After a few more minutes, the students also learned a few more things about this competition.
The first one wasn't too surprising. Orion mentioned that Alex was already among the four students who would be chosen, so the other students were basically fighting for just three spots.
In a way, they weren't even angry about this, after all, this meant that nobody would have to fight Alex to win a spot because it was general knowledge that Alex would defeat them with a single hand.
The second thing that they learned was about how the pair that would fight was decided.
According to Orion, they would fight based on their Rank so that each person would have a fair battle.
That was pretty self-explanatory, so he didn't need to explain much about it.
They also learned that they would use wooden weapons to fight, and the weapons were already provided.
This boosted the confidence of some who were already a tad bit anxious about the sharp blades that they would be clashing against. Though, wooden weapons still had their own kind of pain.
Of course, Orion made this decision for the safety of the students so that they would avoid any fatal injuries. Though, he mentioned that in the tournament, real weapons would be used..... Not wooden weapons.
With that, it was time for the competition to start.
A teacher walked forward, staring at a paper in his hand, before calling the names of the two students written on the paper.
Two boys instantly walked out from the crowd of students, towards the middle of the circle.
They were asked their weapon of choice, and the first boy picked a sword while the second boy picked a hammer. Of course, they were both wooden weapons.
After they both took their stance, the teacher exclaimed, "START!"
Instantly, the two boys rushed towards each other, and the battle began.
The boy with the hammer had more attack power as he utilized his Earth Elemental Spells, enhancing his hammer and attacks in general.
The boy with the sword also had a high attack power and utilized his First Elemental Spells well.
The boy with the hammer usually put a lot of force into his swings, so the sword dude could read his attacks quite well and evade, but eventually, the hammer guy used a certain Spell and suddenly swung so fast, and also with force.
Seeing that he wouldn't be able to evade on time, the sword guy surrendered.
They were both at the Grade 3 Veteran Rank, so it was a fair matchup.
Like that, more battles took place. Some won before the three-minute time elapsed while some went past the three-minute time limit, and their matches were postponed.
Some of the matches ended up being a male versus a female, but the males didn't hold back in the slightest, after all, some of the girls were even stronger.
But apart from that, it was almost as if they didn't even care that they were hitting a girl. From what Arin could see, that concept of not hitting women wasn't really that deep in this world.
At least, if a husband hit his wife or a man hit a lady, even though she was wrong, the man would still be blamed, but if it was a battle, it would be considered fair and the female could be hit unless she surrendered.
'Sounds pretty fair to me,' Arin thought.
He had been watching the battles, trying to distract himself for a bit, though, it only worked partially. He was still having glimpses of the notification.
'I'll have to do something about it.... And fast.'
He didn't allow himself to be overwhelmed. He calmed down and looked around. 'I'll make a decision tonight.'
In the Vampire Kingdom, inside the city reserved for the humans, an old man was seated on his chair, staring at the Vampire in front of him.
"Is it time to go now, Vaelric?" The old man asked, stroking his beard.
Vaelric grinned. "Yes, come with me, and make sure you don't take anything along with you."
The man nodded as he got up and walked behind Vaelric before shutting the door.
They both walked in the street of the city as Vaelric ignored the humans who were hiding as soon as they saw him.
They finally reached an empty alley, and with no one in sight, Vaelric instantly did something.
He bent down and placed his hands on a particular part of the ground.
With a small creak, the door that was imbued into the ground creaked open, revealing a downward staircase leading to a certain place.
The old man glanced at Vaelric for a second as if trying to gauge if it was a trap.
'Well, I might as well take the risk,' he thought. 'It's not like I have anything to lose anyway.'
With that, he followed Vaelric down the stairs, and after a few seconds, they finally arrived at an underground open space. The space was big, with a paved floor, and was currently occupied.
There were hundreds of Vampires inside this place, sitting down on some big stones or resting their bodies on the wall.
Immediately they saw Vaelric, they all bowed down in respect.
They weren't alarmed by the old man's presence, after all, Vaelric had taken them one by one to meet him to get Mana imbued into their bodies and teach them how to control it.
So yes, every single Vampire in this underground space was able to utilize Mana, and even slightly control it, including Vaelric.
The Vampires all stood in rows as they stared at Vaelric, who placed his hands behind his back.
"I know you all have been waiting," Vaelric said with a smirk. "But the time has finally come, my people."
"Thalos has held us back a lot," he continued, "but there's no stopping us now!"
"YESSS!" The Vampires instantly erupted into cheers.
Vaelric grinned as he began walking forward, closer to the Vampires, his cloak fluttering.
Suddenly, a vial containing a red liquid appeared in his hand.
"Let's go, my people....."
The humans in the human realm who were busy going about their daily lives weren't aware of the immense threat that was heading toward them.