Chapter 49: Guild Wars 2

A man from the Flame guild stood up, his clothes were simple and wore no metallic armor. He carried a long sword that was slightly curved on his hand. As he stepped onto the stage he slowly unsheathed his weapon and threw away the sheath on the floor.

His sword was a single edge sword that had a width of 2-3 fingers and a length of 1.5 meters. A large portion of that length was due to the long handle of the sword.

The man had long black hair and a scruffy beard. He was of average height but the pressure from his eyes gave the audience a feeling that they were staring at a giant.

On the other side, a very large man stood up. He wore a full set of armor and carried a large bastard sword on his hand. The man’s face was filled with scars and the pressure from his gaze was not inferior to his opponent’s.

Two experts were about to collide as they waited for the master of ceremonies to signal the start of the match.

The fighters gathered up Qi as they waited, maintaining peak conditions. Teo and Windle noticed that others audience could not.

The fighter from Flame guild was gathering flame elemental essence! He was a fire elementalist!

Soon, the surrounding atmosphere around that fighter heated up. The layers of air in his surrounding cause his figure to blur. The intense heat haze caused the light to bend, muddling his figure to the audience.

“Second round begin!”

The two fighters casually walked towards each other. This round was not a test of speed nor fighting ability, but was a test of raw strength and power. Their pride would not allow them to use any other tactics in front of the public.

As they stood 2 meters apart, the armored fighter felt the heat invade through his armor. He quickly produced a layer of protective Qi to surround his body.

Both fighters lifted their swords, pulling them back, preparing a large swing for their attack. The armored fighter wrapped his bastard sword around a thick layer of Qi and slashed forward.

-BOOM!-

The attacks clashed against each other. Both were swings with all their strength behind it. The clash of power unleashed an explosive aftershock.

The multiple layers of city guards that surrounded the arena created a wall of Qi to protect the audience, trapping the force of the exchange inside the arena.

Dust swirled around the arena and the audience could see nothing after the first exchange. A wind elementalist among the guards commanded the wind to quickly blow away the large dust cloud to reveal the aftermath.

The scene revealed shocked everyone. In just a single blow, the fight was already over.

The armored fighter laid on the ground barely breathing a 10 meters away from his original position. His armor destroyed mixing metal with flesh, A smell of cooked meat emerged from his chest. The flesh that covered his chest was charred black.

On his hand was his bastard sword, cut in half, but even as he lost, he did not let go of his broken sword one bit.

“Quickly! Get him healed!”, The leader of the Estoc guild commanded and several people rushed the stage towards their fallen comrade.

“WINNER OF THE SECOND ROUND! THE FLAME GUILD!”

“Drew, drink this”, a member of the medical team of the Estoc guild gave a bottled potion to the wounded fighter.

“Oh? They have something so precious?”, A member of the Mirth family noticed the potion being held

“What is it?”, Elon asked the member

“That is a Life Essence potion. It is very rare for a guild like them to have it. A single potion is akin to having an extra life. I wonder how they obtained such a potion”

When the wounded fighter drank the potion, Qi energy flowed into his body and the charred flesh quickly fell off and the wound slowly closed. The fighter then lost consciousness and was carried off the stage.

The third round quickly began, it was a round of endurance, and was rather barbaric. The fighters’ arms were chained to their opponent’s arms. No weapon involved and it became a brutal battle where one could only use their fists as weapons. The fighters were also not allowed to wear any armor. The fight was long and hard, they fought for almost an hour until one ran out of energy to fight.

In the end the Flame guild won, the fight was bloody and the winner and loser looked disfigured after the fight. Although both did not die, several of their bones were fractured some were completely shattered, no matter who won or lost, both participants would always be heavily injured.

Now that the Flame guild had won two rounds in a row, they only needed one more win to secure the overall victory.

The following battle was a team battle. Each side brought out 3 members to battle as one.

As the rule of this event, a participant who had already fought cannot participate in the later stages.

The members of the flame guild had two melee warriors with a spear and a sword, while the last member carried a bow and a short sword on her waist.

As for the Estoc guild, they all had melee fighters. Two members having a long sword and a scutum shield on each. The last member held two short daggers and a mantle that covered half his body.

Compared to the previous rounds, this team fight proved to be most lethal. This was because a team fight does not stop until all the members are either incapacitated or surrender. As for the first condition, the easiest way to incapacitate someone was to kill them, knocking them out might prove fatal to them if they awoken later on. For the second condition, surrendering was difficult to do. It was not because of their pride, but because with 2 other members they would always had hope to turn the tables. Unless one is killed or injured so badly that they could not recover, surrendering was not an option. In this stage, at least one would always die.

Each side fought each other with great coordination. The flame guild team aimed to hold off their opponents while their archer snipes them when they become unguarded. The piercing power of the arrows were so strong that the shields could barely block them.

The mantle-wearing fighter from the Estoc guild was very tricky to deal with as his speed was fast and was barely held off by the opposing archer.

As the fight went on, the archer was able to shoot one of the opposing fighters in the shoulder and legs but at the same time, the mantled fighter was able to cut through the sword wielding fighter’s throat and quickly dropped to the floor. He bled out profusely as he gripped his throat, trying hard put pressure on his throat.

The spear wielding ally came to his side and kicked him off the stage towards the flame guild’s side. The swordsman was clearly out of the fight and it was better to try to save his life. As he kicked his ally, he swung his spear to the injured opponent.

-BAM-

Due to the arrow that struck him on his leg, he could not move fast enough and tried to block with his shield. The spear knocked away and an arrow swiftly slipped through the opening hitting the person’s belly.

The two able members of the Estoc guild took advantage of the Flame guild’s concentrated attack to their injured allies and closed the gap into the archer. The spearman blocked one of them but the dagger wielder passed swiftly passed through.

Without the advantage of her range. The archer switched to her sword. Although her main weapon was a bow, her swordsmanship also good. Two daggers versus a short sword, she could barely keep her opponent at bay.

The spearman tried to finish off his opponent quickly but could not find an opening.

Two daggers slashed towards the arm and torso of the archer. She barely managed to block the dagger aimed for her life but her arm was deeply wounded. White bone could be seen on the wound and she would clearly not last too long.

Seeing this the spearman slammed his spear and shouted

“We concede!”

The fight ended with two people dying, one in each side and one heavily wounded.

“Sister I am sorry, but I can’t lose you too”, The spearman approached the wounded archer.

“Brother.. How is brother doing?”, she asked in a weaken voice

The spearman looked to the edge of the ring, and then closed his eye and shook his head. The three of them were the best team within the Flame guild. They’ve spent years training together, fighting and hunting, but now one of them died.

The other side was not much better. Although they ignored their dying comrade for a chance to win, they were still very close to each other. The dagger wielding man was especially frustrated. A little longer and he could’ve killed one more person but was stopped.

“WINNER OF THE FOURTH ROUND! THE ESTOC GUILD!”

Cheers followed as the masses went crazy with the carnage shown in the last fight. Although they were cheering for the previous round, they also cheered for the upcoming round. The final round, was a round of their strongest warriors.

The rumor of having a class 5 fighter aroused the expectations of the crowd. They were unsure how strong a class 5 fighter was, some even thought that the previous fighters were of that level, but there were some who knew that those fighters from before were only class 4 at the most.

After a brief intermission, the final stage soon began.

“FINAL AROUND, FIGHTERS APPROACH THE STAGE!”

From the Estoc a large burly man appeared. A man with wild black hair and a scar on his left cheek. He carried a large sword that was as thick as his arm and was two thirds of his height. Although the sword was huge, he carried it as if it weighed nothing.

Looking at the person, many people among the crowd involuntarily shivered. They could not tell what his cultivation was but a thick aura surrounded the man. This aura had a smell of death as if he was someone who had killed thousands of people before.

His eyes was fearless and attitude proud.

On the other side, the person who approached shocked many of the spectators.

It was a frail looking old man with his eyes barely opened. Several wrinkles could be seen on the surface of his face and his hair was slightly balding and unkempt. He exuded no Qi and no fearsome aura. He was like a regular old man that some would think he had gone senile, but the members of Flame guild looked at the man with admiration.

Eventually they figured out from the Flame guild members’ expressions that this man was not a simple old man.

Within the VIP seats, the Branch head of the Rizon family spoke as to inform his members

“If I recall correctly, that is the previous head of the Flame guild. I thought he was dead? But who is that other fellow over there?”

“I heard from a reliable source that that man was a soldier from the last war”

“Hmph! Just a soldier?”

“Don’t underestimate him, from what my source told me, he killed a few generals during the war and after the war ended, he set out to the surrounding empires and slaughtered many of their skilled fighters. Only recently he had arrived and joined the Estoc guild. He is apparently close to the current leader of the Estoc guild”

The head of the Rizon branch family looked to his side towards the 40 year old man who was sitting beside him.

“Briar, what cultivation do those two have?”, the head asked

“Head, they should be both class 5 fighters. Although they can conceal their cultivation, they cannot hide them from myself”

Briar was a hired fighter of the Rizon branch family and was a personal bodyguard of the head. Since his cultivation was at peak class 5, he could easily sense the cultivation of those who are lower than his.