HOW SHAMELESS FIGHT

Sun burst out from the horizon, its golden rays piercing through the scattered clouds, basking the world beneath in its shine. Elver’s pure, white buildings glimmered, as the first signs of life began appearing. It was the day of the competition, and excited faces could be seen everywhere one looked.

The competition will be held on the air-lift platform hanging straight above the city. As people looked up, they couldn’t help but be awed; after all, just last night, that platform wasn’t there. It was extremely large, good kilometer in diameter. Besides the battleground, there were also thousands of seats on the sides, as well as protective barriers to ensure the safety of everyone.

Lynne opened his eyes lazily, yawning as he stretched. He wasn’t looking forward to the competition as much as everyone else. Rather, he wished he could just skip it and take a nap; he barely slept in the past three days, training beyond reason. However, it would be a waste, so he slowly got off the bed and headed downstairs.

When he entered the street, he simply followed the crowd – crowd that still split apart wherever he walked. Beyond the chatter of the competition itself, most of it was occupied by Lynne and his ‘performance’ a few days prior. People avoided looking him in the eyes, but Lynne pretended he didn’t see anything.

As he looked up and saw the barrier, he sighed inwardly; how could he not know how much effort was put into it? In reality, Lynne expected the competition would be fought outside the city, as there were massive stretches of flat land practically everything. Alas, it seems that the organizers have some love for flare.

If one wanted to reach the platform, they had to head towards the northern part of the city, where a dozen or so older Mages awaited them and, with their help, they’d be sent upwards. Just as the sun began rising slightly in the horizon, Lynne also appeared and was sent upwards.

As he landed on the edge, he took a brief glance forward. It was a stone platform, extremely flat and smooth in design, with orbital seats occupying its vicinity. The seats rotated clockwise around the platform, creating a rather magical sight. Participants had a static sub-platform where they had to go and wait, so Lynne headed there while most others took their seats.

He was among the first to arrive, as there were only two people aside from him on the sub-platform, sitting cross-legged, meditating. When Lynne arrived, they merely looked at him and nodded, as he did the same.

He sat silently into a corner, closing his eyes and leaning his head against an arm, seemingly in deep thought. In reality, though, he fell asleep almost immediately after he closed his eyes. He was simply too tired.

Soon after, more and more people began arriving at the sub-platform, including the First Prince. He quickly spotted Lynne in the corner, but there was no anger or hatred in his eyes. As the matter of fact, if one were to look deeper into his eyes, they’d see a flicker of playfulness. He sat down and began meditating, like most others.

Seats were soon filled up, just before the sun broke halfway through the sky. Aside from the regular seats, directly above the platform was another round seating occupied by roughly thirty people. No one could discern their faces, but everyone quickly realized that they were most-likely some important figures.

While the opening ceremony was underway, Lynne was still fast asleep. He even began snoring and drooling, his lips curved in a vicious smile, and very few couldn’t understand what he was dreaming about. The people close to him immediately backed away, and when Anna saw him, she sighed and shook her head. Stress, lack of sleep, a good slap… we can add Lynne to the mix of most-common headache inducers.

Lynne even slept through the first three matches. Despite the massive explosions, air-vibrating cheers and shouts, it seemed like nothing could shake him out of his blissful state.

“Hannah Rummert versus Lynne Nyord,” deep and hoarse voice broke out. “Please, come to the platform.”

A girl, roughly in her mid twenties, jumped out from the crowd on the sub-platform. She had delicate appearance, slightly on the chubby side, with waist-long, black hair. While not epitome of beauty, she exuded charm of tranquility, her face epitome of calmness. As she stood on one side of the platform, chatter suddenly began, as her opponent hasn’t arrived even as half a minute passed.

“Lynne Nyord!” the voice broke out again. “Is there Lynne Nyord here?”

“Hey, you moron!” Anna suddenly shouted at the sub-platform, throwing a rock at Lynne.

“AAGH!” Lynne cried out in pain as he clutched his forehead where the rock hit him. “Senseless bitch, what are you doing?!” he followed up, rubbing the spot that immediately reddened.

“It’s your turn to fight, you dog shit!” Anna replied in kind.

“Oh!” Lynne exclaimed, nodding and getting up. He casually passed in-between everyone, appearing as if he had all the time in the world.

Yawning, he went up to the platform and saw his opponent; he quickly examined her to the best of his ability and nodded slightly as he walked to the opposite side of her.

“Hurry up!” the girl screamed out, clearly annoyed by him. “If you don’t want to fight, just surrender!”

“Hey, can I ask you a question?” Lynne suddenly blurted out in a voice just loud enough for everyone currently here to hear him.

“Eh?” the girl was clearly surprised, taking a step back suddenly, having bad premonition.

“Do you wear anything underneath your clothes?” Lynne asked bluntly, with a deadpan expression. The girl was stunned, unable to answer, as was the rest of the audience. “I knew it! Ha ha!” Lynne suddenly burst out in maniacal laughter. “You slut! How can you not wear anything underneath your clothes? Have you no shame being naked underneath? I knew it! You didn’t join this competition to show off your strength, but your strength, right?! Ha ha!”

“You---!!” the girl called Hannah blushed immediately, taking another step back. The audience was still stunned, and not even a chirp could be heard.

“I have to disappoint you, though,” Lynne said, sighing afterwards and shaking his head. “You lack mature air to entice me! I like bosoms that sag to the floor, so I can sweep away all my enemies in one, swift strike of holy beauty! Even if you’re naked underneath, I cannot be moved; I’m a cold boulder of earth, my heart as steady as avalanche, and your peaks cannot cause me to melt!” jaws dropped in rhythm as they listened to this seemingly innocent youth talk; Anna buried her head deep into her knees, unable to look at him. Even Principal Seed, who was seated above the platform, froze stiff.

“You better give up!” Lynne exclaimed as he waved his arms theatrically, flipping his hair backwards. “I know I’m handsome beyond reason, and I know that it’s simply impossible for any woman underneath heaven and above to resist my unparalleled charms, but do not try to entice me unless you have a mountain of gold behind you!”

“Y-you! You shameless bastard! Who wants you? Go die, scum! Wait, no, I’ll kill you! Damn bastard, how dare you?!”

“Shameless bastard!” even the crowd burst out in anger. “How are you handsome? Take a look into mirror you idiot!”

“Cut that filthy tongue girl, don’t let him utter another word!”

“Baptize the platform in his blood, go!”

… does anyone here have any mental resilience? What the hell is this? I spoke a few words and everyone immediately wants me dead. Even Lynne was caught unaware by the reaction. When he first noticed that the girl was ‘Dao Archmage’, he knew that he had little to no chance of winning this battle. As Magus’ fighting capability is derived straight from the composure, he decided to light a small fire just so the girl wouldn’t be at her peak. He never expected this reaction.

“Die, you bastard!” Hannah shouted out, her cheeks blazing red.

Hannah’s entire body was suddenly coated in electrical current. Bolts danced left and right around her, causing the air to stiffen. However, Lynne immediately noticed that his words had a huge impact; the aura she released was restless, her Mana manipulation seemed rushed and lackluster, which in turn caused her to lose control over the outburst.

She bolted forwards, leaving behind a trail of thunder, her speed increasing by every step she took. ‘Thunder Lord’ sub-path of ‘Elementalist’ path… Lynne thought as he observed, still not making a move. … hmm, yeah, doable.

As she reached ten or so meters away from Lynne, she swept her arm forwards, whereupon a snake-shaped bolt of lightning flushed forward. Lynne immediately coated soles of his feet in blue flames, and just as the bolt was about to hit him, he sidestepped. Boos broke out, as everyone was hoping that bolt would pierce his heart. Aii… it’s never easy being the center of hatred…

He extended his arm, summoning ‘Elemental Blade’. The blade exuded golden flames, and Lynne rushed towards the girl, slightly rousing wind to blow at his back.

Not withstanding, the girl spread her arms and then clasped them together. A massive outburst of thunder – with her as the origin – poured outwardly. Bolts clashed and danced as they formed a sphere and then burst again, creating thunder swords that scattered immediately after. Lynne was still rushing when several dozen thunder blades rushed his way. He suddenly weaved his fiery blade upwards, unleashing a brilliant arc of golden light forward. The arc was at least twenty meters high, thin as a thread.

People above the platform suddenly arched their brows, showing an expression of surprise. It’s easy to create a massive storm of fire that sprawled everywhere; however, it is much, much harder to thin it down to the size of a small thread. Skills in manipulating Mana had to be absolutely amazing for that to happen.

The golden arc swept through the thunder blades, shattering them upon impact and proceeding forward towards the girl. Although surprised, Hannah merely snorted before coating her feet in purple thunder. The thunder capped shortly after and burst out, sending her up into the air, good fifty meters.

Lynne suddenly rotated clockwise, hositing the blade tightly; as Hannah came into his sight as rotation ended, he flung the fiery blade at insane speed directly at her. Before the blade was even halfway through, he summoned another one – colorless, seemingly causing the air around it to vibrate.

As fiery blade approached Hannah, it lost some of its shine and sharpness. Nonetheless, she still didn’t dare ignore it; she raised her right arm and gripped her fingers in a fist. As she opened it back up, a massive bolt of purple lightning appeared, two meters long and thirty centimeters thick. She swung it downwards without hesitation, and was seemingly unable to sustain herself in the air any longer, slowly beginning to fall down.

The bolt crushed the fiery sword without any problems and sped down towards Lynne. He immediately coated soles of his feet in golden flames and stepped sideways; however, instead of simply stepping aside, he suddenly bolted through the air in a beautiful arc, rising good twenty meters into the air, leaving behind a trail of thin fire.

While still flying, he began rotating clockwise again, but this time without a stop; each time he’d come face to face with Hannah, another Elemental Blade would be flung at her direction.

Soon, twenty or so blades of different colors and elements were blowing through the air at her. She was stunned slightly, as she realized that the blades were extremely sharp, and she couldn’t afford to take a hit.

In truth, Lynne shouldn’t have been able to push her to this state; after all, her understanding of Magical Arts was well above his, and even her Mana reserves were ten times larger. However, the state of her mind was impacted greatly, so her Mana manipulation grew sluggish and slow. While ordinary observers wouldn’t notice anything wrong, those experts with keen eyes immediately realized it.

“Looks like his opening act wasn’t just for the show.” one of the people seated above the platform spoke, laughing lightly.

“In the end, it is victors who are celebrated, regardless of the method.”

“Poor girl…” a female voice broke out. “Seed, you really ought a slap him a few times for me.”

“Ha ha, I’ll see what I can do.” Principle Seed spoke, laughing alongside others.

As blades approached, Hannah spread her arms out again, her entire body coated in coiling thunder and bolts. They spread outward like a net, grasping at every blade that was approaching her. As bolts and blades collided, they burst out in a massive explosion, sending out rippling shockwaves throughout the platform. One by one, blades were stopped, and soon after, all twenty were halted. Just as she was about to sigh in relief, she felt a slight prick at the back of her neck.

“You lost.” Lynne exclaimed calmly, smiling.

“… I lost.” she admitted.

Lynne hid one of the spacial blades amidst the torrent of others, and the moment Hannah let her guard down, he pushed the blade through the space itself, causing it to appear right behind her.

“… Lynne Nyord wins.” even referee seemed reluctant to proclaim the result; one could imagine the reaction of others.

All other matches ended with a massive applause and cheers, regardless of who won or lost. After all, both participants gave their best and showed their talents the best they could. However, this time there were no cheers, just cold glares that could freeze one’s soul.

Luckily for Lynne, his skin was thicker than Dragon’s scales. He walked back to the sub-platform proudly, his head raised up high, chest puffed out, as if he did a truly commendable deed that benefited the entirety of the world.