Chapter 114: Fight
Noah arrived in the preparation room and realized that he was the only one in the room who was late; all the other partic.i.p.ants were already there. He a.s.sumed this was probably the reason the attendant was so unwilling to accept him as a partic.i.p.ant when Robert first tried to enter him into the compet.i.tion.
In fact, if the attendant hadn"t been suspicious of Noah"s strength after he felt it, the attendant would surely have brought him directly here, instead of giving him a little time to interact with the other kids.
This was a privilege that only people with power would have. The attendant even risked delaying the tournament a little bit just because of Noah, since he had been instructed to treat important people from there with the utmost respect.
Noah didn"t know the real reason for the attendant"s actions; the only thing he knew was that the attendant"s att.i.tude had changed for some reason.
As with the last time, the attendant politely took his leave and left Noah alone in that place to chat with the partic.i.p.ants. The rest of them apparently already knew each other. Since all of themehad a Rank D Blessing, it was very likely that at some point they had already invaded some Fortresses together. This was the reason why people of higher rank highly value good relations with other people of the same rank; after all they would eventually meet again in the future, and it would be no good to work with people that you had a fight of some kind with somewhere.
Since Noah hadn"t even been considered a Blessed Rank D yet, and that the Fortresses that he invaded as Rank E were only with a full team, he didn"t have much contact with other Blessed in Rank E. That was something he found funny, since he valued the freedom to be able to invade Fortresses freely without the group, but in the end he always invaded with the same group since everyone was willing to invade 3 Fortresses a week, which was the ideal number for Noah. Anything else than this was seen by him as unnecessary danger.
So, again, Noah was a little isolated from the group here while just watching who his compet.i.tor would be, and changing into one of the sets of clothes that the event organization had borrowed, since he had not brought any battle clothes.
From the clothes he noticed and what the other fighters were wearing, this was something standardized: boxer shorts and a thin glove to avoid causing so many injuries to his hands. Weapons were forbidden, but Blessings were not, that is, archers were not welcome at all here. To get along they would have to use their Blessing in another way, otherwise they would have no chance and it would be much simpler just not to partic.i.p.ate and go to another type of compet.i.tion.
Since Noah was an extra, he would have to fight first with someone who would be randomly decided from the other group. That was a fair way of not putting him against someone weaker or stronger and decreasing that person"s chances of winning on purpose. This was in the rules, so in the end the person chosen couldn"t blame anyone but his bad luck.
But that did not stop the Blessed who was drawn to fight Noah from giving him an ugly look and a subtle threatening tone. Noah just returned his look with indifference, since he was someone that Noah didn"t care about.
People might have even thought that Noah was arrogant, just like Robert"s friends had for doing that, but Noah just treated people like that who treated him badly in the first place; it wasn"t something Noah did for everyone, unlike Robert"s friends who simply treated who they wanted that way because they felt they were better than anyone else.
As he climbed a ladder to the stage, Noah saw the view of the arena, and it sucked. Noah understood why the audience"s place was so poorly lit, since with such strong spotlights on that place, the audience"s place would be much better lit when the matches started. However, this, on the other hand, meant that whoever was on stage could not see anything from the audience because of the difference in lighting, practically giving them the feeling that they were fighting in the center of an empty s.p.a.ce.
Taking a better look at his opponent, Noah saw that he was a middle-aged man, probably in his 40s, with messy hair and a tired face. This made Noah a.s.sume that this man probably had financial problems at home, and had to partic.i.p.ate in those struggles to get some money.
This was something that Noah particularly could not understand. Since the man was a blessed Rank D, he would probably get $3,000 in every Fortress he broke into. Even if the man had a lot of debt, Noah couldn"t imagine what he had done to need so much money that with such a huge reward from the government for each invaded Fortress, he could not survive and had to fight for the entertainment of others.
"Maybe he just has a sick person in his family that he needs to pay for expensive treatment, just like I have Maggy... Unfortunately it won"t be this time that he will get the money, since the prize this time will be mine," Noah thought as he looked at the man who was looking with an ugly expression at Noah.
Just by his expression, Noah could imagine what was going through the man"s mind, but Noah wasn"t going to let it last for long.
Unlike public fights that were considered sports, where audiences shouted in emotion, to maintain their image as a cultured and refined league, no one in the audience was making a sound other than the usual noise of their conversation, which left the mood for anyone who would be fighting very strange, even more because they could hear very well the conversation of those who were closer to the arena which took the shape of an octagon.
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"Who is the boy? It is rare for someone so young to show up here." Said a mysterious voice with a tone of curiosity.
"I don"t know. They warned that there would be a fight to decide the last spot. The boy"s opponent is someone well known to the house, since he is here fighting every week, so probably the one who was late for the fight is this boy here. I wonder who brought him. After all, to bring someone so young to fight is like leading a lamb to slaughter. Or perhaps that boy came to die or he has great potential, and I don"t see the second option being viable, since unless someone like that urgently needs money, he would not stoop to becoming free entertainment for others," Another mysterious voice said, but this time, because of how serious it was, it was distinguishable that it had been said by an older man.
The person with the first voice put a hand on their chin and looked at the arena with curiosity, which attracted the attention of some of the other people who were watching the fight with that person. It was difficult to get that person"s attention, since almost every time they hadn"t even watched the battles and just kept using their cell phone.
But no matter how much they looked at the boy getting into the arena, it was impossible to see anything unique about him that had caught the attention of the first person who spoke. It just made the others more intrigued, making them stop what they were doing to pay attention to this fight. If this had been a normal fight, it would have only ended in a few seconds, because of the difference in age and experience between the boy and his opponent, and if this was a really different battle that deserved the attention of the first person, then it would only be worth the time they spent paying attention to it.
It was a situation where they had nothing to lose, where in one case they would only lose a few seconds or in the other case they would be pleasantly surprised.
Only n.o.body else could understand the reason for the first voice person"s curiosity yet.
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Noah was just waiting for the referee to start the game.
"We will see how this boy will be killed," Noah heard a man say in the background.
"I don"t doubt at all that he will just die from a punch," said another man.
"His opponent is well known. He has already reached the final of the tournaments a couple of times. Pitting the novice against him is pure bad luck... especially at this young age. I doubt that he will even survive what is to come," said a woman in a serious voice, apparently really a.n.a.lyzing the game, perhaps because of a betting scheme that also rolled over who would be the winner.
Noah regretted not asking if he could post a bet on himself or not, as he could make even more money from these bets.
"What a pity. I"ll just have to settle for the $85,000 prize..." Noah thought.
"Begin!" The referee shouted before leaving the center of the arena and moving to the side so as not to be involved in the battle that would take place.
Noah would not use his teleportation unless it was a case of dire need. So he would just limit himself to using the [h.e.l.l Flame] ability that was as generic as possible. The only problem with this was the pain his opponent would feel during the process, but Noah decided to use this to test whether he could get statistics from other people during battles. If that were possible, it would be even more rewarding for him than the prize money long term.