“Ladies and Gentlemen! Over the last month, you’ve watched countless fighters battle in the arena. You’ve been there through the sweat, the blood, and the tears. You’ve seen them taste victory, and you’ve seen victory snatched away! We’ve finally come to one hundred remaining gladiators. The best of the best!
“We have reached the championship rounds. All battles from now on are one on one. Teams may decide who fights, but they fight for the whole team now. Who is the best? Who will fall? Who will win the championship? In only six more rounds, we will have our answer!
As we approached the arena, an announcer seemed to be repeating this spiel every few minutes. There were two weeks left for this competition. It went on for about two months, an entire season, which was there to ramp up hype and separated the casuals from the hardcore. It was now reaching the boiling point. There were various cross tournaments, including groups, singles, knock out, and even shows like what they tried to do to Raissa before I rescued her.
By the way, Raissa was the only one who had a magical mask on. For the rest, we depended on hoods, face masks, and the dungeon store’s Trait Hiding skill to make everyone else hard to notice. After shopping with Salicia, I had everyone wear clothing that wouldn’t be amiss on a commoner. We’d blend into the crowd. The one exception was Carmine, but she apparently always wore her helmet when fighting, so no one had seen her face yet.
Every fighter that made it this far had been given some kind of pet name by the crowds. Carmine’s name was the Shiny Knight. When I heard this, I was going to sympathize with her, but she was quite happy to have such a name. I supposed, as long as she was happy, I wouldn’t make fun of her particular tastes.
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As we reached the edge of the coliseum, she attracted more and more looks. I could hear people whispering her name. It seemed like she had a reputation.
“Numerous competitions are going on all month.” Drake, Carmine’s current fight manager, explained eagerly, trying to warm up to me while his cronies took point. “However, One-on-One is considered the most prestigious and high tier. That’s the one that will win you that dwarf blacksmith, as well as a few other prizes. The prizes he’s giving this year are excessive, even by normal standards. That’s why so many tough opponents have shown up.”
“What kind of prizes?” I asked out of curiosity.
“Noble status.”
“C-can he do that?”
“He can create Knights. He also can give land and create barons. To most people, that already is completely changing their life around. They can buy property in the cities, they can own land… to any commoner, it’s the same as changing their fate, which would otherwise be impossible. Ah! No, offense, my lord.”
“What offense? I was able to become a Count.”
“R-right…” Drake scratched the back of his head. “Anyway, the point is, this is a massive spectacle right now. Carmine has garnered interest for fighting solo.”
“I thought you said solo was the most popular.”
“One-on-one is the most popular, but most of those people are still on teams. They pick which teammate fights based on their opponent. Carmine is only one of a handful that has fought solo and reached the top 100. It requires endurance to fight life-or-death battles nonstop. The finals will be the worst, however. Six matches in two weeks. That’s six fights until literal exhaustion. The first will have a 5-day break, then a 3-day, 2-day, and the last three matches will be daily. In other words, it’s an endurance run! Carmine had incredible resilience, but I have to say, she won’t be able to fight three matches successively like that!”