Rise Of The Dragon Emperor

After Ronan's move most of the contestants were rattled and the courage they had gathered by banding together was instantly blown to smithereens as 12 of them could not even take one casual attack from Ronan.

Those that did manage to evade the attack or somehow withstand the damage without fainting now looked into Percy Draco's cold eyes and realised that they had absolutely no chance of winning.

Nobody wanted a voluntary beating and the difference between the unascended themselves and the ascended Draco brothers was as clear as night and day.

There was absolutely no possibility of them even landing a single punch on their opposition as the only thing they could do now was to endure for as long as possible.

The various clan leaders whose scions fell by a single attack by Ronan felt resentful towards the second prince as they felt that he had been too ruthless . However in their hearts they knew that it was the weakest attack in Ronan's arsenal probably and it was the weakness of their descendants to not being able to withstand even that.

The 5 that remained standing now had a psychological battle to fight as they could either defend against Percy's attack and subject themselves to pain and suffering , or they could surrender and quit at this moment.

This was a critical moment in the round 3 selections as now the judges observed the temperament of those that were standing as there was no cure for cowardice.

Those that faltered at this moment simply did not deserve their internal slot as they were sure to face monsters much like Ronan or even stronger in the upcoming showdown.

As Percy chanted his spell , one of the contestants who was scared out of his wits chose to surrender at that moment , reducing the number of contestants other than Percy and Ronan to only 4.

The clan leader of the one contestant who surrendered hid his face in shame , as the ones who passed out to Ronan's attack were better than him who chickened out.

Percy used the ' Fire breath ' attack on the remaining people as a massive flame enveloped all four of them , and each of them defended from it using their own methods.

One made a mud wall to protect himself. One used a Gale palm spell , while two used the water wall spell.

Although Percy's attack was strong , the four managed to block his D ranked spell and come out unscathed as the crowd erupted in cheers as-to this exchange of moves.

Percy felt slightly enraged by this development as Ronan's D ranked move had floored 12 people , yet his could only deter 1.

Not willing to take such insult lying down , he upped his attack spell to a C ranked spell ' Fire Vortex ' , as a flaming tornado spinning at high speed moved towards the four contestants.

This time the move that Percy had used was significantly stronger than the last one and the heat it eminated could be felt even in the stands that were sitting several meters away.

The four contestants did their best to slow down the tornado , however in the end it engulfed all four of them giving them first and second degree burns.

Two more fainted while two more lost nearly 50% of their hair and had burn marks all over their bodies.

The round was hence concluded with the four people standing being named as the four finalists however the clan leaders of the various clans were not at all happy with how things turned out to be.

Seriously injuring enemies during the fight was prohibited and the enforcer of that rule had to be Augustus , however he still let the various contestants be burnt to a crisp by his grandsons attack which made the others feel unfair.

Augustus himself had nothing to say in Percy's defense , but he did not think Percy was guilty of any crime either . How was he supposed to fight if he could not even use C ranked moves against some of the best talents of the nation?

The fact of the matter was that both the Draco boys were simply on another level compared to the other kids , hence any move that they used seemed like a bullying attack that could end the life of kids to the others.

In reality this was not even 20% of their true strength that they had used and should Percy really want to harm his enemies he could have easily killed them with a snap of his fingers.

However since such matters needed to be handled seriously , Augustus decided to deduct points from Percy's overall score and give the best possible herbs and compensation to the clans whose scions were injured.

Hence solving the issue diplomatically , he then proceeded to sit with the council to decide the rankings of the four participating contestants from Avalon.

There were going to be four ranks give out

such that rank 1st and 4th would fight in Group A of the tournament while 2nd and 3rd would fight in group B or th tournament.

To give the country of Avalon the maximum chance to win , one needed to keep both Percy and Ronan in two seperate groups while depending on the capabilities of the other two place them 3rd and fourth.

Since there were only 4 that were left standing at the end , the selectors had no other job left to do but to grade them and place them into ranks .

After careful deliberation of strengths and possible opponents , it was decided that Ronan was best placed in group A , hence with a unanimous vote of all the judges present he was named number 1 ahead of Percy in the internal selections , spearheading avalon's cause!

This decision sparked intense debate from the audience who had long wondered which of the two princes was stronger, the fiery first one or the cold second one , and today it seemed like the second one was taking the cap.

Number 2 was also unanimously voted to be Percy , with a bit of negetive marking on his score , he was ultimately placed lower than Ronan hence shoved into group B .

Number 3 was a major clan descendant and a Earth elemental user by the name of ' Udit '.

While number 4 was a water elemental user from Sierra's clan , called ' Rana '.

With this declaration the internal selections drew to a close , as percy feeling guilty for his show of strength rushed to the infirmary to check on the people he injured.

In his heart he was only frustrated for a second which lead to him carelessly using more power than needed leading to injuries , because Ronan's attack was more effective than his own.

He was going completely mental these days as his desire to beat Ronan became an unquenchable thirst. It seemed as if the faster he ran towards that goal the more unreachable it became as his little brother effortlessly seemed to outpace him.

The internal selections were a reality check for Percy as in all 3 rounds Ronan had outclassed him without even trying his best .

He did not understand how without proper resources or structured training routine Ronan was able to grow as strong as he did in his years of exile , but he had came back stronger than ever .

In terms of everything from his physical prowess to his mental fortitude to his elemental control he seemed to surpass Percy by a fair margin , as finally Percy felt the weight of the talent disparity between the two.

The gap between a 6 n a half star talent and a perfect 9 star one that seemed to be impossible to bridge.

Uptil this point and even in the academy Percy had only met weaker talents while the best one he met was a 7 star .

However with his hardwork and work ethic he was always leagues ahead of the seven star talent in the academy , making him feel as if hardwork could conquer all in the end.

But looking at Ronan he finally began to understand that while talent without hardwork is nothing , when a talent does have a hardworking mindset he becomes a beast that is simply unstoppable.

Ronan was one such beast , and now Percy needed a way to somehow beat that beast one last time before he let him surpass him for good.

Looking at the heavens he prayed strongly ' Not yet lord Shiva .... not yet ! '.

*******

( Meanwhile the night king )

The night king flew into a fit of rage as he heard his generals report that he lost all his soldiers and was humiliatingly chased by a world government official.

The night king who had regained his youthful aura after drinking the bloods of countless humans , said " So you donot find the wherebouts of the phoenix clan , you do not find the information on the eternal flame , you lose your legion and finally you bring shame to my name .... Has the millenium long sleep messed with your brain general? THAT YOU STILL DARE SHOW YOUR FACE ? ".

" M-m-my king let me expl.... ". the general tried to pull off an explanation however

SPLAT.... , the night king decapitated his general before he could utter a single word more.

Seething in rage he looked at his other subordinates and said " Failure .... means death! ".