Chapter 458: Underdog
On the second day of the tournament, Michael returned to the Association headquarters and headed to the arena.
But on the way there, he was intercepted by Claudia who gave him a warning.
"Hey, uh... just a heads up before you get in there. A lot of people showed up today to watch the tournament," she said.
"How many?"
"Full capacity. What do you expect when you show such a feat yesterday?"
Michael was too used to the Nation of Reborn where everyone knew about his talents. He had to remind himself that his existence alone was considered an anomaly, a genius of unprecedented levels. He was just glad they didn’t know about his Supreme Talent or else this would have gotten way more out of hand.
Still though, he didn’t mind having lots of spectators. It was about time for people to learn about his magical talent.
"People have actually been impatient since this morning. Everyone’s been wanting to see the boy who can wield all four elements!" she shouted.
"Eight," he corrected her.
"Huh? What was that?"
"Nothing. Anyway, I have a duel coming up, right?"
Claudia felt like she had just heard something incredulous again, but decided not to pursue it.
"Yeah. You’re actually just in time. You’re next in line to fight."
Michael and Claudia both walked to the arena, finding themselves a spot at the very top of the stairs. This allowed them to subtly enter without getting the attention of the spectators.
Luckily enough though, they seemed to be plenty occupied by the fight below.
One of the duelers was someone Michael saw from yesterday. He was the extremely skilled sword fighter who others considered to be one of the forerunners of the competition.
"He’s from a company called Spartan Leather. They’re actually a decently ranked company in the Upperwood District, having both physical and business power to compete against the best of them.
They’ve consistently placed no. 35 out of 54 in the Festival, which is just at the limit of what the low-class tournament allows."
And just like before, the spartan man (a nickname he gained from the spectators) used his great physical strength in tandem with his sword skills to overwhelm his opponent.
But surprisingly, his opponent was able to parry the spartan man’s strikes with minimal swings of his knife. It looked like his opponent wasn’t even putting in any effort to fight.
"And who’s his opponent?" Michael asked.
Claudia had to look at her scrolls to confirm. "They’re from a relatively unknown company called Serpent’s Wash.
To be honest, I’m not really familiar with this company since they’ve just established themselves recently. According to this, they offer laundry services in the Upperwood district."
"So, they’re just like us? They passed the permit test too?"
Claudia looked back at her scrolls again. "It would appear so. They passed the permit just a few weeks ago, actually. And they just barely passed the 7000 sales mark."
Michael was surprised since the Association typically only gives out five permits in one year. It was a crazy coincidence to have two permits happen in just a few weeks.
But if they were able to get 7000 sales in seven days, then they must have good business techniques to achieve it.
Still, that didn’t necessarily mean they were stronger than the Spartan man.
In fact, that was the general consensus within the spectators.
"His opponent is running away. But it’s only a matter of time until Spartan man picks apart his sloppy knife skills."
"I agree...but doesn’t Spartan man look a little bit exhausted now?"
"...you’re right. He should have gotten a few hits at this point. But all of his attacks get parried by this guy."
Everyone was surprised that this unknown Serpent guy was going toe-to-toe against the fan favorite Spartan man. However, as the fight wore on, it became evident that the Serpent man wasn’t just fighting. He was dominating.
His knife skills accurately parried every single sword strike from the Spartan guy. For such a small weapon to fight against a sword, it must mean that there was a large gap between their Physical Art spells!
The fact that the Spartan man showed exhaustion and wariness in his face, while the Serpent guy showed nothing but a relaxed expression showed everything that Michael needed to know.
The Serpent guy was going to win.
And just like he said, the Spartan man thrusted his sword prematurely because of exhaustion, allowing a small vulnerability in his ribs just enough for a knife to pass through.
The Serpent man lunged, blurring his body as he closed in.
The two remained in close contact, with the spectators completely unaware of what happened.
Eventually, the sound of metal clanging into the ground echoed into the arena. The Spartan man let go of his sword and slowly backed away from his opponent.
He held the side of his stomach, which was now bleeding uncontrollably from the knife wound.
"I...surrrender..."
The whole arena went silent. They couldn’t believe that the front-runner was defeated just like that. And in such convincing fashion too.
"Yeah! I won," said the Serpent guy. A few others in the arena jumped down and congratulated the guy. Presumably, they were from the same company.
"Damn, this tournament is so easy!"
"Hahahaha save it for when I get land on Main Street."
"You just beat the best fighter in the tournament. We basically won this already!"
They all laughed and joked with each other, celebrating this win. However, their boasts and their arrogant words earned them some glares from the spectators watching above.
Meanwhile, the Spartan man refused any of the treatment from the Association employees and approached his opponent.
"Good game. You beat me fair and square," he said, reaching out his hand.
The Serpent man briefly stopped celebrating and looked back at him. Eventually, he approached with a warm smile and shook hands with the Spartan man.
But unexpectedly, the man pulled the Spartan man closer to him before he whispered.
"Good game? You would have never been able to beat me in a million years. This isn’t even a warm up for me. Try again never, loser."
The spectators didn’t hear their conversation at all. So, they were left wondering why the Spartan man had such a look of anger and humiliation on his face.
Eventually, the Serpent man and his friends all left the arena shouting their premature celebrations to anyone who could hear. They didn’t care that the whole arena turned silent because of their obvious pompousness.
This left an entirely sour taste in the mouths of everyone who wanted the Spartan man to win.
"Those guys were jerks," Claudia said to Michael. She was one of the few who heard what the Serpent man whispered and she didn’t like it one bit. She knew she had to be neutral, but she was inwardly wishing for their downfall in the coming rounds of the tournament.
"Michael—"
When she turned to look at Michael, she realized that he was already gone. She looked around before she eventually found Michael on the bottom of the arena, quietly waiting for his opponent to show up.
A minute later, his opponent did show up and the duel commenced.
But not even a minute later, the fight was decided.
Michael won. And in such a fast time that he waited longer than when he fought!