Chapter 2114: Much To Watch

The battle of the Independent Immortal had finally come to its peak, with both fighters exhausted and battered, barely able to hold on as the crowd cheered for them.

There had been a huge amount of betting on the fight once it started, and by Cara’s thoughts in Karl’s mind, no matter who won, they had made significant money off that match. In fact, they were making money off all the longer fights, as the odds got worse the longer the fight went on, and the winner became more likely.

The betting income was still nothing to what the food and drink vendors were making, though. Everyone was stocking up when the vendors came past their section of the bleachers, just in case there was something good happening the next time that the vendor came by.

There were so many insane fights going on at the same time that they were having a hard time just deciding what to watch.

Most of the crowd preferred to either watch the Peak Immortal category, as they were the strongest fighters, or the ones closest to their own power level. It was just a matter of if they wanted to try to glean some knowledge from the fights, or see where they might be lacking compared to their peers.

If they were strong combatants, they would have entered for the elimination round themselves, so it wasn’t like they were going to be using this knowledge as soon as the ones watching on the ground level were.

That was why Elders were reluctant to join tournaments, after all.

It was just that the situation had changed, and with war on their doorstep, plus he promise of such large rewards, they were willing to show off a little more.

What the lower Immortals didn’t notice was just how much the more powerful Elders and Peak immortals were holding back during the matches. They were all giving it about seventy percent, or less.

It was enough to look impressive, but not enough to actually tax their abilities, and not enough to give away their secrets in advance.

Some had even gone as far as to use an alternate fighting style that looked too unnatural to be their primary fighting technique.

It was more of a show of power, saying that they could handle their opponent with a secondary skillset, and less of an actual maximum output combat trial. That made it much more entertaining to those who could see what was going on, without losing anything for those who could not tell.

Through it all, Rae sat in the top row in spider form, using all of her eyes to glean data about the different fighting styles.

This was incredibly valuable information.

For one, because it was combat data from a hundred different styles. But more importantly, it gave her data on the preferred combat uniforms and armour styles from all over the region. There were many styles of armour here that she had not seen before, and some worked better than others.

It was evident that many had simply been purchased for the bonuses, as they hindered movement, or didn’t fit the user’s style.

But others were brilliantly matched.

There really wasn’t anything about a tournament that wasn’t pleasing to her.

Even Hawk was a fan of this event, though that could have something to do with the number of combatants who had been inspired to try blowing up their opponents with a massive explosion once they were too exhausted to be likely to block it.

However, Hawk was happy to watch from his space for now, while most of the other beasts watched from within the arena.

The only ones not watching were Skadi and Leo, because they had an evening outing with their classmates today.

The teacher was taking the class on a tour of the Skill Library, so they could learn what it took to maintain the Clan’s knowledge. Leo knew the basics, you had to keep them dry and clean. But Skadi was immensely interested in the library.

Not because of the knowledge, though that was good, too. But because she wanted to see how the Librarian kept everything organized and tidy when there were so many people coming through his space.

That was a never ending battle for her.

People just kept leaving things in random spots, and she had to put them back, and then the Haint Trees would move around and swap their identification tokens again, so she had to ask them all their names, so she could record their growth data.

Very inconsiderate, when they knew that she sensed the Haint Forest as one large living entity, not as individual trees.

She wasn’t wrong, they were one entity. But each tree trunk had its own identity, and they simply resonated with each other when they were close. They could share life force, so you couldn’t kill one Haint in a forest without damaging them all.

It made them highly durable, but difficult to tell apart in a group, which was why she had marked them to begin with.

Min was accompanying them to the Library, as she wasn’t on shift until morning, and couldn’t resist the cuteness factor. The little Tortollan form of Leo, with his turtle shell torso and stumpy legs, matched with the pale and slender form of Skadi, whose delicate antlers and large eyes combined to make her look perpetually innocent and startled, were too much for a green dragon to resist, especially when they invited her.

So, they were holding both of her hands as they followed the class, and the dragon was narrating the parts of the city that the teacher didn’t deem important enough to mention on their way.

Little things like the types of flowers, the drinking water fountains, the best spots for a comfortable nap.

Then, they got to the Library, where the Elder gave her a stern glare, and Min held up the hands of her two small charges.

"I’m helping guide the class today, I won’t cause any troubles in the Library," she promised.

The Elder nodded, but still sent six of his assistants to guide and monitor the children as they moved through the space. That way, he could focus on the tour itself, not protecting the knowledge in the room.