Chapter 899 Unexpected Development
( Kartikeya's POV, the Tri-state tournament)
It was the final round of the tri-state tournament and monarchs from all three factions were present to witness the final match of the open round.
Kartikeya had managed to progress to the finals rather in a rather dominant fashion with his opponents in the quarters and semi-finals quitting before the match even started, in fear of getting beat black and blue by ' The Brute '
His opponent was a dark-horse in the tournament, a tier6 god who registered under the alias ' Modal ' who was especially frail looking with a lanky build and super an extremely flexible body.
He had struggled against all his opponents so far, only winning every match with the skin of his teeth, however, there was something odd about how he won his matches right from round one, he seemed to be extremely weak but always found an answer to progress.
If he had the strength to narrowly win over the semi-finalist, he should theoretically win over the first opponent with ease, however, that did not seem to be the case.
Somehow, he always had at least a 4-1 or a 5-1 odds against him in every fight and those who bet on him won big every single time.
While Kartikeya did not care about such trickeries at all, Jake realised from the get-go that Modal was playing his opponents and the crowd by pretending to be a pig when he was a tiger.
Most likely, he put the act of winning through narrow margins to win as much money as possible and then he reinvested all his earnings betting on himself on the next round and the one after that to compound the money earnt via every fight.
The odds for the finals were so ridiculously skewed against him that an individual could make 20X their investment if they bet on Modal to win against Kartikeya and Jake did not like those odds at all.
" Don't get overconfident Kartikeya, this guy is more scheming than you think- " Jake said as he warned Kartikeya about taking his next fight more seriously as by this point Kartikeya felt extremely bored by the idea of the tournament.
He had not fought against an opponent that made his blood boil and instead of himself the fights that his little brother Kremeth had in the under 30 seemed to be more fun.
Unfortunately, when his aunt Asiva found out about Kremeth Jrs involvement in the fight, he was grounded and prohibited from taking part in the tournament anymore as his very life could be in danger in these battles which Asiva felt that he was not ready for.
Today, the poor boy had came only to cheer his brother on as he wondered if he could have fought in front of such a massive crowd in a finals match today, had her mother not stopped him before.
" Please win it for me too, brother " Kremeth Jr said as Kartikeya ruffled his hair and gave him the brightest smile.
Being the youngest brother for so long, Kartikeya absolutely adored having a younger brother himself as he had grown extremely attached to junior.
To him, Junior was the sweetest thing in the world and he treated him more like a pet than a human.
" Don't worry, I'll crush Modal! " Kartikeya promised as he beat his own chest like an ape and walked on-to the arena with his fist raised in the air.
" BRUTE! "
" BRUTE! "
" BRUTE! "
" BRUTE! "
The chants of his name resounded throughout the stadium as he seemed the absolute crowd favourite.
The modern crowd had never seen a freakish fighter like Kartikeya in a long while, who not only exuded natural talent but also fought in such a gory and physical way that it provided the most entertainment value.
All three monarchs applauded his entry, with Neatwit even giving him the most polite fake smile as Kartikeya blew a flying kiss to him.
To Augustus Won Knight he said " Yo, grandpa! "
And to Patricia he signalled " Call me "
Immediately frown lines were visible on the foreheads of the won knights as Kartikeya's talent in pissing people off was on full display, however, the crowd rowdily appreciated his wild gestures, emboldening him to go even further.
Finally, as he looked towards Emperor Cervantez, in his eyes he found the same look that he often saw in his father, the look of a seasoned warrior as he assumed a fighting stance and threw shadow punches in his direction.
Cervantez did not react to Kartikeya's antics, however, a small soft smile broke on his face as he acknowledged the balls of the young Rajput.
Finally, as his opponent walked onto the battle arena amidst the Boo's of the crowd, Kartikeya finally shifted his attention from the monarchs to his enemy as he felt his stomach turn in fear as he looked into his opponent's pitch black eyes.
There was a saying, that an individual's eyes were a gate-way to their soul and somehow Kartikeya felt like this particular individual had a rather dark soul as he felt fear by just looking into his eyes.
" Oye, oye, oye, who the hell are you? Hahahaha, this is going to be more fun than I expected- " Kartikeya said as he slapped his cheeks and felt excited to fight this particularly dangerous man as his instincts screamed at him that this man was trouble.
His opponent said nothing in response, but rather just closed his eyes and began looking towards the heavens as he began amassing divine essence.
" Contestant Modal! This match has not yet officially started, please refrain from gathering divine essence for an attack before it officially begins or else I will have to disqualify you for infringement of rules- " the match referee said, as Modal did not heed to his words at all.
Kartikeya realising that his opponent did not give two fucks about the rules, braced for impact, however, he could have never anticipated the move that his opponent was going to launch.
[ Divine Move - Perfect Warrior's Descent ]
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/// A/N - This bonus sponsored by patron Allcat_Gaming, please thank him in the comments for this chapter! ///