Arthur then started to train again. For him, time was of golden essence and he couldn't even risk wasting a single second without training.
The system kept updating him on the news happening around him. He learnt of the reinforcements that arrived at the mansion, and also of the more eyes and strange people who kept checking over the mansion all day.
Arthur expected such a thing to occur, and he even thought of the potential of the presence of some assassin in the group that came to honor the deals.
'If anyone of the new group tried to move near me, just make sure to directly alarm Doaf.'
'Ding! This way he will know of my existence.'
'I can use any excuse to justify this,' Arthur muttered before sighing, 'but the most important thing is to make sure no one is to touch me before going to the test.'
'Ding! Don't worry, keep training and leave things out to me.'
'To us,' Gege hurriedly said.
'Ding! To us.'
'Hehehe, alright.'
Arthur then passed the next day training while not being disturbed by anyone. Luckily his enemies weren't that desperate to try something like sneakily attacking him.
For them, they had the confidence in dealing completely with him.
"Alright," Arthur moved outside his room with Doaf standing on his side. "How many of the reinforcements arrived?" he asked despite knowing the answer already.
"Each master sent a hundred, but Reem's master sent double," Doaf said before adding, "and Reem just sent a word hours ago, her master has sent a message successfully to the grandmaster. So, don't worry. You just need to hang on there as long as you can."
"Do you know how the final test will be done?" Arthur nodded as he reached the bottom. The mansion was now like a warring fortress with many giants and different races standing in line waiting.
"According to the news spread from the Locek academy, the test will have the same themes of the test you passed through. You have to fight up the ladder until you reach the top five contestants then you will have a big war up ahead."
"Hmm…" Arthur simply knew that the last step was the one where he would have to face the challenge in the higher plane. "I will try to take as much time as I can," he said before Doaf passed something to him.
"What is that?" Arthur muttered before he paused. "How did you get your hand over this?" he hurriedly asked with a serious look over his face.
"This… this was inside the box we got from the lycans," he said before adding, "I saw it after you closed up for training and thought not to disturb you by that time."
Arthur held the ring that Amanda used to wear and clenched his fist tightly on it. "Thanks," he muttered before wearing the ring over his hand, "I will never rest until I get them out of there, either now or even after a century."
"…"
Doaf didn't know what to say while Arthur took a deep breath. "Summon everyone here, I want to say something."
Doaf nodded and moved to the outside while Arthur stepped to the outside of the mansion. There he found his team standing in wait while the garden there was filled with silhouettes of different races he didn't see before.
"They are all gathered up," Doaf said while Arthur glanced at everyone and his team moved to stand behind him.
"Thanks for coming to support me," he said before adding, "as you know I have to deal with your masters. I won't ask your help until there is a threat outside the normal rules of the tournament."
He waited for a few moments before adding, "Now I'll take you inside my rings. Don't resist and stand still until you are inside."
His words seemed so sudden to them. They never thought this would be the case.
"We will need to ask our masters first," suddenly one lycan spoke up and Arthur simply smiled. "Go ahead and do, but don't take much time."
"We won't," the lycan smirked while other races started to do the same.
"Is this…" Doaf came and whispered softly to him.
"Don't worry," Arthur casually said, "let them take the permission from their masters."
Doaf just glanced at him before sighing and shaking off his head. Arthur wasn't a single bit worried as everything was happening the same way he pictured.
Arthur didn't wait for so long before the answer came one after another.
"Rest assured," he said to answer the common condition their masters all gave in advance, "I won't use any of you at the competition."
"Great," one vampire said before adding, "let's get this done. I hate to babysit someone like you."
Arthur smiled as he muttered: 'Do as we agreed.'
Then he started to take them away by simply touching their bodies. He took roughly an hour before he took everyone away, including Doaf and his team.
"Just leave those outside to help," Doaf was worried by this arrangement, but Arthur refused such a precaution. "Don't worry, if anything happens I'll take you all out."
Doaf simply sighed before he accepted the arrangements of Arthur.
"Great," Arthur finally heaved a long sigh of relief, "let's go," he said to his team who just kept their silence all the time.
They didn't say a single word despite they all knew Arthur wouldn't simply ask for something like that without a hidden and profound purpose.
"We heard some rumors about the teams out there," Amelia said while they were heading towards the big arena direction, "some are really troublesome."
"In what way?" Arthur wasn't that much interested in any team. For him, he was pretty sure his team was the strongest out there.
"For a start the academy had over dozens of teams participating in the competition. They all participated directly in the competition without being vetted like us."
"I don't care," Arthur shrugged, "I just care about our next opponent and how to crush them."
"But…"
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