Chapter 74: Tournament Day 3 (Part 1)

Last night had been tiring for Rose, both emotionally and physically. After revealing her true condition to her Aunt she had to do the same thing for her friends, luckily she hadn't had to do the same for her parents as well since they were already busy with their part of the plan and thus were unavailable. Aunt Laura had agreed to hold off on informing them so as to not distract them at a critical moment. She'd been against the idea initially but I had argued that it was the only way to stop them from just abandoning their task immediately. She'd known I was telling the truth so she'd reluctantly agreed to keep quiet for now.

Unlucky however was Karen's reaction to hearing of her imminent demise. Upon hearing of the dire straights she was in Karen had gone into a rage, determined to go and fight the Prince herself rather than risk my life. It had taken nearly 2 hours to calm her down and what had finally done it was me telling her that my fight with the Prince might actually help my condition rather than harm it. I honestly felt like that, as if all my instincts were pushing me into that battle. Logic disagreed however, stating that the risk outweighed the reward significantly.

I'd then spent the next few hours after eating dinner replenishing the mana we were using to keep Her under control before finally falling asleep.

[So whatever happened to that Elf Loli from Edgar's fight fight anyway?] - Rose

[Her? I heard she's recovered from their fight and she'll be watching from a VIP area apparently.] - Malaise

[Oho? So she's interested in the rest of the Tournament despite losing already?] - Karen

[Yeah, and I guess she's back to her original apparent age. Apparently she shrank a few hours after the fight, at least according to rumors.] - Malaise

[Aww, no big boobs on display anymore? Oh well, Loli's are fine too.] - Veronica

[Are you ever not horny?] - Rose

[No, not really.] - Veronica

[Shh! The Tournament is starting!] - Malaise

[Good Morning Folks! We've had a real ringer of a Tournament this last week haven't we?!?] - Judico

[Well not to worry we have another exciting day ahead of us with 3 more fights planned, each of them between 2 winners of the previous round!!! An updated Bracket is available at Betting Booth's as well as before and after each fight in the display area!] - Judico

[Now remember, as we can see from the bracket, that we've already had a number of contestants drop out at this point and those remaining have proven their mettle is made of stern stuff! Now why don't we see if it measure's up with our first match of the day!] - Judico

Judico was excited, this tournament had gone a long way to knocking many of the various Noble backed warriors off the docket and he doubted this fight would be different. With the Tournament starting the 2nd round of fights more than half of the top-ten seeded fighters had been eliminated already and while he wasn't anti-noble by any means he did enjoy seeing the faces of irritation as those arrogant fools lost their investments in spectacular fashion. Letting the roar of the crowd wash over him he briefly daydreamed about reforming this Tournament to what it should be before shaking himself out of his delusions. Time to work the crowd afterall.

[Introducing! The contestant that took down a crowd favorite during the Preliminaries and then fought against one of the Mystical Elves and WON! Giiiiiiiive it up fooooor "Master" Edgaaaaaar!] - Judico

Pausing once more to allow for the crowd to respond Judico smiled as he looked down on the excited mob, this Edgar character was a bit of a dark horse afterall. He'd lost both of his first 2 matches in the Preliminaries previously and as a result most people had written him off, especially when he faced off against one of the stronger contestants coming out of that Round. However, instead of the resounding defeat that the crowd had expected he had absolutely manhandled the Assumed Favorite to win, even dealing with her powerup as if it were nothing. His opponent however...

[And next up is a man renowned for his accuracy, skilled with a bow and a match for any Archer the world over! Toooorpaaaal "Longsight"!!!] - Judico

[You're not really good at close range combat are you?] - Edgar

[I'll be fine, no need to worry.] - Torpal

[No no no no, don't be so foolhardy! Tell you what, I'll stand exactly where I am without moving an inch. What I want you to do is try to shoot me. And I'll try to stop your arrows from here.] - Edgar

[You! Phew, stop talking nonsense to get a rise out of me. We'll fight this as a normal match. Besides, I can't fight an injured man with such a dishonorable method.] - Torpal

[Suit yourself.] - Edgar

Torpal methodically prepared his bow for combat as the Announcer narrated above them, stringing his bow securely and checking for any obvious damage. Most would assume that he should have done that before coming to the Arena floor but he preferred doing it within eyesight of his opponents so they knew for a fact he wasn't hiding anything. He'd always lived by that code even while fighting in a war. Of course setting up before every single battle was impractical but he would make sure to be perfectly visible within the camp for anyone on the enemies side. Not that he'd fought in many battles of course considering his moderately young age. Currently at the age of 9, he'd only fought in 4 battles so far, 3 of them in one war and the last was against a swarm of monsters.

Which is why he felt a blow to his pride when his opponent, all told a powerful martial artist, offered to fight on his terms instead of using his advantage. He'd never felt so insulted in his life, as if being told he was beneath his opponent by so much he'd only be able to actually challenge him if he were majorly advantaged. Regaining control of his shaken nerves he declined "politely" while asking to fight a normal match. It wouldn't do to allow his opponent to guide the flow, especially before the fight had even begun. Plus, the man was still bandaged up from his previous match so it was obvious he hadn't yet recovered fully from it. He felt fairly confident in his chances to at least give the man a run for his money even without an advantage.

[Ready? Let the match begin!!!] - Judico

[HA!] - Edgar

Torpal, hearing the announcer's call to begin the match, instantly pulled his bow back to deal with his opponent only for darkness to creep over his eyes as he felt his consciousness leave him. And with that he lost his match without even seeing the opponent move.

[Holy shit!] - Karen

[Holy shit indeed!] - Rose

Karen and Rose were shocked, that Goku wannabe had basically One Punch Manned the Legolas lookalike in an instant. Hell Rose had barely seen him even move let alone the actual blow. Because of that the two reincarnated girls let out a exclamation of surprise in English instead of their learned tongue prompting a set of curious eye's to turn their way. Embarrassed by the outburst Karen shrank slightly.

[Oly Sheet? Is that a phrase from your old world?] - Malaise

[A-Ah? Right sorry about that, it means holy shit.] - Rose

[Oh, in that case I agree. That was incredibly holy shit.] - Malaise

[Well it means a lit- actually nevermind that's fine.] - Rose

[...holy shit.] - Shade

[Shade?!?] - Everyone

[...] - Shade

Explaining the meaning to the group was fairly easy luckily since there was a word that meant something similar in the local language, although this one had less emphasis on the blasphemy for obvious reasons. Malaise however seemed to misunderstand, thinking it was interchangeable with surprising. Amused by her mistake Rose was about to correct her but decided not to since it didn't particularly matter. However, what happened next surprised them all as Shade mimicked her English in a loud voice before blushing shyly.

[W-Well moving on from that doesn't this mean your fight is already up Karen?] - Malaise

[R-Right, well I guess I'd better get going then. I still have a few minutes until the actual fight but it won't hurt to head down there.] - Karen

[Okay everyone follow along now! HEY! YOU THERE! STOP FLIRTING YOU LITTLE SHIT!] - Lolianne Sensei

[E-Eek!] - Random Group of Girls

[Hey wait come back! Aww come on Legal Loli Sensei, I was this close!] - Heine

[What did you call me you little shitstain?!?] - Lolianne Sensei

[Hii! Everyone run!] - Entire S-Class

Lolianne was on a warpath, she'd just learned that her old mentor and one-time crush, Manic Blade, had become a teacher at the school. She'd heard of course about his "kidnapping" of her student Rose but she knew enough about his taste's in women to know that no one with her body type caught his eye. Shaking her head to clear those depressing thoughts of her ex-crush she focused on their destination, the Arena. Only for a little horny shitstain student of her's to come into view.

That dumbass pervert Heine was chatting up 3 bemused looking older women nearly double his damn age. Despite obviously not being interested in what they probably only thought of as a child they were still letting the little twerp compliment them in an attempt to woo them, giggling behind their hands the whole time. Seeing her student make a fool of himself she immediately felt her blood pressure rising as she scared the 3 women away. Her fool student however made another stupid error only moments later however which led to him covered in bruises a few minutes later.

[O-Oww...] - Heine

[Phew... Now that that's over with let's get moving, we need to make it in time for Karen and Rose's matches.] - Lolianne Sensei

[Hey Lolianne Sensei I thought Rose dropped out like 5 months ago?] - Ogi

[Ohohoho, this is why you're such a brute you plebian. Don't you remember that she was participating in special classes or did that simple fact just slip your tiny mind? I of course remember what my dear friend Rose has been up to these past 5 months!] - Argent

[I'll show you tiny mind human bitch!] - Ogi

[Bring it on you barbaric serf! I'll charbroil you!] - Argent

Dusting her hands off on her clothes she glanced back at the cowering class before motioning them onward towards the Arena, satisfied now that she'd made an example of the resident moron. Except she forgot nearly the entire class was filled with moron's of different varieties. Argent and Ogi, persistent rivals, although she would swear up and down that they actually liked each other, at least in her head. Those two battle junkie's, excited by her beating the shit out of Heine, immediately began needling at each other. Feeling her blood pressure rising once more she immediately put a stop to those two idiots, why didn't they just get a room already?!?

[Shut it you two! Ahem, anyways as I was saying. We should go support your classmate's now that we have a little time off from Festival prep, and now's the best time to go cheer them on before they come back full time.] - Lolianne Sensei

[Oh! Do you think Rose got stronger during her training?!? Wonder if she'll let me fight her?!?] - Ogi

[Ohohohoho! What makes you think you can fight someone the talented me gave the honor of being a friend, go challenge someone at your level first! How about Heine, he's more to your level!] - Argent

[Oi! Argent you bi- actually I don't think I've ever fought Heine. Hey Heine let's fight!] - Ogi

[Pay attention you battle maniac! We're almost there!] - Lolianne Sensei

Seemingly able to continue leading her bickering class despite their noise Lolianne found their group getting closer to the Arena, the roar of the crowd in the distance telling of their approach even as the buildings and city walls blocked their view of it. The crowd around them, giving them a wide berth, also began to get more excited hearing the dull roar in the distance.

Realizing what that sound actually meant Lolianne immediately rushed the group forward, the next match was about to start!