The first competition is the one most people will want to participate in. The unarmed fighting competition. The rules are simple. Knock the opponent off their feet and you win. If you knock them unconscious, you also win. The number of participants exceed 500 people. To reduce the time it will take. I broke them into battle royals. 20 people fight and the last man standing is the victor. Some of the losers will have a chance to make it into the final 32 again if they want. It goes without saying that most of my generals make it into the final 32. I also see a few unfamiliar faces as expected…

Gobber, Green, Leon, Lance, Sock, Nami and myself are the top contenders for winning. Epieoth, Strong, Fast, Nargzar, Zergnar, and Defus I sort of expected to make it into the top 32 as well… There are also some generals I didn't think would get this far. Fayeth, Red, Methodis, Leaf and Hilda were the surprise making it to the top 32. I look at the remaining, some have made it here by luck… Most of the pirates in the top 32 just were pit against no one else besides other pirates. I see a few mixed that do look strong though.

The biggest one that sticks out is the only kobold who had made it into the top 32… Of course he sticks out, he is about 1 foot taller than the average 4 foot tall kobolds. Far more muscular than the average kobold… He honestly looks out of place… Perhaps through the constant warfare for the next leader, this one has evolved a different path than becoming a mage like the rest of the kobolds. Before we start the match up I ask for his name.

“It is Tikki master! Hello and thank you for speaking with me! I will do my best to honor your strength during this fight!”

...He seems stiff, like he isn't used to being the center of attention, especially one with thousands of people watching. An elementalist is also in the top 32. 2 demon folk, 1 murine folk ninja and 10 pirates have made it. We start the matches, I get the fights with the pirates out of the way first and all of them are eliminated as expected. This was pretty much a free victory for anyone who was going against them.

Tikki goes against the ninja who had entered. I expect there to have been more but I doubt many ninjas participated in the competition. The few that did might have also been unlucky enough to have been put against my generals. Tikki does surprisingly well, he is just outmatched in skill by the ninja. Someone who has been training in hand to hand fighting would beat someone with no training fairly easily… I have a feeling that if he was placed against someone else, he would have done better.

All of the other matches are over, some odd ones were the fight between Hilda and Red. Red held the advantage the bulk of the fight but had dropped her guard to almost mock Hilda and Hilda took the chance to trip her. Red was more shocked than anyone else. Sock's fight with Gobber was immensely brutal. Ending with Gobber barely scraping out a victory. The fight was watched in complete silence and ended with huge screams and applause from the fans who had watched it. Lance beat out Zergnar fairly easily. As the old rival to him, it was good for Lance but at the same time good for Zergnar. I just hope he takes it as motivation to get stronger.

My match was fairly easy, pitted against Epieoth I easily beat him but at the same time. The lack of my arm made it harder than expected. He kept leaning towards my right side as it made it harder to counter attack. Eventually just rushing at him and pushing him off his feet was my victory. Winning this might be impossible for me to do in my current condition.

Down to 16 people. We've already had some amazing fights just in the first round of matches. From finishing the last round, I start the fight this next round against Hilda… She was far easier to defeat than Epieoth, not dropping my guard and attacking her weak points. It was made clear that this is as far as Hilda could make it… She hasn't trained in months, she doesn't have any unarmed experience… I'm actually surprised she made it this far. I got some boos as I defeated her so easily compared to Epieoth… That is just how the fight played out.

The final 8… Me, Gobber, Nami, Leon, Lance, Leaf, Green and Strong are remaining. I'm not sure how Leaf made it this far... My next opponent is Gobber. As if by some divine justice, I get to face the husband of the women I just defeated next… This sort of feels like an end boss fight, like we should have been the final 2… The odds don't normally work out like that. Just as I expected Sock to make it into the final 8, he instead faced the same person I went against and got knocked out early. Mine and his is the first fight in the new bracket.

We take sides… The longest fight so far has been between Sock and Gobber… Every other fight was over in a few seconds, not lasting more than a minute or 2. Sock managed to hold out against Gobber for 15 minutes, not being knocked down, he was the first to be knocked unconscious… Still standing at the end of the fight. 15 minutes might not seem like a lot of time but imagine how many punches are thrown every single minute by 2 professionals like those 2… It was a sight to behold and I hope to at least put up a fight.

Gobber doesn't give me any time to formulate a strategy. He openly charges towards my weak side, taking full advantage of my weakened arm. Gobber isn't a moron, he knows that not exploiting a weakness like that would only be a sign of not taking me seriously as an opponent… That is what makes this fight so much more difficult, if I had both hands I might stand a chance…

He charges in and I drop down and try to sweep his legs out, the only way I see myself winning is by taking this fight to defensive kicks and sweeps in an attempt to unbalance him. He jumps my sweeping leg and almost knocks me off my feet with a single strike. Targeting the side with no defenses he punches my right shoulder. I spin around and use the momentum to throw another leg sweep that he easily dodges, followed up by a counter attack towards my now exposed back. This isn't fair!

I jump away. He continues to charge at me, not even for a second letting me catch my breath. I can't use magic, so every hit I take is a chunk of permanent health lost until the end of the fight. I can't use any skill based attacks… If that was the case I might have been able to compete with him… He slowly throws jabs… He understands that throwing a haymaker would only give me a chance to counter… He is slowly whittling me down from my weak side and there is nothing I can do about it!

I start to get angry. How can he continue to take advantage of my weakness and not feel anything! I hear a voice in my head.

“Use lich form.”

What will that do? If I change form here, all of the pirates I had just gained as allies might no longer want to serve under me. I wouldn't risk thousands of troops to win a single fight. That is preposterous… I would use a sneaky magic like control wind or blood to cheat if anything… Gobber must have noticed my distraction and took advantage of it. His fist slams into my face, it is the first strike I received from him to my face. The urge to cheat continues to rise in me.

NO! I am better than that! It is the voice in my head that is influencing me. I refuse, I'll forfeit before I cheat. I hear the voice inside my head again.

“THEN USE LICH FORM YOU FUCKING MORON!”

NO! What will that do!? Why would I!? You make no sense!… I start to feel my body slowly working against me. Gobber notices my odd movements and jumps back. I think he expected me to use some crazy attack to fight against him… My body, it wants me to use lich form no matter the cost. Why? Hearing the sound of the voice starting to chant now.

“win…beat him...Win! BEAT HIM! WIN!! BEAT HIM!! WIN!!!”

Why would I do that? No! NO!! FUCK YOU BODY! I Wont do it!

“I forfeit.”

The look on the crowds face goes from excitement to shock… Some have the look of confusion on them… Gobber also looks at me confused, he doesn't understand why I had given up. He couldn't fathom me surrendering to anyone… I do anyways. I state again that I am giving up. The look of shock now changes to one of booing once again. Booing me off the stage. I know I would have been humiliated… I know I would have been but… I can't, my mind is just so full of hate right now it takes most of my focus to not go crazy. Blood starts to trickle out of my nose and Gobber is the only one who has noticed it.

“Thank you for the fight master.”

He bows and the crowd only gets louder. Almost everyone in unison is now booing me as I try to make it somewhere else to calm down. I hear Gobber now behind me.

“SHUT UP YOU FOOLS! Do you realize how much Kite sacrificed to save you dumb fucks!? He was as strong if not stronger than me a few days ago. You pieces of shit aren't worth the cost he has paid. You don't even realize how lucky you are we fought against you with him as the leader, anyone else would have killed all of you without mercy!”

The crowd starts to die down now… I barely make it into the fortress before I fall over. My entire body is shaking now, I was that close to doing something I would have never taken back. The blood pumping in my head starts to fade as I take in deep breaths. I have to talk to myself.

“LISTEN HERE YOU FUCKING STUPID ASSHOLE! I WILL NEVER GO ALONG WITH HURTING MY FRIENDS! I WILL KILL MYSELF BEFORE I DO THAT!”

...I wait for a response… Nothing. Why did he want me to use my lich form? I'm honestly not even sure I will ever use anything I gained from Gold… It just feels… Dirty, like the skills gained from her are tainted with the blood of my allies. I start to calm down finally. Wiping the blood off my upper lip a wash my face before I head back towards the battle to watch the remaining fights…

Gobber notices me and comes approaching me. He whispers.

“What was that about?”

“I got a new trait that makes me want to fight at full power… It took everything I had to hold back and not going crazy in that fight… I swear that if I didn't forfeit… I don't know what I would do… How far I would go to win...”

“Heh, it honestly sounds like you're becoming more of a leader. Someone who isn't afraid of doing what he has to in order to win… That isn't exactly a bad thing. You just need to learn to control it, I don't think that attitude towards a practice match is a good thing though.”

“This voice… I've always been able to fight the urges the other traits put on me but this one… I can't, my entire body wanted to fight you. I was ready to kill you, to kill my best friend over a stupid practice match… I'm ashamed of myself… I am ashamed of the things I'm willing to do to win right now...”

“Well then… Just don't fight.”

In all honesty… Gobber's simple mind might have just thought of the best way to avoid Wrath activating again.