*KYAAAAA-*
The entire crowd erupted into chaos when the decapitated head of the swordsmanship academy principal rolled on the floor.
Leo was swiftly brought off the arena and to safety by the match official, while all the other tournament officials scurried in panic.
Most of the common crowd did not even see the blur shadow that was Ben when he decapitated the principal, as all they could see was the principal rushing towards Leo with murderous intent and then him losing his head suddenly.
Nobody expected Leo to win as brutally as he did against his opponent, as tossing him into the incoming battle ram was just inhumane.
However, what followed his win was even more pandemonium as one of the most esteemed fighters of the kingdom broke protocol and attempted to attack a contestant in front of a full crowd, but was instead killed by an unknown assailant.
"Someone track the killer! Someone track the killer!" The on ground officials said, as they scurried towards the end where Ben seemed to have disappeared from, however, as Leo looked in the opposite direction, he could clearly see Ben smiling in the crowd, showing him a double thumbs up sign.
Leo chuckled under his mask as he realized that there was not one official here that possessed the ability to track Ben, as while they looked for him in the wrong direction, Ben had already rejoined the crowd on the other end.
While his fight and the scandal afterwards were sure to become talking points throughout the kingdom after today, Leo did not care about such things as he looked coldly into the eyes of the match official beside him and said "You haven't declared me as the winner of this fight yet-"
"Oh, that, yes…." the match official said in shock, as while he seemed surprised by this sudden turn of events, Leo seemed completely unfazed.
"The winner of this match, THE BOSS" The match official declared as he raised Leo's hand in victory, however, because of all the chaos, nobody from the crowd seemed to be cheering.
Walking off, Leo collected his match winning fees and token to appear in the next round, as he left the ground officials to deal with the mess of an academy principal's death.
********
Only once the fight was over, did Leo realize that he had been fighting wayy more aggressively than usual.
He did not need to be this barbaric, however, because he was in a bad mood after his fight with Luke, he let himself be carried away in the fight.
"Gosh, I really need to keep my anger in check. Ben saved me today, but it could have ended horribly" Leo murmured to himself, as he made a mental note to not be overly brutal when he could help it.
Although he didn't violate any match rules with his actions, the ensuing backlash was significant.
While no one could criticize the manner of his victory—since the bout's rules permitted his actions—there was no doubt in his mind that he had inflicted a deep, lasting impact on the genius Bonucci.
The incident left two possible futures for Bonucci, where it could either forge Bonucci into a fearsome warrior, burning with hatred for Leo, or it could shatter him beyond repair and somehow, Leo had a foreboding that he had made a permanent enemy.
"Well whatever happened, happened, no point overthinking it now-" Leo said to himself as he decided to take this fight as a lesson and focus on his future.
***********
( Meanwhile, Luke )
Luke also headed into his fight with a rotten mood.
Unlike Leo he wasn't a fighter possessing inhumane reflexes, nor did he possess great agility, which was why this ground in particular was not suited for him.
Nonetheless, his defensive capabilities were superb and against his opponents onslaught, he could hold his ground pretty easily.
Even in his angry state of mind, Luke was forced to fight a long and patient battle where neither him, nor his opponent were in a position to casually commit to making a major move.
Both were forced to be methodical and tried to wait for the other to make an error that they could exploit, however, found no openings to do so for a long time.
Finally, Luke found his opportunity to attack, when in trying to dodge a battle ram late, his opponent side stepped at the last possible second, however, tripped in the process.
Pouncing on the opportunity, Luke grabbed his opponent on the ground and put him into a choke-lock.
With another battle ram fast approaching and his opponent having nowhere to run, he tapped in panic, surrendering, as Luke pushed himself and his opponent out of the battle rams path and won the fight in style.
"The winner of the fight…. SkyLion" the match official said, as Luke glanced towards Cervantez who was clapping from the warm-up tunnel.
His fight was up next after Luke and he was glad to see that Luke had won his bout in style.
Although Luke's anger did not subside completely even after the fight was over, Luke did feel happy and content with the bout he fought and was able to get rid of 70% of his frustration, returning to his usual calm and composed self.
"All the best in your fight-" Luke said to Cervantez as the two crossed paths as Cervantez smiled endearingly towards Luke.
Just like him, Cervantez also won his fight and that too with relative ease as the DarkSky guild had another great performance today as well.
Progressing on to the round of 32, the guild master and vice guild master duo were only 2 fights away from fighting at the grandest stage of them all….. a stage where everyone from master knight's to the emperor would take notice of their skills.
For Cervantez's future plans involving Duke Crowell, it was important that the DarkSky guild had a good performance even into the quarter-finals, however, reaching that stage was the first priority.