A Mutant's Ascension

[Rating Game Field]

"Welcome to the 3rd day of the Rating Game Tournament and today we will be witnessing the Elimination Round of the Angel Faction!!" Grayfia announced and the crowd roared in cheers. The Angels weren't like the other Factions, so they cheered their representatives in a calm manner and polite manner, though there were some oddballs among them who were cheering loudly.

"Now, I have all the Kings of the Angel Faction here on the stage with me… Just like the Devil Faction and the Fallen Angel Faction, we will be deciding the matchups with the help of these paper slips" Grayfia raised her hand, and a familiar glass bowl appeared in her hand. Then, without wasting any more time, Grayfia extended the bowl towards the Kings from the Angel Faction.

All of them picked up a paper one by one. As soon as they were done, they started to slowly open the paper slips. Moments later, the contents of the paper slips were displayed on the Magical Screens…

Number 1:- Jessica Lagerkvist

Number 2:- Nemo Raimondi

Number 3:- Kiyotora Shinra

Number 4:- Ryuu Heiken

Number 5:- Griselda Quarta

Number 6:- Caesar Villiers

After a few seconds, the contents of the Screens changed as the Matchups were brought on Screens…

1st Match:- Jessica Lagerkvist VS Nemo Raimondi

2nd Match:- Kiyotora Shinra VS Ryuu Heiken

3rd Match:- Griselda Quarta VS Caesar Villiers 

"Good!! Now that we finally have the matchups, I would ask Jessica Lagerkvist and Nemo Raimondi to stay on the stage" Grayfia said and the other Kings understood that it was their cue to leave, so they promptly left the stage, returning to the Angel Faction waiting room. 

Once again, Grayfia produced another glass bowl filled with various paper slips and then she extended the bowl towards the waiting Kings. Nemo Raimondi respectfully asked Jessica Lagerkvist to pick the paper slip. Jessica gave the man a respectful smile and she picked up one paper from the glass bowl. 

Jessica slowly opened the paper slip, revealing the contents of the paper slip for everyone to see… Well, technically not everyone since it was simply impossible for anybody in the spectators stands to see what was written on the paper slip, but the contents of the paper were quickly revealed on the Magical Screens for everyone to see. 

Jessica Lagerkvist and Nemo Raimondi were going to face each other in a 'Board Collapse' variant of Rating Game. 

After the name of the Rating Game was revealed to the crowd, only the Devil Faction part of the spectators' stand started to cheer loudly. This was the first time this variant of Rating Game had come up, so Grayfia was yet to give an explanation to the crowd. 

"Do either of you have any preferences for the Game Field?" Grayfia asked and both Jessica Lagerkvist and Nemo Raimondi looked at each other for a moment and shrugged. After a few moments, both of them turned towards Grayfia. 

"Random" both of them said at the same time with a hint of disinterest in their voice. 

"Both of the Kings have decided to go with the Random setting, so we will be randomly selecting a Game Field for them" Grayfia announced while looking towards the crowd, then she turned towards the Kings. "The Game will be starting in 10 minutes" Grayfia told them and both of them decided to wait in the Game Field along with their Team members. 

Meanwhile, Grayfia decided to explain the Game to the crowd. "Board Collapse is a variant of the normal Rating Game where both ends of the Game Field will collapse at the same time, where only the centre will remain at the end. The narrowing of the field makes it so that places to hide and escape decrease and by the end, the battle will be unavoidable" With that Grayfia finally finished her explanation and the crowd from the other Faction nodded their heads in understanding. 

After 10 minutes the Game finally started and both of the teams appeared on a massive pillar of stone. The edges of the pillar started to collapse as soon as the Rating Game was officiated. Jessica Lagerkvist was the first one to make a move, to the crowd it seemed that Jessica was planning to attack Nemo and his Team head-on, but in reality, Jessica's intentions were very different. 

She wasn't planning to attack Nemo Raimondi or his Team members. Just like Grayfia had mentioned, the battle was unavoidable, so Jessica decided to set up traps around the centre of the arena as they made their way towards the other side of the Game Field to attack Nemo. Jessica and her Team carefully bobby trapped the whole place before heading towards the other side. 

Meanwhile, Nemo was planning how to defeat Jessica and her Team members. If this was a normal Rating Game, then Nemo's strategy would have been more viable, but unfortunately, this wasn't a normal Rating Game. Traps and going to be very important in this Game. As the Game Field would continue to become smaller, the places to hide and ambush the opposing Team would also decrease. 

It was obvious that at the end, everyone would end up in the middle of the Game Field, hence the traps…

Jessica and her Team members attacked Nemo and his Team from quite some distance. Even though Nemo and his Team were taken by surprise as they weren't expecting such a rushing attack from Jessica, they still managed to defend themselves. The ones who were somewhat late to put up a barrier ended up with a few bruises and scrapes. 

As soon as Jessica and she finished launching their attacks, they decided to retreat while placing some more traps on their way. They rigged the whole place with explosion-type Spells and some other types of Spells. Nemo was smart and he noticed that something was amiss, but before he could warn his Team, one of his Knights ended up engulfed by a pillar of flames. 

Nemo finally understood what Jessica and her team had done, but that didn't mean that he could do anything about them. Looking for the traps was not only time-consuming, but at the same time, it was a thankless job at least in this setting of a Rating Game. The edges of the pillars continued to collapse, so Nemo had to keep heading forward and they couldn't even take a break. 

Jessica and her Team members were extremely tired when they returned to the centre of the Game Field and they also decided to set up an ambush before taking a break. With the amount traps they have left for Nemo, they were sure that Nemo and his Team weren't going to arrive at the centre anytime soon and their speculation was absolutely spot-on. 

It took Nemo and his team nearly an hour to reach the centre of the Game Field and as soon as they arrived at the centre of Game Field various types of Magical attacks rained down on Nemo and his Team. It wasn't surprising when Jessica was declared the winner of the 1st Rating Game. 

Now, that the 1st Rating Game of the Elimination Round was finally over, Grayfia summoned Kiyotora Shinra and Ryuu Heiken on the stage. Kiyotora Shinra allowed Ryuu Heiken to pick the paper slip from the glass bowl. Ryuu Heiken opened the paper slip only to reveal that he was going to face Kiyotora Shinra in the Yggdrasil Climb variant of Rating Game. 

Some of the spectators were disappointed while some were excited, but most of the crowd seemed to be completely neutral regarding this matter. The Game was officiated after a 30 minutes break. Neither of the Teams wanted a direct confrontation, so, fortunately, neither Team came across the other. To say that everyone was disappointed was an understatement. 

It was Kiyotora Shinra who won the match, but the spectators continued to boo him as he left the Game Field along with his Team. Even the ever polite Angels seemed to be booing at Kiyotora Shinra and in the VIP box, Michael could only chuckle sheepishly after witnessing the whole spectacle. Rating Game is a modernized version of blood sports, so the crowd was obviously going to hate you if you don't fight. 

Finally, the 3rd Rating Game was announced and after a few minutes, Griselda Quarta and Caesar Villiers found themselves standing on the stage along with Grayfia. Griselda allowed Caesar Villiers to pick the paper slip. Griselda Quarta was extremely famous in the Supernatural World. The only reason she was able to enter the Tournament was due to a technicality. 

Caesar Villiers knew that there was no way he was going to win, but he along with his Team members were still going to give it their all. All soon as the Matchups were revealed, they knew that they were going to lose. Caesar slowly opened the paper slip only to reveal that he was going to face Griselda Quarta and her Team in a simple Rating Game. Bad luck that. 

Several people felt pity for Caesar, but he tried his best to eliminate even just one member of Griselda's Team, but the opposition was simply too strong. Griselda felt like she was bullying Caesar, but there was nothing she could do. Caesar was trying his best, so Griselda decided to give him a chance so he could show what he is capable of. 

Nobody was surprised when Griselda Quarta was declared as the winner of the 3rd Rating Game… with that, the Elimination Round of the Angel Faction was finally over… 

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