Maybe I Have a Chance

Kaito stood watching the magic screen in awe. Francis wasn’t supposed to be that strong. He was going to be humbled for the way he treated Rina is what Kaito wanted to believe, but the truth stood before him.

“Evona…” Khrom said, feeling sorry for how Evona lost.

“How is he that strong?” Kaito spoke softly, not wanting to accept the truth.

“Unfortunately, this was always bound to happen,” Rina stated. “Francis is just under my level after all.”

“Why is he that high of a level!?” Kaito asked as he thought Francis would be too busy doing rich people stuff to train.

“Men of high standing like him are expected to be strong on the battlefield,” Rina answered Kaito’s question.

“Don’t let this discourage you,” Rina continued, aiming to cheer up the group. “This tournament is also a test of endurance. You won’t get far if you have to use too many skills in the early rounds.”

Kaito was feeling discouraged, but Rina’s point was notable. If Francis wears himself out via skills in the early rounds, even Kaito could stand a chance of defeating him. He just had to make sure not to spam skills himself, as he already did so in the first round.

As Khrom left to be with Evona in the medical room, Kaito and Rina watched the magic screen as the next round matchups were being displayed.

The tournament’s format was not set up as a bracket; instead, each round’s matchups would be randomized. Whether Kaito, Khrom, Rina, and Francis matched up against each other would be completely up to luck.

The round two matchups were set in stone. Kaito, Rina, and Khrom were all, once again, set to face up against someone they didn’t know. Francis, on the other hand, was facing off against the wolfman whom Kaito had defeated before.

“Wait a second, it’s that wolf guy!” Kaito announced, not realizing he was also in the tournament.

“You should focus on your matchup first, as you’re in the first round two battle,” Rina mentioned to get Kaito to stop focusing on Francis’s matchup.

“Oh wait, you’re right,” Kaito realized as he rushed off to get ready for his fight.

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Kaito, having finished making his way to the arena, was ready to face off against his opponent. This time, he was up against a woman whose whole outfit screamed ‘I’m a mage’.

Regardless of who he was facing, Kaito’s game plan was the same. Defeat my next opponent without using a single skill.

The battle started, and the woman immediately created a ball of fire, launching it at Kaito. Kaito wasn’t expecting such a swift attack, but he still managed to dodge it.

After his dodge, Kaito proceeded to run up to the woman in the hopes of fighting in close quarters, but the woman counteracted, running to gain distance from Kaito as she fired off more fire magic.

The woman’s positioning was good, and Kaito couldn’t get close effectively. It didn’t help that Kaito was unfamiliar with magic and how much damage it would do if it hit him. Kaito had to switch to plan B.

Kaito took out his bow a drew an arrow. The woman, reacting to Kaito, set up a fire in front of her to act as a shield for the arrow, but Kaito remained confident. He knew his arrow could hit.

Kaito fired off his arrow. It flew towards the woman with great speed, but it missed, landing way to the side of the woman. Kaito didn’t think his aim without a skill would be that bad, but he remained vigilant, firing off another arrow. His next arrow, like the previous, missed, landing on the opposite side of the woman.

The woman was clearly unimpressed and unthreatened by Kaito’s arrows as she confusedly dropped her defense. Kaito, acknowledging his aim needs work, put his bow away.

The woman commenced her attack, putting Kaito on the defensive again. He was stuck in a losing scenario and had to do something.

In a not-so-bright idea, Kaito drew his bow again. At first, the woman paid it no mind and was starting another attack of her own, but when Kaito suddenly grabbed all of his arrows from his quiver, the woman was alarmed.

As the woman readied her same defensive spell, Kaito positioned himself for his all-out attack. He sat on the ground and used his feet to extend the riser of the bow as he used his hands to somewhat align and pull back the large number of arrows. The woman remained on the defensive as Kaito launched a flurry of arrows towards the woman, which, in turn, snapped the string of Kaito’s bow.

The arrows scattered wildly towards the woman, some on target and others not. The woman nervously hid behind her fire magic, hoping no stray arrows would hit her. When she finally stopped hearing the sound of arrows, she put out her spell, thinking she’d see Kaito, but he was gone! The only thing that was present was Kaito’s broken bow on the ground.

From the woman’s blind spot, Kaito appeared, who had used the barrage of arrows as a distraction to allow himself to sneak up on the woman. The woman tried to react by turning around, but it was only to her detriment. Kaito uppercutted the woman in the chin, causing her to fall to the ground from being knocked out. With the woman being unable to battle, Kaito won the match.

Kaito, returning to the waiting room, was in a hurry. He ran up to Rina to ask her a question.

“Hey Rina, do you perchance have an extra bow on you?” Kaito asked. He was clearly alluding to wanting a new bow as he had just broken the one he had just bought.

“Do you really think I’d have a bow?” Rina asked a question right back.

“I suppose not,” Kaito mentioned, answering his own question.

“This is what you get for using a bow like that,” Rina lectured Kaito. “You can probably quickly run to buy one from Edwin’s before the next round starts.”

“Oh, that’s a good idea!” Kaito responded, then quickly ran off to buy a new bow.

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Edwin, in his blacksmith shop, was watching the tournament from a magic screen that was displayed in his shop.

“Edwin!” Kaito yelled as he slammed open the door to Edwin’s shop.

“Whoa there, son. What’s the hurry about?” Edwin asked, shocked by Kaito’s abrupt entrance.

“I need a new bow for the tournament,” gasped Kaito as he was still catching his breath.

As Edwin moved from behind the front counter to gather his stock of bows, he continued the conversation. “Ah, to replace the one you just broke.”

As soon as Edwin presented a few bows for Kaito, he started scurrying through the stock.

“If you were in this much of a rush, you probably missed the lady’s battle,” Edwin mentioned, referring to Rina.

“Wait, her match is done already?” Kaito said, shocked by how quickly the tournament was progressing.

Kaito was feeling pressed for time, but at the same time was indecisive about which bow he wanted. Edwin could see how worked up Kaito was getting and aimed to calm him down.

“Take a breather, son. There’s still half a round for the tournament to go through.” Edwin said, trying to calm down Kaito. “Take a moment to watch the tournament from here. Look, one of the tourney favorites is battling right now.”

Kaito looked at the magic screen and made a face of disgust as he saw Francis taking on the wolfman.

“Why is Francis one of the favorites?” Kaito thought to himself as the battle on screen started.

The wolfman, seemingly not having changed since his battle with Kaito, started another soliloquy before fighting.

“Alright, let’s get this battle over with,” the wolfman started his speech. “I have no time to humor you, pretty boy. I have something to settle with that Kaito kid.”

Kaito had no sympathy for the wolfman after he said that. He was in disbelief that the wolfman was still jealous of him. Now he wasn’t sure who to root against anymore.

Before the wolfman could continue rambling on, Francis dashed up towards him and used the same skill he did on Evona to defeat the wolfman in one attack. With a quick look of disgust towards the wolfman, Francis once again sheathed his rapier and walked off the arena.

Last time, Kaito was in awe, but this time, he was excited. Francis once again used a skill to defeat his opponent. Kaito was starting to think he had a good chance against Francis. As Kaito was theorizing potential strategies against Francis, Rina walked into Edwin’s shop.

“Kaito, did you find a good bow?” Rina asked as she approached Kaito.

Rina’s entrance swiftly reminded Kaito that he needed to pick out a bow. He turned around to browse through the bows while he responded to Rina.

“Oh, Rina, why’d you come here?” Kaito said, wondering why she had left the colosseum.

“I thought I’d help you pick out a new bow, as we have time until the next round,” Rina answered as she stood alongside Kaito to look at the bow options.

“Well, since you two are here, you might as well stay until the next round starts,” Edwin suggested, hoping Kaito would be more willing to take a breather with Rina present.

“That sounds like a great idea,” replied Rina.

As the second round continued, Kaito and Rina picked out a new bow and took the time to relax at Edwin’s shop.