Chapter 696: The final phase of the tournament begins

Matthew watched the carriage carrying Maverick and Lennon drive away, escorted by dozens of high-level guards, and nodded gently.

"You humans and traitor vampires are constantly bothering me, aren’t you? You love making my life miserable."

His eyes were calm like the night water of an impassive lake, but the fury inside him was greater than before. It was growing with every passing second.

It bothered him that these traitors were increasingly meddling in his territories and affairs.

"I will kill all of you. Not only to avenge the old debt, but to let you know who I am. I hope there are enough of you to vent my anger."

He sighed and returned to his chair. He still had one more day of the tournament tomorrow, so he couldn’t go out much for now.

After an hour, he went to sleep. He knew that the answers from the elders and the guard would not come so soon. Perhaps not until after the tournament, or it could be delayed, but in the hands of Maverick, a man who seemed quite loyal, he could rest easy and know that he would receive the answer sooner or later.

-

The next morning, the city was in chaos due to the previous events and the announcement of the start of martial law. Guards were on every corner, and it was common to see these powerful guards walking the streets, monitoring everything.

People were in shock, but thanks to this, businesses were able to operate normally, albeit with too much fear.

Not many businesses opened today, anyway. There was no loss to the city because everyone was focused on the Tournament, and most expenses were related to it.

From early on, the arena was beautifully decorated, though tension was palpable.

Rumors that someone had tried to assassinate the man who had been in first place in the previous two phases had already spread, so early in the morning, Juliet approached Matthew while he was still in the dressing rooms. There weren’t many people around, which was strange considering that Juliet always has a lot of men following her around.

"Are you okay?" she asked as soon as she saw him appear. "I heard the rumors and..."

"Don’t worry, nothing happened to me. Those guys didn’t even have a chance."

"This..." Juliet smiled, glad that nothing bad had happened to him and that he could still joke around, but she had been quite worried since she found out in the morning.

"You have to be careful, Matthew. I don’t know who hired assassins to try to kill you, but I asked my father to investigate the case thoroughly. I’ll let you know when I hear back."

Matthew smiled, but couldn’t speak, as someone else did so first.

"My daughter told me that she knows you and that you’re quite nice, besides liking to admire unique beauties. You’d like to see a stream under the sun, right?" Richard appeared behind Juliet.

"Dad!" Juliet turned to greet him.

Matthew shrugged. "Don’t you think it would be a nice view, sir?"

"Hahaha, the view would be beautiful, but the feeling surely wouldn’t be. I can’t even imagine how painful it must be to have your flesh scorched by the sun’s rays." Richard even shuddered, acting as if he could feel it.

"I have to agree with you on that. I wonder what it feels like."

Although Matthew agreed with him, it wasn’t for the same reason, and Richard realized this immediately. Richard naturally feared the sun; it was written in his blood. Matthew, on the other hand, was simply curious—genuinely curious.

’Although I’m just curious because I’ve never felt anything like it. Not before, not now. I guess that’s a good thing, right?’ Matthew scoffed at the fact that he was feeling a little sad about not being able to feel it, as if it were a bad thing to have been born into the best Clan this world has ever known.

"It’s a pleasure to meet someone so interesting, young Mr. Matthew. I have seen your fights and would like to delight in your wonderful fighting skills today. If fate so dictates, I hope you can face my little one. I want to see two geniuses in action."

"Let fate dictate, but I hope I don’t have to face her in the early rounds. It would be a shame to have to knock out such a good girl."

"Hahahaha." Richard laughed out loud at his words. "That’s the spirit. Then I hope to see some good fights today. Don’t worry about what happened. I’ve moved my men to work with the guards to ensure security."

After that, Richard patted Juliet on the back and left.

Juliet smiled at Matthew and raised her sheathed sword toward him. "If I have to fight you, know that I will show no mercy. I’m going to take you down, Matthew!"

Although her words sounded like a challenge, her tone of voice was soft and smiling, a slight contrast that revealed that, although she would fight him with all her strength, she hoped to remain his friend.

"Very well." Matthew tapped her sword with his own. "Then make sure you don’t fall to anyone."

Both entered the arena, and after one of the elders gave a talk reminding them of the rules, emphasizing that murder was strictly prohibited and would be severely punished, the tournament officially began.

Its final phase.

The first thing they did was have the 16 best-ranked players draw a piece of paper from a box placed in the middle.

The order didn’t matter, but only the top 16 could draw the piece of paper.

Each slip of paper had a name on it.

Afterwards, the other 16 went to draw another slip of paper, where the names of the first 16 drawn were no longer there, this time in the order in which the first 16 were drawn.

The papers drawn by the first 16 only dictated the first group of papers drawn, and with this, the two larger groups were divided. Group A and Group B.

It was the second group of slips of paper that were drawn, dictating who would fight whom.

In this circumstance, no one knew who their opponent would be until the second group of 16 people drew their slips of paper, so it was quite likely that you would not draw your opponent’s slip of paper, but someone else’s opponent’s.

This is done to ensure transparency in the selection of groups and to make the combat truly fair, chosen by fate.

Once this entire procedure was over, the first combats finally began.

Matthew’s first combat...

’Xael? Where have I heard that name before?’