( Luke's POV )
Leo wasn't the only contestant participating in the round of 256.
While there were many eyes on him, there were many eyes on other players as well, especially the ones who had qualified from the royal academies and were only making their public debut now.
Luke was one such player, who was relatively unknown until now, however, after his performance in the round of 256, he was not going to be unknown for much longer.
Just like Leo, he too had to fight on the ice arena that was disadvantageous to agility type fighters, however, Luke wasn't an agility type fighter at all.
Wearing a bulky armor set that he got as a reward from the last system mission, Luke brandished his sword and shield and stood like a solid tank on the slippery ice.
With his white Armor gleaming under the sunlight, Luke looked like a noble warrior from the get-go and against his opponent who was an open qualified warrior with a free-style swordsmanship background, Luke held the distinct advantage.
**********
Luke's opponent was called Caden, he was a swordsman who had made a name for himself in the open qualifiers by displaying amazing swordsmanship in the weapons test.
As he walked onto the stage, he was cheered by the crowd as he raised his arms and tried to play hero.
"You're dead, academy boy….. this brother will eat you raw-" said Caden, as Luke did not respond to his threat using vain words and instead banged his sword against his shield and said "Come-"
"Go-"
The moment the referee signaled the start of the match, instead of charging at his opponent, Luke used his sword and planted it with force beneath his feet as he used the power of [ Basic Strength Reinforcement ] to create an ice crater under his feet for better grip.
The ice cracked around him, giving him a small circle of grip and it was within this circle that Luke was determined to fight from.
"Kyahahaha, trying to stay still? Won't work against me-" his opponent said as he slid towards Luke with his sword in hand and used his weapon to stop his momentum when he found himself within striking range.
*Slash*
Jumping, he used an [ overhead slash ] to outmuscle Luke, however, to his absolute surprise, against his powerful strike, Luke easily defended using his shield as he could not press him down.
"What?" He said shocked, as the impact of his overhead slash was usually strong enough to split boulders, yet against Luke it seemed completely ineffective.
*Pushback*
Using his knight training, Luke pushed back against the enemy sword using the reinforced strength of his knees to blow his stance open.
The enemy staggered backwards, finding it hard to maintain balance as if this were a real fight, Luke would have used this opening to pierce his guts, however, since killing was not allowed, Luke dropped his sword and shield and hugged the guy belly to belly.
"Eh?"
The crowd was surprised to see Luke suddenly hugging his opponent as they wondered if he were a panda? However, what happened next stunned the entire arena.
Within that small circle of ice which Luke had carved out for feet grip, he used his strength to give his opponent back to back belly-to-belly suplexes.
*Pha-*
*Pho-*
*Gah-*
*Choke-*
After the first suplex, his opponent was completely winded, feeling the air leave his lungs completely.
After the second suplex he lost the grip on his weapon and felt his mind go dizzy as he was barely conscious.
After the third suplex he felt his respiratory system failing as darkness began clouding his eyes.
After the fourth suplex he was as good as unconscious as he hung like a limb body against Luke's shoulder.
Using his strength to lift him over his head, Luke lifted his opponent as if he were a sack of potatoes and threw him as hard across the floor as he could as his opponent slowly slid out of bounds without the ability to retaliate at all.
*Thud*
As his opponent crashed out of bounds, the audience burst into cheers as they had never witnessed anything quite like this fight ever before!
Luke literally hugged his opponent and gave him suplexes like a demon to neutralize his threat! And the audience was a complete fan of his brutality.
"Holy hell, SkyLion? Where did this demon come from? Bloody hell he's strong"
"Crazy Suplex Panda…. This guy's insane"
"Did you look at his back arch as he did those suplexes? Perfect 180 suplex, bam, bam, bam"
"Damn, I just found out, this guy is a top30 ranker! This guy's a top player!"
"Suplex Demon! This is the birth of the suplex Demon!"
Everyone became frantic about Luke as before today nobody had heard anything about him, however, the more they searched about him the more impressive he looked.
The boiling point came when after winning, Luke removed his knight's helmet and dropped his armor to reveal his 'DarkSky' guild robes, as the crowd went wild to discover yet another member of that guild.
"DarkSky! He's from DarkSky!"
"The DarkSky guild really has some strong rankers within them. I want to join that guild too-"
"Hmph, what's so special about DarkSky? I'm sure The Boss will pocket him just like everyone else when the time comes"
Although there were some negative reactions, Luke revealing himself as a DarkSky guild member, did bring a lot of positive attention to the guild, exactly the kind of publicity that Cervantez was hoping for.
**********
Tor, Cervantez, Jex, Lin Mu, and the Night Guild henchmen all won their respective matches in the round of 256 as well, with Cervantez and Tor having extremely strong displays.
However, because of the incident surrounding Leo and Luke, where Luke wearing the 'Dark Sky' guild robes saved Leo a few days ago, all the members of the DarkSky guild were black flagged by the Night Guild, with an unwanted mess on the horizon for them.