by Pegaz
“This man needs to die for what he tried to do to Sarah.” John didn’t even turn to look at Frank. He kept his eyes narrowed on his target. “If I wasn’t as fast as I was, then he’d have killed my wife. Why did you stop me?”
“He’s an elder’s grandson,” Frank growled. “But that’s not why I stopped you. I stopped you because if you choose to continue, you’ll break the rule of the tournament that prohibits killing.”
“I will not.” John turned his head and glared at Frank. “The referee claimed Sarah had won the match, so it’s over. It wasn’t even my fight. This happened after the match, so the rule won’t be broken. Let me kill him.”
“I can’t let you.” Frank shook his head. “There’s also a rule that prohibits killing other members of the Sword Sect on our home planet.”
Darkening his glare, John knitted his brows.
“Fine,” he uttered. “Then let’s see how you get me to release this man’s neck. If you aim for any vital part of my body or try to knock me out, then I’ll use a technique that will stop you and I will kill this man.”
Silence.
The air was heavy with tension. Frank took a deep breath.
“If you do this,” he said slowly. “This man’s grandfather may challenge you to a life-and-death match for revenge. Even if he doesn’t, you’ll be sentenced to serve time in the same prison you visited.”
“You could always back me up on my story,” John shot back. “Even though everybody saw what happened, they won’t say a word if you side with me. This man and I were only having a friendly spar that got out of hand. Unfortunately, we could not get him medical treatment in time. There was nothing anybody could do.”
It was Franks turn to knit his brows
“You’re changing the facts to escape punishment,” he spat. “But I’ve got to admit that your thought process is beyond me.”
Sarah was standing on John’s left side. At this point in the discussion, she raised her arm and hit John on the top of his head.
“Don’t be so stubborn!” She scowled at her husband. “I’ll kill this man outside the sect myself! You still have an official match with him in this tournament, don’t you!? Punish him all you want, then. That’s if he’s still able to fight, that is.”
It was at that moment that John took note of a spark of Sarah’s killing intent.
She must have developed that from watching Benigno’s puppets kill those terrorists. Why didn’t she tell me?
John sighed and looked at Frank.
“This man needs a punishment for what he tried to do Sarah,” he said with a slight twinge. “What I did was merely a light punishment.”
“He’ll get his punishment.” Frank nodded. “He tried to kill another sect member on the planet, too. There’s hundreds of thousands of witnesses, including me and people from other sects. His action has embarrassed both me and the sect.”
“I can’t move my hands at all. Can you let go of my arms so I can let go?” John made eye contact with Frank, a look of determination on his face. “Sarah’s right. She can kill him herself outside of this planet. We’ve got hundreds of years to wait for him to poke his head out.”
Chapter 38
The Tournament Continues
“He will be punished, but it will be the elders that decide what punishment,” Frank spoke simply and curtly. “Nobody else can interfere with this rule. Not even the sect master.”
“All right.” John sighed. “I’m sorry for attacking you. I lost my mind to rage at the thought of what would have happened if I hadn’t stepped in.”
“I’ll forgive you this time because I would have done the same thing as you.” Frank’s voice did not lose its edge as he spoke. “But you need to learn how to control your emotions. A power you cannot control is not your power. Remember that.”
Frank grabbed the injured man by the collarbone and flew away on his sword.
As John stepped out of the arena, the grand elder who announced the matches walked onto the ring.
“Ladies and gentleman, the tournament will continue after a short, ten-minute break. We’re sorry for the inconvenience.”
As soon as they were to the side of the ring, out of the focus on the audience, John and Sarah embraced. For a minute, they just held each other in their arms, before Sarah pulled away. Her sparkling eyes looked up into John’s, very clearly asking, ‘Are you proud of me? I won!’ and her lips curled into a soft smile. John couldn’t help but return the smile, relieved and happy.
However, the tournament was still going. John remembered that his match was next, so he let go of Sarah, his gaze becoming cold once more.
“I’m glad you’re fine, but you let your guard down after you won the match,” he said with a frown as he climbed back into the ring. “Only time your guard should be down is when you’re asleep.”
The light faded from Sarah’s eyes at these words. She clenched her fist and hung her head, a sense of shame falling upon her. She knew John was right.
Ten minutes later, the matches resumed.
The poleaxe user entered the ring, facing against John. However, as soon as the referee shouted, “FIGHT!” he shouted, “I GIVE UP!”
Somewhat annoyed, John turned around with a sigh and walked off the ring to sit next to Sarah.
After a few minutes, the next match started. It was the spear user pitted against the woman with the greatsword. After a harrowing duel, the spear user won by a narrow margin. His speed brought him on top. Once that match ended, the sabre user walked onto the ring and found his opponent waiting for him. It was the man with the two short swords. This matchup was close; it took almost thirty minutes for the sabre user to win the match.
Round five was over and the point scores were as follows:
Tied at first place are John and Sarah with the maximum points possible at this point, fifteen.
Second place was the ruthless swordsman, twelve points.
Third place is the spear user with nine points.
Fourth place is contestant E, G and I with six points.
Fifth place is the poleaxe user and axeman with three points.
Last place is the man with the two short swords with zero points.
The day was over and everyone returned home. Inside their house, John and Sarah talked about everything. Of course, John was still disappointed Sarah had let her guard down, but he chalked it up to inexperience. He knew that she would not make the same mistake again.
When their talk was over, Sarah went to the backyard to practice and John went to the desk in the living room. He sat down on the chair and took out two leather parchments. The design of the teleport rune was one that he knew by heart now, so he tried creating his own.
It took fifteen minutes for John to create a teleport rune pair on both parchments. He didn’t know if it would work, and he didn’t want to risk his or Sarah’s safety in testing it out. An idea struck him, so he took the runes and left the house
John walked around outside of the sword section’s main city and found a cul-de-sac with a cluster of houses. Standing at the end of the street, he found mortals coming in and out of their homes.
These people must be the workers that run the shops, manage the farms, or file the paperwork in the admin buildings and get paid in the universal money instead of Life Stones.
Approaching a man on the street, John offered him a deal. If the man used John’s teleport scrolls in front of him, John would pay him either a thousand adamantium coins or Life Stones. The man agreed to the terms despite the risk and took one parchment from John.
The man placed the parchment on the ground, then looked at John who placed the other leather parchment a few feet away. Taking a deep breath and squeezing his eyes shut, the man stepped onto the leather parchment.
A few seconds later, the tester felt a hand on his shoulder. He opened his eyes and saw it was John.
Success!
Giving the man ten thousand adamantium coins, John picked up both leather p
archments and placed them in his Storage Space.
The next day, the grand elder announced the match lineup.
Round 6
F vs A
E vs G
H vs D
I vs J
C vs B
Sarah beat the man with the two short swords in the first match. The woman using the greatsword got in a lucky shot against the sabre user, knocking the man out.
In the next match, the spear user was too fast for the poleaxe user, who ended up being wounded and unable to fight. John’s opponent refused to step into the ring, forfeiting automatically. And since the ruthless swordsman failed to turn up for his match, the rules stated he lost by default. The axeman was more than happy to take the points.
Round 7
A vs B
J vs C
D vs I
G vs H
F vs E
The axeman and the ruthless swordsman both gave up their matches. No one wanted to fight John, and now they were avoiding Sarah, as well. Some people said it was because John would murder anybody who harmed her, others said that Sarah was as skilled as John. John was still angry at the ruthless swordsman and pissed off that he had given up. His plans of torturing the man were now ruined.
The spear user lost against the bowman because he could not block the arrows. The spear was too long and heavy to swing it fast enough to create any kind of defence, but too thin to use as a shield.
The sabre user’s speed triumphed the poleaxe’s power in the next match, and the woman with the greatsword won against the man with the two short swords.
Round 8
H vs F
E vs A
I vs G
C vs D
B vs J
The poleaxe user knocked out the man with the two short swords. It was getting to a point that if anybody bet on this double-bladed man and he actually pulled through, that person would become rich overnight.
Sarah had trouble getting around the great sword when it was used as a shield. When the woman attacked with it, it generated wind which caused Sarah to falter at first, but as the fight went on, she overpowered the woman and won the match.
The bowman won against the sabre user because of his lack of defence again. The ruthless swordsman was another no-show, causing the spear user to win by forfeit. He seemed a little unhappy for unknown reasons, but he could do nothing about it. When it was finally John’s turn, even before he stood up from the contestant waiting area, the grand elder announced the axeman had given up their fight.
The final round was as follows:
G vs C
D vs B
F vs I
E vs H
A vs J
This was the ninth and final round. The current points were as follows:
First place is Sarah and John with twenty-four points.
Second place is the spear user with fifteen points.
Third place is contestants C, E and I with twelve points.
Fourth place is the sabre user with nine points.
Fifth place is the axeman and poleaxe user with six points.
Last place is the man with the two short swords with zero points.
John was sitting next to Sarah in the contestant waiting area. He leaned over to say something into her ear.
“Let’s have a good match,” he whispered. “Use everything besides teleporting and the molecule edged swords when coming at me.”
Sarah smiled and nodded.
That was when John realised something.
“What are the other prizes in this tournament anyway?” he asked. “Owen was desperate to get us to join because of the sect master but failed to mention the rewards other than the Rank 5 sword. I only saw it as a training opportunity for both of us and I forgot to ask.”
Sarah had a blank look on her face. After a few seconds, she replied.
“I forgot to ask, too.”
Chapter 39
The Final Match
“Suppose it should be a nice surprise when I win the tournament then.” John chuckled.
“Who said you will win the tournament?” Sarah tilted her head at him, a mocking expression on her face.
“Me, myself, and I.”
“Well.” Sarah smirked. “I say I will win the tournament and you can find out what the second prize is.”
“No using our main or special weapons,” John grinned back at her. “Only the regular shop-bought ones allowed. All right?”
The grand elder was still on the ring after announcing the last round match ups. After he shouted pleasantries to the crowd and thanked them for attending the tournament, he thanked the contestants and walked off.
The first match of the day was the sabre user versus the ruthless swordsman, who was still a no-show. The sabre user won by forfeit. It was then the spear user fighting the axeman in the next round; everybody expected the spear user to win by a landslide, but they were both equally matched. After ten minutes, the axeman’s full powered attack hit near the middle of the spear, causing it to bend out of shape and become useless, winning him the match.
Next up was the bowman against the man with two short swords. This should have been a one-sided match, too, but unexpectedly, the man was able to block all of the arrows fired at him. The bowman stood his ground and kept firing, increasing his fire rate as the match went on. It took over twenty minutes for an arrow to finally pierce the man in the leg, which led to his defeat.
The next match was the woman with the greatsword fighting the poleaxe user. It was a close match again, as neither one of them could overpower the other. The woman was moving faster and attacked faster, causing the man to go defensive. From the moment he went defensive, it was only a matter of time before the great sword penetrated his defence. After ten minutes, her strike went through and cut up his left arm. The man could not hold the poleaxe properly without his left arm and lost the match.
John and Sarah stood up and walked towards the ring together.
This was the final match of the tournament.
The couple walked into the middle of the ring, standing only 20 feet apart. The referee walked between them and asked if they were ready and when both John and Sarah nodded, the match began.
“FIGHT!”
John and Sarah drew their weapons at the same time and walked towards each other. When there were a mere eight feet between them, they both attacked.
Using Toxin Power instead of Life Power causes the throttle technique to become five times more effective. And so, both their two swords were moving faster than the speed of sound, clashing against each other at incomprehensible speed. They were evenly matched in strength and speed, each parry balancing evenly against the other.
All that the crowd could see were both John’s and Sarah’s arms disappearing, then reappearing in the middle as the swords clashed.
The sounds of their movement and attacks echoed around the arena, deafening the people. Small, white smoke formed as they broke through the sound barrier, but disappeared less than a second later. As the match went on, they attacked more frequently. Because there were four swords breaking the sound barrier one after another, the white smoke thickened up, concealing their movements from the crowd.
Within the VIP area, Fred and Frank witnessed Sarah’s movements, attack speed, and strength. From what they could see, she was evenly matched with John. These were two people that they need to be wary of.
Suddenly, the crowd witnessed the cloud disappear. The sound of clashing swords were gone, but what surprised them the most was that both John and Sarah had disappeared, too. Nobody could see any trace of where they went. Staff members even checked the ring multiple times but found no signs of either contestant.
BOOM!
Everybody looked towards the source of the sound, tilting their head back to look upwards.
Up in the air was the same white smoke which disappeared on the ring; from below, people could see two silhouettes fighting each other.
Both Jo
hn and Sarah had gotten hits in which would have either killed or amputated other people in this tournament, but with the armour that they were wearing and their Defence skill, the regular swords could only bruise them. The other seven contestants were sitting inside the waiting area. They all wanted to watch the finals too but weren’t moving, stunned at the strength, speed and techniques of John and Sarah.
Alisha was sitting next to Frank, her mouth open as she gawked at the fight.
“How are they flying without swords?!”
Frank was staring intently at the sky when Alisha drew his attention to the fact. Suddenly, something clicked in his head.
John and Sarah pushed Toxin Power into the back of their ankles, causing their leg attacks to go through the sound barrier, too. Their shins clashed with each other, but neither could force the other one back even an inch.
With their bodies in physical peak, these attacks would kill anybody below rank 6 if they couldn’t defend themselves. These blows left no pain because of the Pain sense skill either. Both John and Sarah were on the offence, attacking with everything they had and ignoring their defence.
As Sarah attacked with the sword in her left hand, John let go of his sword in his right hand and grabbed her wrist. Sarah’s arm was travelling at the speed of sound, so it took a great deal of strength to stop it. He stopped her sword only inches away from his face, gripping her wrist as hard as he could. Using this momentum, he twisted his arm to the right which caused her sword to dip under his arm. Bringing his head back at the same time, he covered his forehead with the metal elemental and head-butted her.
Sarah lost consciousness.
John didn’t let go of her arm; he brought her closer as he descended into the ring. Though he was tempted, he didn’t princess carry her. That would have been too embarrassing for her. He didn’t care about other people’s view of him, but he cared about what they thought of her.
One of John’s blades fell from the sky, landing in the ring. A few seconds later, two more swords rained down. The audience could only wonder whose blades they were.
