Asher had gone back to his room at the guild, thinking over his encounter with Orion. He knew the young man was desperate, but that one gold coin could easily turn his life around in itself. It was a gamble on Asher's part, but he saw a little bit of himself in the young blacksmith. He was confident that Orion would show up. It was even more certain with the promises that Asher had made. There was quite a bit of money to be made for little to no risk on Orion's part. At least compared to what the young man was used to.
Asher had mere hours before his match begun for the semi finals. He felt thrilled at the prospect, especially taking into account the considerable power boost he had recently obtained as well. There was practically no one at his ranking that could hold their own against him with all of the special abilities he had obtained.
Leah came to his room at dawn as part of her routine, checking in on him. "Where did you go?" she inquired quietly.
"I went to visit a potential business venture. There's a man in the slums who appeared to be quite talented. It's a small gamble, but I'm confident he'll show up and accept my offer. I gave him more money than he's likely ever seen in one place before in his entire life," Asher explained to her. "If it doesn't work out, then I'm down one gold coin. That's the least of my concerns right now at this current moment."
Leah nodded her understanding. She smiled before asking him, "What's their name?"
"His name is Orion. He's a young blacksmith, rough around the edges, but with proper training, I feel he could possibly become a great forger."
"I see, so he's already practicing, but has no resources to go farther?"
"Exactly," Asher stated.
"I believe you're right, Asher. It's almost assured that he will show up. Most blacksmiths want to grow their talents and gain renown, just like us."
"It is still a gamble, but I believe it will pay off," Asher mused to himself. Leah had barely heard him say it. Before she could respond, he stated, "I'm headed out now. My match starts in a couple of hours and I want to run a couple of errands before it begins."
Directly after that, he left. He had important matters to deal with before the match began. For one, he had noticed people sizing up Orion's shop, likely to rob the blacksmith for every coin he had. Asher had been in the business of robbing people blind in the past. He knew what to look for in order to prevent that with Orion's shop. If they managed to do what they planned, not only would the young man be unable to continue making a living, he wouldn't be able to watch the tournament and meet up with Asher.
That was why Asher watched from the shadows as several figures approached the shop, dressed in all black clothing. It was obvious they weren't up to any good. Asher was planning on potentially having to kill all of them in Orion's defense. He didn't really want to, because he had been where they were at. With that in mind, he hesitated slightly. Asher had received a second chance and he had chosen to capitalize on that.
As they got closer to Orion's shop, he squashed any feelings of guilt he had. He couldn't afford to feel bad about killing these men. He kept in mind, they were not the same as him. Asher had chosen to go down a more lawful path and it had worked entirely in his favor. Had he not joined the guild, he might be imprisoned by now or even executed. He let out a deep sigh and began to approach the group who had already broken into the shop.
Orion was on the floor being beaten. The thieves pried the gold coin from his grasping fingers and kicked him in the ribs as he reached for it. Orion begged them, "Please, I have an offer, I can pay you back! I'll have the money soon! I just need that coin!"
The leader of the group by Asher's guess yelled, "Shut up! This will be plenty for us, as well as skinning your hide before we leave. Boys, take everything that's not nailed down, set fire to the shop and we'll take our friend back to the hideout."
Orion began to scream that he had money coming, but it fell on deaf ears as the group began to tear the place apart. One of the thieves went to kick Orion once again and he winced in anticipation of the hit, but it never came. Instead, he just heard a pop and then a dull thud from a body hitting the floor.
When Orion opened his eyes, he noticed the man he had talked to the day before, inside his shop. Asher moved from person to person, knocking each of them out silently until it came to the leader of the group.
The leader pulled out a jagged knife and pointed it at Asher who just smirked in response. Asher had fought far more dangerous beings in recent months than one impudent gang leader. Asher grabbed the man's wrist as the thief went to stab him and the knife bounced off his hardened skin. Asher followed up with a powerful strike to the man's forearm that snapped it with a loud crack.
Asher wasn't done there, this man was sadistic, so Asher would inflict as much pain as he could before ending his life. He grabbed the thief's leg and froze it solid before kicking it into thousands of fragments that spread across the floor. After that, Asher incinerated what was left of the man, melting him from the inside out.
Orion had witnessed the entire display and gulped hard when he saw Asher walking towards him. Instead of attacking him though, Asher held out a hand to help him up. "Thank you," Orion mumbled. "I owed these men money, but I guess you've cleared that up now." Orion went to hand the gold coin back to Asher, but he refused it.
"I still want you to watch the tournament, tell me what you think," Asher explained.
"I can already tell you that I'll work for you after witnessing what you did here," Orion stated. "Not only did you save my life, you dealt with a man that would have hunted me down for a pittance of a loan that I took for building this place. I paid every spare coin I had towards that man and it was still never enough."
Asher nodded and responded, "You were trapped in a never ending cycle."
"Exactly. I know I want to follow you for what you've done for me here."
Asher changed the subject, "You'll want to get as cleaned up as you can, my match starts soon. I wouldn't want you to miss it. Also, I recommend betting on me."
After that was said, Asher left the shop to head towards the arena to get ready. He was confident that even if the men recovered consciousness while Orion was still there, they'd have too bad of a headache from how hard Asher had hit them across the head.
With mere minutes to spare, Asher arrived at the arena. He grabbed his gear and proceeded into the semifinals. There would only be one more match after this point. There were two matches that would be held at this point, to determine who would proceed to the finals. Asher intended to use everything he had in order to reach the final match. With the added power from the ogre he had slain, he figured it would be easier than the last matches.
The opponent he had appeared to be talented with several different abilities. They had a form of hardening like Willow, but a lesser version of it. They also had lightning magic like one of Asher's previous opponents in the arena, again a lesser version of it. They didn't seem to have nearly as much control over it as his one rival had. By Asher's guess, this man had made it through the competition by the skin of his teeth with his versatility. Beyond that, they didn't seem like a very imposing enemy.
The moment the match begun, the man rushed Asher and rode the lightning bolts to try and surprise Asher who simply rolled his body to the side away from the strike. Within moments after that, the match was over. Asher had overwhelmed the man almost immediately. He had a suspicion that the next match would not be so easy for him.