The Master of Uradan

From what Rohan could see, there were more than five thousand fighters for each clan. Such a number was at the same time incredible and low. Even if only two hundred people were composing each clan, then it meant that there were at least a million members around Rohan.

But since a lot of those clans were living inside the internal ring, and almost all of them had more than a thousand members, plus the members of the four great clans, the true number of spectators was simply terrifying.

But even so, the Barren Lands were taking a large chunk of the continent, and the fact that there were so few clans in this large area was speaking to itself. In the future, there would probably be no one living inside the Barren Lands.

The ranking for the gathering was a simple system, the fighters will be chosen randomly, and a duel opposing two of them will take place. The loser did not fight anymore, and the winner continued for the next fight against another winner.

There were two rankings, and the first one was the general one. It was also the ranking that decided which quantity of magical water the clan had the possibility to take with them.

Of course, with so many people, there wouldn't be a single fight at a time. A large area had been made for this gathering at the foot of the mountain a bit away from the city. The millions of people couldn't all see what was happening but it wasn't a matter for the great clans.

There were four stone arenas, each under the leadership of one of the great clans. Then in each of those areas, there would be 25 fights happening at the same time. Everything was permitted, but killing was forbidden.

Even if all fights were within ten minutes, which was considerable, the first batch of duels wouldn't take all the morning. But even so, the gathering would take a few days at least.

As Rohan was standing among all the participants, he also understood a couple of things. The first one was that among those five thousand and more fighters, less than three hundred were warriors, and not even thirty were stronger than a rank 1 Beginner Warrior.

His original assumption that the proportion of warriors in the Barren Lands was higher than his homeland that had benefited from the strange red cristal for many years had clearly crumbled.

If he was taking the time to count them all, Rohan even believed that there were not even five hundred warriors among the several millions of nomads living on the Barren Lands.

The second point he understood while looking at every fighter here, was that he couldn't be first. It was simply impossible, as he already had seen the might of such a warrior. Among all the warriors Rohan could identify, this one shone the most. The amount of mana inside his body was far more than those of the other Beginner Warrior.

This man was a rank 6 Intermediate Warrior. Rohan could maybe win if he used his spell as the opponent wouldn't protect himself from that. Plus, as the only intermediate warrior out there, he was probably highly of himself and would think like fighting a group of insects.

Taking those possibilities, Rohan felt he had a good chance to win against this man. But the question now was to know if he wanted to do so.

There wasn't any chance in the Barren Lands to learn any spell. Even simply becoming a wizard was impossible. Rohan already guessed that once he would show off his strength of a rank 5 Beginner Warrior even though no one had ever seen him, it would make the great clans suspicious about him.

There was simply no chance for a warrior to become a rank 5 Beginner Warrior without him appearing the last years at any time. Or at least, it was hard to believe. Thus, it was normal for them to question if he was really from the Barren Lands. But if he ever showed off his wizard power, this suspicion would then transform itself on certitude.

The gathering was for the clans of the Barren Lands, and the outsiders had no right to participate. He could only resign himself from becoming the first one. He would have to find a way to enter the center of this mountain either way and being the first one to enter might only help a bit.

While Rohan was thinking to himself what he should do, the leader of the Bluekraken clan was talking in front of all members surrounding the third arena. That would be where Rohan would fight the first duels, but he didn't care about what he was talking about. It was just a boring speech that all nobles were able to make as well.

The men and women in power were almost all the same, and the place, even if it was the poorest of the world, did not change the thirst of power they could feel, as well as the pride they wanted to show.

Before long, the first fighters were called. It was completely random, and the start was a bit boring for Rohan.

Some duels only lasted for a few exchanges, while others were taking three to four full minutes. They were the best fighters from their clan, and although a large part of them were simple humans, they were still experts among them. And a fight between experts only took a few hits for the winner to be decided.

The fights quickly preceded each other, and soon, Rohan heard his name being called. It was the time for the Blackwolf clan to shine.

He walked toward the arena, and stood in the middle of the stone platform, waiting for his opponent. This one took some time to arrive, and Rohan felt as if this man was shaking from fear.

Was he that scary?

The other fighter stood in front of Rohan and waited for the signal to be launched. Before the duel could begin, the man asked a question, stunning Rohan.

"A…are you a warrior? Since you are from the Blackwolf clan, I believe so, right?" It was now obvious that this man didn't want to fight against a warrior.

He was the strongest of his small clan. Although killing was forbidden, there were still accidents, and if he had his arm cut off at the end, it was only his fault for being weak. But if he ever became a cripple, his clan risked sinking.

'That might be even more boring actually.'

"Yes, I'm a warrior." Rohan sighed as he answered. He didn't even unsheathe his weapon, as he knew where this was going.

After all, the 25 duels finally stopped and the other fighters took place in the large arena, the signal was launched: the duels started.

Like Rohan had guessed, the man quickly yelled that he was giving up and left the arena as fast as he could as if he was scared for his life. Were all warriors terrifying for this man to run away that fast?

Rohan was thus easily decided as one of the winners of the first batch and got down from the stone platform under the thundering voices of the few members of the Blackwolf clan watching him. In contrast with those people overjoyed, Rohan was feeling disappointed.

Maybe he should fight with all his might against the Intermediate Warrior at the end, otherwise, it would be really boring.