78 Tournament Start

It's the day of the tournament, the week leading up to this day went by in a blink of an eye, mostly due to Ellena's visit restoring a good amount of hope back into my life, especially knowing that she went through child birth smoothly and that my baby girl Hope was born healthy, and as of the day arrives, all of the participants are sitting down in a room waiting around for the first fight to start, I then think to myself.

"I need to make sure that, I don't use wolf's rage in this tournament at all, even if I fight Selshruuk."

Ulrrek finally steps into the room with us and makes an announcement.

"I'm going to explain the rules of this tournament;

first rule since all of you have your mana blocked every fight will be physical, second rule, the winner is determined when an opponent is incapacitated or when they declare forfeit, and the third and last rule, no killing."

he pauses and continues.

"now you animals may kill each other once the tournament is over if you wish to, but not during the actual tournament, so keep that in mind."

he then asks.

"any questions?"

a dwarf asks.

"are we going to be able to watch the fights while we wait for ours?"

Ulrrek answers.

"yes, you'll be able to see them through this glass."

he approaches the wall and presses a button, which causes the wall to slide up, revealing a huge glass window that let's see the fighting stage and arena, I then think to myself.

"they must really like these tournaments if they went to all the trouble in making an actual arena in this prison."

after revealing the huge glass window, a Lizardman then asks.

"how are the other inmates going to watch these fights?"

Ulrrek answers as he points to the glass.

"they will all be sitting in that arena."

I then ask in my mind.

"holy shit, is the arena really the big?"

he then looks around and says.

"great it looks like we don't have any more questions, so let's start this tournament."

I approach the glass window so I can look through it and I see a huge crowd of inmates filling up the empty seats, I look around some more and also see many orc guards keep in everyone in order, I then think to myself.

"I don't see Felnor or Aktosh from here, maybe once I'm on the fighting stage, I can at least spot them."

Ulrrek then shouts.

"prisoner number one, eight, one, two, nine and prisoner number four, zero, three, eight, three, you guys are first."

a dwarf and lizardman approach Ulrrek, and then he tells two orc guards to lead the participants to the fighting stage, and while they left the rest of us turn our attention to the glass window so that we can watch their fight, I then ask.

"will we be able to hear them talk?"

Ulrrek answers.

"unless they're shouting, you won't be able to hear them."

I then think to myself.

"either way it doesn't matter, I need to pay close attention on how these guys fight, and see how they fight physically without the assistance of magic."

the dwarf and lizardman finally arrive at the fighting stage but Ulrrek announces over a public announcement system.

"before the first match officially begins, we still need to wait for everyone to finish finding their seats."

while we are waiting for the start of the match, everyone begins talk about who will win this fight, except for Selshruuk who is just staring blankly, uninterested with what's going on around us, and as I'm about to ask him something, the orc from the other day, puts his hand on my shoulder and asks with a smug look.

"so what do you say human, are you willing to avoid embarrassment and withdraw from out match and hand me a victory."

I respond with my eyebrows twitching with anger

"well I gave it some thought, and decided that I'm not going to withdraw from the match."

he pokes me in the chest and says.

"it looks like you have a death wish human kid, well it's fine either way, because at least I'll get to have some fun, before I get some serious competition."

and before I get to rebuttal, Ulrrek interrupts and announces over the public announcement system.

"I've gotten word that everyone has found their seats, so with that in mind let's officially start the first match, prisoner number one, eight, one, two, nine versus prisoner number four, zero, three, eight, three!"

I then slap the orc's hand away from my chest and say to him.

"we'll settle this when it's our turn to fight, for right now I want to pay attention on how the rest of the competition will look like."

he snarls and replies.

"you'll pay for that you stupid human."

and then an orc guard shouts a warning to us

"you two save it for your fight!"

I then grin and say to him.

"you heard him, save it for our fight."

he grunts with anger and then heads over to the glass window to watch the fight, and as I also approach the window, I see that the fight has already started, and as I see them trading punches, I think think to myself.

"there is no technique to their fighting, they are just throwing hard punches around, and are not even trying to block any of them."

even though I think that, they both seem to be taking punches just fine, and as I continue to pay attention the fight, someone taps on my shoulder, I then turn around and see a human man looking at me worried, he then asks me.

"how are we supposed to fight against these savages?"

I answer slightly agitated.

"what do you mean?"

he replies.

"you know what I mean, we shouldn't have to degrade ourselves into fighting with our fists."

I then ask him.

"what about the hero Arthur, he was physically strong and fought with his fists?"

he responds with a bit of disgust in his voice.

"yeah but he was a special case, and just like they said in the magical academy, Arthur is not a shining example of what a hero should aspire to be."

I respond.

"but he helped turned the tide of the war."

after saying that, whatever worried expression he had on his face changed, into a stare of contempt as he asks.

"don't tell me you're one of those crazies that admire Arthur?"

I reply annoyed.

"it doesn't matter to you on who I admire, because it's none of your damn business."

he keeps staring at me with more contempt, and then after a few moments of silence, he then says to me with a serious tone.

"I hope you win you match, number seven, zero, two, nine, seven, because you'll be facing me if you win yours."

I then stare him down and respond with anger in my voice.

"then you better prepare to fight like a savage, because that's the only way your going to face me."

and as I finish saying that Ulrrek announces.

"and the winner is number four, zero, three, eight, three."

I turn to towards the glass window and see that Lizardman is still standing, while the dwarf is on the floor knocked out, I then think to myself.

"alright don't get distracted anymore Collin, you need to pay attention to these next fights."