Chapter 7

Tournament Arc: The Gathering Storms pt.1

One month later...

The kingdom of Feoh is celebrating, boisterous music and people rang around its walls. The streets are flooded with people and vendors. People from other kingdoms have also joined the festivities of Feoh or take advantage of the current events.

For today is the annual festival of Feoh, celebrating its creation and fortitude against the forces of darkness just north of the kingdom.

A festival to celebrate, to remember and to give hope to everyone that Feoh is still standing proud and strong against the Dark Queen.

"Wow... so many..." A young girl with pink hair looked in awe at the kingdom's current atmosphere, taking in the sight of so many people celebrating and making merry.

"Prim, don't poke your head out." The girl, Prim, pouted as her cousin reprimanded her. Pulling herself from the carriage's window, she went back to her seat.

Seated across from her is another young woman in her teens. She has neatly combed blonde hair flowing down to her back. A soft face yet hardened expression plastered on, a testament to her nature as a knight. She dressed in a typical bikini armor except she has added a skirt to her gear. Pauldrons adorned her shoulders and steel greaves on her arms. On her side is a pristine sword.

"But Alicia!" Prim whined. "I want to see some of the street performers."

Alicia's expression softened a bit to the childish request. Even though Prim is being groomed to be the leader of Ur, she is still a child.

"We will but after the competition, I promise." Alicia promised her causing the younger girl to smile.

"Promise?" "I promise."

"Yay!" Alicia smiled at her cousin's carefree happiness.

That smile soon vanished as she remembers her purpose here.

The Arcturus family are the family who had formed the kingdom of Feoh alongside their distant cousins, the Fiorire family.

For years, the Arcturus kept the Dark forces of the wretched Dark Queen from ever spilling to the other kingdoms. They are the defenders of the realm and considered as heroes.

Until they weren't.

Her family slowly declined. Her mother died in her deathbed, a sickness claiming her. Her father died shortly afterwards in grief and defense to the kingdom, falling in battle against the forces of Olga.

This leaves her, the only child and heir of the Arcturus. Too young to rule and defend the kingdom her parents left behind, she was sent to her cousins in Ur, the Fiorire. In her absence, her family's closest friend and confidant, Beardsley, took over in ruling the kingdom.

But even under his rule, the kingdom slowly declined. Mortality rates in the defense went high, the economy was shot, and the treasury is dwindling.

Alicia needs to step up.

So she had a plan. A plan to bring her family name back to its proper place and gain the necessary support to reinvigorate the kingdom.

She will need the Goddess's help.

"Order is ready!"

"Load the gears, the coliseum needs it!"

"Another order!"

"The knight orders are sending in their gears in an hour, double time!"

"Keep up the pace rookie, we still have an entire day's worth of work here!"

In the Little Anvil company, the blacksmiths are working on a frenzy. The sound of metal hitting steel echoed in the workshops. Smoke and heat bellowed out, too uncomfortable to stand for anyone but for the blacksmiths, it is perfect.

Overseeing the orders and process of the entire company is the half-elf, Anna. A very haggard looking Half-elf.

"Celestine damnit! If this keeps up, I will drink that damn brew of hers." Anna muttered as she checked on the documents, wrote down orders and finished products.

Unlike last year, this year's festival is much busier than normal due to many reasons.

First, Too many merchants and people. Damages will naturally come and orders for tools, utensils and etc. will come in abundance at this time.

Second, The Levantines. Heroes of Eostia and personal guards to the Goddess herself will check Feoh's military force. This led to a boatload of maintenance orders and quick fixes to be done.

Lastly, the main event of the festival.

The Goddess Blessing, a tournament for warriors across Eostia. The reward alone is more than enough to attract every single warrior in the Alliance kingdoms.

An audience to the Goddess Celestine.

The tournament will be done in three parts in three days.

The first day is a massive melee as tryouts, weeding out the week and unprepared from the gems and real warriors. The melee will continue until only 20 warriors remain.

Second day will be preliminaries, focusing on one-on-one combat to showcase their skills and experience. This part will decide who will get to the Semi-finals with only 4 people can only enter.

The third and last day will be the Semi-finals and Finals, the main events of the festival.

With these events, their blacksmithing company is basically swamped in orders.

"If this keeps up, I wouldn't be able to enjoy the festival." Anna lamented, comical tears pouring down her face. "What does a single girl need to do to get some decent man!"

The Blacksmiths in the vicinity sweatdrop at the half-elf's predicament. At the ripe age of 20, Anna is viable for marriage and yet not a single relationship of her's came successful.

Unknowingly, her bossy and fearsome personality is the reason for such failures.

As the half-elf continued to check on the orders, she felt a light tap on her shoulders amidst the loud banging of steels.

It was Mika.

"I'm done with my orders." Anna's bulges at the statement. Taking a look at his workstation and workshop, his orders are really done.

How did he do that? His orders consisted of multiple swords and armors with a few custom jobs!

Anna's mind raced as to how Mika did it.

Unknown to her, Mika actually cheated. Bikini armors and normal steel swords are pretty easy to hammer for a quick fix. A few applications of a superheated Heat Saber merely sped up the smithing process.

He started his job at the daybreak and finally finished before noon.

"Can I go now?" Mika asked impatiently, must be excited to join the festival in full swing.

Looking at boy-no, young man, she can tell that Mika changed explosively.

Before, he was just a young blacksmith. Awkward and hunched for all day hammering steel. He was tall for his age yet gaunt due to work.

But now, it all changed. His body became toned and muscled. Not muscled as a hulking figure but a tasteful and tight muscles coiling on his body. She can't even help herself in licking her lips as she stares at his abs peeking through his muscle shirt.

Overall, Mika bloomed into a handsome young man in a month. (Puberty perhaps). With his sharp rugged looks and tanned skin (due to working in extreme heat of the workshop), she's sure he will be luring women left and right.

Heck, she bet Maribel is grooming the boy to become her husband.

Sigh, if only he was a bit older.

"You can go now but be sure to come back at night to take your next orders." Anna replied to him, taking her gaze away from his distracting abs.

"Sorry but I won't be able to take orders tomorrow."

"What!?" She rounded to him in surprise, baffled. "Why?! You're one of our best smiths, we can't do this without you!" She exclaimed, her temper rising.

Mika is undeterred.

"Sorry, I actually signed up for the tournament this year."

The entire workshop went silent. Fellow Smiths looked at Mika in abject horror, pity and small admiration.

Anna exploded.

"WHAT THE FUCK!" The Smiths immediately went back to work, not wanting to take the attention of the demon away from its prey.

"Let's get this straight, You-" Maribel pointed at Mika, who looked bored out of his mind and mildly annoyed. "-decided to enter the tournament."

"A tournament known for its fatalities and cheating nobles!" The Halfling shouted halfway in absurdity.

The tournament might be Feoh's main event in the festival and offered to the Goddess, Celestine, it is still susceptible to foul play.

Blatant murder in broad daylight is excused as freak accidents, staged fights and fixed fights are pretty common especially with the nobles using the festival to one up another in their weird ways.

And Mika is going to enter such an event? Not in her watch!

"I know and I'm still entering." Brat! Don't give me a simple shrug!

"Mika, whatever you are suffering right now? We are here." Anna nervously gave her assistance.

"I'm not suicidal, don't get to wild in your conclusions."

"SCREW YOU ASSHOLE, I'M CONCERNED HERE!"

Maribel sighed, rubbing her head to alleviate the headache of this situation. What has gotten to this boy?

"Mika, answer me seriously. Are you really gonna enter?" Anna went still.

She never once heard Maribel sound so serious. She took a look at Mika to see his reaction.

A small smile formed on his lips.

"Yes."

"And how do you intend to survive this event."

"I'm not, I'm winning it." Anna gasped at his declaration.

How can he say that when his going up against various people from across the Alliance? Not to mention the veterans that are coming back from last year and the years before it.

"Ooh... You're pretty confident." Maribel mused.

She then took a careful look at Mika. As a Halfling, their race is warrior-like mixed with greed for money like the dwarves.

And by looking at this boy, he had changed into a warrior in one month.

His slouch is gone, his muscles are loose yet coiled for action. His gaze is also sharper, staring straight into her eyes, judging if she's a threat or not.

Hell! He even positioned himself in an advantageous position in her office. A little to the right of her desk where she placed her pencils.

Pencils are deadly.

"Alright but I'm testing you. Meet me at the testing grounds." Time to bring out big Bertha.

As the Halfling left to recover her weapon, Anna rounded to Mika. The blond Half-elf began to shake and scream at the young man with zero progress.

Mika is mildly annoyed but hey, he gets to fight the midget boss.

His been itching to fight someone physically stronger than him since he fought the Crossbone Gundam.

Mika whistled at the sight of Maribel dragging Big Bertha in the testing grounds, their area for testing equipment.

Big Bertha is a colossal wooden pole axe. Its pole is about 7 ft tall, taller than an average man with a massive head on top; A blade and its pick.

Mika is excited. With Maribel casually logging the damn thing around, he was right in his suspicion.

The midget was a strong warrior.

"Alright boy, let's see if you're gonna win this damn tournament. Don't cry if I hit you too hard." Maribel smirked as she brandished the wooden pole axe.

"Same to you, old hag." Mika ignored her indignant scream afterwards to concentrate. His own wooden sword is ready for combat.

Meanwhile, Anna will be the proctor of this spar. Raising her hand, both combatants readied themselves. Other blacksmiths came to watch, betting on who will win.

They obviously bet on Maribel.

In a long pause before Anna brought her hand down.

Fast!

Maribel hastily blocked Mika's attack, a downward slash as he immediately closed the distance between them. She then noticed his left foot shifting, aiming to kick her to the side.

Shifting the pole axe, Maribel slides his sword to the left to block the limbs movement. She then spun the weapon, forcing Mika to back off to avoid getting hit.

With a great slash, Maribel attacked. With her weapon and range, blocking is impossible. As the wooden pole axe travels towards Mika's side, just between his midsection, he surprises them.

In a feat of flexibility and speed, he bent his body backwards (matrix style), letting the blade pass over him. But before the blade passes through, his leg sprung up, kicking the pole axe's head and doing a backflip to recover in the process.

The kick jostled Maribel's grip to the blade but she recovered before it went flying. She then brought down the pole axe to his position to which Mika easily sidestepped in order to rush to her position as the axe-head hit the ground.

"Think again, Brat!" With a huge grin, Maribel swings the handle, striking Mika to the side before he can close the distance. Mika grunts at the hit but uses it to gain distance, rolling to the ground and resuming his offense.

Maribel scoffs at the obvious tactic. Positioning the halberd in a spearman's stance, she met him head on with multiple thrust.

Imagine her surprise when he simply slides on his knees underneath the humongous weapon, going for a roll afterwards. She hastily pulled the weapon back to defend as Mika stands before her.

A thrust came to her abdomen. She blocked it almost immediately with Big Bertha's handle.

That's her mistake.

Sliding the wooden blade, Mika hits her tiny hands. She yelped in pain at the unexpected attack, letting go of Big Bertha. Maribel is then forced to look up, a wooden blade tilting her head while pointed at her throat.

"I win." Mika smiled.

Maribel sighed. "Alright... You win."

He surprised her more than she thought. With his current level, he can handle the small fries in the tournament and even a knight or two.

But there is one nagging question in her mind.

How did Mika improve so much in a month? The boy is no fighter last month and yet here he is.

Easily beating a Halfling like her. She is no slouch in a fight either as she had wandered Eos for a time as a mercenary herself.

She might be rusty but there is no way the boy defeated her so easily.

So how?

Chapter end

Stats

Mika Lv. 18

Perks:

Hero Lv. 4 - Increases all stat performance to 40%.

Aggressive Lv. 6 - Increase Attack and Reaction performance by 70%.

Nimble - User is now faster and flexible 2x of his base form.

MS/MA

M1Astray Lv.1

M1Astray Shrike Lv.1

Murasame Lv.1

???? Lv.1

???? Lv.1

Q and A.

Mika's performance?

- Mika is now a super soldier level in performance. Same performance as Captain America at best without the MS. With an MS, he is just below Spartan Halo performance.

How?

- 1 month grinding and farming. Mika also got 2 brand new MS.

One is a Gundam while the other is close to one.

Will focus back on missions?

- Nope, not yet as we are now in the tournament Arc. This arc is set before the Shield Princesses are formed, 1 year to be exact and 2 years before the main plot of Kuroinu.

As of now, there are only Claudia, Luu-luu and Kaguya as the Shield Princesses.

Mai, Prim and Alicia are not Shield Princesses as yet due to their young age in Prim's case or lack of reputation. (Mai is still starting out as a mercenary queen) (Alicia's Parents are never mentioned so I made a head cannon, guess who is the antagonist on her story and no, it doesn't count.)

Mika's fighting style?

- Mika has been fighting Zakus, Gundams and Mobile Armors. This led to developing a utilitarian fighting style focused on taking advantage of weaknesses and finding openings. This style was formed in order to keep up against Gundam type enemies in missions.

This is his confirmed Gundam kills:

Gaia Gundam

Chaos Gundam

Abyss Gundam

GP02 Gundam

Crossbone Gundam - Done in his off screen farming.