Truthful Transmigration

The entire arena was somewhat numb. Even those who had been excited for Ursel’s victory over Abritt fell into a lull by the next day. There was another match with Ursel and Charlotte, who prevailed over Mandlen of the Indestructible Kapok Grove, but people simply weren’t able to keep up enthusiasm.

It was a bit unfair to the contestants of what was theoretically the final- excluding a potential battle with John. He wasn’t certain if anyone would be excited for that match either. He was rather inspired to fight, but he wasn’t sure if he could put on a more impressive display than Ursel. Though he did believe he was likely to defeat her, as he was aware of her weaknesses such as they were. Nothing Abritt could really take advantage of, though.

The final match continued as planned, however. Charlotte faced off against Ursel in one of the air element arena setups, which didn’t directly favor either of them. However, as soon as the battle began Charlotte leapt onto one of the floating platforms, seeming to find it a better battleground.

It was reasonable enough, as Ursel was certainly best with solid footing. But nothing stopped her from simply following after Charlotte. The older woman was still gathering her fire element spiritual energy when Ursel leapt after her, the weight of her armor and body not slowing her down at all.

Charlotte knew better than to face Ursel in a direct competition of power, despite possessing an elemental advantage. She leapt towards another floating platform, providing buoyancy with fire element.

To most people, it likely seemed as if she was simply fleeing to draw out the battle, but John noticed something she left behind. Roots of flame, attaching to Ursel’s ankles. She snapped them off as she followed after Charlotte, brandishing her club, but the flames twirled around and into her boots.

The omni-elemental construction of Ursel’s armor wouldn’t allow simple tricks like building up heat defeat her, but John had the feeling Charlotte was just probing the boundaries. Nothing was unbeatable, and it was simply Abritt’s direct reliance on her power that led to her defeat. John could think of a few ways that an air cultivator could have been more effective against Ursel, though it wasn’t as if he intended to explain that to her opponent.

The two cultivators traversed around the arena in a mad dash, hopping from platform to platform. Charlotte constantly left behind a trail of flames, which Ursel forced her way through. Her element might have been weak to fire, but her armor and body were durable enough that it required more than small licks of flame to actually reach the threshold that mattered.

Soon enough Ursel became aware of the ways Charlotte was trying to infiltrate her defenses. A constant haze of heat crept into her lungs with every breath. The winds in the arena served only to distribute the heat Charlotte created more broadly, instead of letting it linger in a few small zones she could avoid.

The roots of flame were also an issue, wrapping onto Ursel and searching for vulnerable joints. Ursel hadn’t allowed there to be a weakness on the very bottom of her feet, her sabatons being solid on the bottom, but she needed flexibility in her ankles so it was impossible to have absolutely no joints at all. Her earth element resisted the intrusion of Charlotte’s fire, but she was disadvantaged in total quantity along with her elemental disadvantage.

Letting her passive defenses work wouldn’t serve her. That wasn’t the only thing that was holding her back, however. Charlotte had taken control of the pace of battle, repeating the same actions of jumping from place to place- and Ursel subconsciously took that as a challenge to catch her, instead of trying alternate tactics.

She was constantly having to focus on eliminating all of the traces of fire Charlotte left behind, whether small roots trying to infiltrate or explosions of concentrated energy that triggered when she was about to land.

It was also entirely possible Ursel was still fatigued from the previous day. Charlotte had had her own battle, but it hadn’t been as much of a sustained brawl. As a fire cultivator familiar with the interplay with plants, she had been dominant against her opponent.

All of those factors were leading towards one end. Ursel’s annoyance at being unable to attack Charlotte was building, but it seemed she realized something. Perhaps too late, but Ursel’s tension released and she grinned. John didn’t actually see her face with her full armor, but he felt the change in her posture even as she leapt.

It looked like she accidentally overshot the next platform, slipping just past the edge, but it was on purpose. Ursel was already swinging her club, and she launched the platform at Charlotte like a projectile.

If she’d thought of that earlier, she might have still won the battle. But while her initial aim was correct, her energy and thus further control of the platform dissipated as it naturally stabilized itself. Charlotte simply jumped over it, shifting her prepared energy from being planted beneath her to being lobbed at Ursel’s landing spot.

Ursel slightly shifted her trajectory, but Charlotte’s flames were flexible enough to reach after her. Ursel had to use the remnants of her energy to stop the energy from infiltrating her armor… and then she only had her own body and armor to protect against Charlotte.

There was some possibility that if she could have caught the older woman and hit her, she might have still caused damage. But Ursel was already breathing heavily, and the pervading heat Charlotte had been working on was seriously getting to her. She soon got caught by another attack, a full blooming firelilly encapsulating her. Flames twisted their way through gaps in her armor, and she was already calling out her surrender when the formations activated.

Ursel just sighed. Even if she was tired, she couldn’t really blame that on Charlotte. Her defeat was legitimate, based on an understanding of Ursel specifically.

-----

Just because Ursel accepted defeat with dignity in a public setting didn’t mean she didn’t complain to her family later. John had his children and their families all dine with him in his private rooms, and the only reason he’d avoided it up until then was to try not to show his bias as much. It was better to avoid the appearance of impropriety regardless from the beginning.

“I spent all that time thinking about how to defeat Abritt that I kind of forgot to be ready for other people,” Ursel grumbled. “Though I was looking forward to fighting you as well.”

“We still can,” John pointed out. “Just not as part of the tournament.”

“You have to beat Charlotte for me,” Ursel said. “Win back our dignity!”

“Mhm,” John said. “I’ll do my best.” John was fairly certain he could defeat her now, but nothing was certain. His techniques weren’t perfect, and Charlotte was quite clever. “What did you think about the structure of the tournament?”

“What about it?” Ursel asked. “I think advancing to the next tier is pretty good.”

“Yeah!” Nitza said enthusiastically. “I got to fight against people in the Soul Expansion Phase and that was great!”

“I was thinking more about the Ascending Soul Phase part. It was a bit… awkward,” John explained. “I didn’t really intend for it to end up single elimination, but for the rest of the tournament it is necessary because of the total number of matches required. Until there are too many Ascending Soul Phase cultivators to handle- if that’s even possible- we could certainly have a better format to properly display who is the strongest. I wanted to show the Sky Islands our strength, but I hadn’t expected Abritt to actually lose. Especially to you, Ursel. No offense but your cultivation…”

“Almost a whole Phase behind. Well, seven ranks anyway,” Ursel nodded.

“I believed in you,” Tirto commented.

Verusha snorted. “Only once she was winning.” Tirto clicked his tongue, looking away.

Ereli added her own thoughts when there was a gap in conversation. “I did believe Auntie Ursel had a good chance of winning. The exquisite balance of elements in her armor cannot be underestimated. In that way, you are also responsible for the victory, grandfather.”

“In that case,” John said. “We have to include Viriato and Raul as well. All of us worked on that armor with Ursel. But ultimately, she was the one who won. So again, congratulations. And thank you for taking the matter so seriously. This is an important win for our alliance.”

All he had to do was leverage the situation to bring about proper results. Once Abritt got out of her daze, she might find herself insulted, even though no one but Ursel had seriously thought her winning was a possibility. It wasn’t a setup or anything. But the Sky Islands might not believe that.

-----

John announced the official victor of the tournament alongside his proposed changes for future tournaments. And since he was the Sect Head, anything he said would come into being unless his advisors could convince him otherwise.

“This tournament, we were able to witness the might of great cultivators. This includes of course those of our broader region, including the cultivators of the Sky Islands. However, I am certain some of you were disappointed to not see more of that power on display. Thus, in the future we will be arranging for a more thorough tournament for those at the Ascending Soul Phase.”

He kept his promises vague, because the exact details weren’t worked out and he might change his thoughts. But he also made sure to intentionally honor the Sky Islands. The whole point was to try to build a positive connection instead of animosity. Battle was simply the best way to do that in a short time in a world of cultivators. Now, the ‘continentals’ would be taken seriously.

John did not bring up the matter of how Abritt lost. It would be counterproductive, and it would also diminish Ursel’s accomplishments if he called her a mere Consolidated Soul Phase cultivator. It might seem like her victory was some sort of luck instead of intense training and careful preparation on her part.

John didn’t know all of what she’d done while she was adventuring to find materials for her armor, but he expected it was anything but casual. He’d seen her battling giant rhinoceros in the Viridia Wildlands decades ago. It was unlikely that her training was more casual now, especially considering how much she’d improved on Diamond Defense. He was going to have to determine if it was feasible to cultivate more elemental boosts into his body training. Since Ursel was focused on a single element, everything she did was by defaul complimentary- but John would have to carefully select his own balance.

-----

Part of the reason that John was not a normal participant in the tournament was to not make it seem as if the rewards were rigged somehow. Even if they allowed other cultivators from the sect as the Sect Head it would seem like just paying himself if he won. More than that, he at least had an air as a position to overcome. That had been sensible the previous tournament when there wasn’t an Ascending Soul Phase division, but John would have to rethink it in the future. He didn’t want to end with an underwhelming battle.

Then again, that just gave him good motivation to train and ensure he was the strongest. For the moment, he had to put up an impressive enough fight against Charlotte. Even if he lost, he would prefer that the battle was showy so as to not tarnish the reputation of the Six Elements Crossroads. Next time he would be more prepared for the management aspects around the tournament. Everything had gone smoothly enough, but it could have been better.

“Prepared to lose?” Charlotte grinned at him from across the arena.

John laughed. “I’m glad to hear you are.” Five elements and a trickle of the sixth danced inside him. He planned to take advantage of everything he had, and if he truly lost… he respected Charlotte enough for it to not bother him much.