Archer! Neil Cottenburg
Chapter – 49 Archer! Neil Cottenburg
"The last match was good but it's time to move on and invite our next fighters, Neil and Edward." After Max's fight, there were two more fights, and now it was Neil's turn to fight. He was nervous about it but Max had advised him to relax and do his best if he can't win just give up on the fight, or they will be hurting him too much. "Don't be nervous, don't be nervous, don't be nervous." Neil was repeatedly saying these words to himself as he was walking closer to the stage. Some distance away from him, Edward was also walking beside him to the stage.
"If it were a team fight you might have a chance to win, but with only you it is going to be an easy fight for me." Edward was sure that he can take out Neil without any effort, Archers are only powerful and useful if they are in an open space but here the area was limited, and there was also no place to hide for him. It was going to be an interesting fight unless Neil has something else in his arsenal to use against him. "I just have to do what I daily do and it's going to be, okay." Neil thought as both of them stepped on the stage.
Edward had a wooden staff with him, it was going to be a game of chase, one will be trying to create a distance to attack, while the other would be closing the gap to attack. The crowd was already hyped up thinking about this match, the announcer came back to the stage, "Are both of you ready?" he asked to which both of them nodded, "Then let's begin the fight." Saying that he jumped off the stage and let the two fighters' fight. Instantly Neil took out an arrow from his quiver and put it on the bow, while he was doing it, he was running backward without losing sight of Edward.
The crowd was getting impressed by Neil, most of the time an archer would be taking a steady position to aim properly but Neil was doing different, surprisingly he was able to shoot precisely. Neil released his first arrow; it was aimed at Edward's left shoulder. But Edward was able to stop the arrow with his staff before it even came close to him. Making Neil attack a waste, Neil took out another arrow after he had seen that the first one was stopped by Edward, after firing this arrow he quickly took out another one to shoot.
This time Edward was getting attacked from two different positions, Edward knew if he defends himself from one of the arrows then the other one would be defiantly hitting him. Rather than defending himself this time, he used his staff as a pole to jump in the air while both of the arrows missed the target.
But something unexcepted was happening at the same time while Edward had decided to jump in the air. Neil was already aiming at him in the air, it was like Neil already knew what Edward would be doing after he had shot the arrows earlier. This time Edward was defenseless, he had no way to defend himself from the arrow, and he wasn't even able to dodge it. Edward used his arm as a shield, but the unlike shield his hand was made up of flesh, it pierced it without any issue. "Aaargh," Edward let out a light scream after getting shot, while he landed on the ground.
The crowd was getting excited with every move this two were making. They had never seen an archer this good, Edward was feeling pressured by Neil, he wanted to attack Neil but Neil wasn't letting him get close to him. Even now, Neil didn't let Edward rest for a second, he was already shooting a bunch of arrows toward Edward. Edward spined his staff to deflect the incoming arrows and started running towards Neil.
"Why is he not giving up?" Neil didn't want to hurt Edward, he was anticipating that once he will hurt him a bit or put him in a tough spot, Edward will surrender but surprisingly even when Edward wasn't able to hit Neil, he was still continuing his fight. "He might have some hidden trick, it's not like it's his first time-fighting." I need to be careful, Neil continued to shoot at him and Edward continued to deflect his arrows. "He will soon run out of arrows, then it will be my turn to attack him." Edward thought as he endured the barrage of arrows that were coming at him.
Neil also realized what Edward's plan was as he was able to feel the quiver getting lighter on his back. But Neil wasn't worried about that cause he had a backup for this kind of situation, he continued his attack, and Edward patiently defended it in hope of wasting all of Neil's arrows. The crowd was able to see that both Neil and Edward were getting tired, Neil hadn't stopped even once till now he had continued his barrage of attacks on Edward. And Edward was not able to defend every single arrow from Neil, some of them hit him and he was losing blood while also feeling fatigued because of that.
Edward kept enduring it until he saw that Neil had run out of arrows. Instantly he put all his energy into running toward Neil while holding his staff backward. He had completely given up on his defense thinking that Neil didn't have any arrow left so there was nothing that can use to shoot him. But Neil was not afraid of Edward he was expecting that as he again raised his bow towards Edwards but this time there was no arrow on it.
"I didn't want to use it against anyone here, but I can't help it now," Neil said as something started to form on the bow, a bright light appeared on his bow and it started to slowly form in the shape of an arrow. And when it was formed, everyone was able to see that this arrow was entirely made up of ice. Releasing the arrow Neil was looking a lot more exhausted than earlier. Edward was rushing toward Neil and he was planning to use his speed and momentum to make his attack much more powerful against Neil. Now, seeing that Neil had brought out an arrow out of nowhere he was regretting his decision.
The arrow was coming towards Edward and he wasn't able to stop himself or change his directory. But thinking that there wasn't too much distance left between him and Neil, he thought of taking the arrow head-on while he will also be delivering his attack on Neil. He thought the arrow won't be able to hurt him too much and if his strike hit Neil, he won't be able to stand up again. He was already imagining himself as the winner of this match. But he didn't know that the arrow was not normal like the other ones before, this one was a different arrow. Because of the damage he had taken, he wasn't able to think clearly but the crowd had seen what the arrow was made of.
Edward got hit by the ice arrow on his thigh and the next instant ice started to spread on his thigh making him fall on his next step. It started from one of his thighs then it spread to both of his thighs and continued until his legs were trapped in ice. Neil got closer to Edward, he had also picked up an arrow from the ground, while he was coming closer to Edward. This whole time Neil was running away from Edward and the other one was chasing him but now he was the one who was getting close to Edward.
Putting the arrow on his bow, Neil was going to take a shot at Edward's face but before he could do it, the announcer came back to the stage, "You can't take his life or you will be disqualified and you will also have to face the consequences of it." The announcer said and Neil lowered his arrow, he walked some distance away from Edward and let the announcer do his job. "As you have seen at today's matches two of our newcomers had proved their worth to us. This fight winner is Neil Cottenburg." As the announcer said the crowd burst into cheering him. And just like Max's fight Neil was sent to the waiting room to wait for his next fight and Edward was sent to the medical room for his treatment.
Compared to Max, Neil had defeated his opponent brutally. If Max wanted to, he could have hurt his opponent but he chooses not to do so. He was just here to gain some experience in fighting not to take someone's life. But the surprising thing was Neil was feeling nervous before the fight but from the start, he was fighting way too well against Edward, he didn't even let him put a scratch on him.