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I spent the next minute or two dancing in and out of the ogre’s melee strike range in an effort to keep its hands busy to prevent it from further digging its own legs out of the ground and also to attempt to get some hits in while looking for any vulnerable spots I can target.

By now, I have delivered a strike to almost every part of its body except the head and groin which it fiercely protects, which is kind of a hint that the ogre is a he, as for my findings on weak spots on the body, I can say there are none so far, at least for me at my level of strength.

Its arms and legs are almost a hundred percent muscles and each is thicker than my body, so besides cutting its skin, my sword did not get far into any of its limbs before I risked my sword getting stuck. As for the torso, besides the hanging bulging belly, its chest and back were also pure muscle.

So if I am to do any meaningful damage to this big bastard, I can pretty much say goodbye to all forms of slashing attacks, that left me with piercing and blunt attacks, but realistically speaking, I can leave out blunt attacks, I am nowhere strong enough to knock its lights out.

To see how much damage I could do with piercing attacks, I weaved my way through a barrage of attacks before I ended up at the ogre’s left side after dodging a wide swing, and with both hands on my sword, I trusted my sword up at where I assumed should be just under the ribcage.

After my sword sunk in three-quarters of a foot, my blade was stopped by the thick wall of muscle, now I was starting to understand why the announcer said it was two years too early to take on an ogre, because as much as aura was a force multiplier to my striking ability, my unpowered body did not have much for the force multiplier to multiply from, in the end, one multiplied by two is still just two after all. After this, I am going to seriously need to hit the gym, I now understand why my father and his men were all protein powder-snorting muscle-bound sword maniacs, they need that extra power to take down tough bastards like this ogre.

After stabbing a few more spots to test the toughness of different spots and dodging like my life depended on it, an idea came to me. In my hand was not just a sword, but an improved war pick, allowing me to take advantage of the power of my swings.

I dodged a few more swings at me while I got just out of arms reach, I then flipped my sword over and was now holding it by the blade, I adjusted my grip properly so I would not cut myself, and started closing in to deliver a blow.

“Oh? What is our contestant doing now? This humble announcer is no weapons expert, but I am pretty sure that is not how a sword is handled. Do you have any insight on this, Your Majesty?” the announcer said as he passed his mic magic tool to the king.

“Indeed I do, this is the first time I have seen a sword wielded like this, but I can see the potential application, let us watch our young contestant and see what he will do, it may be something different from what I have in mind.” the king commented and passed the mic back to the announcer.

After ducking, dodging, and flash-banging in front of the ogre's face, I circled around the ogre who was shielding its eyes with one arm and swinging wildly with the other. When I was behind the ogre, I pumped as much aura as I could into my sword, concentrating particularly on the cross guard, and swung down with all my might.

When I was testing my piercing attacks on the ogre earlier, there were a few hits that hit the ribs or its arm and leg bones, and no matter how hard I pushed, I felt I could do no better than making small scratches on the bones, but this time I was aiming for perhaps the most important bone in the body, the spine, and the ogre was kind enough to have such a well defined back that showed the crease of where its spine should be.

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Besides the head, the spine had one of the least amounts of meat protecting it, so when my cross-guard made contact with the middle of its back, the aura coating my weapon made short work of the meat in the way, while my steel cross-guard, with all its momentum largely un-expended, smashed into the ogre's spine, and from the vibration of my sword, I felt something snap.

The moment that happened, the ogre released a roar of anger as it tried to swing back at me, but it could not turn its waist to reach me, instead, it slumped forward and looked down at the rest of its body, the next thing to happen was it slouched forward and then its knees gave out, flopping its body backward on the ground, its face now filled with confusion and panic instead of rage.

I did not give it any time to contemplate its lower body paralysis and raised my sword above my head, and swung down my sword like a miner would a pickaxe.

I felt my cross-guard punch a hole in the ogre's skull in the center of its forehead and into the squishy gray matter, and just to be safe I flared my aura down my sword and into the skull, hopefully pulping the rest of its brain, the moment that happened, the once flailing arms fell to the ground limp, and I saw the light in the ogre’s eyes go out as it started bleeding from its eyes and nose.

As I reached forward to yank my sword out by the hilt, I noticed the whole Arena was silent and slack-jawed, even those in the royal booth. Then after a few seconds, out of the audience, someone started the cheer with a “Wooo!” that Ric Flair would be proud of, and the cheering started.

The announcer finally got his shit together and started doing his job, “Ladies and gentlemen! History has been made here today, for the first time in tournament history, a twelve-year-old– I’m sorry, what was that Your Majesty?” the announcer covered his mic as the king said something to him, and after a short back and forth, the announcer got back on the mic with a shocked expression but schooled his expression back to his usual joyful face. “Sorry for the interruption, it seems our young contestant, Luke Ironcrest, has truly set a high benchmark for this record because he is not twelve years old, but eight!”

At this declaration, there were gasps heard around the arena, interspersed with more rabid cheering, I felt a little betrayed that my true age was publicly revealed… why did he have to do me like that? But soon, I was escorted to the waiting room to await the conclusion of this event for my level.

When I arrived at the waiting room, I was bombarded by questions about how far along I got, but I gave some vague answers and went to get a snack and a drink. When I sat at the bar, the usual bartender leaned over to me and whispered, “I betted that you would make it past the fourth round, and you just made me a lot of coin, here is a little something as a sign of my appreciation. It is something new I came up with.” he said as he pushed a rad color milkshake to me. And I had to admit, it was his best milkshake yet.

Hours later, me, one group of five, and another group of four were called for the award ceremony, and being the only one of us who slayed the ogre, I got first place.

When the king was presenting the trophy to me, I could not help but have a grumpy face, now that everyone knew I was some kind of young fighting prodigy, I would be hounded to no end by people with funny ideas in their heads. The king, seeing my grumpy face, gave me a chuckle and patted my head, “I am sorry for revealing your age, young Luke, but you were too juicy a target not to put on a pedestal. The young of the kingdom needs people like you to aspire to, and you fit the bill.”

All I could do was keep my mouth shut while I seethed internally and took my trophy from the king’s hands. Seeing me give him the silent treatment, the king once again chuckled and said with a cheeky smile, “Come now, don't be like that, I will make it up to you. Expect something in a few days.”

I just sighed, what's done is done, and nobody was really hurt by his actions, at least I will be getting something out of it, “Thank you, Your Majesty.” I said with a flat business tone and walked off to be mobbed by my classmates as they bombarded me with questions and asked to see my trophy, even though it was the same sword trophy except with different engravings on it.

But despite all that happened, I think I more than showed off my talents and would have no problems with future employment. So mission accomplished! I just hope the fame does not come to bite me in the ass.