บท 49: Chapter 49: The Tournament

"What the fuck is going on here? I can't even eat properly!" Stroph didn't understand how he always managed to get into some kind of trouble.

Right now there were two men fighting in front of him, breaking chairs and tables in the process.

Stroph was going to force them to calm down, but finally he didn't have to do anything.

Bam.

In an instant an incredibly handsome young man, with long black hair appeared behind the two men. He grabbed each of them by the head and slammed them into each other, whereupon they lost consciousness and peace returned to the café.

To the rest of people the young man's speed was unbelievable, but Stroph was able to see everything in details, and he was badly shocked.

Stroph decided to think about it later for he was hungry, and the young man had apparently intervened in the fight because the fight distracted him from his breakfast.

The unidentified young man finished his meal faster than Stroph, and walked slowly out of the building. His long white robe gave him the image of some kind of sage or monk, and his natural beauty drew a lot of attention.

A few minutes later Stroph finished his meal and paying for his order asked:

"Do you know who that was just now?" The girl at once understood who he was asking about, and with a broad smile on her face, she replied:

"That's young Mr. Lu Bao. He often comes here for breakfast, and he's also incredibly strong and cool!" While the girl was talking about Lu Bao, her eyes were literally glowing, it was clear at a glance that she was just crazy about him.

Stroph was a little jealous that Lu Bao was so popular with the girls.

"But, he's not in the mood today for some reason, I've never seen him hit anyone before, usually he's always smiling, but today..." Unwittingly the girl went on talking about the beautiful young man, but noticing the uninterested look on Stroph's face, quickly apologized and left.

Stroph didn't know why, but he was sure that very soon they would meet, and it was at the tournament. Lu Bao was just too unusual, his appearance, his style of dress, his name, all it stood out from the crowd.

…

After Stroph paid the bill, he left the cafe and began to think about what he should do. It was still a long time until the evening, but the answer itself appeared right in his head, namely the voice of "Snow White Darkness" : <Stroph, hunting is certainly good, but you need training, you have a talent in using Negative Energy, but talent alone is not enough>.

Stroph said nothing in reply, for the words of his companion were absolutely true, he had only just learned to use Negative Energy and had already given up training, and after all if he could learn to better control such a powerful thing, he would become much stronger.

Wasting no time, he rented the most common subterranean training ground, where he began the hours of training.

…

As soon as they were alone, "Snow White Darkness" began to give him some instructions and advice.

"Hmm, create a blade out of Negative Energy? Sounds pretty simple." Stroph was sure he could pull off such a task easily, but after two hours all he'd got was a small patch hanging in the air that he could control, but it didn`t look much like a blade.

"Damn! It's not working, why is it so hard!"

<Don't complain, you've only been practicing for a few hours and you've already managed to form a small patch, your progress is truly incredible.> "Snow White Darkness" was more optimistic than Stroph and it calmed him down a bit.

For the next few hours Stroph didn't move ahead for a single step, no matter how much he tried.

…

Sigh. Sigh. Sigh.

Stroph was trying to catch his breath from the strenuous training, but at that very moment, a message popped up on his bracelet telling him that the tournament would begin in half an hour and all participants had to be on time.

As soon as he saw it, Stroph quickly got up and ran toward the underground coliseum.

He had got to the right place five minutes before it started, and he looked awful.

His hair was disheveled and dirty, his face was tired, and the huge bags under his eyes made him look like he hadn't been sleeping for some days.

He didn't know where to go, but exactly three minutes before the start, he had received a message on his bracelet telling where to go. Stroph promptly went to the specified place, where he saw his future opponents.

The registration had gone through without any problems, after which Stroph, as well as the rest of the participants, were waiting for their turn.

There was a huge screen in their room. While all the contestants were being gathered together, the opening ceremony had already ended, and the first contestants had already begun to enter the ring.

Because of the rush, Stroph didn't have time to look around properly, but the size and the richness of the coliseum impressed him a lot.

Not for nothing, the prize for the tournament would be an item worth several hundred billion, which was remarkable. There were no other prizes at all, even for second and third place there was no awards. The prize was only for the winner and no one else.

While Stroph was pondering who he would fight with, the first fight had already begun, and after looking at who was fighting, he was greatly surprised. It turned out that one of the contestants was Lu Bao.

Stroph was immediately interested in their fight, and for good reason, because the first fight finished thirty seconds after it had started.

"The winner of the first round is Lu Bao!"

Stroph was amazed at the young man's strength, because Lu Bao didn't even use Spirit, while his opponent was a fifth rank fighter. Lu Bao simply knocked his opponent out with a couple of precise blows, and that was the end of their fight.

But, Stroph wasn't given much time to think, because to his surprise, his name came up after the first fight.

"The following contestants. Stroph White and Elmer Hald." After the announcer's words, Stroph was led to the ring entrance, where he faced his opponent.

<How do they say it, the bigger is the closet, the louder it falls?> In front of him there was a very tall man of about 40, with red brass knuckles in his hands.

It seemed to Stroph that he was not going to fight a man, but some kind of buffalo or somebody like that. But, the next words interrupted his musings.

"Start!"

Immediately after these words, Elmer began to attack Stroph, using his green Spirit at full power.

When Stroph saw this he calmed down a bit: < The fourth rank fighter, I think that's good enough for the first fight!>

He didn't use Negative Energy in that fight, he pulled out his revolver and fired several shots aiming at different parts of Elmer's body.

"Ah, you!" He didn't expect Stroph to be a shooter, so Elmer couldn't dodge all the shots, and was wounded in his right arm. But, the second-level Spirit had pretty good defenses, so other than a few bruises Elmer was unharmed.

Stroph couldn't use the "Lotus" when the enemy was so close to him, but it was also an impossible task to penetrate a fourth-ranked fighter's Spirit with his revolver.

<Well, I think that's enough for a warm-up>

The next moment, Stroph dodged another Elmer's strike, then charged his "Last Light" with Negative Energy.

Bam.

There was a deafening shot, after which Elmer howled in pain. He tried to defend himself with Spirit, but a fourth-ranked fighter could not defend against such an attack without harming himself.

But, Stroph didn't kill him, they weren't enemies, so a simple wound was more than enough.

Stroph shot Elmer in the leg, as he knew well that a fourth-ranked fighter would not be able to defend himself against Negative Energy.

That was the end of their fight.

"The winner of the second round is Stroph White!"