Chapter 533: Start of the Tournament

Eiro continued walking toward the stage where he was scheduled to fight in a bit, and sat down on a bench nearby where he could properly see the stage. It seemed like things were ahead of schedule a bit, which was something Eiro was quite happy about. These preliminaries would just be completely boring, there was no way they wouldn't be.

At least, that's what Eiro thought at first. But when he watched the fight that was currently happening on the stage, he couldn't help but be quite surprised. There was a young man standing on the stage, with a sword at his hip. He was maybe a couple years older than Eiro's kids, but judging from his build, he spent most of his time fighting. His exposed arms were covered in battle scars, after all.

And that man stood there with his sword, clutching the grip tightly. His opponent came rushing at him, and the man cut through the air before his opponent reached him. Eiro was positive, that the blade didn't touch his opponent, but even then, a large cut formed on his chest along where a blade would have cut him.

From what Eiro could tell, it clearly caused plenty of internal damage as well. But luckily, there were healers standing by, so it was fine. As his opponent collapsed on the ground, the man let out a light sigh as he loosened the grip on his sword, as if he was just bored.

And as the sword was hanging there, Eiro noticed... that it was completely blunt. It didn't have any sort of edge to speak of, to the extent where it couldn't be called a sword anymore. It was a sword-shaped club, that was all.

"Interesting." Eiro muttered, as he looked at that clearly skilled man. But even more than that, Eiro could feel the muscles in his body slightly shifting in response to that man's movements and technique, to an incredible extent. He had used his whole body for that single motion, something that must have required an immense amount of physical control.

The man stepped off the stage and simply walked away, heading over toward the stage he was told to head to by one of the organizers, having passed the first round of the preliminaries. The other people that followed him on that stage were quite boring, to say the least. They were clearly weak, but the fights seemed long and impressive, just because they were all equally weak.

And then, it was finally Eiro's turn. The Demon stood up and walked up to the stage, wearing loose clothes, his long, rainbow-colored hair tied up so that it wouldn't bother him. Looking his opponent up and down a few times, Eiro was already disappointed. He was clearly just a brute, some warrior that came here to hit it big.

As the referee clapped his hands as a signal that the fight started, Eiro simply snapped his finger, and created a strong blast of air that threw that brute off the stage with an explosive force. The referee's hands were still touching from the clap, and the fight had already ended.

"Where do I need to go now?" Eiro asked one of the organizers, who were looking at him in surprise, "E-Erm... stage 17, just a few minutes further toward the castle..." The Demon was told, and was then quickly given a stamp on the card he was supposed to carry with him to identify himself.

And so, just like that, Eiro continued on through the preliminary fights, winning each one in an instant to the point where there were whispers going around about Eiro just paying off his opponents so that he could proceed. Of course Eiro just ignored them and continued on, taking the time to watch the fights of his party members when he had the time.

The preliminaries would continue on for another two days, due to the sheer amount of people that had come here. Eiro had already fought all of the fights he had to, though, so he didn't have to worry about all of that anymore.

So, for the next two days, Eiro just watched the preliminary fights to see if there was anyone else noteworthy here, but most people were really just boring. Although, he did also enjoy making Evelyn nervous by just sitting there and watching her for a while as she was fighting. Beside that, Eiro just tried to enjoy the festivities with his children.

And then, finally, the first day of the actual tournament came. For this, they set up a huge arena in town, in the largest open space available, the city park. Eiro sat there on his seat next to Solomon, and let out a deep sigh while looking at the tournament roster, "Hm... so, it looks like I'll end up fighting Evelyn in the quarterfinals, James in the semifinals, and then... I guess Krog or Jess in the finals." Eiro muttered, with a light smirk as he looked at his friends, "Lucky, huh? Krog, Jess, one of you gets to be second place in the tournament." 

Krog stood there smirking slightly as he turned his head toward James, who was standing there grumbling to himself. It was obvious that none of them could beat Eiro, so their path would end at the latest when they fought him. It was just that James was quite unlucky to be in the same half as Eiro.

"Who is the first to fight amongst you all?" Solomon asked curiously, and he quickly pointed at James, "Him. James is in the third fight, I'm in the 12th. Krog in the 17th, and Jess in the 29th." 

"Really, today is going to be rather boring. At least we all get to fight twice tomorrow." James complained, and Eiro smirked lightly, "And then, the day after that is the final day of the tournament. I get to fight three times then, even."

"Stop bragging. We know that you'll win already, alright?"

--- 

The third fight of the day. There were quite a few people fighting today that were candidates chosen by the nobles of this kingdom, and the same was the case with the opponent that James was going to fight right now.

It seemed like he had a similar ability-focus to James, so if his opponent was even half-skilled, this fight was going to be a bit intresting. It didn't take long until the fight was started with the ringing of a large bell, and due to the nature of their classes, both James and his opponent tried to get the first hit in. His opponent took two steps forward, clutching his dagger tightly in his hand, getting ready to figure out a way to strike at James.

But before he knew it, James already stood in front of him, having crossed the distance between them in an instant. James swung one of his daggers at this opponent, who tried to block the attack, since the two were too close for him to dodge the attack.

He was pushed over toward the edge of the ring, his back pressing against the walls that had been constructed around it. Different to the preliminaries, you couldn't lose by falling out of the ring anymore. Rather, to lose, you had to give up or be deemed unable to continue fighting.

But of course, there was a reason why James pushed him so close to the edge, and that was to make it harder for him to dodge the next flurry of attacks. James cut into the man's skin, targeting specific points of his body. And just like that, it didn't take long until his opponent became unable to hold his dagger anymore.

James pressed one of his daggers against his opponent's throat, and the other's tip was pressed against the man's chest, right where his heart was.

And just like that, James had won his first fight, without even half a minute having passed. It was undeniable that he had won at this point. With just a single more movement, this man would be dead, after all, which was why James' opponent quickly gave up so that this situation wouldn't happen. Disappointed that this ended so quickly, James stepped out of the arena that had been constructed just for this tournament, and made his way back over to where Eiro and the others were waiting.

"Good job." The Demon said with a smile on his face, but James just rolled his eyes, "Good job? Hah, right... That was just way too easy..."

"Getting kind of cocky, huh? Don't worry, you'll have your fill of a good struggle when we're fighting in the semifinals." Eiro explained, and James slightly raised his head, as if he was excited about that idea, "Oh? That so?" He asked with a light smirk, "Can't wait for that, then."

With a smile, Eiro turned back toward the arena, where things were being prepared for the next fight. Again, most of them were quite boring, but just looked impressive. At this point when watching these guys, all that Eiro's muscles did was twitch slightly here and there, but his musculature didn't actually change at all. That just showed Eiro how basic and weak these guys were.

But then, it finally got to the 12th fight, and Eiro excitedly stood up, happy to finally do something himself instead of just sitting there. Well, considering that he was back, sitting in his seat just a few minutes later came to show that this fight was nothing to actually be excited about.