As he walked toward the centre, he glanced toward his father. He found the elder giving him a thumbs up in encouragement. Jacob smiled at that and then fully concentrated at the upcoming match. His expression became serious as his hold on the longsword tightened. He would treat it like his arm.

"Nothing much is known about Jacob. All we know is that he is an outsider renting a room in an inn. But he handles his sword in a graceful way and is quite sharp minded. I myself was present tomorrow to watch the matches. He bulldozed his way to the final match and became qualified without breaking a sweat. He is also the only competitor who remained unscathed yesterday. Can he become the dark horse of this tournament? We will see."

At this, the loud voice paused for a second and the audience broke into a loud cheer.

"Opposing him is Nila, our own. Although the daughter of a normal merchant, she is well known in the fighting circles. She has taken part in many competitors and knows how to use her whip effectively. She has beaten many wannabe boyfriends in the streets. Can Jacob avoid the horrible fate of those gentlemen or Nila comes out victorious.? Let the match begin."

At this, the judge started the match.

No wonder many people fell for her. Jacob thought as he looked closely on her face. She was a bit beautiful but it was ruined due to her slightly arrogant smile.

"Give up and I will spare you the embarrassment. Did you hear what the commentator said? You cannot beat me. Give up before something bad happens to you." Nila said as she walked toward Jacob leisurely while dragging the whip behind her. The tone she was using was slightly arrogant and that triggered Jacob.

"You give up. I think you have not felt real pain till yet. It is better to give up now than sobbing later." Jacob was extremely annoyed and a bit angry on the girl in front of him. She was looking down on him and acting arrogant.

Even then, he did not lose his cool. He was brainstorming vigorously in order to come upon a strategy to end this fight as quickly as possible. He did not want to get injured here and lose his advantage. A plan slowly formed in his mind. He changed his hold on the sword and wielded it like a javelin.

The change in Jacob's stance did not go unnoticed by Nila. She found it a bit weird but did not think much about it.

"As you wish." She said as she raised her hand to strike Jacob with her whip.

Jacob's full concentration was on the opponent's hand which was holding the whip. Everything else had faded from his mind and only the raising hand remained. He had also trained in the ways of the whip.

Although, not his favourite weapon, he still knew how to handle it. He knew that a whip was very fast to dodge. So he decided to deduce the possible striking zone of the whip from the hand movements and dodge it preemptively.

NOW!! Jacob shouted internally as he dodged left. The cracking whip missed his right arm by a mere inch. He quickly took hold of the whip by his left hand and threw the long sword toward the girl with great force just like he was throwing a javelin.

Although Jacob was in a difficult position while holding the whip on his right with his left hand, he could still throw his sword albeit with a little less force. But it was still enough to fatally injure the girl after piercing her light armour.

Everything happened in mere two seconds. Nila did not have enough time to think. She could only come up with two options in a split second, it was either to release the whip and try to dodge as much as she can or keep holding the whip and run the risk of getting injured fatally.

She did not think much and released the whip. She tried to sidestep but was too late. The swishing longsword was already upon here. There was not much distance between Jacob and her to being with so the thrown weapon did not take much time to reach her.

Ting*Puchi

Nila looked down and found the sword jutting out of her right abdomen. Her mind went blank as her face whitened. In no time, her mind caught up with the intense pain and she fainted.

The coliseum was so silent that a pin drop could have been heard. Not a single person in the entire audience was making any movement. They stared at the fainted Nila with wide open eyes. Some even gulped unconsciously.

They were expecting a long exciting match between two strong contenders. A match where the opponents collided repeatedly for minutes until one won with an hair's breadth, bloodied and planting. But something else was waiting for them.

At the start of the match, they became much more excited after somewhat hearing the conversation between them. But after the first attack, things escalated so quickly that their brains could not catch up. Everything happened in the span of a few seconds.

Everyone in the audience was dumbfounded. Even the people sitting on the raised platform had various expressions on their face. Some were surprised while some were amused. There was only one exception. It was a white robed old man, his long white beard well maintained. He kept staring at Jacob since the beginning with a kind smile, not sparing any attention to the girl at all.

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

Jacob dropped the whip and started walking toward the girl slowly. She must be in too much pain. He was felling a bit bad for his fainted opponent. He knew that he was already a victor since the opponent fainted. It was automatically a forfeit.

Just when he reached near the fallen girl, he bowed down in an attempt to remove the sword from her. He did not want to give her much more pain so he wanted to remove the sword from her body. There was still a pin drop silence in the entire coliseum.

Just as his hand was about to touch the hilt of of the half stabbed sword, a shout resounded in the arena that startled Jacob.

"W-WOAH THERE! STOP! DON'T TOUCH IT." The judge broke into a run toward them as he shouted loudly. He was also standing in a slight daze a few seconds ago but after seeing Jacob's actions, he forcefully broke himself out of his reverie.

Jacob stopped his movements at the shout and kept standing in the bowing position awkwardly.

"Step back. Don't touch the sword." The judge reached them and told Jacob to step back with a relatively calmer voice this time.

"Why? I want my sword back. Moreover, she is in too much pain." Jacob straightened as he asked the judge with a confused expression.

"Give it a rest, kid. You will only worsen her condition. We will return your sword later." The judge said as he sat down near Nila to check her vitals.

"Oh." Jacob simply said as he stepped back while scratching the back of his head awkwardly. He really had no idea what he was doing right now. He was going blind.

At that, the commentator also came out of his daze and shouted loudly. Along with him, the audience also broke into the loudest cheers heard yet.

"AN UPSET! We have an upset. What did we just see? We have a victor here. It is Jacob, an unknown warrior. In the blink of an eye, he crushed his opponent and grabbed victory. What wits. Did you just see? That was what I was talking about a few minutes ago."

Jacob kept standing there while feeling nervousness. This was the first time so many people were paying attention to him solely. He had no idea what expression to make, whether to smile or remain different or show sadness for the girl. He suddenly found out about his tendency of becoming nervous in front of large crowds.

"JACOB! JACOB! JACOB!" People started shouting Jacob's name. They were very few at first but soon, the entire audience was shouting his name. The shouts were so deafening that half of the city could hear it.

It was not that they had not shouted anyone's name in the precious match. It was just that the shouters were very low in number previously and did not make any difference. But now, almost ninety thousand people were shouting Jacob's name.

As Jacob heard his name being shouted with so much enthusiasm. A memory flashed though his mind. It was him standing right in the middle of the arena five years ago, when he had visited it for the first time. He was awed by the magnitude of the building and imagined himself standing there gloriously amidst the cheers of the audience after felling a fierce beast.

Whatever he had imagined then, it was happening right now. Except one thing, it was a fierce girl instead of a fierce beast who fell before him. Except that, everything was the same. People were cheering for him and shouting his name. He was standing here gloriously after being victorious.

A smile finally broke on his face as he looked up toward a certain person sitting among the excited audience. That person was simply smiling on him.

In the meantime, a stretcher immediately arrived with a few medical practitioners accompanying it. Nila was carefully put on the stretcher as they talked among themselves hurriedly.

"Confirmed perforation."

"We have to start the operation right now."

"Spinal or general?"

"General. Do you want her to die? She is in shock."

"Room twenty seven. Quick. You run ahead and prepare the arteries and other things. Order additional anazane. It will be a long one."

"Got it."

Jacob could not understand more than half of what they said. One of then also got rebuked out of nowhere and another one started running back for unknown reason as Nila was getting transferred to the stretcher from the dusty ground.

What language they are using? I cannot understand a thing. Jacob thought as he decided to stop paying them attention. He turned back and started walking toward his seats. The commentator was continuously commentating about their battle as he walked back to his seat.

Just as he neared near the sitting area, he saw Biren giving him a thumbs up. Jacob nodded at him as he took his seat. After that, he concentrated on what the commentator was saying. He was praising him and describing their battle in great detail while giving small pauses in between as audience roared with excitement. He was masterfully handling the large audience while keeping their excitement bar high.

Jacob kept listening to him till a couple of minutes later when a development took place.

"......grabbing the whip in the process. Did you hear the cracking whip? The force behind it was enough to crack Jacob's ribs if he had let it hit him. What timing. Jacob had ev.. Huh? What?....Ahan.....Ok. Got it. Ladies and gentlemen, we have a fresh announcement. Lady Nila is out of the dangerous critical condition. The medics are working hard to patch up her wounds. She will be safe. Now, onto the next match. Twelfth match, En...."

The next matches passed without anything exciting happening. Jacob's sword was also returned to him a couple of matches later. It was so clean of any blood or any other stain that it was shining in the sunlight. Jacob sincerely thanked the person who brought him his sword.

After that Jacob kept observing the combatants with oblivious attention. He noted down many things mentally. The monotony broke when the nineteenth match came.

"Nineteenth match, Andrew Ursus vs Kibol. Please step forward."

The audience broke into loud cheers once again as two people stood up from the contender's sitting area. One of them was a longsword wielder who was wearing a chainmail armour and had a muscular body, just like Jacob. He was sitting just one chair away from Jacob. Another was a thin man who was carrying a short spear. Both of them then started moving toward the centre.

Hearing a familiar name, Jacob sat straight. He was well aware of someone known as Andrew Ursus. According to his father, he would be the most difficult opponent he would face in the tournament.

Now Jacob was wondering that which one of the two in front of him was Andrew. He was thinking of asking the person sitting near him or Biren. But he was hesitating. They had sat their silently since the first match. Nobody had spoken a word since the beginning. Jacob was feeling a bit uncomfortable at the prospect of breaking the silent spell.

But his worries were unwarranted. Just a few seconds later, whispering broke among them. Many started whispering with each other. One such whisperer was sitting right next to him and it seemed that he had the same questions as him. He was trying to ask from someone sitting behind them. Jacob strained his ears in order to listen to their conversation.

"Hey friend, do you know which one among them is Andrew Ursus?"

"He is that long haired fellow who is carrying a longsword, the one who was sitting right next to you. Are you so unaware of your surroundings?"

"Umm, sorry. Never seen him before. That's why I could not recognize him."

"Hm. Ok. Keep your eyes open. He is a bit famous in the capital."

"Got it. Thank you."

After seeing that the conversation happening near him ended, he stopped paying them any more and attention and looked toward the long haired young man walking toward the centre. He had seen him a couple of times before since he was sitting just one chair away but could not imagine that he was Andrew.

He was extremely low profile and had no signs of arrogance due to his grandfather being the kingdom's king. He always had this blank expression on his face. That was why Jacob had not paid much attention to him.

"Andrew Ursus needs no introduction. But I will still introduce him for those who don't know him. Meet Andrew, son of the third prince. Yes, his father is right here. So think hard before trying anything funny. Ok, enough of our little humor. As you can see, Andrew us carrying a longsword. He is a graduate of the Star Sword Sovereign Academy in the Great Oren Kingdom. He is a user of the Star Sword style and nobody has beaten him since he returned from the academy."

The commentator paused at it and the crowd burst into loud cheers.

"Opposing him is Kibol, a spear user. Although, he has a humble background, his spear skills must not be underestimated. He had hunted down many dangerous animals in the forest all by himself using a simple short spear. Can he defeat Andrew and change his destiny, we will see. Let the match start."