บท 10: Another otherworlder, Najibby
The preliminary round lasted for days. Each day, there would be an announcement at midnight, notifying all participants about the current number of survivors. One thing they didn't announce was that the battle zone actually reduced in size every passing hours. It shrunk down at a slow pace but after several days, it became visibly noticeable.
Days after days, Miur lived while fighting constantly. She sharpen her skills as she battled different people each day. Today was the fifth day of the preliminary round. As always, Mays was observing the fight while Miur was trying her best to defeat her opponent.
This was her eighth fight inside the preliminary round. Mays who stayed with her made sure that she only needed to fight one person at a time. This kind of fight really had an effect on Miur's growth. Mays who watched by the side line realized how Miur's attack became sharper and more accurate. Not to mention even her movement became more fluid and adamant.
Today, her opponent was a big black guy. He was at least two meters tall and his body was more or less round, totally like a sumo wrestler. Miur had a hard time facing this guy since most of her attack were rendered useless by his fat.
"Maaaaaaaaaaaays! This is getting nowhere! Give me a clue please."
Miur shouted. She was at her wits end when everything she tried proved useless. In the past few days, she often asked Mays for pointers whenever she couldn't win her fight. There was one time where she was actually defeated but Mays immediately butt in and defeat her opponent.
"Truth be told, I got no more clue to give you. Your insight is good since you have been focusing your attacks at his head but meh he's just more skilled that you I guess."
"Ugh that's one useless advice."
Miur who hoped for a good advice snorted as the current Mays was practically of no help. Mays chuckled on the side line as he watched Miur trying her best.
"Hehehehe… I might have no chance if I need to fight that guy over there but you girl… is easy. You're not going back on your word ain't you, mighty sir?"
The fat guy glanced at Mays as he asked for confirmation. Before he started fighting Miur, Mays already promised to let him go if he managed to defeat her.
In fact, Mays promised the very same thing to everyone who wanted to flee after witnessing his might. He thought that this could also be a good way to get these people to try their hardest. Mays would only act himself if he detected killing intent from Miur's opponents.
"Yeah yeah. I won't. Good luck."
The fatty smiled when he heard Mays's word. He then focused his attention toward Miur. He planned to use some kind of special move this time.
"Big Bad Ball!"
The fatty used unique kind of arts where he could shorten all his limbs making him into a real big black ball. Using some kind of force, he rolled toward Miur faster than a galloping horse.
"Whoa!"
Mays was astonished. He never knew that skills apart from those from HeavensTale also exists. He thought that only skills from HeavensTale were usable here. Miur on the other hand was trying her hardest to block that black ball.
With her twin dagger, she stabbed the rolling ball with all her might. Her stab had little to no effect as the rolling ball remained vigilant as ever. Without any other option, Miur leapt to the side in an attempt to evade the rolling ball.
Again, she was shocked. That rolling ball could even change direction as it continued to chase after her.
"This can't be real. Maaaaaaaaaaaays help me!!!!!!!"
Miur admit defeats. She asked Mays for help as she was totally out of option. That rolling black ball was as tough as rock. Her stab earlier couldn't even do anything to it. How could someone like her defeat that thing?
"Heh figured."
Mays immediately stepped into the fight and stopped the rolling ball with his bare hand. His casual palm strike sent the rolling ball backward.
"Daaaaaamn… You're a monster sir! Not even my father can stop me when I'm in that mode."
That fat man already reverted back to his usual form. He was totally impressed by Mays's strength as he praised Mays.
"Whatever. You won against the little miss. You can go."
"Thank you so much sir!"
He ran into the wood and after several step, he was no more in sight. He had some skill to survive the tournament for sure. Mays then walked toward Miur as he checked her condition. Apart from bruises all over her body, there was no heavy injury whatsoever.
The day came to an end with Mays setting up camp as always. Miur was sitting near the bonfire, staring at the fish being grilled. Mays told her to watch them as he set up their tent. As the nice smell of the grilled fish permeated, Miur gulped instinctively.
"It's ready. Let's eat."
"Emm."
Both of them ate the grilled fish slowly as it was still hot. Miur stared at Mays while he focused on nibbling the chewy fish bit by bit. As they spent days together, Miur get to see more of Mays's habit which he didn't show when they were traveling in group back then.
One of them was his habit when eating fish where he would chew them slowly before eating. They only ate meat back during their travel so Miur never noticed. There was also a habit of practicing martial arts before going to bed. Miur often sleep early and always together with Aria and Nova so she never watched Mays sleep or what he did before sleeping.
Only after they spent time here in this battle zone that she learnt that fact. She never asked him what kind of martial arts he was practicing though.
At the very least, she was sure that the martial arts practiced by Mays was not something from Mercia Kingdom, as it looked way too vague and different from commonly practiced martial arts.
"Sorry, I lost again today."
"Nah it's okay. You did well. He was better than you after all. You just need to train harder."
Mays didn't compliment nor rebuke Miur. He just stated the facts. Miur nodded in agreement as she acknowledged it. At the very least, Miur herself noticed how much she have improved these few days. Real fight was totally something she lacked back at home.
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Today was the sixth day of the preliminary round. The midnight announcement had just rung with a totally unpredictable number of survivor. There were still nine hundreds participant inside the battle zone yesterday but it was reduced to a mere one hundred and two in just one day.
Prior to this year, preliminary rounds usually took around one month to settle. This year was an exception with the number of participant reaching almost one hundred within one week.
When the number reached one hundred, every participant would immediately be teleported into an arena where the final selection begin. The last sixty four contestant would be those who managed to stay in the small area despite being surrounded by enemies on all front.
"Huh… huh… What is that guy... huh… he ain't human for sure... huh… huh."
In the middle of the dark night, one youth panted heavily as he ran through the thick wood. He was heavily injured from his previous encounter with something which couldn't even be called human. The moment he recalled the fight, he shivered in fear as he knew how inferior he was compared to that thing.
This youth was Len. He was alone all these days, trying his best to compete with other participant. He did good surviving the battle up to this day. Too bad, today was the worst day in his life. He accidentally ran into that thing. Truth be told, even Len himself couldn't discern that thing as either human or beast.
It had human body but its temperament, movement and instinct was of a beast. It would be more accurate to say it was some beast disguised under human skin. Len who was wandering the area for a safe spot to pass the night accidentally saw this thing massacring humans on sight. He was lucky enough to put up his guard when this beast man leapt toward him without notice.
Len thought he had already escaped after he ran as fast as he could but that beast man actually followed him up to this point. Len had not realized that yet since the beast man was good at hiding his presence. Like a real wild beast hunting its prey, waiting for the best moment to strike.
Not too far away from the injured Len, three people who set up camp at the area observed the whole situation from a distance. They were even aware of how dangerous the beast man who intruded their territories was. As they thought Len possessed no harm to them, they decided to ambush the beast man first.
"Do we really need to fight that thing?"
"Can't we just pretend not to be here and let them go away?"
Two of them were still unsure of their action. They were apparently being dragged to do this against their will.
"Stop being a weakling. There are three of us here. We could kill them without any problem!"
With their leader being needlessly confident, they waited patiently until both Len and that beast man moved past their hiding spot. Without any signal, all three of them jumped at almost the same time after their leader. They did have a good coordination.
"Whoaaaaaaaa!!"
"What happened?"
"Noo… How could this be?!!"
All three of them were flabbergasted when the beast man suddenly appeared behind them.
"Formation falcon! Move!"
The leader immediately gave a command but it proved useless when both his companion were already slashed open by that beast man. With just his claw, he cut the two people into two with ease.
As the three of them were located close to each other, the leader himself was also inside the attack range of that beast man. He closed his eyes while he raised both his hand in an attempt to block any incoming strike but after several seconds, he realized that the attack wouldn't be coming.
He opened his eyes again and noticed that he was not inside the forest anymore. There were lots of people around him, everyone showing signs of shocked. None of them knew what just happened when suddenly an announcement rang.
"Greeting warriors! The preliminary round had reached its final stage. There were one hundred of you guys left and we already teleported everyone here in this ring. Just defeat anyone in sight and the moment where contestant number reached sixty four then this round will be over! "
Currently, every participant had been teleported into a coliseum. There were lots of spectator seated all over, observing the fights.
"Don't doze off, the battle had long since begun!"
Even during the announcement, some participant who was fast at the uptake already started attacking others who were clueless on what just happened. Several people who had poor agility were sent flying one after another.
Len was one of the latter. He was badly injured previously so he needs to recuperate. Since he was teleported all of a sudden, he had no chances to do so. As he observed his surrounding, he noticed two people were aiming at him from a distance away. They noticed his injured condition and decided to get rid of him.
"Ugh this is it for me."
Len knew he couldn't fend off two people with his current condition. He still tried his hardest to block the closest one.
"How ya doing? Hehe."
Len heard a familiar voice. He couldn't believe it. As soon as he parried the attack in front of him, he looked behind to reconfirm.
"How come?"
It was Miur. Miur was fighting against an enemy. In fact, that enemy was the same guy who was trying to attack him earlier. What surprised him the most was how good Miur was at battle. He knew how strong Miur was prior to this. Miur really had a talent in fighting but she was timid. She couldn't even beat someone weaker than her in an actual battle.
"All thanks to Mays hehe. He's over there. Let's go there too."
Miur replied with a grin. Miur showed considerable progress despite only one week had gone by. Even Len couldn't comprehend how Mays accomplished that. But when he remembered how strong Mays was, he just acknowledged in his heart that nothing was impossible for Mays.
As Miur covered Len's retreat path, they managed to join up with Mays without much trouble. Currently, Mays was not showing off his prowess. He was just attacking moderately, defeating those nearby.
A big bulky guy was sent flying by a small, hooded, long eared man. A batch of people were thrown away from the ring by an invisible attack. One after another, participants were sent out of the ring. There was even an announcement every time a participant was disqualified. Soon enough, the last guy were knocked out of the ring and the end of preliminary round were announced right away.
"Congratulations!! The preliminary round is now over! Those who qualified for the next round please register first before you leave. Further information will be sent to you later."
Right after they left the ring, Mays and the other two were approached by Nova and Aria. Apparently, both of them were disqualified in the early part of the preliminary round. It was good that they both managed to stay alive despite how dangerous the tournament was.
"Whooaaa…. Even Lady Miur qualified!"
"I know right. We failed way too fast."
Both Nova and Aria were hyped when they saw Miur. Back in RiverMug, Len was the strongest of their party followed by Nova and Aria. As for Miur, talent wise, she was comparable to Len. Battle experience on the other hand, she had none.
"Hehehe."
Miur just giggled as she glanced at Mays. She herself didn't know the actual reason as of how she suddenly grew stronger. Even she realized that she didn't just gained battle experience during these one week. Her overall strength improved way too much.
Mays smiled back at her without saying anything. He never knew the effect that those material he had been feeding Miur would stay permanently. Even he himself was shocked by this new discovery of his.
Back in HeavensTale, every food materials such as meats, fishes and fruits had a boost effect. Some increased strength while the others either increase intelligent nor agility. But, those additional effect would only last for half an hour. That was how it was back then.
Every time Mays ate, he felt his power increased but it was totally the same as the game. That boost would wear off after approximately half an hour.
Surprisingly, these materials had different effect on native people here. They gained less buff, more like totally insignificant amount of stat but it stayed forever. As Miur ate every serving Mays prepared for a whole week, it was totally understandable as to why she would became better in such short notice.
"Let's finish with this registration as fast as possible. I need to rest."
Len interjected. He was really in a bad condition. Mays gave him a potion earlier but he declined. He didn't plan to be too dependent on Mays.
After around two hours, Mays and the rest finally finished with the registration. They walked out of the coliseum with a weary face. Mays was the only one who showed no expression whatsoever. He felt nothing over the week as if it was all child's play to him.
Without Len and the others noticing, they were actually observed by a group of people. Five people wearing a black cloak. One of them grinned as they observed Mays and the rest.
"Should we greet them?"
"Not yet."
These five were also participant which qualified for the next round. They looked confident as they observed the others who passed by them. Merle also passed the preliminary brilliantly as he had the experience from previous year.
Night came and almost everyone already left the coliseum when suddenly three people walked out from it. One plain looking young man around his early twenties followed by two girls. These two girls were the same duo who observed Mays and his party when they just arrived at Merry city days ago. The kitty eared girl and also the wolf eared one.
"There were several interesting guy this year heheh."
That plain looking guy commented.
"Yeah. Quite a few of them were good."
"As predicted, that grey caped guy also passed the prelim."
Both the beast girls replied. The plain looking guy was Najibby, another HeavensTale player who arrived here years before Mays. Mays didn't know about this yet though. There were no item to identify players after all. Those two beast girls who accompanied him were his spirits. The kitty eared one was Mikola while the wolf eared one was Grisla.
"Let's enjoy the tournament. Even I have a feeling that something is different this year."
Najibby had a scholarly look as he currently dressed up as one. With a thick book being held with his left hand, he really did looks the part.
"If that is your wish, master."
"We gladly obey."
Najibby was the previous champion of Mercia Martial Arts Tournament. He came to this world three years ago. After wandering for one year, he decided to stay at Merry city due to various setback he faced.
After he settled down here in Merry city, he barely came out of the city. As if there was something binding him to the city, he stayed here for two whole years. He indulged himself with research on various ancient lore, trying to look for something.
Under the dark night, their silhouette immediately disappeared without being noticed.
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