Chapter 79: Open Challenge

Jeers and cheers mixed together as the audience watched the current fighters on the stage.

“Yes! That’s my boy!”

“No…how can he lose?!”

Several groups having a feast within the stands. As the sun was still above the horizon, the rowdy guests enjoy themselves with drinks as they make bets on the current fighters.

Aside from the student matches, there were also some visitors from the city who came to fight during the first day of classes. The festivities of the academy had always welcomed fighters from the outside to showcase their strength within the arena. The fighters who wished to fight were not charged any fee to use the arena, and bets between fighters were guarded by the academy guards as well as the Red Guardians.

The sun was still hanging in the sky so there were still many people around enjoying themselves.

But after the fight within the main stage, a strange event occurred. In the middle of the main stage, a young man wearing a grey cloak. The youth had black hair and was quite short in terms of height that he could easily be mistaken as first year student.

People were slightly startled as most students fought on the arena during the earlier part of the afternoon. There was still a few hours until the sun would set and normally, during these times, only older students or visitors would still be at the arena.

The host of the main stage came forward in front of the audience and with a loud voice he announced.

“Our very own third year student, Teo of Char, is accepting challenges from any and all other student!”

Teo who was standing on stage took a look at the stands. He smirked as he saw Zachery and the others were there staring at him with venomous eyes. As he escaped from the Martial faction, Teo led the group to the arenas in the northern district.

‘This place is perfect for a one-on-one fight’

He did not plan to run forever, but he was well aware that he could not fight them all at the same time. His plan was simple, to beat them each one of them in public!

On the stands the 13 other waited for Zachery’s orders. Teo was openly challenging them to a duel, which made Zachery irritated.

‘Hmph! You think you can beat all of us one-on-one? I didn’t think you were this crazy!’

“Genso, go and test the waters.”

A slim build young man nodded at Zachery’s orders and rushed down to the stage. Genso was a fourth year student, who paid to help Zachery with his problems. From his perspective, Zachery hiring so many people is overkill, but he wasn’t complaining. He was getting paid 20 silver coins for helping handle this small problem.

He stepped up to the stage and shouted, “I’ll challenge him!”

“Our first challenger!” the host announced but quickly whispered, “Hey kid, what’s your name?”

“Genso of Yurd”

“Our first challenger Genso of Yurd!”

——

Looking at his opponent, Teo was calm. Genso was a foot and a half taller than him, but he did not see it as any difficulty. He had sparred with seniors of Martial faction members before and was not intimidated by a larger opponent.

“Both of you know the rules? No killing or maiming, wooden or blunt weapons are allowed. The fight ends when the judge calls it to end, or you either push the opponent out of bounds, make him admit defeat, knock him out or if they can no longer fight. Any questions?”

The host briefly explains the rules of arena but before he could start the match Teo asks a question.

“Can we use other things besides our weapons?”

“As long as it doesn’t kill or maim the opponent, it should be fine. Oh right, poisons are not allowed!”

“Can we use things like talismans?” Teo asked.

When Teo asked this question, Genso almost laughed out loud.

‘Talismans? Hah this kid must not know much about those useless talismans.”

The judge also had a similar reaction. Talismans were worthless unless they were stacked into a large bundle. Even if they did have them, who would be so wasteful in using them in a non-life-or-death situation?

“Usage of talismans are accepted, but using a bundle of more than 10 are not permitted.”

Teo smiled and then bent down undoing something on his ankles and forearm.

*Thud*

He throws two metallic braces he took from his limbs off the stage and the sound of those braces hitting the dirt made everyone who was paying attention guess that these braces were extremely heavy.

Pulling out his sword, he stretched his legs in preparation for the upcoming match. Genso patiently waited as he found Teo’s preparation to be amusing. He saw these actions as futile, already predicting his one sided victory.

“Ready yet?” Genso asked in a calm manner as Teo finished his stretches.

“Yes, but how much are we betting in this match?”

“Hahahaha”

Genso laughed as he could no longer take it. In his eyes, the small kid before him was nothing more than a joke. Genso felt like a predator about to slaughter his prey and now this prey of his was offering to give him money!

“I really like you kid, I am sorry that I have to do this. How about 20 silver coins?”

“Only 20 silver? How about we raise it to a few gold coins?”

Genso’s eyebrow twitch as the amount Teo proposed was extremely high. Unless one had enough money to spare, they usually won’t bet this much without much consideration.

When he got hired for this job, he found out more about the rumors between his employer, Zachery, and the target, Teo. He learned that Teo had profited quite a bit from the Rizon faction and perhaps this was the reason why there was bad blood between them.

To him, this didn’t matter too much. In fact, he was extremely happy about Teo’s proposition.

‘Heh, looks like I’ll make quite a bit more money from this job,” Gelson thought.

“Okay, I’ll bet one gold coin!”

——-

The fight began and everyone anticipated the strange match-up. A tall senior versus a short junior. Many people started betting on the match and from people’s prediction, Teo had the odds of winning 1 to 10.

“That shrimp sure is brave asking for any challengers. I hope he wins.”

“I’m betting my money on you little guy!”

As a joke, many place their bets on Teo but these bets were quite small. Not one of them place more than 30 bronze coins on him.

“Let this match begin!”

As the match started, Genso quickly dashed towards Teo, hoping to end it quickly. He did not bother guarding against the talismans that Teo asked as he knew they were quite weak.

Teo stood motionlessly, preparing to wait for his opponent. The [God’s eyes] were already activated, and his body felt extremely light.

The weights that he got rid of were the weights that Rowen and Gina gave to him. They instructed him to never remove them unless absolutely necessary. After getting used to its weight, he was required to increase it little by little.

Teo held his sword, side stepping Genso’s initial strike. Genso’s speed was fast, but his aura did not contain any elemental energy. Teo guessed that Genso was not an elementalist, but despite this, his attacks were quite swift.

A battle of agility had begun!

“That little guy can’t win like this! Little guy! Try to counter attack!”

“Hahaha don’t be giving tips to him! Let him learn on his own!”

The few drunkards enjoyed themselves as they watched the match. Teo’s movement was quite agile but he never raised his sword to attack. Genso on the other hand was baffled at Teo’s skill. He had heard the slipperiness of Teo but he never imagined he was this slippery!

He could not land a single strike! He tried using a variation of sword attacks and sometimes would try to surprise Teo with kicks but he hit nothing but air!

“HAH!”

Genso pushed himself to his limits and his speed quickly flew through the roof! Teo dashed back to the edge of the stage and stopped a foot before it. They both knew the distance of the edge of the stage, and Genso sense that Teo was baiting him to come closer.

‘This brat wants to win by a ring out? Che!’

Genson’s speed was indeed fast, but he could not utilize it if Teo was near the edge. On the upside, Teo cornered himself by moving to the edge on his own. Genso attacked once more!

A horizontal slashed flew towards Teo’s legs. Genso lowered his body and then followed it up with a vertical kick expecting Teo to jump up!

‘Hoh.. This guy is quite smart as well,’ Teo was slightly impressed.

Teo blocked the sword with his left forearm using the concealed hidden dagger under his sleeve. It acted more of a bracer but with Teo’s array on it, its defense was extremely hard!

*Bang bang*

Teo followed his movement by attacking the incoming leg! His target was Genso’s knee!

“Ahh!”

Genso shouted in pain, but his assault did not end. He tried to grab Teo’s collar while preparing his sword for his next strike.

Dodging Genso’s hand by a few inches, he quickly send a strike behind the same knee and pushed him off the stage with a following kick!

‘!!’

Genso panicked! He had lost his balance but what surprised him the most was Teo’s sudden acceleration of speed!

He thought that Teo was extremely fast for a junior but he could not even tell when Teo’s sword reached his legs!

*Crash!*

The rowdy drunkards’ eyes widened as they could not believe what they were seeing!

One of them looked at his glass of beer and pushed it away.

‘I must be dreaming..’

No one expected Teo to win over his gigantic opponent, but the silent observers saw that the person laying off the stage was in fact this giant they bet on to win!