5.3

The proposal from the dagger wielder brought confusion among the audience. It has been a few minutes since that offer was accepted by the slime woman and the crowd began to stir as they realized what happened before their very eyes.

“Is that legal? To switch sides in the middle of the fight?” said one.

“The rules don’t prohibit it. And no one said you have to pair up with others to win this,” replied another. “Look, even the announcer isn’t saying that they can’t.”

Their voices were low, even the contestants were stopped in their place, everyone waited for an announcement that will never come.

“Is this for real?”

“So this was a deathmatch of five all along?”

A cold chill spread among the audience, their hearts thumped strongly in anticipation of what would happen next.

After all, ‘Formation of teams are allowed’, not mandatory. The purpose of the five person battle was not against their immediate opponents, rather, their own resistance to their temptation.

It was a choice between picking the safer route where two people would advance to the one on one fights or to be greedy and win it all by fighting against four other people.

Such an arrangement of rules also meant that anyone who worked in pairs could end up betraying their partners in order to have a one way ticket to becoming a student in Moxnet Academy.

That meant that the spiked skin guy who was abandoned by the slime woman could potentially ally himself with the hooded female who mysteriously disappeared earlier, but she was still nowhere to be found.

It seemed that the hooded girl had realized the purpose of this aspect of tournament early on and faded into the background for her own safety.

“Guess the announcer isn’t prohibiting us. What do you say slime lady, let’s shake on it to make it official.”

“If you insist,” she faked a disinterested voice, and prepared for her next attack.

The slime woman slid herself closer towards the dagger wielder, who naively had his arms wide open to signify that there was no hostility.

Suppose I end him now, I can lie to that useless partner of mine that I did it out of the interest of both of us. After we dealt with that invisible brat, when he least suspects it...hehehe, I’ll do him a favor of winning for us both.

Her translucent body began dripping in excitement as she closed the distance in order to carry out an execution.

Since you are so willing to come to me yourself my little prey, I would grant you a quick death.

10 meters, 9 meters, 8 meters…

The dagger wielder suddenly shouted.

“Now!”

“Huh? What is—” she was immediately blinded by a splash of sand across her face. Her vision became muddled, the sand had entered her translucent body, becoming filth that she had yet to use her acid on.

Her body became sluggish, she rushed forward blindly and tried to swipe at the dagger wielder with her acidic limbs but failed due to how weak she suddenly was, her humanoid limbs that she had so carefully formed was now harden and calcified, cracking and crumbling as they became stone.

“Got you,” the dagger wielder said cockily. “Well done, Tarkez. Not only we got her to get the half giant for us, she fell into our trap perfectly. All that talk about predatory great slimes can eat my ass.”

When the slime woman adjusted her vision, she saw the dagger wielder and the spiked skin guy in front of her with their arms crossed, watched her as she desperately tried to split her unaffected body part away from turning into stone.

But they no longer respond to her commands and hardened by the second.

“W-what? Why am I not moving!?”

“Oh I forgot to tell you. Tarkez here and I know each other since childhood, so I had him prepare some petrifying sand earlier before the match had started, it cost us a pretty coin, but it was all worth it. Was it it my brother?”

Tarkez, the spiked skin guy gave a stiff nod to his words.

“You imbecile! Stop playing around! I am a great slime! I won’t be stopped by the likes of you! Hey, what is the meaning of this!? You and I had an agreement! I thought we would win this battle together, as a pair!” the slime woman hissed at both of them, wanting them to honor their promise as her supposed partner. “Help me… I-I don’t want…to...die...” her throat hardened, it was not long until the petrifying process was complete.

“What’s that?” the dagger wielder cupped a hand to his ear and leaned towards her “I am sorry but I can’t hear you! I find it hard to listen to you! Ahahahahhaha!”

The slime woman’s translucent body became as stiff as a statue, every inch of her hardened until they cracked. The result was a blob that had a horrifying face.

“I guess that means we have stopped her,” the dagger wielder commented. “Have you spotted the hooded girl from earlier? I keep trying to spot her but so far I haven’t sensed her presence throughout this battle.”

“I hope won’t be as hard as that slime woman to deal with.”

“Haha, good one Tarkez. Maybe I should—” the dagger wielder stopped himself suddenly when heard the reply and jumped a meter away from his childhood friend, “Who are you? Tarkez doesn’t speak, he’s mute!”

He pointed his weapons at Tarkez, assumed a fighting stance, readied his himself to charge at the person impersonating Tarkez any second.

“Try looking behind you, and you’ll find your friend there.”

The person waved a hand in the air, and Tarkez’s image disappeared. Tarkez was replaced by the hooded girl who disappeared at the start of the battle with a lifted chin, while dusting herself.

“I must say, you scum do have creative ways to fight with others. How pathetic would one have to be to prey on the emotions of others just for a silly victory.”

The dagger wielder took a glance behind him, Tarkez was already collapsed on the ground.

When did she do that?

Grimacing as he breathed heavily through the gaps in his somewhat crooked teeth, body became as stiff as the slime woman statue that he had created earlier.

No, no, no, this is not my plan! Tarkez, you useless fool! Did the mind control drug ran out!? Or were you too weak to take out a little girl on your own!?

“What’s the matter? Are you worried about your little buddy because he won’t be the martyr that sends you on your way to Moxnet Academy?”

The girl flared her icy eyes at him. “What could be the cause that he was mute, I wonder? Perhaps it was because you drugged your own childhood friend to follow your every command the moment you discovered you and he would be in the same fight? Tell me, am I correct about your plan?”

The dagger wielder gritted his teeth, the girl was right.

Tarkez was this support in taking her down was now collapsed onto the ground.

His plans, the years of scheming that he did to convince his childhood friend to join him, so that he would have an easy path to Moxnet Academy when he becomes the sole victor of this battle.

He went so far to spend half of his life fortune to get a potion that made Tarkez temporarily abide all his commands and bribed one of the organizers to put him and Tarkez into the same battle.

But now, everything had fallen apart because this hooded girl saw through his tactics. Beads of sweat began to form on his forehead as her words repeated in his mind.

“W-what do you mean? Tarkez and I are m-moving on to the one on one battles like we agreed, he has always been mute throughout his life,” he protested, denying her words further.

“To think I don’t have to read your mind to figure out your plan. This is why I can’t be bothered with anyone except…”

It was clear that she already unweaved his full plans to make it to Moxnet Academy.

“Y-you are just trying to play tricks on me, it’s because you are a magic caster and suck at anything that requires physical force! You are just a worthless girl!” his eyes shifted nervously at the sight of the audience who bore their judging glances at him.

She had noticed the stiff fighting style that Tarkez was using while she became invisible, she must have had overheard the whisper that he gave to Tarkez while they were engaged in psuedo battle to buy time for the half giant to be inevitably defeated.

“Once again, I am grateful for you, mother. If it weren’t for you, I might have disowned this pathetic world.”

“Stop spouting lies about me, you bitch!”

“Ah, still denying it aren’t you? Very well, I gave you a chance—”

“DIIIIEEE!!!”

Out of shame, the dagger wielder grabbed the concealed needles that were by his legs, and threw them to her vitals. He no longer cared for what the implications for being discovered for the plan of using Tarkez was, if he was to be shown to be a traitor to his childhood friend in public, then so be it.

Let them see! Let them see how I am ambitious enough to throw everything I have for the sake of entering this goddamn school! I would get in! And when I fucking do, I will crush anyone who would speak about this incident!

His image would be tarnished for the rest of his time in Moxnet Academy, he would be avoided by all for his treacherous behavior and end up alone for the rest of his life. But it did not matter, as long he made sure to graduate from this prestigious place, the murder and theft that he once did will be all swept under the rug.

“Ah-hahaha! Come on bitch! Without your magic, you can never survive in the real world!”

He drew his weapons and charged at the hooded girl, he would show her the result from years of honing his killer instincts, one slit to her neck was all that’s needed.

This was the ending fight to the five person battles, he would use everything in his power to obtain a place in Moxnet Academy, if he over exerted and lost a limb or two in the process, that was a sacrifice well worth for a glorious victory such as this.

And he ran.

“I am done with this.”

Schwing!

The sound of a metallic slice rang throughout the arena that moment.

With widen eyes, the dagger wielder’s head flew from his neck and dropped to the ground.

His headless body knelt onto the ground before his legs left the dirty grounds. Behind it was the hooded girl who somehow moved with godly speed.

I didn’t even see her…

Unable to finish his final thoughts, what was once considered a cutthroat of high caliber was instantly robbed of his life. His bulged eyes rolled to its whites and his cheeks coated with rough sand

The girl moved so quick that the hood that was concealing her identity now fell to her shoulders, revealing a beautiful face adorned with silver hair.

“It seems that you are mistaken about me,” the girl said in a voice that was only audible to the now deceased dagger wielder. “Even without my magic, I stand at the apex of all creations.”

She flicked the small drops of blood that were on her nails, without turning her back to confirm that the dagger wielder’s death.

“And we have a winner!”

Once the announcer spoke, the audience followed up with sonorous cheers, praising for the spectacle that they witnessed from the hooded girl.

John who did not jumped for joy at the decapitation of the dagger wielder’s head had his hands firmly grasping the rails he was leaning on, contemplating at the scene that played before him.

He found it hard to accept that the dagger wielder was so willingly to use a friend to further his own goals. Even if he did succeed against the girl, would he be able to live with the guilt of betraying a friend?

John couldn’t help but to compare the situation to himself and Alwin Zinrelle.

Maybe that is why I can’t feel anything when he died… In a way, the Elder Dragon was right.

A face was looking at his direction from the battlefield below.

It was the girl, the victor of the battle, the person who will be a scholarship student like him. The cold expression she wore while she was engaged with the dagger wielder was replaced with a soft smile, as he locked eyes with her.

He made a fist to congratulate her on her victory but her cheeks became pink at his acknowledgement, she quickly pulled her hood up and concealed her flushed face from becoming any redder.

“Haha, what a weird person.”