Reborn: Apocalypse Ready. War Goddess by My Side novel Chapter 558

Chapter 558 Second Round

“Let’s skip the ceremony and move straight into round two, the top ten ranking matches!

“Everyone who landed in the top twenty, step up and draw your lots!

“The first round eliminates ten competitors outright. Anyone eliminated gets one shot at a revival challenge, where they can pick any opponent they believe they can defeat.

“Win that challenge, and you take their spot. Lose it, and there’s no second chance.

“After that, it’s ten fighters narrowed down to five. Anyone eliminated there still gets one reviva challenge against the remaining five. Lose that fight, and you’re out for good.

“Five narrows to three. We draw lots again, one competitor gets a bye, and the loser gets one final revival challenge. The pattern continues from there.

“Finally, the top three will face off in a set of head to head matches to decide the ultimate winner.

“Remember the rules. No lethal force. No origin energy equipment of any kind. Personal weapons are permitted regardless of tier.”

The moment Robby’s words settled over the arena, the whole crowd stirred with restless energy, especially the twenty competitors who’d made it into the top rankings.

The battle that would decide everything had finally arrived.

This first match alone would carve out the top ten, and losing meant walking away with absolutely nothing. That was the brutal truth of it.

This round was about to drive every last competitor half out of their mind.

Simply cracking the top ten came with real rewards.

And beyond that, the winner would earn clearance to use S-rank weapons, a prize worth fighting for with everything they had.

Robby swept his hand through the air.

“Begin the drawing!”

All twenty competitors lined up in order, drawing their lots one by one.

The moment everyone had been waiting for had finally arrived.

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Finish

Steven made sure Bianca and Fiona drew their lots ahead of him, giving himself full control over which numbers were left by the time his own turn came.

As the line worked its way through the draw, Steven caught a glimpse of both Bianca’s and Fiona’s slips right away.

Neither of them had drawn a truly dangerous opponent, which put his mind at ease.

Then it was finally Steven’s turn.

Every competitor still waiting in line felt their nerves tighten all at once.

Nobody wanted the rotten luck of drawing that lunatic as their opponent.

One man had racked up more than twenty thousand points on his own, more than the entire combined score of Orroux Academy’s whole roster.

Nobody in their right mind wanted to stand across from him.

Every last one of them held their breath, tense as drawn bowstrings.

Steven glanced around the group, the corner of his mouth curling upward.

Too bad none of the Gordons had made it onto the stage. So who would he go after instead?

Griffin wasn’t worth the effort right now. Beating him meant nothing, since he’d walk right bac through the revival challenge without breaking a sweat.

The no kill rule made that a dead end anyway. Even if Steven beat him half to death, Orroux Academy’s top healers would patch him right back up in no time.

And Griffin wasn’t foolish enough to throw everything into a fight he couldn’t win. He’d hold back and conserve his strength regardless.

So Griffin was off the table entirely.

That left the Houston family as the natural target. That was the price Jacques would pay for what he’d done.

Not every major family had a representative standing among these twenty competitors. Tristan had already been eliminated.

The Kingston family wasn’t on Steven’s radar at all.

He barely knew anyone from the Fraser family.

And the Greenwood family didn’t even register as a consideration.

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Finished

That left only the Houston family as his target.

Their representative stood at the peak of the Three-Sigil tier.

A faint smile tugged at Steven’s lips. He’d knock the guy down first, and whether he managed to claw his way back through a revival challenge would be entirely up to him.

In truth, both the Houston family and their young competitor were praying with everything they had that Steven wouldn’t draw their number. If he did, retaliation felt like a certainty.

Steven reached into the box and closed his fingers around a slip. It read number eight.

He lifted his hand and revealed it to the crowd.

Over in the Houston section, both Jacques and Miles’ faces went pale in an instant.

The Houston family’s competitor felt the color drain from his own face just as fast.

This was over before it even started.

There was no doubt in his mind that Steven would come after him with everything he had.

He almost wanted to blame Jacques for dragging him into this mess in the first place. Why on earth had he decided to provoke a monster like this?

Everyone else in the lineup let out a quiet breath of relief the moment they saw Steven’s number, like they’d just survived some near miss with death itself.

The drawing wrapped up.

Robby swept his hand through the air again.

“Let the elimination rounds begin! Competitor number one, step forward!”

Steven and Bianca made their way back to the sidelines to watch.

Bianca asked, “Steven, do you think Fiona can beat the guy she’s facing?”

Steven smiled and nodded. “Don’t worry about her. She’s more than ready. She’s a completely different fighter than she used to be.”

Together they watched Fiona step onto the stage.

She’d drawn the number one slot.

Her opponent came from a different mid-sized city, a Three-Sigil fighter with a hard,

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Chapter 558 Second Round

determined look in his eyes, clearly ready to throw everything he had into this fight.

Fiona, meanwhile, wore an expression of pure, untouchable calm.

She looked like a lotus blooming in the middle of winter, and every eye in the stadium found itself drawn to her long, graceful legs as she moved.

A cold, crisp aura began to bloom around her.

In that moment, Fiona had shed every trace of softness she once carried. With her straight- bladed saber drawn, she radiated the kind of presence that could stare down an entire army without flinching.

She lifted her gaze toward a single point in the stands.

Her father, Jameson, sat there watching.

Fiona’s eyes held steady, unwavering.

She wanted him to see, with his own eyes, that the path she’d chosen was still a good one.

She’d carved out her own

stride no

heights that belonged entirely to her.

Her future was hers to decide.

walking forward alongside everyone else, chasing new

And she fully intended to build a life worth living.

Jameson seemed to read every ounce of meaning behind his daughter’s gaze, though his expression never shifted, not even slightly.

Fiona stood tall, blade raised, radiant with fierce, unshakable spirit.

She leveled her blade at her opponent.

The challenge in her stance couldn’t have been clearer.

Her opponent let out a sharp shout and unleashed everything he had, pouring every last drop of his strength into the opening clash.

He surged forward in an instant.

Fiona’s expression never wavered, calm as still water.

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