Chapter 346: Chapter 21: The Fenrir Guild takes front Stage Part 2
As Adrian stood in front of his opponent in a fairly leisurely manner a ten second count down appeared above the arena. It was counting down until the battle would start, but Adrian noticed that he could actually move around and start to use skills if he wanted during the count down. Henry and Joshua both took notice of this fact as well as they were watching the countdown for the fight to take place.
"Well it looks like you can prepare during the countdown if you have charge up skills or spells." Joshua said with a thoughtful look. "It makes sense. It gives spell casters and range fighters a chance to prepare and gain some distance for the fight. I'm surprised no one else has tried to move around before the fight has started up to this point."
"You would think the mages would have at least tried to channel a spell before a match or something. Maybe gain some distance so they don't have to waste time doing so at the start of the fight." Henry said with a sigh. He seemed a bit disappointed at how uncreative a lot of the people that had been fighting in the arena before were. This made everyone think of how different the fight between the martial artist and the mage that seemed to specialize in wind magic could have gone.
"Well at least Adrian will open some eyes so that in the future other fights might be a bit more interesting." Joshua said as the countdown came to an end marking the start of the fight. Adrian started to casually walk towards the martial artist with his blades to the side, but Joshua knew that with his insane reaction speed there was no way the martial artist would be able to take Adrian by surprise. Sadly the martial artist didn't know this fact and tried to take advantage of Adrian's casual approach.
The martial artist flash stepped behind Adrian the moment he came within range and lowered his body to try to attack Adrian from below expecting Adrian to react by wildly swinging behind him. What he didn't expect was for Adrian to block his fist with the pummel of one of his swords without even turning around. The level difference between them was so large that Adrian's stats were so high above the martial artist that Adrian was able to casually knock away the punch before kicking out and sending the martial artist skidding across the arena.
Before the martial artist could even get back up from his awkward position on the ground Adrian was on top of him and with one quick swing the man disappeared into particles of light showing that the battle had ended. With that everyone knew that Adrian's one strike was strong enough to be considered lethal for the martial artist. Adrian waved to the cheering crowd in the stadium before bowing and acting like he had just performed a skit on a stage. Joshua just sighed at his antics, but most of the rest of the group chuckled at the situation.
"Well how do you think the system will respond to how easily Adrian took care of the martial artist? I doubt there is anyone else who has signed up to fight at this moment that is anywhere near the level of Adrian." Joshua asked as they all waited for the next match to take place.
"If I had to guess it will probably put him up against a disadvantageous enemy next, but after that it will depend on if Adrian going out there will get some of the higher level explorers to try to get involved." Henry responded. "Although I could be wrong. The arena system does get five shots at trying to find the toughest match possible for Adrian to face."
By the time Henry had finished his explanation the next opponent for Adrian appeared on the other side of the arena. This time around they were all surprised by the fact that the next challenger was actually a swordsman just like Adrian. The swordsman was level sixty three which was the highest level competitor that they had seen outside of Adrian. Even so the difference in level was still too much to consider the match anywhere near even. That didn't even take into account that Adrian was skilled with a sword outside of just having higher stats, unless the opponent at least had experience with a sword equivalent to Victor there was no way he would be able to put up much of a fight.
"Well it seems like there's a pattern here." Henry said with a bit of a surprised look. "The arena system seems to put you up against someone with the same job as you during your second match. It must have something to do with finding out the strengths and weaknesses of the targeted competitor before its starts to try to make things more difficult."
"Makes since. It also explains why most people don't win more than three in a row." Aito said getting everyone's attention. "It's hard enough to win the third match in a row with the system putting you against an opponent geared specifically towards your weaknesses. Even if you win that match your likely too spent to deal with another opponent that is specifically picked to go after all your flaws."
The countdown for the next fight came to an end and both swordsman started charging towards each other. Within the first couple of clashes it was clear for everyone to see that Adrian had a huge advantage. His speed, strength, and reflexes were way out of his opponent's league. Whenever their swords clashed Adrian's opponent would be sent stumbling backwards and that was with him using two hands to put as much force behind his swings as possible. Adrian however was casually swinging one of his blades to knock aside his opponent's attacks. He didn't press the attack right away since he wanted to see what skills his opponent had.
Joshua could tell by the grin on Adrian's face that he was testing his opponent at the moment. His opponent was clearly on the younger side, around their age in fact. He had gotten quite far reaching level sixty-three so Joshua decided to look up his name to see if he could recruit him. Unfortunately the person was already the leader of a small guild. It seemed like the stronger members of the audience were starting to decide to join in on the fighting.
Adrian's opponent started getting frustrated at how the fight was going and started backing away while sending out an energy slash to try to create some space. The moment he did this it was like he had unleashed a mad dog as Adrian started to smile brightly before charging over. He easily cut through the energy slash before lunging towards his opponent so fast that the guy wasn't able to react in time to do anything more then throw his blade up in a desperate attempt to block.
When one of Adrian's swords swung down harshly and slammed into the opponent's blade it knocked it aside as Adrian placed the other sword to the opponent's neck. Instead of ending the match right there Adrian kicked him away and chased after him once more. It was clear to everyone at that point that Adrian was just testing the other swordsman out. Joshua knew he was trying to see if the guy was recruit worthy, but since he was the leader of his own guild Joshua highly doubted that he'd be willing to leave all the people who trusted in him behind. It was still worthwhile to see what the guy could do just in case they ended up working together in the future at some point.
As Adrian dragged the fight out Joshua got to see his opponent use all sorts of techniques. He used an interesting skill that created an illusion to make it seem like three of him were charging towards Adrian at once. It was too bad that they were just illusions so the moment Adrian couldn't feel his blade block their attacks he was already able to hone in on the real one. After that skill failed the swordsman used some kind of skill that boosted his speed allowing him to match Adrian's but that was without Adrian using his shadow step skill. Even with the boost in speed Adrian was able to easily block any attacks with his heightened reflexes making it seem like he was toying with his opponent the entire time.
When the swordsman started repeating skills Adrian decided it was time to put an end to things and move on to the next match. He caught his opponent's blade with the hilt of his sword then knocked it to the side before skewering the surprised swordsman with his other blade. Since the strike was directed at the heart, the swordsman disappeared in a flash of light marking the end of the second battle.
"That guy wasn't half bad, too bad he's already in a guild." Marcus said with a sigh.
"What kind of opponent do you guys think he will get next?" Monika asked surprising everyone at the fact that she engaged herself in the conversation on her own. Usually it took Julia jumping in first for her to get involved in a conversation.
"If I had to guess it would be some type of mage or a unique job holder if any of them have decided to get involved in the arena." Joshua said imagining someone like Lilly jumping in to fight in the arena. Dealing with four of her pets at once would be a nightmare no matter who her opponent was.
"Probably a mage. The unique job holders won't be showing up until everyone is used to the arena system. Hell you and Lilly might be the first ones with unique jobs to join." Henry said with a smile.
"What are you not planning to join?" Aito asked with a small smile.
"Maybe later, but I won't be doing any one on ones. I might join the two on two's with one of you guys." Henry responded with a disinterested look. In Joshua's mind that was Henry's way of saying that he wouldn't be doing the heavily lifting when it came to showing off the guild's potential to prospective recruits.
Before anyone could respond to that the next match was starting up. It came as no surprise to anyone that Adrian's opponent this time was a mage, and by her looks and the fact she started off by backing up as the countdown started and channeling a spell that created a large bubble of water around her, she was most likely more experienced than any of his other opponents. The bubble was relatively thin and easy to see through so it didn't seem like much of a defense, but Joshua knew that the mage had seen Adrian fight at this point so she must have had a use for it.
The mage then created another quick spell that took a few more seconds to cast that created a constant rain over the arena. She finished her last few seconds of preparation by creating a fog around the arena that made it hard for both contestant to see. Luckily the camera's filming things quickly made a filter that made it easy for everyone to see. Joshua could see the smirk start to form on Adrian's face as he seemed to be excited that his opponent might be a bit more challenging this time around.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
VivitheGreat
VivitheGreat Adrian just being Adrian this chapter. For some reason the next chapter turned into a fairly long fight that I initially planned only to be a few paragraphs, but the more I wrote the more the fight grew and the more I started thinking of expanding on the other charcter in the fight. Hope you guys enjoy it.
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