The tournament was still ongoing, three fights were down, five more fights to go to end the first phase.
A bald man walked towards the stage. He was wearing a brown robe, and he had a long staff in his hand. He had a very nondescript face.
Once Sun saw him, he went crazy again, screeching and pointing at his staff.
The man stopped in his tracks and looked over at Sun, and after noticing his little staff, he smiled and bowed down to the monkey.
Sun’s eyes went wide, then he hurried to bow down to the man as well.
Seph just looked at their exchange with apparent amusement on his face. Looks like there is a brotherhood in choice of arms as well!
Another bald man walked to the stage, empty-handed. He didn’t carry any weapons.
He wore a gray robe, and his face was the same as last guy, nondescript!
Both men stood on the stage and held up number 4 balls for everyone to see.
After bowing down, the man with no weapons took out a pair of nunchucks from his side, which were semi-concealed by the robe he wore, and tucked in his belt.
'Thank the goddess for not making my opponent one of these monsters.'
'Thank Goddess for not making my opponent one of these monsters.'
Both men had the same thought the same second, as they both realized the other was probably just a martial artist, with no super items or skills, like some appeared to be so far.
“My name is brother Huang. Fight hard, good sir!”
The nunchaku fighter said.
“My name is brother Liu. Good luck in the fight.”
The staff user said, bowing down deeply, with his hands clasped in front of him.
The fight started when both of them ran towards one another. Brother Liu attempted a jab with his staff to his opponent’s stomach.
Brother Huang caught the staff with the chain of his nunchaku and swerved it away from his body, going in for an attack of his own with the left nunchaku attempting to hit the face of brother Liu.
Brother Liu dodged by lunging forward, pushing the butt of his staff up to block the attack, and its front side, which was held by the nunchaku to the ground, putting them at a stalemate.
They both disentangled their weapons, jumping back three steps before going in for the attack again.
Brother Huang kept playing with his weapon, making it dance around his arms and stomach and under his armpit, even around his neck! Over and over.
Then he went in for the attack, trying to feint to land an unexpected strike.
Brother Liu just kept jumping back, repeatedly avoiding the attacks, before lunging with his own attack, a low sweep to Brother Huang’s legs, which he jumped over easily, and tried to land a strike of his own which brother Liu ducked under with no effort.
They jumped back to reset their stances again, and came at each other running, brother Liu stopped first and attacked with an overheard swing, brother Huang blocked it by the chain of one of his nunchucks while he attempted to land his own hit with the other nunchaku to the Liu’s head, at that moment brother Liu activated a special ability of his staff, making it extended towards the head of his opponent.
Both hits landed, knocking both guys out on their back to the ground.
The arena was filled with silence after this unusual result, nobody who won this way!
Are they both eliminated?
Who is the lucky person who won’t face anyone in the next round?
While everyone was thinking these thoughts, Sun was creeping towards the arena, trying to be sneaky, but everyone noticed him and raised their eyebrows, trying to figure out what the monkey wanted.
He stepped into the arena, and went for the staff and just before he could touch it, Scorn appeared again!
“Well, well, aren’t you a sneaky one?”
“Eek!” Sun screamed and jumped back, looking scared of Scorn!
“What did you intend to do with this staff?”
Sun lowered his head to the ground and covered it with both palms, like he was trying to make himself disappear.
“Hey, I see you and I am talking to you. Answer me!”
Scorn said with a visible smile on his face. Seph saw this interaction, embarrassed and amused, also glad because he didn’t think Scorn could smile in the first place.
Sun removed his hands from his head slowly, looked around, saw that everyone was still there, he pointed sheepishly at his small staff, making a gesture to signify that it’s smaller than himself, and then pointed at the other staff, followed by a grasping gesture towards himself!
“I see, I see, so you wanted this staff for yourself, because yours is smaller than you, I have to say, that staff lying on the ground is actually perfect for you, it can extend and retract, You can make it any length that you want.”
Sun’s eyes went wide, and he started nodding happily and frantically in approval, thinking that Scorn was allowing him to take the staff.
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“Well, I am not against it, but this staff has an owner, even though he and his opponent lost the tournament and they are both knocked out now.”
Sun pouted his lips in sadness, seeing his dream fly away from him after hearing scorn’s words.
“I have a proposition for you though. I will give you a challenge, you against these guys for 30 minutes. If they can catch you during that time, they both get a small prize and get out of here, If they can’t you can take the staff for yourself!”
Sun didn’t take any time to think at all, and crossed his arms on his chest, and nodded stoically, signifying that he accepted the challenge.
“Very well, we will take a small intermission to allow these guys to recover, and then the challenge will begin.”
*****
image [https://imgur.com/XfBSXXC.jpg]
Everyone seemed more relaxed, looking at the new minor challenge that Scorn had enforced for a change.
It wasn’t a challenge to the death. Just two men, one monkey. Who is faster? Who will get the prize? Without harm happening to either party.
The two men, as expected, banded together against Sun. They started the challenge by circling him, inching closer towards him little by little.
He was expecting their first move stoically, and suddenly brother Huang lunged at him. He escaped from between his legs, making the guy stumble, almost hitting his teammate on the other side.
Brother Liu just shoved his teammate aside and ran after the monkey. The monkey ran away from him. Sun was nimble, but brother Liu had longer strides and got closer to him.
Sun again surprised him by jumping suddenly backwards between his legs, escaping him as well.
After that, the monkey started making some distance between himself and the two guys, to make them work for it again, and laughed at them, mocking them from afar.
He had better stamina than the men who were carrying much bigger muscle mass, and he intended to use it to his advantage.
Brother Liu got back to him again, and this time tried to confuse the monkey with his staff, blocking one way of escape menacingly with it, while he tried to pincer him with his teammate.
Sun didn’t think a mere staff would hinder him, so he tried to jump over the staff.
Brother Liu jerked the staff higher, and it blocked the Sun’s jump. Sun held onto the staff like a tree branch and spun around it before jumping away, before brother Liu could do anything to the monkey holding his staff.
The guys were frustrated and didn’t know what to do. Brother Huang took off his robe, thinking he might use it as a net to trap the monkey.
He held it spread widely like a fisher’s net, and approached Sun, and jumped at him, falling to the ground. He thought there was no way the monkey dodged.
He clung to the robe and looked under it. No monkey.
Sun was at the other end of the arena, sticking his tongue out at them, then turning and spanking his own butt, trying to enrage his foes.
This chase went on for fifteen minutes, before the guys gave up all will to fight. They were exhausted and knew there was no way they could recover to get to the monkey now.
Scorn appeared when they appeared to have given up and declared Sun the winner, and with a signal from his fingers, the staff came floating over towards Sun, from its former owner’s hand.
Sun held the staff, dancing happily, hugging it, then dancing and waving it around.
Seph watched him happily, then went over to him and pet him on the head.
Sun infused the staff with his energy, and could now control its length, making it suitable for him.
Seph used the eye on the staff to check its name.
Appraising…
Name: Jack of All Staves
Type: Staff
Quality: Rare
Durability: 95%
Magical Ability: Extends and shrinks according to the user’s desire, up to 10 feet tall or down to 2 feet tall.
“Wow, that staff is great for you Sun, you can definitely use that innovatively during a fight causing problems for anyone!”
Sun gave him his patented white-toothed grin, nodding his head, still happy with his new weapon.
Seph checked on his Eye of the Appraiser quest next.
Quest
Eye of the Appraise level 2: Identify 25 unique items.
Progress : 18/25
I need seven more items. Wouldn’t it be great if I got closer to those guys? Maybe I can walk closer to each one and check their items without them noticing!
Seph sneaked over toward Rong Sha to check his items, hoping that he wouldn’t get discovered.
Once he was closer, he used the eye on Rong Sha’s ring, while he was sitting down, sulking, while covering his face with his palms.
Appraising…
Name: Ring of Fireball
Type: Magic Ring
Quality: Fine
Magical Ability: Launch a fireball magic attack.
Limit: 3 fireballs per minute.
Even if he could launch 10 fireballs per minute, Gabalawi is a beast. No way he would have won, regardless.
Appraising…
Name: Robe of The Fire Master
Type: Robe
Quality: Rare
Durability: 95%
Magical Ability: Increases power of Fire Magic, from skills or items, by 50%.
Huh, still no hope. I really need to come up with a strategy on how to beat these monsters!
The next fight was up. A super pretty woman that looked to be in her forties headed to the arena, wearing a flowery kimono walking barefoot on the ground. She had a red flower on the right side of her hair, and a tiara of violet flowers on top a little towards the back.
She was walking with a captivating gait that made all the young men stare at her, not even aware of their stare. She was beauty and seduction personified, albeit slightly pale from her deathly disposition that contradicted her flowery one.
She casually held a folding fan with flower decorations.
Once she reached the arena, she started fanning herself while looking at everyone who was staring dumbly at her, throwing smiles at the guys that flustered them, but after knowing she was aware of their presence, they tried to look away for a while before staring at her again.
Smack!
Seph woke from his reverie after Sun smacked him in the face. He was staring at the flowery woman as well; he looked down at Sun, who had descended from his shoulder.
Sun was giving him a mad glare, to which Seph didn’t know how to react. He went down on one knee and patted the monkey on the head.
The monkey was satisfied with that, and they both turned their heads once they noticed a black shade headed to the arena…