Elias wholeheartedly knew that he was not good enough for such an esteemed tournament. He was aware that his application of lights would be as good as his opponents.
Because he knew, he did not waste time over practising it. He did not practice it outside of the Haoki's institute and instead decided to go on a different path.
Elias had never truly understood how these lights worked, nor did he know how Requim and other mystic abilities worked.
But he could not afford to be ignorant for too long.
As he felt a drop of water on his face, he knew that his plan had worked.
Elias instantly flew… Upwards?
The mysterious man was baffled as he stared at Elias rising to the sky.
Elias rose and rose upwards, from 10 feet to a hundred. Laughing like a mad man Elias thought of reciting a poem like the heroes did in some stories he remembered, but was too happy to do so.
…
The chaotic battlefield instantly slowed down. Hundreds of Laity were staring in the sky, people who were fighting either completely stopped or slowed down considerably as they stared at a man flying upwards.
He was wearing black clothes as he rapidly rose in the sky, his purple hair stuck to his head in the abrupt rain.
Ladro was calmly laying on top of a corpse, he had slaughtered enough people for others to run as soon as they looked at him. No one dared to attack him, and that was exactly the plan.
Ladro stared at Elias while nodding in understanding.
So this was your plan Elias… I have to change your profile in my mind I guess.
Ladro of course knew that Elias was not flying, rather he was merely exploiting the informed.
It was common knowledge that lights are only to be infused with solid things, that was because only after becoming a deacon one would be proficient enough to infuse with fluids.
Of course some people had been stubborn and wasted their lives on using lights in water or air.
However, since Elias did not really practice using lights as much as the average person, some would say he did not practice at all.
But Elias spent hours daydreaming or thinking about something, and preferred to lock himself in his room for the last few Lays.
He even made bizarre purchases of Ice and honey, but in hindsight all he was doing was practice.
Ladro realized what method Elias had developed and could not help but laugh in its simplicity.
"Another one… another genius… but,"
He infused the ice, waited for it to melt to get a hang of infusing water and used honey to practice, after all honey is pretty thick.
He even thought and refined these exercises in his mind before actually doing them. The real question is how did he manage to get it to rain.
…
Elias's eyes locked with the mysterious attacker, and soon he was descending at an astonishing speed towards him.
That bastard is the biggest pain in the ass
Elias was glowing dim red, and the man was glowing dim blue, but no matter how much he tried to infuse himself with starlight, the dim glow around him did not change.
Indeed, Elias had been infusing water droplets with lights to maneuver and infusing water instead of the man.
Elias dashed towards the man and punched him on his chest as he heard something crack.
ORA ORA ORA
Elias infused water on the man with moonlight and himself with starlight to unleash a barrage of punches, specifically designed to cause maximum damage.
"Huff, huff, huff"
This was one of the moves of Ivory sovereign, made for pure offensive capability.
Elias panted as the mysterious man fell to the ground, his lifeless body had been pounded by Elias even after his death, as he was manipulating his body with lights.
Elias raised his hands in delight as he laughed wholeheartedly, "Ah, fucking finally, let's fucking go! This is why I wanna be stronger."
Elias instantly covered himself with moonlight and infused a water droplet with starlight and flew up. Constantly infusing different water droplets to maintain flight.
He turned around, noticing that the horde of priests had separated itself. Elias then looked below him, seeing a bald man wearing a loose orange cloth around his waist.
"Nice to meet you, genius." The man shouted; his voice was calm and composed, it just had an increased volume.
Elias was going to instinctively attack before stopping. Not only did the monk not show any aggression, the duke had not asked them to fight everyone they could.
Rather, the duke had asked them to lower the number of participants, which meant there was scope for teaming up.
"What is it?" Elias roared
"Would you like to join our group?" the monk asked with a stern expression.
"Why?"
"I'll be paying you."
"I am in."
Elias had long realized the importance of money and resources, even more so when he felt money drain through the sink for his practice.
Elias slowly descended, wincing in pain; now that he was not fighting, he realized how badly that greedy bitch had fucked him over.
Thinking of it, there is a bounty on my name
The monk led Elias to one of the buildings on the border of the tall wall completely covering the 'arena'. He said that the priests quickly broke into three groups, and Elias was joining his own group formed on the basis of money.
He was also told that there were a few outliers not joining any groups, and named Ladro as the most crazy and scary one of them.
Elias's eyes widened as he heard what Ladro had done before breaking out into a laugh.
The fuck? I thought he was going to be weak, but that man may be someone I can learn from.
Soon Elias entered the building thinking of ways he could screw the monk if he did not pay him. Since this battlefield was merely a round in deity's disciple, he knew that everything was being recorded and thus even the deal Elias made would be stored in some sort of Requim.
The chinen world always valued the value of a chinen greatly, and the world of priests valued pride and honour greatly.
Well that was what was supposed to be, but Elias knew that pride and honour were merely tools to these men to control others, but pride and honor were not the only reasons to join him.
And of course Elias had the backing of Haoki and others had chosen to join the monk, so it was a no brainer.
Moreover, he knew that even without an incentive, joining groups was important.
As they entered a building, some priests shuddered while some tried to hide their attempts to run away.
"What's happening?" Elias asked.
"What would you expect after flying and beating a man to death?"
Wait… oh yes, I killed someone.