Final Challenge [2]

*20 minutes earlier*

One thing instantly became clear as everyone walked to the stadium's main platform.

'Less than a hundred people left? Now that I think of it, I don't remember how we were graded for this. I felt a little exhausted so I just hung out with Jack the whole times and didn't speak of the results.' Lloyd thought to himself while scratching the back of his neck.

However, after looking around a little more, Lloyd finally understood what had happened.

'Everyone here is at 90% and above... Hell, some of them are literally on the brink of breaking through. All they need is a final push.' Lloyd thought to himself before continuing.

'At the same time, everyone here has a combat class-... Where the hell did Jenna go? Ah, never mind that. Where the hell is Jack going... John too? What the f*ck is happening!?' Lloyd inwardly shouted as he saw his teammates suddenly take different doors.

"Lloyd?" A familiar voice asked from behind, and when Lloyd finally looked back to see who had called him, he could not help but put on a bright smile.

"Oh, Zack! You could not imagine how good your timing is. Which door should we go through?" Lloyd asked with a tinge of excitement in his voice.

However, before Zack could answer, Lloyd quickly realized that everyone was staring at him... No... That was his ego and new looks talking on his behalf. Everyone was not staring at him; instead, they were staring at Zack.

However, despite his curiosity building, he did not ask the question on his mind since he knew that his friend would tell him if he felt comfortable. And if he wasn't... Lloyd could always search it up and find the answer to his query on the first forum he clicks on.

"Why are you asking me, dumbo. Just go to whichever one you feel most attracted to." Zack shrugged.

"These are doors, not women, Zack... Sorry but I don't swing that way." Lloyd replied deadpan.

"Ha! Swing that way, like a door. Nice one!" Zack laughed before low-fiving Lloyd and disappearing into the crowd.

"That wasn't even... Oh my god." Lloyd simply face palmed at the useless conversation he just had, but he knew he should have expected no less.

After staring at the doors for a few seconds, he quickly realized a pattern.

'Range, swordsmen, muscle...' Lloyd simply walked behind those who wore sword sheaths and didn't think about it.

While he knew that using a sword sheath, especially the new generation ones, would increase draw speed, in a way, he couldn't be bothered carrying around his blade the same way the other did.

He always felt like he had a powerful weapon ready to be used at any moment on him, and despite him believing that it was most likely him hallucinating due to not sleeping for so long, he could not shrug off the feeling of security.

Walking through the door, Lloyd and several others found themselves standing before an arena platform, but after looking around for a second, they all saw that the arena had been split up into several sections, each with a man standing in the middle of them.

Of course, the swordsmen section was the largest, but that was to be expected since it had the most participants.

*"Alright, folks! The challenge is simple! As you have probably already noticed, you have been divided into groups depending on your type of weapon and possibly even your class type. Before all of you stands a person who is a master of their weapons of choice, and your goal is to land a single scratch upon them in the 10 minutes you are given. Good luck!"* The presenter announced.

As the crown roared out in excitement, Lloyd simply tilted his head at the man standing before them.

He had white hair, yet except for that and his skin color, everything else was black.

From the mask he wore around his lower face to the trenchcoat that reached for the ground, everything was black.

"I'll be lowering my commandment to match yours, but don't think this is me being merciful. If given the chance, I will beat you from within an inch of your life. Understood?" He asked, causing everyone to nod in sync.

After that, nothing of real interest happened.

The man simply picked people randomly and took them to the arena, where they would both take out their weapons and fight until the man beat them... Or hospitalized them. It was a bit of a gamble, but everyone at least had the balls to face him.

The man used a straight and pointed saber; however, despite his weapon and skills seeming ordinary, one thing made him a terrifying person to fight against.

"Is that some kind of sword aura? No, of course not. I've been reading too many comics lately. He's just using mana the same way Jack uses his to perfect his martial arts. I wonder what his class is." Lloyd muttered to himself while watching another person get beaten, cut, and bruised until they lost consciousness.

'Aren't all of these contestants kind of... Weak?'

'...'

'What?'

Lloyd didn't understand why that thought came to his head, but now that he looked at it, they were kind of weak, if he were to compare them to the masked man.

Of course, he could probably kill them pretty easily if he were to use all his abilities, but to do so with only the known ones would be very difficult.

Hell, he was certain that Fatima alone could stand up to him even if he used [Shadow Clones], so wouldn't these guys also do the same?

*BOOM*

Hearing a sound from his right, Lloyd looked in that direction just to see Zack pummeling a 7ft woman with gigantic muscles and an aura like no other.

Blood-red swords formed behind him and shot at her, but she quickly dodged those attacks before they could actually hit her.

Of course, Zack's attacks weren't hurting the woman, but Lloyd could see they had enough power to at least push the enormous figure back.

"Now that I think about it, why is Zack even here? He isn't at 70%. Sure, he increased a lot when we fought, and I saw him leave with his father to go to a dungeon or two every now and then, but there is no way that he reached 70%." Lloyd thought.

While he could tell how strong someone was from the natural aura the exuded, Zack was something different since his power always fluctuated.

The angrier he gets, the more powerful he is. The more he fights, the more powerful he is. Hell, the more he eats, the more powerful he gets.

However, before Lloyd could finish his thoughts on how he thought the match between the woman and Zack would go, he saw a stretcher and two men wearing white, and a broken boy pass before a voice entered his ears.

"Sunglasses. You're next." The man stated with his sword stuck in the ground as he fixed his wrist collars.

Not wanting to get on the man's bad side, Lloyd did not waste a second as he walked as fast as he could toward the stage before performing a stiff bow and waiting for the man to finally pick up his sword.

"Will you not take out your weapon?" The man narrowed his eyes.

"Will you not pick yours up?" Lloyd genuinely asked, yet this only made the man frown.

"Cocky I see." The man muttered, yet despite that, Lloyd heard him and instantly had a small heart attack.

'What did I do wrong!?!?!?'

However, before he could complain, the man lunged forward and swung his blade down with all the power he could muster with his lowered power level.

Despite being distracted, Lloyd saw the attack coming when he saw the man reach for his blade. Of course, the first thing Lloyd tried doing was taking out his weapon from within his storage, yet that turned out to be a learning experience as he quickly understood why everyone else kept their blades in sheaths.

'Holy crap this is so slow!' Lloyd thought, his place halfway out of his watch as the man's blade grew closer.

With a side step, Lloyd avoided the blade quite easily, and while he expected the man to retreat, he quickly saw something come towards him from his right, causing him to lean back with widened eyes.

'A punch? A f*cking punch!? What is he gonna do now? Sweep my leg- Oh fu-'

*Swoosh*

In an instant, he felt the wind brush against his leg as the blade he had seen before was nowhere to be found.

Now that he was completely airborne, he finally felt his katana leave the storage, but it was already too late.

Holding his katana in one hand and pivoting off the other, Lloyd performed a backflip before sliding to the platform's edge.

'Despite this stage being 70 by 70 meters, we did start closer to the edge, so it kind of makes sense that I'm in this situation.' Lloyd smiled in self-mockery...

Yet no one could see his eyes, so what they saw was-

"Don't get too happy now. I'm still getting started. Don't die on me." The man chuckled and disappeared from where he stood.

'I hate this.' Lloyd thought before jumping to the side and barely dodging the incoming blade.

***

Somewhere in the crowd-

"Why do you have that perverted look on your face?" Elana asked while looking at her friend.

"What do you mean?" Delly asked, yet she did not take her eyes off the arena for a second.

"You have drool running down your chin," Ana stated in a cold and unaffectionate voice, making Delly snap out of her trance and wipe her chin.

"Hey! I don't have drool on my chin!" Delly yelled, and due to them being a private booth, the only ones who looked over were their parents

"Well, you're practically drooling." Ana sneered.

"Its not my fault he's not wearing a shirt!" Delly reasoned.

"Ugh! That's my little brother! That has to be a crime of some sort." Elana cried out in disgust.

"I'm going to beat the crap out of that bastard!" Ana swore under her breath with a clenched fist.

How dare he go out like that without a shirt? Was he trying to get all the women to fall for him? Well, at least that's what Ana thought he was doing.

Little did they all know he had simply forgotten to buy a shirt for the second time in a single day.

***

*Swoosh*

Dodging once more, Lloyd finally had enough of being on the back foot.

He had been dodging for the last 3 minutes as if he was the mouse in this cat-and-mouse game.

Seeing the sword come towards him again, he closed his eyes and took in a deep breath before-

[Flower Petal Technique + Shadow Movement + Shadow Enhancement]

As the blade finally reached him, it cut no more than a millimeter of a single strand of hair as Lloyd had already descended into the ground.

Seeing this, the man frowned and pulled his arm back, and muttered-

[Flash Step]

*BOoM*

Within an instant, the man was in front of Lloyd, but by the time his hand had reached Lloyd's face, there was nothing but the ground there, causing his fist to shoot into it while creating several cracks that spread across the stage.

[Black Rose]

Looking behind him, the man's eyes widened as the Lloyd's sword grew closer, yet it took him less than an instant to appear behind the boy and smash his fist into Lloyd's back while sending him flying for several dozen meters before he finally stopped himself with the use of his katana.

And that's when he felt it again.

*Swoosh*

Tilting his head a few degrees, Lloyd dodged a blade by the skin of his teeth, but he had actually learned something from this exchange.

'He makes a sound every time he uses that ability.'

Without skipping a beat, Lloyd pivoted on his heel and spun while coating his blade with his own shadow, making it stronger, sharper, and faster than ever before.

He had also coated his arms to support his blade's capabilities, yet even that didn't seem to be enough as the man simply disappeared before Lloyd could attack him.

'Right,' A monotone voice, unlike his own, whispered in his ear, and without wasting a moment, Lloyd reacted by slamming his foot into the ground.

*Rumble*

Not expecting the sudden action, the man paused for less than a second, but that was all Lloyd needed to jump a few meters away and hold his blade in front of him.

'Left, blade to shoulder.'

*Clang*

Lloyd defended against it with his blade.

'Up, fist to head.'

Lloyd gritted his teeth and blocked using his arms.

'Foward, upwards slash.'

Lloyd coated his sword in shadows again without thinking before slashing horizontally at the incoming blade.

*Clang*

'He will appear at our right and then left.' The voice spoke, yet this time it made Lloyd partially frown before going ahead with it.

Time seemed to have slowed down for that moment as he swung at his right before the man could even appear.

On the other hand, the man was an experienced warrior and knew to not underestimate his opponent. Therefore, he placed his blade where someone would most likely be hit if they were in the same situation as Lloyd.

*Clang*

Yet the fact that Lloyd discovered exactly where the man would appear despite his age made the man widen his eyes in shock, but he did not simply stand there.

*Woosh*

Seeing that boy had thrown a punch at him, the man confirmed his thoughts.

'He's reading my moves.' He thought, before closing his eyes and stepping away from the punch.

Yet he didn't...

'Below.'

Having already relaxed, Lloyd widened his eyes, but before he could react, he watched a foot uppercut him and send him into the air.

'Should I use void gaze?' Lloyd thought before shaking his head and flipping mid-air before landing on his feet while sliding a few meters back.

Lloyd was seething with anger which had been seemingly etched into his face as even the crowd could not help but go silent for a moment.

'I swear to god you would have been eating cement right now if you were fighting Null instead of me.' Lloyd sneered and quickly shot forward.

After all, angry people make stupid mistakes.

'Well, that doesn't matter anyway.' Lloyd thought with a smirk that easily aggravated the man before him.

However, the man's frown quickly turned to bewilderment as the katana the boy before him was once holding had suddenly been thrown into the air.

All it took was that single moment of confusion, as before the man could comprehend the scene before him, he saw the shadows below his feet slightly shift before a figure covered in shadows landed a devastating uppercut, sending him flying into the air.

"huh?" Was the only sound Lloyd could make when he suddenly felt something touch his back.

'A foot?' He asked himself, yet when he finally looked back, he only widened his eyes before his vision faded to black as the man's final words to him entered his ears.

"You did well, kid... Just make sure that you reign in that anger and pride of yours. It might just be the thing that dooms you in the future."

'That bastard was.. a... Clo..n..e..?' Lloyd thought before everything finally turned black.