Chapter 475: Last Matches of the Day

The moment that the countdown ended both Joshua and his opponent charged at each other. The speed between the two's approaches were completely different as Joshua cut across the arena so much faster than his opponent that it caught the man by surprise. Joshua wasn't going all out, but he did plan to end the match as quickly as possible instead of testing his opponent out since he already had a good idea of what he could do just based off of his job and level.

The man planted his back foot and kicked out with his other leg fiercely aiming to hit Joshua directly in the chest. The sole of the man's foot was coated in a tinge of aura and the precision of the attack showed some signs of a skill being activated. The man seemed confident in his attack even with the huge disparity in stats so Joshua didn't even bother taking it head on or meeting it with an attack of his own. Instead Joshua lowered his body as he upped his speed and moved under the man's leg. It was clear that his opponent hadn't been expecting this by the widening of his eyes. He tried to retract his kick, but Joshua moved in swiftly and grabbed his leg with one arm while the other stuck out at the martial artist.

Joshua's strike seemed as if it was going to slam directly into his opponent's chest at first so the man crossed his arms in front in a defensive posture hoping to survive the incoming blow, but the hit never landed. Instead Joshua opened his fist and aimed his attack at his opponent's throat instead. Joshua's large hand put the man in a one handed choke with such a grip that he wasn't able to breath. The man moved both of his arms to try to pull Joshua's hand away, but the sheer difference in strength made his struggle pointless, the moment he was caught the fight was over.

Instead of wasting time choking the man out for a victory Joshua swept the man's back leg out from under him sending him off balance and making it easy for Joshua to lift him up into the air by the neck. He then slammed the man down into the ground so hard that the arena floor cracked and a small crater was formed where the man landed. If Joshua had done this to the man out in the real world instead of the hub city in a battle arena he would have died or at the least had his spine broken in several spots. Soon the man's body vanished and Joshua once again waved to the crowd before he was teleported back to his waiting room. The flourishing finishing move that looked like something straight out of a scripted televised wrestling match had left the crowd hyped up for the next match.

When Joshua got back to the waiting room he was glad that he had already finished three out of his five matches. In a couple more hours he would be done for the day and he could just spend his time watching some of the other matches going on with his family. Joshua was fairly certain that his sister was going to finish her matches for the day rather quickly as well. After looking at the timer and the list of his three previous matches to check on them, Joshua turned his attention to the television and started searching through some of the matches. For the most part things seemed to be sticking to form. At this point not a single person over level seventy had lost a match based off of what the news crew was reporting and that was a good sign that the system was doing a good job of weeding out the weaker competitors.

While flipping through some of the matches that were being aired Joshua came across one of Lily's matches that was about to start. Her opponent seemed a bit arrogant for someone that was only level fifty-seven. Apparently the man had just come off of two bad losses to high level opponents that looked far more threatening than the short and silly girl that stood before him. Plus there was the fact that Lilly didn't actually give off all that much pressure on her own. At this point Lilly was actually a decent fighter even without her beast companions, but she still wouldn't stand a chance against someone skilled that was only a tier lower than her when it came to levels.

It was a shame for this man that Lilly had no plans on relying on her own skills through the preliminaries of the tournament. Joshua was fairly certain that she was planning to keep her own personal capabilities as a trump card to help out her beast companions when she took on far more challenging opponents later on in the competition.

Before the match started Lilly brought out Momo from her soul realm and the giant ferret that took up about a fourth of the entire battle arena glared down at the now very small man that dropped his shield and sword as he stared up in shock at the massive creature that was glaring down at him for mocking Lilly. It was clear that the man must have said something that annoyed Lilly for her to be toying with him in such a way. The moment the countdown ended Momo's giant fluffy tail swished around and slammed into the poor defenseless man as he was sent soaring out of the arena and into one of the walls near the crowd. His body was imprinted into the wall for a second before he disappeared from the arena marking Lilly's victory.

It was clear that Lilly was saving her stronger beast companions for later on in the tournament. In Joshua's mind she would be one of his greatest challenges to winning the whole thing since taking on four of her beast companions at the same time was going to be a nightmare. After that match Joshua spent some time looking through other matches until his next match. Eventually he was teleported to the arena once more and his opponent this time around was actually someone that he knew.

Delvin Reed stood across from Joshua with his spear at the ready and a look of determination that quickly turned to surprise before turning to acceptance. Joshua could only slightly smile at the range of expressions that made their way across Delvin's face. Delvin was one of the people that attempted to join Joshua's guild during his first recruitment drive. In fact Delvin was the first person Joshua tested out at the time and didn't end up making it into the guild, however Delvin was now the leader of one of the newly formed guilds that worked alongside the alliance. When Joshua had first met Delvin he was a level fifty-eight explorer that didn't have very much life and death experience on the job while also having a rather weak will because of that. Now the much shorter man standing in front of Joshua was level sixty-seven and although he realized he didn't stand a chance in a fight against Joshua he didn't start shaking in his boots from Joshua fighting spirit alone.

"Well that's a shame looks like my little winning streak is coming to an end." Delvin said with a sad smile.

"At least you're doing well so far. I'm guessing the battle arena is just putting you against someone like me to test your limits." Joshua said with a grin in return. Although Delvin had grown much stronger since the last time Joshua had seen him he was still nowhere near capable enough to make Joshua have to show off at all. The fact that the system suddenly through someone that was closer to level seventy than sixty at Joshua told him that he might end up with a few interesting opponents during the preliminaries, but this was most likely a match thrown at him to better judge just how much stronger he was than his opponents before the bracketed portion of the tournament. It was a good way to figure out the seeding during the preliminaries.

"Alright let's get this over with. I'm going all out from the start." Delvin said as his body tensed up and he held his spear at the ready to charge forward. When the countdown ended Delvin charged directly for Joshua with what looked like lightning dancing across the tip of his spear. He also glided across the floor as if there was no friction increasing his speed as he closed in on Joshua. The moment that the tip of the spear was about to reach Joshua he twisted around and let the lightning that shot out of it harmlessly fly by before grabbing the spear with a firm grip and making sure Delvin wasn't able to get away without dropping his weapon.

For a second Joshua admired the powerful attack Delvin was able to use at his level, but he didn't take too long to think on it as he pulled on the spear dragging Delvin closer before punching him hard in the stomach followed by a kick to one of his knees forcing Delvin to the ground. Joshua finished the small combo with a powerful punch to the chin that knocked him out. He probably could have still finished the fight off in one blow like the others, but he did allow Delvin to show off a bit so that his chances of moving on in the tournament would be a bit higher.

After a quick wave to the audience Joshua was once again sent to the waiting room to prepare for his last match of the day. When he watched some of the other matches on the television he realized he was ahead of the curve when it came to the pace he was going through all of the matches. There were still quite a few people that were a match behind Joshua for the day even with the hour long breaks between each match he had fought in. After watching a few matches Joshua went back to waiting for his final match and stretched a bit when it was time for him to make his last appearance of the day.

When he was teleported into the arena this time around he was met with a young swordsman that Joshua didn't know. His opponent was only level fifty-six this time around so Joshua knew it was going to be another quick match and by the nervous way his opponent was acting he was not expecting very much out of the match. The moment the countdown ended Joshua flooded the entire arena with his killing intent as he glared directly at his opponent. His will only empowered that pressure even more causing his opponent to freeze up which was all Joshua needed as he dashed forward and knocked the swordsman out with a quick punch to the chin.

The crowd cheered excitedly, but they did see a bit disappointed that it was Joshua's last match of the day. He gave them one last wave before being teleported home by the battle arena's system.