The Challenging round as it name implies involves challenges between the students.

There are two types of challenges in this. The first one is the freshmen or the equivalents, which means the people who are in the Initial Stage of Divine Plane Initiation challenging the winners of the tournament.

They can come forward and challenge any of the students that ranked in the Freshman tournament.

However, it is clearly apparent that the winners are winners for a reason.

So, once these challengers announce their challenge, three people of the same level can come out from the audience and challenge them. Once the challenger defeats these three people, they can recover and finally fight with the winner they decided on.

The second type of challenge is simple.

The Grade 2 Seniors, who are in the Middle-stage of Initiation can step forward and challenge the winners.

The first type of challenge is for the students to test themselves against the winners and understand or learn their gaps.

The second type of challenge is for the seniors to test their juniors. It is also not a fight for them to go all out. The referee can interfere any time stop the fight if the fights get serious.

Simply put, this is just another phase of fighting within this competitive space. This is to make the winners be in that competitive zone and not let this win get to their heads.

Once the start of the challenging round was announced, a few people from different academies stood up. This Is not just a place of testing, this is also a place for them to get some prestige. Even if they cannot defeat the winners, they can put up some good fight and in turn earn some prestige for themselves.

As soon as the challenges started, Sam saw the pattern that he expected to. Not just him everyone knows this pattern and no one could do anything about it.

Whenever a winner is challenged, for example when Bronte was challenged, three people from Zeus academy stood up and fought with the Challenger. They acted as the gate keepers to reach Bronte.

Only, when the challenger defeated all three of them, he got to challenge Bronte.

The same applied to the other people as well.

Even though these winners might not have a good friend circle within the academy, the students of the academy are still willing to step forward and act as gate keepers.

They are desperate to make sure that their academy winner keeps all the prestige that he gained in the tournament and no challenges could take part of it away.

The heat of the challenges soon grew and Sam noticed that some of the marked students in Pearl's list are stepping up as well. He decided that this is the best time for his plan to be executed.

He gave a mental signal.

From within the a man stood up.

He wore dark cloak and hood covering his face up. The cloak is clearly enhanced with all sorts of inscriptions to hide his face away. He also had a large stick in his hand, which he is using like a walking staff. He slowly walked to the stage and looked at the group. His gaze landed on Vidyuth.

This is the first challenge for Vidyuth.

"I would like to take down the fake ranker.

" The challenger spoke in a low tone. However, everyone could hear it. The faces of the audience and the Deans changed.

Dean Wharton had a grin on his face as soon as he heard these troublesome words. Vidyuth, Bronte and White are officially removed from the rankings of the tournament. They didn't get the rewards from the Thor Academy too.

However, the academy realm is a place where strength is valued and they are in the Olympian realm. So, they just decided to honor them as rankers in this regional felicitation. None of the people in the audience objected, because… who wants to be enemies with the Zeus Academy and the rest of the Olympian Academies?

Of course, everyone can think of a name instantly, but an average sane person wouldn't want that.

However, here came a guy in a dark cloak covering his face up and throwing a challenge to the Zeus Academy's face along with an insult.

Pearl who saw this is furious once again. She might have lost the freshmen tournament, however, she still believed she could make a comeback and she also believed that she is the future of the Zeus Academy.

So, someone is challenging the Zeus Academy, and that makes her furious.

She wanted to take this guy down a notch. She gestured for a couple of freshmen from the Zeus Academy to make a move. She also stood up.

She will be the gatekeeper and she will take this guy down grandly. That will restore some of her lost prestige.

The Challenger stood there and looked at the three challengers.

"Let's finish this quickly. Do you guys want to come together? It will make things easier.

"

His voice is low, calm, but a bit raspy. As if he hadn't spoken for a long time.

Pearl frowned but didn't show any response to such obvious provocation. One of the other two went on to the stage.

"Fight.

"

The referee announced.

The Zeus Academy student, let's just call him Vidyuth's first gatekeeper. He took out a spear and lunged at the challenger. The Challenger didn't show any reaction, while the first gatekeeper closed the distance in an instant.

Just when the spear was a few inches away, the challenger switched the stick from his right hand to the left and tapped it on the ground.

*TAP*

The sound that came out is nothing special. It just sounded like a wooden stick hitting the ground, which is exactly what happened. However, the gatekeeper froze and fell down on the floor.

Everything about his body just froze and that includes his energy as well. As soon as he hit the ground, the backlash from the attack he was about to make hit the body.

"ARGHH…

"

He groaned in pain and spat out blood crazily. He tried to stand up and looked around in a daze. He didn't know what happened and he didn't understand how he got injured.

He never felt this level of confusion and he cannot remember the last two seconds. He can remember almost reaching his opponent and he can remember hitting the ground and suffering the backlash. However, the reason why he stopped and what he felt when he stopped? That he cannot remember, no matter how hard he tries.

He stood up and tried to channel his energy.

"What did you do to me?

" He asked through his gritted teeth and broken voice. He held the spear tightly and lunged forward once again. However this time, even before his foot could leave the ground, his body froze. He fell on the ground and the backlash hit once again.

He spat some more blood.

The gatekeeper stood up once again, tried to move, froze, fell, and bled.

Everyone watched this bizarre scene. Every time the gatekeeper fell, he felt more pain than before and he suffered more damage than before.

However, he also felt more rage building up and he could feel some compelling thoughts making him rush forward again and again.

"STOP.

"

After the seventh time, the referee stopped.

He looked at the gatekeeper and felt pity inside his heart. The gatekeeper appeared pale and he painted the stage with his blood.

The attendants came and took him away.

The hooded figure turned to the second keeper and said.

"The offer still stands, you can still bring her and attack me together.

"

The second gatekeeper looked nervously at Pearl, who is still focused on the challenger.

Seeing that she had no intention of stepping forward along with him, he went by himself. He also didn't hesitate like his predecessor and just attacked.

However, the same phenomenon happened once again.

Whenever he was about to make a move, he froze and got injured by his own backlash. The next minute felt like Deja Vu to everyone. By now, everyone is wondering who this cloaked guy is. They would like nothing more than to learn his identity.

The second gatekeeper was defeated soon enough.

Everyone felt pity for him.

To think that someone will be defeated by their own energy backlash… few things could be more embarrassing than that.

Pearl stepped forward and spoke.

"Who are you? Which Academy do you belong to?

"

"If you want the answer, defeat me.

"

"Then let's make it quick.

"

She extended her hand and the water elemental energy surged. Some patterns appeared on her arms.

*TAP*

The familiar tapping sound. However, Pearl just stood there without even showing any change in her expression. However, at that moment, a surge of pure water elemental energy shot out of her back and exploded.

*SCREECH*

A loud screaming noise came as a very ugly ghost manifested out of thin air.

*TAP*

The challenger tapped again and the ghost disappeared along with that attack.