บท 48: Chapter 48: Tournament, Stopped!

*Bam!* *Smash!*

As the skeleton smashed my barrier, I kept repairing it as fast as it can break. Its strength is WAY above mine, and if I get hit by any of its fists, I might die!

As I kept shielding myself from it, I felt the presence of multiple high mana signatures rushing towards my location.

Soon, someone threw a spear at the skeleton, almost smashing its skull, and the thing was flung to the skies where I saw a few people leap to destroy it.

As I sat inside the walls, I saw an old man, wearing simple clothing, right in front of me.

He smiled, and said to me, "You must've been scared from that, huh? Don't worry, the elders are going to take care of it! So, just be strong and let us adults deal with the creature," Then he looked up to see how the fight was going, and muttered, "But how did an undead get in our sect? It should be next to impossible!"

This is also a question I've been asking myself; how did an undead get into the sect without anyone noticing? How could it participate in a tournament surrounded by elders?

But, most of all, who was the one that summoned the undead?

As I was thinking, tutorial bot said: [You got it all wrong, Auguste. The undead was not summoned by anybody, it was possessed by another soul. The soul probably killed the body and destroyed the previous soul, so that evidence leading to them would not show up. Earlier, when you burned the body, the soul left. The real body of that soul probably felt the pain of being burned alive, and they were afraid to be hurt any further. And since that person has already corroded the body with a necromancy spell, it became a fire-resistant undead that grows in power every time someone uses fire on it. Hide inside your barrier, for now, it is not safe to be outside. It was obvious that they were targeting you, so don't give them any chance to kill you!]

I nodded, breathing out relief as I could see that the elders can take care of that skeleton.

I turned my attention to the old man in front of me, and said, "Who are you?"

He turned around to me, smiling a bit, and replied, "I am Maximus Imperium, the previous grand elder of the sect. You have my gratitude for being friends with my granddaughter."

Ah, so that's why that last name sounded so familiar. Turns out, this old guy is Scarlet's grandfather, meaning she is practically royalty in the sect. Still, though, I wonder why no one knows much about her. She seems to be the type that likes attention, at least to me.

I then asked, "Where are the rest of my teammates? Did the teammates of that skeleton also turn into skeletons?" I couldn't see them, so I had to ask.

"The three teammates are not undead, I assure you. And your teammates, especially my granddaughter, are safe inside the private lounge of the elders and patriarch. So don't worry about anything." He said, assuring me.

I nodded, and just sat back.

But then, I saw the 3 elders and the skeleton land on the stage. The moment I saw one of them wielding fire magic, I immediately got up and yelled to warn them, "Don't use fire magic! It'll only strengthen it!!"

When they heard me, their faces grew even more serious.

It seems like they've heavily used fire magic on it…

'Tutorial bot, how strong is that skeleton now!?' I frantically asked in my thoughts.

[Don't worry, its strength hasn't increased that much. Around 3 times at most, but they can take care of that as long as they don't use fire magic any longer]

Maximus muttered, "A fire-resistant undead that can grow stronger with fire…? How? He should've died back then!"

I was curious as to who the person he is talking about, and asked, "Who are you talking about, grand elder?"

He turned to look at me, and said, "An ancient terror that once filled the land that only the ancient fear could match. A necromancer that had achieved the strongest necromancy. But he is supposed to be dead, totally gone from existence!"

An ancient terror? Think, think! Where have I read that before?

After some thinking, I finally got my answer.

The ancient terror was the one who pushed all of the 4 continents to band against him, even the sea emperor joined in!

The sea emperor is the current ruler of the entire sea and had ordered its minions, sea creatures living in the waters, to be hostile towards the continents for the atrocities they've committed. It was rumored that one human supremacist killed the child of the sea emperor, and the emperor then decided to never let a single being from the land travel through the waters ever again. That's why it is so dangerous in the ocean.

The ancient terror is one of the strongest beings in the entire world. Even the public knows about him. It was the only chance in history that everyone gathered and teamed up to battle the ancient terror because they knew that he had the power to destroy the world at the time!

I don't know his reasons for trying to destroy the world, but the great terror is still powerful nonetheless.

But is it true that the one who made this skeleton is also the great terror? It seems a bit far-fetched because the great terror had died 4000 years ago, but I guess necromancers can obtain eternal life.

Most necromancers don't care about their appearance, so they'll take every chance to get eternal life, even if it means their body has to decay after some years,

I stared at the skeleton, fighting the 3 elders equally, and thought, 'I gotta help them! But how!?'

[Auguste, don't think of doing anything reckless! The sect elders can take care of the skeleton, so just sit and stay still!]

I ignored him and tried figuring out a way to help them without getting close to the skeleton, and I immediately thought of the other elements I wielded. Thankfully, I still have enough mana to injure the skeleton badly.

I went out of the hole, surprising the grand elder, and brought my hands together.

I looked around for a moment and saw that there were no disciples left in the stadium. So, with little hesitations, I made numerous giant ice spikes to surround the stadium!

"Take cover!" I yelled, and launched all of the ice spikes to the skeleton!

And then lightning coursed through the earth, along with wind blades chasing the skeleton badly. And then a huge amount of water shot from my mouth to the skeleton, and the skeleton blocked it but it was drenched by the water; fulfilling my goal.

The elders put up barriers around them to protect themselves from my attacks, in case they miss and hit them.

The ice spikes shot towards the skeleton with the speed of sound, and hit it, freezing it.

"Now! Its bones are brittle!" I yelled to the elders.

Then the wind blades sliced off its legs, and the lightning coursing through the ground electrocuted it!

With it so weakened, the three elders took advantage and attacked it with their own different martial arts; killing it soon after.

I noticed that I used a tenth of my mana from casting those spells but I was okay.

I was panting, staring at the skeleton if it will move soon or not. But after a few seconds, it didn't stand up anymore.

A sigh of relief came out of my mouth as I said, "Finally! That stressed me out so much!"

Maximus just stood there, a bit dumbfounded, as he said, "How could you use so many elements?"

I looked at the old man, and replied, "Don't ask about the useless stuff. If I asked about the useless stuff, I would've asked why you didn't join the fight earlier to end it quicker."

A tick mark formed on the previous grand elder's forehead, and said, "For a brat, you have quite the sharp tongue! And I didn't join the fight because I knew that the elders could take care of it on their own!"

"I don't care; I just want to rest for today. Would the tournament continue tomorrow?" I asked.

He shook his head, frowning, and replied, "No, I'm afraid not. You'll have to wait for a month for the continuation of the tournament."

Well, that is understandable considering that an undead managed to sneak into the sect and almost managed to kill a disciple. This is a real slap to their face because their reputation with the other sects would go down the drain due to this incident.

I put my hands behind my head as I asked Maximus, "Can I leave now?"

But instead of him answering, another elder answered, "No, you cannot. You are an important witness and the victim of the skeleton, so we'll have to take you in our custody for now."

The elder who said that looked young and had bright red hair and emerald green eyes. He wore the sect's robe for the elders. A black robe with golden outlines and carvings all over. He had wounds from the fight earlier but he was okay.

The other two elders behind him were women.

One having green jade-like hair and purple eyes, while the other had the same bright red hair as the man and emerald green eyes. All two of them were beauties but I'm really not into older women.

I know that the green-haired woman is probably the sixth elder, and the red-haired woman is probably the 7th elder. The red-haired man is the 9th elder.

With nonchalance in my eyes, I said, "And why is that so, ninth-elder?"