Tournament Day 4, right after Rio and Lia's match.
Liam's waiting room.
"Whoa!This guy really ended up defeating her…"
Liam was quite surprised when he saw Rio defeat Lia, even after she had powered up so much.
"What do you think, Kazto? How did he do that? Didn't you say that she was predicting his moves… What happened here then?"
Liam tilted his head toward the room's ceiling, and an eerie-looking, chimera-like creature appeared in his vision.
"Wait, what are you doing there? Get down!"
The three-foot-tall chimera immediately let go of the ceiling and jumped down.
The chimera stood on its two horse-like legs and stroked its oversized and deformed octopus head with his gorilla-like hands.
The bat-like wings of the creature shrank behind its back as it used telepathy to communicate. (Kazto looks so horrifying that people might get nightmares just by looking at him...)
"Hmm,… I think he has some kind of skill that can block prediction… I would need to see it happen with my own eyes to figure things out in more detail though…"
Hearing Kazto's words, Liam nodded his head. He leaned his back against the couch and mumbled in a quiet voice.
"Sword intent, super-fast speed and reaction time, amazing swordsmanship skills, and a mysterious skill that can protect him… Moreover, he doesn't even flinch from pain or anything…"
Kazto, listening to Liam's mumbles, tilted his deformed and odd-looking head slightly and said,
"Master… This person is going to be a formidable opponent… Your chances of meeting him in the semi-finals are 1/3…"
Liam also nodded his head at those words.
"Yeah, his fourth match is already over; next he will fight tomorrow in the semi-finals… And if I win today's match, I might end up fighting him tomorrow…."
Liam has easily won all of his previous matches, and if he triumphs in today's match, he will advance to the semi-finals.
"But seriously…. the semi-finals are where things will get the most serious…"
"I am quite sure that Link will win his match too, so he will reach the semi-finals, and then there's the elven princess Vanya; she isn't weak either…"
Observing the earnest expression on Liam's face, Kazto said,
"Worry not, master, I can formulate quite a few plans for you…"
Liam sighed and nodded his head.
[Tch! Why are you listening to that deformed b*stard… I can make better plans than him, Master!]
Seeing that Liam was having such a quality time with his other summoned beast, Ellie was irritated.
Due to the tournament rules, Liam hasn't summoned Ellie for quite a while now, and she is annoyed by this fact.
[If I were summoned, I wouldn't bother using tricks and plans! I will blast off your enemies with overwhelming strength!]
All of Liam's summoned beasts have connections with him directly; thus, Kazto also heard what Ellie just said, so he couldn't help but refute.
"Uh, you shouldn't rely on brute strength for everything; planning and strategy making can also bring amazing results-"
Before Kazto could finish his words, Ellie cut him off and said,
[Hmph! Who cares! I can simply do it with my strength! Also, from now on, call me Senior Ellie! I was summoned first!]
Just when the two were arguing, Liam rubbed his head.
'Ugh, are all my summons defective? Why do they fight among each other like that?'
In frustration, Liam had no choice but to use his trump card against the two.
"You two… If you don't stop fighting, there will be no dinner for you today!"
"Nooo~~ It was senior Ellie who started it first!!"
[This shameless, weird octopus! I will throw you in the sewer!!]
"Noo~~ Master, Liam! Senior Ellie is bullying me!"
Liam was helpless when he heard the fight escalate.
'Ugh, my summons are all defective products…'
Liam shook his head and waved his hand to de-summon Kazto.
"Get ready; it's our match next… only two hours or so left…"
Kazto is Liam's fourth-strongest summon now; he summoned Kazto after becoming an A-ranker.
Kazto may be weaker than Ellie, the wyvern, and that mammoth, but he makes up for it with his amazing brain. None of the others summoned are as smart as Kazto.
Still, Ellie is the only one who can talk to Liam even while in a de-summoned state; others can't do that.
She even enhances his magic passively even when she isn't summoned; that's why she is the most favored among all other summons. (Also, she was his first summoned beast, so he has a soft spot for her…)
Liam has about twenty-five different summons right now; each one is unique, but one thing is common for all of them: all of them are 'faulty' in some way or another.
(Fun fact: They are all addicted to his hand-made food… Bro literally took professional courses to learn how to make monster food! He spoiled them all rotten with that tasty food….)
Just when Liam was lying down on the couch to take a short rest, the hologram in the center of his waiting room finally moved.
The roulette stopped after a few seconds, and Liam's opponent was determined.
[Ding! Congratulations! Your next match has been fixed!]
[Ding! Liam Aldif Vs. Renna Heleren!]
[Time: 11: 00 A.M.]
[Make sure to arrive on time!]
Seeing the name of his opponent, Liam was a bit surprised.
"Oh, it's that Elven Archer girl who fought with me in the group battle phase… She's still in the tournament? She seemed weak when I fought her before…"
What Liam didn't take into consideration was that he was too strong; that's why Renna seemed weak to him.
But for others, Renna is extremely strong; after all,she's the second-most talented candidate in the Elven Race, right after Vanya.
Seeing that he had only met her, Liam heaved a sigh of relief.
"Phew~ It's a good thing that I don't have to fight Link right now… I really don't have any countermeasures for him at the moment…"
Liam can still make strategies to defeat Rio, but when it comes to Link, even Liam feels helpless.
'That guy even stood unharmed after taking an A-rank archer's arrow to the eyeball! Aside from Ellie, I don't think any of my summons can harm him…'
While shaking his head, Liam got up from the couch and started to make appropriate plans for his next fight.
Renna might be weaker than him, but he wasn't going to tolerate any mistakes.
He likes to fight with all of his might to crush his opponents as quickly and effortlessly as possible.
Unlike Rio and Link, who fight head-on without any worries in the world, Liam's fighting style revolves around making proper strategies.
When summoning, he has to make the correct choices; if he summoned a beast that couldn't fit in a specific situation, things would get difficult for him because summoning consumes quite a lot of mana.
If not for Ellie, who serves as his external mana storage, Liam really doesn't dare have 25 summoned beasts with him at rank A.
Ordinary A-rank summoners usually only have 10 to 15 summoned beasts with them, as the consumption is too huge.
Furthermore, all of Liam's summoned beasts are much better than other A-rank summoners, so they consume more mana than usual.
(Even Neo had to agree to the fact that Liam is the best Summoner in the younger generation, and no one comes even close to his level of mastery…)
...
Two hours later,.
A floating orb appeared beside Liam as he walked towards the stadium grounds.
That is Liam's strongest weapon, 'Azazel's dreaming heart'.
That weapon caused a lot of trouble, even for Rio, during the group survival event. (Go to ch-102, for its detailed information's…)
[Isn't it overkill to use that weapon on that weak archer girl?]
Even Ellie was taken aback after seeing Liam bring out that weapon from his storage ring.
"Nah… I have a feeling…. That Elven archer is not as weak as she pretends to be… My intuition has always been accurate…"
Seeing the serious look on Liam's face, Ellie stopped talking. She knew that once Liam had made his mind, he wouldn't change his decisions so easily, even if she were the one to persuade him.
[Sigh~ okay then… Although I can't assist you in person, I will enhance your magic as usual…]
[Good luck, Liam…]
Hearing Ellie say his name directly, a smile appeared on Liam's face, and he felt more confident than ever before.
'Yeah, let's do it!'
Liam walked into the stadium grounds and reached the center, keeping his face calm.
Renna also arrived at the same time, and she stared at him with a tense look on her face.
Seeing that tense expression, Liam smiled a bit and said,
"We met again… Last time, I was rude, didn't finish the duel between us, and got teleported before it ended… So, let's finish it properly this time…"
Renna let go of her tense expression after hearing Liam's words, and nodded her head.
"Yeah, I nearly beat you last time, but you ran away, so let's settle the score now…"
'I was expecting him to be rude, but he's a decent person, it seems…'
Renna had heard a lot of bad rumors about Liam's father, and she was thinking that Liam might be as bad a person as his father.
But after Liam's greeting, she figured out that she was wrong.
Her observation skills as an archer told her that Liam isn't that bad a guy.
...
Fun Fact:
During the fifty-year orc war, Neo once forced many orcs to become his summoned beasts.
This was such a great taboo that the whole alliance condemned his actions, and he had to let go of those orcs. (He was using them like Sl*ves…)
Neo's reputation has consistently been the lowest among all SS-rankers in the world due to his numerous strange actions.
He has many weird titles like 'Unreasonable beast spammer!', 'shrewd fox', 'devil's toungue', etc. And the fact is, Neo doesn't even bother clearing up his reputation; he's actually quite satisfied with his bad reputation.
(That's also why he dares not come to the 'meeting of gods' as he has offended a lot of people… even the peace-
loving Elven race doesn't like him at all…)
…
…
Author's Notes.
Yo! It's your beloved author here! All of Liam's summoned beasts adore him, and he thinks that they are faulty… He really is suffering from success…
Question of the day.
Do you think that Liam is quite overpowered too?
1. Yeah
2. No
By the way, don't forget to use those power stones and also leave a review if you like the story. Comment your opinion about the chapter. Your support is my motivation.