Cheers from the crowd erupted as the Baron held up his reputation. But I knew exactly what was going on. While everyone was focussed on Sake, I whispered to Hein,

“Give up the second he is about to cut you with any blade. Everything he has is poison!”

“But-”

“But what? Is your life more important or having a chance at victory?”

“…”

“Ok, good luck” I said, looking back at the Baron with visible murderous intent.

After the healer healed the Baron from his wound, he turned around to go back to his seat. While doing so, he turned his head slightly, just enough for me to see half his face, and he gave the most hideous smile I have seen so far!

‘Good job f*cker. You are now on my kill list! I will be there when you die, and make sure you die slowly and painfully, you f*cking pile of sh*t.’ was what I wanted to say, but bottled it up deep inside my mind, and locked the bottle away.

“Alright, now that the garbage claims have been cleared, we can continue the tournament.” said the announcer, “Alright, begin the fight now!” he continued.

As soon as the words left his mouth, both contestants sprang into action. Joester displayed his irrefutably complex and swift attacks using his poison tipped hidden weapons. Like throwing daggers. Hein, on the other hand was fully showcasing his mastery of the simple sword skills, not only deflecting all attacks from his opponent, but also completely rebounding some to return fire at his foe. Now that was finesse at its best! A true work of art.

However, halfway through the battle, Joester began to get a malicious smile on his face, and it was getting under my skin that he knew something I didn’t. I quickly spent some more mana on enhancing my sense, and vision to focus on Hein, but I notice nothing except him getting more tired as time passes.

Sake’s point of view…

Haha! Little brat! After all that you put me through, I will show you real despair. You will watch you friend die in front of you if you don’t do anything. If you try to save him by stopping the battle, not only will you be disqualified from the competition, but will still see him die, because that poison is a proprietary formula from my family, which infects the very mana of a person! Haha. I might be able to turn things around to frame you for the murder of your own friend and sentenced to death! Hehehe! Let’s put Samuel in charge of that.

Signalling to my butler, I said “Find some charges and make evidence for the fact that Jon will kill his friend now using special poison.”

Jon’s point of view…

I knew something had happened, but I didn’t know what it was. Sake was busy grinning and cooking up some schemes for me and Hein, maybe even Krog. But he can be dealt with later, if nothing I can just tell on him to mom. But the problem is Hien. I can visible notice his swiftness and elegance drop. Was he already poisoned? But when?

It was then that I noticed an fine needle, about 1 cm into his forearm! That’s it. Joester must have thrown that before the match even began, and the effects took some time to become apparent. So he was stalling until this time.

Since cheering and giving advice to the person in battle is allowed, I screamed, “Give up now Hein!!!!! You have been poisoned! He will kill you if you don’t stop now!”

Hearing my words, Hein begins to strain his parched throat to give up. But as he was trying to do this, Joester rushed towards him and launched one punch after another, and I can see that he has poison tipped spikes on his gloves. He wouldn’t give Hein the chance to give up. And with every passing second, the effects of the poison were getting worse!