Once the guests distanced from the center of the courtyard, the members of the Asher family used their earth attribute to create a big platform so the participants of the tournament could go all out without damaging the floor, Aster and the others waited until the staff from the Ghale family reaccommodated the chairs at a safe distance to watch their fights without being affected by them.
By unanimous decision Wieland Kraft was selected as the person in charge of supervising the fights and interfering if necessary to avoid accidents.
Wieland stood next to the platform before announcing the rules.
"The combat will be a battle royal to not waste time, killing or causing lethal wounds is forbidden, also you are only allowed to use your weapon so one-time things like attack talismans are forbidden, defense talismans are allowed but using one will be the same as losing, in case anyone try to break the rules I will personally punish the perpetrator".
Also, there was medic team formed by members of all the forces which was in charge of administrating treatment in case of being necessary.
Everyone accepted the rules before getting on the platform, Aster kissed Aria's right cheek before following them, that little interaction made all the other participants attention focus on Aster.
Arthur internally sighed, in his eyes all this was pointless since Aster was able to hurt a stellar constellation cultivator, he gave his future "son in law" a look that meant "don't kill anyone".
What he didn't knew was that Aster was not going to use the manifestation of the paragon body since that would be the same as admitting he was the "golden reaper", on the other hand his battle reflexes were already at the stellar constellation level so he decided to take advantage of this fight to train using Rigel's flame for offensive.
The representants of the forces of course didn't miss the chance to make the tournament more interesting by betting on who they thought was going to be the last person standing on the platform, there were three favorites, Ebbe Asher from the Asher family, Ward Kraft from the Kraft family and surprisingly Kail Rein bet on the kid surnamed Drage.
In fact, each of those three took a corner of the platform while the other participants were dispersed on the left one, once all the participants were on the platform, Wieland shouted.
"The battle starts now!!!".
As if accorded beforehand some of the guys that previously saw Aster kissing Aria attacked him on different directions while shouting.
"Kid you are dead meat!!!".
But when they were about 10 meters away from Aster a wall of white-blue flames stopped them from advancing, the guy that was approaching from the left direction couldn't stop in time and his legs touched the flames.
"Ahhhhh!!!!".
A loud scream made everyone's attention to focus on what was happening on the east corner but before most of them could react they only saw someone flying off the platform, Wieland disappeared and caught the body while it was still in the air.
It was a participant from a commercial association who was in the middle stage of the earth origin realm, he didn't seem to have any wounds with the exception of the thin layer of ice covering his legs.
Wieland scanned the body of the participant and he was surprised, "just a couple of seconds of exposition to those weird flames and this kid's legs have… second degree burns due to cold!!!", he thought before calling the medic personal.
The representant of the force to which the participant belonged, a middle-aged man with a tiny moustache immediately stood up and rushed at Wieland's side.
"How is my son?", he shouted.
Wieland calmed down the man.
"The wounds are not permanent and his life is not in any danger so take him to the medic team and shut up".
The man doubted for a second but he only nodded and followed the medic team, back on the platform the other two that were a couple centimeters away from Rigel's flame felt chills running down their bodies, they tried to retreat but a voice coming from the other side of the wall of flames made them halt in their place.
"Come on don't tell me that was enough to scare you two, where did all that bravery of yours go?".
The flames parted and Aster appeared in front of those two, with a smiling expression on his face.
"Let me tell you a little secret, if I wanted to, I could have covered the whole platform with my flames hahaha".
Listening to Aster's words almost all the other participants felt the color disappearing from their faces, originally those three were not the only ones that accorded beforehand to attack Aster since he kissed Aria but now… the only thing in their minds was fear.
They surely say that it is easier to be brave in group so after doubting one of the participants shouted.
"E-everyone, he can't defeat us all at the same time, let's join hands to finish him off and then we can fight each other later!!!".
With the exception of Ebbe Asher and Ward Kraft the rest of them attacked Aster, some of them used long ranged attacks while others forgot their fear convincing themselves that in the worst-case scenario the flame wouldn't kill them.
Wieland shook his head, "that kid is not someone who can be beaten by numbers", he thought before saying.
"I wonder where did the Ghale patriarch found such a little monster as a future son in law?".
"Hahaha, senior Wieland flatter me, unfortunately it was the kid who first approached my daughter and they instantly got along which resulted in they becoming close".
The other representants felt jealous of Arthur's luck, some of them had daughters and which father would not like to find a talented partner for them.
On the platform the things were heating or it would be more accurate to say they were freezing; Aster created a sphere of flames around him contrary to other people expectations the attacks whether contained an element attribute or not simply dissolved when they made contact with Rigel's flames, even the platform area below Aster's feet was being refined by the flames.
Seeing that long ranged attacks were not working the participants that were closer took out their weapons and swung them against Aster only to break midway while they touched the flames.
…
One of the participants finally couldn't hold his complains back.
"That flame is cheating, how can we fight if we can't even approach him".
Aster smiled before dispelling the flames, he rushed towards the guy that spoke and hit him on the stomach.
"Guuhhh!!!", the strong impact made the participant bent due to the pain.
"Do you perhaps expect your enemy to let you attack him? What kind of idiot are you, this flame is part of my power so why should I not use it against my enemies?".
Before the guy could say anything, Aster kicked him out of the platform.
"Get out of my sight loser and never approach Aria again unless you have a death wish!!!".
Aster turned to see the rest of the participants.
"So, is there anyone else who still wants to keep fighting, just to let you guys know but I'm no longer going to show any mercy so if you don't surrender by your own will then… I will kick your asses out of the platform myself".
A couple of seconds the other participants started leaving the platform, "what a joke it's not worth suffering for a woman's attention when the final winner won't be us anyway", is what they were thinking, after all if by some miracle they manage to beat that monster, they will still lose against Ebbe or Ward since they were the only two that were on the middle stage of the star formation realm.
Among the ones that left there were some members of the Kraft family who only entered the battle to avoid others ganging up against Ward so they were planning to forfeit once he didn't need their help anymore.
Ward Kraft walked until he was in front of Aster and gritted his teeth.
"Is that flame the only thing you can use, I'm proud of my skills with the sword, do you dare to face me with only your main weapon?".
Aster smiled before saying.
"You are only strong due to that flame of yours", is what you are thinking right hahaha, however I don't care, I don't need my flames to crush you".
He took out one of the swords he bought to train with annihilation which immediately made all the spectators to be amazed.
"This kid is either too strong or too arrogant", they thought.
After all the sword Aster was planning to use was only a low mysterious ranked sword without any spirit inscription, it was basically just a piece of metal shaped to be sharp and that was all.
Ward Kraft felt insulted.
"Fine by me, you can use that trash as your weapon just don't complain once you lose"., he shouted.
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