Trial 10 "Battle Royale" (9) - 28

Morning came and the last player arrived at the center.

He was a burly man carrying two swords in his hands, a dual wielder.

Again, I did the same thing that I had done with Hope and Liu Zhang and had appeared in front of him and proposed to him my plan.

For some reason, while knowing that he was probably the weakest one here, he accepted without hesitation, well he probably had the best chance at moving on if he fought against one of my sisters, but he was still weaker than them if you based if off of stats.

I then went over to Hope and Liu Zhang and asked them for their response also, in which they said that they would also be fine with my plan.

I relayed the information to both parties in a matter of seconds with my high agility, setting the starting time for the tournament to be at noon today.

And thus, we waited.

Finally, at noon, we all gathered in a circle on an indiscriminate island under a cloudless sky, the hot sun beating down on us.

Who wants to go first?

For a second, nobody moved, but then, Liu Zhang and Hope raised their hands, probably implementing a strategy that they had thought up overnight.

I had personally not outlined a plan yet, as I was confident in my skills, but I still took some precautions on the off chance that one of my sisters were about to lose to the dual wielding guy.

'Well, I get to see a part of Liu Zhang's skills now and I'll also get to see how far Hope has improved.'

All of us spectators each jumped onto a separate island surrounding the tournament area, so that we couldn't collude with each other anymore.

I watched as Liu Zhang and Hope both took to a side of the circular island and got into their fighting positions.

Liu Zhang had a sword instead of his two sabers, but I could tell by his stance that he had definitely handled a sword before. We had decided beforehand that he wouldn't be able to use Feng, so the bird was flying in the sky right now, shimmering in the heat of the sun. On the other hand, Hope had two short swords in her hands, which was almost like her usual set-up.

'Judging from their stats, Hope would win in a second, but seeing Liu Zhang's stance, he definitely has much more battle experience, so he'll hang on for a bit before he loses.'

I clapped, creating a large boom, signaling the start of the match.

"BOOM!"

They both immediately rushed at each other.

Liu Zhang swung first, with a horizontal slash, but Hope easily ducked under it and launched a spinning hook kick at the side of his abdomen.

Receiving the kick head on, Liu Zhang staggered, leaving Hope with another opening.

She aimed for the shoulder this time, flipping the shortsword in her left hand and changing her grip on it, stabbing down on the spot.

Probably due to his battle instincts, Liu Zhang was able to dodge at the last second, turning the stab into a graze.

He then counterattacked, but Hope again, easily dodged him and this time, using her speed to her advantage, she sprinted around him and attacked his back.

Again, Liu Zhang was able to deflect her blow at the last second by swinging his sword behind his back, turning to face her, but she was already gone again.

A whirlwind started appearing around Liu Zhang, and cuts were visibly starting to pile up on his body, affecting his movements and slowing him down.

By the time the whirlwind died down, people without a high perception could finally look at the scene. They could see a broken Liu Zhang face down, sprawled on the floor, blood spilling out of numerous slashes on his body.

"Winner of the first round, Anonymous 2!"

(A/N: He's calling her "Anonymous 2" because her nickname is grayed out by her "Right Tear, Left Side Smiling" mask, and because she is second on the leaderboard.)

Although I had expected this, all the other players were staring with their mouths hanging open, as they had expected the way taller and more muscular Liu Zhang to win, but he was defeated soundly.

After all, although it took many words to describe what happened in the battle, it had actually been finished in just under a minute, with the result of a crushing defeat.

Of course, with her speed, nobody was able to make out all of the contents of the match with the exception of me, who had a high enough perception stat to see through Hope's speed.

Liu Zhang was taken back to his island and was given time to rest, as he wouldn't have to battle until next week, when his injuries would all be healed.

We had all decided to let the injured players completely recover before their next fight so that we could keep the rankings all fair. Of course, this would mean that our tournament would take about two months or more, even with our increased healing speeds from our Hp stats.

After Hope and Liu Zhang's match, I asked if anybody else wanted to participate in a match today, but nobody wanted to, so we decided to convene again tomorrow and set the rule to only one match per day.

With that, me and my sisters went back to our tents to rest.

The next day was again a cloudless day, with a bright overbearing sun.

Liu Zhang hadn't showed up at our meeting today, presumably resting. I then asked again if anybody was willing to volunteer for a match, but nobody did, so we drew straws that I had made from the reed around us in a matter of seconds, again, making the others fear me by showcasing my speed that was even faster than Hope's.

We all picked a straw and then held them palms down in our hands.

"3, 2, 1!"

We all revealed our straws.

A strange smile appeared on my face, but nobody noticed it as I was wearing my mask.

"Round 2 will be me, Anonymous 1 vs. 876."

"Bam25, could you please start our match this time."

"Sure." She said in a soft, barely audible voice, probably fearing for her sister.

'Come on! It's not like I'm gonna do anything THAT bad to her.'

I mean, I would now just beat her up a little bit as revenge for her treatment of me when I had dropped out of school.

We both got to our respective sides of the island and got into our battle positions.

Even though she was holding a giant axe that was bigger than my body, I could still see the look of fear on her face, which then changed to a look of defeat, as she resigned herself for her imminent loss. I mean, she had first hand already seen the gruesome treatment that the sandworms had got.

"Clap"

"BOOOOM!"

My speed as my feet left the ground broke the sound barrier, as I neared my sister.