A Contest of Winners and Losers - Part 1

I woke up to the slight sunlight shining through my window.

My alarm clock hadn't even rung yet but I was already awake. I opened my phone and saw that it was 6:12am. I decided to get dressed and get prepared to make my way to the school. I planned to watch some matches before my match and quickly brushed my teeth in the bathroom.

**

I took a seat in the stands and looked down at the competitors who were fighting each other. The current fight was a level-1 water user against a level-2 electricity user. The fight wasn't exactly a close one as the electricity user easily broke through the water user's defences and zapped him time after time after time. It wasn't long before the match concluded with the electricity user's victory.

There were a few more low level matches which lasted for around ten minutes each. It was almost 9am so I decided that it was about time for me to warm up. Usually, student would enter either the weight room or a private training room to warm up, but I had access to Haven so I didn't need to use either.

I entered a toilet stall and summoned [Blood Blade]. I pricked my finger and I was subsequently transferred to Haven.

Ah, what a relaxing sight.

The barn was nearby and I kind of wanted to have a look at what the rewards I've earnt but I decided to not do that until after my match. I wanted to keep all my attention on the match at hand. With [Blood Blade] in my hand, I swung it around a little and got my arms limbered up.

I decided to summon the Skeleton Guard in order to fully practice my dodging and swordplay. It shouldn't be too difficult so it shouldn't affect my performance during my battle. I summoned it and raised [Blood Blade].

I dodged its attacks with relative ease and quickly finished it off with several clean strikes to the neck.

-

<Haven Missions>

Once you accept a mission, the monster or substance will spawn.

1. Kill a Skeleton Guard [Difficulty: E-] - COMPLETED [+420 experience]

2. Complete the Adagross Dungeon [Difficulty: F+]

3. Kill a Fallen Magician [Difficulty: E+]

-

The diminishing returns were quite steeply catching up to me. Anyways, now's not the time to worry about that. My battle should be starting in ten minutes so I needed to return to the arena. At my command, I was transported back into the toilet stall I was previously using to hide from public sight.

The time was 9:21am.

Participants are supposed to enter the waiting rooms five minutes before their battle starts so I began making my way over. The waiting rooms were basically like sport locker rooms at a normal high school. There was a relatively large space to stretch and leave your belongings. I stuffed the flashbang underneath my shirt and did some last minute stretches as I watched the clock in the corner of the room.

My opponent was likely in another waiting room on the opposite side of the arena probably doing the same thing that I was. I took a few deep breaths and braced myself for what was about to happen.

The clock showed 9:28am.

There was an announcement on the speaker. 'Can the participants for the next match please make their way to the entrance of the combat area.'

I got up from the bench and walked out of the waiting room.

I will win this match no matter what it takes.

Across the arena, I made eye contact with my opponent. Ten seconds before a match starts, each participant is allowed to make preparations but they are not allowed to move or attack the opponent.

I saw as Maiko gathered wind around her, forming her wind barrier. She also loaded her blowgun with a dart. I summoned [Blood Blade] and cut my left hand, feeding some blood to it. She appeared to be very surprised at seeing what I was doing.

The two of us watched as the clock counted down... 4... 3... 2... 1...

The siren went.

Immediately, I ran towards the large bollards in the centre for cover against her blowgun. Without a moment of hesitation, she shot a dart towards me. The distance was quite long so I was able to dodge it after looking at its trajectory. I managed to get my entire body behind a large obstacle and then I activated [Vampiric Scanner] to keep an eye on her positioning.

I could hear her footsteps approaching from the distance and I scanned the area every few seconds to keep track of her movement. I could feel a strong gust of wind against my skin as my [Vampiric Scanner] showed her directly behind the bollard where I was hiding. I raised [Blood Blade] and prepared to initiate in melee combat. However, just when I expected her to peek the corner, she suddenly stopped.

I suddenly noticed a strong gust of wind around the corner. I realised that she was likely trying to shoot her darts around the corner by using her wind manipulation. I kept the blade of my sword near my neck so I wouldn't get shot in the neck. Several darts flew around the corner and right past my body, I could feel the breeze as they hurtled past me. All of a sudden one landed directly on my thigh and its sharp point stabbed right into my leg.

Ow.

A little bit of blood dribbled out of the wound.

I was just a sitting duck behind this corner. I was going to have to peek and engage her if I wanted to win this fight. I used [Vampiric Scanner] on last time to confirm her position. Pushing off my legs, I jumped around the corner and charged straight towards her. Now I was less than five metres away from her. She quickly stuck the blowgun in her mouth and prepared to fire another dart at me.

I couldn't continue to dash towards her and I was forced to stop and block the dart with my sword. In such a short distance, neither of us really had control of what was going on, by pure chance, I managed to block her first dart. It bounced off my blade and straight onto the ground.