Chapter 28

As I walked down the stairs and through the main entrance of the arena, I spotted eyes locked straight on me. It was like I might have come to the wrong place.

There were more people than yesterday. And, most of the new ones had their eyes on me. Their stares weren't those of admiration or curiosity, instead they were of murderous intent. Perhaps the news of my teleportation spread until it reached one of the hunters. I decided to ignore them for now. It was not worth the effort to care about these matters when I'm running late.

X

I walked into the waiting room. I caught another pair of eyes staring at me too. It was Ryuko.

"Mr Renikno! You're late! I could have disqualified you."

"Sorry, had trouble waking up," I replied, trying to be friendly.

Ryuko walked in front of me. She was shorter than me, so she ended up looking up to lock her anger-filled eyes on me. "I don't want to see such behaviors again. You only get this chance because you joined the arena team, okay? I don't want people looking down on our team just because of your idiotic ways."

She then turned around and stomped right out of the room. The trainee I met yesterday, Ron, looked at me. I gave him a smile. He nodded and followed Ryuko.

X

I looked around the room. Brusken wasn't there. I decided to walk around to search for Brusken.

Walking down the busy hallways, this time there weren't as many people who had their eyes on me. There were a few glimpses here and there, but it's nothing compared to passing through the group of people by the entrance.

As I reached a corner, I heard familiar voices. So, I ended up stopping where I was at and eavesdrop on their conversation.

"Brusken, remember, fight with no mercy. Even if you are fighting against Mr Renikno, you still have to give it your all. Well, just don't kill anyone but you can't give them too much slack either, you got it?" Eff said.

"Ahahaha, you can beat him half dead if you meet him in the battle, but you gotta leave a part of him to let me get some revenge later on!" Elaine jokingly said.

Brusken giggled. He then said, "oh, the first battle is starting soon. I guess it's best we get going."

"Alright, good luck Brusken!" said Eff.

"We'll be watching!" Elaine added. Footsteps then followed.

I was about to pop up behind Brusken, while suddenly Brusken said, "what's up, Ruby?"

"Senpai, are you sure you can win against someone as strong as Mr Renikno? He can teleport, you know," Ruby said. Her voice was stuttering, probably because she thought back of the scare I gave her.

"I guess we would never know until we actually fought. I know Big Bro is strong, but I'll do my best if I have to fight against him," Brusken replied.

Ruby then said to him, "hopefully the clan would finally recognize you after this competition."

"Yeah, if only it's that simple," Brusken said. "I'm not even sure if I could win yet."

"Senpai, I know you can do it! Even if you ended up losing, I would never lose my respect to you, senpai!" Ruby responded.

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"Ahaha, thanks, Ruby. I gotta be going now."

"Wait!" Ruby shouted. "I heard Zure joined the competition too. He might be using an alias." Ruby sounded worried. This person named Zure seemed like someone Ruby was afraid of.

Brusken remained silent. After a few seconds, he finally said, "ahh, thanks for letting me know, Ruby. I'll be going now then. See you later." There was a hint of worry or fear in Brusken's voice too. It got me interested in this person.

I heard footsteps coming my way. It was most likely Brusken's. I stayed where I was standing, which was just around the corner.

"Ahem," I signalled to Brusken as he turned the corner.

"Ahhh!" Brusken was surprised. "Big bro? Why are you here?"

"I was just looking for you," I said. I walked closer to Brusken. "Let's get going. The next rounds are starting."

X

On our way to the waiting room, I told Brusken, "I won't hold back against you if we meet in battle, so you better not disappoint me, alright?"

"Hah?" Brusken was confused. He probably never thought that I would have heard their conversation.

"Just do your best. If we don't meet in this round, we might meet in the semi. If not, then the finals. So, you better do your best and fight to the end, you got it?"

"Yeah," Brusken said.

"Don't worry, I won't let you fatally injure me, so you can go all out and try your best to fight me. No matter what, I promise I won't die to you, even if you were to blow up the whole arena," I said to him. A part of me really wanted to see his full power, but I know he would still be holding it back to avoid killing other people.

Brusken smiled. He softly punched my elbow. I warped my arm around his neck and rubbed his head.

X

"Welcome, ladies and gentlemen. Today, our contestants will be brawling to see who will be joining the semi-finals. Only one winner would be moving on, while the top 3 would at least keep their bets." An announcement echoed all around the room. "Now, let us see who are going to be fighting in the first round!"

I sensed a huge flow of magic. Then, a screen of some sorts appeared in the middle of the waiting room.

There were 4 columns. The top of the columns were written "round one, round two, round three, round four." Then, below them were names of the contestants.

I looked at the list for the first round first. Then, a certain name caught my eye. I turned to Brusken. He looked back at me. We were just staring at each other.

"Guess I'm going first then." Brusken said.

"Yeah, good luck," I said.

"What about you?" Brusken asked.

"Hmm, looks like I'm listed in the second round."

"Big bro, it looks like you will be facing against….."

"Huh?" I looked down the column. Then, I saw it. "Lance" I read out loud.

"He is very strong, are you sure you can beat him?"

"I promised to fight you, didn't I? So, no matter what, I have to win and fulfil that promise."

"Yeah."

"You too. You better not lose before facing me."

"Ahaha," Brusken laughed

X

Before long, the announcer asked everyone listed in the first round to enter the arena. I wished Brusken good luck. Then, he walked towards the arena.

I went to the observation deck. There were a total of 15 contestants in the arena, just like what I was told. Then, there was a surprise announcement.

"Hello, I am Ryuko, the grandmaster of the arena. First of all, I would like to congratulate all the fellow contestants who managed to enter the quarter finals. All of you have managed to defeat seven others in the first round," Ryuko said. "Before we start, I would like to remind you all of the rules, and also explain a little bit of how the winners would be determined."

"The biggest rule is that killing is not allowed. Besides that, you can not gain any outside help. You can form teams inside the arena as you wish, but you would need to fight between each other at the end anyways," Ryuko told. "Now, for the quarter finals, a person would be counted as having lost if they have either been knocked out, admitted defeat, or pushed to the wall of the arena. I have installed an array around the arena where if a person touched it for over a second, they would be disqualified from the battle. So, try not to get pushed, alright? The last three standing wins their bets back, while the final person moves on to the semi finals."

"Sorry for the long speech, so I think it's best we get straight to battle now. Spectators and contestants, are you ready?" The crowd went wild. Contestants in the arena pulled out their weapons and prepared for battle. Brusken took a deep breath, and locked his eyes on the other contestants. Ryuko then ended her announcement with "I hereby announce, the quarter finals shall now begin!"

X

Chaos filled the arena. Contestants rushed to the middle of the arena while a few of them decided to test their luck staying near the edge.

Soon, three men had made the center their safe zone. They worked together and easily kept all others away. One had a sword, while the other two were mages.

One of the mages caught my attention. His eyes were glowing. It reminded me of Ruby's and Brusken's. He was definitely the strongest between the three. It also seemed that he has an affinity to wind magic. Wind blades were summoned non-stop. Watching the way he attacked, I thought of Ruby's weapon barrages. They really do have a striking similarity.

Brusken was slowly making his way to the center while an individual suddenly ran towards him. The person had an oni mask on. He had blue hair and was quick on his feet. He closed the distance between him and Brusken extremely quickly.

Brusken stared blankly as the person got closer and closer. Then, his eyes let out a dim glow and an explosion was summoned.

To my surprise, the individual dodged it. Brusken gathered even more magic and let them loose. Explosions went wild around the incoming opponent. But, none of them slowed him down at all.

The person soon got within 5 meters of Brusken. He jumped towards Brusken with his hands stretched out. There was a flow of magic around his hands. He might be trying to knock out Brusken by having contact with him.

Brusken didn't even bat an eyelid. He just stood there as if nothing was happening. Then, there was a huge spike of magic power from Brusken. With a single spark, a huge explosion blasted from the left side of the person. It was too late to dodge this time.

The explosion flung the person to the array and he was out of the battle. Brusken then turned his attention to the center. One step at a time, he continued his way to the most chaotic area of the arena.