"Looks like I'm up first."
With that, Jeremy stood and left the waiting room where Cassidy, Cane and Frytz were in. As he entered the arena, he met face to face with his opponent.
Isaac Rondart.
The two had a standoff, for a moment, where Isaac began chuckling.
"What's so funny?" Jeremy frowned. As for Isaac, he began to laugh even harder when he heard Jeremy's words.
"Oh, nothing. It's just, well - I know your abilities, but you don't know mine! The very fact that you're a physical fighter has doomed you today, I'd say."
With those final words, a bell rung and the match began.
Jeremy immediately sprinted forward. The way he fought was relatively simple. He focused only on offence, and relied on Desperation to take damage and grow stronger. Jeremy never finished a fight without sustaining injuries.
Almost as fast, Isaac suddenly materialised something. First, his clothes changed to military grade equipment, decked out in camo and armour, bulletproof plates and other stuff. In his hands, a shotgun also appeared.
Jeremy's eyes widened in shock.
Bang!
Luckily, Jeremy had reacted fast enough to block the slug with his broadsword. Unluckily, Isaac had many more slugs. And not just slugs.
Shotguns are known for their wide spread of pellets, after all. And a sword is only so big.
Very quickly, Jeremy was riddled with bleeding wounds. For some reason, Isaac's shotgun was much more powerful than a regular one. Even Jeremy's Apprentice Combatant defence wasn't enough to block the bullets.
Isaac laughed, and began to do a villain monologue. "My ability is called Army Surplus. It lets me have the entire outfit that any elite soldier in our Central Cities armies would have. It also gives me access to military-grade weapons."
He smiled. "Perhaps you can become stronger the more you're hurt, but so what? As long as the damage is enough to overcome your Desperation, I WIN!! And I'm pretty sure that military-grade weapons are more than enough for you."
He was right. Jeremy knew it, and Isaac knew it too.
Ironically, at this point, all Jeremy had was desperation. And also Desperation, since his second skill, Conceal, was genuinely useless in every way. Jeremy was still dreaming for its potential to shine through after a rank up, although he didn't feel too much hope.
As Isaac was about to continue his stupid villain monologue, Jeremy stomped his foot onto the ground, causing huge amounts of dust to billow into the air.
Isaac's face dropped. "SH*T!"
The next moment, his head was struck from the side like a punching bag, sending him flying across the arena. Jeremy's strength was now equivalent to an Apprentice Warrior's, 2 ranks above everyone else in the Tournament.
Except Cane, of course.
Isaac got up, his armour managing to take most of the damage. He grinned once more, though it was a little uncertain. "Hah! Even if you attack me, how could it break through military-grade armour? You're cooked!"
With that, he swapped out the shotgun for an automatic rifle, and swapped out the bullet type to rat-shot.
Simply put, he'd just created an automatic shotgun.
And with that, the end for Jeremy was pretty much sealed. Isaac continuously spread pellets to every corner of the arena, not letting anything out of his sight. His rate of fire and area of effect were too high, and despite Jeremy's Desperation, it simply wasn't good enough to out-heal the damage he was taking.
In the end, Jeremy lost in a disappointing way. It could be said that Isaac was a counter to all physical fighters, but Jeremy was hit the hardest. He hadn't lost in a fistfight, or sword fight, or even dealt significant damage to his opponent.
He'd simply been countered and outranged, making the fight feel like punching cotton. Truly frustrating for both him, the Northern Combat School, and the audience.
...
The next fight was between Frytz and Nick.
"F*ck yes! I can finally beat some sense into that ugly bastard." He raced out into the arena, fast as always. Meanwhile, Nick slowly meandered out, clearly not treating the fight seriously.
"Come on, bastard! Time to f*cking DIE!!" Frytz crouched down, ready to sprint at his full speed.
Then, the bell rung and the match was on.
Fwoosh!
Frytz immediately activated Hook and Rush, speeding toward Nick so quickly that he didn't even have time to react.
Pcchh! Pch! Pchh!
Countless continuous punches echoed out, raining down on Nick's unmoving body like a machine gun. Each strike let out a small shockwave, clearly demonstrating the immense power within Frytz's strikes.
However, after the 10 seconds were up, Nick still hadn't moved a place.
"Surprised? Hahaha... hahaha HAHAHAHA HA!" A maddening laughter rang out from behind him. Frytz spun around, only to see Nick standing there. He turned back to look, and saw the previous "Nick" dissipate into black mist.
Frytz once again activated Hook, barreling toward Nick. But once more, the figure before him turned into mist. Another Nick appeared behind him.
As Frytz was once again about to try Hook, multiple Nicks appeared.
1... 2... 5... 6.
Frytz stared at the intimidating display.
Which one is the real one?
This thought continuously bounced around in Frytz's head. Even as the 6 mist clones moved in to attack him, even as their fists rained down on him.
Then, he let out a short, sharp laugh. More like a bark, really.
"Haha, it doesn't matter! It doesn't matter if I don't know who's the real Nick. All I have to do is be fast enough to kill you all!"
With that, he unsheathed special katars which had been previously strapped to his back. Unlike regular katars, which faced forward, these ones were more like bladed tonfas. They curved like crescent moons and narrowed into points at each end, allowing Frytz to slash and stab.
"Sh*t, not good!" The 6 mist clones widened their eyes and repeated simultaneously. The next moment, they were already running away from Frytz.
But it was too late to run. Especially if you tried to run from a runner.
Hook! Rush!
Frytz once again activated his two abilities. But he didn't stop there.
Rush!
Rush!
RUSH!
Frytz activated Rush multiple times, which had devastating side effects. Of course, that stuff was to be worried about later. For now, Frytz was the fastest contestant in the Tournament. He was even faster than Cane, who was boosted by 2 Hidden Strength markers.
Slash! Slice!
In the next moment, all 6 mist clones were sliced in two. And Nick's real body was discovered.
Hook!
Frytz sped toward Nick, this time too fast for Nick to form a new clone. In the next moment, katar blades seemingly stabbed and sliced at Nick from all directions, causing blood to flow everywhere.
"ARGH, F*cker!" Nick turned into mist and fled, creating several mist clones as he did so. It almost looked like a cloud of grey fog.
Fwoosh! Fwap!
Frytz swept away the air in a blur, and once again locked onto Nick's body using Hook. The cost for using his abilities so frequently would be great, but he was willing to bear it.
Nick began to look somewhat panicked.
Even in his mist form, his body kept getting dissipated. It still cost him energy to reform his body, even if he didn't take any physical damage.
Meanwhile, Frytz was still hacking at Nick's mist body unrelentingly. It seemed like he'd never stop.
"Dammit, you're forcing my hand here!" With that loud shout, Nick suddenly dissipated himself willingly.
He created his 5 clones once more, keeping them in cloud form too. This made the cloud of mist condense and grow, making it 6 times denser and larger than before.
And then...
FLAASH!
Like the descent of a demon god, a blinding white light erupted, so powerful it seared Frytz's eyes. The light was so hot it even began to bake the ground and caused Frytz's exposed skin to begin peeling.
"AAAGHH!!" Frytz let out a scream of pain. In that moment, he'd had his entire body baked with heat and lost his vision. Such an attack couldn't even be called a flashbang!
Frytz collapsed on the hot floor, tears streaming from his eyes. Nick also floated down, looking noticeably less solid than he did before.
Now, he looked somewhat translucent, fading away.
"That move right there expended almost all my energy. If you hadn't used up so much already, I would've lost." Nick studied Frytz with a newfound look of respect on his face. "But still. The winner takes all..."
With that, the second round of the Tournament finished.
...
And it left a terrible look for the Northern Combat School, truth be told. Their first two contestants lost, twice in a row? That was really too embarrassing.
Especially after they'd boasted the largest amount of contestants passing the Monster Gauntlet. Now, their contestant number had been halved and was equal once more to the Western Combat Schools.
But that was about to change. For the next fight called up...
It was going to be between Cassidy and Hoffmann.
As far as Cane knew, Cassidy had been the previous strongest within the Northern Combat School's prodigy team. Unlike the others, who were far more physical, her ability was a mental one.
Nightmare, and Teleport.
Both skills were highly suited for combat, and both were difficult to deal with. For someone like her, perhaps the only way to deal with her was to be fast enough to catch up, like Frytz.
However, Nightmare still bode an issue for someone like Frytz. Thus, it could be said that her skills were well-rounded and covered most of her bases.
As for Hoffmann, his abilities spoke for themselves. Fire Control and Wind Control? That was a genuinely disastrous combo, allowing for Hoffmann to turn the entire arena into a hellish inferno whenever he fought.
Even worse, as long as he concentrated for long enough, he could create flames which could hurt awakened almost 3 ranks above him.
This fight...
It could go anywhere.
Cane was very excited to see who would win.