Chapter 50: An Incredible Contender

After the winner of the second round was announced, the third one began immediately.

Stroph was watching this fight with a great interest, for one of the contestants was a Magician, not a Fighter.

<Hmm, she's different from Karen, she uses a staff instead of book, and the looks it wields fire, not lightning.> Stroph was following closely as a lancer and a girl with the long black hair in the dark purple dress were fighting.

The existence of magicians was a real shock to him, he still didn't understand why he hadn`t ever heard about them at school, but no one but Stroph was surprised. Just as John had said, the magicians were quite common and widespread.

Remarkably, unlike Karen, the girl didn't summon magic circles, the fireballs appeared straight out of the air. Watching the battle Stroph noticed one important thing to do.

<The moment the fireballs appear, staff's red pearls light up slightly, moreover, she only uses Spirit when attacking, she's quite strong. It will be interesting to see her next fight against Lu Bao>. Stroph was absolutely sure that the girl would win, the lancer could not even come close to her, and his victory was out of the question.

Due to the fact, that Stroph and Lu Bao are in different sets, they can meet only in the final, but the fight of the girl and Lu Bao will be very soon.

…

"The winner of the third round is Ella Lawson!"

As Stroph had predicted, after a while the girl just roasted her opponent, leaving a lot of burns on his body.

Many fights followed, until only 16 contestants remained. Stroph watched each fight closely, but he saw nothing of interest, he thought that either all of the remaining fighters were weak, or some of them were hiding their powers, not wanting to reveal their trump cards early.

To his surprise, there was no break, and the next fights began at once, but he was not upset, for he was curious to see a fight between the strong Fighter and the experienced Magician.

"The next contestants are Lu Bao and Ella Lawson!"

After the announcer's words, the two contestants entered the ring. Lu Bao, as usual, was incredibly calm, but Ella was quite nervous, she seemed to be well aware of how strong her opponent was.

"Start!"

Immediately after these words, Lu Bao appeared right in Ella's face, but he had to step back, for the girl was ready for such a quick attack, and she instantly summoned a fireball in front of her.

Watching their fight, which went on for quite a long time, Stroph realized one simple thing about Lu Bao, and it wasn't that he was equal to Ella in strength, not at all.

<Huh, he just doesn't want to set his robe on fire, if didn't care about getting a few holes in clothes, would have beaten this girl long ago, some kind of circus.> Stroph was greatly amazed by Lu Bao's behavior, but right after these thoughts, he heard "Snow White Darkness" ` voice : <AHAHAHA, Look who is talking!>

Stroph realized that he hated to get dirty too, which made him feel slightly uncomfortable.

After a while, Ella was very tired, the constant use of Spirit quickly exhausted her, but Lu Bao was full of strength and self-confidence, and after a while their fight ended, but in a very unusual way.

"I give up." After these words the girl left the ring, giving the victory to Lu Bao. The whole coliseum was silent for a while, but a couple of seconds later congratulations from the announcer and countless applause were heard.

<Lu Bao really is quite popular, I wonder if can beat him?> Stroph wanted to fight Lu Bao in person.

"The next contestants are Stroph White and Julian Gallagher!"

Stroph wasn't particularly interested in his fight. He was going to fight with the magician, but rather mediocre and inexperienced one.

"Eh, I wish the finale would come sooner." After these words, Stroph stepped into the ring, where the magician of the fourth rank, using the element of water, appeared before him.

As soon as they stood in front of each other, the fight began immediately. Stroph didn't want to approach Julian quickly, and anyway, he intended to end their fight as quickly as possible, which is why he ran to the end of the ring and pulled out the "Lotus".

Julian was greatly surprised by his opponent's actions, for in the last round, Stroph had only used his revolver, but now he pulled out a rather long sniper rifle.

"Julian, surrender." After these words, Stroph loaded his "Lotus" with Negative Energy and fired right under Julian's feet.

His opponent tried to defend himself by putting a water barrier in front of him, but it didn't help him, because the incredibly powerful shot caused a small crater to form under Julian, where he fell down.

Stroph didn't shoot again, for Julian immediately admitted his defeat, and trembling with fear he left the ring. At that moment Julian thought only one thing: <Damn, if he had hit me, I would have been blown all over the field like a watermelon from firecracker explosion.>

"The winner is Stroph White!"

To the surprise of the audience, for the second fight in a row, one of the contestants ended up surrendering.

<Eh, ring, how much effort and time will it take for it.> Stroph's only target was the spatial ring, he could of course use his inventory, but so far he had so many coins, and he intended to keep only the most valuable and necessary things in his inventory.

...

The next fights passed pretty quickly, Stroph easily defeated all of his opponents, although he had some difficulties with one of them. But his main battle was ahead.

"Ladies and gentlemen, right now we are about to see the final of this wonderful tournament! The grand prize is a spatial ring, which costs one trillion sempets!"

The announcer warmed up the audience's interest, then called the two remaining contestants to the ring.

"Lu Bao and Stroph White, please, come to the ring and show us the best possible fight!"

<At last>. Stroph couldn't wait to fight Lu Bao, and he had already imagined getting the ring in his hands.

But, what he didn't know was that there was actually another hidden prize besides the ring, if you could call it that, and it didn't only apply to the winner.

There were some rather powerful and influential people among the audience, who might be interested in someone. Even if Stroph knew about it, he wouldn't be interested at all, he didn't need a teacher, Stroph thought that "Snow White Darkness" was more than enough, at least for now.

After a while he was standing right in front of Lu Bao, whose face was as unemotional as always, and whose gaze was very simple and calm.

"Well, hello, the strawberry dessert lover."

Lu Bao was slightly surprised to hear Stroph's words, but after a while, with a slight smile on his face, he replied, "Hello, pancake eater".

Stroph smiled slightly and prepared for battle. He was ready to give it his all, because he still didn't know one thing about Lu Bao, how strong he was, as in none of his fights, Lu Bao had ever used Spirit.

"Start!"

Stroph attacked Lu Bao immediately, he didn't take the "Lotus" with him or use the "Last Light", because Lu Bao just could dodge every shot, but that wasn't the most important reason. Stroph made this decision because of the advice of "Snow White Darkness", he knew there was little chance hitting an opponent as fast as Lu Bao, but he still had some. Nevertheless "Snow White Darkness" insisted that Stroph fight unarmed.

Stroph began to attack quickly, but Lu Bao easily evaded each blow.

His movements were smooth and precise, but also incredibly fast.

"And you're pretty good." After these words, Lu Bao appeared right in front of Stroph and struck him in the chest with his palm.

At that moment, a loud pop was heard, and Stroph flew back several dozen meters, flying straight into the stone arena`s wall.