It's the middle of the contests many contestants are lined up eating chicken legs trying to get the number 1 spot to win the astonishing reward of 100 gold coins
But...
Rami does not care about that, all he cares about is eating at this point
Munch, munch!
Rami is eating like a madman, eating chicken leg after chicken egg with no stopping but somehow he's still only on third place
As Rami is eating he glances at another contestant and begins soeaking with his mouth filled with food
"Hey! This food is so delicious!"
"Dont speak with your mouth full! It's disgusting and i also can't understand a thing you're saying!"
Rami just chuckles not offended in the slightest bit before he goes back to eating
Munch, munch!
***
After approximately 20 minutes the contest has came to an end
Rami ended up on third place still
The person who has ended up winning second was a rounded and formed teenager
And the person who had ended up winning first place is a professional sumo wrestler
As Rami is preparing to leave to search for the others, the person who won second place comes up to him
"Hey! Sorry for disturbing you I just wanted to tell you how amazing your performance was, you were about to catch up to me, I was really surprised! Oh and my name is Luke, pleased to meet you!"
"Really?"
Chuckles
"I'm glad! This contest was extremely fun, I definitely enjoyed it alot! I'm Rami!"
Crunch... crunch
Luke immediately looks towards the way the footsteps are heard which immediately darkness his face
"Not again..."
A man dressed in a knight's armor stops in front of Luke with a smirk planted on his face
"Well what do we have here? You still participating in those silly contests?"
"Leave me alone, Rowan"
Rowan then grabs Luke by the collar
"Dont you dare te-"
Thud!
Rami delivered a hard blow to Rowan making him stumble on the ground and also breaking his nose
Aghh!
"Who the hell do you think you a-"
Rowan immediately shuts up as he sees Rami's deadly stare
"... I don't approve of making fun of people... next time... I'll kill you"
"H-hey man, I was just joking! It's nothing serious"
Then Rowan immediately rises from the ground and runs away stumbling
Luke is shocked by what he just witnessed
"Rami... you're... amazing, what can I do to repay you? You were gonna fight a guy just for me... I-I really don't know what to say"
Smirk
"Dont mention it! Now I have to go find my friends, maybe we'll meet again sometime! Bye-Bye!"
Rami immediately rushes away from the scene in search for the group
***
Of course, contests aren't only about food.
Currently there is a fighting contest going on which Zorn decided to participate in as he dragged Seren with him.
Swing, swing
As the swords of the two warriors on the arena are clashing, Zorn and Seren are currently on the stadium the two of next being right the next ones in line, with Zorn first and Seren following behind
"Hey, Zorn... why did you sign me up?"
"To fight, obviously"
"We have no experience fighting! We can't possibly do this"
"How are we gonna gain experience fighting if we aren't gonna fight, fool?"
"I-i don't know! Sparing with eachother?"
"Yeah, that's basically a contest. And besides why would we let our new weapons collect rust when we can test them out"
"What if we hurt someone?"
"What about it? It's literally part of the contest and besides we're beginners, there is no way we can hurt people who have atleast a year of experience"
"But... still!"
"Stop complaining, don't be a cat"
"H-hey!"
Wheeet!
The whistle goes off indicating that the next battle is gonna start
"That's mine"
Zorn then gets up and enters the arena
"LADIESSS AND GENTLEMEN! The next round is about to begin! This fight is betwen Asher, our two times champion and a new guy who's name is Zorn! Give some applause for someone so brave!"
Asher looks at Zorn with an confident calm expresion as he begins speaking
"Kid, this is your change to retreat, you can't defeat me, I've grew up as a Ninja, I can defeat you with no difficulty so... give up"
"Like h**l, ninja-boy!"
"Very well, then"
The commentator squeals in excitement as he continues
"Well let the fight begin in 3! 2! 1!"
Wheeet!
Asher immediately drops smoke bombs on the ground which immediately creates alot of smoke, giving him an advantage over Zorn considering the small area of the arena
Zorn can't help but let out a grumble ad he begins thinking to himself
Thisb*****d... he's using thesmallarea ofthis arenato his advantage to gain theupper hand... but ifI manageto swingthe scythefast enoughI canmakeenoughwindforcetoclearout thesmoke
Zorn this immediately raises his scythe up as he begins swinging it in a circle, creating enough wind force to clear out the smoke.
But... after the smoke is cleared Asher seems nowhere to be seen
Where did that b*****d dissapeared to? He's using cheap tricks without any shame
Suddenly just as Zorn began looking tp his left, Asher appears to his right and throws a kunai as distraction which Zorn dodges just to be met with a kick in the ribs.
Ugh!
Zorn immediately grips his scythe tighter as he begins swinging it trying to hit Asher
Swing, swing
Asher in the other hand is parrying the swings with just a kunai then jumps back as he holds out the kunai
"Sorry, I dont have anything smaller to make it easier for you"
That b*****d ninja-boy... hes trying to make me lose my temper... and it's... working
Zorn then let out a loud fierce scream and rushed towards Asher, mindlessly swinging his scythe which Asher manages to dodge and then land a kick on his stomach
Grunt
Zorn stumbles back with a bit of blood dripping down his mouth and then swings the scythe in the air letting out a magic attack from it which takes Asher off guard and manages to cut him a little bit and then he tries to follow it up with a kick but Asher easely catches it and counters with a punch to the face
Ugh!
Zorn takes the full hit then headbutts Asher which makes them both stumble back
The commentator immediately begins shouting
"Oh my gosh! The new kid is putting on such a fight against one of our champions! I'm excited to see where this'll lead!"
Meanwhile Asher is staring daggers at Zorn and then takes out his katana and rushes at him which only makes Zorn chuckle as their swords begun swinging
Clang, clang
The two continue clashing until Asher manages to close the distance which immediately puts Zorn at an disadvantage but before he can even react he already gets kicked in the stomach, pushing him some steps back
Asher was about to rush towards Zorn once again until.
Zorn began chuckling which soon turned into a crazy laugh as he drops his scythe
"What are you doing...?"
The commentator immediately barges in
"Oh my gosh! Zorn seems amused! I wonder what is making him laugh so hard!"
And whispers immediately spread in the whole stadium that suggest that he's planning to stop fighting since he dropped his weapon
"Are you admitting defeat?"
Asks Asher with a confident smile which only ears him a bigger laugh from Zorn who then points at Asher with a crazy bit confident smirk
"Like h**l I do! I don't need a weapon to defeat you!"
That's right... I had found out how a part of my powers work
Smack, smack
Zorn begins hitting himself in the head, as he does so a aura grows around him, a red and black dangerous aura filled with wrath...
"This is... MY VICTORY!"
Zorn then stretches a bit before he lunges forward with such speed it leaves a trail of smoke behind and making him appear in front of Asher almost instantly which can't even react before he gets punched in the face with such force he gets sended flying out the arena into the stadium immediately falling unconcious
The scene that just occurred shocked everyone, nobody thought a beginner would be able to defeat Asher, especially show such feats, it left the whole stadium at a lost of words as the healers begin healing Asher
Asher just stepped out of the arena whole walking back to his seat next to Seren and sits down
"Zorn... that was... incredible... but did you really bad to fo that far?"
"Just shut up, it's your turn now, go"
"I told you I'm not gonna f-"
Zorn doenst give any second to Seren to complain before he picks him up and throws him on the arena
"Ladies and gentlemen! I know you're all shocked from what just happened, never in my 10 years of being a commentator had I seen such an underdog win and with such feat. But it's time for our next battle, our biggest champion, 9 times champion, Kai! Against another underdog who's name is Seren!"
Kai is currently looking at Seren with a calm expresion
"May the stronger one of us win"
"Yeah..."
Kai gets into a stance and so does Seren, his hands trembling as he grips his sword
Kai then lunges towards Seren the sound of swords clashing immediately heard through the stadium as Kai is forcing Seren back with his assault, not giving him any rest
Clang, clang
Kai continues his assault until he kicks seren's leg making him lose balance as he immediately swings his sword which barely gives Seren time to react but still manages to parry but ends up getting kicked in the stomach
But surprinzingly instead of continuing Kai steps back
"You're not using the proper form"
"W... what?"
"I said you're not using the proper form, again"
Kai then continues swinging his sword at Seren
"In order to win you need to become one with your sword"
"What does that even?"
"One that can't understand that has no right to wield a sword"
Kai then kicks Seren in the stomach then he was about to swing is sword at Sener who weakly tries to defend himself by raising his sword until his aura suddenly spikes up and the sword light up and out oh nowhere Kai's sword gets shredded in two parts and now his chest has a pretty deep cut on it which makes him fall on the ground
Seren looks at the sight with a terrified look as he drops his sword and falls on his knees his whole body trembling wondering what he has just done
The healers immediately rush and begin healing Kai and it also seems like the attack Seren unleashed also makes the recovery slower
"I... I... j-just wounded... someone..."
Seren was about to break until Kai suddenly began speaking
"Seren... was it... please... become strong... and... stop the archs... please live everyday... as my rival... use me... and I'll use you... to get stronger"
"B-but... I just wounded you"
"Hah... everyone gets wounded in battle. If I'll cry here and get frustrated, that what will I do in a real battle?"
A healer then turns to Seren and then says "his wound is treatable it'll only takes around half a hour, don't worry about him, it was clear it was intentional"
Before Seren can even respond Zorn calls him out from the stadium
"Seren! Let's go find the others!"
"But-"
"Go... don't worry about me"
Seren looks at Kai with a skeptical look before nodding and getting up and running to Zorn
"... that was cool, Seren"
"... what if i would've killed him...?"
"Well you didn't, stop being a cat. And besides that's some formidable power, I don't even know if someone even saw how you even managed to cut through his sword and him"
Zorn then hits Seren in the shoulder
"So form.now on let's spar together everyday, so we'll get stronger and become the best warrior as we defeat the archs"
"... Zorn..."
***
Meanwhile at a sumo wrestling arena, Bellator has decided to join the fun and signed himself there even tho he looks like a kid compared to every sumo wrestler there, Zio decided to follow him to see what'll happen but he'll just watch from the stadium
Bellator and Zio are currently looking at two sumo wrestlers fighting eachother with Bellator trying to figure the right techniques and Zio is just enjoying the show
After the two sumo wrestlers finished their fight was Bellator was next in line
"Alright. Wish me luck"
"Good luck, Bell! Make sure you don't lose to badly"
"That's not encouragement"
Bellator then got up and walked onto the arena with a confident walk
The moment the crowd saw him, the moment they Bevan laughing as he looked like a scrawny kid compared to the sumo wrestler
The commentator then began
"What is this?? A scrawny kid is trying to challange our champion, Aiguo? This is unbelievable! I hope he won't break when he'll realize he has no change against our champion"
Meanwhile Aiguo is looking at Bellator with a smirk as he begins talking
"I didn't knew scrawny kids were allowed to participate, I could defeat you while starving and besides I just ate 427 chicken legs, you have no change of winning"
"We'll see about that"
Aiguo then began aproaching Bellator at a normal pace
Once he gets in front of Bellator he tries to grab him but Bellator counters him by grabbing his arms and then begins doing the most unexpected thing which is slowly picking Aiguo on his back
Nngh!
Bellator's body trembles, and his shirt begins ripping as he manages to carry Aiguo on his shoulder
The sight leaves the crowd speechless and shocked
And then Bellator throws Aiguo off the ring then falls on his knees before letting out a fierce scream of victory
The crowd is shocked but after some seconds they begin cheering while yelling out Bellator's name
Meanwhile Zio just entered the ring and supports Bellator to stand up
"You have no force left to stand up, huh?"
"Yeah..."
"Well let's go find the others"
Zio then begins dragging Bellator to find the group
***
As everything was happening Horatius was simply sitting on a bench reading about magic
As he was reading somebody suddenly touched his shoulder which immediately made Horatius look back just to see Sahin
"Tch... warn me before appearing out of nowhere"
"Sorry, sorry... but what are you doing here, hmm?"
"I'm reading, isn't it obvious?"
"Come on, get up"
"Why?"
"We have to regroup with the group, isn't it obvious?"
Tch
Then Horatius got up as before following behind Sahin
***
4:32
It's already been 20 minutes yet they haven't managed to regroup yet
Zorn and Seren were currently walking around extremely lost until they hear someone shout from behind
"HEY! Zorn! Seren!"
The sudden shouts made the two look behind themselves to see Rami running towards them
"Guys!"
Rami then tries to jump on Zorn and Seren to hug them but the two immediately dodge him which makes Rami fall flat on his face
Oww!
Seren then scratches the back of his head shily
"Nothing personal, Rami"
"Yeah, nothing personal"
After some seconds Rami raises his face with a smirk
"Yeah, I know"
Said Rami as he raised back om his feet
"Well now 3 of us are together, let's go find the other 4!"
***
4:57
The three continued walking in order to find the others which seemed like a failure
Zorn was ready to stop searching until he catches a glimpse of Zio and Bellator
"Hey, idiots! Over here!"
With just some words Zio and Bellator immediately recognizes the fierce voice before looking in the direction it came from
"Seren? Zorn? Rami? We were searching for you for like... forever!"
Exclaimed Zio as he approached the 3 still dragging Bellator
Zorn raised an eyebrow as he stared at Bellator
"What happened to him?"
"Huh? Oh! He picked up a sumo wrestler"
"And from that he ended up in this condition"
"Yeah"
Zorn immediately began laughing
"I was bleeding from my head yet I was still standing. You should focus on more endurance, Bellator"
"Just shut up! That man weighed like 300 killos"
"I hitted myself 30 times in the head!"
"What the h**l? Why would anyone do that?"
"To gain power!"
"That makes no sense! A worse condition means less strength"
Seren then chimes in as he grabs Zorn and Bellator's ears
"Come on, guys. We have to find the other 2, we can't waste any time arguing with eachother!"
***
5:13
After all this time the 5 of them are still searching for Horatius and Sahin. Until they finally found them
As they were walking around Sahin catched a glimpse of the 5
"Oh! There they are!"
Then Sahin began running at the 5 with Horatius following behind at a normal pace
"Hey, brats! Here!"
Seren was the first one to hear Seren and immediately looked towards his direction
"Finaly! We were searching for you two for like the past... 10 minutes"
"So we were!"
Zorn then glances at Horatius
"Are you still as prideful?"
"Why wouldn't I be? Im superior to you in every way"
"Well I'm your biggest counter"
"Hm... what do you mean?"
Smirk
"I get stronger from the damage I get which means that your time stop isn't that great now since after you'll use your time stop and damage me I'll just be able to whoop your ass"
"Tch... don't try to compare your lowly powers against mine"
Sahin then immediately chimes in
"Now, now... let's not get in an argument, we have to get going"
Seren then looks at Sahin
"Where are we going now?"
"I heard bandits are terrorizing a village nearby, we're now going to go and defeat those bandits so the village can now live without having to worry about them again. Well, let's go"
Sahin then begins walking to the village with the others following behind him
The group is now heading towards where their growth will begin starting