Chapter 383: Bloody brawl

Chapter 383: Bloody brawl

An Avatar appears before the man from Easy difficulty. An Avatar of the man who won the 1st tournament of the 1st round of Earth’s tutorial.

The rumor spreads quickly, and before the countdown ends, signaling the start of the duel, all eyes have been glued to the screen, examining that man.

He is very tall and muscular, the build you would see on strongmen. He’s bald, has a bushy black beard, and looks to be in his thirties. He Wears simple clothes and seems to be unarmed.

When the duel starts, he takes a few steps and stares down at his challenger. It’s just a moment, but even that seems to be enough to unsettle this particular member of Channeler’s group.

Then the Avatar swings his arm, and the upper half of his opponent's body disappears, and just like that, the challenger reappears outside.

“Did you see that? That one swing left a massive crater,” Aaron says excitedly.

“High strength?” Min-Jae guesses.

“That dude was massive, and probably as heavy as the two of us and Min-Jae combined,” Dennis says, staring at the now blank screen with his eyes wide open.

“But it seems like you were right, Nat! We really can challenge the winners of the previous tournaments.”

“It’s not like it’s all that useful, but it’s going to be nice to see some of the other tutorial attendees. We might even find out how many rounds our tutorial has,” I inform Min-Jae.

“The next challenge is beginning,” Sophie says, and we turn back to the screen.

The 2nd round winner of the tournament is a young redheaded woman with a long scar on her cheek. She is wearing simple, well-made armor, which I recognize as the armor of the Fallen Hero. Her only weapon is a huge ax with two blades.

Even so, she doesn’t bother using her weapon and nonchalantly kicks a stone off the ground towards her opponent. It speeds off like a bullet and kills the man from Easy difficulty.

“Hot.”

To my surprise, it’s Maya who says that. She gets a few surprised looks, and I can see the twins want to say something, but neither is brave enough to do so.

The winner of the 3rd round’s 1st tournament is a child. A boy looking to be even younger than Isabella. He has brown curly hair and deep blue eyes. Very deep blue, likely a result of one of his traits rather than anything approaching his natural color.

As ten seconds pass, the boy’s shadow expands, and two pitch-black wolves rise from its depths, as if they were made of ink. They attack at once, dashing at the challenger who quickly dies at their hands.

The two black wolves turn into a liquid-like substance and seep back into the boy’s shadow which quickly returns to normal. The entire time, his blue eyes seem to shine.

Then the time comes for the winner of the 4th round’s tournament.

It’s a 27-year-old woman. Most people would probably find her attractive. Her eyes are both brown though one of them is slightly lighter in color than the other.

She’s wearing simple clothes. Black pants and a gray shirt with long sleeves. The design seems to originate from the 4th floor. Her black hair is pulled back into a simple ponytail, clumsily done, she never was any good at doing it herself.

Even as an Avatar, confidence, and grace radiate from her as she stands waiting with perfect posture.

“Nat...” I can hear Tess say quietly.

“Something happened? Why is your voice like that, Tess?” Maya asks, voice full of concern.

“That woman, she...” Tess hesitates, unsure what to say.

“She is my sister,” I answer in her place.

I watch the screen as Victoria takes her first steps. Her movements are so familiar. The Avatar moves just like her. Confident and daring. It's as if she is daring the entire world to throw everything it has at her. And I’m sure if that happened, she would endure it all without complaining. That's how she is.

The challenger dies with a single swing of her arm.

When she disappears, I can only stare at the place where she stood.

(Boss, we tried to challenge the 6th round winner, but it didn’t let us. The same goes for higher numbers. It seems like we can challenge only rounds below the 5th for some reason.)

Lily, who was looking around at that moment, starts pulling her arm back in shock, but Victoria pulls harder and tears Lily’s arm from its socket.

That makes Lily stagger back, a short scream of pain escaping her while her arm starts regrowing.

Before it’s restored, Victoria takes a step swinging Lily’s severed arm. She lands a blow on Lily’s face, striking with great force, sending her staggering with a broken nose. And then she advances with another quick step and swing, making Lily stumble even more.

Before the third hit lands, Lily uses [Disintegration], lashing out at Victoria.

Victoria swings, deflecting the gray mana with Lily’s own arm. As the arm of a person who possesses that skill and uses it often, It only makes sense that it should be able to endure it. The only sign of damage on the arm is the ragged skin at the stump and a few disintegrated pieces of flesh.

Lily continues to attack, and every time, Victoria uses her arm to block her gray mana. After a while, all that remains is a jagged bone, and Victoria attacks head-on.

She spits, and I can see a bloodied piece of something fly over Lily.

“Was it her tongue? Did that crazy woman bite off her own tongue and spit it behind Lily?!” Maya says in shock.

The moment that piece of tongue lands on the ground, another Victoria grows from it just like she did from the finger. A perfect copy of the original.

That copy quickly moves and puts her arms around Lily from behind while the original uses the bone jutting from Lily’s severed arm to pierce Lily ́s chest, aiming for her heart.

A whip-like burst of gray mana is sent from Lily, both versions of Victoria getting hit. One loses both arms, another one its legs under the knees.

From these cast-off limbs, three more Victorias quickly regrow.

Victoria, missing her arms, knees Lily in the chin, and the one without legs grabs one of Lily ́s arms.

The other three Victorias each grab a limb and start pulling.

Lily screams as they tear off her limbs, and another burst of gray mana devours everything around it in a wide area, and all the Victorias with it.

Still, they had time, and further away, two bloodied fingers make their landing. From each finger, one Victoria regrows.

Lily sways a bit but straightens up as they attack her relentlessly. They are much more confident now, better at dodging [Disintegration], and after a while, one of them bites off her finger and spits it out.

The finger spawns a third Victoria. After dodging, she swings her arm and punches Lily in the jaw, staggering her and almost causing her to lose consciousness as the powerful blow shakes Lily's brain. All three of them seize the opportunity and attack Lily. Two start pulling her arms, and the third one grabs Lily’s head after punching her again in the same spot.

Lilly’s bursts of bursts of [Disintegration] gradually weaken, still damaging them, eating away at their flesh, and blinding them, but they still continue to pull.

In the end, Lily ́s head lets go before the limbs, and they pull it free, dangling her spine behind it.

Finally bursting into a cloud of particles Lily reappears on the roof.

The result is a total shitshow.

She wanted to help, to have a duel so I could see my sister for just a bit longer, and yet it ended like this.

A total, absolute shitshow.

Instead of fighting with her to allow me a longer glimpse of my sister, it ended with them getting into a bloody brawl.

But I do understand. I tend to screw things up when I try to help, making them worse instead. It caused my sister so much trouble back then.

There was no ill intention from Lily, none at all. In her own naive way, she just wanted to help, without thinking it through at all. It's almost silly. What did she imagine would happen?

Lily tries to get out of the rooftop, but I move to her and grab her arm. I patiently wait until she lifts her head from the ground and looks at me.

“Thank you,” I say.