The Tournament Winner Is…

“Oh man, I didn’t stand a chance,” said Khrom as he had just joined Kaito and Evona sitting in the crowd.

Khrom had just lost to Rina in spectacular fashion. All tournament long, Rina has been doing the same thing as Francis. Winning in swift action using one or no skills at all. Everyone watching the tournament could tell that Rina and Francis were the ones to beat. As long as they didn’t get paired up early, they were sure to face off in the finals, and the tournament organizers would make sure that happened.

The tournament organizer and guildmaster of the Giora Guild was talking with the other tournament organizers in this world’s equivalent of a sky box. 

The guildmaster was a handsome guy with long hair tied in a ponytail. His hair started turning gray noticeably, but it somehow added to his appeal. He is very popular with the ladies, and a lot say he resembles an elf, but he is human.

The tournament organizer, who also served as the headmistress of Giora's adventurers' school, was a woman. She had her hair in a ponytail tied up, and she possessed distinct, feather-like features across her body.

“S-so this would be the matchups for the fifth round,” one of the tournament staff announced nervously.

With the random pairings, Rina and Francis were set to fight in the fifth round.

“I suppose we couldn’t get that lucky with getting those two in the finals,” the guildmaster acknowledged with a stern face. 

“We’re going to have to rig that matchup, so the people don’t get bored,” the head organizer concluded.

“That’s what I thought…” replied that same staff member who knew rigging matches would have to be done.

Throughout the rest of the tournament, Rina and Francis never matched up until they met in the finals. Kaito, Khrom, and Evona, alongside the rest of those watching the tournament, watched as the two easily defeated their opponents. Now, the tournament reached its climax of Francis versus Rina, and everyone was excited.

Rina and Francis were standing across from each other in the arena as their fight was about to begin.

“No matter how hard they try to rig our matchups, we were always bound to meet,” Francis said cockily to Rina.

“Bold of you to assume they rigged our matches,” Rina responded, ignoring his slight allusion to them facing because of destiny.

The two readied their swords in preparation for battle. Something about these two facing off seemed way more tense than all their other ones.

The announcer, breaking the tension, initiated the battle as the two dashed towards each other. The expectation many had of a close-range swordfight between the two was shattered as the two’s blows were so strong that they were both launched back from the recoil of the swords' clashing.

Kaito was anxiously watching the fight, eagerly wanting Rina to defeat Francis.

“Francis used one skill in every one of his six matches, while Rina only used two,” Kaito analyzed in his head. “Rina should have the advantage if the fight is prolonged.”

Just as Kaito finished his analysis, Francis activated a skill. With the skill’s activation, Francis consecutively jabbed at Rina with his rapier. Rina dodged and parried most of the attacks, with only a few grazing her.

After Francis finished his barrage, he noticed his hair was slightly untidy and ignorantly took the time to fix it.

Rina was slightly annoyed by this and took the opportunity to attack back. Activating a skill called Dancing Blade, Rina attacked Francis in acrobatic movements. As she flipped and slashed at Francis with unpredictable movements, all Francis could do was guard.

Kaito, alongside the crowd, started getting excited as Rina’s attacking sequence was pushing Francis towards the edge of the arena, which would in turn eliminate him, but Francis realized this.

Before he could be pushed out, Francis found an opening and jumped over Rina to escape. Acting swiftly after his escape, Francis, activating another skill, stabbed Rina’s shoulder as she turned to face him, causing a piece of her armor strap to be cut and fall off.

“Armor truly doesn’t fit you. You should thank me,” Francis mocked Rina.

Rina didn’t get aggravated by his taunt this time. Instead, she pushed forward, causing the blade to go further into her arm. Catching Francis off guard, she stepped on Francis’s foot he was going to use to pivot back, which in turn, put him off balance, causing him to fall to the ground.

With the opening Rina created, she threatened to thrust her sword into Francis to finish off and win the tournament. Acting off the reflex of fear, Francis activated his Acceleration skill and ran away to gain distance, barely managing to dodge Rina’s sword thrust, leaving her sword in the ground.

Rina, who still had Francis’s sword stuck in her shoulder, pulled out her sword from the ground and slowly looked towards Francis in an intimidating fashion. She then proceeded to pull out Francis’s sword and tossed it towards him.

“What happened? I thought you were going to defeat me,” Rina taunted Francis, completely looking down on him.

The disheveled Francis picked up his sword to continue the fight. He then ran towards Rina in an unsightly fashion, as he was clearly affected by Rina’s taunt. Rina, disappointed in Francis, ran towards him as they clashed once again upon reaching each other.

“COUNTER!!” Francis yelled, activating his skill.

Rina was expecting this. She ducked under Francis’s attack and prepared her Pierce skill to finish off Francis, as he had completely left himself open.

Suddenly, Rina felt a sharp agonizing pain that came out of nowhere, causing her to fall to one knee. She was very shocked and didn’t know what was happening.

“What’s happening!?” Kaito thought as he watched Rina fall. “It shouldn’t have anything to do with her using too many skills,” Kaito continued thinking, as he tried to analyze what Rina had succumbed to.

Rina’s vision was blurry as she looked up at Francis, standing above her. He had an extremely devious smile, making him look like some villainous mastermind.

As he bent down to Rina, he whispered in her ear, “How do you like my new poison skill? Quite strong, isn’t it?”

Rina, realizing that she was poisoned by Francis when he stabbed her shoulder, jumped back to gain distance, but as her vision was blurry, she didn’t realize Francis was hot on her trail.

Francis, activating one last skill, slashed Rina in her head, knocking her down to the ground. Rina was still conscious, but due to the poison, she was unable to move. As much as she wanted to power through the poison, she couldn’t.

The announcer, thinking Rina was knocked out, called the fight, naming Francis as the winner of the match and the tournament.

Knowing that she had lost, Rina just gave in to the poison as she started to black out for real, but before she did, Francis left her with some final words.

“I wouldn’t have had to resort to this if you just stayed where you belonged,” started Francis as he criticized Rina. “Though it matters not, now you will be mine.”

__________________________________________________________________________

“POISON!?!?”

Kaito could be heard yelling at the pub; he, Rina, Khrom, and Evona were eating at a pub after the tournament ended.

“That scumbag resorted to cheap tactics just to get one victory!?” Kaito yelled as he continued to voice his frustration.

“Calm down, Kaito,” encouraged Khrom. “You’re going to disturb the others.”

“That one loss is going to cause so many problems,” Rina stated, upset about the loss.

“Don’t worry, we all lost, so we can celebrate together!” Evona sillyly suggested, as she was more interested in the food she was eating.

Evona’s statement got Kaito to calm down, in which he responded, “Evona, you don’t celebrate after a conjoint loss…”

After a bit of silence, Khrom started laughing as Evona proceeded to take more food from the table.

“Ahh! Evona, that’s my food!” Kaito complained, trying to get his food back from Evona.

Khrom continued his laughter, as Rina was prompted to start laughing softly herself at the situation. With Khrom and Rina laughing while Kaito and Evona scrambled for their food, the group enjoyed their night alongside the rest of the Giora Festival despite their tournament loss.