The attack was fast!

Hiro had barely managed to see the flash—before he knew it, pain erupted through his body.

Hiro grasped at his chest. Warm blood flowed through his fingers. He brought his bloody hand close to his face, and his limb shook.

As his family always said, he was a loser who would never amount to anything. He had already accepted that long ago, that’s why he had never bothered with anything for two years after becoming an exorcist—going through each day doing only the bare minimum to survive.

But here he was, trying to become an Expert Exorcist and competing against people that were clearly magnitudes stronger than him.

Since he would never amount to anything, then what was the point of trying?

He didn’t have strong willpower, and he would rather be at home watching TV. But he was taking part in a death tournament. Every time his thoughts drifted back to the massacre on the train, Hiro felt like throwing up.

“You okay?” His opponent asked. “Your injury wasn’t that deep. Why haven’t you gotten up?”

“You wouldn’t understand,” Hiro said with a wavering voice. “I go to an exam that I don’t care about and take risks when I’m too afraid of the repercussions. I’m not as talented as everyone else and I can’t do anything to make people stop looking down on me. Even my Special Ability is worthless, and I can’t bring myself to create a second ability.”

Hiro was deeply ashamed of his Special Ability and how it announced all his deepest weaknesses and insecurities. It made him look in the mirror and confront the version of himself he couldn’t bear to even look at.

He had manifested his ability after awakening his Ord at fifteen. So it wasn’t an accidental ability created when he was young. It was an accidental ability made when he was a mature young man.

Doing something an inexperienced and weak-minded exorcist would do was shameful for someone of his clan. He used to be part of one of the four great clans, and they had a reputation to keep.

Hiro remembered the day his ability manifested, alone in an empty dark room, watching TV and trying to ignore the despondent loneliness and frustration weighing down his heart.

Loveless Fool, that’s what he called the ability. The more people genuinely loved and cared about him, the stronger he would become.

But no one loved him. He had activated the ability only once before when it had manifested, and he didn’t gain even an ounce of power.

Not only did he have a barely 30% Warrior Affinity with no other affinities above 30%, but also low Ord, so he had no potential at all as an Exorcist.

“What the hell are you doing?” Mira shouted from the stands. She was a thin girl with dark hair and dark eyes.

Despite his shortcomings, she had accepted him in her team. She was a kind angel of a woman.

“Stand up! Fight! Why the hell are you just giving up?!” She berated him.

Hiro heard her words, but he didn’t want to fight just to end up losing with more injuries. His opponent was clearly out of his league.

This wasn’t a fantasy story where the main character would get stronger just because the girl he had a crush on told him to win.

Also, this wasn’t a life or death battle either, as the exam proctor would intervene.

Hiro knew he was an ambitionless man with no dreams. If he lived another day and had enough money to feed himself and continue watching TV, then that was enough for him.

He turned toward Mira and got ready to apologize. “Sor-”

But the words had gotten stuck in his throat when he saw the tears forming in her eyes.

Memories of his family came to mind, the happiness he felt before his lack of talent was dicovered. An electrifying shock ran through his body as Hiro realized… that she believed in him. Why else would she cry when telling him to keep fighting?

One person still believed in him, even when he didn’t even believe in himself!

Hiro forced his body to stand up, despite the pain in his chest.

This was no longer a simple fight with no stakes. From now on, he would be betting on something even more important than his life!

His ability had a side-effect that could tell when someone cared and loved him. This might sound like a boon to anyone else, but Hiro hated that part of his ability as it proved undeniably that he wasn’t loved by anyone.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

‘Please, someone, anyone out there! Just this once! I want to win!’ Hiro nervously activated his ability.

“{Loveless Fool}”

As soon as he used his special ability, Hiro's nervousness disappeared.

He felt two large sources of love, and his Ord exploded out. It felt like every feeling of inadequacy he had before just disappeared.

Hiro felt like crying, knowing that not only one, but two people out ther genuinely loved and cared about him! He was shocked and ecstatic, and many other pleasant emotions ran through him.

But he didn't have the time to appreciate it too much as his opponent pulled his weapon back, getting ready to attack.

Hiro kicked off the ground, deciding to make the first move.

What he didn't expect was for there to be such a powerful push from his kick, and he got close to his opponent in an instant.

Hiro panicked a bit; he wasn’t familiar with this kind of speed and used the butt of his spear to hit his opponent in the stomach.

Baam!... Gem slammed against the wall of the colosseum, cracking it as his body slumped down.

What else could Hiro do except stare incredulously with his mouth agape? ‘... Huh? There’s no way I just did that!’

“The winner is Hiro!” Yelled out the announcer.

‘I… win?’

All of this felt surreal as if he were in a dream… a dream he wished to never wake up from.

***

As expected, Hiro used his overpowered ability and won single-handedly. His feelings of extreme loneliness empowered that ability to incredible heights.

I approached Gem and thought about what to say to him. He was the kind of guy who hated losing.

“I warned you to be careful,” I said as I crouched next to Gem. He was lying on the ground and staring blankly at the sky. I snapped my fingers in front of his eyes, and he started, showing that he was conscious. “If you had attacked him while he was still on the ground, you would have won.”

Opposite to my expectations, Gem smiled. “I don’t know why. But it looked like he needed that win more than me.”

I sighed and helped him up. Gem had at least a couple of broken ribs from that last attack. Putting his arm around my shoulder, we walked out of the stadium. “Well, if you’re okay with it, then there’s no room for me to complain. Let’s just take you to a hospital.”

“No way! At least not until your and Bets’ fights!”

It was a shame Ellen had run off, or she could have healed Gem in a second. How was someone her age so sensitive about a stupid failed joke?

After putting Gem on the seat, we waited for the next fight to be called out. Bets had prepared the seat and some food rations as snacks.

“The next fight will be Sei against Haka!”

Haka was one of Mino’s teammates. If I remember correctly, he was also part of the Shi Clan and dabbled in controlling corpses. But he wasn’t at the level Mino was, though they had a pretty good rivalry when they were younger.

As they both stepped onto the stage, Haka was the older of the two. He was much taller and had a lanky build.

“Begin!”

Immediately, Haka clasped his hands and ran toward his opponent. A coffin manifested next to him, and it opened, revealing a zombie with missing chunks of flesh.

The zombie’s dark nails elongated, and if I were to guess the creature’s power, it would be a strong middle-class demon. Maybe high class with support from their master.

But before the zombie could get close, a mirror manifested below its feet, and the creature sunk into the mirror. Then another mirror manifested in the sky, and the zombie fell from almost two hundred meters, turning the rotten corpse into a gross paste.

Haka gasped and had a panicked look on his face. He glanced toward Mino, and he turned toward his opponent again. “Screw off! You Seimei bastard!”

Uff, that was an awful choice of words.

Sei’s eyes turned cold as soon as Haka mentioned the Seimei Clan.

When he was within arm’s distance, a mirror manifested in front of him, and the next thing everyone saw was the youngster backing off.

“Ahhhh!” He had a terrified look in his eyes and started foaming out of his mouth before slumping to the ground, unconscious.

Oh? This was surprising. Sei could already show other things in the mirror?

Well, that was a quick fight. It didn’t even last twenty seconds, and the sad part was that Sei went easy on him.

“I sometimes forget just how monstrously strong Sei is,” Gem whistled and started coughing.

“Bets, take him to a medic,” I said.

“What?! But I wanna see your fight!” Gem whined.

If he weren’t injured, I would have slapped the shit out of him and not listened to his bullshit opinions. That was the only way Gem sometimes understood and did what was best for him. “You’re injured and have a couple of broken ribs. Stop being dumb.”

“What’re you talking about?” Gem looked at me weirdly. “I’m not injured.”

I looked at his bad acting.

Who was he trying to fool? I had carried him here, and he winced every time he turned around even a bit. “Your ribs might puncture a lung.”

“Heh! I know my body best-”

Whatever he was about to say, he couldn’t finish as Bets karate-chopped at his neck and then carried Gem on his arms. “I will take him to the infirmary.”

This kind of guy understood what was best for the team. Why couldn’t Gem be more agreeable? Though I would be lying if I said that side of him wasn’t entertaining. So I didn’t truly dislike that side of him.

“The next fight will be between Kon and Anika!” The announcer called us. “Anika, Kon, come forward to the arena!”

I glanced at my opponent, and Anika had a fox-like smirk on her face. She would be a more troublesome opponent than I would have liked to admit.