Chapter 135: Seer
[We'll be back to double chapter uploads tomorrow. Thank you for the birthday wishes <3. Also, I should say that we'll likely be going back to the bonus chapter system in september once school comes back around for me. I'll let you all know]
Seer raised his staff toward Leonel the moment the words fell. An arrow of peculiar energy quickly formed, dashing toward Leonel at a much faster speed than most could muster.
In that instant of time, even with his spirit severely drained and his ability being sluggish as a result, it was as easy as breathing for Leonel to see that this attack had an agility of just over 1.00. It was quite swift, all things considered. But not enough for Leonel to take it seriously.
'I guess I'll just push him off the edge of the arena.' Leonel thought.
Since he had paid attention this time around, he was well aware that there were three methods of victory. He could choose between knocking his opponent out and rendering them unable to battle, forcing them to admit defeat, or pushing them outside the bounds of the arena. Either one was fine, Leonel didn't have a particular preference.
'What's really interesting though is that abilities don't seem to be limited by Force disrupting towers, nor are special branches of Force. I didn't think about this before, but my Internal Sight relies on my spirit which is technically a kind of Force, yet I used it to escape the Fort. I actually overlooked something so simple…'
Leonel's mind wandered. He usually wasn't this type of person. He always took every task, no matter how simple, with the utmost seriousness. However, the problem this time was that his mind was too sluggish, he was almost in a drunken state.
Though Leonel was only like this because he didn't sense much of a threat from Seer, others seemed to take this as him being frozen in place due to fear.
Not only did others not find this to be pitiable, they even took amusement in it. They seemed to already see the sight of Leonel being blasted off the arena under a chorus of laughs.
However, in the last moment, Leonel seemed to remember where he was and shifted to the side. To an outside observer, it almost look like he stumbled out of the way, allowing the arrow to just barely whiz by him.
The sudden movement caused Leonel's mind to spin. He really didn't expect that he would be in such a sorry state just because he stayed awake for a few days.
His eyes blinked and he shook his head, trying to clear his vision.
'A nap would be really nice about now…' Leonel thought to himself.
Leonel didn't have to raise his eyes to sense that another arrow was coming his way. But, this time, he took a step long before it reached him. His action seemed without cause, but he had already dodged long before the arrow left Seer's staff.
Step after step, Leonel meandered his way through the battlefield. His gait was weak and without rhyme or reason, but seemed to dodge Seer's strikes without much issue. From the outside, he looked like a drunk man stumbling forward, though it wasn't so exaggerated.
Seer kept trying to make distance between them, doing his best to continue his barrage. But he was very obviously losing his composure.
At some unknown point, the jeers of the crowd shouting out that Leonel was fearful had slowly died down, weird expressions coating their faces one after another.
By the time Leonel had made it within a step of Seer, the latter didn't even notice that he had continuously retreated to the edge of the arena. Just when he wanted to take another step back, he found nothing but air, causing him to tumble backward with a shocked expression on his face.
He knew that this should have been impossible. He wasn't a fool, he too had heard the rules, so he knew stepping out of bounds meant a loss. But, he could have never expected that he would somehow still make such a stupid mistake. He thought that he had been circling the arena, maintaining a good distance from Leonel… So when did he get forced into a corner like this?
When Seer looked up, all he found was that Leonel was actually yawning again, causing his face behind the mask to blush with shame, embarrassment and rage.
Leonel squinted his eyes and shook his head as though trying to chase his fatigue away. He hadn't even noticed the change in the Seer's once calm eyes. By the time his vision cleared again, he saw that a young woman was helping Seer up and glaring toward him with fierce eyes.
Though Leonel couldn't see her face, he was quite certain that her angry appearance was quite adorable. Her eyes alone were enough to tell him this.
She, as a participant, of course wore a mask. The design on hers was quite involved compared to others. The center of her forehead had the drawing of a seed and from there, a cycle of growth was drawn around her round face. Eventually, a flower bloomed before the cycle ended with another seed.
Leonel had seen her amongst the eight seeds of the second round and judging by the pseudonyms, he guessed that she could be either Falling Leaf or Precious Moment. More likely the latter as there was someone else with a mask that more conformed to the former.
At that moment, the crowd that had fallen silent suddenly erupted once more.
The chorus of boos was deafening.
"Disqualify him! Get him out of here!"
"When did such a bastard appear amongst our promising youths?!"
It could only be said that the rebels truly were infuriated this time. It was one thing for Leonel to defeat his opponent. But, his act of looking down from the stage and even yawning after Seer had already lost was simply too much. You could defeat a man, but humiliating him was going one step too far.
How could they know that Leonel was only yawning because he was truly tired. As for 'looking down' on Seer, that had a similar reason as well. He didn't want to waste energy by making unnecessary movements, so he stood in place until the next match began. After all, he would be fighting again.
Unfortunately for the crowd, the Leonel of now already had turned a deaf ear to their reactions. He couldn't even hear them any longer. His world was filled with silence.
"… Indomitable wins. Next match, Indomitable vs Precious Moment."
At that moment, the young girl who had helped Seer stand furiously marched onto the stage, her little body billowing with rage.
Leonel shuffled from the edge of the arena, his feet barely lifting up from the ground as he turned to face her.