~ Chapter 130: A lot more to grow ~

[Knight A’s point of view]

It was a fine night to go out to grab a drink with my fellow knights from the barracks. The few of them who had a spouse to go back to skipped on our outing, but we did not blame them, we envied them.

Sometimes, I would go patrol the markets and wonder how it would be like to have a madam waiting for me back at home with her arms open, ready to give me a hug and a big kiss, but alas... none of the marriage proposals I sent out ever received a favorable reply and now I was slowly getting close to my thirties. Maybe I would have more luck once I grew a few white hairs?

I wanted to get married like any other lad my age, and I wanted my honey to be gorgeous too so that all those bastards at the tavern would die of envy when they saw me going out with her hand in hand and smiling like a pair of lovebirds!

Besides waiting for old age to turn me into an attractive man, there was something else I could do to increase my chances of conquering a lady’s heart. What I had to do was to gain fame by doing something big like catching someone who was on the wanted posters like the Jack of the Blind Sparrow, the notorious captain who more than often sunk his own ship together with that of his enemy’s! Who cared if we were not near a port! What? It wasn’t as if pirates never traveled inland? Where else would they bury their treasure if not in the middle of the mountains where no one would think about it?

That was what separated me from my peers, you see! I saw things differently, I had two brains instead of one! Or at least, that’s what my momma used to tell me, blessed be her soul. So, I knew how the pirates looked like based on them posters in the ports and I knew where to go to keep an eye out for them.

Getting drunk with my buddies was a mere side effect of my ingenious plan!

Well, so it happened, that while I was out drinking one night, someone came over to my table and gave me a small note.

“What’s sayin’?” a drunk friend of mine asked.

“Hm, nothin’...” I crumbled the note and tossed it in my pocket, then I continued to drink my mead.

So... Princess Ildeanussi is hiding as a robed companion of the contestants in the tournament... one of them religious folk. Well, guess this is the big break I was looking for! If I tell this to my captain, he’s bound to reward me greatly! I thought to myself.

Later that night, after I had enough of a drink, I returned to the barracks, but instead of heading straight to my room, I stopped by the commander’s place first. I knocked two times at the door and then entered when the other told me I could.

“I hope there’s a good reason why you are bothering me this late in the night.” he told me as he narrowed his eyes at me.

“Yes, commander!” I nodded and then saluted.

“Well, spit it out, man. I don’t have all night!” he rebuked.

“Understood! It’s about a certain fugitive, commander! Look here, the note that was slipped off to me tonight! I did good, right, commander?” I asked with a big smile on my lips.

“Yes, lad, you did good... very good.” he said while rubbing his beard.

The commander looked pleased which certainly meant that I would get my big break soon! After all, I earned myself a favor with this, and it wasn’t as if I could go ahead and fight against those contestants by myself anyway. I did not even have the authority to make an arrest based on such little evidence. The commander, however, now that was a different matter altogether!

[Alkelios’ point of view]

Before we left the inn on the morning of the final day of the tournament, I gave everyone the rundown of what might happen at the coliseum today, starting with the happy and more blessed outcome of just winning the first place and getting a meeting with the Queen to the more unfortunate one where Princess Ildea’s identity had been compromised and so an ambush was in the works while we fought on the stage.

Whatever the case, everyone was ready to move forward and while the idea of sneaking into the palace and saving the Queen did cross my mind, I was given several reasons of how that could turn out bad for all of us. The King, in his madness could have easily called her out as a traitor and even declared that we were conspiring to form a rebellion against him. The nobles also would have seen this move as cowardly from both the Princess and her mother, which would have led to a loss in their support. Even if we pulled down the King through that so-called rebellion, it didn’t mean that the nobles would have supported us. Worst of all, they would have had a legitimate reason to gather their forces and then request help from foreign nations under the premise of putting on the throne a more legitimate ruler and not a traitor like those two.

All in all, a showy confrontation face to face was also something that the nobles would have enjoyed more. As Kalderan pointed out, this was mere entertainment for some of them, and their support went to the best joker of the two. Brute force and wisdom were just the tools of the play.

As we stepped into the coliseum, we did not notice much difference from before. The number of spectators was still as high as last time, and the betting booth was definitely filled up to the brim with people who wanted to make a quick coin from our fights. The number of guards didn’t seem to have changed when compared to yesterday and their eyes were still scanning everyone for suspicious folk.

Since we were contestants, we headed straight to our tribunes next to the arena. The non-combatants took a seat in the back and both me and Kalderan prepared for our big fight. It was the opening match too.

“I believe I’m stronger than before...” he told me while we did our stretches.

“Indeed, you are.” I confirmed.

“I want to see how strong...” he looked straight into my eyes, showing that he wanted to take this duel seriously and give it his all.

“Very well, I’ll let you flex your muscles and then I’ll show you how much more you can grow!” I declared as I then shook his hand.

Kalderan than moved to the other side of the Arena, where he waited for the announcer to call him in, while I waited here on my own side. Like yesterday, the tournament began with grandeur and festivity, where Ten Swords was celebrated alongside the other human nations. From where I stood, I noticed that the number of nobles who participated today had increased, but not all of them were delighted by this event. Their eyes were glued not to the arena but to the place where the King was going to sit or to the opposite tribunes where nobles from other factions could be seen.

There were two battles that took place today, one between the fighters in the Arena and another in the realm of politics where bonds were made and broken with the flick of a finger.

Surprisingly, it wasn’t the King who came forward to give the start of the tournament but a human from the Akutan Empire. He presented himself like a high-born noble, someone with blue blood in his veins and the demeanor to show it.

“It is a pleasure to introduce myself to so many fellow humans, my noble name is Askarius Leden, and I represent the Akutan Empire as their Ambassador. I am the benevolent one who saw the promise and potential in your land as a possible ally and mighty force to aide our glorious Empire! I come before you as your kin to see the great potential of mankind, and with me, I have brought forward a representative of my own. You may know him as Zeberan Brutus, a formidable Paladin with a heart of gold and the strength of the gods! May his win be for the glory of our human species!” he declared, but something felt very weird about his words.

It sent a strange tingle through my back, and I felt my muscles tense as if rejecting the very nature of their words. It didn’t take long to recover, but when I looked around, I saw my friends holding their head as if they just got struck by a terrible headache.

What just happened? I wondered, but when I looked up at Askarius Leden, before I could use my skill to see his status, he was already gone from there and retreated back inside.

In his place, the King of Ten Swords came forward and officially declared this as the final day of the tournament with the promise that one of us will come out victorious for all of mankind.

The tournament did not forbid the participation of other species, but from the way he and that ambassador put it, the winner could not be anyone else other than a human. In other words, Coshun was most likely going to end in a fight against Zeberan after he won. I saw that man fight, and I knew that he was more powerful than the Prince.

For now, however, my battle was against Kalderan.

“Begin!” the moment the announcer called the start of the fight, the first to make a move was him.

Jumping to the left, he took out his guns and immediately began to unload his bullets at me. Of course, they were easy to dodge, but I had to let him see how much damage they could do to me. These were not led tips like those on Earth, but magic tips, created by Kalderan’s Magic Energy with the help of the skill the God-like gifted him, so a magic barrier that surrounded the body was enough to stop them. They could not even scratch my Breakthrough-er armor if I were to put it on.

Once he saw that he could not pierce my barrier, he tried to use one of those charged bullets of his. That one was dangerous, so instead of letting it touch my armor, I decided to try to deflect it with my gauntlet. It was worth a shot, and the worst that it could happen was that I would get a nasty scratch on my forearm, nothing a good healing spell or potion could not fix.

BANG!

The loud sound of the magic release startled the audience, but this was not the first time he used this spell in the tournament, just the first time he used one of such a caliber. The magic tip headed towards me at a speed faster than sound, and honestly, if I didn’t move the moment he pressed the trigger, I might have not have had the time to try to deflect it.

With a loud pang, the bullet ricochet off my armguard and then slammed into the ground next to me. The armguard was cracked now, but it proved to show that he had indeed improved quite a bit. If he learned to make sniper bullets with that magic of his, then he would become a terror on the battlefield, and I had to make sure that he was on my side or at the very least not my enemy.

“That was dangerous...” I muttered when I saw the hole in the ground, but when I looked back at Kalderan, I noticed that he was already out of breath.

So, this was your best against a single target like me... Too bad we can’t see how well you would do in a situation with multiple targets. I thought and then rushed towards him.

When I was just a step away, I stopped and told him “As promised, I will show you now how much more you can grow!” and then I kicked him on his right side.

He gasped for air and was tossed closed to the edge of the arena, but I rushed there before he was tossed out and grabbed him by the head only to slam him in the ground. The shock was terrible, and he spat out a mouthful of blood. With a groan, he barely managed to open his eyes and look up at me.

“That’s just the beginning, a realm you will be able to reach soon if you keep at it. A realm, to which your guns will only add more raw power to every shot. You are amazing, Kalderan!” I declared with a grin before he drifted off into unconsciousness.

With my opponent down, and the spectators simply stunned by my simple yet ruthless performance, the referee had no choice but to quickly declare that I was the winner.

“Healers! Bring in the healers!” he shouted when he saw the poor state Kalderan was in.

“No need, I can heal him.” I told them and then used the [Heal] spell to close off his minor wounds before picking him up and bringing him over to our tribune.

There, Risha was ready to give him the Healing Potion I handed her before we entered the ring.

“Is he... Is he going to be alright?” she asked with a bit of worry in her eyes.

“Yeah... Just make him drink that and it should be fine.” I told her and then took a seat on the bench.

“Was it really necessary to be so... brutal?” Ildea asked me.

“If he didn’t specifically ask for it, I would have taken it easier, however...” I turned to look at her in the eyes “Do you think he would have been happy if I pretended to be troubled by his attacks even the slightest bit? So far, he was the only one I did not hold back, and that last attack of his... that one was dangerous to some extent.”

“I don’t really understand this... but I will believe in you.” she told me.

“Thank you.” I showed her a smile.

The next match was Coshun versus Markuvinovici and it was received with a lot of cheers from the opponent’s side. He was carrying a big halberd as a weapon, while his armor consisted of a more tribal fur armor with his left arm completely naked and his right one covered in protective plated armor. With his long black hair braided in a ponytail and his beard braided like that of an ancient Viking, he gave off a savage manly feel.

Coshun was not intimidated by this human’s looks. For dragons, showing off your real brute strength was more than valuable than making yourself look tough. So, as soon as the referee gave the go for the battle, the two clashed weapons.

Sparks flew on the stage and the audience cheered for Markuvinovici’s victory. No one was cheering for Coshun, which was expected given the fact that he was a draconian. After the first couple of strikes, you would have been led to believe that the Prince was on the losing side, however, the strikes of his sword soon turned more terrifying for the human and in the end, he was forced to step back. He tossed a few curses his way and then let out a war cry right before he dashed in for a big attack.

Coshun avoided it with ease and then kicked him in the back. Markuvinovici stumbled on the scene, but he didn’t have time to get up before getting kicked in the stomach again. He spat out blood as he rolled on the ground, loosening the grip on the handle of his halberd and dropping it.

Seeing the man struggling to get up, the audience was waiting in patience, hoping and praying for him to get up. Even the referee did not know what to do, but Coshun held some respect for his adversary and allowed him to get up on his own.

As soon he was back on his feet, with blood dripping from his mouth and rage in his eyes, Markuvinovici cast a fire spell aimed at Coshun, but the draconian did not even think about dodging it. He slashed the attack in midair and canceled it out. Afterwards, he rushed to the man’s side and punched him right in the face, making him lose a few teeth as a result.

The referee was now convinced as to who won the battle and rushed to the Arena to declare Coshun the victor and Markuvinovici the loser.  The crowd was not very happy, but there were a few who rejoiced over having won their bet.

Once he returned to our tribune, he sat down next to Ildea with his arms crossed at his chest, puffing his nose. He was proud of his victory and the woman of his interest did congratulate him on it.

The following battles weren’t as short as ours, but no less entertaining. Zeberan’s fight, however, was a bit crueler than I had expected. His opponent lost a hand and was on death’s door when the healers picked him off the arena. In my opinion, he did not have to go that far for his victory.