I jumped to the right, trying to dodge out of the way of the killing intent, but it latched onto my left hand before I could react.
"Guh—!"
With a sickening crunch, a searing pain shot through my left elbow. It felt like the bone in my elbow—or somewhere just above it—had been shattered.
Half-blown backward, I created some distance and assessed the situation. There was Branca, standing where I'd been just moments ago, her right arm frozen in a downward swing.
Branca didn't have her spear. The spear was embedded in the floor about three meters behind and to the left of where I'd been standing, its shaft bent.
"I sacrificed my beloved spear for this, and all I got was one left arm...?"
The moment I thought Branca's figure wavered, she was already closing in right in front of me.
I barely managed to dodge while enduring the searing pain in my arm, and Branca shot past me roughly five meters before coming to a stop.
Looking closely at her feet, I could see two shallow grooves carved into the fighting stage, both leading straight to where Branca now stood.
"High-speed movement using enhancement magic...?"
At my muttered words, Branca grinned with genuine admiration.
"Oh? So you noticed. That's right—I am using enhancement magic. But every opponent I've used it on before has died without ever catching on!"
With that, Branca activated her enhancement magic once more and closed the gap between us.
I could tell it was impossible to stop that momentum in my current state, so I focused entirely on dodging until an opportunity to counterattack presented itself.
After evading several times, my eyes must have adjusted. Gradually, I began to be able to track Branca's figure—something I hadn't been able to do just moments before.
Once I could see her clearly, I realized that Branca's technique was actually quite simple.
To put it plainly, she used enhancement magic to temporarily boost her physical abilities, then charged in at high speed.
However, just before executing the move, she would throw in the slightest feint, and the instant her opponent's attention wavered even for a split second, she would crouch low and charge.
By crouching and charging the very instant the opponent's attention shifted, she could move herself outside the range of their perception in an instant—making it look as though she had vanished entirely.
This technique seems particularly effective against opponents like me who have numerous cards to play.
Someone who has multiple ways to attack,
their opponent
tries to change their attack method to match the opponent's movements, and unconsciously tracks every subtle motion with their eyes — so there are more opportunities for their awareness to be disrupted. Moreover, while it's not particularly high in precision, Branca seems to be using magic with a perception-hindering effect alongside it, and that may be playing a role as well.
Either way, once you know the trick, dealing with it isn't that difficult. And I could start to see the weakness.
Branca's technique had extreme speed and power, but it seemed to only move in a straight line. The first time I was hit, I'd just forcibly changed direction using my spear.
As the price for that, my beloved spear was now unusable for the rest of this match. Branca had probably intended to finish things with that single blow. The proof was that she was clearly getting a little desperate as I kept dodging the linear attacks she was currently throwing out.
However, my injuries were no light matter either, so I didn't have room to take it easy. If possible, I wanted to settle this quickly, so I decided to go on the offensive.
By this point, Branca's movements had started to slow ever so slightly, making it easier to time things compared to the start.
I watched for the exact moment Branca launched her technique, then lunged forward.
Branca clearly hadn't expected me to counterattack during her own technique — the sharpness of her attack had noticeably dulled.
Even so, Branca swung her right hand at me, trying to land a blow.
I
ducked beneath it
as though slipping past, crouching low while wrapping my left hand in magic power, and struck with full force at the spot where I'd damaged Branca earlier.
The instant the punch landed, I released the magic power gathered around my left hand. The released magic power instantly became a shockwave that rippled through Branca's entire body, amplifying the damage several times over.
On top of that, by timing my counter to meet Branca charging at me at high speed, the power reached a level that should have been impossible under normal circumstances, and my fist sank deep into Branca's body.
Fortunately, the fist didn't punch clean through like in a manga, but from the sensation transmitted through my knuckles, I'd shattered most of Branca's ribs on the right side and crushed a lung in the process.
With my fist still embedded in her body, Branca vomited a torrent of blood from her mouth, then went completely limp.
The referee took one look at the situation and, without even declaring my victory, called for the medical team to have Branca carried away.
"Winner — Tenma!"
It was only after Branca was carried off on a stretcher that the referee finally declared my victory.
But I was in no state to care about that — I was writhing in agony. After all, I'd punched her with my left arm, the one whose bones were already shattered. What else did I expect?
No matter how much I reinforced it with Magic Power, I couldn't absorb the full impact of the blow. On top of that, it had been a counter, which put even more strain on my arm.
Gritting through the pain, I healed my arm with magic as best I could, then staggered toward the Waiting Room. Naturally, I couldn't respond to the crowd's cheers, but they seemed to understand from my battered appearance just how brutal the fight had been — if anything, their roars only grew louder.
Before I could reach the Waiting Room, a staff member noticed my condition in the corridor and brought me to the treatment room instead.
The treatment room had the hectic atmosphere of a field hospital. The cause was Branca — or more precisely, my doing.
Branca's injuries were worse than I'd imagined. She was barely hanging on to life, and the doctor was shouting that her condition could deteriorate at any moment.
"If her life isn't in immediate danger, then you'll have to wait — bear with it!"
The doctor barked that the moment he saw me. I was led to a chair in the corner of the room and told to sit and wait, so I started treating my own arm right there.
A magical examination confirmed what I expected — the bones were shattered. Under normal circumstances, this would have been an injury that meant never using the arm again, but fortunately, I'd only just been hurt, and I had experience helping treat wounds like this. I thought I could manage to fix it.
First, I dulled the pain receptors with magic and roughly set the bone in place. Bone fragments inevitably got lodged in the muscle during this step, but I deliberately ignored those.
Next, I cast a recovery spell on the roughly set bone and began properly fusing it back together. At this stage, the accelerated metabolism could cause adhesions, so I'd use magic to partially heal, move the arm to break the adhesions apart, cast the spell again, break the adhesions once more — repeating that cycle over and over.
Once the bone had mostly fused and the pain had subsided significantly, I decided to help with Branca's treatment.
When I first offered, the doctor told me that amateurs weren't welcome. But after I healed my own arm wound and dropped
Mom's
name, it turned out this doctor knew
Mom
too. He checked my arm injury first, then gave me permission to assist.
Granted, all I really did during the doctor's treatment was keep casting recovery magic on Branca to keep her alive, so it wasn't exactly difficult work.
The doctor, seeing that I kept casting recovery magic, began to properly treat Branca.
He seemed to be more skilled than I'd thought. Apparently, he'd traveled to Dungeon City and other places, working as a doctor, before being recruited by the royal family a few days ago and coming to the Royal Capital.
He hadn't yet decided whether to open a clinic in the Royal Capital, but since he had time, he agreed to work in the treatment room for the martial arts tournament.
"Looks like we made it... Any normal person would have been dead long ago, but as expected of a beastkin. They have strong life force."
The doctor finished the treatment less than twenty minutes after I joined in to help, then took a breather while marveling at Branca's vitality.
"Next is you. It looks like the bare minimum of treatment has been done, but let me fix it up properly."
Saying this, the doctor grabbed my arm and began to knead it. It hurt quite a bit at first, but he seemed to be combining it with recovery magic, and the pain gradually faded.
"Well, that should do it. The pain should be completely gone. I've reattached the larger bone fragments that were missing, and the smaller ones will eventually be absorbed by your body... If the pain persists, we'd have to perform extraction surgery."
In just about five minutes, the treatment was finished. Just to be sure, I moved my arm around in various ways, and there was no discomfort.
"Not painful at all. Thank you!"
As I was thanking the doctor, another patient was brought in.
If I remembered correctly, this guy was the man who was supposed to fight in the other semi-final in the same block as me. His opponent was the previous champion, and the consensus was that he had very little chance of winning.
Judging by the look of him, he wasn't in as bad a shape as Branca, but he was covered in cuts all over his body and had lost a considerable amount of blood.
"Good grief, this guy's in rough shape too... From these wounds, it looks like he was tormented quite a bit."
The doctor muttered this, then briskly began giving instructions to the nurse. This time, he didn't ask for my help and didn't say a word to me.
Peeking over the doctor's shoulder at the patient, I saw his body was covered in numerous shallow cuts. It looked like the same places had been sliced over and over, leaving the wounds mangled and jagged.
"At this point, it's impossible to completely erase the scars..."
While saying this, the doctor continued his treatment. In the end, he wrapped the man's entire body in bandages like a mummy, had him drink blood-increasing potions and healing potions, and then declared the treatment complete.
"That opponent of yours seems to be exactly as his reputation suggests..."
At the softly spoken words, I mentally agreed. The reputation of the previous champion was that of a colossal sadist who absolutely loved tormenting opponents weaker than himself, a real scumbag. Honestly, it was even said that if he hadn't been the champion, he would have been framed for some crime and thrown in jail.
Incidentally, in the previous tournament, Ash had lost in the finals and Branca in the semifinals.
"Oh yeah, did that little weakling from earlier kick the bucket?"
While I was lost in thought, the door to the treatment room was suddenly kicked open and a man strode in.
This had to be the guy who'd tormented that man earlier — the previous champion, Chaos Mysailes… I was pretty sure, anyway.
"Well, well, two losers who refuse to die, huh… This place must be one step away from the graveyard!"
Chaos pointed at both the man he'd tormented and Branca, who was sleeping after treatment, and let out a booming laugh.
The doctor planted himself right in front of Chaos's gleeful display.
"This is a place where the wounded are treated. Unfortunately, I don't treat diseases of the brain… Now get out!"
With a forcefulness you wouldn't expect from a doctor, he tried to drive Chaos out, but Chaos merely twitched his temple and refused to budge.
"You dare talk back to me, a mere doctor… Takes some nerve, I'll give you that!"
Chaos moved to grab the doctor by the collar, but I managed to catch his arm at the very last moment.
"A mere doctor, you say? This man is here at the request of the royal family. If you're not an idiot, you should understand what that means."
Chaos glared at me for gripping his arm, but the moment he heard "royal family," he muttered something annoyed and withdrew his hand.
"Tch! A brat who can't do anything without throwing the royal family's name around… No, wait — you're the one who failed to finish off Branca earlier… Perfect timing. In the next match, you'd better pray you can walk away with your life!"
He spat those parting words and left the treatment room.
"What did he even come here for…"
The doctor, having heard my murmur, knew the answer.
"He likes to come see the condition of the people he's tormented, probably. He came here the same way after the second round ended too."
The doctor's disgusted tone made sense to me, but one thing still didn't add up.
"But he definitely seems weaker than Branca… Weaker than Ash, too…"
My biggest question was this: he didn't feel anywhere near as strong as Branca, so I couldn't believe he'd actually beaten Branca in the last tournament.
"I had no interest in fighting that guy seriously, so… I just let myself fall out of bounds at a convenient spot."
The one who answered my question was Branca, lying in his bed.
"You're already awake… Beastkin really do have high recovery, huh."
The doctor said that while checking on Branca's condition.
"I only woke up because I sensed an unpleasant aura. I can barely even lie here and talk."
After updating the doctor on his state, Branca looked at me.
"If only…"
"…that guy…"
"…had been even half as interesting as you, I would've won the last tournament…"
Muttering like that, Branca gave me the opening to bring up something else I'd been curious about.
"Why did Ash lose last time? To my eyes, there's barely any difference between them… actually, Ash looks slightly stronger, if anything."
"That's simple. Last time, Chaos was just stronger. There was a clear gap between him and Ash. But this time, that gap has been reversed — even if only slightly. At this rate, the difference between him and Ash will only grow wider next year. I would've loved to fight this version of Ash seriously…"
Branca spat the words out. In short, Chaos had gotten lazy with his training, while Ash never skipped a day. For Branca, fighting the strong trumped honor, and more specifically, fighting the strong in an entertaining way (by his standards) was his greatest pleasure. However, there was a catch: "idiots excluded." Chaos fell under that category, so Branca had no desire to give it his all.
"As for our match, that one was fun, I'll admit. After all, it was the first time in years I went in for the kill seriously — and not only did I fail to finish the job, I got completely turned around."
As he said this, Branca grinned in a way that was simultaneously cheerful and incredibly ferocious…
Noticing that the doctor and I had both instinctively leaned back, he quickly composed his expression.
"Well, the whole 'went in for the kill' part was a joke, but it really was an enjoyable fight."
The joke might've been a lie, but his enjoyment was genuine. And judging by his attitude, he didn't seem to hold any particular grudge about nearly dying on the fighting stage.
Just then, a massive roar erupted from the Arena. It looked like the Bandit King's match was about to begin.
"Well then, I'm heading back."
I had to check on the Bandit King's match, so I made my way toward the door of the healing room.
"Oi! Give 'em hell!"
I raised a hand in response to Branca's voice ringing out from behind, burst through the door, and sprinted to where I could get a view of the fight.
I hurried as fast as I could, but the match was already nearly over. The Bandit King's opponent was one of the few pure mages in this tournament — the only one in the Main Tournament, apparently — and a fairly well-known adventurer.
But the Bandit King had landed his attacks before his opponent could get a spell off, and the mage was battered beyond recognition.
"Guah!"
Before I could even process what was happening, the Bandit King drove the pommel of his blade into the opponent's abdomen, sending him flying clean out of the ring.
It looked like the match was decided. The Bandit King turned his back on his fallen opponent and began walking toward the center of the Fighting Stage.
But the fight wasn't completely over. The outcome was already settled, sure, but his opponent's magic attack had already been launched.
The enemy mage had apparently been in the middle of casting a spell while covered in wounds, and it just happened to finish resolving the moment the Bandit King sent him flying out of the ring.
The spell itself was basically a powered-up Fireball, and the Bandit King, who had let his guard down, caught the tail end of it across his back.
The Bandit King went down in a somewhat theatrical tumble. Fortunately, the tiger pelt he was equipped with apparently had magic resistance, so the fire didn't catch, but the Bandit King slunk back into the Waiting Room looking a bit embarrassed.
After that, the judges gathered to deliberate, and it was ruled that the spell had been triggered as an involuntary response to the impact of the attack — meaning it didn't count as a punishable offense.
Next up was Jin's match, but his opponent was far beneath him in skill and seemed content just to have made it this far, so I figured Jin would win for sure and headed back to the Waiting Room. Sure enough, it was the blowout victory I'd expected.
On my way back to the Waiting Room, I ran into Chaos, who was standing there with a smug grin on his face. He'd clearly been waiting for me.
"Hey, kid. Why don't you forfeit your next match? Your arm's still hurting, right?"
Chaos started spouting some nonsense, so I tried to ignore him and walk past, but he circled around to cut me off.
"Don't ignore me. I'm being generous here, you know? I mean, even a great guy like me would feel at least a day's worth of regret if he actually killed a kid!"
Chaos was off in his own world, getting worked up all by himself and cackling away. I thought, here we go again…, and tried to slip past him.
"You haven't even heard my answer yet!"
Chaos suddenly raised his voice in a shout and tried to grab me, so I shifted my body and slipped out of his reach.
Taking advantage of the opening Chaos's miss created to put some distance between us and face him, he clearly hated my attitude — veins bulged on his forehead — but he seemed to manage to hold himself back from lunging at me.
"You little brat, don't look down on me... just wait till this tournament's over! I'm gonna be a noble when it's done! And when that happens, your... that's right, I'm pretty sure your entourage was nothing but women... so I'll ravish every last one of them right in front of your eyes! You'd better look forward to it!"
Chaos let out a snicker, wallowing in his own twisted pleasure. Honestly, I was confident I could cut Chaos down right there and dispose of him without leaving any evidence that I was the one who killed him. In fact, if I hadn't heard the crowd's cheers and calmed myself down, I probably would have already made my move. That's how much—
this man
had filled me with rage.
Chaos hadn't noticed the killing intent radiating off me and was still snickering.
Just then, Jin — who had just finished his own match — happened to pass by, and he immediately picked up on my killing intent.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Tenma, calm down! I don't know what happened, but — just calm down!"
While trying to stop me, Jin glanced at Chaos and immediately figured out that Chaos had done (said) something stupid. He grabbed my arm and dragged me toward the Waiting Room.
Since I went along with Jin without resisting, Chaos must have mistaken it for me being rescued and chased away, because he was snickering again.
"Well, aren't you lucky someone came to pick you up~! But you won't be getting any help from me during the match~!"
His nauseating way of speaking cooled my anger just a bit. In that moment, Jin picked up the pace, pulling me along toward the Waiting Room.