( The next day, Round of 256, The Grand Tournament )
The round of 256 was not held within the grand arena with hundreds of thousands of people watching.
It was rather conducted just like the preliminaries in different parts of the city simultaneously.
Just as Ben and Cervantez had predicted, there were special ice fields created for this round, with the slippery ice surface posing a challenge to all agility type fighters.
While everyone tried to gain information about the next round in advance, not everyone was successful in doing so.
The members of the DarkSky guild knew about the terrain because of Cervantez, while Leo found out because of Ben, however, most contestants only found out about the special ice fields, a few minutes before their fights began.
"Betting, betting, betting! 2:1 odds, 2:1 odds, place 20 silver coins on The Boss winning, Win 30 if he does.
Place 10 silver coins on Lysa winning, win 30 coins if she does….." The uprising guild members loudly said as they advertised their illegal gambling before the match amongst the gathered spectator crowd and began to collect the bets.
"The news from the higher ups are to collect all the illegal gambling money and then placing a bet within the official channel for The Boss winning, according to their prediction there is no chance of him losing this match-" One bookie collector whispered to another as the orders from the higher ups within the guild were clear.
They wanted to make a lot of money from gambling during this tournament and their strategy for doing so was clear.
First collect money from the commoners promising them better odds than the official channel.
Then place all the collected money on The Boss winning.
This way they could collect a large pool of money and still have a big profit margin left after paying people their money back.
In case they lost the bet, they still would not lose a single cent as they could just scam the commoners off their money and never return.
Since there was no binding contract in illegal gambling to pay them back anyways, this was the most secure form of betting.
However, in the long run, if they did not pay the customers back even once, their reputation would be tarnished forever and they would no longer be able to scam people this way.
Nonetheless, since the concept was still fresh and their reputations had not been tarnished, they were able to raise a lot of money before Leo's fight, placing a full 120,000 gold coins on him winning his match.
If they won this bet, they would win 150,000 gold coins, of which approximately 130,000 needed to be returned to customers as winnings, however, the remaining 20,000 gold coins was a net profit margin!
( Note - This calculation is based off the fact that off that 120,000 gold total, a decent chunk is also placed on Lysa winning, which will go bust )
It was an absolutely insane business strategy, giving insane returns on every run, however, going bust even once with a wrong bet would force them to close shop.
Nonetheless, all bets had been placed for the first match, with the only thing left for the uprising members to do now, was to cheer for The Boss while he won his fight.
*********
( Meanwhile Leo )
Ben and Leo had discussed a brilliant strategy to counter the ice terrain in his first fight.
The designated arena for this fight for Leo, was East-Park Arena, where a crowd of roughly 7,000 spectators had gathered to watch a total of four fights taking place in the round of 256.
Leo taking on Lysa was the very first match of the day, which would have sucked for Leo if he did not know about the terrain conditions in advance as he would have literally got no time to prepare for it otherwise.
"The only way to win a match is via knocking your opponent out of bounds.
The use of weapons is allowed, however, crippling or killing your opponent is not.
Are the instructions clear?" The match official explained to all the fighters before they walked out of the contestant warm-up area and into the East Park Arena.
"Yes it's clear-" Leo replied as the match official nodded in acknowledgement.
"Alright, I expect a nice and clean fight, the first two fighters can now make their way to the arena" The match official said, as Leo cracked his neck and began walking out towards the arena with no regard for Lysa who was standing right beside him.
Although the two shared the same warm-up room for 25 minutes before the start of the match, not once did Leo acknowledge her or any other contestants presence as he simply closed his eyes and focused on himself.
He was not interested in fraternizing.
He was not interested in making friends.
He was here to win and to win only as victory was the only thing on his mind.
"IT'S THE BOSS!"
"BOSS! I'M YOUR BIGGEST FAN! KICK YOUR OPPONENT'S BUTT TODAY!"
"SHOW THEM THE PRIDE OF THE NUMBER ONE PLAYER, LET'S GO-"
*Boss! Boss! Boss!*
Leo walked out to his arena amongst a frenzy of chants.
By now his popularity had reached sky high levels, especially amongst the players, which was why most players that were watching the round of 256 as spectators, chose to watch his match live in particular.
As Lysa walked out, she was met with Boo's and Jeers from the crowd mixed with a few anti feminine insults.
Despite the hostile crowd, Lysa did not seem to be affected as after walking out to the arena, she waited patiently for the ground cover to be removed and the ice ring to be exposed.
*Swoosh*
"BEHOLD, THE FIRST ROUND ARENA….. THE ICE RING" The match announcer said, as the crowd collectively gasped at the revelation.
"This arena is made from pure frozen ice, with a layer of oil spread evenly on the top.
It's the slipperiest of surfaces and a disadvantageous ground for the agility type fighter-" The match announcer said, as Leo carefully mounted the arena and took his starting spot, while Lysa levitated in the air above hers.