Slowly the people who were training in the rings stopped their fight and the spectators also moved aside. From the crowd, some people came out forward each carrying the same black card that was given to Mako and Bill.
Mako and Bill also quickly joined them and slowly a small group started to form near the old man who patiently stood still with his hands behind his back, waiting for everyone to join the group.
After some time, all of them joined the group and the old man proceeded to explain the rules to all of them.
The old man or the butler went into great detail regarding each rule, but the summary of it all was that at the beginning 128 people in total will participate in the tournament. The tournament will be divided into 5 rounds and with each round, the strength of the group will have been reduced by half.
The first three rounds will be done in a 2v2 format, in which participants could team up with whoever they wished for the first three rounds and fight in teams. This was done to reduce the numbers quickly so that participants with weak powers or those who are not team players could be removed first.
After the first three rounds, the top 16 will be put in a bracket where they will have to face a random opponent for the remaining two rounds and the last four standing will be the winners of the tournament. There was not going to be a single winner but rather four of them which made sense since this was a type of gang initiation, where they would be looking to add more strong people to their gang rather than just one strongest.
The use of any kind of pills was prohibited except for healing pills which could be used between rounds. Power weapons and armor were allowed to be used but only up to the high tier. Killing opponents was not allowed as the most that can be down is breaking a bone or striking a non-vital area, with the main objective being to either throw opponents out of the ring or knock them out.
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With the rules in place, the butler proceeded to leave whilst the participants started forming pairs for the 2v2 fights. Bill and Mako were extremely lucky as they couldn't have this tournament go by any smother. With both of them working together, it was safe to say that they were at their strongest.
A couple of people recognized Mako as Blaze since he was wearing the same outfit as before, and decided to approach him with the intention of befriending him so that he could be their fighting partner, but they were all left disappointed when Mako rejected their offer in a heartbeat.
This left them a bit salty which was exactly what Mako wanted. The more a person showed emotion during a fight, the more likely it is for them to make a mistake, and he will get free EXP in return.
The pairs were quickly made and then the groups were picked at random by the butler who picked numbers from a hat, and each number corresponded to a team. Mako and Bill's team was number 9 and during the first draw, they didn't get picked for a match since only 4 matches could be done at a time, so they had to wait their turn.
This was honestly better for them since it would give them the to analyze their opponent's abilities, strengths, weaknesses, fighting styles, etc. 8 teams made their way to the fighting rings, and the first phase of the first round began.
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During the first phase, no one used any big abilities or moves and resorted to only using a single elemental ability to not give away too much about their skill set. People with only a single ability and weak moves were easily eliminated as the matches ended fairly quickly with only a couple being drawn out where both sides had strong individuals.
During these kinds of matches, people were able to witness true strength as multiple abilities were being used one by one and terrifying skills were thrown at each other in order to secure their place in the next round.
There was no form of protection for the viewers as they had to defend themselves against rogue abilities and because of that, there were significantly fewer spectators watching the tournament compared to the crowd that was spectating the training fights when Mako and Bill first arrived.
Even now the fighters were fighting conservatively; not wanting to spend too much energy so that they are in decent condition for the next match. In between matches, the fighters were only allowed a break of 15 minutes, and so even though they were facing difficult opponents in the first round, they couldn't go all out with the fear that they might face even stronger opponents in the second round and if they haven't recovered enough energy by then, it would be a very humiliating defeat.
This was the reason that mostly weak but also a few decent fighters started to drop out of the tournament.
During the third phase of the first round, finally team 9 was called for a fight against team 21 by the butler, and Mako and Bill quickly made their way over to one of the rings where they met their first opponents.
They were both decent-looking men with dark long hair and the same clothes. They looked so alike that if it wasn't for their facial features being different, it would be very hard for anyone to tell them apart.
Using Analyze on them, Mako confirmed that they were both in fact twin brothers, and they both used the same set of abilities. Their name was Adin Smith and Ethan Smith and they both used Water and Lightning ability, and even their skill set was exactly the same. It was like going up against two clones which was a very unique experience.
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The butler signaled the fight to begin and the two brothers instantly rushed toward Mako. Wind, Fire, Earth, and Lightning are either easily accessible to the user or can be created from within the user's body, but the Water ability has its limitations as the user always has to be close to a water source in order to use their ability. For this reason, there were four tubs filled with water around each ring so that if the fighter requires water to fight, it is available for them.
The twins had used the water from the tubs to create rings of water around their arms, and now spinning those rings at high speeds so that they had a very sharp edge. They targeted Mako because of the fact that he looked weak compared to Bill who had a bit of muscle on him, and they were aiming to knock the weaker one out first.
They threw the water rings toward Mako and as they left their hands, they quickly switched their ability to Lightning and shot mini lightning bolts in their rings so that they would carry electricity in them as well.
It was a deadly attack and could easily decide the match in one strike, but Mako and Bill didn't come here to lose.
Mako stood still in place, not even attempting to dodge the water wheel blades that were coming toward him, as Bill moved in front of him and raised a giant wall of earth to block all the attacks. The water wheel blades struck the earth, knocking some chunks off it, but weren't able to make it through to the other side, while the electricity within the blades got absorbed into the ground.
Mako quickly moved to the side and when he was on the other side of the wall a puddle had formed from all the water that was shot toward them. Mako activated his Fire ability and torched the entire puddle which started steaming in a couple of seconds.
After a couple of seconds more, the entire puddle had evaporated, and now the Smith brothers had lost half of their water supply with their failed attack. They looked with shock and worry as a smirk appeared on Mako's face which was hidden under the mask he was wearing.
Snakes of fire started enveloping both his arms while Bill jumped right next to him and conjured an earth club in his hand.
"Water and Lightning Vs Earth and Fire! What an unlucky combo to go against!" Mako said while grinning underneath his mask.
The twins gulped down as they couldn't believe their strongest move got countered so easily. It was indeed unlucky that they had to against a Fire and Earth user because of the fact that his Fire was exactly opposite to their Water ability since both abilities opposed each other greatly. While their second ability was rendered useless since Earth was a direct counter to Lightning.
Each of the five basic elemental abilities had its weakness and strength as it could easily counter one ability but get countered by another. A good example of this is that Fire and Water counter each other, but Wind and Fire go great together since Wind amplifies the strength of the flames, while Water and Lightning go great together since Water provides a pathway for Lightning so that it never misses.
With half of their water supply evaporated by Mako and their Lightning rendered useless, the twin didn't last long as Mako knocked out Ethan by spamming the least energy-consuming ability which was fireball while Adin was knocked out with nose and teeth broken by Bill's club. After the initial move by the twins, they didn't last two minutes against Mako and Bill and the two boys would proceed to the second round of the tournament.
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