"Second Round! First Match, Dean Forst vs. Jake!"

'F*ck!' Jake cursed the moment he heard his name.

He was not prepared for a fight, yet his name was in the first match of the second round.

Luckily, he had already healed his injuries and refilled his [Spirit Droplets]. That was still something!

It had to be known that while natural [Spirit Essence] possessed healing attributes, it took a while for it to effectively work.

Having fully concentrated on healing, Jake's unattended body was sore, but he reckoned he was still able to fight!.

He slowly walked to the stage and glanced at his opponent, 'Dean Forst. Lost to Cheyenne. Hopefully, this would be easy! But I doubt it.'

'What a sad life?!' sighed Jake.

Dean Forst was the second fastest after Jake, himself. Dean was also astonishingly stable in his other attributes like strength, endurance, and the rest.

He was bound to be a difficult opponent. However, since Cheyenne defeated him twice, Jake could also do that.

"Match, Start!" announced the referee.

The moment it started, Jake was already thinking of the tactics he wanted to employ.

*Zoom!*

While slowly pacing around, a blur came at him with at a breakneck speed and Jake could only parry whatever attack it was.

*Zing!*

Thin sword met broad sword, and the weapons created an impact that swept away the stadium.

Dean at the other end of the attack used his strength to apply pressure on the sword, and Jake felt it.

It suddenly resembled a wrestling match as Jake attempted to summon his pure strength to push back the sword, but it was to no avail. He was the one being pushed.

Even after he used both his hands to hold his sword, he still failed.

So, Jake changed his mindset.

Under two seconds, he switched his sword hold to only his left hand and used his right hand to land a jab at the abdomen of Dean.

Afterward, he zipped away to Dean, but the latter had already taken back control.

With his rivaling speed, Dean parried Jake's fast swordplay.

The two of them exchanged a few more attacks that became invisible to the eyes of the crowd.

Dean tried to separate from Jake, who had gone full soft aggressive but was instead chased by Jake to the border of the stage.

Using his technique, he blinked away from Jake. Yet, before he could catch his breath, Jake was already above him.

*Clang!*

Dean blocked the attack, and the two weapons caused yet another extraordinary phenomenon.

He reacted just in time as a sword moving at an incredible speed bypassed his defense.

Knowing that if things went on, he would lose, Dean blasted a wave of [Spirit Essence] from his body.

The energy caught Jake off guard, blasting away from Dean.

By the time the wave disappeared, Jake was left bleeding, but couldn't attend to his injuries due to an astonishing "sword energy" coming his way.

After evading it, he turned and again parried another attack from Dean.

'Hmmm….he is starting to understand himself, using his advantages,' thought Jake as his cold eyes darted around the stage, looking for something to use.

Despite being unresponsive, he was still able to evade Dean's attack like someone with an eye on his back.

In a special attack, his sword found his way to the shoulder of a relentless Dean and pierced him.

Dean jumped away to tend to his injuries, giving Jake time to think.

'Hmm….I could do what he did and directly use my [Spirit Essence], but as I am not yet at [Realm-2], that would not be wise,' sighed Jake for the umpteenth time.

All this while, he had been using his energy to strengthen his body, while directed this new strength to his sword.

His sword could not conduct energy, so he could not directly control his energy to it. He had to find a different way and he did just that.

Jake had nothing to change in his fighting style or maybe he could not see it. Instead of finding a new way, it was better to use his current style to take down his opponent.

The wind brushed past him and he zipped his way to his opponent.

He feinted a slash, but the real slash was actually five other ones, which fixated themselves on the body of Dean.

This was the principle of the second stage of the [Sword Drawing Technique],

He had achieved long ago but didn't find a good situation to use its main principle, which was dealing a hundred slashes in one breath.

Jake used five slashes for Ray, but he had never gone beyond that.

However, it didn't mean that Jake was holding back.

Far from that, what Jake usually did was to concentrate his hundred slashes into just one slash, increasing its speed and power!

Now hurt badly, Dean ignored it and activated his technique, "[Flash sword]!"

He waved his sword and the familiar "sword energy" left it, bolting to Jake, who was in close proximity.

Before Jake could even think, the attack had reached it, and he could only evade in time.

He smiled as he saw the semblance between Dean's attack and his attack.

Taking advantage of the missed attack, Jake appeared in front of Dean and went full one hundred and twenty percent(120%) on him.

Multiple cuts tried to pierce Dean's armor, and they did, but they lost their inefficiency afterward.

Jake ignored them and gave a side-cut, that seemed to finish the game. However, something weird happened!

Jake felt the balance of his sword was wrong, which threw away the calculations he used for his sword attack.

It made him miss and also get punched by an opportunist Dean.

While flying away, Jake took back control just before he could cross the stage border and revealed a confused expression.

He was sure everything was going as planned. His first attack. His finishing side cut.

It was all perfect, unless...….

Jake took a glanced at his sword and cursed silently, "F*ckery!"

The recently bought sword was now only half a sword, as it had lost half of its blade.

This would explain why Jake's attack missed. The sword had become too short!

He nonchalantly gazed the last time at his sword and sighed again as he threw it away, "F*ckery."

His stance changed and before Dean could blink, a punch was embedded in his stomach.

The punch pierced through his insides and came out at the other side, leaving him in tremendous pain.

The last thing he saw before he blacked out was the cold eyes of his opponent, which seemed to be looking at him and yet not looking at him!

.........

(A/N: What Jake wanted to say instead of "F*ckery" was "Thanos' voice: Fine, I will do it myself.", lol.)

.....

"Match, End! Dean Forst(0) - Jake(6)." the referee announced.

He hurriedly went to Dean and sprinkled an unknown substance at the hole in his chest.

After sending Dean away to the medic, he asked Jake, "Why do you have to be that brutal?"

"I can't help it. My sword was the only thing that could efficiently control my speed. Without it, I become unrefined. I don't like the situation too," honestly replied Jake, not showing a hint of care for what he did.

The referee thought deep about Jake's words and understood he was right. He had seen a lot of speed-based warriors that become exceedingly destructive when they lose their weapons.

However, he still asked Jake, "Will you need another weapon?"

Clearly, he didn't need another half-dead participant. The lost one was pierced to the point where he also required immediate attention.

"No, perhaps it's better this way," replied Jake as he left the stage.

Having gained new knowledge of his destructive power, Jake decided he would buy a sword after the competition.

As he was proficient in hand-to-hand combat, he was sure he would be able to manage for the meant time.

In truth, Jake's intention wasn't to pierce Dean, but just injure enough for him to faint. He had underestimated his raw power.

However...….

Jake sighed at the sight of his broken arm, 'This was the price for such power.'

Just like the last time he had done something like this, his arm was now messed up.

Jake would need to heal it up, just in time for his next match.

As soon as he sat on his seat and healed his arm, the match started.

"Next match, Joshua Vargas vs Jaya."

"Match, Start!"

He watched the match from the corner of his eye while mainly focusing on healing his arm.

The match was lukewarm due to the injuries inflicted on Joshua by him.

While med-bay had helped him, it wasn't able to fully heal him and every movement he made stung and tore out his close wounds.

So, it was understandable that Jaya won eventually.

However, Jaya was nice enough to go easy on her opponent and not add to his injuries!