Chapter 57: The Bracket

Chapter 57: Chapter 57: The Bracket

The roar of fifty thousand people vibrating through the concrete walls of the holding room was deafening.

The Genesis City Arena was a massive, open-air coliseum built for one thing: spectacle. Today was the opening day of the annual Guild Tournament, and thanks to the wager made at the press conference, the stakes had never been higher. Every seat was sold out. Scalpers were making a fortune outside the gates.

Donald sat on a metal bench in the holding room, casually adjusting the straps of his Thunderclap Pile Bunker beneath his dark jacket. He wore his gold mask, looking entirely relaxed.

Evelyn was pacing. Not out of nervousness, but out of sheer, pent-up energy. The S-Rank mana humming in her chest made her restless. She was wearing her bespoke urban combat gear, looking sharp, fast, and lethal.

"Stop pacing, you’re making me dizzy," Donald said, leaning back against the concrete wall.

"I can’t help it," Evelyn muttered, stopping to stretch her shoulders. "I feel like I drank a gallon of liquid adrenaline. Who did we draw for the first round?"

Donald pulled out his burner phone, glancing at the digital tournament bracket the Awakener Association had just updated.

"The format is Duo-Battle for the preliminaries," Donald read. "Fighter and Support. We drew the Copperhead Twins. A-Rank mercenaries. One is a Heavy Shieldbearer, the other is a Fire Mage. They’re highly favored by the betting pools to make it to the semi-finals."

"A-Rank," Evelyn said, testing the word on her tongue. A few days ago, fighting two A-Ranks at once would have been a desperate, bloody struggle for survival. Now, the thought barely registered as a warm-up.

The heavy iron door to the holding room buzzed loudly. An Association official in a striped referee shirt poked his head in.

"Vance. Investor" the referee called out, using Donald’s registered alias. "You’re up. Ring two."

"Did you really have to register investor as your alias?" Evelyn asked jokingly annoyed, but Donald just smirked.

They walked down the dimly lit concrete tunnel. The smell of excitement, sweat, and cheap stadium beer grew stronger with every step. At the end of the tunnel, bright sunlight poured in.

They stepped out onto the arena floor.

The crowd went completely insane. The noise hit them like a physical wall. Half the stadium, mostly the wealthy elites and Iron Guild loyalists, booed violently. The other half, the lower-sector crowds and independent mercenaries who hated Sterling’s monopoly, screamed in support.

Donald’s [Valuation Eye] scanned the massive stadium automatically. He ignored the thousands of low-level civilians and looked straight up to the Guild Master’s VIP box hanging over the arena.

Sterling was standing at the edge of the glass, glaring down at them. Kaelen was pacing nervously behind him. Damian stood motionless in the shadows.

"Look at Sterling," Evelyn noted softly, not looking up, but sensing the Guild Master’s heavy gaze. "He’s watching us like a hawk. He wants to see exactly how my new class works so he can plan a counter for Kaelen."

"Then we don’t show him anything," Donald replied, coming to a stop in the center of the dirt ring. He rolled his shoulders, getting into character. "I’m going to hang back. I’ll play the dedicated Support. You finish this as fast as possible without drawing your sword."

Evelyn looked at him, a slow, wicked smile spreading across her face. "No sword? Show-off."

Across the ring, the heavy gates opened. The Copperhead Twins walked out.

They were massive, heavily scarred men in matching rusted-iron armor. The Shieldbearer held a tower shield the size of a small car. The Fire Mage carried a thick wooden staff glowing with residual heat. They looked professional, dangerous, and incredibly arrogant.

"You should have stayed dead, Vance!" the Shieldbearer shouted across the dirt, slamming his heavy shield into the ground. "An S-Rank? Bullshit. You’re just a broken stray."

Evelyn didn’t respond. She just cracked her knuckles.

The Association referee floated into the center of the ring on a small hover-platform. He raised a glowing red flag.

"Sanctioned Duo-Battle rules apply!" the referee’s magically amplified voice boomed over the crowd. "Disabling your opponents or forcing a surrender results in a win. Lethal force is permitted but discouraged. Fighters... ready!"

Donald took a deliberate step backward, placing himself directly behind Evelyn. He reached out and rested his right hand gently on her shoulder.

"Make it look good," Donald whispered.

He didn’t inject ten million credits this time. He just tapped into their bond, activating [Dual-Cultivation Synergy]. He kept the output incredibly low, just enough to generate a bright, visible pulse of golden light that flowed from his hand into her shoulder.

To the crowd, to the cameras, and to Sterling up in the VIP box, it looked like a classic, high-tier Support buff. It completely sold the illusion. Donald was just the battery; Evelyn was the weapon.

The referee dropped the flag. "Begin!"

The Fire Mage didn’t hesitate. He slammed his staff into the dirt. " [Hellfire Barrage]! "

A massive wave of roaring crimson flames erupted from the ground, tearing across the ring straight for Evelyn and Donald. The heat was intense enough to melt the sand beneath it into glass.

Donald didn’t flinch. He kept his hand on Evelyn’s shoulder.

Evelyn simply took a step forward.

She didn’t use an active skill. She didn’t summon her ethereal wings. She just pulled her right arm back and threw a single, empty-handed punch into the empty air in front of her.

The S-Rank kinetic density of her muscles activated. Her new passive, [Divine Pulse], instantly converted the sheer physical force of the punch into holy energy.

BOOM.

The air pressure shattered. A localized vacuum of pure, sapphire-and-gold holy force blasted outward. It hit the incoming wave of hellfire and completely extinguished it in a microsecond, snuffing out the A-Rank spell like a birthday candle.

The shockwave didn’t stop. It tore across the dirt ring and slammed into the Heavy Shieldbearer.

The mercenary braced his massive iron tower shield, leaning his entire weight into it.

It didn’t matter.

The holy kinetic force hit the shield. The enchanted iron instantly warped, buckled, and exploded into shrapnel. The Shieldbearer was lifted entirely off his feet, thrown fifty yards backward through the air, and slammed into the reinforced concrete wall of the arena. He slumped to the ground, out cold.

The Fire Mage stood completely frozen. His spell was gone. His brother was unconscious. And Evelyn Vance hadn’t even drawn a weapon.

Evelyn casually dusted off her hands. She looked at the terrified Mage.

"Do you want to surrender?" Evelyn asked politely. "Or do you want me to actually hit you?"

The Mage dropped his staff. He fell to his knees and threw both hands in the air.

"We yield!" he screamed, his voice cracking with panic.

The arena was completely, entirely silent. Fifty thousand people stared down at the dirt ring in absolute shock. The match had lasted exactly seven seconds.

The referee on the hover-platform blinked, slowly raising a glowing green flag.

"W-Winner!" the referee stammered into his microphone. "Evelyn Vance and the Investor!"

The silence broke. The crowd erupted into pandemonium. It wasn’t cheers or boos; it was pure, unadulterated hysteria. They had just watched a woman shatter an A-Rank defense with the wind pressure of a single punch.

Donald dropped his hand from Evelyn’s shoulder, letting the fake golden buff fade away. He slipped his hands back into his jacket pockets.

"Not bad," Donald said quietly over the roaring crowd.

"I completely misjudged the output," Evelyn whispered back, staring at her own fist in mild shock. "I barely put any weight into that swing. S-Rank is ridiculous."

Donald looked up at the VIP box.

Sterling was no longer glaring. He was leaning heavily against the glass, his face completely pale. The Guild Master realized the horrifying truth. Evelyn wasn’t bluffing. She wasn’t relying on a relic. She was a walking calamity, and in two days, his Champion had to fight her.

Behind Sterling, Kaelen looked like he was going to be sick.

"Let’s go," Donald said, turning toward the exit tunnel. "Sterling has seen enough."

They walked out of the ring side-by-side, entirely unharmed. The illusion was perfect. Donald was viewed as a highly competent, squishy support holding the leash of a demigod.

As they stepped into the cool shadows of the concrete tunnel, Donald’s internal System chimed softly.

[Combat Encounter Concluded.]

[Opponents Defeated: 2x A-Rank Mercenaries.]

[Experience Awarded.]

Donald swiped the notification away. The low-level experience didn’t matter right now. What mattered was the psychological damage they had just inflicted on the Iron Guild.

They reached the holding room to grab their bags. Evelyn was practically vibrating with excitement.

"Did you see Kaelen’s face?" she laughed, slinging her duffel bag over her shoulder. "He looked like he wanted to dig a hole and hide in it. Sterling is going to have to drag him into the finals."

"Don’t get cocky," Donald warned, though he was smiling behind the mask. "Sterling didn’t build an empire by playing fair. He knows Kaelen can’t beat you in a straight fight. Which means he’s going to make sure the next fight isn’t straight."

Donald opened the heavy iron door leading out to the competitor’s lobby.

"A bunch of matches will play through then We have the semi-finals tomorrow," Donald said, his golden eyes scanning the busy hallway. "Expect a trap. Sterling will definitely try something before we even reach the finals."