Holding training bamboo spears with cotton filled cloth wrapped around the handle, the scalekin and wolfkin move to the center of the pool.
Then, without any suspense, they suddenly began to strike at each other.
「Start! You should only start now」
Jiren’s voice was weak and the ring that should have signaled the start of the match rang late.
Plak! Blang! Boko! While the sound of battle echoed in the background, Laura-san and I ate pound cake and drank tea.
I feel bad for them but, they were surprisingly powerful and them fighting against each other is fun to watch.
Laura-san seemed to be enjoying it as well. She’s even swinging up her arms.
-0-
The matches continued and finally, after several matches, the chief of the Magical Schenker Group, the scalekin Mince, took the stage.
「Mince-saa—an!」
「Good luck!」
The crowd around cheered and those clutching colored sticks, which might have been betting cards, were making a lot of noise.
Her opponent is Mamu, a sheepkin.
I’ve seen her perform once and I remember she’s quite powerful.
She spun her spear like a fan as she kept her distance from Mince but Mince was not concerned and moved closer to her.
She deflects, flicks, and strikes a powerful blow aimed at the side of her head with her scaled left hand.
Hard clang, cling sound can be heard from all the way here.
Mamu, perhaps cornered, swipes Mince’s feet with her spear.
However, Mince stomps on it, grabs Mamu’s hair with her left hand, the one not holding the spear, and pulls her down to the ground.
Ah, that hurts….
Given the difference in ability, she doesn’t even need to use the spear.
「What happened?」
I asked Laura-san, who was rubbing the edge of the blanket.
「Normal blow is not effective against scalekins and given that the spear has no blade, she’s already at a disadvantage.」
She gave her serious comment.
It is more interesting to watch matches like this with Laura-san explaining things.
If we’re ever going to do something like this again, I’ll ask her to watch with me.
-0-
After a few more games, which were neither good nor bad, a loud cheer sounded from somewhere.
It was the entrance of the centaur Pickles.
The way she spun around the mortar shaped pool and headed for the bottom was so powerful that it reminded me of a horse race in my previous life.
Her opponent was a small catkin swordsman called Gabriko.
She has a long tail with a wooden sword wrapped in a cloth and bravely jumps on Pickles….
And was knocked down.
I guess it’s impossible.
The power difference is too big.
「Even if it’s an all-out match, I don’t think she will be able to do anything.」
Since even Laura-san said that, I guess Gabriko has bad luck in this tournament.
She was brought over to me and I carefully healed her….
-0-
It is now the match between the fishkin Roast and a blonde haired boarkin.
They were striking each other with spears in an orthodox manner and before anyone noticed, Roast already entangled her arms and legs while her arms crossed on the other party from behind. They’re in a cobra twist position.
「Ah! Ouuuccchhhhhh! What the heck! Ouucchhhh!」
The cry of the boarkin can be heard up here.
Well, I think I not only taught her cobra twist but also various joint techniques, wrestling techniques, and so on in the past.
「Areh? Did you teach her that?」
「You can say that.」
「I guess that kind of fighting style is popular in other world.」
「That’s not really the case, but….」
The boarkin gave up in the end and Roast easily won the match.
Surprisingly, that kind of professional wrestling technique may be super effective if the other party doesn’t know about it.
-0-
The tournament progressed quickly and it came down to the semifinals.
「Pickles-san! Please win! For the sake of money!!」
「Mince-san! Please! I’ll share you some dividend!」
「I’m going to live like a beggar this month.」
「It looks like I need to find a part time job on my day off.」