It’s a good thing Carmine woke up early and got me up. There was another wave of new recruits to the sect, and hall selection demanded all the Hall Leaders being present.
Sect Grand Elder Liseth stood before a sea of a few hundred brand new sect.
Other than the Thunder King, there was the female only Jade Fist, male only Adonis, my hall, the Golden Silk, and then an ever shifting group of lesser halls I didn’t always keep track of.
Promising new Core sect members were given the chance to form a hall, but most didn’t last and couldn’t compete against the 4 main halls. Thunder king got who they wanted and then the three sects behind them.
“You can be proud of passing the Sect entrance exam, but without a Hall, you’ll be unable to progress any further. Each hall can choose who to accept, then you will have to face their own Initiation. Each cadet, please demonstrate your strongest body arts.”
Cadets, almost universally, interpreted best as flashiest.
I let three cadets go by without raising my hand. They went to the junior halls. There was grumbling about how many cadets the hall took in and how few made it. So I didn’t choose anyone I thought had no shot.
There were 25 new members of the sect. Thunder King choose one. I offered 7 but only received 2 new outer sect members
The first of our hall’s new members was vaguely, possibly talented in Wind style martial arts. Her attacks were fast but weak. Weakness doesn’t qualify for Wind style. Extreme speed was to her credit though. Everyone agreed to send her to the Golden Silk hall.
The second was contested by Adonis also, which we won after I agreed with Thunder King to have the challenge fight today at their hall training grounds instead of a neutral site. The man seemed a reasonable long shot for the sect.
I spent a half hour dealing with the order for our upcoming match with the Thunder Kings. I chatted with Nathan and Eustice about the placements, and Carmina came in at the end.
Hall vs Hall competitions were ladder matches with 7 cultivators on each side.
Carmina conceded third position to Eustice, so it was myself first, of course, followed by Nathan, Eustice, Carmina, Eleanor, Cassidy,
I let Yuji, Shi and Min have a quick bout for the 7th spot, which Min won with some fast strikes while the two men were spars against each other.
"We need to let everyone know to get ready for the Trials tomorrow for our 2 new disciples," I said to Carmina and Nathan.
The Thunder King hall was decorated much more than my own hall or any others. Artwork depicting lighting, and a constant growling sound of thunder made the hall feel violent and electric.
The Battle hall there was vacated, as we arrived, and took our seats in the numbered Challenger seats.
There were only 25 members of the Thunder King hall. They only take on candidates already at the Inner Sect level so they didn't both dividing their members that way.
I used the 5 points I had earned from the training battle to push up my strength a bit more.
The Thunder King sect clapped in unison as the 7 cultivators they had picked entered the hall, and the remainder of the sect stayed back to watch.
Elders Yu and Cheng arrived to watch the bout.
Lightning form martial arts were very difficult to develop and improve in. Even for the Thunder King hall, only the top 4 of the sect had developed substantial abilities and forms in that area. The Hallmaster Ross Kreisel was a foreigner who traveled to join our sect, much like Nathan.
He brought the rare skill of lightning martial arts to our sect and personally taught the disciples in the hall. That was the main reason his Hall was most respected, and given the most resources. He brought something that our Sect would otherwise not have.
Other than Kreisel, it looked like they were pulling lower ranked Hall members for the bout. No one could defeat Kreisel so he was the backstop I guess.
The match would go up in strength from 7th seed up to 1st. Each seeded fighter would continue to fight until they were defeated.
I would be the backstop for our sect, the last fighter, as Kreisel was for theirs. Even if I had been able to beat Kreisel, if we lost fights early, I would have to fight opponents back to back.
The first match was Min vs. a Fist fighting style cultivator. Not actually the 7th best of the Thunder King sect, a lot of fighters were skipping out or giving their spots to their juniors. I trusted our top 4 to perform reasonably, but the rest would have a tough time matching up.
Thunder style martial arts were characterized by sudden overwhelming movements and strikes. Even though this Fist fighter didn't have actual Thunder powers, he was unpredictable and forceful.
There were three exchanges, but Min's foe wasn't phased by her rapid attacks, and he dodged her when she switched to the Sect's main forceful style. On the third strike she went down, and took a followed pair of fists to her face.
Cultivators at least heal from minor bruising fast, I thought to myself.
Cassidy and this Fist fighter had a longer bout, as Cassidy was one of the smartest fighters in our hall, as well as hitting with pretty good impact. She could be overrun or overwhelmed however, and though their 7th seed was quite tired, he managed to win a second bout.
There was only a few seconds break before Eleanor stepped up, and she was one of the most traditional fighters of my hall. Following the Sect's mighty style foundational attacks, she used fists, elbows, and throws.
She only needed to interrupt his flagging attack, throwing him to the ground and pinning him enough to get him to concede.
Eleanor had a good fight against the blazing fast 6th seed, winning again but she was exhausted, and quickly fell to the brutal fifth seed. Perhaps the strongest cultivator of Thunder King who didn't use the Thunder martial arts.
It was Carmina's chance to face a difficult opponent and grow in strength.
Carmina was strong, and also especially resilient and fearless receiving opponent attacks. She was not flashy, just Core sect material. It was a fight of strong versus strong.
Immediately the 5th seed Thunder cultivator took her to the ground and I worried about her being out fast, but Carmina managed to flip over after taking some brutal punches. Her opponent disengaged.
The match turned into a boxing battle as Carmina crashed her fists into the man's stomach, taking some brutal head shots. Both sides were being crushed by the fight.
The fight went to the ground again, and then up again. But she went down hard to a brutal and surprising kick from the 5th seed. She managed to get up after a few seconds and return to her seat.
It was down to third seed Eustice against their 5th. Eustice was unflappable, having a good balance of strength, speed and toughness. Although she did take a few punches, she countered the same brutal kick, flinging him away with a surprising and sudden strength. Her pursuit was fast, and he wasn't able to defend as he landed in a tumble.
They should have faced a Lightning Thaumaturgy in the 4th seed, but the Thunder Kings weren't bringing out their best. Instead it was a strong lightning style martial artist but without that full ability set.
Eustice had few weaknesses, but on an elite stage like this she didn't have enough strengths to win. She gave a reasonable account of herself, inflicting some pain on the 4th seed.
Now it was Nathan's turn. Unlike the rest of my hall, Nathan was actually offered a position in the Thunder King sect, but he was already an avid study of the Wind style sects. He didn't get accepted into any of them, so joining my hall was his next choice.
He was a real elite competitor. Matching the jagged speed of Lightning with the smooth speed of the Wind, he took only a few blows, countering and controlling the match.
Both of us were only in Early 1st stage for Wind Thaumaturgy. Elder Yu strongly encouraged me to continue developing my core strength and toughness before studying more magical training and focusing on Thaumaturgies. So I had only progressed slightly in these masteries.
The 3rd seed was the Thunder King's best hall member without a Thaumaturgy.
3rd seed was extremely fast. The Hall was known for pushing their members to move and attack quickly. Nathan now used his Headwinds thaumaturgy to push the 3rd seed back and get some space. It was also a good way to disorient an opponent.
Tailwinds was a more support focused tool, while Headwinds was a good defensive assist that could lead into exploiting a discombobulated opponent.
Nathan could only use his thaumaturgy three times before his spirit was exhausted. We had practiced together a fair bit and I knew a lot about his magical strength and my own. It was not our strong points.
But the three times he used it, twice he was able to exploit the 3rd seed and deal damage. Finally he managed to win, but he was exhausted.
I got ready to enter the fight as Ye Yan joined (the second seed). I had a long fighting history with Ye Yan. I had lost to the Thunder King's third best fighter several times. Being unable to at least make it to the Hall Master was infuriating.
I hadn't seen their second best cultivator in several bouts. Zu Shuren was terrifying as Kreisel's direct disciple, but the Hallmaster didn't think he was needed. I needed to build my strength, speed and magical ability before facing Zu Shuren.
But Ye Yan, I was ready to put an end to our bout. It was obvious from the memories that I did have that our hall members were disappointed that I had not already defeated him.
Nathan was a wreck when he was quickly defeated by Ye Yan, and I entered the stage. I had everyone's attention.
I didn't give Ye Yan a chance, immediately using tailwind to fly through the air towards him, fists first.
The sudden shocking which shook my muscles made it obvious he had responded with Lightning Surge. But this time I was able to shake off the condition and defend myself.
I tried a few core attacks, but Ye Yan zipped away, so I immediately moved into Wind style arts. I managed to halfway dodge the second Lightning Surge, rolling out of the way of leap. Immediately I recovered, defending from a rapid series of kicks and punches, throwing him behind me.
I turned and in one motion used Tailwind a second time, this time connecting with Ye Yan's chin.
He recovered while still on the ground, blasting me in the stomach, but I endured, placing him in a pin.
As he tried to use his third Lightning Surge, I grabbed him, whipping him away from me. He crashed into the ground, and I leapt up and away, using Tailwind to rocket me up and away from his attacks.
I couldn't use that ability again, and I'd seen Ye Yan use Lightning Surge 4 or 5 times in a fight, so I immediately pushed him on the offensive.
A heavy blow to the head actually countered his attempt to surge again, as I became to mix force and wind style unpredictably. I pinned him again, and slammed his head against the ground.
"Stop!" Kreisel interrupted. "Ye Yan concedes," he said.
Ye Yan shook off the head trauma. I was in for a world of hurt. Kreisel could be an elder.
Kreisel didn't even get off his chair before the fight started. World of Thunder was an ability that dealt damage internally to your body and spirit. I had never seen that ability used in Hall match. Kreisel didn't need to use that, and he rarely fought in these matches.
I blacked out.
*
My team had dragged me out to the Healing hall before I came to.
"That was a Third Tier thaumaturgy. He could have killed you! The Elders were furious," Carmina said.
I was in a small recovery room, must have been at the Healing hall. Carmina was the only one there.
"Finally took down Ye Yan though," I said groggily.
"Kreisel will bring his top team next time. Get ready for Zu Shuren."
"Does Zu know that ability?" I asked.
"World of Thunder. No. But he knows Thunder Strike. He can Lightning Surge every few seconds."
"Should I change my path?"
"Kreisel can defeat to of the elders. Elder Yu knows what's the best way. If you transcend mortal strength, transcend mortal toughness, you will endure. Then Zu Shuren will be in range. Soon Shuren will be Hallmaster and Kreisel will be a new elder."
"Did you like my wind arts?"
"The best part was the mixups. Switching between Wind and strength, that's not something the Wind sects can do. Let's have the Hall seniors start learning just enough Wind styles to do that. It could be a major advantage for us in the future.
*
It took most of a week to fully recover, but I spent as much time as I could meditating. The Hall contest earned me 10 points to spend. I put 5 in Strength and 5 in Stamina.
As a hall we divided time between practice spars, a bit of one on one training and a weekly Hall dinner where I handed out more A+ class pills.
The last event before we went to the Grand Tournament was the selection. We would be allowed 100 cultivators total, and Elders were not allowed to participate.
Elder Chang announced that the Grand Tournament committee had declared Kreisel as an Elder, so he wouldn't be going. He announced that Kreisel would be considered for eldership, once the rest of the Elders returned from seclusion.
The Thunder Kings all were attending the Grand Tournament, except Kreisel, so that was 24 spots taken. The Jade Fists got 15 spots, Adonis Hall got 15 spots, we got 13 spots, and the other 5 sects had 7 spots each.
12 was an easy number to support for us, I guess, with the 12 top fighters being a group and one free spot for the rest of the Hall to battle over.
We returned to the hall and announced the one free spot. I was still recovering, so I had to go home and rest to try to get fully back to 100% by the time of the tournament. Whoever was the last spot, we would train with them as intensely as the Twelve trained, getting them ready for the challenges of the Grand Tournament.
Would there be a group battle for the qualifying stage, or something even weirder?
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