In that moment, time in the arena had truly stopped.
We
What we had done was make our entrance normally, without any kind of performance. And yet, that was more than enough to blow the audience away and fix their gazes upon us.
The order of entry was: me first, followed by Shiromaru with Slarin riding on his back, then Namitaro gliding along the ground behind them, and finally Solomon — the main attraction this time — bringing up the rear.
Thunderous cheers erupted for me, who had advanced to the finals in the Individual Battle, and for Slarin and Shiromaru, who had demonstrated their strength in the Preliminary. As for Namitaro, who had pulled a nasty prank during the Preliminary's final round, screams and boos rose up from parts of the Audience Seats.
And then, the moment the audience laid eyes on Solomon, the cheering stopped.
With his collar removed, Solomon's size was roughly three meters in total length, with a wingspan of about four meters — a remarkable spurt of growth. Anyone could tell at a glance that he was a dragon species.
"Kyu-ro-ro-ro-ro-o-o-o-o!"
Solomon, who had climbed onto the Fighting Stage, let out a roar that could hardly be called intimidating.
In that moment, time in the arena began to flow again. From some sections came screams, from others came dull, vacant voices as though unable to keep up with the situation, and from the vast majority came thunderous cheering.
Casting a quick look across the arena, I could see that a few audience members were trying to flee the venue, but there were only a handful of them. Nearly every spectator was focused on Solomon.
Right now, almost everyone in the arena may have forgotten about everything except Solomon.
As proof, the members of the Dragon Strike Squad were staring at Solomon with their mouths agape, and even the referee had frozen in place — yet not a single voice rose to reprimand them for it.
Solomon, startled by everyone's reaction, was clinging close to Shiromaru — but whether that endeared him to the audience or not, the cheering seemed to grow even louder.
The cheering wouldn't die down and the referee showed no sign of moving, so I had no choice but to cause a small explosion in the air near the center of the Fighting Stage using magic.
The sudden explosion temporarily silenced the arena.
Seizing that moment, I exchanged a glance with the referee. Realizing the meaning behind my action, the referee dashed to the center and called both teams to the starting line.
"We will now begin the fifth match of the first round — Orasion versus the Dragon Strike Squad! Begin!"
Almost simultaneously with the declaration, the referee ran to evacuate from near the center of the Fighting Stage.
At that point, there was an unspoken agreement that neither side would take action until the referee had gotten a safe distance away, and both Orasion and the Dragon Strike Squad held their positions accordingly.
The instant the referee moved away from us and stopped, the Dragon Strike Squad began arranging their formation.
Every member of the Dragon Strike Squad was a warrior — three of them, encased head to toe in heavy armor and carrying massive shields, lined up side by side to form a wall, while the two behind them wielded a greatsword and a halberd, respectively.
The five of them, keeping proper spacing between them, charged straight toward me in a line.
They seemed quite wary of Solomon and the others, but their target was clearly me — if they could take me out of the fight, my Familiars would be disqualified, and that was exactly what they were after (a team composed solely of Familiars wasn't permitted, and just like with the Demon Soldiers, when the
Tamer
isn't among the combat members,
Familiars
the team loses the moment any other human member is taken out of the fight).
But Solomon, fired up for his first-ever match, moved to block the Dragon Strike Squad's advance.
Solomon glided low to the ground as he closed in on the Dragon Strike Squad and launched himself into a body tackle.
Calling it a body tackle doesn't quite capture it — he landed on the two fighters at either end of the front line as if stomping them flat, then crushed the man in the middle beneath his body.
Even so, it was a dragon — small, perhaps, but bigger and heavier than any human — barreling into them with full momentum.
As a result, he appeared to have dealt them considerable damage.
Seeing this, I issued orders to keep ready to leap out at any moment, moving to encircle the Dragon Strike Squad and apply pressure.
Solomon's body tackle shattered the Dragon Strike Squad's formation, and for an instant it looked like the fight might be decided then and there — but they were a team headed for the Main Tournament, and the only one completely taken out of the fight was a single front-line warrior.
The two remaining shield-bearers on the front line pushed forward with their shields, trying to stop Solomon in his tracks.
"Kuoooooh!"
Solomon twisted his body to shake off the two clinging to him, but before he could, the two men behind the shield bearers lunged at him with their weapons.
"Gyaan!"
The great sword and halberd strikes hit Solomon's shoulders, causing him to cry out in pain, but they failed to slice through his body.
It seemed the scales covering Solomon's body were tough, and the close distance to Solomon caused the hit points of the attacks from the two behind to shift slightly.
However, even though he wasn't wounded, it didn't mean he was unharmed.
After all, even if incomplete, it was like being struck by heavy weapons. Even a dragon's insides weren't as strong as its scales.
Solomon, struck, had tears welling in his eyes from the pain.
But, that was all it was. Solomon's counterattack began immediately.
First, Solomon targeted those who had attacked him.
Stretching his neck to its limit, Solomon bit the shoulder of the one holding the great sword and slammed him into the man with the halberd to the side.
Even for Solomon, he couldn't completely send two men nearly two meters tall flying, but they still lost their balance and almost fell to their knees.
Solomon intended to seize that opening and follow up, but the two vanguard who had been clinging to him shouted loudly and strained, stopping Solomon's movements.
In that time, the two who were nearly kneeling managed to regain their stance and raise their weapons, aiming to deliver damage this time, but the instant they swung their weapons, they were sent flying backward.
The ones who sent them flying were Shiromaru and Nami-tarou.
Things would have gotten dangerous for Solomon if left as they were, so he had given the signal to the two, who were ready to leap out at any moment.
The members of the Dragon Strike Team had been wary of us and keeping an eye out, but the speed of the two far surpassed their expectations.
Shiromaru and Nami-tarou, like two arrows, shot past Solomon's flanks and struck their opponents' torsos.
Hit in their nearly exposed torsos, the two were sent flying backward, colliding violently in mid-air, and then didn't move. Their bodies twitched slightly, so they didn't seem to be dead.
Having received support from the two, Solomon now targeted the remaining two who had been clinging to him and getting in the way.
However, having never fought opponents pressed this closely against him, Solomon didn't know how to attack and could only think of thrashing about wildly where he stood.
Solomon flailed his arms, fluttered his wings, and swung his tail, but while the men were close and skillfully used their shields to defend, he couldn't deal much damage.
Even so, with every thrash from Solomon, their damage accumulated little by little.
The shield-bearing Dragon Strike Squad members weren't just being steamrolled—they were seizing openings to counterattack—but even so, none of their strikes seemed to surpass Solomon's defensive power.
The back-and-forth continued for a while, and before long, one of the Dragon Strike Squad members drifted slightly away from Solomon's body, caught a full swing of his tail, and went flying.
The last man standing desperately clung to Solomon, chipping away with methodical counterattacks.
However, that didn't last long either—the man took a hit to the back of his head from Solomon's attack and went limp, still locked in his embrace.
At that point, not a single member of the Dragon Strike Squad was still moving.
The referee approached to confirm, but Solomon still hadn't stopped.
At this rate, the opponents were in real danger.
Sensing that, I pulled a collar out of my bag.
"Solomon! Stop!"
I hurried over to Solomon, leaped onto his back, and wrapped my arms around his neck.
Then, just like that, I fastened the collar on.
"Kyu?"
Only then did Solomon seem to realize his opponents had lost consciousness, and he immediately calmed down.
It seemed that in his first fight against people, he'd had no bandwidth to observe his surroundings.
I gave Solomon a quick once-over and noticed a red patch near where the last man had been clinging to him.
That last guy, despite being tossed around by Solomon, had managed to land counterstrikes and actually deal damage with his bare hands—albeit minor.
...Sure, his shoulders might have less defense than the rest of him, but to inflict damage on a dragon using only physical strikes... Honestly, I'd underestimated them.
It was only a minor injury, but I cast a healing spell to treat it, and Solomon immediately latched onto me.
"The winner is 'Oracion'!"
As soon as the referee made the announcement, five staff members came running in carrying stretchers.
And then a massive roar of cheers erupted.
Objectively speaking, all the dragon had done was rampage, but the audience still seemed satisfied just from getting to see a dragon — something they'd have virtually no chance of witnessing in their normal lives.
Among them, some were even shouting Solomon's name.
The most excited person in the audience seemed to be Luna once again. Tida, who was desperately clinging to her from behind to keep her from falling off, looked like he was having a rough time.
"Ugh... mmgh..."
Before the staff arrived, one of the Dragon Slayers who had collapsed at my feet came to. He was the man who had held onto Solomon until the very end. Looking more closely, he was the one who had entered the drawing as the Dragon Slayers' representative.
"Ouch... Huh? We lost...?"
The man seemed tougher than he looked — he didn't have any injuries worth mentioning. Just a few scrapes, which was hard to believe for someone who had been exposed to Solomon's attacks the longest.
"Man... Dragon Slayers getting beaten by a dragon — what kind of joke is that? ...Maybe we should just change the team name."
The man sat cross-legged on the ground, scratching his head and muttering to himself. That hand was probably the one he'd used to punch Solomon — the skin was scraped off and bleeding.
"I don't need a stretcher. I can walk on my own. More importantly, that dragon is seriously strong. And you must be pretty strong too, to have tamed something like that."
After turning down the stretcher from the staff, the man stood up, turned to face me, and offered a handshake.
When I clasped his hand in return, he suddenly squeezed with enough force to make my bones creak — I thought my hand was going to be crushed.
"Ha ha ha. Well, I'll let you have that much."
The bald man laughed with a refreshing grin. Then, before I could even think about retaliating, he turned on his heel and headed off with his companion who had been loaded onto a stretcher.
"Ouch... Just you wait, you bald bastard."
I shook my sore hand and trudged back to Slarin and the others, grumbling under my breath. Namitarou, who had overheard my complaints, walked over.
"Tenma... That's the kind of line a punk says after getting beaten and running home, y'know."
Hearing that, I realized he was right, but I didn't want to admit it, so I pretended I hadn't heard Namitarou's words.
On the way back to the waiting room carrying Solomon, I passed the team that had been the runners-up two tournaments ago, heading out for the next match.
It wasn't like I had called out to them, but since they'd stopped and were staring at me with a piercing gaze, we naturally ended up having a stare-down.
Their team seemed to consist of three men who looked like front-liners, one person whose face was hidden who I assumed was a magic user, and a slender, beautiful female archer. The female archer's ears were a bit pointed, so maybe she had some elf blood in her.
"Don't bother with him. Let's go."
The person who looked like a magic user spoke, and at his words, the other members began walking as if avoiding me.
Judging by the voice, it was a man, but he seemed to be the leader.
I was thinking of using Appraisal on him, but a staff member cut in between us, so I obediently decided to head to the waiting room. Apparently, the staff member thought we might start a brawl, because when I started walking in the opposite direction, I heard him mutter in a small voice, "Thank goodness..."
If the pre-tournament predictions were right, that team should be advancing, so I decided to discuss strategy a bit with Slarin and the others.
First, the three front-liners. None of them carried shields. The two men with axes and spears were probably warriors, leaning more towards power fighters, I'd say.
The remaining one had single-handed swords sheathed at both hips, so he was likely a swordsman, and judging by his equipment, he prioritized speed.
I felt like I might have seen these guys somewhere before, but I concluded it wasn't anything worth worrying over and decided not to think about it.
Regarding the archer, her main weapon seemed to be the short bow she carried on her back, along with two short swords at her waist that I assumed were for close combat.
I couldn't judge how skilled the magic user was, but from that attitude, he was probably the team's leader-type, and I didn't think he was weak.
I wasn't sure if they had any reserve members, but if they didn't change their lineup for the second round, I'd handle the magic user.
Well, I didn't think he was stronger than Grandpa, so I probably wouldn't lose. Still, it would be annoying if he started launching wide-range magic repeatedly, so taking him out quickly would be best.
For the three front-liners, I'd have Slarin, Shiromaru, and Namitarou take them on.
With Shiromaru and Namitarou as the main fighters and Slarin providing support, that should be more than enough... actually, I felt like those three alone could fight evenly or better against the enemy team.
As for the last one, the female archer—that was Solomon's job.
Honestly, I thought this archer had the worst compatibility with our team. Among them, her compatibility with Solomon was probably the worst.
After all, against Solomon's defensive power, an ordinary short bow wouldn't be much use, and the close-combat short swords probably couldn't deal significant damage to Solomon either. Solomon just had to head straight for her and body-slam her—a simple job. I did, however, make sure to tell him to be careful not to take an arrow to the eyes or mouth.
After that, it was just a matter of doing our best without getting injured and playing it by ear... and that was pretty much how the strategy meeting ended. Then again, Orasion's basic strategy was always "play it by ear," so this was essentially just deciding who would face whom in advance.
By the time I caught my breath after the strategy meeting, it seemed the results were already in — an official came to inform us who our opponents in the second round would be.
Just as expected, it was the runner-up team from two tournaments ago.
So far, the tournament had proceeded without any major upsets, and the attention-grabbing teams were advancing smoothly.
But those in the know would be thinking that if an upset were going to happen, it would be in the next match.
The team stepping up next was the Dawn Sword. Normally, with Jin and Garat — both of whom had advanced in the Individual Battle — on their roster, it would be no surprise for this team to be considered an upper-division powerhouse, with first-round advancement all but guaranteed.
The thing was, Jin and Garat had both lost to Amour in the Individual Battle.
If it had just been a loss, it wouldn't have sparked this much concern. But information had been circulating among the betting crowd that the two of them had sustained injuries far from minor after their defeat.
This was the handiwork of the bookmakers and those scheming to manipulate the odds.
As a result, the Dawn Sword — who should have been the pre-tournament favorite — had odds nearly identical to their opponents'.
Incidentally, the opposing team was making their Main Tournament debut. They were a rising team that had been gaining traction lately.
In terms of track record, they were completely outclassed by the Dawn Sword. But the team itself had momentum, and many were thinking that the current Dawn Sword might actually lose.
"Makes me curious. Guess I'll go take a look."
When I checked with the others, Slarin and the rest obediently climbed into the bag.
Namitaro tried to go on his own, but he looked like he'd cause trouble, so I forced him in too.
Leaving the waiting room, I had an official guide me to the spectator area for participants. It was a private room located beneath the Audience Seats — the Audience Seats themselves started from the second floor and above. When I opened the window, the Fighting Stage was visible right nearby.
For safety, the walls were thick and the windows were on the smaller side, so the view wasn't great. But the angle was one that no one besides participants and staff could get, letting me watch the match from a unique vantage point.
The room was roughly four meters wide and deep, about three meters high. Once I let everyone out of the bag, it started to feel a bit cramped.
The window was only about fifty centimeters tall and a meter wide, so we all had to crowd our faces together to see. Shiromaru and Solomon weren't particularly interested in watching the Dawn Sword's match — they'd only grown curious because I was watching — so they stepped back quickly, giving us some breathing room.
The match appeared to have just begun.
The Dawn Sword had positioned Menace in the center of their front line, with Jin about five meters to the left and Garat about five meters to the right, and Lina positioned roughly four to five meters behind Menace.
The opposing team consisted of two warriors, one mage, and two archers, arranged in a dice-five formation as they faced off against the Dawn Sword.
It was the other team that moved first.
The archers loosed their arrows, and in coordination, everyone began to slowly advance.
The Dawn Sword held firm, with the front three deflecting arrows and bracing their defense as they prepared to meet the assault.
Once the distance between the two sides began to close, the mage started launching stones with earth magic.
The stones were about fist-sized, but they weren't flying very fast, so Lina was blocking them with ease.
The spell Lina was using was Air Ball. Since she had previously taught her Air Brit, while it hadn't reached the level of a Brit, it was a compressed Air Ball with more power than the normal version.
Up to this point, the match had appeared to be dead even — but the instant the gap closed and the archers' arrows stopped, the warrior at the front broke into a run.
In tandem, the number and speed of the mage's stones increased, while the archers darted out from behind the warrior to the left and right, each taking aim at Jin and Garat respectively.
Both warriors headed straight for Menace, attempting to create a two-on-one situation. The warriors wielded a one-handed axe and a one-handed sword, with a large shield in their opposite hands.
The opposing team's strategy was to pin down the injured Jin and Garat with their archers, use their mage to keep Lina in check, then use the opening to have their two warriors crush Menace and Lina in that order before finishing off the remaining Jin and Garat.
Take out the healthy ones first, then finish off the wounded. It was an effective strategy, but there was a small miscalculation.
That miscalculation was the fact that Garat, being a beastkin, had a higher recovery rate than humans — and that Jin, despite being human, possessed recovery power on par with beastkin. To top it off, Tenma was helping to treat their injuries. With all of these factors combined, their condition — one that would have left an ordinary person unable to even stand — had recovered to a point where they could fight to some degree.
And when it came to Jin and the others' class of "some degree," that meant a condition light enough to surpass ordinary adventurers, at least for a short time.
If the opposing team had gone all-out from the start and focused on crushing Jin and Garat, they could have easily taken down at least one of the two.
However, because they had a glimmer of hope of winning and were also keeping the next match in mind, that half-measure turned into complete complacency — and they were hit with an unexpected attack.
"Take this!"
"Heave!"
The two warriors charging toward Menace were too slow to notice Jin and Garat closing in at speeds faster than their own, and they took a blow from the side that sent their balance tumbling.
Since their physical condition still wasn't fully restored, that single strike wasn't enough to take both warriors down — but with the opening the opponents had exposed, Menace unleashed a devastating blow.
No matter that Menace was a woman, her true nature was that of a first-class adventurer and warrior. Against an opponent who had left such a wide opening, delivering a devastating blow—
Two
times in a row was child's play.
And then, Jin and Garat mercilessly finished off the two who had fallen and were barely clinging to consciousness.
The numerical advantage was now reversed. Their combat strength as well.
After that, it was the mirror image of before — Jin and Garat pinned down the archers, while Menace and Lina began attacking the mage.
Jin and Garat still couldn't run fast thanks to the aftereffects of their injuries, so they couldn't chase down the archers on foot. But all they had to do was slowly close in, ensuring the archers couldn't freely target Menace and Lina, and they effortlessly swatted aside any arrows aimed their way — so there was no problem.
The archers could see that it was only a matter of time before Jin and Garat closed the distance the moment they looked away, so they couldn't carelessly shift their fire to Menace and Lina. They had fallen into a kind of stalemate. It wasn't a stalemate that seemed like it would last long, though…
Now cut off from everyone else's support, the mage began running backward while casting spells. However, the magic launched while fleeing in reverse—
All
of it missed Menace and Lina, and moreover, the clumsy movements only hindered their own escape. Menace, who should have still been quite far away, caught up in no time.
On the rare occasion a spell did head toward Menace, Lina easily deflected it, so the mage was completely out of options.
They should have surrendered right then, but frozen with fear at the approaching Menace and lacking any aid from their allies, the mage slipped into a mild panic — the thought of surrendering had completely fled their mind.
As a result, the mage went flying… courtesy of a single blow from Menace.
With the mage crushed, the two archers who had been on the verge of being surrounded by Jin and company hastily dropped their bows, raised both hands, and surrendered.
"The winners — Dawn Sword!"
Hearing the referee's announcement, the Audience Seats erupted with a roughly even mix of cheers and sighs.
Our private box was situated directly below the Audience Seats, so it was quite noisy.
It seemed that far more people had lost on their bets than expected. Excluding those who hadn't participated in the wagering at all, it was likely that more people had bet on the opposing team than on Dawn Sword. And those who had bet on Dawn Sword were fewer in number but had wagered larger amounts — that seemed to be the general picture.
So even though Dawn Sword's odds were lower, nearly half the reactions from the Audience Seats were sighs… or something to that effect.
Either way, Dawn Sword's victory went exactly as expected — no upsets, just a straightforward win.
Jin's match was over, and the place was even noisier than I'd imagined, so I was thinking about heading back to the waiting room. But then I remembered the next match featured the previous tournament's champion team, so I decided to tough it out and stay to watch.
That decision would come back to bite me.
Because the previous champions absolutely crushed it. Watching them,
it was so one-sided
that there was practically nothing useful to learn — they won with casual ease.
The previous champion team's lineup consisted of two warriors, one swordsman, and two mages. The moment the signal to start was given, each of them charged at their opponents and took them out with a single strike of magic or weapon.
At that point, it became hard to tell whether the previous champions were just that strong or whether the opposing team was that weak.
The only takeaway was that the champion team happened to have two mages who could hold their own in close combat.