Tournament: Tessa

I watch Nyx walk off the Arena platform with a proud smile on my face. 

While I don't really like watching this brutality, I have to admit it was pretty enjoyable watching Nyx fight. 

I knew she had the strength to become great, she just had to believe in herself. 

As I look over to my left, I notice the carrot top seething in anger. His face has a mix of anger and disdain as he stares at the screen. 

"That fucking elf! When that little fuck gets back here I'll-"

"You'll what?" I let out a fierce pressure that takes hold of the entire room, causing him to go silent, "No no, finish your sentence."

I walk over to the tangerine-headed shit and stare down into his dark brown eyes. He backs up in fear as I get close. However, unexpectedly, he takes a gulp, straightens his shirt and stands up straight. 

He makes a deliberate effort to stand in front of me.

"Y-your demon friend just humiliated my sister," He has fear and anger plastered on his face, "I can't just allow that to go unpunished."

So that was his sister, huh? Come to think of it, they do look quite similar to each other, so they were siblings then. Wait, why are there so many twins? Was this another evolutionary effect? 

Nevertheless, the orange-haired boy refuses to back down in order to protect his sister's honor.

"Unpunished?" I sigh, "Look here, your sister lost in a duel fairly. She fought hard, but Nyx fought harder. If you want to avenge your sister that badly, comfort her and help her get stronger."

"B-but, why can't I defend my sister now? Why can't I do anything at this moment?" His shoulders droop as he speaks in a defeated tone.

I suppose I can't be angry with this guy because I understand how much he loves his sister. 

I mean, if I had seen someone do that to Alice, I would definitely kill them in the most agonizing way imaginable before reviving them to carry out the same act over again. 

However, this mindset is unhealthy; his sister's struggles are her own. He shouldn't recklessly step in before she has requested assistance; instead, he should wait until she does.

"Listen, a mindset like that is what get's people like you killed," I put my hand on the tangerine's shoulder, "learn to forgive and let go."

He looks away and shrugs off my hand, "The fuck do you know about this? I just saw the person I look up to and respect the most have her head blown up! What do you know about that pain?"

More than you think… 

I shrug and walk toward the door, "Just don't do anything stupid, because I will hurt you."

Explaining anything else to him would be difficult, so for now, I'll just hold him back using fear. I don't like people like him, people are quick to get revenge for something. One needs to see the full picture to be able to take proper actions to find a solution. 

One of the reasons Aaron was such a dislikable character was because of his vengeful nature. Sometimes, you just need to chill the fuck out.

The door to the locker room opened to reveal the figure of Nyx in partly shredded armor. Her straight lavender hair was messy from the battle and her armor plates had mostly cracked. She was standing in the doorway with a smile as Reginald went to lift her.

"Good fucking job out there Nyx! You blew that bitches brains out!"

"Calm down Reginald," Jackson comes from behind him and places his hand on Reginald's shoulder, "he has to be exhausted after that battle."

"No actually," Nyx scratches the back of her head as she's let down, "they must have cast restoration on me out there, cause I'm not even a little tired."

I smile at their banter as I take a seat by Aaron and Nathan.

Nathan had fallen asleep during the fight between the two girls, so he hadn't seen the battle that just took place. Aaron, on the other hand, had been watching the crowd of people in the locker room very carefully. 

No doubt, analyzing each of their strengths with his status window skill. Fortunately for me, his status window ability only allows him to see the strength of his target, not their bio.

"Assessing the competition?" I ask curiously.

"No," He replies calmly, "there's no one here that's any competition for me."

"Hmm?" I tilt my head, "What about me?"

He turns to me with an uncomfortable expression, "That's the issue, I don't know about you."

Really? He can't see my status window? Now that's an interesting development that I will welcome with open arms. If the protagonist is unable to see my stats, this works well in my favor, because I can more easily surprise him.

"Raine," Nyx walks up to me with an embarrassed expression, "did you see me out there?"

"Yes," I nod as I stand up, "you performed excellently."

I pat her on the head and her face goes bright red. She quickly brushes my hand away with a reddened face, and lets out a little whisper, "S-stop it, you'll get people suspicious…"

I smile and remove my hand from her head.

The next battle is announced on the screen, in bold letters, it shows Theresa Maltoi vs Tessa Alariea. Tessa is fighting now? 

They must be messing around by placing Tessa against an opponent with such a long-range advantage. Not disrespecting Tessa's strength of course, her magic power is that of a second-class magician. 

However, although she's powerful, she lacks intelligence. She's a martial artist, which means she's incredibly limited in terms of weaponry. 

The martial artists in this world are illogical. It simply isn't practical for a martial artist to partake in actual battles, but there are a few that evolve further. Those are the martial arts Tessa has practiced day in and day out, the martial arts that got her a full ride to nobility. 

She is known as the 'Flaming Fist' as she can punch so fast and with such force that her fists would catch fire. In terms of martial arts skills, I can say she is above my past self, who thoroughly studied and practiced only three forms of martial arts.

While her martial prowess is fantastic, she was, how do I put this? She's dumb as fuck. At least Casey was only stupid academically, Tessa not only struggles to study, but she has very little common sense as well. 

Her fighting style was very focused on skillful counters and rapid-fire punches to the opponent's weak points. However, she doesn't know how to back down from an opportunity. 

If you show an opening, she will go for it with full force, this makes her very easy to fake out. 

The image of a girl with short red hair wearing light clothing came up on the screen. She had been wearing a red jacket and a short top underneath. She had shorts and long black and red boots and black thigh-high socks. 

She hit both of her spiked knuckles together as she walked into her martial arts starting position.

On the other side, a nervous girl with medium length disheveled black hair tied back into a small ponytail. Through her bangs showed faded lavender eyes, and she had a light suit of armor over a long-sleeved shirt.

She wore a short metal skirt around her legs, which had long armored boots to her thighs as extra protection. She was holding a long metal spear with an arched blade with its two prongs facing outward. 

She was nervously clutching the spear around as she walked up onto the arena platform. She took a deep breath, her nervous expression disappearing and gets into her ready position, which is a low stance with her spear pointing outward.

At first glance, this battle is overwhelmingly in the favor of Theresa. She has the range advantage with her long curved spear, being capable of striking from a distance without any risk of harm. 

One would assume Tessa, being adept in close-quarters combat, would be the one to lose this matchup. 

A loud bell rings out and the match begins in an instant. 

The spear user, Theresa, moves immediately for a strike at Tessa. Tessa simply stood perfectly still in her stance, unfazed by her opponent's quick rush against her. 

Theresa stops a short distance away from her and thrusted her spear toward Tessa. Tessa moves instantly, parrying and side-stepping the strike and grabbing it with one of her hands. She pulled in the surprised Theresa for a punch straight to the gut with her spiked knuckles.

The knuckles bore into Theresa's stomach and she coughs out blood. The other guys in the locker room looked away in pain as Tessa continued her onslaught of blows. 

Tessa pulled her left off-hand back and sent it to Theresa's chest. She proceeded to pull her right hand from her stomach and elbow strike Theresa in the face, disorienting her. They then released a flurry of quick blows toward the different openings in Theresa's posture. Dozens of strikes collided with her face, chest, and stomach. 

Tessa finished with her flurry of blows, leaving blood, the bloodied body of Theresa standing in place. Her stomach had been blown open, leaving a gaping hole where intestines and blood spilled out, and her chest had been torn open. 

Her face, once pale and beautiful, was dyed red and bruised. Her jaw had been dangling from her face. She fell to her knees and Tessa brought up her leg and kicked her mangled corpse away.

Wtf.

I look away from the screen, almost feeling the urge to throw up at the sight, but I manage to calm myself down by thinking happy thoughts.

The winner of the third battle had been announced as the body of Theresa began reverting to her original form. 

Most of the other boys in the room had been throwing up after watching the display, including Jackson and Nyx. Even Reginald and Aaron had been shocked at the display of brutality. 

That was unnecessarily brutal, I'll really have to talk to Tessa about that.

"Raine," Nyx walks over to me uneasily, "didn't you find that repulsive?"

"Yeah," I nod pale in the face, "somebody should really check up on that Theresa girl."

The truth is, even though I wasn't showing any emotion on my face while watching, I was throwing up internally. That was quite possibly the most brutal death I have ever seen in my lives. 

Did Tessa go all out as soon as she found out death was not possible? Could I consider that bullying? 

I might have to reevaluate my position on her strength. To start, I shouldn't be comparing her strength against the unscalable wall that is Aaron, I should be looking at her from the perspective of a normal person.

When I take a look at her from the perspective of the average person, her strength is monstrous, especially when not held back. 

I watch her as she walks off of the stage, her short hair blowing in the wind. She looked back at the camera for a moment, her aqua-blue eyes shining, piercing through the crystal screen and straight into my heart. 

At that moment, I felt a bit competitive. I want to fight her, I want to test my skill against someone like her. But more importantly, she reminds me of someone from my past. Her confident face brings back depressing memories from the past that I didn't really appreciate.

I turned around and sat back down near Aaron. Nathan was still asleep, which left me wondering just what exactly he was doing all night. I looked over to Aaron, who was staring off into nothingness in deep thought. 

Aaron probably would lose in a contest with only martial arts, as he only has power and no technique.

A few more fights take place after those. 

There was boy against boy fights, which usually resulted in the two trying hard to look flashy in front of the girls. There were a few more girl-on-girl fights, but those were brutal and most of the guys turned away from the battles. Finally, there were boy and girl battles, these battles had one of three ways of unfolding.

The first way involved the simps, which purposely lost to their opponents because they were hella down bad. 

The second were the guys who fought normally, they utilized their full strength and fought on equal terms. 

The last was the sadists, who took immense pleasure in giving those of either different races or just human girls the most painful and brutal deaths possible. 

I talked with some of the guys in the locker room and we all agreed to beat the shit out of those bastards as soon as they walked through the door. This discouraged many of those that would take advantage of such an opportunity. 

Somewhere in the middle of these, Jeanne and Jackson had their fights and won, so there was that.

Finally, Reginald's fight came up. He is incredibly pumped up about the fight, giving high fives to most of the guys as he gets ready to exit, "Wish me luck out there!"

"Of course, best of luck Reginald." Jackson is the first to speak up.

"P-please stay safe." Nyx is next.

"Don't die brutally." Even Aaron speaks words of encouragement.

"Alright," I sigh as I get up, "I'll give you a gift if you win, so definitely don't lose."

He smiled widely as he walked out of the locker room. We all went over to watch the monitor. The battle should be an interesting matchup considering the fighters. 

Reginald Leviathan vs Analisse Yofiel, yet another person from the Azure kingdom.