Guard For Hire

Jason laid the guard to rest on the ground before walking away, people saw this but didn't dare to try to do anything. They simply acted like nothing had happened.

He could understand this, why should he help a guard who suddenly fainted.

"Small-time tournament today at central market area! 100, 000 reward for winner and job as guardian of Hachiman clan main residence!"

Jason read this from afar with his enhanced eyesight. He was just walking on the road while minding his own business before he saw a crowd of people gathering before a sign while hailing it as if it were God-send.

'Is this really Important?' Jason wondered as he stared at the figures on the sign.

Was the position of a guard of the Hachiman clan main compound so alluring? He had just seen the dead bodies of two guards when that middle-aged man that tried to steal Emily infiltrated.

'There's something I'm missing.'

Jason went in the direction of the central market area, but he wasn't going to participate. He would just come to watch the matches.

He quickly arrived at the described place, here they normally sold foodstuff, but because of the special occasion the whole place was cleared out and the vendors were gone.

The area was quite large at approximately 300 ft in length and 50 in ft.

The rest of the grounds were left open for people to watch the fights that would happen.

Jason watched with interest as the people arrived; they ranged from newly awakeneds to old men, everybody wanted a shot at this job, it was like this was a one-in-a-hundred phenomenon that this job opportunity would come.

There was no way in hell that they would allow this chance to slip past without giving their all!

"Is that... a gambling booth? Weird."

There was indeed a booth stationed at the far edge that had a "come bet" on it.

…

Two awakeneds stood in the makeshift arena.

One of them was a man with black hair, he was holding a long sword and a shield with a serious expression on his face.

The other man had brown hair, dressed in a long blue robe and wearing a relaxed look on his face, as if the competition he was partaking in did not matter to him.

Jason had bet on the swordsman instead of the man in blue who seemed to be a mage; he was almost 100% sure that the mage would lose this battle... At least while he was in the audience.

An announcer stepped forward. "This is a fight for glory, the grand prize of a hundred thousand and a chance to serve as a guard for the Hachiman clan!"

At the last part the audience went wild, hands going up as if they were begging to chosen instead while screaming. Their reaction for the measly position of a guard was humiliating.

After the subtle announcement the announcer retreated.

Immediately, the man with the sword dashed forward, swinging the sword in an arc while trying to spill the blue robed man's insides onto the floor.

The brown-haired man didn't move from his position, he had been like this since the announcer came onto to get the crowd of people hyped.

Before the sword could hit the blue robed it was met with resistance, an orb of water stopped the weapon.

Even though magic could be created just by imagination it didn't attract many people, to use magic effectively and with the least amount of wasted mana, one needed to learn about the elements that were being used.

Not many awakened wanted to open a notebook while learning about the element they were planning to use when they could be honing their skills.

Due to this, the magic-oriented awakened were on a different class of their own; they didn't bother with strength training, they only learned about their preferred elements and tried to widen their imagination.

However there were also battle-oriented awakened; these people basically increased their strength instead of learning a preferred element, in order to boost their strength by small leaps and bounds they would use mana.

If one of them preferred the lightning element their speed will increase depending on the amount of mana inputted. If the amount of mana used was small it would barely be noticeable, however if it was a large amount it would be very clear and their movements will become much faster.

In the case of those below rank 0, once they reach their peak but still want to increase their strength they increase their range of elements while learning about it.

This brown-haired young man's preferred element was obviously water, it took him a bit over 10 seconds to create a ball of water that was strong enough to stop the sword.

Jason saw this and frowned, he left the area he was standing in and came closer to the edge of the arena where the mage stood at and observed the match from there.

His expression became a little bit more relaxed at those actions.

The man with the longsword withdrew his sword from the water bubble and observed his opponent from close-range, he didn't dare attack in fear of a swift retaliation.

"I'm going to win this!" He suddenly yelled before striking with much more vigor than before.

He swung his sword again, inputting mana in his sword and his arms.

They emanated a dim red light and a little smoke came out from his muscles.

He had aimed to slice the man's head off now but the water-shield was there again to block it, a sizzling sound resounding in the air as the sword and the shield met.

The brown haired man had his eyes closed the entire time, he was concentrating to launch an offensive attack that would end the fight.

But his opponent wasn't giving him time, both of them wanted the position of guard at the Hachiman main clan building so they were giving 110%!

He had never taken this little time to create the water-shield so he wasn't sure it would be as durable as he hoped.

With every attack he backed away because each time the sword hit the shield it was strengthened with even more mana! In the chance that the shield broke he would be in trouble if he stood in one place.

Imagining it took time and it used even little mana if the layout was also formed in the mindscape as well.

As mana was his only form of attack and his reserves wouldn't be replenished at each match he knew he had to use the bare minimum of his mana.

His body glowed in a dim red light as he grasped his hands together, orange flames formed on his hands as a hilt slowly materialized.

The swordsman instantly sensed danger, he pumped all the mana he could into his body and struck the water-shield once again. The water-shield could barely take the attack, it was swiftly cut into two halves before dematerializing.

The mage took a step back as he saw this, but his mind was not of this world, he knew that after he was done with this it would be an easy victory...

The sharp sound of sizzling and popping sounded in the air as the hilt that materialized of fire abruptly disappeared.

Everyone was confused, even the swordsman wasn't sure if he was going to attack or defend.

The mage tried to gather his mental power to form something but he couldn't do it! It was like something was blocking him from accessing magic!

"What are you waiting for? Finish him off already!" A voice came from behind.

The swordsman was visibly perplexed for some seconds before he understood what was happening, he had the opportunity to give an easy kill.

He tightened the grip on his tilt much to the fear of the mage.

"I... I give up!"

A/N: There was a power outage; lightning hit my home, my laptop ran out of battery before I could even finish a chapter for any fic.

Since I publish 3 chapters a week I'm not sure some of us even noticed...

On another note:

1000 collections - 2 Bonus chapters