บท 17: Round of 128
(In Irio)
''...'' Ichiro's family was looking at the TV with their mouths agape.
''..Brother is amazing..'' Ayako mumbled with an amazed look on her young face.
*Phew*
Eiji, Ichiro's father finally relaxed his nerves and looked at the TV with a proud face.
Ichiro's Mother Azumi had the same proud look on her face while her eyes started watering, tears threatening to come out of her eyes.
...
''Yeah! This is MY handsome brother, did you see it! Did you?!'' Leia jumped in happiness while tugging her mother's sleeve.
''..Indeed, don't you agree Luke?'' Leia's mother asked smugly towards his husband Luke.
''..Tsk.'' Leia's father Luke only clicked his tongue and looked on another side, but his face couldn't hide his shock and thought.'Damn that bastard is strong! But I won't let him seduce my daughter anymore!' Luke thought with a grim face.
...
(In the Stadium)
*Cheers!*
''That's how you do it!'' Lucas roared while standing and cheering loudly.
Other students and club advisors only looked at the scene with their widened eyes.
''..What the fuck..'' Liam mumbled while looking with shock.
''That was sick!'' One of the spectators said to his friend.
'''That attack was so powerful!'' His friend said.
''..Mm, pretty sexy.'' One of the females drooled at the sight of Ichiro, but she was not the only one.
In the bottom of the stadium...
Slych was looking at Ichiro without blinking and his fists started itching for a fight.
''..Nice,'' Slych muttered to himself and curved his mouth a little bit in anticipation.
...
(Commentators Booth)
''That was an insane show of power!'' Commentator A loudly declared.
''If Slych showed the pinnacle of speed in this competition, then Ichiro showed the pinnacle of strength!'' Commentator B said
''Just how hard is it to cut through the puppet that easily?'' Commentator A asked from his co-caster
''It is made of a very tough material called Verunium, but Martial Captains can still easily destroy it, but it is incredibly difficult to do it in Martial Leader rank.
Slych beheaded the puppet because it was the puppet's weakest spot, but Ichiro completely pierced the puppet from his stomach area, where all the mechanics belonging to Puppet belong, so all the metal's, etc were on his way, but Ichiro pierced through easily!'' Commentator B replied
''So Ichiro's strength is at least peak Martial Leader, but that is only counting his attack strength, it all comes down to techniques in the fights and puppet's are not as intelligent as humans when it comes to fighting, so that makes them slightly weaker than human Middle Martial Soldier Ranker.'' Commentator A told the audience
...
(Ichiro POV)
I nodded towards the referee and started walking down the stairs out of the arena and from there I started making my way through the stadium towards Lucas and the rest of the students from Irio.
I accidentally went all out in my attack since I was so excited.
I didn't control my strength properly.
So most of the fighters will be careful of my attacks from now on.
But it doesn't matter, because I have never counted on my attack strength.
Techniques are where my real strength is.
I walked past other fighters and they all looked at me closely and I even saw Slych looking at me with curiosity, but I ignored it all and reached Lucas who was standing up.
''Good job,'' Lucas said and put his hand up and I high-fived with him.
I sat next to him with a relaxed expression.
''Ichiro, well done.'' I heard the club advisor saying and I gave him a polite.
I looked at the remaining fighters doing the time attack.
Some of them were having a hard time, while some didn't even try, but still beat puppets easily.
''Which rounds will be today?'' I asked Lucas.
Lucas then looked at me and said.''Round of 128 and Round of 64.''
I nodded in confirmation and saw that puppets were again being replaced and the third round of the time attack is about to start, but nothing interesting happened neither in the 4th and 5th round, but in the 6th round which was the last one had some surprises, but nothing too crazy.
And just like that time attack ended.
After that teams who didn't get past were eliminated and many left with dejected expressions and some were even crying on their way out.
Next seedings were released and we got 17th seed, even though I was second fastest, they still decided that our overall strength placed us at 17th.
Armya of course was the first seed.
''Do you want to fight first?'' Lucas asked Liam who flinched after the question.
''...I don't think I will win - No reason for me to fight,'' Liam mumbled with his head down
''..Fine,'' Lucas said and looked coldly towards Liam who was looking like scared sheep.
''...'' I watched Liam in silence and thought that our opponent isn't that strong and they will probably send their weakest if we send our weakest.
Their weakest would probably be a low martial soldier and Liam could have the possibility of winning, but with his current mindset, he might even lose to Martial Novice.
''Lucas, you first or me?'' I asked him and Lucas looked at me with a grin.
''Of course, I go first; I can't let you steal all the spotlight.'' I only snorted at his words and my lips curved into a smile.
...
After 30 minutes, finally Round of 128 started and we were one of the first ones to fight our battle in one of the smaller arena's.
The biggest match will always be in the center arena and the biggest match in Round of 128 is, 1st seed Armya Vs. 128th Seed Lieva.
Since Round of 128 doesn't have insane matches, except the ones in the middle field in strength, but the audience wants to see the first seed in action closely, that's why they were decided to be in the center arena.
Our fight will be in Arena Nr.11, which is to the northern side of the stadium, so some of the spectators can see our fight very closely.
''Time to go.'' The club advisor told us and Lucas and I stood up to start walking towards the arena.
Many took notice of us after seeing my strength in time attack, so they are curious of seeing Lucas' strength who was walking beside me.
The rest of the students followed behind us towards the arena and sat on the bench which was for our team close to Arena Nr.11.
''Good luck,'' I told Lucas and fist-pumped with him.
Lucas walked towards the arena and our opponents saw it and decided to put their second strongest fighter, who was Peak of Martial Soldier.
Lucas stood in the arena and in front of him was standing young man, standing at a height of 175cm with red hair and ear piercings, looking like a delinquent with his fierce look.
''Match Nr.11 Irio Vs. Westland!'' Referee announced.
''First Round! Lucas Quinthold Vs. Rien Ramirez!''
Lucas was standing calmly with his bulging muscles almost ripping off his school fighting uniform, which consisted of white pants and half white and half blue shirt with black stripes. His hair was slightly grown during 3 weeks and his ordinary buzz cut started to change a little bit, his face was still kind of ordinary, but his blue eyes gave him a different kind of charm, if Leia's and her mother's blue eyes were calmly looking, then Lucas' blue eyes were fierce, filled with fighting intent.
''Are you ready?!''
''''Yes!'''' Lucas and Rien said at same time.
''Fight!'' Referee yelled and went to the edge of the arena to supervise the fight.
''Take this!'' Rien roared and rushed towards Lucas without any stance.
''?'' Lucas looked strangely towards Rein who was aimlessly running towards him.
But before Rein reached Lucas, he suddenly twisted his waist and punched with the hook towards Lucas!
'Quick!' Lucas thought to himself after seeing Rein's quick movement
Lucas moved his head backward, dodging the hook perfectly, but Rien wasn't done.
Rien put his hands in front of him and then increased his strength on his legs making his veins grow in size and tackled towards Lucas!
''?'' Lucas looked weirdly towards Rein, who doesn't seem to have any techniques, instead of rushing with pure strength.
Rein reached Lucas and tackled him, but Lucas quickly put strength into his legs and leaned forwards to block Rein's tackle.
*Crack!*
The floor cracked from the impact, but Lucas is perfectly blocking Rein with his hands holding him down.
Rein's tackle failed!
''RAHHH!'' Rein roared and put all his strength into pushing Lucas backward, but it was useless, Lucas calmly stood in his spot with his hands still holding Rein and his veins bulging in his muscles.
Then Lucas made his move...
''?!'' Rein then noticed him falling down, which was the result of Lucas suddenly doing a quick step backward.
Rein quickly tried to improve his posture, because he was still leaning forwards and he tried to quickly step backward.
But before he could do that he saw a leg approaching below him aiming at his head.
''!'' Rein widened their eyes and Lucas' leg contacted with Rein's head making his head push backward with his nose bleeding.
Rein pushed his head forwards quickly trying to look at what Lucas is doing, but he only saw a fist coming, only inches from his head.
*Bam!*
The fist successfully hit Rein's head making his nose bleed even more and it looked like it was even slightly broken.
''DAMN IT!'' Rein roared and moved his leg to make a low kick towards Lucas.
But Lucas saw a slight twist of Rein's muscles in his leg and knew that he was going to kick with his right leg.
Lucas then sidestepped towards the right and saw Rein's trying to kick him, but Lucas managed to dodge it with his nicely timed sidestep.
''This is the end,'' Lucas said and did a quick jab towards Rein's jaw making his head again push to the side, and Rein's neck started to stretch in a very painful manner.
''ARFH!'' Rein screamed while blood started coming from his mouth.
Lucas wasn't done yet, he was planning to end the fight right now and rushed towards screaming Rein and before he could reach him, he heard Rein say loudly.''I give up!'' after that Rein fell down on the ground on his butt while holding his bloody mouth in agony.
''First Round over! Winner Lucas Quinthold!'' the referee announced loudly.
*Phew*
Lucas took a deep breath and looked in Ichiro's direction and gave thumbs up.
''Heh..'' Ichiro smirked and stood up from his spot while flexing his muscles.
''My turn..'' He murmured and looked at his opponent, who was currently looking grim.
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