Round One
It had finally begun...
The first round of the Sub-Bloodline Trials.
For the first few moments, however, no one seemed particularly eager to be the first to step into the arena.
Nearly thirty contestants stood around the edges of the vast battlefield, cautiously observing one another. Their gazes drifted from face to face, silently measuring their opponents, assessing their strengths, and searching for even the slightest hint of weakness before taking that first decisive step.
It was hardly surprising.
Everyone knew the fundamental rule.
Only ten places were available.
Thirty contestants...
And only ten would remain.
For the rest, there would be no second chance.
Most of the participants were at the High First Circle, while a handful of exceptional talents had managed to reach the Second Circle, though the majority of them remained at its lowest stage.
As the silence stretched across the arena, similar thoughts surfaced in the minds of many.
The moment the battle begins, I won't interfere unless I'm on the verge of losing.
Leaving the boundaries of the arena means elimination... I only need to secure my position.
Let the others fight first. The fewer people remain, the greater my chances.
This was not a battle where one needed to defeat everyone.
It was a battle of survival.
And anyone who truly understood its nature would realize that the strongest fighter was not necessarily the one who charged straight into the heart of the chaos and defeated the greatest number of opponents.
Sometimes...
The smartest person was the one who knew when to disappear.
When to wait.
And when to strike.
One after another, the contestants began entering the arena.
Hesitant footsteps here.
Cautious glances there.
Some entered with unmistakable confidence, as though they had not come to compete at all, but to prove that they deserved one of those ten coveted positions.
Despite the fact that there were nearly thirty participants, the trial arena was astonishingly vast.
A broad stone floor stretched across the battlefield, enclosed by clearly defined boundaries. There was more than enough space to accommodate the contestants—and perhaps twice their number besides.
Leo remained where he stood, perfectly calm.
There was no tension in his expression.
His eyes were not wandering aimlessly across the arena, either.
He was observing everything.
The way each contestant stood.
Their positioning.
The movement of their feet.
The mana gathering within their bodies.
Who was watching whom.
And, perhaps more importantly...
Who was deliberately avoiding everyone else's gaze.
The battle had not officially begun yet.
But as far as Leo was concerned...
It had already started.
The information he gathered now might prove more valuable than any spell that would be unleashed in the moments to come.
Then, suddenly...
His eyes stopped.
He had noticed someone standing near one side of the arena.
Aren.
Leo watched him for several seconds.
Then...
A faint spark of interest appeared in his eyes.
The corners of his lips lifted into a small smile.
So...
That brat has made some progress after all.
The change in Aren was not dramatic.
But to Leo, who had grown accustomed to noticing even the smallest details, it was unmistakable.
His stance was more stable.
His movements were calmer.
And the mana surrounding his body was no longer as erratic as it had been before.
He had learned something.
Perhaps only something small...
But it was enough to make Leo curious about what would happen next.
And in the very next moment—
The judge's voice thundered across the arena.
"Begin!"
Nothing happened.
No one moved.
One second...
Then another.
Everyone stared at everyone else.
Two seconds...
Three...
It was almost as though all thirty contestants had reached the exact same conclusion at the exact same moment:
Let someone else make the first mistake.
Then—
BOOOOOOM!!!
A tremendous explosion erupted in the center of the arena!
The ground trembled beneath the contestants' feet. A massive cloud of dust and shattered stone surged into the air as a wave of energy swept outward.
One of the participants had unleashed a wide-area spell from the very beginning.
His intention was not to eliminate anyone.
It was to create chaos.
To force everyone to scatter.
To destroy the initial formation before the battle could properly take shape.
And the moment it happened...
The arena exploded into chaos.
Spells flew from every direction.
The deafening clash of attacks echoed through the battlefield.
Shouts rang out.
Footsteps thundered across stone.
Flashes of fire illuminated the dust.
Blades of wind tore through the air.
Magical barriers appeared for mere moments before shattering beneath overwhelming force.
In the span of a few breaths, the once-silent arena had transformed into a genuine battlefield.
The First Five Minutes
The battle was anything but orderly.
It was closer to organized chaos.
Two against three.
Five against four.
Three chasing one.
Four attempting to eliminate two before those same two could turn against them.
Everyone was attempting to exploit the nature of the battle to its absolute limit.
Some chose to hide.
Two contestants retreated toward one edge of the arena, deliberately keeping themselves away from the most intense clashes.
Others moved between the fighting contestants, waiting patiently for the instant someone became exhausted, distracted, or exposed.
Then—
They struck without hesitation.
And there were those who had realized something else entirely.
The best way to survive was to form temporary groups.
There were no permanent alliances.
Everyone understood that such alliances were practically impossible.
There was simply too little trust.
Yet in the midst of such chaos, it was sometimes difficult to determine whether two people were genuinely cooperating...
Or whether their movements merely happened to coincide.
Still...
There was one person who seemed completely unconcerned with any of it.
Aren.
He stood near one corner of the arena.
He did not charge forward.
He did not chase anyone.
He did not seek out weakened opponents.
Nor did he seem interested in proving himself.
He simply...
waited.
Whenever someone approached him, he moved.
Calmly.
Without haste.
Using the absolute minimum amount of mana necessary.
One step to the side.
Another.
Then half a step backward.
His movements were strangely precise.
Almost as though he already knew where every attack would land before it was even launched.
One of his companions eventually noticed him and shouted:
"Aren! Why are you running away?!"
Aren did not answer.
He did not even turn around.
He simply continued moving.
Then, suddenly—
One of the contestants charged toward him.
He was at the High First Circle.
He raised his hand, and mana erupted from his body.
A powerful offensive spell manifested before him and shot toward Aren at tremendous speed.
Yet Aren did not retreat.
He calmly raised his hand.
Mana gathered before him.
And a defensive spell appeared.
But it was not a massive barrier covering his entire body.
It was...
Small.
So small that anyone else might have assumed there had been an error in the spell's formation.
But Aren had made no mistake.
He had placed the barrier precisely where the incoming spell would collide with it.
BOOOOM!
The attack slammed into the barrier.
A violent wave of energy exploded through the air.
Yet instead of stopping the full force of the attack...
The trajectory changed.
The spell was deflected to the side, tearing through the air just beside Aren before crashing into the ground far behind him.
Aren had not needed to withstand the attack's full power.
He had not wasted mana creating a barrier larger than necessary.
He had used...
the bare minimum.
Just enough mana to alter the attack's direction.
From a distance, Leo silently watched the entire exchange.
Then...
The corner of his mouth rose slightly.
A faint smile appeared on his face.
"He's improved quite a bit."
Aren was no longer the person who charged forward without thinking.
He was beginning to understand.
When to advance.
When to retreat.
When to use his strength.
And when to conserve it.
More importantly...
He was beginning to learn how to fight intelligently.
But the battle did not slow down.
If anything...
It grew more brutal with every passing minute.
The numbers began to fall.
Thirty...
Then twenty-eight.
Twenty-five.
Then—
Twenty.
The fewer contestants remained, the more dangerous the arena became.
The initial chaos was beginning to disappear.
The survivors were now able to clearly recognize one another.
And temporary groups began forming more frequently.
Then, suddenly...
Five contestants made a different choice.
They gathered together.
Three of them were at the High First Circle.
The other two...
Were at the Low Second Circle.
They were not necessarily the five strongest people in the arena.
But they possessed something else.
Numbers.
One of them looked toward the others.
Their eyes met briefly.
No one needed to raise their voice.
No lengthy discussion was necessary.
The decision had already been made.
They would target those who had no companions.
It was simple.
As the number of contestants decreased, those who belonged to small groups naturally became safer than those forced to fight alone.
And so...
The five moved.
They found a lone contestant.
Five against one.
The confrontation did not last long.
Then they found another.
Five against one again.
Then a third.
They were not searching for powerful opponents.
They were searching for easy prey.
They were exploiting their numerical advantage to the fullest.
From a distance...
Leo watched their movements.
His eyes narrowed slightly.
He was not angry.
But there was something close to contempt in his gaze.
Cooperation is not a flaw...
His eyes remained fixed upon them.
But turning numbers into a weapon for hunting those who have no one beside them...
A cold glint flashed within his eyes.
That is not something worthy of respect.
Then an old saying surfaced in his mind.
Indeed...
Ferocious beasts travel alone...
while livestock...
His thoughts paused for a brief moment.
Then he finished the thought.
...gather in herds.
He did not know any of those five.
He had no reason to interfere.
But the way they had chosen to fight was more than enough to form a clear impression of them in his mind.
And yet...
Leo did not know that the five had already found their next target.
A target unlike all those who had come before.
One of them raised his hand.
The other four immediately followed his gaze.
And on the opposite side of the arena...
Aren stood alone.
There was no one around him.
No allies.
No companions.
No one watching his back.
One of the five smiled.
Then they began moving toward him.
One step...
Then another.
Five people.
Against one.
As for Aren...
At first, he did not notice them.
Then he sensed the movement of mana behind him.
His footsteps stopped.
Slowly...
He turned around.
His eyes fell upon the five approaching figures.
And in that instant...
A brief silence descended over the surrounding area.
There was no need for anyone to explain what was about to happen.
It was obvious.
The hunt had found its next prey.