"So, uh……he's probably related to the guy we ran into in the cave, isn't he?" Asked Rai nervously.

  "Hey, Key……when you reported what had happened to the Academy, how did they respond?" I inquired curiously.

  "Oh, right. I was meaning to tell you all, but I kept forgetting to. I reported everything that happened, although I might have panicked a bit towards the end and lied that we killed him purely in self defense," She replied sheepishly.

  "That's probably for the best, besides it's at least half true since he attacked us first. So, how did they respond after that?" Asked Persia.

  "Well, they said they would have to inform the Ragiu family about what had happened. But they also said that without solid proof, it's unlikely that they'll be able to take any action, either against them or against us, especially since finding the corpse would be near impossible. They also told me not to tell anyone else what had happened, I already told you all that part."

  "Oh yeah you did, totally forgot about that. If they had a skilled Adventurer with Water Magic, wouldn't they be able to navigate the maze like Azyl did and find the body?" I asked.

  "Wait, you guys haven't told anyone about it, have you? And no, navigating the maze isn't the problem.? Human corpses are usually scavenged by the Goblins, they probably get eaten or something, a dead body would disappear pretty quickly in that maze."

  "Well, there's no point worrying about it now. We'll see what this guy wants after we're done with this tournament," I shrugged.

  The fight had already begun, with Tuck on the back foot. All he could do was evade and block his brother's relentless assaults, as he kept being driven further back. His defense was pretty solid, but his strength was attacking from a close range, and Arg had completely nullified that threat.

  With spikes popping up all over the fighting area, Tuck didn't have much room to slide around using his earth magic, restricting his range of movement. As he began running out of space, he stopped evading and began moving forward, switching to normal running and jumping with no more room to slide around. A spike shot out towards him, he responded by making an uppercut motion, raising a pillar of his own to clash into it, breaking off the tip of the spike.

  As the broken piece was airborne, he raised his hands with his palms pointing towards it, and got control of it in mid-air. He then swung his hand down rapidly, slinging the broken bit of earth towards his brother.

  "Wait, you can do that with earth magic?" I inquired in surprise.

  "Yes, it's a pretty difficult technique to master. Basic Earth Magic involves controlling and manipulating the shape and density of the earth below and around you. But some Adventurers with Earth Magic can levitate the rocks and earth they control, the most powerful ones can use that technique to create devastating attacks like artificial meteor showers," Explained Key.

  As the broken spike was thrown, it became clear why Tuck hadn't used that technique till now. It flew wide to the left of Arg, completely missing him. He hadn't yet mastered the technique, his control and aim were way off, and had probably only used it now out of desperation.

  Not to mention his shoulder injury from his fight with Rai was almost certainly slowing down his reflexes.

  "As always, you cannot hold a candle to me, dear brother. This fight is over," Smirked Arg, as he slammed a couple of blunt spikes into Tuck's back.

  "A wins!"

  That had been kinda anticlimactic, guess that explains Tuck's inferiority complex against his brother. It was now down to groups A and D.

  A had three members left, while we had two, one of which had zero motivation to fight.

  "Guess I'm up next," Said Persia, walking up to the fighting area as Azyl continued to sit out of the fighting.

  "Looks like another easy win for me. Just give up while you still can! A cat doesn't stand a chance against a wolf like me, you're better off going to the corner and licking yourself or something."

  I don't know if he meant that to sound as gross as it did, but he certainly showed no intention of taking it back.

  "Ugh. First of all, my Anima is a panther. And second……I'm going to shatter that flashy armor of yours, along with that ego, you narcissistic mongrel."

  Wow, she really was getting better at talking to people.

  "What did you just call me!? I'll rip your tail off, bitch!"

  For someone who talks so much smack, he sure does lose his cool pretty quickly when someone talks back to him.

  "You're more than welcome to try, mangy mutt!"

  She had come a long way from the quiet girl she had been last week. At first, she was only comfortable talking to me, then over the course of the week following our quest, she slowly began opening up to the others in our group.

  Come to think of if, I was starting to settle into this world too, I had initially felt a bit apprehensive and out of my element, not that you could blame me, I didn't have a single acquaintance who was even close to my age in my old life after all.

  But ever since we got out of that maze, I've been feeling more comfortable in my new surroundings, bit by bit.

  On another note, I should probably explain the layout of this training hall. It was in the shape of a large square, the fighting/training area took up over three quarters of it, while the rest was the sidelines, where we were. There were two large pillars on either end of the sideline area, and the entrance was right behind us, between the two pillars. It also had an extremely high ceiling.

  I probably should have explained all this before the tournament began, but better late than never, I suppose.

  Back to the tournament, it was Arg vs Persia. Huh, Cat Girl had a pretty confident look in her eyes. Unlike her previous fight where she just dodged past a straight attack and countered in the opening, this opponent could send out his attacks all around him, leaving no openings, to defeat him she had to get past the spikes and get in close to attack at near point blank range, but if she just blasted herself towards him she'd run into his rows of spikes.

  But it looks like she had something up her sleeve.

  "Begin!"

  Arg burst out spikes from the ground all around him, heading towards Persia, who rapidly shot straight up with her full power, the ground cracking at the spot where she had been standing, as she nearly reached the ceiling. As she got to the peak of her jump, she angled herself in mid-air and began spinning wind around the fingers on her right hand, before expanding it in the shape of large claws. She then blasted herself down at an angle, heading straight for Arg like an arrow.

  He began raising tall pillars to defend himself and jumped back, but as she got closer she swung her right hand at his defense, her wind claws scything through the rocks effortlessly and going on to slash away a chunk of his golden armor near the chest area. She then fired a wind blast at the ground with her left hand, to break her fall.

  She then dashed forward towards him and drew back her fist, as wind began forming behind her bent elbow. As she drove her fist forward, the wind behind her elbow turned into a powerful, propelling blast, drastically increasing the speed and force of her punch.

  Her fist slammed into his face and sent him flying back until he crashed into the wall. A couple of teeth fell out, and his nose and mouth were dripping with blood.

  "Er……you're disqualified due to use of excessive force, A wins!" Declared a bemused Instructor Tabbs.

  She……didn't look to mad, in fact she sorta looked like was trying to keep a straight face.

  Thanks to the rules, nearly everyone had been forced to hold back in one way or another during this tournament, especially when it came to striking their opponent. She used that to her advantage……

  "Right from the beginning, you planned on catching him off guard by attacking at full force before he could react, and sacrifice the win in the process, weren't you?" I smirked, as she rejoined us.

  "Hmm? I have no idea what you're talking about," She replied innocently, before giggling smugly.

  Kinda wish I had thought of that, I should have just fired my Lightning Incineration Canon at full force at him right from the beginning without worrying about winning or losing based on the rules.

  I mean, officially she had lost, but she looked a lot more satisfied than I had felt after my last attack had been narrowly interrupted.

  "You damn bitch! You fucking cheated, that was a dirty move! You knocked out my teeth!"

  "Why are you so mad……I mean you did win, just like you said you would……mongrel," I responded with a raised eyebrow.

  "Don't patronize me! If it weren't for these restrictive rules and me holding back so much, I would never have been caught off guard by-!"

  "But you were caught off guard, so stop making excuses. Besides, I never said I would win. I only said that I would shatter your stupid armor and ego. Which I did," She replied, smirking as she stared at his dented and broken armor with a satisfied look.

  "Don't mock me, I'll kill you right now-!"

  "AHEM! The tournament isn't over yet. Lehosa, you may head to the infirmary if you need to be healed, the healing Spell Scrolls they have can fix your missing tee-," Began Instructor Tabbs.

  "Um, actually it is over. I'm surrendering, defeating three people in a row is asking way too much of me," Interrupted Azyl, the only remaining member of our group.

  I really wasn't surprised.

  "Hey! Are you kidding me, Az!? You haven't fought in a single match today!" Protested Rai.

  "Why are you always like this?" Sighed Key in resignation.

  "Well……okay then, the results of the first years mock tournament, group A wins! Group D are in second place, C in third and B in fourth. Good work today, students. Dismissed!"

  And with that, the mock tournament was over. That had been pretty fun.

  Though the end of my last fight did leave a bad taste in my mouth. It took a while before Rai stopped complaining, but once he quieted down, we prepared to leave.

  "So, now that that's over……," I remarked, as we began heading out the entrance.

  "Ah you're done already? My, that was faster than I expected," Greeted the third year student.

  The others seemed unsure about how to speak to him or what to say. Was it because he was a third year or because we had killed someone who was probably somehow related to him?

  Probably a mixture of both.

  Well, no sense in dragging this out, I'll handle this.

  "Let's cut to the chase, what do you want?" I asked bluntly.

  "Well, aren't you a bold one? Alright then, I'll get down to business. I'm here regarding your run-in with Tahn Ragiu, my older brother. My name is Misen Ragiu," He replied curtly, "You see, our family is one of the most powerful and influential clans within the walls of the Rustlands, we have rather close ties to the royal family after all. I'm sure you were all warned not to spread any news regarding my brother's……alleged crimes."

  "Alleged, huh? So, you're implying that we made the whole thing up?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

  "No, not quite, I'm well aware that my brother was scum. It's just hard for me to believe that an Earth Magic user was killed by first year students inside a cave of all places, even if he was just a B-Ranked Adventurer. You all seem to have the skill levels of typical second year students, not to mention that you were able to enroll despite Instructor Liga Dile being assigned your entrance exam administrator, but even if you're strong, it won't make up for your lack of experience, especially against an actual Adventurer."

  "I don't know if this helps, but he didn't seem to be able to manipulate the ground or walls in the maze."

  Not to mention that I was plenty experienced from my assassin days, and Persia had experience with killing too.

  "Is that so? Hmm, the lower levels of the Goblin caves were only discovered a few months ago, and they have still hardly been explored at all, meaning there's very little reliable information about them, so I can't verify that claim just yet. Never mind, let's set that aside for now. Now then, no matter what the truth of what happened down there may be, the fact remains that my brother is almost certainly dead, and by your own admission, killed by one of you."

  "Oh, so is this about revenge? So what now, are you going to try to kill us or something?"

  "Let me make one thing clear. I, for one, am far from remorseful over my brother's demise, see he and I didn't exactly get along. And my family wrote him off as a disgrace a long time ago, so you're in no danger of getting dragged into a political mess. At any rate, abusing your social standing against someone with less influence is a crime in this country. So no, calling this revenge is a bit inaccurate. You see, the truth is……for various reasons that I'd rather not say, I had planned on killing him myself. But……you took that away from me," He said coldly, his expression darkening.

  "Uh……we're sorry?" I replied, unsure of what more to say.

  "I mean, I get it. The guy was a huge dick. He'd been screwing me over ever since we were kids, and I had been planning to kill him for a pretty long time, so naturally I'd be keeping an eye on him quite a lot, so I knew he was up to something sketchy, there were a bunch of times where he'd head out with a group of Adventurers and then return alone, claiming to have been attacked. I was going to kill him after graduating and becoming an official Adventurer, but you guys went and killed him already."

  "Okay……what do you want us to do about it? I asked you to cut to the chase, but you've just been babbling this whole time."

  "Watch it, first year. Well, this may seem……immature, but I'm quite frustrated at having my kill stolen. And who better to take that frustration out on that the ones who stole it from me?"

  "So, you want to kill us?"

  "No, not really. While I do want to……punish you for stealing what should have been mine, I don't really have any desire to kill you, I mean, I barely know you! No, I have something else in mind. You've heard of the Academy's annual tournament, The Brawl of Glory, haven't you?"

  He seemed to be telling the truth……I could sense animosity from him, but not full-on bloodlust.

  "No I haven't, but……what an awful name."

  "It's a battle tournament held every year for the Academy's students, this year's tournament will be held in about two months from now, the first thirty-two students to register will be the participants, in a typical knock-out format. The winner of the tournament will be guaranteed an A-Rank when they graduate and become an Adventurer, and will also be able to accept upto S-Rank Quests while they're still students. The runner up will also be guaranteed to graduate as an A-Ranked Adventurer, and will be able to accept upto A-Rank quests while still students. And the two semi-finalists will be graduating with a guaranteed B-Rank, and will be allowed to accept upto A-Rank Quests as students. This is a big deal, as students can generally only take on D and C-Ranked Quests, and Academy graduates will typically have to start off as C-Ranked Adventurers no matter how well they do on their exams, with those who barely pass having to start at D-Rank. Usually, only second and third years enter this tournament, but you current batch of first years are a lot stronger than usual freshman are, so you should be just fine. I could just beat you all into bloody pulps for stealing my kill, but that wouldn't be much fun, and I'm bound to get penalized for doing something like that. So, you all should enter the tournament, and fight me."

  Was this guy serious?

  "Are you for real, you just said there's only two months before it starts, and considering that the participants will probably be made up of the strongest among the second and third year students……I consider myself to be pretty strong, but I'm not delusional, I know there's bound to be plenty of people who are a lot stronger than me. And besides, even if we do enter, there's no guarantee that any of us will get matched up against you."

  "Yeah, you tell 'em, buddy!" Chimed Rai, slapping my shoulder.

  Don't call me buddy. And don't slap my shoulder, I'm way to drained right now.

  And……why have I been the only one doing all the talking so far?

  "Hmm, that's too bad, none of you seem that interested. It's not like I can force you to enter, but I suppose I could try and……motivate you."

  In that moment, I blinked, and before my eyes opened again, I felt a heavy impact send me flying back. What the……?

  I opened my eyes and got back on my feet, to see a rapid blur knock back each of the others before they could even react.

  Was that……?

  "You look surprised. I just used Lightning Boost, it's nothing you haven't seen before. Well, except that I just used it to triple my normal speed. Oh and by the way, I should probably inform you, I'm widely regarded to be among the five strongest students in this Academy, and I can hold my own against even most A-Ranked Adventurers."

  Lightning Boost……? Oh, the internal enhancement technique……guess it had a name.

  "What do you think you're doing?" I growled, beginning to draw my short-sword.

  He suddenly disappeared from my line of vision, and before my eyes could finish following his movements, he was already behind me, as I felt a hand on top of mine, pushing my sword back into its sheath. Damn it, I had barely been able to follow his movements, let alone respond to them……

  "Uh-uh-uh……don't get too carried away now. You're way too slow to strike me."

  Rai enhanced himself- or well, used Lightning Boost and shot towards Misen with his sickle raised, the back of the blade aiming for him.

  Misen easily dodged it and tripped him, slamming his body onto the ground. He then quickly knocked down Persia and Key again, who had started to try and stand up. Azyl was just staying put on the ground.

  "There, I think that'll do. Registration for the tournament opens two weeks before it begins, I'll treat you all to a repeat of this if I don't see your names registered by the end of the first registration day. In the meantime, train hard if you don't want to embarrass yourselves in two months! Later, first years!"

  With that, he left.

  "Who does that guy think he is!?" I snapped, slamming my fist on the ground.

  Damn it, even if I wasn't completely exhausted, I wouldn't stand a chance against that level of speed. A triple boost was a massive difference from a double boost, and I was a long way from mastering even the latter.

  "I think it's obvious what we should do, we should……," Began Rai, rubbing the back of his neck.

  "Enter the tournament and beat him within an inch of his life," I completed.

  "I'm all for that," Agreed Persia.

  "Wait, what? No……no, we should just report this to the faculty, he's unlikely to bother us again then," Objected Key, standing up with a groan.

  "Yeah, that's a lot less troublesome and less effort," Supported Azyl, who hadn't yet gotten up after being knocked down.

  "No way, deflecting this to the instructors will make us seem like we're scared, and that'll be like letting him win! Plus it's totally lame," Argued Rai.

  "It's better than getting into something that's currently way out of our league!" Shot back Key.

  She made a good point, but……

  "I hate to say it, but I agree with Rai on this. We'll need to get a lot, lot stronger over the next two months, and it still might not be enough but after what he just did, I'm not going to just roll over and avoid the problem," I remarked, making up my mind to beat that dickhole at his own game.

  "Yeah, same here," Chimed in Persia, nodding in agreement, her expression frustrated.

  "This is exactly the way he wants you to react! You're just playing right into his hands-!"

  "Then we'll just have to beat him at his own game! Honestly, this whole thing is stupid. His reason for wanting us to fight him is stupid. The way he went about trying to goad us into it was stupid. And letting him bait us is probably pretty stupid too. But I don't care about any of that. If there's one thing that I'm clear on after this……bizarre exchange, it's that I really, really want to kill that guy. And this tournament seems like the most convenient way to do it," I stated honestly.

  Truthfully, there was no logic behind any of this. His actions and reasoning were completely illogical. There was every chance that we'd all get knocked out of the tournament without ever getting to face him. And even if one of us did, he might defeat that person in an instant.

  His plan was flawed, illogical and stupid.

  But the way he had gone about executing it had worked. Right from the beginning, he just wanted to infuriate us into accepting his challenge. It probably wasn't something he had carefully planned or thought out, in fact it almost seemed like he had thought up the entire thing on a whim.

  He himself was well aware of the fact that the end result of this could be drably anticlimactic. But he went through with it anyway, all on the chance that it could turn out to be interesting.

  He was treating us like disposable entertainment, just like we were……er, what's a good example of disposable entertainment? Bubblewrap! We were nothing more than bubblewrap to him. And that really pissed me off……

  I wonder if this world has bubblewrap?

  "……I wouldn't go as far as killing him, but I second the rest of what you said!"

  "I second all of what you said, I wouldn't mind killing that bastard myself," Agreed Persia.

  "Even if you all feel that way, I don't think it's the smartest-," Began Key, trying to convince us to change our minds.

  "Look, if you want to stay out of it, suit yourself. I doubt he'll insist that all five of us participate anyway. After all, Persia and I were the only ones directly involved in killing his brother. I've already made up my mind, I'll enter that tournament. After that, whatever happens, happens. Besides, who knows……this could be kinda fun."

  And besides, I may have been in tight spots before, but I had never taken on a challenge in which the odds were completely stacked against me like this.

  I may have been manipulated into this by that prick, but I still couldn't help feeling excited……

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  Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Don't forget to vote, and feel free to leave a comment, I appreciate any and all feedback and criticism! Also, check out my Instagram account @aimdaqs for posts relating to this book.