We waited in some special room that had full view of the arena. It was frankly the direct opposite end of where Peter and his men were seated. Mr Wick was there with him and Daisy certainly had the best seat in the whole colosseum. Although she looked awkward sitting there among the adults. I can see that she is uncomfortable but Peter was there to calm her. I wonder Peter will start finding it weird that a 10 year old girl would behalf like a 5 year old. But at least we don't have to worry about her wellbeing. She will certainly be in safe hands when we duke it out with the finalist and eventually that secret pupil of Peter that he had taught. Who is it though? Can it be? No, it can't be. She rarely comes to this side of the continent in the first place and I don't recall that she had trained under Peter.
Well, no reason to think about it now. Sooner or later, I'll be able to see who that person in question is. I guess all we have to do now is wait for someone to make it to the finalist. I’m pretty sure it is going to be a level 10 dude. There is just no way a level 1 is going to be able to make it until the end. They just separate the levels to make things more interesting for the viewers. If we were to fight Level 1's at the very beginning, how boring would that had looked. It would probably be someone running away from my Fear spell once again. No one wants to see a grown ass man running away without fighting. Come to think of it, something like that did happened before.
There was a huge crowd of contestants that had joined this tournament. There is probably a way for them to narrow things down quicker with the sheer amount of people who joined. Judging by the size of the arena, probably multiple fights will occur simultaneously. Or perhaps an all out battle between each level to see who is the best? Whichever it is, I'm looking forward for some entertainment myself. I doubt there would be a finalist today so the both of us should relax today. So much for getting prepared for today's event.
Among the contestants however, one of them stood out among the rest. Not because he looked strong or anything, but his appearance just stood out from the rest. He was wearing nothing but a white underwear and holding a wooden club. His appearance was.. something else. Is he seriously expecting to fight in the tournament with nothing but that? He’s probably some low level adventurer who can’t afford to buy anything. But how broke can you be to not even afford rags? Guess I was lucky that grandfather gave me a decent amount of money to start out with. I wish him luck that he will be able to put up a good fight for the other contestants despite his appearance. All the best, chap.
***
What in the actual… H.. he actually did it. He ended up as the finalist! H.. how is that even possible?! He had this special power that made him resurrect himself over and over. None of the contestants had any idea on how to defeat him permanently. No wonder he needed nothing but an underwear and a wooden club when he has such an overpowered ability. I seriously need to figure out a way to stop him from resurrecting himself. Otherwise in a battle of attrition, I am going to lose eventually like the others. So much for underestimating him.
Rose was intrigued that this person made it to be the finalist. She told me if I ended up losing then she will handle it. Geez, such little faith in me winning. I’ll show her what I'm made off. I slid down my mask and headed down towards the arena. What awaits me is a battle that I had never faced before.
***
“Ladies and.. gentlemen! We had made it to the semi-finals! I promise you all that this battle between the semi-finalists, will be one for the ballads! Let us see who will make it to the finals! Allow me to introduce to you who the combatants are. In this corner, we have a champion that rise above all else from the very beginning, defeating and conquering all the other combatants with his special resurrection powers and sheer tenacity, armed with nothing but a wooden club and his undergarments, please welcome.. THE WRETCHED!” shouted the announcer.
The whole colosseum roared and clapped as he came out from the entrance. He was carrying a broken statue of some sorts along with his wooden club. He placed the statue at the side of the arena and roared towards the crowd. He certainly knows how to make an entrance. I guess I should wait for the announcer to introduce me before I show myself.
“And in this corner, we have a mysterious outsider. He is known as the man who single-handedly overthrew the Queen of the West and made her run for her money. In doing so, our relationship between the West had been restored and we can trade in peace now. Certainly not a hero that we deserved but a hero that we needed. Ladies and gentlemen, put your hands together.. for the Dark Caped CRUSADER!!” shouted the announcer.
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I appeared out from the entrance and into the arena with my mask on. To my surprise, not a single cheer or clap could be heard. Everyone was dead silent and I can literally hear my footstep as I made my way into the arena. Is everyone afraid of my mask? Or are they just unfamiliar with me? It doesn’t matter, I guess. My attention is to defeat this person who calls himself the Wretched. Not exactly a cool nickname but certainly better than mine somehow.
I stood at the opposite end of my opponent. Everything was still silent until I hear a small clapping in the distance. I turned towards the sound of the clapping and saw that Daisy was only one who was clapping loudly while cheering for me. It was then that I lifted my hand in a fist and pointed it towards Daisy. It didn’t matter if the crowd was not cheering for me, all I needed was my daughter’s cheerful face to boost my confidence in battle. I was smiling underneath my mask when I saw her responding to my fist bump with her own.
Things happened in the least expected way when I saw Peter started chuckling and started clapping himself followed by Mr Wick who was standing behind him. Suddenly, the crowd started following suit and more people began clapping after the founder himself started cheering for me. Even after becoming the fourth great power, I still get pity claps. Ah well, beggars can’t be choosers. Daisy’s encouragement was all that I need.
I readied my stance towards my opponent who was smirking at me. Getting cocky, eh? You’ll regret that.
“Are you all ready for the semi-finals? Too bad if you’re not, because let the battle.. BEGIN!” shouted the announcer.
As expected, my Wretched opponent roared in fury and dashed towards me with his wooden club held high up. I still cannot get over the fact that a bare naked man with nothing but an underwear is running towards me but I need to focus on his movements entirely. He swung his club with a downwards strike but it slammed on the ground which shattered the arena tiles. I dodged to the side and gave a palm strike of my own but he rolled to the side and avoided my attack. This person likes to roll around rather than dodge attacks, based on all his previous fights that I watched.
He leaped at me and attempted to slam his wooden club at me once again. I guided his attack and slammed it to the ground. I attempted another palm strike but he leaped backwards and made a forward dash immediately in an attempt to hit me.
I made a quickstep to the side and instantly delivered a counter punch to his chest but as soon as I thought I made contact with his body, it somehow did not connect as he rolled away from my fist. What the hell? I was sure my fist reached him but somehow it did not connect as soon as he started rolling. It defies all logics!
He made another roar and charged after me once again. I had enough of his rolling and made my stance to charge up my strength. It was then he started rolling around. I was confused as to why he is panic rolling when all I did was readied my stance to attack. My eyes were getting tired in seeing him rolling around but at one point, he stopped rolling somehow. Perhaps he had tired himself out needlessly. Now’s my chance.
I dashed towards him and made contact with his chest using my left knife hand stance. Then I retracted my left hand and slammed my explosive right fist on this chest. This time I definitely made contact with him. Have a taste of the power of Fa Jin Zhòu.
The Wretched flew backwards and made an exaggerated death movements while his body started to shine and dissipate. It was then his body fully disappeared and reappeared in the middle of the arena with him being anew. This is his true power. Battle of attrition until his opponent falls over. What a scary power to fight against. I need to find how to stop his resurrection power or I will definitely lose.
***
We fought for almost 30 minutes and I had so called “killed” him a couple of times, but he kept coming back. While he did not inflict any serious wounds on me, he did managed to hit me a once or twice with his club which actually hurts. This bloody cavemen is tiring me down by the second. I need to figure out how is he resurrecting himself. C’mon, think you stupid brain, THINK!
It was at that point that I remembered something. When he first came into the arena, he was carrying a statue and placed it by the side of the arena. But why? What was his reason for doing that in the first place? Can it be?
The statue was directly right behind where I am standing. I reached for my dagger which was hidden at my back and behind my cloak. I quickly tossed it at the statue before he could react. All he managed to do was to squeak out an “Ah” as my elven dagger smashed his statue and shatter it to pieces.
He wailed a loud “NOOOO!!” and fell to his knees. What a dramatic person. Did I figured it out his secret? Was his statue the reason behind his resurrection powers? Judging by his depressed look, it would seemed that might be the case. I guess I might have a chance to win after all.
He glared at me with a murderous intent. Uh oh, did I anger him that much by destroying his statue? He tossed aside his wooden club and reached for something behind him. It was then he took out a large jar and he wore it on his head. It looked like a strange jar design with two handles at the side and was brown in nature with a red lid. Where on earth did he kept that giant jar behind him in the first place?
He stood up and summoned two katanas on both of his hands. Oh shit, this guy is serious now. And he can use Sunder spell?! I can see his killing intent emitting behind him. This person is not joking around now. I am almost certain that he can solo me if he wanted to. It was as though all of his experience in fighting is flowing back into his body now.
His katanas was completely different from the other. On his right, he wield a blood reddish katana that had odd design for its blade portion. It looked as though it was designed to rip apart flesh and cause his opponent to bleed profusely. His other katana on the left looked normal as compared to the other one but it glowed with a blue hue on its blade. There’s no denying that these two katanas are legendary items. This person had just turned into one of the deadliest opponent that I had ever faced. All the while he was playing around since he can resurrect himself but now he is dead serious in facing me. I need to take him seriously or I might not be able to live to see another day. And I haven’t even discovered who is Peter’s new pupil yet!