Chapter 22: Seeking Judgement

"Reggie Greybrewer… Your Spring allows you to throw punches in the air, and when something makes contact in the space you punched, all of those strikes are instantly unleashed at once," concluded Clyde.

"Wha… How'd you know! I thought I was being smooth with those warm-up punches," Reggie reacted, surprised.

"Indeed you were. I did not expect that to be a part of your Spring. I should not have underestimated you…" Clyde readied his sword, and began carefully observing Reggie.

"Well, whatever. Not like it's gonna do you any good knowing. It doesn't matter if you slow time to a snail's pace, my punches are instant," he said while continuing to throw punches. Clyde smiled to himself, having come up with a plan. He threw his sword hinge first towards Reggie at incredible speed, causing Reggie to react with punches in the direction. However, when it reached the mid-point between Clyde and Reggie, it suddenly slowed down immensely, almost to the point that it wasn't moving. Clyde began walking slowly around Reggie, encircling him.

"I see, you're trying to pincer me between yourself and your sword. Sorry, but that's not gonna work. My punches are protecting me from behind, and I can turn around and safely fight you while you're unarmed. Since you're slowing the sword down right now, you cant even activate your Spring to fight me," smiled Reggie confidently. Clyde didn't say a word. He quietly observed Reggie while the sword slowly approached him. All of a sudden, Clyde ran towards Reggie.

"You think you can fight me in a brawl of fists? Haha! Ok then, it's your loss!" Clyde released his Spring on the sword, returning it to normal speed. But as it flew into Reggie's air punches, the sword was simply deflected.

"Told ya that wouldn't work. Now, to end this!" Suddenly, another object came flying at Reggie from behind, and since his Spring was no longer active, it went through this time and hit him in the back of the head, which dazed him for a moment. Since Clyde no longer had his Spring active on the sword, he could now activate it all around him as he did before. As time slowed around him, he ran over and grabbed his sword and sheath and turned around to face Reggie, who was frantically recovering and trying to throw more punches. He took a deep breath, then unleashed a powerful attack, an upwards slash that makes use of the target's immobility to cause significantly more damage. A technique taught by the 'Seeking Blade' at Kazaha school of swordsmanship.

"Seeking Blade, Judging Eruption!"

When time resumed at a normal pace, there was a large cloud of smoke encasing the arena. As it dissipated, the outline of 2 men could be made out, one was on the ground, and the other was standing above him.

"Contestant number 7 has won!!" The crowd erupted into cheers at the swordsman's victory.

"It was a very good match, Greybrewer," said Clyde as he outstretched his hand to help Reggie up.

"Man, what was that? Did you throw two things at me?" He took Clyde's hand and stood up.

"I threw one item, but two entities."

"Mind dumbing it down for me?"

"I threw a sword. A sword is one item but is composed of two entities: the blade and the sheath. By throwing the sword hinge-first, I was able to separate the speed of time on the two entities, making them both hit at different times. The hinge of the sword was used to get rid of your shield, and the sheath was to hit you directly," explained Clyde as they walked into the nurse's station.

"Damn, you really got me there…"

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"Hey Rein!"

"Oh, Chloe, you're already back? And Vossen, that was a damn good show you put on." Rein complimented him, but Quint's face didn't look like someone who was just praised. It was a mix of fear, anger, and distrust etched towards Rein.

"Hm," Quint gave a grunt of affirmation, which made Chloe look at Rein with a confused expression, remembering what Quint told her about Weiss.

"So you're up next then Xilris. Good luck." Said the masked man, making Rein grow ever greater suspicion towards him, though he didn't let it show.

"Thanks."

"It is now time for our final match of the first round! Would the last two contestants please step out into the arena."

"Hmph, I suppose it's my time to win." Said Dwayne as he exited the waiting room, winking creepily at Chloe. Rein noticed the lustful look in his eyes as they stepped out into the arena.

"Go, Rein! You've got this!!!" Cheered Emria, along with Saphrilla who was in the crowd.

As they both arrived at the center of the arena, Dwayne was smiling menacingly at Rein.

"Get ready to lose all of the respect of everyone around you!" Dwayne laughed.

"Yeah yeah, let's just get this over with." Said Rein, unimpressed.

"Now that both contenders have entered the arena, let the final match of round 1 begin!"

Rein summoned his swords through weapon rings as to not cause any confusion as he did before with his inventory. He noticed his opponent was not wearing any weapon rings.

"Hey, you gonna summon a weapon, or are you just gonna stand there?" Asked Rein. The man took out a pouch from his pocket. It was full of rings, but not the normal kind. When Dwayne Collins used the rings, weapons weren't summoned, they were people. Humans, elves, half-elves, a group of different enslaved species. The crowd was in shock, along with the participants in the waiting room.

"Dwayne Collins, part of the infamous Treaq region Collins family. So this is the kind of fucked up shit your family conducts," he said as he examined the people that came out of the rings. There were 6 in total. 3 humans, 2 elves, and 1 half-elf. They had chains around their necks, with a wretched expression on each of their faces, carved with fathomless despair and terror. 4 of them were adults, and there were 2 children among them. 1 was a half-elf boy who looked about 14 years of age and the other was an elf girl who looked to still be a toddler.

Dwayne began laughing out of his stomach and pointed the slaves in Rein's direction, ordering them to attack. Rein didn't attack back and simply dodged them out. He saw an opening through the waves and rushed in straight to Dwayne, but before his sword could connect, the young toddler girl stood in front of him, preventing him from attacking. He stepped back, the half-elf boy rushing in to protect the little girl, who was crying profusely.

"Hey boy! I didn't order you to protect the little bitch." He said as he kicked him in the stomach and stepped on his face. Rein tried to act, but the little girl began holding a knife to her throat, crying even louder now.

"Oh no, you don't! One step closer, and the girl's throat gets punctured." A twisted smile grew on his face, as he began laughing from pleasure.