Chapter 8: Veteran fighter
"On the north side, we have The Beetles!" Says the emcee.
The barrier disappears, allowing 4 people to enter the arena. Each of them has a well built and slim physique with an Irunium Sword. A sword made from the scale of an ogre, famous for its durability and power.
"And on the south side... We have Loi!"
The audience gasp once again when I enter the arena. Some start to sigh and call me arrogant. Others start to chat with one another and lose interest in this match as the result is already clear from the start.
I look around at the auditorium to see my family in the first-row seat with their jaws dropping wide open. I smile and wave at them.
"Now, let the first match begin!"
My opponents stare at me and smirked.
I sense killing intent. Looks like the Igniz family didn't want me to fight their son but plans to eliminate and kill me as soon as possible.
All four of them are at the sixth stage of Qi Condensation.
The one at the front decides to dash towards me. His friends are just watching him.
He appears in front of me and attempts to decapitate me as I duck.
!
The guy follows up with a slash down as I jump back to avoid it.
He takes the chance to thrust the sword toward me.
This guy is much more experienced with combat than Carl but...
I deflect his sword and I immediately appear behind him. A blink later, ten slashes appear on random areas of his body, injuring him as he collapses onto the ground.
!!!!!!
The audience starts to regain interest in the match.
I look back at his body, his wounds are not recovering. The barrier surrounding the arena is supposed to protect participants from fatal injuries as well as recovery from wounds. However, he is not being healed which means that the barrier has been tampered with.
I point at the other 3 and beckon them to come at me.
"Tch. Being cocky when you are about to die." One of them mumbles. The referee pretends not to hear that.
All 3 of them charge at me.
One comes from the front, the other two from the back. The one at the front is thrusting a sword at my chest, the other two are slashing from above.
Seeing that the one at the front is slightly faster, I dodge his attack first by stepping aside before I grab his collar and pull him behind me.
!!!!
The two accidentally slash their teammate from the shoulder to his hips on both sides, creating an X. He coughs out blood before collapsing on the ground.
"UOGHHH!!!!!!"
The audience cheers in excitement to see a solo play against a team.
"Isn't that guy the weakest in the 2nd-year cohort?"
"Was he hiding his strength?"
Gossips and rumours spread like wildfire among the audiences.
I grab his Irunium sword and wield it in my left hand. With two swords in my hand, I change my stance.
I point the sword on my left towards my opponent and place my sword on the right over and behind my shoulder.
"Shit..."
They finally noticed. They have little to no chance of winning. I have two swords and with my current stance, they can neither ambush me nor overpower me.
...
"We were paid..." One of my opponents says.
"But..." Says the other.
I can hear you...
They sigh and lay their swords flat on the floor. "We surrender." They say.
"WOAHH!!!"
The air was filled with cheers and claps. I look around and finally found Carl and his father, Henry in the third row. Carl is grinding his teeth in anger as he glares at me. His right arm is in a cast but his left arm is gone. The man beside Carl, brown, combed hair and brown eyes in a brown tuxedo, Henry. Henry is biting his fingernails as he scratches his hair. It looks like he didn't expect me to be this strong.
"What a miracle! It's no wonder that this young man is so confident to participate alone! Let's see how far he can go, the first match will go to him! Loi, the winner!" Says the Emcee.
My family wasn't cheering as all of them are heaving sighs of relief.
A team of healers went into the arena and carried the wounded out.
Although the majority of the audience is satisfied with the match, most of the nobles in the auditorium were anxious and worried. A powerful commoner like me suddenly appeared after all. The King, in particular, isn't interested at all. That guy is just sipping his wine while staring into space.
King Ardeus. A man who ascended to the throne by being vicious. Plotting against his brothers and killing them off one by one, that is Ardeus.
Two young teens are sitting beside the king. Both of them have golden hair as well as yellow eyes, they are Prince Kaney and William. If I am not wrong, Kaney will be assassinated in the future by William a year later. After William takes the throne, countless people suffered under his disgusting "strong rules the weak" rule. The capital became a lawless city.
However, after just another year of his ruling, a rebellion rises and overthrew William. My father was the leader of the rebellion. As for the next king after the rebellion, it will be Julius, Mina's lover. That's if the future doesn't stray too far from my previous timeline.
I walk out of the arena and returned to my room.
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Three matches passed as I enjoy my coffee. The participants were generally at the 6th stage of Qi Condensation and a minority is in the first stage of sword intent.
"That was an intense match! But the next one won't be any less! Let's welcome team Sirius at the north gate and team Eggie at the south!" Says the emcee.
Sirius, that is Mina's team. It's finally here.
3 people enter the arena from the north. The one at the front is Mina. There is a red-haired boy with blue eyes standing to the right of Mina. He has several plasters around his face and elbow with a yellow shield attached to his back. The girl on the left of Mina is covered with plasters too. Did they go through some kind of training?
The girl has brown hair tied up in a ponytail with black eyes. Judging by the thin sheath on her hips, she is using a rapier.
The boy is the same height as Mina but the girl is slightly shorter.
Their opponent consists of 5 people, 2 girls and 3 boys. A boy and girl are using bows while the other pair is using regular swords. The remaining big guy is using a greatsword. All 5 of them are at the 8th stage of Qi condensation.
"A team of 4th years is going against a team of 2nd years! Not to mention, the 2nd year this time at the bottom of the rankings just like our first solo contestant, will this be another thrilling match? Let's find out!"
A whistle is blown, indicating the start of the match.
The boy with a greatsword charges forward first followed by the two teammates using a sword. he appears in front of Mina immediately and slams the giant chunk of metal down. At the exact moment, before the weapon could touch Mina, the red-haired boy steps in with his shield and deflects the greatsword.
*BOOOOM!!!*
!!!!
That guy... The shield he is holding isn't strong enough to withstand the immense blow of that giant greatsword. So instead of blocking, he breaks the momentum by deflecting it with his shield, shifting the momentum to the side.
The brown-haired girl steps in at that moment and thrust her rapier at the boy.
!
The opponent wielding the greatsword sets up a barrier as the rapier was too fast. However, a red aura was surrounding the rapier and pierced through the barrier, sending the guy flying back.
Sword intent stage 3!
The audience gasps in excitement. The pair of opponents following the big guy take that chance to ambush red hair boy and brown hair girl from behind but Mina grabs both of them by their heads and slams them to the ground.
The onslaught did not stop, a rain of arrows was already coming toward Mina's team. Mina sighs and nods to the red-haired boy. He holds up his shield before slamming it onto the ground, creating a drastic shockwave that reflected the arrows. His teammates are perfectly fine as Mina has already set up a barrier.
...
The remaining two drop their bows and raised their hand.
The audience starts to cheer loudly as if they are happier about the victory than the contestants are.
"Another amazing miracle! Are the people at the low ranking pretending to be weak to set a strong impression at the tournament? Haha! Let's keep an eye out on this team as well, this match goes to the Sirius!"
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Side Character detected nearby.
[Eden Pine]
Extract plot armour?
[Yes][No]
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Side Character detected nearby.
[Kil Jamie]
Extract plot armour?
[Yes][No]
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