——————————————-
Slace had arrived at the tournament area, and lots of fighters were already there. He then noticed the librarian waving for him to come over, and he did hesitantly.
"What is it?"
The librarian responded.
"I have to be here to get you enrolled, you know?"
Slace sighed; it was expected. Either way, he just followed the librarian as she said her name at the front.
"Livia."
Livia then let Slace go forward next as he said his name, giving the fake one from earlier, and handed the guards the ticket.
"Ecals."
They were then accepted and told to wait until the tournament started as the guards gave Slace a match board saying who was going to fight each round.
Livia walked behind Slace, peeking a look with a smirk, teasing him.
"Seems like you're in the first round; don't get nervous and bail on me."
He sighed as he had an apathetic look.
"I couldn't really care less."
Some of the fighters heard that glaring at Slace with anger and annoyance, he was really underestimating this tournament.
That's when one of the people walked forward; he was pretty buff and built, donning simple but effective armour and having two axes as his handle. Slace turned to look at him as the man spoke, looking down at Slace.
"Either you've never been to this tournament before, or you're just cocky. Either way, you shouldn't really underestimate this tournament; otherwise, you'll face hate and consequences."
The man just seemed to be warning Slace; despite him being quite tall and jacked, he was actually a nice person at heart.
"What's your name? My name is Bjornulf."
Slace simply replied with a cold glare; he didn't care if people hated him, he didn't care for his reputation, and if they didn't know his true identity, he would never care.
"Call me Ecals… I won't change my mind; this tournament is pathetic and a waste of time for a prize that isn't worth the audience's fake cheers, but everyone needs money."
Livia knew he would say something like this as she just stood there watching the whole encounter. Bjornulf then suddenly grinned widely, taking an interest in Slace.
"At first I thought you were just a hothead, but you might actually be pretty fun to fight…"
Bjornulf then walked off waving goodbye, laughing loudly, and very happy.
"Wait till we meet again, friend! When we do it, it'll be in the arena!"
Slace quietly remarked to himself, annoyed.
"I'm not your friend…"
Livia mocked Slace slightly, cackling under her breath.
"Already creating a bad reputation for yourself? That's not unexpected of you."
Livia was right; because of that encounter, every fighter there was aware of Slace and giving him looks, although he didn't care that much about it. He simply ignored Livia sitting down and waiting for the tournament to start.
——
Noon eventually came, and every fighter had arrived, now in the arena being introduced to the public as this year's fighters.
This was a mandatory event everyone in the kingdom had to come to, so the colosseum was quite huge.
Nobody had their weapons on them, as it was a safety procedure; the weapons would be held by the fighter's representatives until the battles began (like the librarian for Slace), despite them all being in the underground chambers of the colosseum or spectating until it was their fighter's round.
Cheers filled the colosseum from all sides. Slace could tell lots of the citizens were faking it, but some of the citizens were happy because of the day off.
He also saw Nao in the line of fighters, but they didn't communicate with each other.
Bjornulf laughed; he was right beside Slace as he spoke proudly, his head held high.
"It's always fun to fight with a crowd watching, don't you agree?"
Slace simply shook his head, not really caring either way.
"No, it's not."
Before Bjornulf had the chance to speak, a woman from the side simply nodded, staying very quiet; she seemed to be the quiet type and much of a loner, seeing her full black attire and lonely look in her eyes. Bjornulf sighed, disappointed that his opinion was getting beaten.
"You two are so antisocial; you should get out more and make more connections."
Slace simply replied, denying the suggestion.
"Not happening…"
The women nodded, agreeing with Slace once again. Slace commented on that.
"Can't you think for yourself? Stop agreeing with me."
She stopped agreeing with Slace after that, just staying quiet and on the sideline.
Then suddenly a voice rang out from the side; it was one of the fighters, kneeling down, covering his face, shaking, his teeth chattering as he spoke nervously, afraid. He was talking to himself.
"Sindre, focus. Calm down, Sindre... SINDRE CAN'T CALM DOWN! SINDRE CANNOT HANDLE THIS!"
Slace ignored it. Bjornulf was confused from the side, though. Why would such a nervous person come to something they seem to hate? It was odd.
Then suddenly the crowd went quiet, and Slace and everyone else followed. A knight then walked forward to the first one in the group, asking their name and to yell it out. He proceeded to
"HERALD!"
The knight kept going further down and down as people kept yelling their names. The knight then got to Sindre, who, after roughing their hair and holding their head tight, anxiously said their name loudly.
"S-SINDRE!"
Next was the quiet woman from earlier who said her name, but it was too quiet; this annoyed the knight.
"Could you please speak louder?"
The woman spoke again, and it was quiet; nobody could hear. The knight sighed, saying her name for her.
"VIRA!"
Despite the knight interrupting her attempts, she still had a monotone look on her face; it didn't really bother her.
Next was Slace; he simply spoke, using his fake name and not wanting to reveal any type of emotion in his voice, although naturally he just sounded bitter.
"ECALS."
Next was Bjornulf, who put his fist to his chest, yelling his name proudly; he yelled his name the loudest in the line of fighters.
"BJORNULF!!"
People seemed pleased by his appearance, even the knight did. Slace thought he must've fought here a few times before in tournaments.
And the last fighter to announce their name was Nao, who spoke confidently, but she was also somewhat excited? It was surprising to Slace considering her weak presence.
"NAO!"
There were 8 fighters there in the tournament in total; it seemed like a lot of the fighters that came didn't get in. Slace was right to underestimate them. But also maybe it's because possibly the batch of fighters this year was insanely good.
The knight then went to the middle front of the colosseum, looking up at the crowd.
"THE FIRST BATTLE WILL BEGIN SOON! SO PLEASE BE PATIENT!"
The knight then turned to the fighters, telling Slace and the person he was going to fight to prepare and for the other fighters to watch from the VIP seats.
The other fighters left to go to the seats as Slace simply walked over to the side of the colosseum, walking through a passage into the underground chamber of the colosseum.
Livia was there looking up at Slace with a mocking grin.
"With all that talk earlier, you better not lose in the first round."
Slace responded coldly, grabbing his sword from her.
"I won't."
The bell then rang for the fighting time to begin, and Livia spoke, patting Slace on the back.
"Then go along and get that prize money for us, Ecals!"
Slace ignored the pat; he hated it, but he didn't want to be late to the fight. He then walked away.
"Yeah, whatever..."
He then walked out into the arena as cheers rang out from all sides; there was his opponent on the other side noticing Slace.
"It's you, the guy who underestimated the tournament! I'll show you up for that!"
Slace kept his sword sheathed as the opponent rushed at him, then with a single step, Slace was already behind the opponent, the fighter falling to the ground unconscious and losing.
"You're not even worth unsheathing my sword."
The crowd cheered, and in the VIP seats, Bjornulf yelled out loudly.
"I KNEW YOU WERE STRONG, ECALS! I CAN'T WAIT TO FIGHT YOU."
Nao, who was sitting next to Bjornulf, muttered to herself, smirking.
"He's fast but not faster than me."
The rules of this tournament were that all you needed to do to win a round was knock out your opponent or have them surrender, but you were allowed to kill them too.
Slace looked away, not trying to pay attention to Bjornulf as he walked back to the underground colosseum; he gave his blade back to Livia, planning to go with her to the VIP seats.
Livia was impressed as she complimented Slace's skill.
"I knew not to underestimate you; you're tough."
Slace simply ignored her as he went to the VIP seats, Livia following after him.
They arrived as Nao was gone; Slace simply sat down far away from the rest of the fighters. Livia looked at Bjornulf, asking a question.
"I suppose that girl Nao is next up?"
Bjornulf nodded slightly worried.
"Yes, but I wonder if she's strong enough to even be here."
Livia caught onto what Bjornulf was saying right away.
"You're talking about her presence, no?"
Bjornulf nodded.
Livia then grinned, like she was expecting something.
"In my time I've seen fighters like her; you'll see, she has more up her sleeve."
Bjornulf looked at Livia, then back at the arena, seeing Nao and her opponent come out.
"I hope that's the case because I kinda want to fight her."
———-
Nao was now at the arena with a scythe in her hand, and there stood Herald with a bow; both of them had unique weapons, but Herald questioned Nao, confused.
"Why use a weapon that isn't meant for fighting? Clearly you must've optimized it to be for fighting."
Herald quickly caught on; he was quite observant and smart.
"And considering your weak presence, I wouldn't be surprised if that scythe has a weapon trait ability."
Nao smiled; Herald had caught her. She was quite impressed with how observant he was, but she spoke, challenging him with confidence.
"Less talking, and let's fight already."
Herald nodded, tilting his glasses upwards as he began shooting his arrows at Nao. What Nao hadn't expected was that this bow was optimized to shoot and reload incredibly fast.
As the flurry of arrows came, Nao dodged a few of them, rushing forward towards Herald as she slid under an arrow, quickly getting back up from momentum and slashing at Herald with her scythe.
He shot the scythe almost instantly, making the scythe get knocked back and miss as he realigned his bow quickly at Nao's face, shooting at her point-blank.
She tilted her head, dodging the arrow, but Herald already had at least 5 more coming at her. The only thing she could do was attack the arrows with her scythe, so she did, slashing at them, but only managed to cut 2 of them in half. As she got hit by the rest, getting knocked back into the wall of the colosseum.
Nao, despite being incredibly fast, was really fragile; if she had been stronger, none of the arrows would've hit her.
Nao was now pressed into the wall of the colosseum with 3 arrows pierced inside her body. Nao pulled the arrows out, a dumb move.
At the VIP seats, Bjornulf and the rest thought she would bleed out, but Slace knew she was smarter than that.
Herald then spoke again, looking at the worn-down Nao.
"You should give up; I'm not very hesitant about killing others."
She looked up at him, coughing blood. She wasn't smiling anymore; she was more serious and focused now.
"Me too…"
Nao rushed at Herald with speeds far more impressive than before, slashing at him with her scythe instantly; he barely reacted, blocking with his bow just in time.
"You're faster now, but that won't stop me."
Herald said.
using a rather rash move, he brought his foot up, using it to pull back and shoot the arrows from his bow, shooting the scythe up out of her hands, up into the air, and knocking her away.
He then brought his foot down, charging his bow, pulling the arrow back with his hand to the furthest extent as he shot it straight at her.
"Face my strongest and fastest arrow."
The arrow came straight at Nao at the speed of light; she was barely able to react as she caught the arrow. She was physically weak, but she had a plan; she followed the momentum of the arrow, spinning around at incredible speeds to alter its momentum and throw it back at Herald.
Herald wasn't able to react, but because of his bow placement, the arrow hit his bow and broke it instead of hitting him directly; it was just luck.
But by the time the bow broke, Nao had already gotten her scythe back, slashing at him three times for the three shots she got hit with earlier.
Herald fell to the ground exhausted and unable to fight anymore. Nao smiled, looking down at him as her wounds began healing.
"My scythe has the ability to steal life and give it to me; that's its weapon trait. Either way… that was a good fight! So thank you!"
Herald responded; he also knew why he lost his energy once he got slashed now, and despite the loss, he smiled. grateful.
"Yeah, at least I got to fight someone strong."
"Thank you, Nao..."
Nao responded, also grateful.
"You're welcome."
Then she got down towards Herald, trying to pick him up and help him out, but was unable to, so she left apologizing as the knights came to get him out.
———-
Back at the VIP seats, Slace thought Nao might be some trouble since she's faster than him, but she wouldn't be that much of a problem.
Bjornulf laughed very happily at the outcome of that battle as he spoke with passion.
"Now that's a fight you barely see happen; I hope I get to fight her soon!"
After that, Bjornulf and Vira had their respective fights with the other fighters, winning flawlessly.
The next match coming up would be Bjornulf vs. Sindre.
——-
Sindre was currently in the underground of the Colosseum freaking out; that was until his representative came. His representative punched him in the face, looking down at him with a heartless glare, commanding him to calm down.
"Go now and fight, or else you know what will happen."
Sindre tried to resist and fight back, getting up only to get kicked to the ground.
"Go now… or else…"
Sindre got up, nodding, terrified. As he walked away, the representative spoke.
"And if you lose, there will be consequences…"
Sindre nodded, hesitantly going through with it as he walked into the arena.
Sindre was forced into joining the tournament, but for what reason?
There on the other side was Bjornulf getting his war axe ready to fight; he pointed at Sindre.
"Are you ready to fight? The crowd doesn't like waiting."
Sindre gulped, nodding. This made Bjornulf grin.
"That's what I like to hear. I wish us a fun match."
Bjornulf then walked towards Sindre; he was just walking? Sindre didn't dare to move. And now they were face-to-face, Bjornulf looking down at Sindre.
Bjornulf then gripped tightly on his axe, swinging it at Sindre. He dodged but was still hit by the pure wind pressure of the swing. Bjornulf had incredible strength.
Bjornulf kept swinging his axe as Sindre kept dodging in fear, relying purely on instinct.
"S-Sindre hopes we can find a peaceful solution to this—"
Bjornulf spoke loudly with passion, questioning Sindre as he kept attacking.
"Why would we do that? This is a battle! Not a dispute!"
Bjornulf then took out his second war axe; he had two, and now he was going to use both of them.
Sindre couldn't dodge forever, and it showed, as he got hit once by Bjornulf in a flurry of attacks, flying back from knockback.
Sindre fell down bleeding as he began to cry, the crowd booing and throwing rubbish in the arena.
He tucked himself into a ball; he hated fighting but was forced into it by his representative.
Bjornulf walked closer as he finally noticed something wrong with Sindre kneeling down and picking him back up, planting him back on his feet.
Bjornulf looked down at Sindre asking a simple question.
"For what reason are you really here?"
Sindre didn't dare answer because of the consequences; he just stayed quiet, sweating and terrified.
Bjornulf then dropped his axes, sighing as he cracked his knuckles. Sindre looked up, thinking that Bjornulf would forfeit. But then Bjornulf spoke, annoyed at himself.
"The only world I know is battle, so... I'll have to beat the answers out of you."
Bjornulf then punched Sindre in the stomach, making him cough blood as he looked up at Bjornulf with a pleading look with his hand out, although before he could tell Bjornulf to stop, Bjornulf had already punched him in the chin, making him go flying.
As Sindre fell down, Bjornulf got ready, and he kicked Sindre in the stomach while he was still in midair, knocking him into the arena wall as it completely crumbled.
Sindre was coughing monstrous amounts of blood as he held his stomach with his hands, slouched down slightly; it was intense pain.
Bjornulf yelled, showing concern for Sindre.
"IF YOU DON'T TELL ME, YOU'LL DIE!"
Sindre was about to spill the info, but then a voice came out from behind him.
"So you do want to suffer…"
It was his representative. Bjornulf looked at the scene as Sindre, in fear, said nothing; his representative then spoke again.
"Sindre will be disqualified from the tournament."
The representative then took Sindre's hand, walking away, but Bjornulf wasn't done yet; he got his axes, running forward and slashing downwards at the representative.
"How dare you treat your fighter like this!"
The representative dodged by sidestepping, not even bothered by the force of the attack as he spoke coldly.
"Don't interfere with Sindre's business."
And before Bjornulf could fight further, the knights came forth and held him down, letting the representative and Sindre walk away.
Bjornulf got back to the VIP seats; Slace and Vira were already gone. Bjornulf spoke, clenching his fist in anger.
"I swear I'll save you, Sindre."
Nao heard this, intending to try and help Bjornulf after the tournament ended.
4.1
The next round was Ecals vs. Vira, and there stood both of them, not saying a single word. Both of them were sword users, so this would be interesting.
They both rushed each other at the same time, clashing, with a huge amount of magical energy coming out of both of them. (Magical energy is your presence). Everyone in the whole arena could feel it; it was quite intimidating and ominous.
Slace tried to knee her while they were clashing, but she stepped back, swinging at him a few times, which he parried, stepping back; he then remarked in his thoughts. "She's just like me…"
What Slace meant by that we didn't know yet;
He jumped back as Vira shot fire at him, trying to close the distance as he dodged the fire magic.
Vira used the fire magic as a distraction, as now she was right in front of him.
Unexpectedly, Slace had already swung at her right when she got there.
Vira ducked, dodging it as she placed her other hand's palm on the pommel of her blade, thrusting it upwards into Slace.
Before that could happen, Slace thrust his leg upwards, kneeing the blade upwards into the air.
Vira didn't stop as she tried to slide kick and trip him. He jumped over it, throwing his blade high in the air as he began to spin midair, changing his positioning and kicking her right in the side of the neck.
She had blocked it with her blade as Slace caught himself with his hands, letting one of his hands off the floor, twisting his body, and kicking the side of her neck with his other leg.
She got hit stumbling back standing up to stop herself from falling.
Slace leaped into the air using his hand as he landed on his feet, catching his blade as it fell down.
—————
at the VIP seats; there was Bjornulf, Nao, and Herald, who had recovered, watching.
Herald analyzed the fight, leaning back in his seat with a groan of disappointment.
"I should've known I never had a chance at winning this tournament; even if I did beat you, I would've definitely lost to those two or Bjornulf."
Herald was obviously talking to Nao, as Nao simply replied, having a look of pity on her face.
"Just be happy I was the one who got you out; these guys are way more brutal than me."
Bjornulf noticed something about the way they fought; it was oddly similar to each other.
"They fight the same and even have the same type of presence; that's not a coincidence."
Nao responded, shrugging as she told the obvious truth.
"Even if you did ask them, they wouldn't tell you, so there's no point."
Bjornulf unfortunately had to agree as he simply sat back and kept watching with the others.
———-
Back to the fight, they both were still going strong. Although Slace was pushing Vira near a wall to stop some of her movement.
She noticed this as she ran on the wall of the Colosseum, jumping over Slace and lunging at him, slashing him from behind.
But before she could, a wall made of earth magic came up, making her blade fly up and making her get knocked down to the ground.
Slace looked up, noticing something, though: the knight king Sloane was finally here to watch the battles. He wondered what had taken Sloane so long.
Vira's blade struck right through the earth wall, piercing right towards Slace, but he dodged it by stepping back. The blade kept moving towards him, slicing through the earth wall.
He kept walking back as he slid under it, effectively dodging the blade, but as he got back up, Vira, who was in the air, drop-kicked him in the head.
What happened here from the crowd's perspective is that once Slace slid under it, he didn't notice the blade had stopped, so he thought that Vira was in the same place.
Either way, now he was kneeling, stunned; his head hit. Vira stepped back, using fire magic on her blade to make it burn through the earth wall as the blade fell to her feet as she kicked it up, catching it by the handle.
She then stepped forward, slashing at Slace's neck; he flipped his blade, barely parrying the attack, as he used earth magic-like bullets to make her back off.
He got up dizzy; that kick was horrible, but Slace has dealt with harder hits, so he didn't even whimper from the pain.
He then pointed his blade at Vira, speaking in a bitter tone, the first words of this match.
"This will be over soon."
Vira didn't know what he meant, but she was more cautious because of those words, now getting her blade ready.
Slace stepped forward a few times before slashing at her blade specifically; that's what he's been doing this whole match with his sword, attacking her blade.
——-
At the VIP seats, Bjornulf quickly caught on to what Slace was doing because of his experience as a warrior.
"Ecals is focusing only on breaking her blade to make her forfeit; if he wanted to, he could've gone for the killing blow a long time ago. Those words he said were only to make her cautious and raise her guard."
This didn't surprise Nao or Herald, but what surprised Nao was that Slace wasn't going to kill Vira.
———-
The fight was still going on, and Slace was just attacking Vira's blade as she kept blocking and deflecting the attacks.
Then suddenly, with one final slash from Slace, her blade broke, and before she could realize what had happened, Slace already had his blade at her neck.
"Forfeit, or I'll kill you."
Vira dropped her broken blade, bringing her hands up as a sign of forfeit. Slace won this round.
The both of them walked back to their sides of the underground chambers of the Colosseum.
Livia clapped with a smile; she was actually really impressed.
"Guess I found myself a prodigy; what luck."
Slace just ignored her, giving her his blade as they both walked back to the VIP seats.
Both Vira and Slace were back at the VIP's seats now, as both Bjornulf and Nao got up from their seats, leaving to go fight in the arena.
Nao spoke confidently but also rather excitedly.
"I won't lose."
Bjornulf accepted the challenge, grinning happily.
"Confident fighters are my favourite type of fighters."
The next round commencing would be Nao vs. Bjornulf. Who would win and fight Slace at the end?