Dance With Darkness And Light 42 Meeting The Adversaries

The next two days before the royal tournament Bazuul immersed himself in sparring to further gain experience and control of his abilities. He also entered the akas.h.i.+c library a couple of times trying to find out even more about his const.i.tution, to no avail. The last day before the tournament, he lazed around and rested his body and mind until eventually adjourning to the misty lands of dreams.

Several hours later, the first rays of sunlight touched up the horizon.

Everyone in the ralunian emba.s.sy had risen with the sun and prepared to either fill the stands of their faction in Leizyr's grand arena or in the case of four youngsters, bring glory to their kingdom's name on the battle platform below.

Outside the arena. A, to the eye, endless stream of people were on the way to enter the stands. Thus forming the length of a full-grown dragon of lines in front of each entrance. Of course, members of a kingdom's emba.s.sy had a separate entrance to those of ordinary viewers.

Once inside, a staff member of the grand arena approached the people of Ralun, identified himself, and pointed at the four youths consisting of Bazuul, his brother Kuzan, Tarek Rashad, and Emilia Stark. "May the four contestants of the royal tournament please follow me."

Now separated from the rest, the attendant led them through the halls. Finally, he brought the group to the lobby where all the contestants of the royal tournament would wait for the opening ceremony to begin.

The lobby was rather big and filled with enough seats for all contestants. The ralunians sat down at a table and kept to themselves. Bazuul took notice of the almost decadent extent of preparations made for the royal tournament. Above all, the amount of food and beverages. There was enough to feed a small town for a week. Also inside were most contestants already waiting for the compet.i.tion to start. Only the faction from Lumin seemed to be missing as of now.

A shame really, as it was now, these people completely spoiled the food on the table with the atmosphere they had created. Understandably, many were extremely tense and overly excited. Which, in turn, created this dense pressure in the air. Still, this was not the only thing bothering him. The looks he had gotten from some inside the lobby, looks that made him itchy, ready to give out free beatings.

Through the data he had received from Faolan, he identified these people as crown-prince Alessandro Quintana from Ibera. His sisters Valentina and Emilia Quintana, Ma.s.simo Dias, Hugo's eldest brother, and crown-prince their respective kingdom, also joined in. In the end, it didn't bother Bazuul too much though. After all, he had slandered the Iberian royal family and heavily beaten the diasian crown-prince's youngest brother. How could they not hold a grudge?

Of course, Bazuul would be happy to oblige and supply them with enough damage to leave a fist-like imprint in their souls.

On the other side of the lobby, Jian Zheng seemed to be troubled by similar circ.u.mstances. From what Bazuul could discern the royal family of Shasta had been keeping a distance to Jian. Going so far as to not even bothering to look at him, which gave them the feeling of being arrogantly aloof. As if indicating that the Vermillion Sword Sect was merely a servant and not worthy of their further attention.

Bazuul could only sigh inside. In history, this had not really been a rare occasion. Factions that rise equal or even above the power of the sovereign would often be the target of sanctions and oppression. Of course, it was often also this failure to navigate the rising talent of their region, which would lead to the demise of the royal lineage. Even if the faction were loyal, at one point, in order to survive, it would be essentially forced to rebel.

A few minutes later the contestant from Lumin also arrive. Arkenon immediately led his siblings to the crown-prince of Donar, Eirik Donarim.

"Brother Eirik, it has been a while," Arkenon said with a smile on his face. "These are my siblings, Hylion, Idriel, and my younger sister Elanar." he continued, putting emphasis on presenting Elanar to him.

Eirik nodded at the two younger siblings before looking at Elanar, revealing a slight glint in his eyes. "I have heard legends of junior sister's charm, but one has to see to believe it seems."

"Your flatter is undeserved, junior sister Elanar greets the crown-prince," Elanar responded normally, but a slight frown began forming on her forehead. She had thought Arkenon would drop this matter after the last three days of heated discussions back at their emba.s.sy. Alas, it seemed not to be the case. Miffed she took a look around, in search of a certain someone.

Meanwhile, Eirik started talking to her again, but after she found the person she was looking for she excused herself and walked away. Hylion and Idriel followed soon after and all three took a seat at the ralunians faction table.

Eirik's mouth stopped in its tracks in the midst of talking, he himself, was unable to react in a timely manner to the departure of the woman he fancied. Following her steps merely with his eyes until she reached the table of some foreign faction. Of course, he was already aware as to who they were. He had already sent people after that factions fourth prince two times, but the shadow of the blade had returned with unpleasant results each time. Thus he decided to take matters into his own hands and crush this little pest once and for all.

Seeing that someone from the table even gave up his seat so she could sit beside him, and the way they interacted soured his mood entirely. He cast Arkenon a grim look and scoffed, while the latter could only smile wryly.

A quarter of an hour had pa.s.sed since then and suddenly grand elder Efyr appeared with three youngsters, two boys, and one girl. "Greetings young heroes, the three youngsters behind me are Horlet Richat and Nazela Amenti from the Directorate and William Sinclair from the Circle. All three will also compete in the royal tournament." The grand elder said in an imposing manner.

"Greetings, grand elder!" The voices of the contestants resounded in the lobby.

Some in the lobby were visible shocked to find out that there were other contestants they knew nothing about. Mainly the commoners that made it from the hidden dragon trial all the way to the royal tournament. The others from royal families didn't seem shocked but more so curious about the newcomers. Many males, were fixated on the girl that came with them. Grand elder Efyr introduced her as Nazela Amenti. Some had lost so much control that they almost started drooling while their eyes traveled around her body.

Bazuul also fixated his gaze toward their direction, while mumbling their names until his lips arched into a smile.

Elanar noticed his gaze and pinched him.

Bazuul, therefore, looked her deeply in the eyes for a while. After a couple more breaths, he found that she didn't pinch him because she was jealous. No, her eyes told him to behave. Which he somehow found extremely cute.

At this time, both of them were not aware of the show they were putting on with their odd behavior. At least those at their table were to some point aware of the friends.h.i.+p between the two. Still, even some of them found it weird that they would gaze at each other for so long. Especially so close that they should be able to feel the other's breath.

Bazuul got slightly closer to her and whispered in her ear, "If you happen to come across one of them from the Directorate, beware of their magic. Most likely they'll use magic, unlike anything we know of in the Seven Kingdoms."

At this, Elanar shot him a curious look before she carefully examined the two people he mentioned.