Authors Note. Just an information before the chapter, the bold letters are the anouncer or the crowd.
"Weeeeelcome ladies and gentlemen and kids of Orario! On this fine day we will start the big tournament sponsored by the Freya Familia and the lovely goddess Freya!
My name is Ibri Aacha, also known as Fire Inferno Flame and I will be your commentator today! And now please a big applause for our Guest of honor, Laaaaaaadyyyyy Freeeeeeyaaaaa!"
The ranks of the arena were filled to the brim, people from all of Orario came here today, the weather was just perfect. Food and drink seller moved between the ranks.
The arena itself was a big circle, filled with sand and a few stone pillars that stood in a big ring. A few were damage or broken and piece were scattered around.
The young man used the magical microphone to heat up the crowd, he was the Ganesha Familia´s number one commentator. His lively personality was well liked by the people. By his last words he pointed with his hand to the VIP seats at the best spot of the grandstand. Guarded by Ottar, the reason for this event, lady Freya sat there and waved to the people, smiling.
"""Lady Freya!"""
The people cheered and clapped.
"Now thats what I call a greeting! And now some words from my god."
"I am Ganesha!"
"There you hear it!"
The young man passed the microphone to his god.
"Welcome children of Orario and fellow gods, I hope you all will enjoy the torunament, we have some strong and exotic fighter. I want to thank again the lovely lady Freya for this tournament. May you all have fun and...I am Ganesha!"
With this words he passed the microphone to his follower.
"For all those who are not familiar with the rules I will now explain them."
"Everyone that participates is a level four or freshly level five, the difference is not too much to be a problem. It is forbidden to use any kind of skill actively, passives are allowed. Magic weapons and tools are forbidden. A magical field will protect them from being killed.
And thats all."
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"Thats quite a spectacle."
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The Hestia alliance sat in the ranks where they had a good look on the fights, they came to cheer for Bell.
"I hope master Bell won´t get nervous will all those people watching him fight." Lily took a sip from her drink.
"I´m sure sir Bell will be concentrated, he will win." Mikoto had a big bag between her feet, she hade worked in the kitchen the whole morning with Haruhime to make snacks and drinks for everyone.
"As a man, Bell absolutely will not lose."
Haruhime sat next to Welf. "I just hope master Bell won´t get hurt."
"Ah be honest, you want to see him fight against other strong men." Aisha kept them company.
"N-No..."
"You sound very convincing."
"A-As if you don´t want to see them fight, Aisha!"
"Oho? My little sisters bares her teeth? You´re so cute." Aisha put her arm around Haruhime and pulled her close.
"A-Aisha...please stop it!"
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On the other side of the arena.
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"Pff..Freya sure enjoys the attention.." Loki sat with her Familia in the special ranks for the higher Familias.
"Well she paid for the event." Riveria sat to Loki´s right side, with Ais and Lefiya next to her.
Ais nibbled on a potato snack, she had a small bump on her head and a few scratches in the face. She went to the dungeon nonstop and overdid it, the injuries weren´t that bad but Riveria scolded her for being so reckless.
"Tche...why do we watch those weaklings fight each other?" Bete was in a grumpy mood, like most of the time.
"Just enjoy it for now, this will be fun!" Tiona was pretty excited for the fights.
"When will he fight?" Tione sipped on her drink.
"Ahm...don´t know, forgot the program."
"Sigh..."
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Even with all participants having almost the same level, the difference between the fighting styles was huge. The fighter were organized in blocks from A to D, four fighter in every block, all in all sixteen participants.
The first fitghts took until noon, some were interesting, some over very quickly.
Bell Cranel, one adventurer that many knew or heard of, fought against a wolf-man in his first round, he had the upper hand and defeated him. His opponent was still in a good mood and pulled Bell into a manly hug.
An heavily armored adventurer defeated his opponent and no one really saw how he did that, he threw something after him, the other adventurer started to cough and finally broke down.
As a half naked dwarf started his fight, the loudest person to cheer for him sat in the Loki ranks. His fighting style was as subtle as a punch in the face.
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Unnoticed by everyone in the arena, when Bell Cranel was announced and started his fight, someone panicked in his waiting room...or her waiting room.
Bell! He is participating too? What do I do... What if he recognizes me? What if we have to fight?
Ryuu watched his fight via the small magical mirror that was placed in every waiting room.
You are good, Bell...
Facing Bell in a serious fight, would be interesting.
Sigh...no use to panic now..
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"And now to our last fight in the preliminary round! In one corner we have-...Yes lord Ganesha I know that the arena is round and has no corners...yes you just say it like that..- We have the adorable swordfighter who don´t understand the concept of an armor...I present you...slicing Whiiiiirlwiiiiind!"
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A demi-human girl entered the arena through the north gate, she had racoon-like ears on her head, long black hair and a bushy tail. Her feet were in some kind of sandals and she had almost no armor on her body, the little pieces looked like the far eastern style and on her hip, she had a long Katana. That little bit of clothes that she wore, revealed most of her legs, her stomach and almost her chest. Narrow bands hung down from her neck and covered them.
"And in the other corner...that´s something for the ladies out here...we have the mysterious elven man who refuses to reveal his face, except for his one true love! Myyyyyyysteriooooo!"
"""Kyaa!"""
It was only possible to recognize the figure as an elf, because the announcer had said so. The figure had covered most of his face with a scarf and wore a big hood.
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"Hooo...must be quite the handsome man...I wonder if I could make him take off the mask and make him...sing.."
"Aisha!"
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As Ryuu entered the arena, she saw that her opponent didn´t look in her direction, she waved smiling in the direction of one specific rank, where a young man waved back to her.
Looking so carefree...she must be a strong fighter...
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"Aaaaaand now...begiiiiiin!"
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The moment the start signal was given, the racoon girl vanished from the place where she waved and catapulted herself with a murderous speed and already unsheathed Katana onto Ryuu.
Woah!
Ryuu had just enough time to draw her weapons and block the piercing thrust with crossed swords.
She thrusts a Katana?!
The expression on the girls face was not carefree at all.
"An honor to face you."
Wha-! What´s with her voice? She sounds almost like me?!
Orario could be strange sometimes. Their fight lasted about an quarter of an hour...what ended it was...Ryuu´s opponent started to use a skill by accident, she was just so into the fight that she forgot the rule for a moment. Even with all of their rush movements, there was no wardrobe malfunction for Ryuu´s opponent.
"Whaaaaa! Mylord I´m so sorryyyy!" She bowed apologetically to the young man in the ranks, but he just waved to her smiling.
Ryuu sheathed her swords and left the arena.
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"That was the Preliminary round! We will now see the first fight of the Quarter finals...Rabbit Foot versus Venom!"
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Bell?! Oh no, I have to hurry!
Ryuu walked as fast as she could without running, but when she left through the gate, he was already standing there.
Oh no...please don´t look, please don´t look, please don´t look...
But Bell turned his head to her and smiled. "That was a good fight."
Instead of answering, Ryuu used an old elven gesture. She put her hand over her heart and nodded lightly to him, while she averted her face. Thankfully he was familiar with the gesture, Ryuu had told him about some of the elven culture in the past, and he assumed, that the elf in front of him was maybe shy or didn´t liked people.
Ryuu made a gesture with her hands that meant "good luck" and went to her room.
That was way too close!
In her waiting room, Ryuu took off the hood and her scarf.
"It will only disturb him in his fight if he sees me now..."
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Bell waited for the gate to open, he tensed and relaxed his muscles repeatly and thought about his opponent, there was not much to see from the waiting room.
Well I have to get close anyway.
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"And here is Rabbiiiiiit Foooooot!"
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The gate in front of Bell started to open.
Here we go.
A thunderous applause greeted Bell as he entered the arena again. Fighting in front of so many people made his heart beat faster, but he waved smiling to the crowd when he walked in.
"""Rabbit Foot! Good luck! You can do it!"""
On the other side he saw his opponent walking towards the middle of the arena, he paid no attention to the crowd, was only focused on Bell.
"Go Beeell! You can do it!"
Somehow between all the voices, he heard his goddess very well, Bell turned his head and waved to his Familia.
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"And now...let the fight begin!"
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Bell unsheathed his weapons and got into fighting stance, his opponent drew a sword from his back like no one that Bell had ever seen. The blade was at least as long as Bell´s arm, it went straight up, but was curved back at the tip...a slashing weapon. And this weapon was not made from metal, it looked like it was made out of...bone. The cutting edge was sharp but the back looked jagged.
Was that...a tooth? Or a bone?
Slowly, one step after the other, Bell approached his opponent.
"Are you a hero?"
Wha-?
"What?"
"A hero...are you one?"
The big helmet of his oppenent tilted to the side.
"Why are you asking me that?"
"Because...we hate heroes!"
His opponent grabbed into one of his bags and pulled a glass sphere out, filled with violet smoke.
Smoke?
Too fast for Bell to react, his opponent threw the sphere and it broke right in front of Bell´s feet, releasing a massiv amount of violet smoke.
"Ah!" Bell staggered back, coughing, the smoke seemed to be everywhere...and it stank!
He heard the sound of breaking glass and the smoke just grew thicker, green mixed into the violet.
I can´t see anything!
Still coughing, Bell jumped back again and again, until he came out of the smoke. A huge cloud filled the area where he had stood. It burned in his throat and he coughed again.
Slowy, the smoke dissolved, revealing his opponent again, he still stood there and looked into Bell´s direction.
"You´re a tough one, but it´s only a matter of time now."
Bell´s opponent walked towards Bell and getting faster the closer he came, he was about as tall as Bell, but the helmet made him bigger. He took the sword in both hands and swung it after Bell.
Bell ducked down and evaded to the side, despite the armor, his opponent was fast. The long sword gave him the greater range, but it was also unwieldy if Bell was too close.
"Tch!" Fast, his opponent pulled out another sphere and crushed it with his gauntlet.
Smoke covered them, this time red and his opponent used the moment to jump back, Bell coughed again and followed him. The red smoke made his eyes burn.
"Daah!"
Bell jumped forward, sliced with the Hestia Knife from the side, thrusting Hakugen upwards from below.
"Why can you still move!" His opponent sounded angry, while he made two quick steps backward to evade one knive and blocking the other.
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"Ooooooh what underhanded methods! Venom lives up to his name as he used poison gas spheres!"
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Poison!
Thats why it burned in Bell´s eyes.
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"Lord Ganesha, do you have some comment to those methods?"
"I am Ganesha!"
"Please take this seriously!"
"It´s okay! As long as it isn´t magical it is allowed! And just look at the young man, the poison can´t be that strong!"
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So not strong poison...
"Impossible!" His opponent threw another sphere to the ground. "Get down already!"
As Bell jumped forward, slicing with Hakugen through the cloud and dissolving it this way, his opponent took a step back surprised.
Half turn, strike from above, step forward, kick low, turn and thrust the Hestia Knife.
Bell didn´t have time to think right now, attack followed attack as the started to corner his opponent.
Fake left, push right, turn, jump forward, double thrust with both Knives.
His opponent whirled his sword around, taking some slices and thrusts with his armor. He was fast...but Bell was faster.
"Why don´t you go down!" He jerked the sword up and turned it into a slice against Bell. "This poison is strong enough to paralyze even a level five adventurer!"
He staggered back, as Bell whirled around and sliced the chestplate with the Hestia Knife, leaving a long scratch.
Enraged, his opponent thrusted the sword forward and attacked from the side with his claw like gauntlet.
Bell stepped aside just enough to evade the blade and hacked with the Hestia Knife from above.
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Thud!
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The sound was strange when his Knife hit the bone blade.
Bell returned the grip on Hakugen and hammered the knife´s pommel against the helmet front of his opponent.
"Gah!"
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Inside a certain waiting room.
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"Oh dear gods..."
Ryuu watched horrified in the mirror as Bell fought and clapped her hands over her mouth. His opponent used poison bombs again and again, defending himself against Bell as good as he could.
She wasn´t horrified because of the poison...Ryuu was horrified because she knew the reason why the poison had no effect on Bell at all.
"Syr...I´m so sorry...but your food made him strong...sorry..."
Ryuu felt really bad for her friend, that the cheerful girls lovely made food...made Bell immun to poison due to her cooking skills.
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Inside the pub.
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"Achoo!" Syr rubbed her nose and cheered again with the customers as she watched Bell´s fight over the big magical projection in the pub.
"Little Syr are you okay?" Hermes stood next to her and watched the battle. It was his magic that created these projections all over Orario, he only got the permission for those events.
"Maybe someone is talking about me...anyway...just look how Mr. Bell fights!" She grinned.
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In the arena.
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"Huff...Huff...you are...huff...immun to my poison?...Are you a damn hero?!"
He shook his head and hammered against his helmet to clear his mind.
"Hydra Dominatus!"
Huh?
This exclamation was no skill, no chant or something similar. This exclamation had a deep meaning for the two armored figures. The hydra will dominate...cut one head off and another takes it´s place.
Which meant...if one weapon breaks or is useless, use another one. And another...and another...use all your weapons and your opponents weapons to achieve victory. By yelling it out, they called it to mind and concentrated on this concept.
Not this time!
As his opponent grabbed into his cloak, Bell jumped forward. But that was a trick and Venom jumped forward faked a thrust with his sword and dealt a bakehand strike into Bell´s face.
"Buha!"
Bell let himself fall down and rolled off to the side.
Now his opponent pulled a long knife from his waist, similar build to his sword.
They started an rapid succession of attacks and counter-attacks, while they moved back and forward in circles. They noticed that they came near to one of the collapsed pillars.
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"Just look at this awesome fight! It´s really...breathtaking!"
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"Grr...I admit it, you´re good!"
Bell´s opponent whirled his sword and knife around like a windmill, then he threw his knife after Bell and jumped backwards.
He rammed the tip of his sword into the sand and reached to his back under the cloak.
"Say hello to my little friend!"
He pulled something out, it looked like some kind of box with two metal arches on the side. He jerked it back and forth one time and the arches sprang apart. It was a crossbow!
Bell had seen crossbows before, Lily used a tiny version in one hand, but nothing like this. Instead of a single bolt, some kind of box magazine sat on top of the crossbow.
His opponent pulled the trigger, Bell threw himself to the side, kicked the ground and dashed onto his opponent before he could reload...at least that´s what Bell thought.
Clack! Clack! Clack! Clack! Clack!
In quick succession one bolt after the other was fired onto Bell. The first one hit him unprepared in the shoulder, by a hair's breadth he evaded the second one by jumping behind the fragments of the pillar.
What is this?! A Repeating crossbow?!
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"What is this ladies and gentlemen!"
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Thankfully the bolt in his shoulder stuck in Bell´s armor.
Gatchak!
The last bolt left the crossbow.
Now!
Bell jumped over the pillar, only one knife in his hand and struck out the other one.
"Fireb-"
His opponent confident of victory for Bell´s attempt to use a skill, waited for a second too long.
But it was a feint, Bell reached behind his hip, pulled Hakugen and threw it right onto his opponents helmet.
"Woah!" With a rapid movement he managed to knock away the white knife.
That was all Bell needed.
He grabbed the wrist of the swordhand, ramming into his opponent and hammered the pommel of the Hestia Knife against the helmet again...right onto the respirator.
"Dah! Ah!"
Again and again Bell hammered against the helmet, until it moved slightly.
Now!
Bell let go of the Hestia Knife, grabbed the helmet by the respirator and ripped the helmet off. Without waiting, Bell gave his opponent a headbutt.
"Ah!"
His opponent lost his stand, stumbled and fell to the ground, all air being blown out of his lungs ... or rather ... her...
Bell caught the Hestia Knife before it touched the ground and held it over his opponents neck.
"Surrender!"
Eyes widened in shock stared to Bell. For the first time he saw his opponents face...it was a girl. A beautiful girl with pure white hair and a skincolor similar to amazones...and long pointy ears.
A dark elf!
Her eyes were out of focus due to the headbutt, but she nodded.
"I...I give up!"
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"IIIIIIIIT`S OOOOOVEEEERR! RABBIT FOOT DEFEATS VENOM!"
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Phew...
Bell stumpled back onto his feet, grabbed Hakugen from the ground and grinned happily.
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""""Rabbit Foot! Rabbit Foot! Rabbit Foot! Rabbit Foot!""""
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The crowd cheered loud.
"You have an impressive way of fighting." Bell smiled to his opponent and reached out his hand to help her get up.
"Th-Thank you.." She averted her eyes, blushing, but took his hand and got back to her feet.
"Ehe.." Bell smiled and looked to the side, she was truly beautiful.
Suddenly, his opponent cupped his wrist with her hand.
"A good fight."
"Yes."
She frowned lightly, confused by his behaviour.
"What is it?"
"I´m..sorry...it´s the first time I attack a beautiful girl so vigorous...and I heard elves don´t like getting touched."
"Ahem..you´re also very handsome but..."
"Yes?"
"I am a man..."
"Ah.."
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"Hey lady Hestia..."
"Yes little supporter?"
"Mr. Bell seems to get along reeeeally well with this male elf...as with the wolf-man before..."
"Yeah...I thought so too..."
The girls of the Hestia Familia were a little bit worried how well Bell seemed to get along with his male opponents.
Except for one.
"Haauuu...Mr. Bell and an exotic male elf...how they shake hands...and the manly hug with the wolf-man before...Hauuuu..." Haruhime was shaking with...joy?
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Inside the waiting room.
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Ryuu looked up to the mirror, smiling.
"Well fought Bell...well fought."
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At the ranks of the Loki Familia.
"Wooaaah! That was an amazing fight from Argonaut!" Tiona cheered loudly.
"Quite impressive." Tione nodded.
"Congratulations, Bell." Ais smiled as she ate her third snack today.
"Very...well fought...Bell Cranel..." Even Lefiya had to agree.
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"Ladies and gentlemen, we´re coming to our next fight! The handsome Myyyyysterioooooo against "her"!"
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The crowd cheered as loud as never before and started to chant.
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"""""Queen! Queen! Queen! Queen! Queen! Queen! Queen! Queen!"""""
"And heeeeeeeeere comes...Heeeeeeeell Caaaaaat Chaaaaaaan!"
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"HELLCAT CHAAAAN!" A huge crowd of male gods were dressed like...fans...with banners and glow sticks.