Chapter 42: Tournament of Skill (Part 3)
Sky was looking at the people cleaning up the stadium and getting rid of the corpses. They were treating the corpses as if they were actual garbage.
Some of the people watching had family or friends who wanted to fight in the tournament, but most of their loved ones had yet to fight. And to see what awaited them made them feel scared and worried for their lives.
'All this bloodshed hasn't ruined my appetite in the slightest.' Sky ate some expensive meat that he had never tasted before. It was a type of steak that was juicy and delicious that was carefully prepared by a hardworking chef.
At that moment Sky saw Rosa enter the room. Her clothes were still stained with the blood of others and she was still tired. Her hair was a complete mess that looked like a bird's nest.
She placed her weapon on the floor and sat down in front of the bar.
"Give me a fucking drink!" She said loudly in a demanding tone.
The bartender quickly served her a fancy drink with a small umbrella.
Rosa took the glass and chucked it all in one gulp.
"Another!"
The bartender was amazed, most people can't drink that drink so quickly.
After a while she demanded new clean clothes as the clothes she was wearing were torn. They brought her new clothes that were not as pretty as her red skirt but was better suited for fighting.
Sky's clothes had minimal bloodstains so it did not affect him.
Minutes before the next round starts she sat beside Sky observing him. Her hair was done nicely by her after being in the bathroom for nearly 15 minutes. Her clothes were plain, brown, and tight but comfortable enough to fight in.
The three men behind them were keeping a close eye to make sure no one fights or gets injured before the start of the next round.
"I saw you fight. You're really good with the trident like me, I guess we have something in common." She smiled as she leaned closer to him.
Sky ignored her. He noticed a scent of a nice perfume around her neck.
"You're really strong and you're handsome, too. Do you want to team up with me? And who knows maybe as a team we can win, it has happened before and we can split up the prizes, and we could even hang out in a hotel room all night, alone, together." She spoke in a seductive manner while her finger slid across his arm.
Sky retracted his arm and moved further away from her.
Seeing him not accept her advances made her think, 'smart bastard' Rosa grumpily leaned her chin on her hand then began making plans and observing the next fight.
Sky then saw people stepping on the arena and among the 180 fighters he saw Jay but he seemed fine and not worried in the slightest.
Everyone in the group with Jay was stronger than he was. There is no way he could emerge victorious from his group.
Jay stood right at the edge of the arena.
'Please, Jay, don't fight. Jump off the arena.' Sky prayed Jay would not fight.
Jay looked around, he first saw Jericho and waved at her. Then he saw Sky with his amazing eyesight and waved at him as well.
Sky nodded slightly.
*DING*
The bell had rung and the fight had commenced.
Jay, instead of jumping off the platform, pointed his two guns at the fighters. No one was paying attention to Jay at the moment as no one viewed him as a threat, unlike the other threats that were surrounding the entire arena.
'Maybe I can win this.' Jay thought.
He shot all the people on sight with perfect headshots. Those who noticed him were all shot down in seconds. Many tried to protect themselves and fight back but Jay shot down everyone with his two pistols. By the end, out of the piles of bodies, Jay emerged victorious…
'That would be so cool.' Jay thought.
Of course that was just something that happened in his imagination.
Jay wanted to shoot somebody in that moment. Jay wanted to have the experience to kill a person because he felt if he didn't he could not truly become stronger.
They had never fought or encountered people in the Land of the Dead as of yet thanks to Sky using his map to avoid any ships.
Till now he has never taken a human life. The closest he had gotten was killing giants in the jungle dungeon.
He had only seen the corpses of those innocent people who were slaughtered on that island with the red dungeon outbreak, and even then he couldn't stomach the sight of dead people.
Jay dropped his weapons without firing a shot and jumped off the stadium. Some people booed at him, calling him names for being a coward.
'I couldn't do it.' Jay wanted to take one human life, but doing it and thinking about it were two entirely different things.
He heard from Jericho how Sky was able to easily kill people as if it was nothing, even going as far as to torture them for him own amusement. And seeing him in action during the tournament round made him realize how merciless Sky was, and it showed him why Sky was strong in a way.
Of course there is that one time a thief slipped onto their ship but Sky found him. Since then he was never seen again.
Sky let out a sigh of relief. He was worried he would decide to stay in the fight but he jumped off before something bad had happened to him.
"Sorry, Captain. I couldn't kill anyone. Maybe next time." Jay said sadly through the chat.
Sky didn't respond but was happy Jay made the right choice.
Jay walked out of the colosseum and joined Jericho in the spectators area but was feeling down.
"What's wrong with you? Why are you miserable?" Jericho asked.
"I couldn't take a single life or fire a single shot."
Jericho wanted to say something but nothing came to mind.
Sky, Rosa, and everyone else witnessed the brutal tournament and the cheering never stopped for a second.
"You do know why everyone in the seats are happy, right?" Rosa asked.
Sky looked at her and looked back at the fight.
Rosa frowned a bit. She wants to get close to Sky but he was rejecting her advances.
She sat closer to Sky and pointed at the fighters. "You see… the majority of those fighters are actually prisoners."
"What?" Sky asked.
Rosa smiled inwardly. For once Sky finally responded to her words.
"It's true. Most of the people here fighting are criminals: Pirates, thieves, murderers, traitors of humanity."
"What's a traitor of humanity? What did they do besides… betray humanity?"
"Oh, you're not from around here, are you? Land of the Free?"
Sky didn't say anything but that only told Rosa what she wanted to know.
"Traitors of humanity are those who have betrayed humanity and have sided with Fishmen or the Mermaids. You see, while ten percent of the fighters here are here voluntarily like you and I. Edgar, that dictator over there looking down on everything, had all these criminals locked up here on this island and brought them here to this tournament with the promise that if they won they'd get the money, scrolls, and their freedom back. He loves violence more than anything but…" Rosa looked at the men behind her, listening attentively.
She leaned closer to Sky to whisper something to him.
"But he's a pussy. Despite having everything he's not willing to put his neck on the line. Some say he only kills women, old people, and cripples for sick pleasure. And most of those have their stats and abilities bound so they can't put up a decent fight."
She leaned away and stopped paying attention to her.
Whether or not these fighters are innocent or guilty did not change his mind. But now it made sense why everyone was so eager to kill each other for the measly reward.
And the fact that Edgar was a terrible person was of no surprise to Sky. But Rosa telling Sky that made him think she had some kind of ploy in mind, why else would she tell him that?
Rosa thought Sky was finally listening to her but not anymore.
For now she gave up on Sky and would later set her sights elsewhere.
The third round ended with only one winner. It was a bulky, brown skinned, bald man that stood over six feet tall and carried a two handed heavy greatsword. There were a lot of tattoo markings everywhere on his body, especially the back of his bald head.
The man sustained multiple injuries but he managed to walk off the stadium without any help.
In over ten minutes the winner of the third round entered the same room as Sky and Rosa. Rosa stood up and accompanied the man with a drink and flattered him while curing his wounds with bandages, the man seemed to like having a beautiful woman accompany him, almost making him forget that she is his enemy.
Sky made a mental note of everyone's abilities and fighting style.
The fourth round started.
Amongst the chaos one man bravely or foolishly threw his spear right at Edgar.
The spear stood in mid-air as if an invisible force had stopped it. Edgar, who just noticed the spear that was mere inches from his face, jumped off his own seat out of pure shock and pushed down his wife and kid.
Those who noticed the spear gasped and stood still, including some of the fighters in the arena. It was common sense to never attack Edgar because you can never kill him.
The spear turned around by itself and in the next second the spear found itself in the heart of the man who threw it.
The fighting resumed in no time but that would be the highlight of the round.
Everyone saw Edgar throw a fit at someone that wasn't there but no one could hear what he was saying. The woman beside him, still holding her baby, left.
Sky thought Edgar would die right then and there but he was being protected by someone. No matter how hard he looked he could not see anyone that could protect Edgar.
'System, that was telekinesis, right?'
{It appears to be that way}
'I thought I was the only one who could use it?'
{Why would you think that?}
'Well…'
{I will say this once, user: Many abilities you learned or will learn are hardly yours. Anyone can learn anything you learn but you can learn it faster than most people. There are only a small handful of abilities you have that no one can learn such as {power of the mind} and {power of the body} as those are system abilities given only to the player, you}
'Oh… so I can even teach my crew members cryokinesis, pyrokinesis, telekinesis, and anything else?'
There was no response. No response also meant "figure it out."
*DING*
The fourth round ended but the results were something no one was expecting or wanted.
The timer had run out and there were still three fighters alive. And according to the rules if there is more than one person left standing in the arena when the time is up no one in that round can be considered a winner.
Many would think that this rule was dumb, but it was made for two reasons: to discourage teaming, and to encourage people to kill each other as fast as possible.
As two of the men were being escorted out forcefully despite their protesting and threatening remarks, one of the men was bleeding heavily and asked for help, but no one was going to help him. He tried to leave the arena by himself but he fell on the ground due to blood loss and would die if he wasn't treated immediately.
'That was a good fight. Thank god there wasn't another winner which means less competition for me.' Sky thought.
Looking at his side he saw the two other winners, Rosa and the bald one, whose name is 'Raul' were openly flirting, chatting, laughing, and drinking. Raul is becoming more infatuated with Rosa; she had him wrapped around her finger.
Meanwhile…
Jay was watching the fight but the blood and corpses did not sit well with him. On the other hand Jericho seemed unfazed and was enjoying herself like everyone else.
Jericho was much like Jay in the beginning who did not like to kill people. But after spending time with Sky throughout the gory adventure she was starting to develop a thing for gore even if she didn't know it yet.
"I'm gonna go." Jay stood up.
"Where?"
"I dunno but I'll be back right before the Captain fights in the second round."
Jay left the colosseum.
*DING*
The sound of the heavy bell rang and Jay heard the numerous cheers and screams of the people all wanting to see more blood spill.
'I know what I signed up for when I joined this crew, fighting monsters, pirates, getting stronger, going on an adventure, but I just can't get rid of this horrible feeling every time I see someone die.'
Taking a stroll through the village he noticed it was nearly empty as everyone had gone to see the tournament.
There were some patrol guards protecting the area.
On the other side of the island there was a slave ship docking on the side of the island.
A man jumped off that ship, it was a good looking man around his 20's using a walking stick to support himself.
"Ah crap. I forgot." The man forgot he cannot jump off ships like it was nothing due to his legs.
"Who are you?" A guard asked. He activated his eye of truth on the strange man.
When people activate the eye of truth it was easy to tell as their pupils glowed a dim-yellow color.
"I'm here for the slaves. You can just call me… Fred."
"Where's Javier?"
"His ship got attacked by mermaids and now I am here to replace him. I believe this is how much we have to give you for the slaves?" Fred handed the guard a stack of cards full of money.
The guard ripped one of the cards and threw it on the ground.
The card disappeared and it was a barrel full of gold shells. To put it into perspective: a single gold shell has the same value as a single green shell.
"Well everything seems to be in order. Follow me… Fred."
The guard gave the okay to the rest of the guards and he safely led Javier to a prohibited part of the island. It was an underground prison that was massive, no one outside at first would believe that the island has a giant underground prison.
Fred looked everywhere and noticed it was much more quiet and empty than he expected. He frowned a bit.
"I thought this was a prison but there are barely any prisoners here?"
"Most of the prisoners are fighting in the tournament right now as we're speaking. The only ones left here are basically cripples or those too weak to fight."
"Oh… shit."
"What was that?"
"I said "shit" as if I wish I could have seen the tournament, it sounds… interesting."
"Hm, it's alright. Personally I've never been fond of it."
Meanwhile…
The few guards were inspecting the slave ship that Fred had sailed in looking for any contrabands or illegal items.
One of the guards exited the captain's room where another guard walked up to him.
"Found anything?"
"No, nothing, it's all clean."
"Good. By the way did you manage to search the crew for anything on them?"
"What? I thought you did."
"No, I didn't."
"By the time I was here there was no one else besides us."
"And I didn't see anyone leave the ship."
Both guards thought something was wrong. They quickly ran to the front of the ship where there were more guards on standby.
"PETER!" One of the guards yelled.
"WHAAAT?" Peter yelled back.
"DID YOU SEE ANYONE ELSE LEAVE THE SHIP BESIDES THAT ONE PERSON?"
"WHAT? NO! I DID NOT SEE ANYONE ELSE LEAVE THE SHIP!"
Both guards looked at each other. Slave ship owners never sail by themselves, especially on a ship of such size.
"Maybe he's a capable guy who is strong enough to manage it all by himself?"
"He was holding a walking stick…"
"Yeah, something's weird."
The two guards hurriedly ran to the other guards to speak with 'Fred' as many things did not add up.
Meanwhile…
The fifth round ended. With another man winning and the stage is preparing for the sixth round. It was a middle-aged man who wields two swords. The middle-aged man had his entire face covered in hair and had a very skinny body.
His name is Raymond. He had only received a single injury on his hip as someone stabbed him with a sword. He tended to his wound with bandages as no one had any healing abilities. The winners could ask for a healer but they will only bring the winners bandages, disinfectants, and clean towels.
To Sky's surprise Rosa did not focus on the fifth winner but continued flirting with Raul.
'I see what she's doing.' Sky thought.
"Everyone, listen up."
A familiar fat man entered the room looking at the winners.
"After the sixth round ends and all the winners have gathered here there will be a final round. I will be explaining the rules for the next and final round, so until then stay here. That is all."
Sky wondered what the final round would be. Would it be a 4v4 or a possible 5v5 if there's a winner in the sixth round? Or something else?
On the other side of the colosseum Edgar signaled one of his men to get close to him.
"Are the preparations ready?"
"Yes, sir. The mermaid is already here and we have found no flaws or errors in the arena."
"Excellent." rubbed his hands together, sinisterly while licking his lips. "Oh, and uh, the man who threw that spear at me, it's not enough that he's dead. Kill his family."
"Sir?"
"You heard me. If he has a family, kill them. If he has a friend or friends, kill them, if he has a dog, skin it, if he was born on a different island, kill everyone there."
"But sir, the Caribbean… as you wish, sir."
Edgar sat back crossed leg with a smile on his face.
"You know I was 'THIS' close to dying."
"But I did not let you die."
Edgar's shadow was moving ever so slightly and the voice seemed to come from the shadows.
"I'd fire you if I could."
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone