Chapitre 23: Chapter 23 - The Royal Envoy
As soon as his knees hit the floor, Jovan felt the cold and sharp edges of Lucien's daggers pressed against his neck.
"Concede..." Lucien spoke coldly as he put more strength on his daggers, causing Jovan's neck to start bleeding.
All the pets in the arena had stopped their battles and stared at the two humans. Jovan's companions had stopped as they were worried that any movement would cause their master to be hurt, and Lucien's pet stopped as he had commanded them telepathically.
"Sigh… Do I even have another choice?" Jovan bit his lips in frustration. Being dominated by such a young person with so many people watching made him feel ashamed. "I concede!" He closed his eyes as he shouted.
All the spectators who watched the battle were left speechless. They had all expected another spectacle, but surprisingly, the fight ended as fast as it had started. Edward's reaction was no different. He already expected Lucien to win, but not so convincingly.
"Saurus, I must say... Your son is quite talented," Carl said as he let out a sigh. Of all the participants of the nature guild left in the tournament, Jovan was one of the strongest, so he losing this way was quite a blow to him.
Saurus let out a smile as he heard the compliments to his son. "Of course he is. I trained him myself, after all."
Carl grinned as he saw the happy smile on Saurus' face. It was an unusual scene, as he generally was quite stoic and taciturn. But when the matter was related to his children, he always became a proud and talkative father, boasting about their achievements and skills.
As Lucien sheathed his daggers, he extended a hand to Jovan and helped him up. "Good fight," his face was still as serious as ever.
Jovan accepted the gesture, but he couldn't help sneering at Lucien's words. "Good fight? Just for you, I guess…" He wiped the blood on his neck and felt admiration for the man's skill.
"You just had a bad matchup. I'm sure you won't have any problem qualifying for the next round." Lucien shrugged and retrieved all his pets to his spiritual space before departing from the arena.
Jovan's eyes flashed with curiosity as he watched Lucien walk away. He wondered what monster he had as his fourth pet, but he was sure it must be a powerful and rare creature, given that Lucien chose to hide it even in the third round.
Edward continued to watch the battles, and soon it was finally time for Ophelia's second battle. Despite being quite hurt, she walked up to the stage with a new spear in hand, using it as a crutch.
Her opponent emerged from the opposite side - a tall, muscular man from the Earth Guild with a sword strapped to his back. He exuded a confident aura and a smirk on his face as he saw Ophelia's condition.
"Before defeating you, I should give you my thanks," the muscular man laughed loudly as he mocked Ophelia. "Without you, I wouldn't be able to advance to the next round."
Ophelia ignored his taunts and summoned all her pets. "Let's begin…" Her eyes were filled with confidence and trust as she gazed at her pets. "I'm counting on you guys."
The muscular man's face grew cold as he saw Ophelia's monsters. Even if he was confident in winning this fight, he knew it wouldn't be a free win. "Don't blame me for being rough then." He summoned all his four pets and brandished his sword.
On the Guild Leader's stand, Ava's face was completely overtaken with worry. She had advised Ophelia to forfeit the rest of the battles, but unfortunately, Ophelia didn't even consider this.
"Worried about your friend?" Ethan noticed Ava's unease and decided to tease the young leader.
"I trust her," Ava replied firmly, her gaze never leaving the arena.
"Oh? That's good to know…" Ethan felt a little angry that the girl didn't fall for his provocation, so he decided to up the ante a bit. "That man she is facing is very infamous, you know? He isn't very strong if you compare him with the other members of the Earth Guild, but what he lacks in ability, he has in savagery."
"Oh? So a perfect fit for your guild, right?" Ava answered back. This time, the worry on her face was completely gone, and a confident smile had taken its place.
Ethan felt dumbfounded by Ava's sudden mood change and returned his attention to the arena, only to be left speechless by what he was seeing.
Ophelia's Storm Drake was flying around the stage, carrying one of her opponent's pets in its claw. The scene shocked Ethan to the core. After all, he expected his underling to dominate this battle.
"That dumbass! What is he even doing?" Ethan was fuming. He had given the man one of the few Diamond Horned Rhinos that the guild could evolve each year, but even so, he was still at a disadvantage.
All the Guild Leaders looked at the scene with smiles on their faces, as anything that made Ethan mad was like candy to them.
"Maybe his savagery is affecting his brain?" Ava couldn't help but mock Ethan, throwing his own words back at him. "Don't tell me that the rest of the Earth guild is as dumb as that guy?"
"Do you seriously think that you are in a place to talk about the quality of the tamers of our guild?" Ethan flared up in rage and smacked his fists into the handles of his chair. "We are the strongest guild that this city ever had! What about you? Can you even be considered a Guild Leader any longer? Your subordinates don't even follow you anymore!"
Ethan's enraged babbling caused all the leaders to look at him with uncomfortable eyes. They were all at the apex of power of Amberhold and, as such, had to act accordingly.
"Ethan, behave…" Carl, as one of the only leaders who could stand up to Ethan, was the first to speak. "Is this the behavior of a Guild leader?"
Ethan gritted his teeth, his eyes darting around the room as he felt all eyes on him. He was angry and embarrassed, feeling like they were all waiting for a moment of weakness to strike. "Why would I care about what you think, Carl?" Ethan's voice grew once more, but this time he was yelling nonstop. "The Earth Guild are the overlords of this city! Do you seriously expect me to accept the words of a failed guild leader laying down?"
Just as Ethan finished rambling, another wave of cheers sprang up, causing him to turn around only to be surprised once again.
The monster that was previously caught in the Storm Drake's claws was now lying limply in a pool of blood, and astonishingly, the Diamond-horned Rhino was now being pushed back. Its body was riddled with wounds as the Mountaineer Herculean Beetle and the Storm Drake constantly attacked.
Ethan's face reddened even more as he watched the battle, the incompetence of the muscular man being too much for him to bear. "Go on and enjoy this victory, but this won't change anything!" He clenched his fists and spat on the ground. "What is a defeat to us? We have nine guild members in the top twenty-five."
When Ethan finally ended his rambling, the room fell into a tense silence. The sound of the door opening caused all the guild leaders, who appeared uncomfortable and nervous, to turn their heads in its direction.
"Good god, you guys are so loud," Tate, the leader of the Mystic guild, walked in with a sarcastic grin. He looked around the room, stopping momentarily as he locked eyes with Ethan. "The King's Envoy wants to talk with us."
It was only now that the guild leaders noticed the two men accompanying Tate. They all instantly straightened their posture and became serious. All the guild leaders were quite curious about what he wanted to talk about, as the man had arrived the day the tournament had started but only showed himself twice during this period.
Tate quickly arranged a chair and placed it in front of all the Guild Leaders' seats, but the Envoy refused and just walked to the rails of the grandstand. He looked at the battles with pensive eyes. "The king has sent an urgent message asking all the Royal Envoys to return to the capital."
All the leaders were shocked as they heard his words. To become a Royal Envoy, a person needed to be considered one of the one hundred most powerful tamers in the whole country, so anything that involved them was a serious matter.
"Excuse me, sir, but can you tell us what happened?" Carl couldn't help but ask, his face full of curiosity about what caused the sudden calling.
"I'm still not sure, but it's likely that it involves the monsters at the north frontier." The envoy sighed as he turned and looked at the leaders. "The King also asked me to bring half of the manpower from the guilds with me."
Once again, the envoy's words shocked everyone, but this time they didn't have any curiosity on their faces. It was clear that something big was about to happen.
"What about the tournament? Will you cancel it?" Saurus took a deep breath as he gazed at Lucien with worry.
"We have two choices. We can finish the tournament this week, or we can postpone it until this matter is resolved," the envoy paused for a moment, then continued. "The decision is yours to make."
L’AVIS DES CRÉATEURS 
WrightWater
WrightWater Sorry for the lack of updates the past few days, I got a contract, and I'm trying to revise the plot of the next chapters, so I ended up changing a few things of the plot for the next arc, so I had to rewrite a few chapters in the past few days.
The two chapters every day schedule will come back today, and I will release some extra chapters every week to pay back the missing ones
As always thanks for reading my novel, and if you like what you read so far please comment and rate my novel!
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