Chapter 8

Okay, I will go to the store before coming home… Pick her up tomorrow? I should have time, I will pick he… It's starting? I will call you back, the show is starting… Love you too.

Ahem, ignore that. Anyway, James left his room and walked down stairs.

"Good morning"

James was greeted by one of the staff.

"Good morning"

James returned the greeting.

After eating a meal, James left the inn and started heading to the arena.

After arriving James was guided to a private room where he will wait for the fight to start.

After arriving in the room James was left alone.

'The fight will start soon and it is against that girl. I need to find a way to make her surrender or just capture her, I don't want to injure the girl'

James knew that it was the type of world where no matter the age people fight and get injured all the time, but he just couldn't bring himself to hurt a child, and since making that vow to change the world and give the children of this world a good childhood, that feeling just became stronger.

James kept contemplating on ways to capture Lin without hurting her.

And finally, the time for the fight came.

"On one side we have the successor of the Xiao family and the biggest genus in Nest city, Xiao Lin!!!"

People started cheering when her name was called, since she was the biggest genus in this city and even a really big one in the whole kingdom she had a lot of fans.

"And on the other side we have the mysterious man that appeared out of nowhere with his weird technique, Sludge Monster!!!"

Surprisingly enough, people cheered for him, James was really surprised by that, the last thing he expected was getting cheers.

'Focus James!! The cheers are good but I need to be focused, this girl is extremely skilled, never mind capturing her, if I'm not careful I might lose'

James saw one of her fights and it was amazing, for such a young child to be so skilled, she wasn't as strong or fast as Bao, but she was way more skilled.

"So you're that sludge monster everyone was talking about? You might be strong, but you're going to lose."

The moment they both stepped on the arena, Lin started talking.

"You're Xiao Lin right? Can you just forfeit? I don't want to hit a child"

James asked, he really didn't want to hit her, but from the looks of it, the only thing his words did was annoy her.

"I will beat you up and win, and then we can see who is the child!"

James was a bit taken back by her shouting, but before he could say anything the fight started.

"Start!!"

The moment the fight started Lin ran towards James with her sword at the ready.

'She is fast, but not fast enough.'

James activated his new observation haki and the world started darkening from his prospective and the people around him now became colored, they were all white, but faintly he could see other colors in every person, but it was so weak that if he didn't focus on it he wouldn't see those colors and just see white figures.

When Lin arrived in front of James she swung her sword, aiming it at his ribs, because of the height difference she can't aim for the head, so she aimed for the best thing she can hit, the ribs.

However, with observation haki James saw it coming and turned his side into swamp.

Seeing the change, Lin stopped her attack before it hit and jumped back.

She saw the swamp fruit in combat before, so she wasn't surprised.

'With this haki I don't have to worry about getting hit'

As if not caring about the devil fruit abilities, Lin ran towards James again.

She once again aimed her sword at his ribs and James too turned his side, but what he wasn't expecting is that his inexperience with haki and complete focus on the sword will allow Lin to sweep his legs.

'Fuck'

Completely not expecting it made James fall to the ground and distract him from the sword swinging to his head.

'Ouch!'

The sword hit his head and it hurt.

When James went for a swamp capture, Lin distanced herself from him again.

Getting up James started considering what to do.

He was very inexperienced with observation haki which could have made this easier, while also fighting someone skilled that can predict his attacks.

'What to do?'

While James was in his thoughts, Lin once again ran to him, this time James was expecting a feint, so he followed everything, and again there were feints, though Lin was able to avoid the attacks everytime and so time kept passing and more hit and runs happened and James kept getting more and more tired.

'Is she trying to tire me?'

When this thought came to his mind he couldn't help but feel shock, the thought that all this was to tire him didn't even cross his mind until now.

"From your face you probably figured out my plan, but it is already too late, from how your body is moving and your breathing, you're pretty tired now aren't you?"

"When did you figure it out?"

"If you're talking about your ability using stamina, I figured it in one of your previous fights, after you used it a few times your breathing started changing and your body seemed to be a bit tired, so I came to the conclusion that your ability is very tiring for you to use for a long time"

James was surprised by how much she got from just seeing him fight a few times and other than Bao's he didn't really get tired, and in the fight against Bao the exhaustion can be said to be from the tough fight and not the ability, so for her to figure it out was really surprising to him.

Seeing James in thought, Lin didn't waste the opportunity and attacked James.

Because of him being distracted, he ended up getting hit in the ribs.

'Ouch!!'

The hit gave him pain and brought him out of his thoughts.

'I'm getting really tired, at this rate I will lose.'

The injuries weren't too much of a problem, she only hit him three times and they weren't really powerful, the problem is that he is getting really exhausted.

'Think James, think!!'

But no matter how much he thought, he couldn't think of a way to win, his opponent is too skilled to fall for his tricks while he is really exhausted right now.

Lin once again arrived before him, ready to hit him once again.

'Fuck it'

He didn't even have the energy to shout anymore and he just let Lin hit him and meanwhile he used his observation on Lin's body and he just tried grabbing her, when she tried dodging he changed his direction, Lin not expecting him to read her movement that easily, didn't have time to readjust and got caught.

"Finally"

Not giving her time, James covering Lin's body in Swamp, not allowing her to move.

"And the final winner is, Sludge Monster!!"

Not having the energy to stand anymore, James sat on the ground and brought all the swamp back to his body.

'I won'

---------------------------------

Meanwhile on the stands.

"HOW DARE THAT LITTLE SHIT DO THIS TO MY DAUGHTER!!! I WILL KILL HIM!!"

Shouted Xiao Cheng, the patriarch of the Xiao family.

"YOU CAN'T PATRIARCH!"

While Xiao Cheng tried running to the arena to kill James, the rest of his clan used their power to hold him back.

And so ended the final fight of the tournament.

Will James survive the wrath of the Xiao family's patriarch? Will he get his prize money?

Find out next time.

Cya.

(It is currently 5:18 am and the chapter will be out in less than 2 hours, I finally finished this chapter and I'm tired as fuck, I hope the chapter was good and I didn't screw it up because of tiredness, anyway, I will now read the chapter to make sure I made no mistakes if I spot any, and finally go to sleep, when the chapter is out I will be asleep, so I hope you enjoy it and good night or good morning I guess since it is 5 AM)