The Author's POV

Crash—!

With a loud crash, an orc came crashing down on the hard ground.

"Haa...haa..."

'I will definitely make you pay for what you've done.' Kevin swore to himself as he stared at the orc opposite him. With his head on the ground and his eyes closed, the orc was knocked down cold.

"The opponent is knocked out cold, the match is over."

The referee's voice resounded across the grounds, marking him the victor of the duel.

"Winner, Kevin Voss. He will be advancing to the top 64 of the tournament."

Announcing his victory, the referee raised Kevin's hand in the air.

The loud cheers coming from the audience rang out.

Kevin in return smiled at the audience.

'...That piece of shit.'

Or at least pretended to smile.

In reality, he was still fuming about what had happened yesterday.

The humiliation and embarrassment he felt were something he had never felt before in his life. Just recalling what happened sent shivers down his spine. The embarrassment was just too much.

Turning his head and staring towards the distance where Ren stood, Kevin deeply sighed.

Then, turning his head, he looked towards Emma who was seated next to Ren. Noticing his stare, the two of them waved in his direction.

Staring at the two of them from the arena grounds, doubt crept inside of Kevin's heart.

'...Could the figure in the dream really be Ren?'

Part of him truly wanted to dismiss such thoughts from his mind, but after looking back at the past, Kevin realized that there was a chance that the figure in the vision was Ren.

The Hollberg incident, the time when they were attacked by demons when they were returning from the dungeon, and just a week ago when he lost himself.

In those times, Ren truly reminded Kevin of the figure in the vision.

No matter how many times he wanted to deny reality, he knew that he couldn't...but Kevin wasn't planning on letting those visions dictate his mind.

In the first place, he never truly understood what the visions signified. Were they a vision of the possible future?...or were they simply just visions?

He spent a lot of time trying to rack his brain over the matter, but regardless of how much he thought about it, he couldn't quite understand it.

In the end, he just stopped thinking about it.

He realized that thinking on the matter was simply going to be a waste of time.

Be it the present past or whatever the visions signified, Kevin was not planning on letting the visions corrupt his mind and turn his back on his friend.

Never...

***

"The real matches should begin now."

With my arms crossed, I solemnly gazed at the platforms below.

"...the real matches?"

"Yeah."

I nodded my head. Seated next to me was Emma who was leaning back with her cap held down, covering her face. A small shadow cast over her beautiful face.

Apart from the two of us, pretty much everyone else was fighting in the arenas below. Jin, Amanda, Hein, Ava, you name it, they were all fighting.

Somehow, I ended up stuck with Emma whilst waiting for our turns.

"What I mean is that the next opponents are going to be extremely hard to deal with."

"Munch...much..."

out. From the way she was acting, she didn't

"Munch...much...I'll still win."

get matched up

Pop—!

Emma's bubble burst apart.

way he will finally fight me

in her pupils. It was clear that she was excited at the prospect of fighting

"Suit yourself."

out against you, you'd probably lose

anyway. The chances of her going against Kevin were the

difference was that I wasn't planning on going on easy on her if she did go

look, Kevin's looking at

waved in

"Really?"

her hand too. With a forced

looks embarrassed

I stared at Kevin's forced smile. Overhearing

"Ugh, don't remind me."

to

the referee announced another winner and

a deep frown

'He's strong.'

to his area was an enormous orc. His very presence attracted the attention of the spectators as his frightening display of power over the tournament had made people realize

to the top 64 of

advancing to the

Borerlig Barrelbeard. He will be advancing to the

a series of new

appeared on my face as I stared at the individuals whose names were

are all higher ranked than

glance that they were all rank from the undulations of mana surrounding

advancing

was another announcement, and the frown

'...How troublesome.'

the crowd. With a

, he was someone that I needed to watch

that

one that felt annoyed by Gilbert's appearance as Emma lifted

is only 25. He just barely made it

25

sometimes I forget that he's only a couple

before once again lowering her cap and basking in the sunlight coming from

called up. Those were the names of the

after the winners were announced, it was time for the second half of the matches

it's my turn

I stretched my

smooth sailing, but I knew that whoever my next opponent was, it was going to be someone powerful. I could no longer

Caeruleum vs

contestants make

being called out, my

towards the designated platform, I saw a

spread throughout his whole body as walked toward the

"Shit..."

cursed underneath my

expect someone strong, I didn't think they

rank, and a former classmate

as the protagonists, and someone who I had been keeping in

be

as she lifted her hat.

"...Right."

she isn't

Yufei was definitely someone who I would

already witnessed the same repetitive magic card

thoughts from my mind as I focused my attention

his hands behind his back, Han Yufei gazed in my direction with a small frown on his face. Seemingly trying

smiled

his face, Han Yufei opened

going to use

"Mhm, who knows."