“Alright, begin!”

As soon as the judge said that, we both drew our weapons; Him with his war hammer, and me with my Death Saber. Both were scaled-down versions of the real weapons used by adults, mainly due to the size issues with those swords for children like us.

It seems like Maleceth has a war hammer and so has a greater reach and power of every swing than me. I doubt I can take on his hammer head on, unless I use mana, which I don’t wish to disclose to anyone yet. So I need to use superior speed and agility to defeat him. However, that sense field of his is slightly difficult to deal with without the use of mana. But there is a way. I just need to be faster than his reactions!

Thinking through the plan, I began to follow it. I kept within his field of attack and sense, while dodging all his attacks and accumulation small cuts all over the un-plated parts of his body, resulting in him falling unconscious due to severe blood loss. He should take about a day or two to regain his full body movement.

“Winner of battle 43, stage 3, Jon! Total time, 24 minutes!” said the judge as he walked to me and gave me a token. “This is an extra point for completing the battle within 30 minutes. Keep it safe, and don’t let anyone take it from you or else they will get the token.”

Wait, doesn’t that mean that everyone who heard my announcement will be after this token? I mean one point could mean the difference between 1st place and 2nd place. I’ll have to finish this round 1 quickly and return home.

…

After defeating everyone I was put against, in under 30 minutes, I collected around 6 tokens, which makes me at a 6 point advantage. It was at this point that I that Hein had completed his match, but Krog was still fighting.

“You see that kid with the shield? Who is his opponent?” I asked an observer

“He is fighting with the two-time tournament champion, Robin. Robin is such an inspiration for the younger generation, in the fact that he always wins in the most graceful and honest way possible! He even gives a few secret words of encouragement before he begins his fight! Isn’t he just one hell of a hero?” Said a middle aged lady, who was watching the match.

Hmm, something is off about this Robin. I can feel it in my gut, and my gut never lies. He seems perfect! So perfect that it makes me question whether that is even his true self! Something is wrong with his fight as well. Every time Krog is going in for an attack, he hesitates for a brief moment, and that is when Robin makes his move. Why is Krog hesitating? What is happening?

While I was contemplating on what is happening, Krog surrendered, completely unharmed. However, I saw it! Just an instant before Krog admitted defeat, There was an extremely minute change in the mana fluctuations. So minute that even I barely noticed! It must have something to do with Krog’s surrender! I also noticed that along with the mana fluctuation, Krog’s brows also flinched for a second, which means that the magic affected Krog! I need to check him!

“Winner of battle 50, stage 1, Robin! Total time 29 minutes!” said the judge of stage 1

I jumped onto the stage as soon as he was done, and went to check up on Krog.

“Just wait for a few minutes, I just need to do a few checks. Relax Krog.” I said

…

Ok, so that is it! That f*cker used mana on Krog’s mind. By seeing how dilutes the foreign mana is, I can see how long ago it was injected. First, I need to extract it, or else Krog will get mana poisoning, and will never be able to use mana in his life! However, although mana poisoning can have such severe consequences, the amount Robin injected is very little. So little that it would be about 1/4th of a drop of my compressed mana. However, for Krog, It is about 1/4th of his total mana pool! That could even lead to damage to the Astral Body!

…

“Phew! It’s all good!” I said as I told Krog to get back up.

“So Jon, do you know what was wrong with me? It felt like my whole body was malfunctioning at some points, and then I suddenly got the urge to surrender!” said Krog as he got up and we walked towards the now approaching Hein.

“I seems like Robin first sent a lot of dormant mana, meaning mana that remains in its position for a period of time. This was most of the mana sent into you, and was placed inside and around your thalamus. This was to remain Dormant for some time, before forcing your mind to urge you to surrender. But during this time of waiting, he also sent some mana to your cerebellum to act like a glitch switch, just before you attacked. What an interestingly cunning strategy!” I said.

“Uhm Jon, you are mumbling in some nonesense language again! Speak clearly and simply!” exclaimed Hein

“Ah, it means he used mind control on Krog” I replied

But that strategy is very narrow and specific to one target. It also has limitations like the fact that it will never work on people with greater amount, or quality of mana than the caster. And it is too much of a waste to use it on a single individual with lesser mana than you, because you could have just killed him off using spells. But this can be used by me for multiple people at once. Like an area of effect mind control spell! And, it would most definitely be a level 3 status magic spell!