Once all the academies and prominent individuals had made their entrances, the last individual to enter the grand arena was the crown prince, who marched into the arena with a decapitated wild boar head.
*Boooo*
*Boooo*
At first Leo thought he was hallucinating, however, he later realized that he was not.
Nathan D Evanus, the crown prince of the Empire and the firstborn son of Julien D Evanus was being boo'd by the general crowd.
An odd smile spread on Leo's face, in the entire opening ceremony there wasn't one institute or individual who had faced the jeers of the crowd, however, Nathan broke that norm.
While Leo did not know why he was so unpopular, the commoners seemed to vehemently disapprove of him as he marched to his father offering him the freshly slaughtered boar head.
"Looks like you are the winner of the boar hunting competition this year as well, my son" Julien said, as Nathan fell to his knees, surrendering the boar's head to his father.
Picking it up, Julien displayed the boar head to the crowd as he spoke the same old speech that he spoke every year to signal the start of the grand tournament.
"250 years ago, Stronghaven city was nothing but a small village.
A small village where on the fourteenth moon of the ninth month, all the villagers gathered together to hunt the local boars and hold a grand feast.
At that time, the warrior who killed the biggest boar was given the most honor at the night's feast and had one of his requests fulfilled by the village chief….." Julien said, as he paused and scanned the crowd.
"250 years later, although we don't hunt boars anymore, continuing with our ancient tradition we do hold a festival, beginning on the fourteenth night of the ninth month.
While there is no longer a village chief in Stronghaven, I Emperor Julien D Evanus, do still promise to fulfill one reasonable wish of the victor of this grand tournament!" Julien said, as his speech made the crowd go bananas although it was repeated every single year.
"The youth is the future of this Empire, and for the youth participating in this grand tournament this year, my only advice to you all is this-
Try your best, so that you don't have any regrets in your heart later!
While this is not the end of your life even if you lose a fight, don't lose it by a lack of effort at least as such a failure will torment you even after decades will pass" Julien said in a serious voice as he scanned the crowd of contestants standing before him.
" Royal Academy Students….. History shows that you are always the better performing group of fighters.
You are the pride of this Empire and I expect you all to perform well this time around as well.
Open qualified contestants, you have made it to this stage with your grit and hard work alone!
You have no institute to support you, however, your passion burns the brightest!
Give the Royal Academy students a run for their money, and don't back down-" Julien said, as he played both sides by encouraging both the academy students and the general masses.
"That said..... I, Julien D Evanus, the 4th Emperor Of Unity Empire, now declare the 252nd annual Grand Tournament Open!" Julien exclaimed as the crowd erupted into cheers.
What followed was the procedure of lots being picked as the academy students and the open qualified candidates were first seeded into appropriate pools and then lots were drawn to decide the overall structure of the tournament.
With a total of 256 fighters participating, the Grand Tournament was a long format competition with lots of battles taking place in varied terrain.
While all the fights were in a 1 vs 1 battle format, from the round of 256 uptil the quarter-finals, the match conditions and stipulation in every round was unique.
For example, in the previous year, the round of 256 was held within a labyrinth, where the goal was to destroy the opponent's illuminated crystal, before the opponent destroyed his.
Two illuminated crystals were placed in two corners of the maze and both fighters had to traverse the maze and reach the other end, destroying the opponents crystal to win the round.
In such a round, it wasn't a guarantee that the better fighter would win and hence the biggest surprises always happened in this phase of the tournament.
While nobody knew where the round would take place or what sort of stipulation they would be facing, the one thing that was sure was that victors had to fight a new round every single day.
The round of 256,128,64,32,16 was to be held back to back in five straight days starting from tomorrow and hence if one picked up and injury in the early rounds, the chances of them winning in subsequent rounds reduced drastically.
Lots of 'Accidents' also took place during this phase as contestants tried to eliminate future rivals using underhanded means.
Since the lots were drawn, everyone had a clear idea as to who they would be facing if they won every match.
For Cervantez, his eyes were only on the lots of himself and 'TheBoss' as he mentally calculated a collision course for the duo.
'The semi-finals' Cervantez thought as he realized that should him and The Boss win every fight from now until they eventually meet, their showdown would take place in the semi-finals of the grand tournament.
Leo on the other hand did not care who he was facing as regardless of who he was facing or under what conditions, Leo had the confidence in his own skills to find a way to win.
Such was his pride as the number one player!
"The lots are now complete!" The official announced as he wrote the last name on the board.
With a quick scan, Leo searched for his first opponent and found it to be some player/NPC named 'Lysa'.