"So what will the next round look like?" Inquired Tor, as all eyes turned towards Cervantez.
"Next round will be a tricky one…. It's the round where I feel the probability of us witnessing an upset victory is the highest" Cervantez said, as his ominous introduction made everyone nervous.
"It's going to be a new arena, one that has never been tested in the history of the grand tournament before….."
"Nicknamed the 'ramming pole arena' and the 'pendulum arena', it's a ground where massive slabs of metal weighing about 600-650 kilograms each, would be swinging at threatening velocities in a pendulum like motion across the fighting floor" Cervantez began explaining as he opened a traditional paper and ink and began scribbling on the sheer in front of him.
"Imagine you are standing in the middle of the arena. Around you, there are six battle ram sized poles spanning the width of the field.
They oscillate at a steady pace, completing a full swing every seven seconds.
Assume that as I start the clock, these poles have just reached one end of their arc, ready to swing back.
Then for the first two seconds, they are harmless to us, as their movement backwards will probably be away from us.
For the next three seconds, the danger is imminent, as it will take the poles this long to completely pass from one end of the field to another.
During this time, anyone struck by the poles faces the risk of severe injury, possibly even death, or being ejected from the arena.
Then for the next four seconds, they pose no threat as it will take two more seconds to reach the other extreme end and then two more to oscillate back.
Basically, we have to time our fights and moves, in equilibrium with the movement of these hands.
However, while the six horizontal hands are away, the three vertical hands will swoop in, doubling the danger.
Essentially, there will be not a single second where the arena is completely empty and the fight will have to take place between a weave of complex battle ram patterns" Cervantez explained using a diagram, as the first to pull out his hair after looking at it was Tor.
"What the hell is this arena? Which sadist designed this thing?" He questioned as just dodging the battle rams alone seemed like a task and a half, but one had to focus on battling too.
"Yeah, it's definitely not an ideal arena to fight in, but the Emperor doesn't care about things like that.
It's going to be a crowd favorite, and that's probably what he's angling for" Cervantez said, as a deep frown spread across every guild member's face.
"Can we block it?" Luke asked, as Cervantez shook his head in denial.
"These things will hit like a truck traveling at 40 kmph, it's not something we can stop with bare hands at our level" Cervantez replied as he made sure that Luke did not try to foolishly stop the battle ram.
"How high will it be? Like, can we just duck to avoid it, or no?" Jex asked, as he tried to understand the dimensions of the battle ram to formulate a counter strategy.
"The battle rams should fly in at about my thigh height, if we lay flat on the ground, we should evade them easily, however, I'm not sure about Tor, it may graze him even if he lays down flat, the man is huge" Cervantez said, as Jex began contemplating his strategy for the fight next day after getting the information he needed.
*************
( Meanwhile Leo and Ben )
As the master-student duo spied on the swinging pendulums, the duo could not help but burst into laughter.
"Hahahahaha" laughed Ben
"Hehehehe" giggled Leo.
"This is perfect!" Said Leo, as he remembered the difficult reflex training that Ben put him under at Mount Faulkner.
Back then, Leo sometimes struggled against Ben's fast and unpredictable dagger throws, however, compared to it. This constant paced pendulum arena was easy.
" These fools don't know how to design a proper arena, hahaha, what is this garbage, at least make the swings irregular and unpredictable" Ben fake complained, as he had a hearty laugh looking at the construction.
"I mean, non-agility type builds will struggle with this one" Leo said as he tried to be fair to the arena design, however, still couldn't help but laugh at how perfect it was for him.
"If they struggle they struggle, what's it to do with us?" Ben said, as Leo nodded his head and agreed with Ben's sentiment.
What did it have to do with them?
Absolutely nothing-
"Your opponent tomorrow is a magic swordsman right?" Ben said, as he reconfirmed who Leo was facing.
"Yeah, he seems to be one" Leo said, as Ben smiled evilly at the information.
"Toy with him then…. Let's give the audience an entertaining performance they won't forget for ages" Ben suggested as Leo brought his right hand to his forehead and replied "Aye Aye".
**********
( Real World )
Leo had just logged out of the game after a tiring day, when Luke came looking for him in a hurry.
"Get ready fast, we are both going to work in sector S today" Luke said, as Leo frowned at this sudden turn of events.
"Oh you're both going to sector S? Why? Does the guildmaster want to recruit Leo too?" Amanda asked excitedly as Luke nodded his head in acknowledgement.
"If this fool doesn't annoy Cervantez too much, he might recruit him, yes, as a core member too-" Luke said as Leo felt his heart sink at this exchange.
It wasn't that he did not want to join the DarkSky guild, however, more like he could not.
If he were not a special class player who could not join guilds, he would have probably wanted to join the same guild as Luke and Amanda, and DarkSky looked like a solid guild too, however, under his current circumstances, this was not a conversation he wished to have.
"Oh my god! I'm so happy! Leoooo, kyaaa" Amanda said excitedly as she hugged Leo, however, Leo himself was in a gloomy mood as he was about to be thrown into a difficult position yet again.