( Rudra's POV )
Rudra was smiling on the surface, but under the breath he was cursing at Max.
" What an absolute idiot, who runs in circles around the enemy? Ofcourse you will be caught up in the bind spell unless your enemy is a retard" . Rudra complained to Naomi
" Don't be so hard on the kid and just shut-up and clap. He won in the end did he not? ". Naomi said as she told Rudra off.
" How can my own brother be such an idiot? I wonder who is the combat professor in this college, I think I need to have a talk about the quality of education in this institution ". Rudra muttered angrily
" It's the principal sir, He's actually done Max a solid by giving him a special pass into this tournament as a reward for his hard work.
You should thank him if you meet him, Max says he is an inspirational figure for him ". Naomi replied
Rudra was dumbfounded by his wife's knowledge about Max's life as he asked " How do you know all of this? "
Naomi smiled evilly as she looked towards Rudra and said " Oh he writes to me every now and then?
I send him pictures of Jake and Amy... he tells me about his life at uni, why?
Does he not write to you too? ".
Rudra's face blackened at this answer as he realised that his brother was more in touch with his wife than him.
" That little fu**** ". Rudra cursed with all his heart.
********
( Meanwhile Max )
Max returned to his locker room and had a healer inspect him for injuries.
The healer looked lowkey impressed when she found not a single point of HP to heal on Max, as she praised him and even touched his chest a little too intimately while speaking in a sweet voice.
She was hitting on Max, and Max was unquestionably enjoying it but unfortunately the party was interrupted by Asiva who barged into Max's locker room.
*Ahem*
She coughed sternly, looking at the healer run her fingers over Max's chest as the healer frowned and moved away.
" Good match ". She praised Max, however, her voice was laced with a icy tone.
" Yeah, someone told me to crush it, so I did ". Max replied jokingly, trying to lighten her mood
" Oh yes I'm sure you would have crushed it in here if I did not visit". Asiva rebuked, not pulling back her shot at all.
" Rude ".
The healer glared at Asiva before walking out of the room.
" Bitch "
Asiva shouted the moment she left.
" Fffuuu, Hahaha" Max began laughing uncontrollably at Asiva's antics.
Asiva looked at the laughing Max, as she barely stifled her laughter and said " Idiot "
Max's laughter only became even more uncontrollable after that, as his infectious laugh made Asiva laugh too.
" What is it with you and women? Playboy!" Asiva complained, but there was no aggression in her voice anymore.
" What can I say, the mask adds to my mystery ". Max said, proudly
" You look much better without it ". Asiva said snorting
" Hoho, are you flirting with me? ". Max asked cheekily, however, Asiva poured cold water on him with her cold reply as she said
" In your dreams, playboy ".
Max clicked his tongue after that reply, and surrendered, he wanted to move on from the topic.
The two sat side by side, as they chilled and watched the ongoing matches on the screen, waiting for a few matches to go by so that Anna and Sebastian would go up.
Sebastian was up in the 17th match, and Anna in the 21st and it took a full 2 hours before Sebastian was up for the fight.
Sebastian's opponent was a tier 1 tank called " Aaron ", however, the poor guy was absolutely no match for Sebastian as despite the shield to block his enemies attacks, and his high HP, he could only manage a five minutes ten seconds fight against Sebastian, which he lost miserably without ever landing a single attack.
From start to finish, it was a one sided trashing and throughout the match, a drunk Thor could be heard shouting " ATTABOY! ". And " THAT'S MY SON " from the crowd.
The crowd's perception of Sebastian took a 180 once it was revealed that he was Thor's son, as everyone quickly began cheering for him.
Many high level selectors took note of Sebastian as a potential recruit, as apart from his own skill in battle, recruiting him would open a gateway for the organisation to build connections with the thunder kingdom.
Max was slightly shocked to see Thor so vocal in supporting his child, as the camera angle cut multiple times mid-fight to show the thunder god.
While Max admired Thor's muscles, Asiva frowned deeply looking at the four naked women surrounding him, as she was instantly disgusted by the debaucherous douchebag.
Match 21st saw Anna take on Emily, a paladin class player whose preferred weapon of choice was a mallet.
It was a close fight, and Anna was at a disadvantage by facing a class that was defence based and it was this narrow disadvantage that led her to lose in an arduous and long battle that lasted 24 minutes.
Max genuinely felt sad for Anna when he saw her shedding a slight tear on her way back to the dressing room, as he felt the harsh reality of the tournament finally set in.
Max had been lucky in round one to have an opponent who used fire as his main attack, otherwise he would have been hard pressed to win.
Such luck would not always be in his favour, and with so many strong opponents in the tournament, a single mistake could cost him the match.
Under such circumstances, the only thing he could do for Anna was to make sure that he went onto the next rounds with caution and if by chance he met Emily, then return the defeat faced by his friend to avenge her.
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/// A/N - bonus chapter for hitting the GT target. We are on a roll! ///