10 Chapter 10: Duel Between Martial Artists

Five minutes later, Lake managed to convince Leah to loan him a thousand dollars, which is a considerable sum, but Lake wasn't too surprised as he already knew how rich her family was.

While Lake was placing his bet, he also saw Evelyn following after him and placing a bet on Mr. Don winning.

"Bastard, not only are you shameless enough to borrow money to bet, you are also going to drag Evelyn down with you." Leah said as she looked at Lake with disdain.

"Don't worry, I'll be sure to return your money two folds over after this match ends." Lake said as he laughed.

"Hmph, I hope you know if you can't pay me back, I'm going to place you in my debt." Leah said as she folded her arms.

"Very well, then let's go one step further since we're already betting like this. If I lose, I'll be placed in your debt and will follow your every command until I pay it off. However, If I win, I'll only have to pay back the one thousand dollars I borrowed instead of the two thousand that was promised."

Leah thought about it for a bit and found she had nothing to lose by taking this bet. After a short pause, she nodded her head to Lake to show that she accepted the bet.

Evelyn who had witnessed all this was beginning to regret letting these two meet each other as she sat between them, releasing a soft sigh.

After the bets had been finalized, Mike quickly began to speak.

"Alright ladies and gentlemen, the bets have been placed and without further ado, let us quickly get this duel underway!" Mike spoke as he stepped back towards the edge of the arena.

After asking if both participants were ready and getting their response, Mike quickly exited the arena as he announced the start of the match.

At this point, Lake sat up straight as he paid full attention to the battle about to commence. Although Lake could already predict the outcome thanks to his skill, he still isn't able to see what exactly will happen in the future. This match can be decided in the blink of an eye and Lake didn't want to miss any of it as this battle as it can help him to gain insight into the martial realms and the power that they possess.

At the start of the match the two warriors stood fifty meters apart as they both stared at each other. Both of them were calculating and looking for the perfect opportunity to strike. Romero held his spear tightly as he pointed the tip towards Don, who held his longsword with both hands as he calmly stared back at him.

It didn't take long for someone to make the first move, as Romero held up his spear as he dashed towards Don at an incredible speed, covering the distance in the blink of an eye.

As Romero arrived in front of Don, he thrusted his spear forward, releasing a deafening roar throughout the arena as the wind itself was pierced, causing the spectators blood to boil as they tried to contain their excitement.

It is worth noting that Romero is currently the crowd's favorite with most people betting on him winning. Most people right now were already counting the money that they have yet to win as they watched the spear approach Don, who had yet to make a move.

When the spear was only a few inches away from Don's chest, he suddenly made his first move as he quickly raised his longsword to barely deflect Romero's spear to the side.

Romero, seeing his spear deflected, didn't think much about it as he didn't give Don the chance to attack back. Using the momentum from the deflect, Romero spun his spear around as he quickly swept his spear down.

Don sidestepped as he narrowly dodged Romero's attack that slammed into the ground, creating a loud boom as a small crater appeared in the ground.

At this point, Lake saw a faint blue glow wrap around Don's longsword as he swung it at Romero's side with astonishing speed.

Romero also spotted the glow as he quickly repositioned himself, placing his spear to his side as a blue glow also covered his spear.

*BOOM*

A loud shockwave was released under the collision of the two weapons as both fighters were forced to take a couple steps backwards. The two weapons were now covered in a light blue glow as they took a moment to reposition themselves.

Lake, who was observing the battle, immediately recognized the light blue glow to be the mystical energy unique to hunters, Mana.

Looking at the Mana that wrapped around the two hunters' weapons, Lake and the crowd were beginning to feel excited as they knew that the competitors were finally starting to get serious.

Soon the two hunters began to exchange various blows, blasting shockwaves through the arena every time their weapons clashed. The massive power within the two warriors' strikes led to pieces of the arena being destroyed every time one of their attacks missed.

Lake was paying full attention as he tried to analyze as much information as possible, hoping to learn something from watching the two hunters engage in combat against each other. After watching the two hunters fight for a while, Lake was beginning to get a small understanding of the two hunter's fighting style and strengths.

Romero's attacks were heavy and powerful. Every attack would leave behind a crater each time it hit the ground and cause huge gusts of wind when he swung his spear. He was extremely aggressive in his attacking style, always trying to maintain the pressure he was applying, not giving his opponent the chance to fight back.

On the other hand, Don was swift and calculating in his movements. Although his attacks were not as powerful as Romero's, they were much more accurate, often placing Romero in a position where it was hard to dodge. When he was defending against Romero's attacks, he often chose to dodge or deflect the attack, never blocking the full force of Romero's blows.

From this observation, Lake used the stats from the system for a reference and roughly figured out how the two hunters compared to one another. Romero has a slightly higher strength compared to Don, giving him the edge in frontal assaults. However, his agility is lower than Don's, causing his attacks to often miss or be blocked. If not for his aggressive attack style, Don would have claimed the advantage with his speed. The last three stats were stamina, mana strength, and mana capacity. These were the three stats that Lake had a hard time judging from just watching the battle in front of him. However, thanks to his ability to see through the past, he was able to roughly figure out who held the advantage in these stats.

Romero held the advantage in stamina, which would allow him to continue this fight until Don started to get exhausted, causing his speed to slow down. Once that happened, Romero would hold the advantage and victory would be guaranteed at that point.

As the fight between the two hunters progressed, Lake watched as the battle went roughly the same as what he predicted. At this point, Don was starting to slow down as Romero continued to press the advantage.

"Looks like you're going to lose." Leah said to Lake as she smirked, "I hope you like being a slave, because that's how I'm going to treat you after this match is over."

Hearing her words, Lake didn't say anything as he simply smiled.

Although Romero held the advantage in the overall battle situation, Lake knew he was destined to lose this battle.

"Especially if he continued to use his current weapon and technique." Lake silently thought to himself as he looked at the threads of fate that intertwined to form a unique shape.

After a short while, the battle looked as if it was drawing to a close as Don was slowly pushed into a corner.

At this point, Romero backed up a small amount as he lowered his spear to face Don's feet.

"You better surrender now, Don. I'm not going to hold back anymore. My next attack is going to be my family's Nine Heaven Spear technique." Romero said to Don as he began to pour a unique mana into his spear, causing the mana to turn a bright white color as it released a blinding light.

Seeing this, Don's eye's flashed a small glint, as he simply smiled and raised his sword in response.

Romero didn't say anything after seeing Don's response as he rushed forward to finish the match.

Everyone in the audience was watching this scene with bated breaths as they watched the white light from Romero's spear release a bright flash, causing everyone in the audience to go temporarily blind as they instinctively turned to look away from the light.

Lake had already predicted the white flash that was to come and had already closed his eyes before. When he opened his eyes again, all he could see was the predicted results of this match.

"W-What? What happened?" The people in the audience had gained back their sight as they quickly turned their head to see the scene on the stage. However, when they saw the scene before them, they doubted whether or not their visions truly had returned or if they were simply seeing an illusion.

On the stage, Romero had fallen to the ground as his spear was thrown to the side. He had a big slash mark on his battle suit that was currently flashing red. The surrounding floor around the two had been charred black as what seems to be the embers of a destructive fire danced in the air.

At this point, the announcer, Mike, who had remained silent throughout the entire match because he couldn't keep up with the duel between the two came back to his senses as he looked at the scene before him.

Quickly he picked up his microphone as he shakily spoke into it, "T-The winner has been decided… This match ends… in the victory of The Fire Sword, Don!"