The Roamer

Chapter 21: Tournament

During the week that Aeolus had to wait, he didn’t have much things to do, so he just wandered off to other towns and even another city, fought even more, and slept a lot. After wasting a lot of time, the week had finally passed, and the tournament was at his doorstep.

He immediately went in the direction of the string he left at the city, and appeared there within ten minutes, the tens of miles not mattering. He made his way towards the stadium, and saw a line of people standing in front of the stadium gate, and nobody at the stands, even the hostess gone.

‘The preparations for this tournament really are extreme huh.’ Aeolus thought, acknowledging just how much people had to leave their stands to set up this thing. Either that, or they just ran once they saw all the participators of the tournament.

Aeolus just lined up like the rest, and it didn’t attract attention from any of them.

‘They’re all experts and professionals, they probably noticed my spirit and didn’t say anything.’ Aeolus realized all these peoples’ potential, and just how good of an opponent they would all make. This was going to be an exhibition of strength, that was for sure.

Once you counted all of them, there were only twenty in total. The strong people at the top really scared off most of them from what he was seeing, and he was happy about that. His chances of getting into the top ten were higher because of how little people there were.

The gate they were all lined up in front of opened up, and the person at the front of the line was the first to walk in, with the rest following. Aeolus was the absolute last person to enter, and he saw the stadium in its full glory. It was big enough to house millions and millions of people, which was amazingly big.

“Ladies and gentlemen, put your hands together for the participants who are in this tournament!” some man floating above the arena said, with many people in the stands listening to him and clapping. There was even a location within the stands reserved just for nobility and royalty, and some of them began to clap!

“Now, we will have to go over the rules of this tournament. First of all, no killing allowed, and a battle ends when a participant faints or surrenders. Second of all, everything within the stadium is the battle area, leaving this area will result in your loss as well.” the announcer explained, while flashing a smile at the crowd watching this tournament. He then looked down at the participants, and gave them a thumbs up.

‘Much different from a certain announcer…’ Aeolus thought to himself, and remembered the days of the slave prison, which seemed so long ago. Comparing himself to the Aeolus of those days, he was like a god. Aeolus grinned at how far he had come, and looked towards all the opponents.

All of them seemed worthy of standing here, with the most menacing one seeming to be a man with silver hair. Aeolus could not sense his spirit, so he assumed that he was the one who had unlocked his thirtieth layer, but then again, he couldn’t sense the spirit of seven people excluding him, so he wasn’t certain.

“First of all, we’ll let fighters pick who they’ll fight, and both have to agree. Once they both agree, the match-ups will have been decided, and we will start with the pair that agree to battle first!” the announcer said, and brought in an uproar of applause. The whole audience had also heard of the thirtieth layer man, and wanted to see the power of a true man.

All the fighters began to move around, and began to select opponents. Surprisingly, not many came up to Aeolus, and the ones who did were extremely weak.

‘It seems like the ones who are truly strong are avoiding me, since they don’t know what to expect of a child cultivator.’ Aeolus acknowledged all of the ones who had not come to challenge him, and realized that even reaching the top five seemed to be a fleeting dream right now.

‘I’ll just try my best to win.’ Aeolus said in his mind, and set his eyes on a blond woman who wanted to challenge him. He first felt out her soul, and found that she was at the fourth layer.

‘This will be too easy if I choose her, so let’s go for someone who is somewhat close to me in cultivation.’ he thought to himself, and continued to search the people who wished to challenge him.

Finally, he set his eyes on a red haired person, who seemed to be in his twenties. He had a grin on his face, and didn’t really seem to care about anything. “You, I agree to your challenge of fighting.” Aeolus said, and stood side by side with him.

“May I know your name, esteemed brat?” the man asked sarcastically, while Aeolus looking at this man with a curious face. He peeked deep into the soul of this person, but found nothing that hinted towards him putting up a fake face. That meant that this person was actually like this, and not just putting up an image.

‘What a freak.’ Aeolus thought to himself, while replying to him.

“My man is Aeolus, may I know yours?” he said, while looking at the man with a face full of expectations. This man truly seemed weird, and Aeolus was curious about his origins and why exactly he was here, because he seemed to already be fulfilled with life.

“I’m Quasar, nice to meet you.” the man said, while smiling at Aeolus. Once again, Aeolus checked his soul to make sure that he wasn’t putting up an image, but it seemed as if every emotion he was showing was the genuine truth. The more Aeolus learned about this guy, the more cautious he became.

“Which pair would like to be the first to battle?” the announcer said, while eyeing each of them with interest. He knew everyone here would put up, at the very least, a good fight. For that reason, not only were the thirtieth layer man and his fights going to be interesting, everything was.

“We’ll go first.” said the silver haired man Aeolus was eyeing before, and began to walk forward. His opponent, the blond chick that was considering fighting Aeolus, was with him.

“That girl is screwed.” Aeolus muttered to himself, but it seemed as if the red haired man heard it. He immediately flashed killing intent towards Aeolus, but Aeolus paid him no heed. Besides, who would dare to kill in this tournament when everyone was watching, and there were other opponents ready to catch him?

The announcer announced the beginning of the fight, and the girl jumped at the silver haired man. To her horror, however, as soon as the fight began, the guy had three different clones! She didn’t know which one was real, so she just rushed at one.

The one she rushed at easily avoided the attack by jumping into the sky, and stomped on her back while descending. Her spine easily shattered, and the end of the battle had appeared. All of the spectators watched with mouths wide open, while only the royalty and nobles not appearing that surprised.

The fighters and the announcer were unfazed, since they were all used to fights, and had seen much worse. The announcer then prepared his throat, and looked at the audience with a grin.

“That is the end of the first battle, can we get a round of applause for the winner?!” the announcer yelled into the stands, and got a reply right away, as always, and cheers came in from the stands. He then looked down towards the fighters, while calling in some people who cultivated the life affinity, to take care of the woman.

“Now then, who is going to fight next?” the announcer said in a curious tone, unable to hide the excitement within his voice. He was like a little kid who couldn’t wait to get his gift on christmas, he was giddy and jumpy.

“We’ll be going next. Isn’t that right, Aeolus?” Quasar said in a sly voice, as if he was luring Aeolus into a trap. Aeolus nodded his head, and began to walk forward. Quasar followed right after him, while waving his hand towards the audience. However, his tone would be flipped after the fight, but that was just the thought going through Aeolus’ mind.

“Isn’t that kid to young to participate in such a thing?” a noble in the stands asked others nearby, clearly suspicious of such a thing. Just how did a child get into such a tournament? However, when he looked towards the other fighters, they all seemed to have accepted it, and didn’t care about the fact that he was a kid, which raised his suspicion even further.

In fact, it wasn’t just him, but many of the people spectating this battle were doubtful that this kid could put up a decent battle. Some even began to cover their eyes, as they didn’t want to see a child so young get beat down. However, Aeolus paid all of it no heed, and stopped in the center of the stadium.

“Let the battle begin!” the announcer roared, and Quasar jumped straight at Aeolus. However, Aeolus was ready for such a thing. The string was already set up, as he had predicted such a situation happening. However, the next move Quasar did shocked him.

Quasar hit himself, and went flying into the sky. Aeolus didn’t know why he would do such a thing, but he was prepared to fight him off. Some string had already been set up in the sky ever since this battle began, and was ready to cut him down.

As expected, while Quasar was in the sky, he pointed himself at Aeolus, and was dive-bombing. He was about to pass the first string that Aeolus had set up. He did it successfully, but not even a second after that, he hit the ground.

Aeolus utilized his experience from the battle within the manor, and used the time when his opponent let down his guard unconsciously after passing a string to pierce him with one from a blind spot. However, Quasar wasn’t fully out, as he didn’t faint or give up. Aeolus was nice enough to just pierce his abdomen, and not go for the heart or head.

However, even though Quasar wasn’t bleeding that badly due to the only hole in his body not even having a diameter of a centimeter, there wasn’t much places for blood to go. However, on the inside, he was being messed up terribly. Something had come off the string, and was spreading through his body.

‘This brat, he has the affinity of poison fused to a part of his soul?!’ Quasar roared within his mind, the poison spreading. However, to his surprise, the poison wasn’t all that painful, and he felt it going downwards in his body, not up, so that meant it wasn’t going towards the heart or head.

Just when he thought he had avoided a tragedy due to Aeolus’ inexperience, he tried to stand up. However, he couldn’t, as he had lost all feeling within his legs. He tried to push himself up, but even his arms didn’t move.

“This poison… this is meant to just numb me, this doesn’t damage me at all!” Quasar realized, although it was too late. At that point, even his mouth was numbed, and he could feel himself beginning to slumber. The pain from his abdomen was rising, and he thought it was a good idea to just faint, so he did.

“Just like that, the victory goes to our little friend!” the announcer roared, astonishment within his eyes. He knew that the kid was probably not normal, but he didn’t think he was this strong. He had just beat red-hair without even getting a scratch on himself! He was far out of red-hairs league, and he even began to pity the loser.

The crowd clapped vigorously, clearly impressed with such an exhibition. Many of them had looks of suspicion on their faces before, but now, all they had was inspiration flowing throughout their bodies, as this child was truly fascinating. Most of the spectators reminisced of their days as children, and wished that they had even half his powers today.

Meanwhile, the other fighters who were still in the tournament had something develop in their heart, but it wasn’t hate or fear for this child. Instead, it was utmost respect. Just the fact that a child so young could reach a level so high was amazing, and a lot of them clapped.

Of course, there were some within the fighters who didn’t clap, because they knew that this child still couldn’t compare to them, so they quickly lost interest in him, but still kept a note in their head to be wary of this child in the future. If he was given more time to mature, he could truly become a killing machine that was known far and wide.

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ABOUT ME

Name: Abdul Kareem

Age: 13 (Almost 14)

Occupation: Middle school

Goal: Idk, I’m just making a novel for now

Location: Why would I say that?

Relations: I’m not married (duh)

Favorite food: da asian stuf!

Anyway, on a more serious tone, this is my first novel I’ve ever tried writing. Thanks for being with me on this first experience! If you could also somehow get others to read this novel too, I would be pretty grateful!