Eight people stood in the middle of space, looking at a couple of other people.
The battle against Dawnlight was scheduled for today, and the members of Explosive Karma were rather worried.
Their Ancestor was missing.
According to their Disciplinary Elder, their Ancestor was currently mentally preparing for the battle, but they weren't entirely sure if the Disciplinary Elder was honest.
Their Ancestor should be here with them, but he wasn't.
What if he ditched the fight?
Naturally, Kyle wasn't mentally preparing for the battle.
He was currently going through a True Battle.
He hadn't completely managed to integrate his Law of Meteor in time.
90% was all he had managed.
Because of that, he stopped at the last moment and went out to fight a powerful Divine Beast.
While most members were nervous, Swamp Dragon was actually the most nervous.
He knew that Kyle might die during his battle against the Divine Beast.
The eight people from Explosive Karma looked at the ten people from Dawnlight.
Naturally, neither Organization brought all their members. After all, only five members of each Organization would be fighting today.
The others were just present to check on things.
Dawnlight brought their five combatants and five additional Fulfilled Crushers. If Explosive Karma tried something, they would intervene.
Some minutes later, two additional people arrived.
They were the two Sages who would oversee the battle.
Since Dawnlight had members of the Contrast Empire, Explosive Karma had demanded an additional referee who didn't belong to the Contrast Empire.
Of course, the other referee belonged to the Array of Stars.
The two referees would keep each other in check, making it impossible for the other one to mess with the fight.
The referee from the Contrast Empire created a Concealing Array for Dawnlight. After all, they wanted to make sure that no third party would see the fight.
As a reaction, the referee from the Array of Stars also created a Concealing Array around the other one.
Afterwards, both referees placed Barriers around the Concealing Arrays.
Like this, nobody could interfere with the fight. Not even one of the referees.
When all the Formation Arrays were placed, the referee from the Contrast Empire stepped forward.
"There will be five battles. Three Single Duels between Major Crushers. One Single Duel between Advanced Crushers. One Single Duel between Fulfilled Crushers. Due to the request of Dawnlight, there will be an additional safety check before every battle."
"When I call one of the combatants, they must swear that their Realm is not above the one stated in the document. The combatant does not need to swear that they are in that specific Realm. They only need to swear that their Realm is not higher."
The members of Explosive Karma noticed that this battle was a bit different from the previous one. Back then, they didn't have so many safeguards.
Well, why didn't they?
Money.
These referees didn't work for free. Every additional thing the referees had to do cost money.
Under normal circumstances, both Organizations paid half of the price, but in this case, Dawnlight paid all of it.
They knew that their Organization was a big target for the Array of Stars. If the Array of Stars could destroy Dawnlight, they would be able to kill a couple of extremely talented Seekers before they could become truly powerful.
It wasn't unheard of that a Unique or even Legendary Crusher went undercover in a neighboring Organization to kill a talented person.
"First fight," the referee said. "Masking Cloud, step forward."
A beautiful woman wearing a mask stepped out from the members of Dawnlight.
"I swear that I have not gone through more than three Compressions," she spoke.
The two referees looked at Masking Cloud for a couple of seconds.
If she had lied, her Karmic Luck would have dropped quite a bit, and such a sharp drop would be quite noticeable.
Masking Cloud obviously hadn't lied.
"Crackling Knuckles, step forward," the referee said.
The next moment, the pink-haired guy with the gauntlets stepped out from Explosive Karma's team.
"I swear that I have not gone through more than three Compressions," he spoke.
His Karmic Luck didn't change, showing that he hadn't lied.
The first referee looked at the second one to ask if there were any issues.
The second referee didn't make a comment.
"Combatants, enter," the first referee ordered.
Both combatants and both referees entered.
A couple of seconds later, the two referees teleported out.
Since this was a fight to the death, it wasn't that easy to tell if the fight was over or not.
For security reasons, all the Formation Arrays would keep running for one hour. The absolute longest fights between Crushers took a couple of minutes. An hour was more than enough.
Everyone anxiously waited for an hour.
When the hour was over, Swamp Dragon became a bit worried. Kyle hadn't arrived yet.
Did he die?
"We are now going to unveil the winner," the first referee said.
Both of the referees deactivated all of their Formation Arrays, revealing one person standing in the middle.
Surprisingly, the person in the middle showed the fluctuations of an Advanced Crusher. It seemed like they had only been missing a single Major Crusher for their breakthrough.
The members of Explosive Karma took deep breaths.
The victor was Masking Cloud.
Crackling Knuckles was dead.
Masking Cloud returned to her people, who congratulated her on her advancement.
Dawnlight had gained a new Advanced Crusher today.
"Second fight," the referee said. "Starry Lightshow, step forward."
The next person from Dawnlight stepped forward and swore on her Realm.
"Electron Stream, step forward," the referee said.
The Beastkin woman from Explosive Karma stepped forward and swore her oath.
Moments later, both combatants entered the arena, and the battle started.
The next hour took forever to pass.
Kyle still wasn't here.
The winner was unveiled.
When Explosive Karma saw the victor, their brows rose.
Electron Stream!
She actually won!
Swamp Dragon smiled a bit. He had fought Electron Stream before, and he believed that she was pretty talented.
He was glad that he had made the right call.
As Electron Stream returned, she looked smugly at the former members of Broken Spark who were currently present. Searing Spark, the former Sect Master, Compound Storm, Stalwart Conviction, and Holy Smite.
Except for Stalwart Conviction, the other three had always prioritized Crackling Knuckles over her. They had given him several more opportunities to increase his power.
And now, Crackling Knuckles was dead, while she was still alive.
Electron Stream couldn't remember the last time she felt this smug.
Sadly, she was still missing another Major Crusher to advance.
"Next fight. Sun Meander, step forward," the referee said.
After another oath, the referee turned to Explosive Karma. "Holy Smite, step forward."
Holy Smite also swore on his Realm, and a couple of seconds later, the battle started.
Another hour passed, and it was about time to unveil the victor.
Yet, just before the victor was unveiled, a new person arrived.
When Swamp Dragon saw the new person, he released a deep sigh of relief.
"I thought you were dead!" he transmitted to Kyle, who was currently wearing his disguise.
"Same," Kyle transmitted back. "Anyway, what did I miss?"
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