Magic's Clash

Early the next morning.

At exactly nine o'clock Kathmandu time.

All the mages who had signed up for the competition gathered on the floating circular platform.

Banner stood with his girlfriend Betty, carrying his suitcase.

A pale-faced Tony stood beside them, glaring viciously at Leon in the air.

And Wanda and Pietro.

They all stood among the mages, facing Leon.

"I won't waste words. The purpose of these preliminaries is to select the mages who will take part in the challenge. Now, we'll begin assigning groups and battlefields!"

Leon tossed a spherical projection device into the center of the platform.

Five illusory walls of light immediately shot from the device's five seams, dividing the platform into five equal sections.

Then enormous projections appeared above all five sections at once.

Each projection displayed a list of contestants, with over a hundred names.

After every name were their defeats, times defeated, and assisted defeats.

More than eight hundred people had signed up for these preliminaries.

Leon gave each person three lives—

Being seriously injured, knocked unconscious, or forced out of bounds counted as losing one life.

Defeated mages could receive healing from Leon, then return to the field.

They had three chances in total.

"Now, please find your battle area according to the group assignments on the five lists."

Leon said, "The final candidates from each group will be decided by your performance in the melee."

"You have ten minutes to prepare. The first round will last one hour. You may begin preparing now!"

As soon as he finished speaking.

The five enormous projection screens in the air simultaneously displayed ten-minute countdowns.

The mages found their names on the screens and entered their battlefields.

"Banner, look! We're in the same area. We can team up!" Wong happily pointed at projection screen Number