The masked maniac

Gertrude looked straight at the red-haired youth solemnly, as he seemed to be absolutely unbothered by the fact that he was being challenged.

"Was it arrogance?" Did he believe that he could beat Gertrude because he was ranked so much lower than him in the rankings?

If that were so, wouldn't he be categorized as an absolute idiot? Didn't he see that even though Jake was ranked last, he could still defeat the candidate Koa, who was ranked 8th? These thoughts went through the minds of the cadets and candidates alike.

But was that all? Was that the reason why he looked so calm and natural?

NO.

Few people in the crowd knew who the red-haired youth was; in fact, even among the cadets, there were those who knew nothing about him.

But Gertrude did, and Gertrude knew why the red-haired youth behaved like that; it was for one reason and one reason only.

CONFIDENCE

He had absolute confidence in himself, so he didn't need to bother himself about losing to anyone.

...…

He and the red-haired youth stood opposite each other as they stared at one another.

This continued for a few minutes until the red-haired youth grew a bit impatient and said, "Are we going to fight or not?"

"Of course, but first things first, would you mind telling me your name?" Gertrude said with a big smile on his face.

"That isn't relevant to the battle; I don't need yours, and I don't expect you to ask for mine," the red-haired youth replied to Gertrude rather plainly.

But everyone knew how arrogant those words were. It was a sign of disrespect not to tell your opponent your name before a spar, especially when your opponent might be stronger than you. He might just decide to kill you.

"Well, nevermind then." Gertrude didn't get angry.

But

In the next second, he disappeared.

"hm?"

"Boom"

The red-haired youth and Gertrude collided.

The exchange caused a large boom around the platform, but in the end, only one person could come out on top,

And the results were

Gertrude was flung backward, and the red-haired youth stood his ground.

Gertrude "coughed a bit.

And almost immediately, he stood up and smiled.

"You are the masked maniac, right?" Gertrude suddenly asked

The whole crowd was silent for a while.

'what? He is the masked maniac that ruined the nobles place of business? Each and every person in the crowd thought the same thing.

The noble faction was not only influential, but they were also very rich; how did they become so rich? Well, they did "business," and one of those businesses was the fighting rings.

This was one of the most lucrative ways to make money. For the fighter, there were riches, but for the organizers, the riches were unfathomable.

Normally, these kinds of activities were not permitted in the base, but the nobles found their way around it, and their solution was that

Only candidates would fight, and even then, they had to do it on the down low.

But a while ago one of the fighting rings in the firebird base stopped working, and at that time Frank and the others were out; if not, they would have heard of it.

A man wearing plain red clothes and a devil-faced mask walked into the place and onto the stage and said,

"Come up and defeat me; if not, go back to your dorms."

The people were in an uproar; they thought that he had gone mad or something and that the nobles would do something.

but strangely, no one stepped out to do anything.

He stood there and took challenge after challenge. He beat some people up.

Some got angry and attacked him with weapons, but he picked up a staff and dealt with them easily.

He was an absolute maniac, and that got him the name "masked maniac."

"That is the masked maniac." "Who caused trouble in our fighting ring?" One of the noble cadets pointed at him angrily.

The red-haired youth looked straight at the cadet and said firmly,

"Yes, I am."

He had no fear whatsoever.

"Good, let's see if you will be able to escape my fists," the cadet said.

He had lost a lot of money because of the incident, and it pissed him off. His higher-ups told him they couldn't act then, but now he wanted revenge.

"insolent!!!" A loud voice resounded.

And as soon as that happened, a heavy pressure fell upon the cadet to the point that he had to get on his knees.

"Do you think that I am thin air?"

It was the old man.

The cadet was overcome by rage; he had forgotten that the old man was present.

"I am sorry, senior," the cadet tried to apologize.

"Hmm, so you are one of the boys running the fighting ring?" The old man suddenly said

Of course he was in the noble faction, but that didn't mean that he was running it; that was an outlandish accusation.

"No, senior," the cadet said.

He really wasn't, but he had offended the old man, so he would definitely not escape.

"Well, we will just have to investigate that then," the old man said.

"Take him in for questioning," the old man added flatly. He then proceeded to look back at the center of the platform and nod at the red-haired youth.

The red-haired youth looked back at Gertrude and said,

"How did you notice that?"

"You are a staff user, and I use the spear," Gertrude said.

"Hmm?" The red-haired youth signaled for him to continue.

"Spear users, staff users, poleaxe users, and halberd users—they are all the same thing to me. I can smell them a mile away, but that wasn't the only reason." Gertrude paused

And then he continued, "I saw you that day; I was there and I saw you move; I felt your staff skills; I smelt you; I just couldn't put my finger on it until we clashed just now."

"Interesting," the red-haired youth said.

"So are we going to fight with weapons?" he asked.

"Hmm, this is not the time or the place for us to fight," Gertrude said.

"Our time will come," he said and paused

"Senior, I would like to forfeit this match," he continued.

The whole crowd started whispering amongst themselves.

One thing was certain, though: this fight was not going to happen. No one would fight against that maniac unless they had a death wish or something.

"I will allow it," the old man said; at least he had clashed with him, sometimes it was best to know when to go back to the drawing board.

Gertrude turned around and walked back to the line.

"Next," the old man said.

Obviously Jake didn't stand to fight; he had just battled and was injured, so he was skipped, and the next in line would be

Wilder

Wilder stepped forward and thought to himself.

"I have such bad luck."

He really did think the people in front of him were absolute monsters.

There was Jack, who was number one. He didn't even think of fighting him. People knew how strong Jack was, so they stepped back involuntarily.

There was the young master Yun's sister, who was not only strong but also temperamental; she would never let him rest if he challenged her.

Who in their right mind would challenge the masked maniac? That guy was not to be messed with either; he had faced off in battle after battle in the fighting ring but wasn't defeated once.

The young master Yun himself was a no-go area; they were friends, plus he didn't even know if he would actually win against the young master, and then there was his sister, who would chase him to the end of the world if he won against the young master Yun.

He could fight Frank, but there was too much he didn't know about the guy other than that he stood up to a sneak attack from the young master Yun. He didn't know much else, though.

One thing was sure: Jack would not let him go if he attacked.

He had already drawn with Joey, so he just decided to give up.

"I forfeit," Wilder said.

"Fucking coward," the old man sneered at Wilder.

"What did I do?" Wilder felt wronged.

"Didn't Gertrude also forfeit? What's with the double standard?" wilder thought

He stepped back.

"Next," the old man didn't pay too much mind to Wilder after saying that.

And this time it was young master Yun's turn.

He was visibly pissed that the old man had ranked him sixth; this didn't make him happy at all.

He wanted his face back.

He couldn't choose someone of low rank like himself, so Joey was out of the question.

"I choose you," he said.

He had picked someone everyone was expecting to fight from the get-go.

That is right. The person he chose was none other than

"frank"