Chapter 46: Hand-to-hand combat championship

As usual, Safo did what felt right to him. And the result was not what he anticipated, the crowd was unfazed. Some took a note to pay attention to a guy but most of the psiora just wanted to see actions right then and there.

Luckily for Safo his embarrassment in form of a silent crowd didn’t last for long. The host came to the rescue, he thanked the candidates sending them back to their cabins to get prepared for the non-resource battle. While he started to explain the rules.

Advisors, especially the Financial Advisor, felt that a battle between four candidates would be boring to the people. So to make a great show they decided to invite other fighters to the tournament. Overall, in the first event, 16 contestants fought for the title of the Fistfight Champion.

Safo went to his cabin where Kutch, Achraf, and an old rat tried to cheer him up. Safo acknowledged that his speech didn’t resonate with people’s hearts so he counted it as a fail. His instincts and feeling let him down from the start of the competition.

And the second one promised to be even worse. At most he could hope to win at least his first round. He saw other candidates and knew that their abilities and experience were much higher than his, even their bodies were much bigger than his.

Safo changed his clothes and went to the stage once more. While competitors prepared themselves, a musical performance was entertaining the crowd. A famous bird-type psiora sang a beautifully presented song. The was filled with decorations, multicolor screens floating around the singer, dancers complemented the song with their synchronized moves. Her voice was soothing and the melody was calming. It helped Safo to take control over his nerves.

Finally, the time had come. Fifteen well-built lads and Safo Nur walked towards the stage. All sorts of animals stood high and tall, determined to smash some faces or at least present themselves in a good light to the future king. They were handpicked among many other worthy, to fight with the future king, combatants.

Everybody greeted each other and went to wait for their match. Computer randomly shuffled their name to generate the next battle.

First was two unknown psiora, both looked like a bear. One was green in color while the second was grey. Grey bear had no claws but compensating for the flaw it had more muscles.

“3...2...1 FIGHT!” The referee started the match and in an instant, the grey bear became blurred and disappeared only to reappear under the grey bear and threw a punch to his opponent's face. The green bear was caught off guard and received a whole impact with honor and a bit of shock. His snout was moved to a side with a fist of the bulgy bear that came like a hammer, but the nimble green bear quickly gained his composure back and just tossed his body towards the big bear.

After a swift maneuver, the grey bear was on the ground defending his face from the sharp claws that sought to shred it to pieces.

The fight was over, the green bear won. He looked, smirking at his opponent, who was covered in blood. His hands were ruined, clusters of meat were missing showing off the bones.

The following two matches were similar in many ways, brutal, fast, and with lots of blood. Safo Nur was worried about his well-being. And the fact that his name could be summoned in any second made his condition more miserable.

The fourth fight was between B’hemah the ”Behemoth” Cultrin and some unfortunate crocodile. B’hemah was huge in size, like a walking truck while the reptile was almost flat on the ground. Despite many people's opinion that B’hemah the “Behemoth” used his father's money to finish the tasks, he had the physical appearance of a thick-skinned guy that he created with his own will. He was on a special diet that helped him to achieve it, and gain some weight. Needless to say that he certainly applied at least the first two courses of the "Immortality Path". Which was proven via the battle with the toothy crocodile. The brownish reptile lashed its maw at B’hemah’s leg in a pitiful attempt to bring harm. The “Behemoth” simply sat on top of the crocodile and flattened it. The match was over with a sheer mass.

It was time for the fifth match and “Safo Nur” blinked on the screens, to the surprise of the crowd his opponent was another candidate - "Yon Ace".

“Did you train him well, Kutch?” Halazar, the Regal Advisor, along with the Financial adviser Elixio Quirz wide opened the door to their cabin. “Yon is an Imperial soldier, served under many commanders, can Safo withstand his blows?”

“To be honest I can’t say that he will win the fight but he will show a decent match.” Kutch saw Safo’s training and growth, he was confident in Safo’s abilities.

Several psiora came to escort Safo Nur to the ring, on the way he met Yan's eyes. “Please do not hold back on me.” Safo smiled wide.

“You too and good luck.” Yon replied without any bad meaning hidden in his words.

Safo stood on the corner of a ring prepared for the battle, he couldn’t be more nervous. Every cell on his body sweated rain.

The referee called them to the middle and explained the rules.

“3...2...1 FIGHT!”

Safo utilized the first step of his plan in bullet speed. He jumped back to create distance and observe the opponent's movements. After 3 jumps he decided to stop, Yon did the same but one time. Then he made the first move, Yon charged forward.

‘I see yo…’

In a split second Yon, using his muscular legs, pushed off the floor to move himself as fast as possible and threw a punch to Safo’s stomach, which landed perfectly.

The whole world went dark, Safo fainted. His body flew back and out of the ring, finished rolling, and lay completely still. Safo couldn’t react in time, even though he saw the attack it was too late.

Medics came to pick up the unconscious body, to take care of it.

Yon stood shocked, he couldn’t believe that he won with a single hit. He didn’t know that Safo was that bad. Yon treated him as an equal.

People watching the match were silent for a brief moment until they fully accepted what had happened. Suddenly a huge wave of applause broke out throughout the stadium. People were impressed by Yon’s performance and understood why the last candidate was so hesitant in his speech. He simply was inexperienced and weak.

“Did you see that punch, that’s what I call a King’s punch!”

“Poor kid, he flew so fast and far, it probably hurt badly.”

“Of course, he fainted because of the sheer power of the hit. I like this candidate, even if he grew up in the Empire army.”

“Yeah, only that makes me feel a little itchy about him.”

“He looks handsome too. Not as our Kardon but not bad, not bad.”

“Do not compare this Empire trash to my love, Kardon. He is the best.”

The audience screamed and yelled in excitement. The real show had started.

The silence was in Safo’s cabin, however.

“Okay, he wasn’t ready. It is just... He was so lucky, I was almost sure that something would happen to make him win the match.” Kutch was upset, he blamed himself for being a bad teacher.

Halazar and Elixio looked at each other after Kutch’s words.

“What do you mean by “lucky”? As far as I know, if he were here before we decided to create a race for the title, Safo would become a king by default. And then he had not enough time to finish the first course of “Immortality Path”. His speech brought no response and finally he was knocked out after one punch. What is lucky about him?” No anger or irritation was in Halazar’s tone, more like a curiosity. Elixio Quirz also looked at Kutch with interest.

“What you said is true but somehow he manages to do stuff that was unimaginable without luck. For example, his resources were locked after we lost the fight on his planet, and there was no way to unlock them. But he, by pure accident, stumbled upon a soul that now lives inside him and helped him to release part of his resources. Using some weird, unknown to us, ways. Then he manages to escape unharmed from a gang at the negative Stage on AXIS. And just a couple of days ago he, again by pure luck, Safo found a hidden item in the Cube that billions of people couldn't before him.

I can’t explain what it is if it is not luck. So I was hoping that this time it will work too.” Kutch’s passionate explanation seemed to affect Advisers, their expression became kinder.

“Then maybe we made the right choice.” Halazar said smiling.

“Let me make some calls.” Elixio Quirz excused himself and stepped out of the room.

Safo missed his next fight while being unconscious and was disqualified from the hand-to-hand part of the tournament.

When he woke up in a medical room, only Kutch sat next to him.

“How do you feel?”

Safo couldn’t look Kutch's eyes straight, he disappointed his teacher and only supporter.

“Like a shit... What is next on agenda? What else do I have to fail today?!” Safo smirked. “So far I fuc* up 3 out of 5.”

“Don’t worry, the next events are easy for you. Your resource is powerful and destructive. Knowing your level, I guess you won’t be last on Soul measurement and I am more than certain that you will give a good show on the last battle. Right now it is time to rest.” With that Kutch left Safo to gather his thoughts.

Safo Nur was about to get some sleep when a message popped in front of his eyes.

[“Hello, WorldDestroyer, it is me. Can you talk, now?”]