Single matches were boring. That was John’s opinion, but of course he kept those opinions away from official policy. Sort of. He still advocated for various changes, but he at least tried to provide proper reasons.

  Group battles were one of the things people easily agreed upon. The performance of an individual cultivator could be extremely important, even critical for victory, but only if other factors were relatively balanced. Even if a cultivator was in the next phase compared to the strongest individuals in an enemy sect, sufficient quantities of foes could bring them down. For just a few ranks, it might take only a handful. A couple dozen cultivators were still quite likely to take down someone a full nine ranks ahead, and with such a gap the lower cultivation sect would have done everything in their power to avoid conflict in the first place.

  Coordination as a group was still important in such cases, whether it was many versus one or many versus many. If all conflicts could be reduced to single, one-on-one battles then perhaps fewer people would die, but it simply wasn’t a feasible scenario. Sects fought each other. Groups of sects vied over different regions. Just recently- within the past decade- the continent had suffered incursions from the Stormy Sea Sect. The way they fought as armies was of critical importance.

  Of course, the scope of armies would be a bit grandiose for the arena. The formations could perhaps support groups of dozens of Foundation Phase cultivators battling against each other. For higher phases, it would simply be too unstable unless they wanted actual fights to the death. That was a good way to breed resentment rather than strive for unity.

  John had taken a much more conservative approach. Pairs and groups of six were the backbone of things. Pairs were obvious, as dual cultivation partners would be some of the most coordinated. Beyond that, six was chosen because of the six elements. While that certainly favored the Six Elements Crossroads to some extent, they didn’t actually have many groups that even attempted a full cycle. For those few who had already achieved a core cycle by themselves, being in a group of four might be advantageous as each could focus on one, but having two more was just padding. Ultimately, the number was neither too small nor too large. It even allowed some possibility for a group to continue if a single member had to drop out- though they would still be disadvantaged. That was less feasible with smaller groups.

  Perhaps once they had more experience with the format, they might have groups at a wider number of sizes. If they got too specific, however, it would be detrimental. John thought trios might be an interesting option, and larger groups of ten or twelve on a side might eventually be of interest, but for the moment two groups was enough.

  Participants could join the single combat tournament as well as the group tournaments, at their own peril. Injuries were rare- the defensive formations made sure of that- but exhaustion could still build up from choosing too many options. That also included the non-combat options, which might be why the participation was relatively small for those. Though it was likely also because there hadn’t been as much time to prepare, since they weren’t regular events.

  -----

  Fedel and Chi had entered the pairs tournament, and John was secretly rooting for them. It was inappropriate for him to show too much favoritism even for his own sect, since he was the host. John wasn’t involved in judging himself, but he was trying to maintain the most diplomatic approach.

  The pair had learned quite a bit on their journey, though they were still limited by their cultivation. They could achieve a decent ranking within their bracket, perhaps, but they wouldn’t be moving on to challenge those in the Soul Expansion Phase. Certainly not for more than their own edification.

  That assumed they could even defeat enough opponents to reach that point. Their talent was decent, but they could certainly use more time to improve their ranks and digest the insights the journey had provided.

  Their first opponents were an earth and water pair from the Viridia Wildlands. Specifically, the two cultivators each practiced both elements. At the Foundation Phase with two totems, they would be perfectly balanced. Meanwhile, Fedel and Chi stuck to their single elements.

  Chi was neutral against both- earth and water were allied elements, and obviously an element and itself had no innate advantages or disadvantages. Fedel, however, was strong against earth and weak against water. Ultimately, the balance of elements wasn’t in favor of either. The battlefield was slightly in favor of the water cultivators- it was more or less an open field with small ponds. However, it wasn’t to a point it actually altered the ambient spiritual energy.

  Frankly, if Fedel and Chi lost and they complained about that, John was going to set them up for elemental field training courses. Ultimately, even a slight battlefield advantage could push things over the edge, but the Six Elements Crossroads should be prepared to overcome even more serious restrictions.

  When the two entered the match, they were carrying weapons John hadn’t seen them use before. Was it experimentation, or simply an evolution of their technique? If they were actually using the tournament to try things out… John actually had quite a lot of respect for that. Likewise, making use of a new style showed some guts. So as long as they actually had reasons, he approved.

  Obviously the other two were less familiar. They were from the Crashing River Sect in the Viridia Wildlands, and John didn’t have a close enough relation with the sect personally to know their juniors. The pair were a man and woman, with the former wielding a flail and the latter a spear.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  Meanwhile, Fedel had a bow, and Chi was carrying a shield slightly more than half her height. John was eager to see how things turned out.

  The match began, and Fedel took immediate advantage of his range. Fedel pulled arrows from his quiver one at a time, augmenting his attack with fire element focused around the arrowhead. John noticed that the arrows didn’t look quite normal, and beneath the spiritual energy he picked out both a metal shaft and fletching. Even if they were somewhat thin, the arrows would still be heavy. He wondered if they flew right.

  Certainly, they worked well enough. John had no expertise, but the arrows moved swiftly towards the targets. One arrow at each of the opponents, perhaps to judge how they would react. The woman surrounded her spear with water element, quenching the incoming arrow and diverting it. Meanwhile, the man simply dodged out of the way- slightly shifting the ground beneath him to boost his speed.

  Fedel seemed unbothered, firing a third and fourth arrow. However, his attacks suffered the expected downside of archery. John dealt with it himself with his throwing daggers, which was that spiritual energy grew weaker distant from the cultivator controlling it. That was why John relied on tricks and distractions to strike his blows- or the throwing daggers were the distractions.

  The two easily deflected Fedel’s second set of arrows as they moved across the arena. There was a distance of around twenty meters, and they were more than halfway through. Fedel might not have much more opportunity to shoot. Indeed, John saw him step back, taking cover behind Chi.

  John watched as he nocked his arrow, placing it just above Chi’s shoulder. Their relative heights made that possible, though he would have trouble aiming downward if that became necessary. But they doubtless had plans for that. Either way, the current setup was quite sneaky.

  Fedel’s arrow was released, flying much like the others towards his target. First, the woman. The reduced distance might have seemed to be the reason that she found herself barely able to deflect the incoming arrow, but it was actually something else.

  It looked like Chi was doing nothing except building up defensive energy. Or at least, John presumed it was supposed to. Neither of the two had proper elements to deceive people, and John’s cultivation advantage let him see through the more subtle effects. Chi added her earth element to Fedel’s fire, amplifying his fifth and then sixth arrows.

  The woman was suddenly the target of two shots in a row, instead of Fedel alternating. She still blocked the arrow with a bubble of water focused around her and her spear, but her pace slowed. That left her partner a few paces ahead, swinging his flail. The weapon was designed to go around weapons and shields like Chi carried, but she pushed out her arm to meet the weapon, causing its angle of approach to change as the chain wrapped around the lower part of the shield.

  Rather than withdrawing her arm, Chi pressed forward. A cultivator could make a weapon like a flail dangerous as it was withdrawn, controlling its angle, but Chi seemed unbothered. Whatever the man was thinking, he was overwhelmed by the fact that a wall of fire appeared in front of him, surrounding Chi’s shield. He tried to shuffle back, but Chi outmatched his earth manipulation and brought the two of them together.

  The man was toppled onto his back- not seriously injured in a single move, but his momentum disrupted. He’d protected himself with water element at the last instant, minimizing the impact of the flames but not fully negating them.

  Chi, who had been stationary, didn’t stop advancing. Furthermore, Fedel held his place immediately behind her. He shot over her shoulders or leaned to the side, matching her movements.

  When the other pair got their balance back, they tried to flank Chi. Getting on either side of her would limit the use of her shield, and if they got past her they could attack the vulnerable Fedel. In theory.

  In practice, she chose one of them and acted immediately, charging forward towards the man with her shield out. Fedel didn’t fire upon the woman to keep her away, instead moving around Chi’s left side and focusing on the man. Fire and earth twisted together as Chi amplified Fedel’s attacks, while at the same time he provided her a defensive boost by making a physical clash with her extremely undesirable.

  The man tried to hold his ground, digging into the earth below and surrounding himself with water. However, he failed to even properly counterattack. Fedel managed to catch his side with an arrow, piercing through the wide area shield of water.

  The other enemy found herself further than intended from her target, and she lunged towards Chi to try to catch her in the side as she went past. Water twirled around her spear, guided by a channel of earth element into a proper burst of water.

  Chi didn’t even turn towards her. Not because the attack wasn’t a serious threat, but because Fedel was already dealing with it. Even if the attack was focused around the water element, he had means to counter it. Without time to properly shoot an arrow, he simply heated one and stabbed it into the jet of water, intentionally catching it in the middle. He wasn’t trying to annihilate the attack directly- he just wanted to superheat a small part of it.

  The middle burst into steam, spreading apart the rest of the attack. It wasn’t the most efficient defense John had ever seen, but it was pretty good for dealing mainly with a dominating element. Only a small amount of the attack reached Fedel and Chi, absorbed by their distributed energy defense.

  At the same time, Chi finished toppling the man. His flail came for her legs, wrapping around and even crashing into one of her knees. She fell forward onto him… with vigor. She gripped her shield in two hands, making certain the edge was the only point of contact with the man’s midsection as she fell with the weight of a boulder. The arena’s formations activated, indicating he was out of the fight.

  She did still have to extricate herself from the flail, but it was about as easy as doing so for a ‘dead’ foe. Fedel shot past her, aiming low towards the woman’s legs. She couldn’t easily angle her spear towards the attacks, instead weaving back and forth. Once Chi was fully standing, however, the situation was dire for her. She managed one solid attack that held Chi in her tracks, but Fedel shot an arrow right along the edge of her spear. She had the choice of redirecting her energy to stop him, or trying to dodge.

  The latter was her choice, and indeed his arrow didn’t touch her. But his fire element did catch the edge of her own spiritual energy, lighting it aflame. Only briefly, but her surprise was enough for the pair to take back the pace, keeping her off balance until her ultimate defeat.

  John thought both sides did well, though he wondered how Fedel and Chi would fare if they were outnumbered. He didn’t think Chi’s charge would have been nearly as effective if there had been a larger group to surround them.

  Four or five against two wasn’t exactly fair, but in a real-world scenario fair didn’t mean anything.