"You may begin!

"

The Elder's voice echoed throughout the entire facility. The start of the battles were announced, and the crowd once again erupted into an excited uproar.

The fighter's on each stage, wasting no time at all, unleashed their strongest attacks.

Boom!

Boom!

Boom!

Each arena was immediately rocked by powerful attacks, as the participants began to fight it out.

"Gah!

"

A pained cry sounded out from one of the arena's, as the outer disciple was cleaved in half by their opponents attack. They had not even lasted a single exchange.

"Haaaaa!

"

The crowd erupted again in a wild uproar at the sight of blood and death, as the first casualty of the battles had taken place. Watching from high above, John shook his head at watching the first disciple die.

'That disciple was truly in over his head if he thought he could win a battle against an inner disciple. He didn't even last a single move, and now his greed only means that his journey has ended.'

He was not surprised that the battles could result in death. There had been no rules against killing an opponent, and so doing so was almost expected. The inner disciples on the stage right now had been personally challenged by the outer disciples, and thus were being looked down upon as the 'weakest' inner disciples.

As such, they wanted to win overwhelmingly and prove their worth as true inner disciples. It was as if they were saying that even if they were on the weaker side of inner disciples , they were still far above their pathetic outer disciple challengers.

Boom!

Boom!

Boom!

Battle arts of all colors continued to fly out on the arenas below, as the other battles continued to rage on.

"Ethan Krile, and Xunder Zoyl, make your way to stage 1 now,

" a booming voice echoed within the stadium, so loud that it drowned out the powerful battle art explosions below. The first battle had ended, and the replacements were being called up with no delay.

The two new participants immediately jumped down from the stadium stands to the arena below, making sure to make it to the arena in time. Both did, and their fight started almost immediately.

John looked at the scene and nodded his head in approval.

"They truly are pretty good at making sure there is no downtime. I guess these initial battles really shouldn't take more than half a day.

"

"Yep,

" Chase replied.

"Everyone here, other than the outer and inner disciples, are looking forward to the Core disciple battles and above, and so they want to keep things moving to get there as fast as possible.

"

John nodded his head, and turned his eyes back down to the arenas below.

"Gah!

"

Another outer disciple screamed out in pain as his body was violently thrown off the fighting platform to the grounds below. Many bones stuck out of his flesh in several areas, and a look of agonized pain wracked his face.

However, he had been lucky, as he had been eliminated by knockout, instead of death. While his recovery would take some time, it was still better than dying.

Almost immediately after, two new disciples were named to move to the platform on which the previous battle had just concluded.

Like this, battles continued to rage out for the next half day, as a constant stream of battles took place. The inner disciples won their battles in overwhelming numbers, winning at a rate of nine out of ten battles. However, occasionally there would be an outer disciple that was able to defeat the inner disciple, surprising the crowd.

Thunderous applause would greet each of these challengers, as most of them cut down their inner disciple counterparts to make a statement to all. Those outer disciples all strode back to the stadium stands with looks of elation and pride on their faces, as their fortunes had immediately changed for the better.

The sun, which had just risen at the start of the battles, was now setting over the other side of the mountains, bathing the arenas in shadows. Lightning formations immediately lit up, bathing the arena's in bright light once more.

After twelve hours of battle, almost all the participants of the first stage had battled it out. There had been nearly a thousand battles, and the battles had resulted in over six hundred deaths. Such an amount of deaths was surprising to John, as even a single death in the Heavenly Lightning Sect was a big deal, let alone six hundred in a single afternoon.

However, the sect only seemed to be driven even crazier by the sight, cheering for more and more blood.

At this moment, John frowned. 'That's pretty much everyone from what I can remember. Either I'm dead last to fight, or they didn't properly register me for the batt-'

John's thoughts were cut off by a loud announcement once again.

"And for the last battle of the outer sect group, the fighters will be Axel Gomek vs John Harren..

"

John raised his eyebrows slightly at the announcement. 'I guess I truly was picked last. Oh well, it doesn't matter.'

Such a thing would normally be considered extremely bad luck, as he would only be assigned an inner disciple opponent who had not been chosen yet. This far into the battles, only the disciples at the very top remained to be opponents, which all sought to avoid.

To John however, such a problem was trivial. He stood up, and wasting no time at all, jumped off the stadium stands. His body propelled through the air for five hundred yards before it came crashing down to his fighting platform below.

Boom!

His hard landing echoed all throughout the facility, and another boom sounded out before him immediately after. A smiling boy stared straight at him, as if John was a dead man. John stared right back, unimpressed.

"You may begin!

" the Elder's voice immediately sounded out, signaling the start of the fight.