6 Preliminaries

Mother says, "They are letting me work as tournament security so I can watch some of the matches as well." I say,"Thank you, mother, for letting me enter in the tournament." Akane grabs my hand and then pulls me forward into the tournament grounds. We stop in front of a board to see who we are matched up against. It appears Akane will be seeded into the main tournament so she doesn't have to fight in the preliminaries.

I find my name in the preliminaries, and we have to win five matches, but if you lose two times, you're disqualified. In the event of a tie, both contestants will both win. Your opponent must be knocked out or give up to win no killing. Akane leads me to the rings where the preliminaries start. There are ten rings the fighter is put inside a thirty feet by thirty feet barrier so we don't interrupt other matches.

After an hour, I heard "Argos to ring six, Argos versus Dominex. It appears Dominex is in the top three most expected to enter the main tournament. I hear this as I am walking to the ring. I think to myself, "If that's the case, then this fight should be fun." I step into the ring and see a man eighteen years old about five ten. Looks a little above average in the face, short brown hair and eyes. He uses a buckler, decent leather armor probable new, and his weapon is a long sword.

As soon as I am done checking out his equipment, I hear, "Begin!" I immediately use my ki to burst myself forward so fast Dominex doesn't see me as I place my sword to his neck. When Dominex finally saw me, he sighed and said, "It's my loss, but damn kid, your way too fast." I scratch my head confused as three of the other participants dropped out, giving me four by default. But the fourth didn't back out and entered the ring. I hear "Arogos versus Gravitas." he looked about twenty-six years old, full plate armor. His weapon is a two-handed claymore he wields in one hand and shields in the other hand with another Claymore on his back. His height is six feet now, and that's really tall compared to me at three feet eight inches tall.

His aura told me he was a seasoned mercenary and has probably seen many battlefields. I smile as i think, "I am finally going to fight someone worthy to test my skill on!" I hear."Begin!" and quickly get into a speed stance and disperse my ki throughout my body to raise an aura armor. The aura armor is basically using mana as armor. While augmenting my speed and strength by eight times since I am still in too young of a body to use anything higher. It seems Gravitas has taken a defensive stance advancing on me. I burst forward to test his reflexes, and sure enough, they are on point. When I get close, he can see my movements.

He attacks with a downward strike. I side step to the left quickly and evade his sword but barely. As his sword goes by my head, I do a side slash to his right side. I cut at his side, and it lands, although since the blades are mostly dull, they only make non life threatening cuts. However, eventually, the loss of blood can render you unconscious if you receive too many.

He immediately brings his elbow down on top of my head as I pass by him. It rattles my vision as I push away to gain distance to recover. Gravitas notices and follows me around the ring, trying to press his advantage. He yells, "Charge!" and he bursts forward with his shield down to ram me. I use the same skill as we both collide the skills and cancel each other out. Seeing this, Gravitas immediately yelled, "Shield Bash!" I couldn't react fast enough, and he hit me hard, sending me backward into the barrier wall. I get back up, ignoring the pain. It doesn't feel like anything is badly damaged, and my aura protected me from half the hit.

Gravitas says, "For someone so young to be this skilled is something miraculous!" I laugh and say,"I have been trying my best, but it seems I don't have much chance of winning." I decide to rush him again this time when we clash my sword hits his shield and shatters. Gravitas immediately swings and stops when the blade touches my neck. The other participants are awe struck by the fight between us. I sigh happily and say, "I concede the match it's my loss." As I turn around to walk out the ring, the man grabs my shoulder and gives me claymore from his back. Then says "Here kid use this if you can. I want to see what you will grow into when you're older." I take the sword, but as it's too long for me, i have no choice but to drag it and say,"Thank you for teaching me in this fight." I bow and then leave the ring with a big grin on my face. with the sword drug behind me as I try to keep it off the floor, I curse to myself.

Once I'm out of the ring, Akane is waiting for me and says angrily, "I will kick that guys ass for doing that to you!" She takes my hand and leads me away while I laugh at her ranting. I say "Sis it's alright. I'm satisfied with the results of the match. After all, I was able to test myself with fighting a seasoned mercenary." She looks at me and says,"Even so, it's irritating to watch a man not hold back against a child." I put my hand over my mouth. "pfffffftt hahaha come on sis, you're just jealous. Someone beat me before you got to fight me."

She gets a little embarrassed and says, "T-That may be true, but i was really looking forward to our match." she turns her face away, and I say," If I don't lose in my next match, I should still be able to move on to the main tournament." Akane sighs and says,"That's true, don't lose again, little bro. I want to see you in the main tournament." I smile, but before I could speak, Akane says,"Oh yea, almost fergot mom told me to tell you to focus on your footwork. You're occasionally losing balance while fighting and leaving a split-second opening." I am slightly surprised to hear that since I didn't notice. I say, "Thank you for letting me know. i didn't notice because that's just how it is for now. My body is still that of a child and is hard to use, and it won't move the way I want it to."When I done talking, I turn to Akane and say "Lets leave it at that. For now, there are too many people around."

After half an hour, my name is said again, "Argos to arena one, Levy versus Argos. I look at my opponent and see a girl about twelve years old. She has five foot, dark blue hair, teal colored eyes, and her muscle was slightly toned. Her equipment is all black leather armor, with a black overcoat that went down to just above the ground.She also wore a plain white mask over her face. Her weapons were two daggers.

She appears to have a killing aura to her ki so as soon as I enter the arena, I enter a defensive stance with the blade over my head. But the big claymore has me really off balance for my small stature. I hear "Begin!" The next thing I know, i see two knives heading straight at me. I side step to the left just enough to avoid the knives and bring my sword down in a downward slash, anticipating her to close the distance. She does exactly that, and once she notices it's already too late, I stop the sword as it touches the forehead of her mask.

I sigh in relief. i could stop the sword in time and say, "You lost because you didn't try to strike from the side." She sheathes her daggers and walks off the arena, signaling her defeat. Then I hear, "Argos will proceed to the main tournament. The tournament will start in two hours." I think to myself."I really need to get a new short sword to fit my size, or I won't be able to win the tournament. I know the only reason I won against that girl is because I was right while guessing where she would be after throwing the knives. If I guessed wrong, I wouldn't have been able to move fast enough to counter or even parry her attack because the sword is too big for me."

I go over to Akane and ask, "Do you have a spare short sword I can use, and in return, I will let you use the Claymore?" She lights up and immediately hands me her short sword. I hand her Claymore as she gleefully accepts the sword saying "Thanks little bro. With this, I should be able to perform better!" I smile, knowing I gave her a magic sword that produces fire attacks when you attack using mana. Akane gives it a few test swings and says "It's balance is perfect although a little heavy. This magic sword is probably a C-class magic weapon, which is rare these days." I say "Well it's yours until I can use it properly, and when I find another, you can have the new one."

Akane pats my head and says, "It's alright, little bro. I already know you probably won't find another, so it's fine. I'm happy with using it just this once." We talk while waiting for the preliminaries to get done looking forward to the main tournament.

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