Hero of Darkness

4 DAYS LATER

Kahn and the company traveled to Bermin district, the birthplace of the industrial revolution in the Rakos Empire.

This district was famous for many reformative research and revolutionary inventions of known methods, applications related to the daily life of the citizens of the empire.

In the past millennium, most of the industrial research and machinery development were invented, discovered and then spread greatly from this district alone.

Most of the transportation and machinery made by integrating magical cores, formations and engineering skills were developed in this part of the capital. Making it the most advanced place in the whole empire in terms of technological developments.

And thanks to the sweet capitalism, currently it was the 3rd richest district of the empire.

As for the battle arena hosting the next round of the Emperor's Chosen competition, it was to be hosted in one of the main cities of this district namely..

The Mankester city.

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When Kahn finally reached and got into the allocated section of the arena through one of the entrances for his next match, he was stunned and surprised to see the overall span of the entire battle arena.

The entire structure spanned 5 kilometers wide altogether.

This time, there were only 5 battle rings, each having a length of 500 meters while the remaining space was used to make sitting arrangements for the audience in 7 floors that encircled these battle rings, facilitating over one and half million people all at once.

And unlike the prior matches where more than 600 small battles happened and hundreds of projection screens covered them live, now there were only 5 of such screens, each one allotted to a designated battle ring.

This round was going to be a battle Royale match where over 100 people will be put together and only the remaining 50 will qualify for the next round.

Here, people can gang up with others to selectively target and throw others out. In other words.. If you want to qualify for the next rounds.. You had only two options.

One was to ally yourself with others and deliberately fight and force out the other participants by either incapacitating them like previous matches or simply forcing them out of the arena.

Second choice was to be strong enough to defend yourself till the point where only 50 candidates remained, which was easier said than done.

But just like the format of the matches, the system for betting also changed.

From here till the sixth round, the odds will be 50:50 by default for all the contestants for the first match. And they will change only for the 2nd match between the remaining 50 combatants.

So using this method, only the strongest ones will remain till the 2nd match. Means out of the 100 combatants, only 25 will proceed to the next rounds while the rest will have to go home.

From here on, there was no qualifiers system that gave a second chance to the defeated.

But to Kahn, he would make it up with the amount of money he was going to invest in his matches since the stakes were already high. And he was certain that soon, a master rank individual won't be a relevant term in the competition.

Because even the peak master rank fighters under the age of 30 would have a tough time staying in the competition given the sheer number of people put inside the same battle ring. Whatever happened before was just a prequel.

The real battle would start now.

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When Kahn entered his allotted ring with others, the announcers finally decided to speak and explain the rules of the battle for everyone.

"Ladies and gentlemen! I welcome you all for the beginning of the fourth round of the Emperor's Chosen competition!" declared the announcer through a magical artifact that worked like a loudspeaker and his voice echoed in the entire arena.

"In each of the battleground, there are 100 combatants each and all of them are strong individuals of the younger generation of our empire.

But from now on.. We will see who the truly strongest are. For this round shall reveal the true might of theirs and only those who are the best of the best shall succeed!" spoke the announcer in a grandiose manner, his voice sounding as majestic and pleasant as it could be.

After all the rules were explained and how the elimination process worked, the matches officially started in front of this massive crowd.

Most of the audience was excited because this format also meant pure entertainment as it'd give to stories of friendship, betrayal and strategies to take on multiple enemies at once.

It was going to be a metaphorical bloodbath in a way.

When Kahn's battle ring was signaled to begin fighting, everyone had a cautious expression on their eyes as they were randomly selected and had no prior information about their opponents.

And the most tensed up were the ones standing in the middle since they were the easiest targets for anyone to attack.

One wrong move and you could be wiped out by a collective attack or a powerful spell by an opponent if you were unlucky.

Hence, extreme caution was the priority for most of them as many tried to create distance between each other.

But at this moment, something unexpected happened that completely shook the audience who paid attention to this ring and the participants who stood inside it.

YAWN!!

A young swordsman donned in black and golden longcoat and fighting gear yawned loudly as if he was tired to death.

Kahn who was situated at the southern corner of the battle ring, yawned and laid his back against the hard surface of the floor while he used his right arm to cover his eyes and used the greatsword he was using as a pillow for his head.

He spoke in a sleepy tone as his words reached the ears of everyone in the battle ring and the ones watching the projections screens'¦

"You know what.. I'm just gonna sleep on this one.

Wake me up when all of this is over."