It was a short exclamation that left the already silent crowd even more stunned. Even the announcer seemed to freeze at the declaration. The fighter turned his head to look at him, but his movements were clearly strained. It looked like the broken spine was taking longer to heal. Plus, he was in too much pain to speak. The man was furious, a single glance was enough for Mash to know that, though it didn’t stop his next actions.

Mash let the transformation dissipate and just stood there in his stretched clothing. The clothes he had received for this fight had been designed to adjust with his transformations and would take a few minutes to return to normal size. So, he walked towards the moving platform, wearing clothing that was slightly too big for him. Honestly, Mash expected some boos, but the crowd was still stunned in disbelief, long after the descent had started.

“Logan Wins…”

The announcer came around first, announcing the other man’s victory. Mash realized he hadn’t known the warrior’s name until that moment. It had seemed like such an unimportant detail before, but now he considered the man to be quite incredible. Mash was well aware that his dragon form was probably already as strong as a rank above, and the man had handled himself well against it.

Although, he knew at least one other person who could handle themselves better. However, using Jill’s new power for comparison was unfair. Mash doubted that rank even mattered to her anymore, it was only a matter of compatibility. A person would have to restrain her magic in some way to even hope of landing a hit. His brother might be able to handle it with the freezing effect of his blade, but Mash wasn’t certain about it. That fact alone made his mind spin. A level sixty class that could survive against a legendary blade wielded by someone past level one hundred.

As he walked through the guild hallway, he saw Jack waiting for him by the entrance to the tunnel. He looked tired and a little bit angry. The most surprising thing about him was the formal wear he was wearing. A red suit, in the newest fashion trends. He noticed Mash’s approach and gave him a glare before speaking.

“I’m going to need some kind of explanation. You really are just trying to give us headaches, aren’t you? Well, get to talking, and try and convince me not to smack you around a bit.”

He didn’t sound as angry as his words would’ve implied, if anything, Mash thought he saw a bit of amusement on the man’s face. Though his eyes still looked extremely tired, Mash felt bad for making him come down here.

“What has the guild been reduced to? A single tournament and we become nothing more than common thugs.”

Mash tried to make light of the situation, to crack some jokes, hoping it would help lighten Jack’s mood. It didn’t work, Jack didn’t seem like he had enough energy to deal with Mash right now.

“As funny as that would be, I am still going to need something, even if it is only partially true. “

Jack sounded tired, more than could be explained by a sudden visit from royalty. Even still, he was trying to maintain his positive attitude, and Mash decided to comply with the request. Mash would’ve pried for information, but it wasn’t within Mash’s privilege to be involved, and he merely paused trying to come up with an excuse.

“I was running low on mana, even I don’t have literally unlimited amounts of it. I didn’t think I could win before his endurance ran out and decided I would rather lose on my own terms.”

Mash spoke confidently, as that was at least part of the truth, even if it missed the crux of it. Jack seemed to accept nodding his head and responding.

“That’s good enough, though if you ever want to talk about the real reason, I’m all ears. Sometimes it's easier to get something off your chest to strangers rather than someone you are close to. I need to go now, but let Jill and Luke know that they need to go through the process of informing the guild about their advancement, even if you already told your friends about the lecture, I gave you.”

With that Jack turned and left, moving faster than Mash could track without transformations. Once Jack left, Mash headed to where the others would be. They would be just as eager for an explanation, though Mash didn’t really feel like giving them one. Mash would give them the same reasoning he gave to Jack. He trusted them enough to share, but he just wanted to ruminate on the thoughts on his own for a while.

Priscilla knew, and he could feel her dissatisfaction with his decision. He didn’t let it bother him though, and also understood that Priscilla could never understand him. Mash had been moments away from killing the man, and for what? A simple prize or his own insignificant pride. It was one thing to kill bandits, criminals, and murders. Even killing someone who attacked him, or his family, was fine. However, he had almost done it because he was annoyed at not being able to win. It was a strange feeling to know it was wrong but feel nothing at the thought.

The more he thought on the more emotion he could feel leaking through. It really felt unnatural to notice a lack of emotions, and somehow also notice emotions filling the nothingness. Even without Priscilla pointing out the influence, he could feel it clearly. He had given up that fight because he didn’t trust himself to not do something extreme. To not try something extreme, and act like it he hadn’t expected the outcome. He felt like he had been doing that a lot recently.

The more he thought about his actions the more things he came to question about himself. He gave up that fight because of indecision. Cowardice had driven him from making a decision in the moment, and he decided that he needed to take a step away. He didn’t know how he felt but taking a day or two away from fighting might be a good idea, maybe even longer wouldn’t be the worst idea.

Those were the thoughts that passed through his mind, as he walked towards the room with his friends in it, Mash considered what he wanted to say. At first, he thought about telling them the same thing as Jack but didn’t think they would be ok with it. He didn’t manage to fool Jack and would definitely be unable to lie to his friends. He opened the door, unsure of what was coming.

His siblings weren’t able to make it today, so he only needed to get past his friends. Unsurprisingly, they were looking at him with total confusion, and Mash just stared at them awkwardly.

“Well, I think you managed to get people to hate you again. I’m assuming that was your goal with what you just pulled.”

Red spoke, her voice cold enough to cause Mash to shiver. It was followed by Luke who spoke more wearily.

“You probably offended the king with that. I mean did you really have to half-ass the fight when the king was watching.”

Luke’s concern was more significant than Red’s criticism, and Mash wondered if Jack was dealing with that. Mash wasn’t that worried about getting punished, especially with his brother’s presence hovering around him. The king would be aware of his new abilities and was smart enough to know where his brother was heading.

“Well, are you going to tell us why?”

Red continued when Luke finished, and it sounded like she was less angry now. It was probably because of something she could see on his face. Mash was accepting that he wasn’t very good at hiding his emotions. Since lying wouldn’t work Mash just told him what he was thinking.

“I can’t really explain it right now. I’ll tell you guys after the party tomorrow.”

That seemed to mollify them for the moment, though he caught a few of them glancing at him. It was obvious that they thought something was wrong. Still, they didn’t talk about it, and instead, they discussed what the king had given him. They were impressed when he demonstrated his new form, and he enjoyed showing off a little. The next fight was between the hero and an archer, who was apparently famous.

Mash didn’t know the man, but Red knew who was, stating how he was the heir to a dukedom. Mash had seen one of his earlier fights, and while the man was strong, he was even more restricted by the rules of a tournament. His range was limited by the size of the arena, and he couldn’t kill his opponent. The rules together were especially harsh on a sniper. The fact that he made it this far spoke volumes, but Mash didn’t think he would win the round.

He wasn’t wrong as the fight had been mostly one-sided, with the hero’s armor being strong enough to block any of the arrows. The archer didn’t let up though and increased the power of his shots as the fight went on. He was obviously trying to find the right amount of strength to harm the hero without killing her. The more impressive accomplishment was dodging every attack the hero managed. The archer had some kind of flight skill and was able to weave around the blasts of fire.

It was a matter of effort that had decided the fight. The archer was getting tired of trying to figure out how much power was appropriate while dodging attacks. Eventually, his concentration slipped, and he took a single attack, but he did not have the defenses to withstand an attack from a legendary weapon. That one attack had ended the fight.

This fight was more a testament of the hero’s armor than her weapon. Mash still wondered why the weapon felt so weak. Maybe she didn’t have a true bond, and had just gotten lucky with the weapon? Was there a way to bypass the usual restrictions of the weapon? That was a dangerous thought, and if it proved true, a more dangerous secret. Well, now there was just finals remaining.

Mash talked with the others about the last fight, and what they wanted to do for the party, but it was a fairly bland discussion. They were all waiting for the next fight, but Mash could guess the outcome. The hero’s armor was strong, but Mash was confident that the warrior would win. The fact that he could take a hit from Mash’s dragon form, made him believe that the hero had little chance to damage.

However, something unexpected happened in the finals. The fight began as normal, with the announcer starting the fight as usual. The difference started soon after when the warrior didn’t rush the hero. Instead, he stood there, just letting the hero’s first attack crash into him. He shrugged off the fire, like it was nothing, but still didn’t take action. Mash felt the hairs on the back of his neck rise when the man clearly turned his head to face the room, he was in. Mash knew the words that would come, long before he heard them.

“I surrender!”

Even as the hero’s fires crashed into him, he spoke the words completely unfazed from the heat. Honestly, Mash thought that his glare had more heat behind it than the fires did.

“Congratulations, we have our champion. I declare that the hero is the strongest fighter of their rank.”

The announcer matched the heat in warrior’s words, and Mash decided he wouldn’t be joining any more tournaments in the future. The hero didn’t look happy either but didn’t say anything. The fighters slowly descended out of sight, and Mash felt a large amount of relief as he was teleported to the training grounds. Jill had done it without warning anyone, but nobody resisted the effort either. Walking out of the guild would have been a bad decision, and this was much more pleasant.