Group fight, easy money

As soon as the gates were all raised, most of the contestants rushed into the center and clashed in combat. Asher was much more careful in his approach. He had no idea who might be making an attempt on his life out of the group.

As expected from the over eager rush of contestants, several of them fell within the first few minutes of combat. Asher hung back, watching from the sidelines as more clashes ensued. Just as he had guessed, there were three opponents staring him down. One of them was taken into a fight of his own.

With two enemies approaching him, Asher found it hard to believe that they were actually there for the tournament. There were at least a dozen distracted fighters all over the arena, locked in combat, yet they chose to go after Asher who was completely aware of them coming straight for him. With a smile, he taunted them, "I've got no use for waste like you."

They didn't even let him finish his sentence before they rushed in. Within seconds, they were both swinging wildly. Asher was glad he had fought the siren before, as it had given him more than enough time to just barely dodge every attack coming his way.

As one of the men, a particularly large brute with a Warhammer swung, Asher ducked underneath and slung the man's friend in line with the large head on the hammer. The armor that the man's friend was wearing ended up crushing under the weight of the blow. Asher knew for a fact that had he been hit with that, he'd be done for.

His best bet was to just play it safe and avoid the crushing blows for the moment. That was exactly what he did as he weaved under the heavy hammer being swung towards his head. With his natural speed, Asher was able to easily avoid each strike aimed to kill him. He had no doubt that this man was part of the group after his life, with the fervor behind his actions.

Most of the other contestants had finished with their respective fights and began to creep in towards Asher's fight. The big man lifted one of the fighters easily with one hand and Asher raised an eyebrow at the supernatural strength he displayed. There was no time for Asher to finish his thoughts, however, as an entire group began to descend on them turning the one on one fight into a full blown brawl.

In the midst of the chaos, Asher still had no issues avoiding everything coming his way. As soon as the big man was distracted, Asher slipped his blade in between the plates in his enemie's armor, from the sudden gasp he heard, Asher was sure it had found it's mark well enough. It would only be a matter of time before the juggernaut of a man bled out.

Asher dealt with another one of the contestants with no issues, proceeding into another one immediately. There were a total of five fighters left, besides Asher himself, with one bleeding out quickly. The big man's ally was dead with his armor visibly caved into his chest.

Asher continued to drop the fighters, one by one until it was just him and one other contestant in front of him. The big man had finally dropped to his knees and then eventually down onto his face on the ground, leaving two people victorious in the free for all match that had swiftly reduced the number of fighters across all rankings. Asher was sure the next fight wouldn't be so easy, especially with the group of assassins planting fighters in the tournament in an attempt to deal with him. He was amazed at the brazenness of the group to attempt it in broad daylight, in front of thousands of spectators. In all reality though, he realized that deaths weren't uncommon in the arena at the same time. That didn't explain the group right outside the guild hall though.

Asher shrugged nonchalantly as he finished that thought and turned in his tournament gear for the day and retrieving his own. He met up with the group and saw Killian almost jumping for joy. "From that one fight, we got nearly eighty gold coins! That's over a month's salary for any one of us!"

"I told you to bet on me," Asher replied smugly. Willow seemed excited as well, stating, "I have at least tripled my money betting on you! After the amount I've lost from the match before!"

Asher smiled at all the excitement around him. Even Leah had a slight smirk. Asher was sure she knew there had been two people planted in the fight to kill him, but she wasn't saying a word and instead was just enjoying the easy money from his efforts. They had discussed several things to do with the money, first and foremost was to clear all their debts, in every province they could. After that, they planned to open a business of some kind for passive income aside from their hunting. If they could manage to produce enough coin to match the work they already did, they would expand from there.

Asher felt his aspirations weren't too great for the potential they had with the coin already available to them. If he won one more match, it would be worth over one hundred gold just from Killian alone. That was before Killian took his share, but that was still a very impressive amount of money to be had. Asher smirked at the idea of it. If he won every match between now and the end of the tournament, per the growth of the money, it would be worth roughly six thousand gold coins by the time he was finished.

It would be more than enough money to satisfy every one of his debts in the other provinces. Asher almost couldn't contain his excitement of being a truly free man. The prospect of assassins always being after him did wipe away his smile, however. The last match was enough to show him that the mysterious organization after him had the power to plant their agents everywhere, including such a widespread influence as the guild which covered most of the continent.

Shortly after they had all counted the winnings, most of them parted ways with Killian and Timothy going to a local tavern for some food. Asher went back to the guild hall with Leah and Willow because they had business to attend to. Willow seemed somewhat nervous as they climbed the stairs towards Asher's room.

"Relax, if we were going to do anything, it would have been in the forest where there were no witnesses," Asher stated flatly.

"That's not hugely reassuring," Willow answered quickly.

Asher shrugged and didn't say anything else. They opened the door to his room and noticed there was a map with multiple spots marked, directly behind his bed. Asher pointed to one in particular, "When this tournament is over, we're going here before taking any jobs. I would like to involve Killian, but I don't feel confident that he would just give up his work on a whim. There may be nothing here, but this may very well be home to an impressive treasure horde."

Leah seemed puzzled. "How did you even come across this lead? Where did you find the time?"

Asher held up his hand, "The how is not important, only that I know where to go. The three of us are the only ones who know of my 'ability' so to speak, so I feel as though this is our best bet. This is related to that power, as well as being an actual treasure trove of enchanted artifacts. With that in mind, this is also the home of a powerful beast. It's going to be dangerous, I won't lie to you."

Asher took a deep breath before he continued, "Leah, you have always been at my side since the beginning of this. I need you more than anybody else. Willow, I kept this a secret from you for two reasons. I didn't trust you for a long time, truth be told, I still question to whom you even owe allegiance, because it has never been me. The other reason behind my hiding my power from you is because of the danger behind you learning of it. Now that you know, you will likely be hunted. We need to prepare for whatever comes our way. We can't afford to rest for even a moment. With that said, what do you say? Will you fight by our side, Willow Thorn?"