanne

She looks over at us, then hesitantly walks to Leon’s side.

“Fine. If that’s how you want to do things Leon, then so be it. Mark my words, you will not be ranking up today Leon. Sadly, that goes for you too Lett.” – Shin

“Heh. Sure.” – Leon

“Lucas, come over here.” – Shin

Shin is serious…

He’s not joking when he’s saying that he’s going to crush them…

Splitting us up like that must have pissed him off too.

There are only four people left.

Jack, Fei, Vaman and Lily.

The only one I really know anything about is Lily…

Jack came in third place, so I suppose he might be powerful too.

“Now then… Who will I be picking next?” – Leon

He looks around for a bit, then eventually it looks like he comes to a decision.

“I guess I should have some faith in my fellow guildmates. Fei, I’m picking you.” – Leon

She’s also from The Reapers Guild?!

So, they’re from the same guild; the guild that is infamous for their assassins and mass murderers…

I heard they have an extra requirement for being invited, and it’s the exact opposite of The Red Knights’ requirement!

During the F-rank exam, they must kill at least 100 people, otherwise they won’t get invited.

She’s covered in blood too…

She might be trouble…

“Okayyy!” – Fei

She walks over to him before Leanne gets to even say anything.

“Alright, I guess you guys know what to do now…” – Leanne

Shin looks over the last choices, but the pick is obvious.

“Lily, you’re with us. Help us win.” – Shin

“Don’t worry, I wasn’t planning on losing.” – Lily

“I forgot your name, but you can join my team.” – Leon

He points at Vaman.

He looks a bit annoyed that he forgot his name, but he walks over to him nonetheless.

“Vaman, it’s Vaman.” – Vaman

“Right, Vaman…” – Leon

“Jack, you’re the last person, so you will automatically be assigned Shin’s team.” – Leanne

Jack walks over to our side.

I feel a little bad for him, he was the last one to get ‘picked’.

“Just so you guys know, even thought I was the last remaining, don’t take me lightly!” – Jack

“Sure.” – Shin

He doesn’t sound very sincere…

“I’ll construct the arena now.” – Leanne

She raises her hands yet again, and a stone arena comes out of the ground.

It resembles the colosseum we met Lily at.

It’s a little smaller though.

I suppose we don’t need that big of an arena for just a couple one-on-one matches.

I know size isn’t an issue for her though…

That colosseum from the F-rank exam was something else…

“The walls have been reinforced, so you won’t be sent flying through them. You can fight to your hearts content. Now then, get to your own team’s seats.” – Leanne

There are three areas with seats.

There is a large bench on opposite sides, and a chair in between them.

I guess the benches are for us, and the chair is for Leanne.

We walk over to our side and sit down.

“Don’t worry guys, we got this. The other team might have some big players, but we do too.” – Shin

“Yeah! I’ll win for sure!” – Jack

“Right… Well anyways, I know my own strength, and I also know that Alex is even stronger than me…” – Shin

“I-” – Alex

“It’s fine, we both know you’re stronger at this point. Your rate of growth is unprecedented, I’ll catch up to you for sure when we learn SDM, but for now you can be the stronger one between us.” – Shin

I don’t want to seem cocky, but I think he’s right.

Vic told me many times that my growth was happening insanely fast, and they even said the same in the F-rank exam, but I didn’t fully understand it until later.

When we did the endless dungeon with Luna, me and Shin were equals, but that has since changed.

It’s not that he hasn’t grown stronger since then, it’s just that I’ve grown even more than him.

For some reason, I just pick up on BDM much faster than most other people.

“Anyways, the point is: I’m going to win my fight, meaning Alex is definitely going to win his. That’s two wins already. I’ve fought Lucas myself in the first round, and I hate to admit it, but I don’t stand a chance against him. He’ll win his round for sure. That’s three wins.” – Shin

“Damn right I am…” – Lucas

So they fought…

I fought him too, and in all honesty, I don’t know if I could beat him either…

The bear hug was the only idea I could come up with to attack him, he seems to be able to avoid any and all hits you throw at him.

But the bear hug is a very flawed plan…

It just opens me right up to his attacks.

That charged attack he did on me messed me up bad…

“Don’t forget about me.” – Lily

“I’m not. I was just about to get to you. You’re one of the very few people here who can use SDM, and from what I know, your specialty is insanely strong.” – Shin

“SDM?!” – Jack

“Yeah.” – Lily

“That’s why you’re our backup. If by some miracle me, Alex or Lucas somehow lose, I’m sure you’ll be able to make up for our loss. But let’s all do our best, four wins is doable.” – Shin

“Four? You mean five, right?” – Jack

“Right… five…” – Shin