“Ladies and gentlemen, I hope you’re having a great evening so far. Time for our next and the last match of the round of 16. For this round, we have a surprise for you.

Now, let me introduce to you our first fighter. Hailing from the outskirts of Raison, wearing the red band, Npum Thee.”

A fighter walked out of the entrance wearing a leather protective gear on his upper body and a leather cap to protect his head. A red band tied around his left arm indicating him as the seeded fighter in this bout. He stepped into the bout circle with a bit of a polite clap from the audience.

“Now time for your surprise. Hailing from parts unknown, wearing the blue band, the winner of the battle royal… Hemon!”

Suddenly the crowd erupted in a cheer upon hearing his name. They made even more noise when Hemon walked out with protective gear while wearing a blue arm band. His name could be heard chanted by a small portion of the crowd.

An official had a bit of a short talk between the competitors before leaving the circle. For the proper tournament, the diameter of the circle within which the bout was going to be held had been increased significantly from the battle royal. This was a fairly standard practice for combat tournaments to give more room for the fighters to maneuver, but the rules for elimination remained the same. If even one foot is out of bounds then the fighter gets eliminated or loses the bout.

Both fighters received their weapons rack for the fight. The weapons rack was placed just within the bounds of the circle on two opposite sides. The rack had all kinds of weapons but they were all dull to mitigate the chances of grave injuries.

“Fighters! Are you ready?” Asked the announcer to which both of them raised one of their arms to signal their readiness.

A bell was rung signaling the start of the round much to the delight of the crowd. Both the competitors started to circle each other slowly in an attempt to measure each other. They just about completed a single rotation when Npum Thee made the first move and charged first. He chose not to use any weapons.

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Hemon got in a defensive stance and waited for his opponent to close the distance between them. As soon as he came into the striking distance of Npum's, Npum attempted a right hook anticipating Hemon would turtle up.

His attempt to strike first missed as he could only manage to punch air. Hemon didn't present any turtle defence and instead chose to duck low and picked his opponent up on his shoulders in a fluid motion. Without wasting any more time, he made use of his position and chucked his opponent from his shoulders. Npum landed, his back landed hard on the ground and more importantly he landed outside the bound.

"And Npum has been eliminated! Winner!!! Hemon!!!!!!" Shouted the announcer.

The crowd clapped and cheered as Hemon made his way to the pavilion. He could hear the announcer informing the crowd about the next round.

His opponent in the round of eight was a big burly man armed with a sword and shield. Hemon was annoyed and was not pleased after seeing that. His opponent also had a big smile on his face and strode forward with a look of absolute confidence.

Hemon picked up a spear and this time decided to meet the swordsman in the middle rather than at the edge of the circle. After closing the gap between them, Hemon jabbed his spear trying to find a gap in his opponent's defence. Even though he peppered the burly man with nonstop jabs, the burly man showed no gaps and kept patiently defending with his shield.

Suddenly the burly man shuffled forward and swatted his spear plunge to the side with the shield, opening up Hemon's defence wide open. The burly man attacked with his sword and continued to press. Hemon dodged the first few waves of attack just barely but endured a blow to his shoulder at the last attack.

Pain erupted from his shoulder and brought tears to his eyes which blurred his vision quite a bit. He had to quickly wipe his eyes just in time to dodge another set of attacks. He was dragging his spear as he didn't get any time to bring his spear back into play. Fortunately for him, the intensity of the attacks slowed down quite a bit, which he took advantage of instantly.

Hemon, this time pressed forward instead of dodging which surprised his opponent. As a result, his opponent left a small gap between his defence and allowed Hemon slip past his spear for a solid thrust right to his opponent's ribcage.

The burly man cried in pain which opened him up for more. Hemon got in a few more thrusts before his opponent retreated back a bit. Now it was his turn to press the burly man. He poked and prodded with his spear and each time his opponent had to block either with the shield or with a sword, expending more energy.

Hemon pushed his opponent quite near to the boundary. His opponent was aware of that fact and tried to press forward to gain some lost ground, but was met with a strong thrust of the spear to one of his knee caps.

The burly man yelped in pain and tried to back peddle with one good leg which he was not successful in doing so. He fell backwards losing his footing and laid on the ground defenceless. Hemon ran and quickly placed his spear tip over his downed opponent's throat. The burly man with a dejected look, sighed and raised two fingers from a raised arm signaling his surrender and with that gesture the match was over.