Finals

It no longer felt like they were fighting for points. The look in their eyes reflected their sole desire to win against the person standing in front of themselves.

“On my right here, Lord Kaiser of Brimor. On my left, Wenzu’s Eboro!” Lodre spoke, “Please applaud these two gentlemen, and let us begin the finals!”

Everyone clapped and cheered, but the fighters didn’t hear them. The only thing on their minds was the signal to start.

Immune to intimidation tactics and such, Lord Kaiser remained perfectly calm in front of Eboro compared to those prior to him.

“Well, then… BEGIN!” Lodre said.

As soon as he started the match, Eboro’s eyes met Lord Kaiser’s. Looking deep within his crimson-red eyes, Eboro, for the first time in his life, experienced feelings unbeknownst to him. He felt light-headedness, chills, and most bizarre of all, fear, consume his mind.

He quickly pulled away and looked down before the symptoms worsened. Lord Kaiser, who was standing completely motionless, was waiting for Eboro to retaliate, but he never expected what the indomitable spirit of Eboro would do.

Eboro closed his eyes.

“Hmm… this might be problematic for Kaiser” Crod said, uneasily, “Eboro removing one of his senses with zero hesitation gives me strange feelings of foreboding.”

“We haven’t seen Lord Kaiser fight either,” Eskasa pointed out, “it’s a little too early to judge. For all we know he could be in a different league from Eboro.”

“What do you think, Atsuo?” Rivia asked.

“He should be fine…” Atsuo said tentatively.

Eboro closing his eyes made Lord Kaiser lose concentration as he stared in disbelief. Eboro used this chance to strike, catching Lord Kaiser off guard. Because punches have a short range, Eboro decided to test the waters with a combination of sweeps and kicks. Barely able to react, Lord Kaiser had to parry the kicks with his hands, before creating a little distance between them.

Crod sat up in awe as he witnessed Eboro’s martial arts prowess.

“Unbelievable…” he said.

“What is?” Rivia and Atsuo inquired curiously.

“Well, there’s a lot to be amazed about,” Crod said, “but the most impressive is his balance and the speed behind his kicks that he somehow retained even after losing his vision. He’s also able to keep Kaiser away with them while attacking…”

“An average person would have trouble standing on one leg with their eyes closed and yet Eboro is able to fight like usual…” Crod added, “clearly, his other senses are very polished… to the point were you even begin to doubt whether he has his eyes closed.”

“The power behind his kicks didn’t drop either,” Eskasa noted observing Eboro, “I guess we can see where his confidence comes from. He’s a monster…”

Rivia and Atsuo looked at Lord Kaiser, concerned. Eboro was way different compared to the opponents from before.

Lord Kaiser changed his stance. After successfully defending against the sudden sequence of kicks, it seemed he was finally ready to attack.

As Eboro went in for round 2, Lord Kaiser countered every kick rather than parrying or evading, however none of his counterattacks connected. Aside from the conditioned body, Eboro had a cat’s flexibility and reflexes, which he used to their full potential against Lord Kaiser. To say he was an ideal fighter would be an understatement.

Lord Kaiser was stunned for words as he wondered on what to do next.

His mind racing, he could only think of a single way to beat him.

Lord Kaiser started moving differently all of a sudden. He circled Eboro while saying something to him, which wasn’t audible to the spectators.

“He’s going after his other senses,” Crod smirked, “as expected, Kaiser is quite clever.”

“For his hearing?” Atsuo asked.

“Yeah,” Crod answered, “with unpredictable movements and sounds from different directions, he’s playing tricks on Eboro’s mind.”

“We might see the first clean hit of the match at this rate,” he added, as they went back to watching the match.

Lord Kaiser was getting progressively closer at achieving his goal as Eboro’s kicks went from barely grazing him to just swinging through the air.

Then, Eboro backed away, hesitating. Lord Kaiser pounced on this opportunity and swung his left arm, aiming for Eboro’s liver. With Eboro protecting his head, he left his body completely open, receiving a clean hit.

The punch was fast and precise. Intense, visceral pain coursed through Eboro’s body as his eyes opened and he dropped to his knees. Lord Kaiser squatted down, looking into his eyes with his piercing gaze.

The unknown feelings Eboro had experienced not long ago, surged through him once again. Strong sensations of fear and helplessness washed over him as he sat on the floor, incapacitated.

Lord Kaiser looked at Lodre, who was staring at Eboro’s horrible state.

“The Winner of the Boys’ Hand to Hand Combat Event – Lord Kaiser from Brimor” he announced, gesturing towards Lord Kaiser.

“Next we have the Girl’s matches,” Lodre said, “those participating, please get ready.”

After he finished, he turned towards Lord Kaiser.

“I’m sorry, can I ask you to help Eboro go back to the stands?” Lodre asked him.

“Yea–”

“That won’t be necessary…” Eboro said, getting up.

“Nice hit,” he said dismally to Lord Kaiser, and turned to Lodre.

He bowed, turned around, and walked to the edge of the arena. He climbed up the eight meter wall, back into the stands, exhaling and sitting back in his seat with his head looking up at the ceiling.

People couldn’t help but stare, speechless at his fast recovery.

Lord Kaiser smirked. He bowed to Lodre, and took his leave as well. With this, Brimor was now in first place with exactly 100 points.

***

Shortly after the girls’ matches commenced.

Surprisingly, the fights were faster than the boys’, with most ending within the first minute.

Rivia and Eskasa had no trouble in the first half, easily moving on to the quarterfinals.

Until Rivia got matched against Terzula, whose fights ended quickly, most of them in a bloody mess.

It didn’t take long for Atsuo and Lord Kaiser to recognize her as the person who was banging on the door, trying to wake Crollo up earlier.

She was big, with long black curly hair and dark brown eyes. She was aggressive and always seemed to be in a horrible mood, which caused the friends to feel worried for Rivia as they watched the giantess tower over her.

Terzula was already clenching her fists as she glared at Rivia’s uneasy expression.

The moment Lodre began the fight, Terzula sprinted at Rivia, who was pondering on how to stop her. She caught Rivia off guard with a front kick, that carried her whole weight and the generated momentum.

Rivia managed to put up her hands, shielding from the kick, but the force was too strong to bear, sending her tumbling all the way to the edge of the arena.

Before she could recuperate, Terzula already caught up, taking her by the hair.

“I res–”

Before her trembling voice could finish, Terzula started hitting her in the face.

The friends jumped out of their seats.

“LODRE!” Atsuo yelled, “END THE FIGHT.”

His pleas fell on deaf ears as Lodre remained motionless.

“TERZULA STOP” Crollo yelled, not far from the friends, but to no avail.

Terzula continued beating Rivia mercilessly.

“LODRE!” Atsuo bellowed again, “STOP–”.

Lodre, before Atsuo could finish, ran to intervene.

Lord Kaiser was about to jump over the railing when Crod took his arm.

“Let her take care of it…” Crod quickly said, motioning behind himself.

At that moment, Eskasa jumped over the railing. Her expression that always reflected kindness and warmth as she smiled, gone. Instead, in her widened eyes one could see animosity and disgust.

She ran down the slope of the wall, right above Rivia and Terzula.

When Terzula noticed and released Rivia, it was already too late.

Eskasa fiercely jumped off the wall, turning midair and landing a powerful kick right into Terzula’s head.

Everything went black for the giantess as she fell to the ground, completely unconscious and missing a couple teeth.

Everybody in the arena was stunned, with some fearing for Terzula’s condition, while Eskasa ran up to check on Rivia.

Crod exhaled nervously, as Lord Kaiser and Atsuo watched Eskasa.

“A little more and she would’ve snapped Terzula’s neck with that kick…” Crod said uneasily.

They stared at the bottom of the arena for a minute, before going down to join Eskasa.

As the friends gathered around Rivia, Lodre made an announcement before letting the group know how they are going to proceed.

“Cara, since both of your potential opponents are out of the competition, you advance straight to the finals. As for the next match, Charre vs. Soma. Get ready” Lodre announced, before turning to the group.

Unfortunately, Eskasa intervening in the fight, was punished with her forfeiting and forcing her to dropout from the rest of the second event. However, Lodre was kind enough to keep her in the competition, unlike Terzula, who was disqualified from the whole thing.

Crollo, who also came down, was notified about what this meant regarding him, and how he will now be the sole representative of his academy.

The fighters were escorted to the infirmary for immediate treatment, so that Rivia can recover before the third event, and so that Terzula was in the condition to leave Drezore.

In the end, Rivia was treated carefully and efficiently, ready to participate in the third event. Along with Eskasa, they finished with five wins each, granting both Folio and Revne Academy 15 points. As a result, they shared second place after Brimor.

A few minutes later, the girl’s finals ended, leading to some girl from Drezore to win the event. Lodre finished with an announcement thanking everyone, and instructed the competitors to head to the front of the academy, for the third event with Sana.