Chapter 566 - Day MMCXXXV, Part IV

Despite our grief, the show had to go on, and Tai go out there to represent us. His opponent was already waiting for him. Sturdy-looking red-skinned creature. Around three meters tall, wearing plastic-looking armor covering his whole body.

He had a very big jaw with two protruding tusks sticking out of it and a flat nose. The eyes looked human but were bloodshot.

He had a heavy maul in his hands, with an ax blade on one of the sides of the hammerhead. 

I was looking at the holoprojection, but my thoughts were elsewhere. I was thinking about all those moments when I fought together with Boris, struggled with him to survive. We used to help each other. We were more like family than just friends.

Tears were pouring from my eyes throughout all of that.

Meanwhile, Tai stepped into the arena. He was wearing a lamellar armor piece of armor with long flaps covering his legs all the way to his knees but cut into pieces, so he could actually move in them fairly well. He had sturdy-looking bracers on his forearms and also an open helmet, with a lock of red hair coming out of the top of it.

In his hand, he carried a pudao, quite similar to mine, but with come decorative engravings on the blade.

He looked confident and focused.

- What is that thing? -asked Adam, looking at the alien.

AI appeared immediately above the holoprojection.

- The participant Tai's opponent is Mershuk Var'tar.

After those words, it disappeared.

- Anything more about him? Can you tell us something? - he continued asking.

There was no answer. Clearly, they wouldn't just let us know what their warriors could do, just as they didn't really know what we had hidden in our sleeves.

- Great - he snorted.

Then the sound of the gong announced the start of the fight. Tai didn't waste any second, and with a few gestures of hand used some kind of skill. Mershuk just started walking towards him with a nasty grin on his face.

The alien was confident, but our warrior didn't care. He was deep in his own preparation for the fight, using gestures to activate the skills or spells. It was hard to tell through the holoprojection.

Tai finished his last bit of preparations, and rushed towards his opponent quickly jumping into the air, and using something familiar to me, a skill called 'Step of the wind'.

This took Mershuk by surprise and he immediately rose his guard by preparing the maul. Chinese warrior leaped, and landed heavily in front of him, bringing his pudao down into a powerful blow. The weapons clashed sending a burst of sparks. Tai immediately ducked down, and tumbled to his left, to spin and attack the alien leg, just as a mark left by him on the giant hammer exploded making the creature stumble straight to the blade already prepared by the human.

With this one move, it was obvious that Tai was not only faster but also more experienced.

Mershuk roared and tried to hit his opponent with them maul, as he lowered himself a bit, to regain his balance, but all he slammed was the sand, as Chinese warrior immediately retreated using 'Step of the wind' to run away and up, to get the higher ground, then he used air magic to create a burst that sent a wave of sand which blinded for a moment the alien.

He used this short opening, to swing his blade sending a cut that landed on his opponent despite the distance between them.

- Air blade - said Nobuo, who was closely observing the fight alongside Adam.

Unfortunately for him, the plastic-like armor was enough to withstand it.

- He is just playing around - explained a blonde, Asian guy, who was also concentrating on the battle.

He was too good looking so when I saw him for the first time, I immediately thought that he fixed his appearance using the device. He had perfect skin, a V-shaped chin with bright blue eyes, and a small nose.

Was wearing stylish clothes. All from some pricy brands.

- He is that good? - asked Adam.

- I wouldn't be surprised if he could beat you - explained the guy. - I'm Lim by the way.

- Adam.

They both exchanged nods and returned to observing the fight.

It was very one-sided. Tai was moving around, citing and placing the symbols they were exploding all over Mershuk who couldn't really do anything because if he just attempted to try something else than defending, he would get blasted by either an air blade or the explosion.

It was obvious that he could last only as long as his armor, and that thing was looking more and more damaged with every few seconds passing. He knew that very well and did his last attempt to break the barrage of cuts by force. He started swinging widely with all his might, and that was his demise.

Tai in a blur appeared after him with the blade low and swung upwards. I didn't even see his weapon that's how fast it was. The cut split the whole alien into two uneven parts in a very clean way, but the pressure went further, creating a line in the sand all the way to the wall, surrounding the arena, and even leaving a mark on the concrete.

Then he turned to face Zor'xal, and spat on the ground. Lastly, before returning to his spot on our half of the battleground, he paid his respect to Ashal Kal Anur, just like Boris would do.

The emperor squeezed the handle of his floating chair tighter, but except that didn't react. The imperial official, on the other hand, nodded, acknowledging the gesture, but he didn't smile as he used to before, which told me that he must have started to like Boris too. 

The sadness immediately squeezed my throat painfully, and the tears started to accumulate in my eyes again.

- See? I told you - said Lim with a smirk on his face.

Adam just nodded.