Second Stage

TVO = The Void's Owl M and E = Mortal and Earth

Also 10% of the total class is in the heaven class, for example there are 150 people in the Heaven, Earth and Mortal classes in Architecture, 15 of them are in H classes and 135 in M and E. 15 of that 135 will become the 'top 15' and go onto the second stage.

After the alchemy stage was the Architecture Preliminaries, the participants had to draw a blueprint on the fly and judges voted for the top 15. (135 people in the Mortal and Earth Architecture classes and only 1 person from The Void's Owl made it into said Top 15)

The beast masters class was almost exactly the same as the battle royal, what makes it really interesting is that some masters have healing element beasts meaning the fights play our differently and require a lot more strategy. (There is 270 people in the M and E classes and 5 people from TVO reached the Top 30)

The Healing preliminaries consisted of 450 people trying to heal the most people. These people had an array of injuries and that harder it was to heal the more points you gained. These injured individuals came from Tianjiao city and volunteered to participating in this competition as they were given payment. After all they could have definitely healed themselves but they had to prolong their pain to come to the Academy. (12 people from TVO reached the Top 50)

The Forging competition was very similar to the Alchemy first stage, there are not impurities in equipment however you could earn extra points depending on how high the affinity of the equipment is. For example a fire bow with an affinity of 200%. would give you 5 extra points. There was free rain with what type of equipment you made it just had to be Transcendent level. (There was 225 people in the M and E class and 4 people from TVO got to the Top 25)

(Affinities on equipment are different from how the work with living beings. For example that 300% fire bow will not increase your affinity with fire by 200% but it will work with fire aura better meaning you can use fire aura with the bow very easily allowing you attack with no delay or struggles. If that makes sense. :0)

The Formation and rune competition is like a mix between the Architecture preliminaries and the Alchemy first stage. There were judges who rewarded points depending how well drawn/creative the arrays were and also the more you drew the more points you could get. (There were 180 people in the M and E class and 3 from TVO made it into the top 20)

The Scholars stage was basically a quiz. The more questions answered correctly the more points earned. (There were 360 people in the M and E Scholar classes and 10 people from TVO made it into the Top 40)

Technology was a weird stage, it depended on the route you choose for your tech, for example flying ships used in transport, huge aura guns for combat or something as simple as communication device for daily use. So judges were once again used.

Back to the present.

The group of seven had reached the arena, everyone had gotten used to the arrangement of the re-ranking tournament and were excited for the new stage to begin.

Albert was already in the centre of the colosseum and was waiting for last few people to arrive.

The final stragglers soon entered the stadium and Albert began explaining the second stage, "Welcome everyone, it has been nine days since the first Combat stage and today is the second."

"The Top 25 can now challenge the Heaven class students as mentioned before. Can the Heaven class students please come to the Arena"

25 people jumped from the stands and landed into the middle of the colosseum, there presence allow slightly frightened the Earth and Mortal Top 25. TVO members like Samael and Imum smiled kindly towards their 12 guildmates in the top 25.

"If the challengers win their match they will replace said student, you don't have to challenge the Heaven class students if you believe you cannot defeat them. The first pick for the opponent will go to the number 1 student then number 2 and so on and so forth."

"So let's begin, pick your opponents."

Moriko stepped forward and looked at the 25 students in front of her, she looked past the top ten she knew she couldn't compete and she also looked past her guildmates as there would be no point fighting them.

She looked at the rank 23rd it was a 2.10 metre female, she had fiery orange hair and Viking markings across her face. She looked very stoic with her square jawline and blue hunter shaped eyes. However all of these 'masculine' features gave her a strange and wild beauty. Her name was Hilda and she was the second in command to Bellona's Iron and Blood guild.

Moriko weighed her chances of victory then spoke, "I choose her."

The herculean girl walked forward her toned and muscular legs cracked the floor beneath her, with each and every step she took the presence she generated became greater it was like a beast being released from it's cage.

As she stood in front of and towered over Moriko she brought out a colossal double headed axe. On the handle was an inscription of a huge chained up wolf, howling at the moon.

"Let's fight then!" she growled.

"Everyone else sit in the front row of the colosseum and wait until this fight is over." Albert announced.

"Moriko vs Hilda, begin!"

Hilda leaped forward her legs sunk into the ground as she jumped into the air. She rose the huge 3 metre axe above her head and got ready to strike. Moriko quickly transformed into a cat, she didn't even try to block that terrifying attack!

Her slender paws gracefully moved out the way however Hilda formed a platform made of aura and kicked off of it allowing her to change directions mid air. The double sided axe was once again aimed at Moriko and Hilda was quickly falling to the ground every second that passed mean that Moriko was a second closer to harm.

The white cat humanely gritted her teeth and stood her ground, dark aura was released from it's body contrasting it's white fur.

A very opaque phantom appeared in the sky it was holding a flaming red shield and was prepared to block the attack.

The axe and shield soon met in the middle, the collision create an huge explosion blasting the two fighters to opposite ends of the arena.

BOOOOMMM! Shrapnel was launched into the air, wind was rushing into the arena as it was sucked into the explosion and the remnant aura lit up the sky red flames sparking in the air.

A huge figure slowly got up, just to be met with a ghostly palm. Thousands of strikes quickly landed onto Hilda her body was being battered by the 100s of phantoms made by Moriko.

The spirit beast was back in her human form, her shamisen was playing a beautiful song and more and more aura projections were being formed.

Hilda howled to the sky as her body grew tremendously in size, her skin growing fur and her voice turning animalistic. The arena turned cold as a black paw stepped onto the stone floor leaving frost wherever it walked.

Mist appeared as water vapour began to freeze, obscuring everything except a pair of cold blue eyes.

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Info of the day: Elf queen

As mentioned before the Elf queen is chosen by the world tree, no one knows why this is the case or the criteria for them to be chosen, however it has always been this way for as long as recorded.

All Elf queens are female and this had to lead to their society becoming matriarchal. The elf queen does need to have a child as they child is not guaranteed to become a successor. Furthermore many of the times and Elf queen has a child and they do not become the next Queen the child rebels.

However these rebels have never succeeded, leading to rumours that the elf queen has a treasure that can control all elves.

One confirmed thing about the Elf Queen is that they get an affinity boost in the Life, Healing and Wood elements.

This has made people believe that the World tree is the avatar of the Wood, Life and Healing deities as normally only deities can permanently increase aura.

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Next Chapter: Big dog vs Small cat?