Chapter 187 A New Challenge
With everything that had happened at the auction so far, and with him yet to have even stepped foot in the room itself, Raze felt that it might be best for him to leave. After Dame was done with his meeting, he would just have to come with him so there would be no more problems. Or if Dame was busy, he could at least try again the next day. Today, his mood had been soured, and he knew he was more likely to be angered if he did go to the auction. So, turning around, he was ready to head out of the place.
"Hey, wait!" Reno shouted, the man who had interrupted his little scuffle. "Weren't you going to head inside the auction or buy something?"
Raze ignored the man shouting and continued on.
"If you decide to come to the auction, then be here at midday tomorrow. I'll be here, and my offer will still stand. You'll be able to get inside with me," Reno shouted. When he saw the hooded man continue downward, he couldn't help but smile at himself.
"Another tragedy averted. Alba should be giving me medals for this stuff. If only she wouldn't stop obsessing over the Dark Magus," Reno said to himself. "I guess it would make sense for an alchemist to arrive at the auction to buy some ingredients, but I'm tired, Alba. We haven't found him now; what makes you think we'll find him later?"
While continuing to walk, Raze couldn't help but look at his own hand. He was thinking back to what had happened before.
'In my haste of anger, did I activate the extraction technique?' Raze already knew the answer; he could feel it inside. The Qi had grown compared to what it was before. It didn't feel like some temporary energy either. It was a condensed form of when he would use the cycle of life and death.
'This is the Demonic Faction's technique... the one Dame told me not to use on other people,' Raze thought. 'The feeling is quite addictive. I remember that he also stated that a person could go mad and start to hallucinate just from using the cultivating technique. I wonder if it's the same for this as well?'
Trying to forget about it, Raze thought it was best he head back to the others for now, wherever they were.
---
The crowd was surprised to see, of all the people there, a small young girl step up. Not only that, but she had walked over to Mantis, who was now sitting back down in his seat.
'Crap, she's already out there. What am I meant to do? I can't just walk out. I mean, I guess it won't be so bad. It's not like she's going to get hurt, right? And we're not causing any trouble,' Simyon reasoned with himself. They were just doing what the whole event was set up for.
After looking at Mantis, Safa then went and placed the 10 copper coins into the metal pot, making a small clang noise. She had done this before anyone else could decide to take part, and then she walked up to Mantis, who was in the chair himself.
"Oh, is she taking the hitting challenge?" one of those in the crowd called out. They were quite surprised at this because it was the least-picked event so far from the contestants. Only a couple of Pagna warriors had decided to try, and both of them had lost.
Although it did look like they had come close to hitting Mantis, it had already become clear to the public that regular people would be unable to best him. Still, there were a lot of Pagna warriors in the crowd.
"Alright, are you sure, young lady?" Rod asked. "You have a total of two minutes, and if you are able to touch him, then you win."
Safa nodded her head as she got into position and assumed a fighting stance.
"Why is she doing this?" Liam asked. "Is she really that hungry?"
Simyon kicked Liam on the shin after hearing him say that.
"Do you really think she would be like that? It's because of you, you idiot."
"Me?" Liam pointed at himself.
"I think I can understand because when we saw you return, we understood how you felt. With us finally becoming second-stage Pagna warriors, we felt like we had achieved something, and yet here we are... failing again. It almost feels like we're destined to fail... but then the speech Raze made that day, it still plays in my head.
"We can change that, right? We have to at least try, and I think that's what Safa's doing now."
There was already one talented young student out of the group, but for a second one to appear, what were the chances? And Mantis was, of course, confident in his skills. Stepping up, he was in a relaxed stance, but he was relatively close as well.
"Begin!" Rod shouted.
Safa walked forward slowly, still in her fighting stance. She didn't rush or charge in and continued to almost shuffle forward on the ground. Right when she was in distance, she did the two-step shift and threw out a fist. Immediately leaning to the side, Mantis had avoided the strike.
'Crap, she's fast!' Mantis thought, and he didn't have much time to think after, as he needed to avoid the next hits that were coming right after. He took a step back and then kicked off to the side, avoiding them.
But Safa didn't give up; she was chasing him down, following him every step of the way and thrusting her fist like they were a spear, trying to jab them at Mantis. Still, despite the fast movements, Mantis was avoiding the hits each time, using his speed and staying on his toes.
"Wow, this is amazing, it's like we're watching some type of show."
"Yeah, look how fast they both are."
"Still, that girl can't touch him; I guess it's impossible. Maybe these guys were just playing us this entire time."
Rod stood on the edge, could hear the crowd speaking, and this is what he feared. What were they meant to do? With Mantis showing his true skills less and less people were willing to participate.
However, they couldn't lose this early either... This was something that was out of his calculations.
'A minute has passed, and the sweat is coming down the side of Safa's face, but she hasn't slowed down. For your age, and not tiring using so many foot movements, you must be a second-stage warrior. That's really impressive,' Mantis claimed. 'But you'll never be able to hit me.'
Safa felt like she could see a way, as she thrust her fist forward, but every single time, with the flow, Mantis would lean back, and then finally...
"Time!" Rod called out.
Safa was huffing and panting, and she felt like collapsing on the floor, but she didn't as she wiped her sweat away.
"WHOO!" Simyon shouted, clapping, and so did Liam as well.
"You were amazing!" Liam shouted. "If there were ten seconds more, you would have got him, no, 1 second more!"
Of course, Liam didn't think this, but he wanted to say whatever he could to cheer her up in the current situation. After all, she tried because of him.
Walking back, Safa was still tired, dragging her feet, but soon, the others in the crowd started to cheer her on as well, stating that she had done a great job. When the cheers started to die down, Rod was back to his speech again.
"Alright, that was quite the show. Is there anyone else up for taking on the Black Tiger?"
The people in the crowd started to look at each other, but most of them were unsure now. What could they do after seeing that? They couldn't beat him at the measuring pillar, not after that, so that left the reaction game. But even then, now it just felt like him nearly losing before was all so fake.
'Damn it, that was not how this was supposed to go!' Rod thought to himself.
"What do we do?" Mantis asked as he walked over and whispered.
"It's those two from before, because of them, everything's ruined. It looks like we might need to wrap it up," Rod replied.
Thinking about how their event had to end so soon, the vein popping at the side of Rod's head, he thought he should give at least a goodbye present to those that caused the problem in the first place.
"Don't one of you two want to try again?" Rod asked. "Both of you were very close, and remember, Mantis has been using his strength, so he should be tiring out. If not one of you two, how about your friend?"
Both Safa and Liam looked at Simyon, and that's when it clicked in his head.
"Hey, wait a second, I think you could actually win at something?"
"Huh, me?" Simyon said. "There's no way I could get a higher score at the measuring pillar, and Safa is faster than me. My reaction speed sucks as well."
"Not at any of those!" Liam claimed. "They said we could make our own events, and what are you better at than anything else? Taking hits."
Without consulting Simyon any further, Liam walked forward.
"You said he's the strongest, right, the star of the Demonic Faction? Well, how about three hits! Our friend here will take three hits from The Black Tiger, and if he's still standing, we win."
"What!" Simyon shouted.
'Why the F*ck would you say three and not one!' Simyon screamed in his head.
Although he did think he was good at taking hits and this could work, he didn't want to go through the pain. However, he could still see Safa covered in sweat, and the imagery of Liam crying from before.
Did he not want to achieve something as well?
Rod turned back to look at Mantis upon hearing this suggestion, and a large smile was on his face. What better way to finish off the day and get their frustration out of them.
"Very well, we accept," Rod said.
"There is a problem though," Simyon replied, stepping forward. "We don't have any money to take part."
There was an awkward silence. Although Rod wanted to punish this group of kids, he did have his own principles. He couldn't just let them participate for free. That wouldn't have been fair to all the customers from before. It looked like they would have to end the event there after all.
"I'll pay for him," a female voice said. As she stepped forward, she flicked a coin up. Immediately, Rod caught it and looked at it. His eyes bulged out of his head as he could see it was a silver coin.
"If that kid wins, add that to his reward, and if The Black Tiger wins, well, you can keep it. But I want to see what that kid can do." Alba said.
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