Chapter 173
Confrontation — Part 1
Editors: Joker, Speedphoenix, Sebas Tian
“Ladies and gentlemen, are you ready!? The first long awaited semi-final match is about to begin!” The master of ceremonies’ statements led the crowd to go wild . Their zealous cheers were filled with a fiery fervor . “In one corner, we have this year’s most arrogant man, a fearless fighter who’s shown us that his insults are backed by pure power! Ypsiloooooonnn!”
Although the crowd was roaring, I remained silent . Not a word left my mouth as I made my way centre stage .
“And in the other corner, we have a man with limbs as elastic as rubber, a man capable of attacking from every direction without even the slightest warning, a man that has clawed his way through to the semi-finals with nothing but trickery and deception! I give you… Mejaaaaaaaaaaaagrrryyyyy!”
Opposite me entered a man with limbs I could only label absurd . His legs were as long as the Nile, but not even they stood out as much as his arms . They were just that bizarre . He had an extra elbow where his wrist was supposed to be, and it looked like it was probably double-jointed . The fact that half his face was shrouded by a veil made out of linen only contributed to his creepiness .
I knew who he was, but not because I had ever met or seen him . The only reason I recognized him was because the king had described his features to me in detail ahead of time; he was one of the contestants that I was supposed to be wary of .
“What the hell did you do?” He greeted me with an oddly high pitched giggle . “I got asked to do someone a favour and kick your ass . And it was a formal request too . ” I stayed silent . I didn’t bother answering him . It didn’t take long for him to realize, so he ended up sighing and shrugging in disappointment . “You’re really ruining the fun for me, you know that? Oh well, whatever . I was planning to kick your ass either way!”
“Let the match… begin!”
The moment the gong rang was the moment I moved . I kicked off with all the force I could muster and swung Enne, who was still sheathed, at his face .
My movements were so fast that he probably thought I had teleported . Adding to that effect was the lack of precedence . I had never done anything even remotely close to charging in right off the bat . The combination of my speed and his lack of readiness threw him off . That said, daddy long legs hadn’t made it all the way to the semis because he was lucky . He proved that he was more than just a weakling by getting his shit together and throwing up a quick guard .
His reaction came late, so his guard ended up being more committed than it otherwise would have been . As such, he wasn’t able to do anything about me lowering my blade and intentionally throwing off its trajectory in order to exploit a hole in his defense .
Enne’s sheath drilled itself into his still-open torso and sent him flying into a wall outside the arena’s bounds . And that was it . He was unconscious . His body slid to the ground as his mind was shrouded in darkness .
“T-The battle is over! The winner is Ypsilooooooooooon!” The crowd went wild as the master of ceremonies announced my victory . They seemed to find my display exciting despite the fact that the battle had only lasted for an instant .
On a normal day, I would have turned around and made my way off stage . But today wasn’t a normal day . I had long decided that I was going to stay right where I was even after I finished beating my opponent . Because frankly, I wasn’t here for him to begin with . I simply didn’t have the time to waste on him or any other punk .
That was why I ignored both the crowd and the tournament’s staff . I grabbed the sword that daddy long legs never drew, reeled back, and launched it like a javelin . Its blade rattled as it spun through the air . But its course stayed true . It continued to fly straight towards the cocky douchewad that the fiends called their chief .
Both the emcee and the audience gasped in surprise, but carrot top didn’t . He remained calm as he shifted his head to the side and avoided the attack . In fact, he didn’t break posture . He kept his face propped up with a fist all the way through .
The way the blade impaled the fancy looking chair he was sitting in proved that the attack would have been fatal had it landed .
That was why the audience froze . Their eyes were stuck to me like glue . But I ignored them . I continued to focus my gaze on the asshole I was after as I balled my hand into a fist with my thumb sticking out, turned it upside down, and lowered it .
It was a challenge, a series of actions that could not have possibly been interpreted as anything else . I was telling him to get his ass into the arena so I could whoop it .
Even I knew that my actions were unforgivable . In my last life, they would have led to a swift and immediate arrest . And while this world wasn’t the world that I was born in, its ruleset wasn’t all that different . I wouldn’t have been surprised to discover that the fiends already had a guillotine with my name on it . If they were human .
This, however, was the demon realm, where might made right . Rather than condemning my crimes, the demons welcomed them .
“What pride! What hubris! Can you believe this man!? Of all people to challenge, Ypsilon has challenged Lord Gojim to a fight! What bravery! It appears that he truly knows no fear, ladies and gentlemen!” The emcee started screaming excitedly . And the crowd followed suit .
“Gojim! Gojim! Gojim! Gojim!”
They began chanting fuckface’s name over and over again . It was only a few people at first, but their hype spread like a plague and soon infected the entire audience . I was well aware that they just wanted to see their boss kick the shit out of the cocky, disrespectful insurgent that had challenged him . They wanted him to turn me into a bloody corpse . But that was fine .
Because it meant that they wanted the fight to happen . That was what mattered .
Carrot top couldn’t back out . Not when this many people were urging him to take me down . Refusing to get on stage would only make him seem like a pathetic weakling . And even if it didn’t, the blackhearted schemer I had as my ally would make sure that it ended up that way . I knew for a fact that he would be more than happy to publicly shame and defame his political rival . If he backed down, then rumours of his cowardice were sure to spread throughout the demon realm like wildfire .
His only other choice was to do as I wished and fight me like a man . Come on dude, hurry up already, goddammit . Get the fuck down here so I can tear out your fucking spine!
***
“Gojim! Gojim! Gojim! Gojim!”
“Idiots, the lot of them . ” Gojim, the chief of the fiends, scoffed as the demon realm’s people called his name .
“You must not accept, chief! I have no idea what he is plotting, but there is no sense in needlessly putting yourself in harm’s way!”
“I know,” snorted the chief . He pulled the sword from his seat without rising to his feet and chucked it back into the arena .
Gojim was well aware that the man that had challenged him was dangerous . The way he fought had proven that he was amongst the mightiest of warriors . Even though he had been doing his best to hold back . Never once had the mysterious masked entity gone all out . He had almost seemed to treat the tournament like a game . He was fighting for sport and doing his utmost to use as little strength as possible in order to avoid killing the other contestants . There was no doubt in Gojim’s mind that he would be many, many times stronger in a real fight, a duel to the death with no holds barred . Because the reports he had received from his subordinates had already confirmed it as fact .
“Wow, Gojim . Planning on running away already?” said Phynar . The king had a huge grin on his face . He wasn’t even trying to hide it .
“Is this another one of your silly schemes?”
“Not this time, no . I’m just about as surprised as you are . ” The king laughed . “He sure is an interesting one, isn’t he?”
Like Gojim, Phynar had been more or less blindsided by Yuki’s sudden declaration . That said, it wasn’t as if he had been caught completely off guard . His men had long informed him that Yuki had been seething with rage ever since he had returned from wherever he had gone during the day . The king hadn’t seen the extent of Yuki’s bloodlust for himself, but he had more or less determined that the mercenary he had hired would end up doing something . That said, he still wished that he would have been informed of Yuki’s decision ahead of time . It would have allowed him to devise a more concrete plan of action . Still, it wasn’t as if he was losing anything . Phynar was sure to gain from the scenario that had unfolded regardless; another card had been added to his hand .
“Well, you’re free to run away with your tail tucked between your legs if you’d like,” said the king . “I’m sure a pampered, sheltered princess like you would hate getting hurt, huh?”
“Hah! You think that I would run from a challenge? Nonsense!”
“C-Chief, please do not engage in this act of foolishness!”
His aide’s call fell on deaf ears; Gojim had fallen for the taunt . He got to his feet, shook off the man that was desperately trying to stop him, and leapt onto the stage