Qualifiers “Well then, we shall begin the qualifiers first match… battle, starts!”
"Oraaa!"
At the same moment as the start signal is given, I knock the two closest opponents down.
Everyone seems to be magician, so ever since the signal was given, they"ve been mumbling and reciting something.
However… in their current state, they"re full of openings.
Thus I similarly knock the rest of my opponents down. There"s no reason to wait for them to finish, after all.
“Th, this! The mysterious muscle man instantly knocked everyone down … um … It"s partic.i.p.ant Yuri! Is this the advent of a powerful contender? Partic.i.p.ant Yuri, congratulation for advancing to the final tournament!”
The moderator is commenting at high tension.
With this I"ve pa.s.sed the qualifiers, huh. … I think it was a bit too easy, though. Or rather, more than a bit, it was obviously too easy.
It"s not like I have the intention to entertain the spectators or anything, but since the match finished in an instant, they don"t even know what just happened and are murmuring among themselves.
Let"s hope that some worthy opponents will appear in the final tournament.
After the second match, the third match, and the fourth match ended, Firia"s name is finally called in the fifth match. Firia heads to the center of the Colosseum, and when the camera captures her face, the venue is engulfed in commotions.
“Ooh … this is the appearance of yet another unexpected brilliant partic.i.p.ant! However everyone, appearance has nothing to do in battle!”
The moderator slightly cautions them, but the commotion does not subside at all.
As expected, Firia"s appearance is definitely by far surpa.s.ses human, huh.
Speaking of the Firia, as if nothing is happening, she"s staring at her opponents. It seems that she"s fully focused there.
“Well then, let the match begins… … the fifth match, starts!”
Simultaneously as the start signal resounds, the seven people begin reciting their magic.
After a few seconds, Firia releases her magic. A man gets. .h.i.t by it and fainted.
Seeing that, the remaining five people decide to aim at Firia.
Well, in this kind of match, aiming for the strongest one first is pretty much common sense, after all.
“The beautiful woman is targeted. Is this a big pinch? This is … she"s avoiding them! She"s splendidly avoiding those storm-like barrage of magic. That figure is as if the G.o.ddess of War herself!”
As the moderator says, Firia keeps evading the barrage of magic aimed at her.
Utilizing the momentary opening, she hits her opponents with magic. What a splendid performance.
Those movements are the fruits of her training with me. I"m also somewhat proud here.
Burning the last man with fire magic, Firia pa.s.ses safely.
“It was very magnificent. Partic.i.p.ant Firia! In such beautiful victory, congratulation for advancing to the final tournament!”
“Yo, good work.”
I call out to Firia.
As if releasing her tension, Firia heaves a light but long sigh.
“Now that I"ve achieved my target, I can take it easy afterwards."
Firia says so with a smile.
As far as I"m concerned, the real start is from the final tournament, but it looks like Firia doesn"t care about that at all.
I choose to respect Firia"s will.
“That was an elegant way of fighting. Good work."
I lightly pat Firia"s shoulder, and then Firia stiffens her body in surprise.
"Eh, what"s happening to you, Yuri-san? It"s somewhat scary, you know?"
“What do you mean?”
“There is no way for you of all people would know tasteful words such as elegant, Yuri-san… Ha, could it be, you are an imposter, aren"t you?!”
Firia takes a battle stance.
I think I"m justified to get mad at her here, so I lightly poke Firia"s head.
“Ouch, I"m against violence!”
Squatting, Firia complains so while rubbing her head with teary eyes.
“The tournament isn"t over yet. Stay focused.”
“Okay~”
She replies in such stupidly long manner.
This fellow sure is unmotivated, huh. In a way it"s instead refreshing.
All the qualifiers are now over. As far as I can tell, there"s no one who seems powerful among those who pa.s.sed.
As expected, looks like I have no choice but to expect from the seeded player in the final tournament, huh.
“Okay, this concludes the qualifier rounds. Please wait a moment because we will apply recovery magic to those who pa.s.sed the qualifiers”
I hear the voice of the moderator.
After a while, seven people in white clothes come in from the door of the waiting room.
Apparently it seems that one magician is a.s.signed per person.
I refuse the offer by saying “I"m uninjured so I don"t need it,” and return to sit on the sofa.
After the treatments are all finished, the healers promptly leave the room, in exchange, a huge man enters the waiting room. It"s a man with double chin, and the smell of sake is all over his body.
Rather than muscles, looks like the ones that are wrapping around his huge body are fats.
"Puha~" After breathing out a mysterious breath, the man opens his mouth.
“Although this great me have decided to partic.i.p.ate, to think they"ve only prepared such narrow waiting room, it seems that the management here is looking down on me.”
“So noisy you pig.”
“What the fvck did ya say?! … huh, Leonir-sama?! I"m really sorry!"
The one who comes in and pushes away the fat man is a slender-builded man.
Looking at the sword on his waist, most likely he"s a swordsman. Although he doesn"t seem anywhere near the Shinigami, he still looks pretty strong.
Following Leonir, several people come in successively. Looks like partic.i.p.ants for the final have finally arrived.
“Ah.”
Noticing someone among them, Firia leaks out a voice. At the end of her sight is a girl with clear blue hair – Ortemia.
After slightly bowing to me and Firia, Ortemia quietly sits down on the sofa.
From the moment I saw Ortemia"s appearance, my heart has been pounding in high spirit.
My heart is loudly screaming toward her, it hurts, as if my chest is being crushed.
…this is the best.
— doesn"t she look powerful?!
Although I didn"t feel that way during our first meeting, I can firmly tell that within this room, prowess-wise, she"s the strongest.
Aurwise, I think she may even be comparable to the Shinigami. There are other powerful-looking partic.i.p.ants here and there, but as expected Ortemia is still one level higher.
Evan that Leonir guy, he indeed looks strong, but he"s nowhere near this girl.
“Ah, I want to fight her as soon as possible … …!”
I"m really happy that I decided to partic.i.p.ate in this tournament.
Looks like the final tournament"s matches will be decided by lottery, and the moderator is the one who draws and decides the matches.
If the moderator is the one drawing, the management rigging the matches doesn"t sound like impossibility. Well, my aim is the champion, so any opponent is just the same, though.
“Well then, the first match, partic.i.p.ant Chorikko vs. partic.i.p.ant Bifun! The two partic.i.p.ants, please enter the Colosseum!”
I"ve been watching the matches up to the fifth one, and their levels were indeed quite high.
Ortemia in particular, she was simply overwhelming. If things go as planned, I should be able to meet her in the final. I want to fight her by all means.
“The sixth match, partic.i.p.ant Firia vs. partic.i.p.ant Doufl! The two partic.i.p.ants, please enter the Colosseum!”
Firia is called.
After saying "I"m going," Firia heads to the grounds.
From here on is watching from the camera. Thus I watch the two"s fight through the camera.
After a brief introduction of the partic.i.p.ants, the moderator lets out the signal to start the match.
First of all, Firia shoots fire magic.
Although the opponent avoids the first attack, while predicting the movements, Firia gradually corners him by shooting magic after magic to eliminate his routes of escaping until she finally lands a hit on him. From that point onwards is Firia"s overwhelming barrage of magic on her opponent. Fire, water, lightning, wind.
Firia advances to the second round with that barrage of magic that leaves her opponent in pitiable state.
When Firia turns toward the camera and make a V sign, huge cheers ring about.
Even though she acted like she was unmotivated, she still won, huh. What an impressive fellow.
“The seventh match, partic.i.p.ant Doho vs. partic.i.p.ant Yuri! The two partic.i.p.ants, please enter the Colosseum!”
I and Firia missed each other, huh.
“I won!”
“Yeah, I was watching”
“You were unable to turn your eyes away from my figure, weren"t you?!”
“… ….”
“It hurts being ignored… ….”
*sniffle* Firia begins pretending to cry.
“Well, I wish I could fight you too.”
“Eh, I wish not. When fighting you"re scary, after all.”
Firia suddenly makes a serious face and shakes her head. Does she hate it that much, I wonder?
“…I see.”
Ending the conversation with Firia, I head to the Colosseum.
From here I can clearly see all the spectators.
“Very well! The seventh match is a battle between the earth magician, partic.i.p.ant Doho, and the muscle Daruma who pa.s.sed the qualifiers without even using a single attack magic, partic.i.p.ant Yuri!”
Oh, to call me muscle daruma, quite a pair of good eyes the moderator has there.
…. oops, rather than that, I have to concentrate on my opponent for now.
“The seventh match, start!”
That very moment, I shrink the gap with my opponent and then hit him. My opponent fainted.
“… Finished~ … what a swift attack! The yet unstoppable, partic.i.p.ant Yuri!”
Like that the first matches are eventually all over, and we now head to the second round.
Since there is recovery time by the healers after each round, it seems like we can put our everything in each match.
“The third match, partic.i.p.ant Leonir vs. partic.i.p.ant Firia! The two partic.i.p.ants, please enter the Colosseum!”
The second round also is also proceeding steadily, and now is Firia"s turn again.
I"m watching the match through the camera"s footage. The two are already in the middle of the Colosseum.
“Well, you see, whenever I see someone with a beautiful face, somehow I have this urge to thoroughly crush them.”
“I see. But that is impossible, unfortunately.”
Firia expressionlessly shakes her hand and lightly answer so toward Leonir"s provocation.
Leonir seems to be angry for being looked down upon. …… Her talent to make fun of people sure is top notch, huh.
“The fight"s already started even before the battle"s begun! The magic sword wielder, partic.i.p.ant Leonir, vs. the one who fascinated the audience with a beautiful battle in the qualifier, partic.i.p.ant Firia. Whom will the G.o.ddess of Victory smiles to? third match, starts!”
After stirring the spectators, the moderator declares the starts of the match.