Brun vs. Attila

The match began with a ceremonial gunshot and Attila quickly made the first move. While circling him, the whip stiffened into a rod but began to move chaotically as she swung the whip. This strike was impossible to dodge. Attila was putting her mana into the whip and controlling its characteristics at her whim.

However, Brun merely stood there, uninterested. Or perhaps he was too nervous to move? He almost seemed bored with the whole ordeal. To Attila's surprise, the whip sped right past him and struck the ground beneath.

Brun's talent, ⌈Ghost⌋, allowed him to temporarily become untouchable. However, there was a mana cost and it was a manual active skill, meaning that it was limited by his reaction speed.

Attila quickly realized this and changed her approach. The whip once again straightened, before transforming into a massive snake. She then tapped on the belt on her hip, which summoned another, identical whip.

     "A summoning?" Sivrit wondered out loud.

     "Nope, that's just a puppet," Eidgaon answered "it doesn't have any mana or health stat of its own, and requires precise control"

This was something Sivrit never saw before. Every Time they sparred, she felt that Attila was holding back, but instead of feeling bitter, she decided that this was a good moment for her to see Attila's full potential. After all, she was here to scout for noteworthy participants.

The snake was towering over both Attila and Brun, almost reaching over the stadium wall. It lunged toward Brun, but he dodged its mouth easily. Attila tried to use this gap to punish his dodge, but with his talent, he was able to dodge both attacks.

Brun was still unarmed and did not summon his sword yet, insulted by this Attila pushed on. She strategically attacked him in order to push him against the wall. He finally took out his blade and exchanged blows with Attila. He was clearly at a disadvantage against such powerful ranged attacks and struggled to push back. Seeing this opportunity, Attila backed away momentarily and the snake rammed itself against Brun headfirst with its jaw gaping open. Sivrit could see the snake's jaws unhinged and broken after the impact and even though she knew it was just a puppet, still felt a bit uneasy at the sight.

However, Brun walked out of the snake, phasing through the side of its mouth. He was completely unharmed. The battle went on for a while until Attila realized that it was impossible to win a war of attrition. She could see using ⌈Mana Gauge⌋ that he was still overflowing with energy. She had lost.

Attila felt frustrated and couldn't help but feel that she was being cheated. Burning anger and bitterness grew in her heart, knowing that she could never become a hero with this strength. Just from this talent, his defence was practically invincible. She held back her tears and dropped her weapon.

Attila had conceded her match.

Sivrit was watching the match intensely and felt sorrow for her friend. She was disappointed that in the end, a trained warrior could not best an overpowered talent.

     "Wait"

A mysterious voice rang out from the tunnel to the waiting room of the arena. Out stepped the red-haired boy from earlier. He seemed to have tied up his hair in a clean fashion after the manic rampage earlier.

     "You," said the red-haired stranger "Brun, was it?"

The crowd fell silent as all listened to the boy's words.

     "Have a rematch with me" said the boy in a cocky manner.

     "And why exactly should I do that?" replied Brun.

     "Because I want to show that girl that talents are nothing to a truly seasoned warrior!"

Brun wished that he could leave already. While it may seem that he did hardly anything earlier, he had to be in his peak form to dodge every hit. Not to mention that he might die if he fought this monstrous stranger. The red-haired boy laughed out loud

     "Don't worry," said the stranger with a smirk "I'll go extra easy on you"

The stranger took a fighting stance and while Brun wanted to decline, some external force compelled him to take his stance and with that, a special match was arranged.

     "This could be bad..." said Eidgaon.

     "Huh? Why?" asked Sivrit.

     "I can tell that the stranger is a prideful warrior, and a particularly strong one at that,'' continued Eidgaon, "First he'll toy with him and then if Brun is lucky, he'll leave with a few broken bones"

     "But why would he do that?"

     "You feel it too, don't you? We all feel deep down that Brun didn't win with the honour of a warrior. People naturally want hard work to be rewarded. It's just that we don't really have a say in this matter, that is, except this stranger..."

Sivrit realized that the stranger was fighting not on a whim, but to avenge Attila in a way. However, she still didn't see how the boy could beat Brun's talent, even with his extraordinary strength.

Reginn vs. Brun

The match began once more with a gunshot, and before anyone could react, the stranger already had his arms around Brun. The wind quickly followed and the dust lifted from the ground travelled violently through the air.

Brun was too stunned to react, but the boy explained.

     "Know that I could kill you at any moment if I wanted to, but that would make my point irrelevant. In this match, I'll show everyone how to use their brains"

Brun merely stood there while the stranger whispered in his ear.

     "You should probably activate your talent and back away"

Almost as if Brun regained consciousness, he quickly backed away, breaking out of his stunning fear.

     "I'll show you guys how to beat this simple talent" announced the boy while looking at Attila.

She felt a bit offended but was still curious about how he would go about the talent.

     "You don't need my strength for this, so watch closely"

He closed the gap between himself and his opponent. Expecting an attack, Brun dodged and successfully evaded a punch. He saw a successive sweep and activated his talent, but it was a fake-out. The stranger instead lifted the sand into the air while Brun was in his ⌈Ghost⌋ state. Now, he couldn't undo his status due to the sand particles in the air.

From the match, the boy saw that Brun could hold this state for at most 5 seconds, so now he wondered what he would do amidst the sand. As expected, Brun tried to leave the sandy area but the boy kicked him the moment he left the sand.

     "You see, this talent may be useful, but it's far too easy to read," said the boy "Dodge, and use your talent, and repeat. You just need to be patient and wait for him to deactivate his talent."

Reginn guessed that depending on how Brun's talent worked, being stuck in the ⌈Ghost⌋ form may even be fatal. Therefore, all one had to do was force him into a situation where he had to prioritize escaping and just predict when he'll end his talent. While Attila pondered the same, Brun was still recovering from the kick. He felt that at least one of his ribs was broken.

     "You should never give up so easily. But since I gave you guys a free lesson, I guess I'll have some fun."

As the boy walked toward Brun, he felt true fear for the first time in his life. This was not your usual fear of pain or even death, but fear on an existential level. His mind was yelling at him that he was about to be erased but his body had already accepted fate and stopped responding.

     "Fight, like your life depends on it"

Hearing these words, Brun was put into a strange mental state, filled with pain and fear. The world around him felt like noise as his body lifted itself and got into a fighting position. In this fight-or-flight situation, Reginn's words forced him to fight. He could feel the sadistic joy Reginn got from this, his gaze looking down on Brun as if he was but an ant. Brun coughed up a significant amount of blood, colouring the floor red, but he clutched his blade as Reginn continued walking forward with a twisted expression on his face.

     "Stop!" said Attila as he grabbed the boy by the shoulder.

     "Don't touch me"

The boy had a deathly glare that radiated fear into the heart of the beholder. As if he had cast a spell, dread struck her heart and paralyzed her and she felt that she had made a grave mistake. However, she had made her resolve.

     "Sorry, but you're about to do something you'll regret," said Attila as she let go.

The boy maintained eye contact but soon he sighed and dropped the glare.

     "Alright, I'll let him off the hook this time," replied the boy as he turned around "see ya around"

     "Wait!"

     "Geez, you don't have to shout all the time..."

     "Sorry, but could I at least ask you for your name?"

     "There's nothing to be sorry about. My name is Reginn, remember that, it's important"

     "Reginn..."

Reginn finally walked back to the tunnel as the stretchers took the unconscious Brun away. Attila decided to ignore her wounded pride and reflect on her match. Reginn was right, she could not understand why she didn't push against her opponent further, to fight with everything she had. The match should've ended with one of them on the ground, but her frustration and anger led her to give up and concede. She clenched her fist and with a newfound sense of destination, resolved herself to become a better warrior.

Both Eidgaon and Sivrit were carefully listening to Reginn and Attila. While it was clear that Reginn was a brash and emotionally driven individual, he had the strength to back it up. This was someone who had never met anyone stronger than himself. However, he still constrained his strength, using just enough to not kill Brun. He wasn't some overpowered brute, but a warrior comparable to a hero.

The next few matches went as expected and Sivrit did not spot any particularly noteworthy individuals. Compared to Brun, Sivrit and Reginn, everyone else seemed like any average warrior. Then earlier than expected, came Reginn's match. He was against Kallen, a fair-skinned blonde individual, another stranger. He wielded gauntlets a bit oversized for his fists and wore the standard armour available for all participants. He was calm and composed, the opposite of Reginn. This was one of the weapons available for rent by the academy. Sivrit did not see anything special about this one, but Reginn had a different idea.

He began laughing like an excited child. He could not contain himself for some reason.

     "Finally, someone I can punch a little harder," said Reginn "You can't win but let's see what you're capable of!"

Kallen just smiled, a little happy at Reginn's acknowledgement and got into his battle stance.