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First Round
Soon, it was time for the first round of battles.
Coincidentally, my battle was the first one. I was going to face a sixth-layer young man that wielded a short spear.
This battle was nothing suspenseful. With the strength I displayed during the battle royale, everybody was confident I was going to win.
When I appeared on the stage, my opponent was already waiting for me. He was visibly nervous, but even so, he showed his determination to go through the battle.
“Can you go easy on me?” He suddenly asked with a wry smile.
I chuckled softly. “You are very funny.”
“Well, it was worth a try.” He said with a bitter smile.
I chuckled again.
I’m supposed to be poisoned, but the poison is not one easy to detect. Instead, it only tires my body a little bit, dulling my combat strength slightly.
That is not enough for people to notice that something is wrong. At most, they will think I’m not in top condition.
However, against a weak opponent like the one in front of me, the effects of the poison are useless, so there is no problem if I defeat him easily.
When we finished speaking, the emperor stood up from his seat and looked at us with a dignified expression.
“The two of you, are you ready?”
“… Ready, your majesty.”
“Ready.”
The young man and I replied almost at the same time.
The emperor nodded and raised his hand. He then swung it down with a shout.
“Start!”
The young man moved first. Gathering his courage, he pounced forward with his spear aiming towards my chest.
His spear moved incredibly quickly, so quickly it was beyond what a normal sixth-layer practitioner could achieve. In one second, he was already in front of me.
With a determined look, he thrust his spear forward.
But then, his expression changed.
He felt his vision turn blurry, and then, the scene in front of his eyes changed.
To his surprise, he was now looking at the blue sky.
Only then he felt the impact of his back hitting the ground.
“Cough…”
Coughing a mouthful of blood, the young man tried to stand up again. But his body felt like lead, he could not move it in the slightest.
At that moment, my voice reached his ear.
“You lost,” I said.
The young man looked at me with a dumbfounded expression before smiling bitterly.
“Really? Is the gap this large?”
I smiled without answering, causing the young man to chuckle self-deprecatingly.
“Thank you for going easy on me.”
He then closed his eyes and let his consciousness fade out.
“The winner is Clark.” The emperor announced the result of our duel immediately before signaling for people to take the young man away and treat his wounds.
Cheers exploded in the stands, excited by the overwhelming victory. I waved towards them with a gentle smile before bowing to the emperor. Then, I left the arena and went to my resting place.
“He looks like a polite kid. I like him.” My enhanced senses picked up the empress’s mutter, making me roll my eyes.
Of course you like me, woman. We have done it several times already after all.
I chuckled inwardly and returned to my seat. Almost at the same time, the second battle started.
Just like my battle, this battle finished instantly. The winner was an eighth-layer young man wielding a greatsword. He defeated his sixth-layer opponent with just two strokes of his weapon.
The same happened in the battles that came after that. Most of them finished with one of the parties overwhelming the other completely.
Only some of the battles, fought between two sixth-layer or seventh-layer practitioners, were a bit longer.
Finally, it reached Louis’s turn.
His opponent was a bit stronger than mine, a seventh-layer shieldbearer. He seemed like someone good at defensive battles.
In fact, although nobody expected him to win, many people thought he could endure several attacks before finally losing.
When the battle started, though, the results were completely different.
Once Louis unsheathed his sword, his powerful sword intent rushed towards his enemy, making him pale and causing him to stagger several steps back.
Then, Louis kicked the ground and rushed forward.
It was as though his body disappeared. One second, he was standing several meters away from the young men. But in the next second, he was behind him.
Louis then swung his sword.
The shieldbearer young man’s expression changed. He hurriedly tried to use his shield to block the strike, but due to Louis’s sword intent’s influence, his reaction speed was slightly slower than normal.
And during that brief delay.
*Spurt!*
Louis’s sword severed his arm.
Under the young shieldbearer’s frightened gaze, the arm holding the shield fell on the ground, and blood splattered all over the arena.
“Agh…!” The shieldbearer young man screamed in pain, holding his severed arm and trying desperately to stop the bleeding
“You lost,” Louis said calmly, completely indifferent to the young man’s screams of pain.
At that moment, the emperor’s voice sounded.
“It’s Louis’s victory!”
Louis nodded slightly to the emperor before leaving the arena with an ice-cold look.
Until the moment he left, nobody in the arena spoke up.
It was as though they were afraid of him.
I could not help but shook my head. This Louis is being too cruel. It’s not suitable for this kind of tournament.
At the very least, he did not kill his enemy this time.
Sighing slightly, I stood up from my seat.
It’s time for my second battle.
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