As their fight extended into minutes, Jacob started noticing something. His opponent was slowing down. It was imperceptible at first but after a couple of minutes, he realized that Andrew was not blocking his attacks as smoothly as before. Moreover, the power behind his attacks was also decreasing slowly. It was as if Andrew was gradually losing stamina.
Is he weakening? Jacob became so happy after realising it that a small smile broke on his face. It did not go unnoticed by Andrew but he did not show any response on it.
Jacob had thought that he would have to fight tooth and nail with Andrew in order to defeat him. But it seemed that Andrew would not be able to hold on for much longer. Even then, Jacob was extremely cautious. He was not a fool. It may as well be a plot by the opponent. He didn't go lax on the opponent at all and prepared himself to defend against any surprise attack.
Two minutes later, Jacob was still waiting for a surprise powerful attack. But all his expectations and worries were in vain. No such attack came. In fact, Andrew had become more weaker than two minutes ago. He was barely blocking Jacob's attacks now and was on the backfoot. He was just defending Jacob's attack while barely counterattacking once or twice.
CHANCE!! Jacob shouted inwardly as Andrew failed to properly block one of the Jacob's slashes. Taking advantage of it, Jacob inflicted a small wound on Andrew's left side of the chest. Although the wound was very small and was better to be called a nick instead of a proper injury, it was still progress for Jacob. For the first time in the battle, he had managed to hit Andrew and slightly damaged his armour.
There was a pin drop silence in the audience. Only the clanging sounds of swords could be heard. This had been the state of the audience since the beginning of the match. Nobody dared to utter a word and fully concentrated on the ongoing battle.
With bated breath and eyes wide open, they tracked the progress of the battle. They feared that they would miss something important if they blinked their eyes for a second. It could be considered a miracle that ninety thousand people were sitting and nobody was speaking or making a noise. Such miracles were limited to the places such as coliseum only.
After seeing Andrew getting slightly injured, they were certain that Andrew would get defeated soon. The supporters of Jacob had excited expression on their faces while those who supported Andrew had worried expression on their places.
On the raised platform specified for the the royal prince and other nobles, there was not much reaction. Only the third prince was frowning slightly. He had blue eyes just like his son and was sitting on the front seat. He was also radiating a small pressure due to his high cultivation.
In the next couple of minutes, Jacob found many chances to inflict small injuries on the opponent after failed blocks. With each injury he inflicted, his confidence and pride swelled as all his misgivings that were present previously were gone.
I am stronger after all. Indeed, I am destined to win. Nobody is my match in this tournament, not even the royal genius in front of me. Jacob thought inwardly as his smile widened. His confidence swelled so much that it was bordering over confidence. His arrogance also increased along with his pride.
Although, he was very confident right, he had not managed to inflict any serious injury on the opponent. All he could inflict were small gashes and nicks. There were many chances where he could injure Andrew seriously but it was risky. He ran the risk of opening himself wide open for Andrew to counterattack by overextending himself. He did not want to take that risk.
But as the small injuries accumulated on Andrew's body, Jacob's caution kept decreasing as his arrogance and over confidence increased. He was also becoming a bit impatient. The opponent in front of his were giving so many chances that he had to give away due to the risk of getting injured in return.
It was as if someone was dangling a juicy piece of meat in front of him when he was extremely hungry but could not take it. He frustration also kept growing. Not for one second he stopped to think about trying to bring down Andrew slowly and systemically.
He wanted to end the match as quickly as possible and come out victorious in a glorious manner. The reason for this was his slowly growing arrogance and pride. He was subconsciously detesting the slow and less glorious path to victory.
Soon a chance came that was too much for Jacob to ignore. It was the biggest opening in the enemy's stance since the match started. If he struck now, he would be able to inflict a very grave injury that would certainly disqualify Andrew. Only, there was also a degree of risk involved with it. But Jacob decided to ignore it. The most he would get would be a small injury in return of the victory.
Thinking this, Jacob struck. He delivered a right diagonal slash and his sword connected with the enemy's torso.
Ting, Puchi
But something happened. It was so instant that Jacob was caught completely off guard. He immediately felt a bone piercing pain from just below his left elbow. The pain was so much that he almost lost his mind. He has never felt so much pain in his life.
As he unconsciously looked toward his left arm to see what happened, a scene straight out of nightmares met him. He saw an incomplete arm flying away from him and slowly falling to the ground. It was armed into a chainmail armour and its hand was clenched into a fist.
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Jacob was too familiar with that arm. He looked toward his left arm in horror and found a stump instead of a complete arm. His arm below his elbow was missing and he was leaking a river of blood.
Jacob was not the only one who saw an incomplete bloody arm falling away. All the public present there was focused on Jacob's stump and his dislodged falling arm. It was as if time had slowed down but that was not the case.
Many faint hearted screamed at the sudden bloody turn of events. Nothing serious such as this had happened in the tournament till now. There were no deaths and surely, no dismemberments. Similarly, many stood up with a gasp and many had horrified expression on their faces.
Just as Jacob was always reflected in the elder's eyes, Jacob's separated arm was also being reflected in his eyes. His smile vanished and he raised his head toward the high heavens. He was not the only one to do such action.
Somewhere in an unspecified forest, a tiger was chasing down a deer. It was about to catch its prey when both of them stopped in their tracks and raised their heads toward the evening sky. Similarly, in a unspecified savanna, a great herd of buffaloes was on the move. Hundreds of thousands of them are moving like a great black flood raising clouds of dust in their wake. Instantly, they all stopped and became still. All of them simultaneously raised their heads and looked toward the morning sky.
In an underground location where night had already befallen, an unknown wild scale war was taking place between the colonies of ants and termites. Millions of little bodies were throwing themselves on each other in a vast network of small underground tunnels spanning for kilometers.
It was a war of annihilation. They would never stop and would keep fighting until one of them is utterly annihilated. They were the mortal enemies of each other. Suddenly, all of them stopped fighting without any exception. They raised their heads toward the sky. Although, there was tons of soil between them and the surface, it didn't bother them at all.
Just like the elder, all the creatures of the entire world stopped what they were doing. The insects stopped creaking, the birds stop chirping and the animals stopped roaring. They all raised their heads simultaneously with eerie exact timing and stared into the high heavens. It was as if something was present there that could not be seen with naked eye.
The only exception were the self conscious beings such as humans and beasts. They were not affected by anything and didn't participate in this strange worldwide phenomenon.
The global phenomenon lasted for only a few seconds before things resumed. The chase restarted, the migration continued and the war resumed. The elder also lowered his head and started looking toward his son who was raising his head from his amputated arm.
Jacob looked up toward his foe with a horrified and painful expression. He found him smiling at him along with a pained expression. Smiling while making a painful expression seemed hideous to Jacob. NO!! HOW CAN THIS BE? I WAS DESTINED TO WIN. THIS IS NOT POSSIBLE. Jacob screamed internally as he realized what he had lost just now. He was finished now that he had just lose more than half of his combat strength.
Andrew had not come unscathed from that clash. He had a large diagonal gash on his torso that ran from his right chest to left abdomen. Blood was also falling from it. But it was nothing as compared to the loss Jacob had just suffered. He was also smiling arrogantly as if he had managed to accomplish some kind of goal. It was as if he was aiming for Jacob's arm since the beginning.
Seeing that detestable smile and the pain he was feeling, Jacob's eyes turned red in anger and pain. He fell on Andrew like a beast.
Jacob was completely berserk as he went suicidal on Andrew. Without caring about injuries, he attacked his abhorrent foe with all the strength he could muster using his remaining intact arm. He attacked with so much force that he almost teared apart his arm's muscles. Even then, he did not care.
He had only one thought in his mind. It was to tear apart the opponent in front of him in pieces. He had completely forgotten about the tournament and the identity of the person in front of him.
Andrew could not keep up with suicidal Jacob's aggression. All concepts of tactics and techniques were lost. At first, he inflicted some injures on Jacob's wide open body but was soon overwhelmed. In mere seconds, he was reduced into a bloody piece of living flesh. He had bone deep gashes on his torso and arms as he tried to defend himself from Jacob. He was seeing death on the horizon.
"Stop." A single word thundered throughout Jacob's mind and it pulled him out of his berserk state. A pressure had also descended on the entire coliseum and Jacob felt slight difficulty in breathing normally. He stopped attacking Andrew who was at a near death state and looked toward the origin of the sound.
A normal height man was standing on the raised platform. He had blue eyes and long black hair. He was exuding waves of pressure from his body. It was Ajisth Ursus, the third prince of the Ursus kingdom and father of Andrew.
He had fully unleashed his core formation cultivation and was putting pressure on everyone present in the coliseum. Everyone was making different expressions and were affected to various degree. Only the elder seemed to be the exception to it but nobody noticed. They were busy with themselves.
The man launched into a great leap and stepped on the arena smoothly. He then started toward Jacob and Andrew.
Seeing his father in the arena, Andrew found hope once again and started running toward him. But halfway, he fell face down and stopped moving. He had fainted. He had lost too much blood and could not remain conscious for much longer. The blood flow to his brain was affected.
Jacob was in a much worse situation than Andrew. Only his strong willpower and adrenaline kept him standing. Now that the adrenaline had worn off, he was hit by an intense pain that he could not help but take a step back while groaning. In addition to the bone piercing pain coming from his left arm, he was feeling a burning pain from his right arm. He was also feeling pain from the newly inflicted wounds on his chest.
"Take him away." Ajisth Ursus ordered the judge. The judge nodded and called two stretchers. One of them was for the passed out Andrew and the other one was for Jacob. He was doing the duty of a judge. He had already seen the condition Jacob was in. He was about to end the match and declare Jacob victorious. It was obvious that Andrew was about to lose his life. But that was when the third prince had stepped in.
Jacob was starting to feel dizzy as he stared at the third prince who was walking toward him. He was able to breath normally now without any difficulty. The prince was no longer radiating any pressure. Even the residual pressure due to his revolving core was gone. He was consciously suppressing it.
It was as if the prince exerted the pressure to scare off Jacob and stop him from further injuring his son.
"Kid, you are an interesting fellow. You have won the tournament and the beast core is yours." The prince said when he came near enough to Jacob. By now, the stretchers along with a few medics had also arrived on the scene. The medics were trying to lay down heavily bleeding Jacob on the stretcher. Andrew was also being transferred to the second stretcher.
After saying his piece, the third prince took out a pigeon egg-sized red triangular gemstone from one of his pockets and handed it to one of the medic present there while nodding at him.
"Kid. I have something else to say to you. What good is any prize when you lose your humanity for it. Think about it. You may have won the battle with Andrew but you have lost the battle with yourself. Is it worth it?" The prince continued with his words as Jacob was being taken away on a stretcher. Many medics were trying to stem his bleeding and seal his amputated arm with gauzes and bandages.
By now, almost all of the nobles had stepped on the arena. It was fortunate that Jacob was still covering his face. Although his straw hat was nowhere to be seen. He had lost it during the fight.
The prince's words hit Jacob like a wagon. They were extremely accurate and on spot. They had hit his sore points. He had indeed lost his reasoning right now due to his anger and was about to take someone's life. Even losing his arm was not enough to kill someone. The tournament was not a game. He should have expected losses.
He turned his head toward the audience in order to see his father. He saw the elder was sitting at his point. Why is father still sitting there? It was Jacob's last thought before he lost consciousness.
End of the 2nd Arc