Noa's POV;

I'm so fucking lucky that this is not a sole survivor round. There are a lot of men and women with me in the arena that may be stronger than me. One of those guaranteed to be stronger is standing right next to me. Her expression was somewhat bored, she also played with a small stone between her fingers.

I sighed in relieve, I don't have to fight Lia. She is somewhat scary, especially in a fight. She never misses her target, can see damn far and her thrown pebbles can easily pierce steel.

“...how should we fight?”, I asked after looking at her for a long silent moment. The commentator was still ranting about the future employment that this countries king offers. So we had a few more moments to plan.

“You can fight whoever you want, I keep your back free”, replied Lia without looking at me.

“Okay, thanks. Any idea whom I shout not fight, or attack first?”, I then asked. Lia has this Observation Haki, she can kinda feel people and their strength, as well, as their emotions.

“This block is full of weaklings. There shouldn't be anyone who can beat you in a one on one.” That was at least reassuring. I hope she did include a series of fights in her statement, but probably did not.

“And now it is my great honour to start this tournament with its first round. Participants of block A, get ready... and start!” Shouted the commentator. The whole field instantly turned chaotic. People started screaming their fighting cries and rushed at the closed person they could find.

“Look, it's True Shot Lia, maybe we can beat her and get her bounty. She seems to be alone,” said someone from our left. It was a man with two friends, none of them looked to have a good weapon or any training. Does that mean that I'm not even looking as if I were her friend?

“Noa, these three are especially weak.” She left the order of attacking them unspoken. The fact that she said they were weak told me that I can and should fight them. I know that I don't have to, but this whole tournament is more like training. Jonny, Yosaku and I know that we won't win, maybe third place. But that will be unlikely as well.

So we three agreed to use this tournament as training. When are you allowed to fight against someone with no instant risk of dying? It wasn't forbidden to kill, just not encouraged.

That's why I nodded and pulled my two hammers out of my belt. The three men all stormed at Lia, not even thinking about possible allies.

That's why they shouted in shock when I crushed the shoulder blade of the left guy with a swing of my hammer. It wasn't full powered, these three were looking too weak to survive that. I might not be able to smash steel with my hammers, but denting it or destroying rock was no problem.

I made a twist around the now downed man and used the movement to nail the middle man with my other hammer directly on his chest. He was thrown away by the force and crashed into his last partner. Both were down and neither tried to stand up.

“See?”, asked Lia. I grunted in acknowledgement and turned back to her. My mouth almost dropped. While I had beaten three men in less than 10 seconds, she had downed 30 in the same amount of time.

There were men and women on the ground, whimpering or screaming from the new holes Lia had given them. None of them was dead, but all of them were definitely no longer able to fight or even walk.

“I'll take the trash out,” she then stated and jumped upwards. Almost twenty meters in the air, where she stopped and hovered. Her arm blurred and then almost every one of the competitors was falling down.

Only three managed to evade the attack. One was a man with a large war-axe, he had blocked the attack but was pushed back by the force.

Another was a woman who was bent in an awkward move. She must have done this to evade the pebble.

The last one was a man with a sword. He was hi blade in a block and the blade itself was slightly dented.

All of them were wide-eyed and looked at Lia in shock. “Only four of us will win, my friend Noa here will choose one of you to fight. The other two will be able to continue. If you beat him you are also allowed to go to the next round.

Agree or all of you will get beaten. And none of you will be even able to leave this island,” announced Lia while still hovering in the air.

This is kinda embarrassing.

All three of them looked from Lia to me and then back to Lia. “Fine, whom do you want to fight boy?”, asked the large man with his scarily large axe. He would honestly be the best to fight. His large frame makes him slower, but his large axe will also be able to block a lot of my attacks. The woman will most likely be too flexible and fast.

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I went through a few other possibilities and then decided.“If... if I have to choose, then I'd like to fight the swordsman.”

The other two looked relieved and made room, yet not without breaking eye contact with Lia. Lia doesn't seem to have any intention of coming back down, so it was only me and the swordsman in the middle of the arena.

And a few dozens of wounded, they were swiftly ignored.

“My name is Noa, I'm kinda sorry for this. But Lia can be like that, it must have been too slow for her”, I apologised to him.

The man laughed loudly, his sword resting on his right shoulder. He must be right-handed. “Don't worry. My name is Tillen, I'm a wandering swordsman who wants to settle down. This tournament is perfect for me. And being singled out now gives me more attention. All I now have to do is either win or give the King a good show.

So let's fight with everything we have, Noa.”

The crowd roared, I gripped my hammers a little tighter and Tillen got into a battle stance. Neither of us said anything. And then, suddenly Tillen jumped forward. Sword raised over his head. He bridged the distance in mere moments and brought his sword down. I'll have to evade as quick as possible.

I stepped forward and twisted to the side. I evaded his downwards slash and was now too close for him to use his sword again. My right hammer came down, his leg as my target. Yet, I was too focused on his legs and did not see the incoming elbow.

It hit me in the side and my own hit missed. I didn't stop my swing, doing that now would leave me without momentum and in perfect reach for his sword. No, I even put more strength into my attack and hit the ground with a yell.

The stone cracked and exploded. Splinters and rocks flew outwards. And a small shock wave blew dust up. Tillen, must not have expected such force and did not jump away. He was too close and got caught in the flying stones and force of the explosion.

He was thrown back and got a few scratches and hits on his legs. They wouldn't stop his ability to move completely. But it was damage that will be noticed in a fight.

I was not sure if my enemy was still close enough to attack, so I jumped backwards and eyed the cloud of dust. It got quickly blown away, courtesy of Lia, most likely.

Tillen was still standing, his trousers were a little shredded, and some blood was visible. “You have a strong arm kid”, praised Tillen while inspecting the hole inside the rock.

'That's my chance', I thought. I rushed at Tillen from a crouched down position. Tillen was still looking at the hole and only saw my attack when I was too close for him to put a good defence up. My hammer swung at Tillen's hip and met a sword that was hastily put in between the hammer tip and his hipbones.

Tillen does not have a sword that was especially good. It was only slightly better than a mass produced weapon. And the swordsman was also not skilled in, most likely doesn't even know, Armament Haki. So it was to no one's surprise that his sword got such a deep dent that it became unusable.

I only noted the destroyed sword absent-mindedly, too much focused on my follow up attack. Another twist gave my other arm even more speed and the blunt side of my hammer crashed into Tillen's left hip side.

He was thrown away like a rag doll and rolled a few more metres after stopping again. He wasn't getting up, I had feelt his bones breaking.

“Tillen got a direct hit and is down. Is this the end of their fight?”, shouted the commentator excitedly. It was only now that I noticed him. He must have spoken the whole time.

“It seems like Tillen is out for good. That means that we have our four winners. Noa, True Shot Lia, Chlaris and Butch. Those four will fight in the elimination rounds. Please leave the arena. Doctors will come and take care of the wounded.”

The crowd roared in approval. They must have liked the fight. I am somewhat shaking from the adrenalin. But luckily he didn't manage to hit me. Getting wounded before the tournament starts would suck majorly.

“Good fight Noa. You might want to think more about using the ground as a weapon”, commented Lia suddenly. She was floating down from her position and smiled at me.

I grinned, being praised is nice. Especially for something you have worked for. It was hard to get strong enough to let the ground explode from a single hit. My hammers are also not designed for such a thing.

“Thanks,” I replied. Both of us walked out of the Arena and towards the rest of our group. The blond guy and Mrs Chicken Wing were already gone.

“Great fight Noa”, greeted Lara us with a smile. She also gave Lia a kiss.

I smiled weakly at her and was then forced forward by a strong pat on my back.“Yeah, you took this guy out without trouble”, laughed Yosaku.

“Thanks, guys”, I mumbled and sat down next to the orange haired beauty with large eyes. “Hi, I'm Noa Franklin, shipwright of the Kage Pirates”, I introduced myself.

“I'm Koala, an old friend of Lia and Lara”, she replied with a friendly smile. Her guard was not really up, but her body language told me that she wasn't interested in me. A pity, she was really good looking.

I don't want to start something futile, so I turned my focus away from her pretty eyes and down to the arena. Mrs Chicken Wing was easy to see, she was the only bird inside the arena.

“Are you sure that your pet can fight? I mean she is a chicken.” Koala asked Lara in a concerned tone.

“Don't worry, she has the highest bounty of all of us. You should worry more about Sabo getting in her way”, replied Lara. The rest of us nodded. Mrs Chicken Wing is scary. Her nickname, Hen of Death, is a good match. I have never seen her getting hit by anyone of Lara's fast strikes. She always decimates her enemy and is looking as smug as possible while doing so.

“What? Is the chicken a true participant? Really, a bounty of 1.3 billion? This must be a joke”, commentated the man with a suit. He must've forgotten to turn his microphone off.

“Ahem, well then. I will start the fight off block B in a moment. Again, only four of you will be allowed to rise to the next rounds”, started the commentator a moment later. The people inside the arena got ready to fight, brandishing their weapons or shouting their warcries.

“And Go!” Screamed the commentator. And again the whole stadion became chaotic. This time not because everyone was fighting each other, nor because the audience was shouting in excitement.

“What happened?”, asked Jonny, breaking the silence that filled the arena.

No, it wasn't chaotic because something hectic happened. It was because everyone, every single participant was downed. They all sunk down the moment the fight started.

“Huh, didn't know Mrs Chicken Wing has Conqueror Haki”, mumbled Lara from her place.

“It...it seems like something happened and knocked everyone out. So far only Mrs Chicken Wing is still standing. And...and whatever happened ended this round.

But there aren't enough left standing. So we have to wait for the first three others to stand up.” Stuttered the commentator. The crowd was silent, no one said anything.

“Urgh, what happened? Did the boss's Haki hit me again?”, grumbled one of the downed men. It was the blond guy, Koala's friend. He was slowly standing up and shaking his head.

“And participant Sabo is the first to stand back up. He will go to the next round”, announced the speaker.

“What?”, asked Sabo in confusion. But there was no one who could exactly explain what happened. Well, no one but Lara maybe. But she was grinning way to smugly. She won't explain until we are back on our ship.

Five minutes later stood the next one up. It was a woman with glasses and a white sword, still in its scabbard. It was the woman from the Marine base, she too was confused. The last one who stood up, after ten more minutes, was a red-haired man without a shirt. He only wore boxing shorts with a flaming logo. His name was Daniel.

“This was rather boring”, complained Jonny once the four were named as the winner.

“What did you expect with Mrs Chicken Wing in the ring? I don't want to fight her, at all”, said Yosaku with a visible shudder. I nodded, this bird was scary.

“Seems like Koala's and Jonny's round will start soon. You better get down”, reminded Lara. Koala smiled in thanks and stood up, followed by Jonny. They both walked down to the arena.

Shortly after Mrs Chicken Wing came flying up to us and sat down on the chair that was previously Koala's. Sabo, the blond guy, also came back to us.