I turned around, and there he was. up on the colosseum. a middle aged man, with a brownish beard and long hair. He was wearing a golden crown with a reddish cape. Two other distinguished men were sitting next to him. On the right, the hand of the king and the first general of the madanian army. On the left, a similar looking man to the king but with more of a grumpy face, his name was Randolph Vermont, his brother.

But what intrigued me the most were the two royal guards behind them. One was quite larger than the other, fully covered in silver armor while the other had his helmet off, his long straight yellow hair cascading on his back. As I kept gazing at them, the yellow haired guard tilted his head toward a little. The subtle movement of his neck sent chills down my spine. 

“Hey..”

His aura was intimidating…

“Hey.. kid!” said the announcer

“Remember, the first to surrender is the loser. You rank will depend on your performance and the winner will continue to fight” 

Oh yeah, I completely forgot about this.  I have to focus now!

“Both ready? now FIGHT!” 

As I stood guard, my opponent started walking towards me.

“This ain’t no place for a kid, go home and suck on mama’s tiddies”

An intimidation attempt, the oldest trick in the book.

“Let’s have fun!” I replied, trying to lighten the mood. “This is just a test after all”

“You are mistaken, this will just be a one sided slaughter!”

Suddenly, he clenched his legs, tensed his muscles and raised his fist up ready to attack.

“I warned you kid!”

He launched his big punch at me with full force. But I could see it coming… it was slow, more like in slow motion. He was wide open, I could think of a million counter attack patterns.

This is nothing compared to sparring with Gav. 

In the blink of a moment, I turned my upper half just a bit dodging the punch.

I could see his surprised face. Then, I followed by a full blown uppercut right into his chin rendering him unconscious.

The crowd went silent. “YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY” I heard Ada and Ariana yelling, then the whole colosseum bursted with screams and cheers.  “AMAZING !!” “ONE PUNCH??” 

“LUKA! LUKA! LUKA!...” They cheered my name continuously.

At that moment, I felt proud. It was my first win after all!  I took a glimpse at Gav, and I noticed his little smile.

“THE WINNER ISSSSSSSSSS LUUUUKAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-ughughu” 

My guy, just stop already, you even bit your tongue.

The day continued, fight after fight. I sparred three times and won each one, well, even though I struggled a tiny bit in the last one but it was fairly easy. 

And now I have reached Neophyte one,  just like that ! 

From what I comprehended, each time you win you gain points, and of course depending on the rank of your opponent. When the points surpass a certain threshold, you rank up.

Anyways..Whenever I wasn’t fighting, I had to stay in the underground waiting room. I could hear everything was happening though. One participant in particular got me interested. He was the son of the king! His name was Leonard Vermont. But that wasn’t the reason I was intrigued by him. In Fact, he was a level three apprentice at just ten years old who had also won every single fight in a matter of seconds. 

From the general perspective, he was considered a prodigy too. 

And just as I guessed, my next opponent was him. They must have decided that I needed to defeat an apprentice at level three to move up to the next rank.

When the time came, I walked into the courtyard. As I saw him enter the area, a guard pulled him aside and whispered something to him. He looked afraid for a moment but quickly regained his composure.

He then stood in front of me, and before the referee could announce the start of the fight, he taunted, "You call yourself a prodigy, huh?"

What was he on about?

"How about we make things a little more interesting" he proposed.

He signaled to the guard, who brought in two swords, and threw one in my direction.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"Well, you see, from the apprentice level, all kinds of weapons are allowed. And I’m sure a prodigy won’t have a problem with one, right?"

I gave him a steady look, then picked up the sword. As I examined it, something bothered me. It was a carbon steel sword, popular for sword-making in my previous world. In fact, creating such a sword isn’t simple, though this quality wasn't as pure. Despite all the similarities between the two worlds, I hadn’t expected this world to have the same knowledge in sword making.

Nevertheless, I quickly refocused on the fight. I pointed the sword at him. "Bring it on."

Leonard struck first, launching at me with a flash step and swinging his sword. I parried quickly, glided my sword along his blade, and with a swift turn, I swung back, but he quickly stepped back.

"Not bad" he said. "You s—"

Without giving him a chance to finish, I rushed in to attack him. "Fucker" he muttered.

Our swords clashed continuously. It was intense. The voices of the crowd grew quieter as the sound of our swords slashing echoed through the arena. There was barely enough time to breathe.

As the fight progressed, and we hopped from place to place, I overwhelmed him. With sheer force, I pushed him to his knees, our swords crossed.

A stressed look appeared on his face. "I can’t lose, my uncle told me to win… Loss is not an option" he said.

"What is he saying?" I murmured to myself.

Suddenly, he grabbed a handful of sand and threw it at me. I reacted quickly, but it was enough for him to seize the chance and counterattack. 

And with sand in my face, he overwhelmed me.

I could barely fight back...

I could barely see...

What should I do?

That’s when I remembered what El had taught me. "When you seem like you’re losing in a fight, you have two choices. One is to give up and die, the other is to give up and win." I also remembered I had brain fog listening to him say that too…

But wait... maybe...

As Leonard kept attacking, I loosened up my guard, opening a way for his sword to my torso. His eyes widened as he clenched his hand for a hard right swing, and that's when I took the chance. With a steady grip with both hands, I planted the sword into the ground, rendering it immovable. When his sword hit my blade, the shock from the impact threw him off, and his sword flew out of his hand. I quickly grabbed my blade and followed with an upward attack, reflecting the sun into his eyes.

"My eyes!" he screamed.

As I was about to strike him, a guard interfered in a blink of an eye and stopped my attack with his hand.

"That’s enough" he said.

The crowd burst into screams and shouts. I backed off, the sword fell from my hand, and I just stood there, barely able to hold myself up from the fatigue.

Suddenly, Leonard picked up the sword and launched at me with a surprising attack. “Die” 

The guard immediately grabbed his arm and lifted him up in the air “I won't repeat myself” 

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