Preamble of a Rigged Fight

Are you serious?

As I walked toward the coliseum found within the campus of the sect, I noticed a very interesting abnormality. It was stocked to the brim with people. It's like every single person in the sect was at the coliseum, awaiting whatever that devil had planned. It left a bad taste in my mouth. I've known the devil long enough to know that she normally did things in the dark, away from the public eye, yet now she was exacting some kind of scheme in front of the entire sect. It was very suspicious.

I turned to Onvima who was just as dumbfounded as I was and asked him kindly, "Hey, low-life shut-in, would you close your gaping mouth and tell me what's going on here? I thought you said that the devil only wanted US to meet up at the coliseum, not the entire fucking sect!"

Onvima promptly shut his mouth at my request before coming to a sudden realization and saying exasperatedly, "Well... now that I think about it more... The old hag did say something about that brute being our opponent-!"

I went up to him and shook his shoulders crazily before he could finish his sentence, "And you're telling me this now?!! Oh my sovereign! You must be the most stupid out of all of us! The only thing you can do is avoid invitations to hang out!!!"

Onvima brushed my hands off of his as I breathed lungs of anger, and dismissively said, "Listen rageaholic, you think I really spent all that time sitting in my house only doing nothing? I've actually been training secretly, outside the view of the public. Trust me, we can beat this guy and effectively make that hag's plans useless."

I wanted to slap him in the face for calling me that, but his last words made me take back that thought. As long as I could finally beat that devil in a game of schemes, I would be able to truly live out the rest of my days peacefully. So I decided to go along with Onvima for once. If he had a plan, I would be all ears, "Alright then, if you are so strong, then tell me. What do you have planned?"

Onvima coughed to get the phlegm out of his throat before confidently saying, "Well it's pretty obvious what we have to do. That brute seemed pretty strong and he might be able to beat us individually, but as long as we make sure the old hag doesn't take an opportunity to split us up, we'll be fine. In fact, we can use the crowd against her. If they came here to see a fight, what would be more entertaining than a five-on-one match? She won't be able to weasel her way out of it."

I was honestly surprised by his sound logic and made this apparent, "Wow, I never thought you could actually come up with a good strategy..."

Onvima showed a look of annoyance that he rarely ever had and murmured, "Have you forgotten all of those times I got you guys out of trouble?..."

Before I was able to end his arrogance with a swift no, I heard someone yelling at me, "Hey Spi, hey Onvima, I haven't seen you two in a while. How has it been going?"

I turned and then found myself looking at the only person in this group of "friends" that I could actually call a friend. She had long and straight brown hair that went down to the lower middle of her back, kind brown eyes, a beautiful face that could almost match my own, and a slim figure. It was Culdia, the only person I knew with half a brain.

"Oh, we're doing great. Just trying to find a way out of this mess that devil had brought us into. You know, Onvima actually had a good idea for once."

Her run slowed into a walk as she neared us and replied in a cool manner, "Well, Onvima has always had good ideas, so I don't doubt it. As long as there's bloodshed along the way, it'll be fine with me. So fill me in on what I'm doing."

And right there was why I respected her so much. She may be a psychopath, but at least she was a psychopath that I understood and was on my side. And other than her desperate need for sticking a blade through flesh, she was a pretty cool person. Before I was able to fill her in on what Onvima had in mind, I heard another yell, though it wasn't directed at me this time.

"Come on!! How long will I have to drag you?! Just get over it already!!!"

"No! I won't do it! You can't make me! You know how much I hate fighting!!"

I, along with the other two, turned to the two who were making a ruckus, and unsurprisingly, it was Vernam and Paxium. It may have been a while since I had seen Paxium, but she looked and acted almost exactly as I remembered. Unique long and blonde hair, big blue eyes, an organized, yet distressed face, and a... blooming body. It wasn't just her appearance that stayed the same, it was also her personality. Simply put, she disliked and complained of any sort of discomfort. I understood why she would, but it doesn't make sense to me. To be as successful as me, you need to go through some discomfort first.

"Listen here, you child! If you don't do this right now, then I bet that Medisma will make your life a living hell! So just suck it up and get over it!"

"I don't care! I'll just live in hiding like Onvima!!"

It would never end like this... I guess I have no choice. I went up to Paxium and put my hand on her shoulder, which put me in a compromising situation considering how she was being dragged on the ground, and whispered to her, "Paxium... if you can help us get through this, I'll personally buy you however much wine you want for the next month."

She looked at me with tears swirling in her eyes, "Sit... You've got yourself a deal!"

She shot up to her feet and marched on over to the group yelling at them, "Alright, let's get this over with so I can enjoy some top-class wine!"

As much as my bag of coins was screaming at me in pain, I knew this was what I had to do. I needed everyone as determined as possible, otherwise things could go south.

I had to beat this devil once and for all.

___________________________________________________________________________

As we've already been through this process before, we already knew where to go when participating in a fight. We went to the back side of the coliseum and checked in with one of the coliseum's hired helpers before they let us into the barracks where fighters would wait for their turn to fight. It wasn't an amazing room filled with the utmost care like I would've wished, but I was already expecting it, so I didn't make a scene like I did my first time here. Now all we had to do was wait for the time for us to fight. But I still wanted more information, so while the others were participating in some common chatter, I decided to ask Onvima an important question.

"Hey, Onvima, you actually saw that "brute" in action right? What is he like and what's his fighting style? We should probably figure that out so we can actually get a plan going before fighting him. I don't want to just walk into that devil's schemes again."

The room that was filled with laughter and excitement a moment ago suddenly tensed up and Onvima answered my question, "Well, the brute, or I guess Igmor as the old hag called him, is... definitely interesting. His appearance is very reminiscent of a Volcanian, but his name is Junglese, so his origins are a bit muddled. There was also the magic circles that seemed embedded in his body. I have no clue how that happened considering that from what I know it should be impossible, which means it is probably the old hag's fault. As for his Path... I think he should be under the Technology Path because of how he punched my door into pieces, but that could've been a trick, so I wouldn't settle on that completely. And that's all I was able to get."

I quickly noticed something incredibly important was missing from that explanation, "So yeah, he's all edgy and mysterious and all of that, but what about his class?"

Onvima shuddered for a second and, as if anticipating something bad to happen because of his words, murmured, "I... I wasn't able to look at his Genesis Essence..."

And you know what, he was right to be scared. I went up to him, smiled, and sent a punch to his non-existent gut. But just as my hit was about to land, he moved his body to the left while keeping the rest of his body in the same position. I tried hitting him again, but no luck. And again, and again, and again.

"Damn it! Just let me hit you for being so stupid!!!"

"I'm sorry that I was more preoccupied with my door being shattered than some rando's class!

It wasn't soon after his statement that a body got in between the two of us. It was Culdia. She put her hands on both of our chests and, trying to diffuse the situation, said, "Come on you two, this isn't the time for your nonsense. We need to be as united as we can for the upcoming fight. I won't be able to kill this other person if you don't get your shit together."

As angry as it made me not able to release my stress, I couldn't find fault in her words, "Yea... you're right. As much as I would've been able to determine his class at that moment, I know that not everyone is as amazing as me. Sorry about that Onvima, let's just focus on getting a good strategy going-"

Just as I was trying to get this strategy meeting back into gear, a loud, yet muffled voice could be heard coming from the arena, "Ladies and Gentlemen!!! Firstly, I would like to thank you all for coming to this event despite such short notice. And secondly... are you guys ready to see some blood??!!!"

A roar of applause broke out after the announcer made this crowd-grabbing speech. Foot stomps, claps, whistles, and most importantly, yells. It was a familiar sound, and it was even more nostalgic when you were in a room below the mad plaudits, which made it seem quieter than you knew it actually was.

As the crowd slowed down the ovation, the familiar-sounding announcer continued speaking, "As you all know, the Grand Elder Nima has sponsored this impromptu event for your viewing pleasure today! So let's give her a round of applause for this!"

Claps reverberated through the coliseum while the hypocrisy of the situation showed itself to me. If she really was such an amazing person then she wouldn't be charging for the tickets... What a true devil, not letting any chance to make money pass her by.

Once the claps lessened, the announcer once again began to build up hype, "Let me tell you, Grand Elder Nima has got quite the match for us today! On one side, we have five of our sect's most popular Elders!!! You know them, but I'll still introduce them! Firstly, we have the 49th ranked 1st half Coal Class Fruit Cultivator in the entire Jungle Region, Onvima Pessvin!!!"

With his name being announced, he shrugged his shoulders at our inability to get a true battle strategy and walked through the open gate. As he walked into the dusty, stone-tiled, and sunbaked arena floor, applause broke out from the stands. The announcer continued to bring the five of us into the arena one by one. Once all five of us were out in the hypogeum, he turned the audience's attention to the gate opposite ours.

"As for their opponents... it is a face not even I have seen before! Brought in by Grand Elder Nima herself! A man with mystery hiding behind his mask. History hiding behind his tattoos. And power hiding behind his eyes... It's Igmor Proebel!!!"

The man I have been anticipating all this while slowly walked out of the dark interior of the room hiding behind the now open gate. His skin tone was black, obviously belonging to the Volcano Region or the Island Region. But his shoulder-length maroon hair made me lean toward the Volcano region. And his baggy pants with the cloth rolled at each opening made me certain of this belief. The only thing that made me weirded out was his blue eyes, and those silver magic circles decorating his black skin. It made me nervous... but then I looked at the Genesis Essence kept inside of his body.

Pfft.

The seriousness of the situation immediately faded as I discovered his class.

He was only Dirt Class.

___________________________________________________________________________

Quis' POV:

I quietly observed the five people in front of me. I had already memorized each of their lives front and back, so I had classifications of them in my mind. The skinny one was a shut-in who only focused on books and had a nerves problem. The brown-haired asshole had a pressing anger problem, having never been disciplined enough. The black-haired woman was probably the closest to being normal out of all of them, but she still needed some teaching on thinking before acting. The brown-haired woman was a literal psychopath. She once did what I did to Salquam to someone else, in public, because she "felt like it". And the only reason she didn't get persecuted for such an action was because that man actually turned out to be practicing Devil Techniques. The blonde-haired one had a serious lack of discipline, doing things only if they were in her comfort zone, unless of course, you reward her with some kind of food or drink. But that isn't how discipline works in the slightest, so she needed lots of fixing as well.

They were a ragtag lollygag of characters that each had problems needing to be fixed, but for now, I would exploit them so I could beat them up in front of a crowd. I stared at each of them, assessing what they would do when I went to attack them. And they seemed to be doing the same to me, but once they took a look at the Genesis Essence my body held, each one of them dismissed me, except for the skinny one.

But before the skinny one could take the time to warn his comrades, Cortritio continued his heart-filled speech to the audience, "Today they will be fighting in a randomly decided field! As always, a collector for any gambles you wish to make on these fighters will be going around the stands, so take a good vote on who you think will win!! And without further ado, let the bloodshed begin!!"

Cortritio jumped into one of the many gates connecting to the large arena floor, and the floor began to make shifting noises before sinking. I took one last look at the bubbling crowd, and then at my over-confident enemies. If they thought this would be easy, they would be wrong. Everything here was against them.

I observed before that without tricks I could beat a Stone Class Cultivator... well this was a situation with tricks. The "randomly chosen" environment, their overconfidence in beating me, and their hole-filled personalities.

It was all in favor of their loss.

And I would be glad to take advantage of them.