-Tuesday Morning, 8th Of the 1st Month, Year 910-

 

After Mrs. Janson announces her victory, she sheathes her katana and walks off the platform. Her opponent shakes his head a couple of times and follows after her. When they both return to the spectator seats, Mrs. Janson announces the next fight. But after they exchange a couple of strikes, I lose interest. Although they’re more even in terms of skill than the last fight, they’re both pretty weak.

 

The next few fights aren't that interesting either. Unlike the first one, they all lasted a few minutes, and no one had an easy win. There was even one fight that ended in a tie because neither of them could beat the other before time ran out. After watching these fights, I'm starting to understand the skill level of the other applicants. Some of them are pretty good, and I might have a hard time beating them. While, some of them are really weak, and I could probably beat them within a minute or two without breaking a sweat. None of them made me doubt myself like the girl with the Katana.

 

Another fight ends, and both applicants leave the platform. Seeing them return to the spectator seats, Mrs. Janson announces the next fight, “Number 703 and 748, you’re up!”

 

“It's finally my turn!” Johnny jumps up, looking excited to fight.

 

I take a look around and spot his opponent, a boy around my height with black hair. He must have felt me looking at him because his sharp purple eyes stop staring at Johnny and lock onto me. A moment later, he laughs and sends me a challenging smile. He looks a little intimidating, because of the scar under his eye. But I look back at him and smile, not wanting to back down. He laughs even louder this time, before turning around and leaving the spectator seats.

 

“Wish me luck!” Johnny smiles and chases after him.

 

'This might be bad for Johnny, his opponent looks strong,’ I sigh, thinking that Johnny might not be able to win.

 

After a few minutes, Johnny comes out first with an axe, the pole as long as his arm, and a pair of curved blades on both sides. Together with the axe in hand, he looks more intimidating than usual.

 

The boy with the scar comes out a few seconds later with a longsword in his right hand. He smiles at Johnny and walks onto the platform while spinning the sword's handle in his palm.

 

Johnny chases after him, and they both stand face to face on the platform.

 

Seeing that they were both in place, Mrs. Janson shouts, "Begin!"

 

“Hey,” The boy suddenly speaks up, “My name is Jun! Make sure you remember that, cause that’s the name of the guy who’s about to defeat you!”

 

“My name's Johnny! And I can say the same to you! I'm gonna knock that smirk off your face!” Johnny tightens his grip on his axe, and charges at him.

 

“Let's see if you can!” Jun jumps to the side, easily dodging his strike, and lunges at him.

 

Swish! Cling!

 

Jun slashes at him, but Johnny brings his axe back in time to counter.

 

Swish! Shing! Swish! Tear!

 

Jun parries Johnny's attack and uses the opening to cut at his chest, revealing his skin.

 

Swish! Cling! Swish! Cling!

 

Jun goes on the offensive and starts pushing Johnny back.

 

Swish! Cling!

 

"Didn't you say that you would knock this smirk off my face!" Jun taunts him while pressing him back.

 

Clang!

 

"HAAAAA!" Johnny shouts and smacks Jun's sword back.

 

Swish!

 

Without giving Jun a chance to recover, Johnny attacks with a wide swing. Jun jumps back in a hurry, barely avoiding his attack.

 

Swish! Shing! Swish! Shing!

 

This time Johnny goes on the attack and starts pressing Jun, who parries all of his attacks back to back.

 

“How bout this!” Johnny grabs his axe with both hands again and does a downward swing with all his might. This time, Jun doesn't parry and jumps back.

 

Smash!

 

Missing its target, Johnny's axe digs into the platform, sending some gravel flying up in the air.

 

"Haha," Jun laughs, and asks Johnny, "Is this the best you can do?"

 

“Not a chance! Enchant!” Johnny shouts and his axe starts giving off a violent orange aura.

 

“Why is his Qi a different color from ours?” Instead of the usual light blue color, his aura is orange.

 

Mrs. Janson turns her head and answers my question, “It should be because of his blessing. Based on his aura, he should be using a cultivation method relating to Taurus the Axe spirit.”

 

"Taurus the Axe Spirit?" I've never heard the name of any other spirits besides Xygen, but I do know that there are others.

 

Mrs. Janson explains as the fight continues on the platform, “Taurus is a War Spirit. Blessing received from War Spirits work a bit differently from ones received from Elemental Spirits. The moment they receive their blessing, they are given a cultivation method that allows them to cultivate Weapon Qi, a form of energy leagues higher than Qi, comparable to Ether. Not to mention, that people blessed by War Spirits have an absurd talent with weapons. In this case, Johnny has the Blessing Of The Axe Spirit so he has a lot of talent for Axemanship, but in return, his talent for other weapons is probably almost abysmal.”

 

“Does that mean Johnny's using something like Ether right now?” I ask, feeling shocked that someone here can use something similar to Ether.

 

She shakes her head, and tells me, “No, from what I can see his Realm is too low, so it can’t be considered True Weapon Qi. It's more like Pseudo Weapon Qi because it isn't regular Qi or Weapon Qi, it's only a stronger version of Qi.”

 

I nod and take a closer look. The energy coming from his axe does feel similar to Qi, but it's different. It's stronger and purer than the Qi in my body, and its league is higher. Although I don't really understand what league is, I can somewhat feel the difference between the two energies after it was pointed out.

 

“But just having that Pseudo Weapon Qi gives him an advantage over those of you who weren’t blessed by War Spirits. Because from what I can tell none of you can use Ether yet.” Although that's true, I still think that I can fight evenly with Johnny even without it.

 

On the platform, the battle isn’t looking too good for Johnny. Although both of them are covered in scratches, Johnny's sweating all over, and breathing heavily. While Jun's still smiling, 'Compared to Johnny who's been swinging his axe around like crazy, Jun's more relaxed. He's been spending most of the time parrying his strikes, only attacking when he sees an opening. If this fight continues going the way it is, Johnny's going to lose.'

 

Johnny grits his teeth, and shouts at Jun, “You're still holding back!”

 

“I'm not. Right now, I’m giving it my all in this fight,” Jun laughs happily.

 

“Then why aren’t you using Qi!?” I'm thinking the same thing, if he's really giving it his all, then why hasn’t he used any Qi this whole time.

 

“Qi? Sorry to break it to you, but I don’t know how to use it,” Jun shakes his head, swinging his messy black hair around.

 

“What!?” We all shout out in shock and look towards Mrs. Janson for answers.

 

“...He’s telling the truth, he hasn't even reached the First Layer Of The Qi Gathering Realm,” Mrs. Janson shakes her head with a confused expression.

 

“Sister said that I have Qi in my body, but I just can't get a feeling for it. No matter what I tried, I couldn't practice cultivation, but it doesn't matter!” Jun charges at Johnny again.

 

“Amazing! You're so strong even without Qi!” Johnny meets his charge in the center of the platform.

 

Clang!

 

“Stop holding back and give me all you got, time’s almost up!” Jun urges Johnny with a challenging smile.

 

“You asked for it!” He swings his axe hard, forcing Jun back a few steps.

 

ROOOOOAARRRR!

 

“Barbaric Bull!” Johnny roars and the top of his combat uniform is blown apart and the Orange Weapon Qi surrounds his body.

 

“Woah!" I gasp, feeling the aura coming from Johnny's body.

 

He charges at Jun again, emitting that violent aura with bloodshot eyes.

 

“That’s what I’m talking about!” Jun jumps to the side at the last second, barely avoiding his attack.

 

‘So strong!’ His attack left a deep mark on the platform.

 

Now the fight's turned around, and Johnny's fully on the offensive, forcing Jun to focus on defending. If he's hit even once by the current Johnny, he might get blown off the platform.

 

“What’s wrong? Your attacks are getting slower!” Jun comments while dodging an attack.

 

“He’s right, Johnny is getting slower,” Over time Johnny's been moving slower and slower.

 

“Why?” Jasmine asks.

 

“I’m not sure-” Mrs. Janson interrupts me and explains, “That technique is putting a major strain on his body. At first, it may not have been that obvious. But ever since he started using that technique, his body has been getting weaker and weaker. If he doesn’t stop using it soon, he’s going to hurt himself.”

 

“You're about to burnout aren’t you?” Seems like Jun figured it out too.

 

“ROOOAR!” Johnny roars and does a side swing with his axe.

 

Jun ducks down, barely dodging his attack, “I’ll do you a favor and end this now!”

 

Jun lunges forward using that opening and smacks Johnny in the head with the flat part of his sword. Johnny's eyes widen for a moment, before going dim. He stops moving, and his body falls back on the platform as the violent aura fades away.

 

“Number 748 wins!” I rush down to the platform with Jasmine after she announces the winner.

 

“Johnny!” I run over to him, and hold him up.

 

“When he wakes up, tell him that it was a good fight, but he needs to get a lot stronger if he wants to beat me,” Jun laughs and walks off the platform still smiling just like he was in the beginning.

 

“I hope we get to fight later,” His cocky attitude is making me mad. I thought that it was a close fight, but he doesn’t see it that way at all.

 

“I hope so too,” Jun waves his hand, and leaves through the Fighter’s Entrance.

 

---

Author's Note: Pyris