Yuki was crouched in the treetops, waiting for his target to come within range. Yuna was away from where he was, doing the same thing he was for a different target. He looked at his watch which displayed a timer that used to be at two hours. Thirty minutes had passed since the start of the round.

Slowly, Yuki lifted up his staff and readied himself as he felt his target approach him. It was slow moving and walked a wobbly path, almost as if it was constantly getting distracted by things it found along its route. But at last, the sounds of grunting and snorting reached Yuki as the troll crept closer and closer.

‘Clean hit. Right on its neck,’ Yuki thought, visualizing his movements. ‘Finish it in less than a minute.’

The troll passed underneath the branch Yuki was crouched on, poking at bushes as it ambled by. When it was a few feet away, Yuki tossed a stone that he held in his right hand to the right side of the troll. The noise caught its attention and it let out a surprised grunt. Then, slowly, it turned to its side and peered downward. After a few seconds it bent down, its hand reaching toward the stone.

The moment it bent, Yuki leapt off his perch and twirled his body in the air, his hands firmly grasping his staff as he wound up for an attack. Just as the troll picked up the stone, Yuki smashed his metal staff right into the neck of the troll. The troll roared and swiped blindly in the general direction of Yuki. He avoided the clumsy attacks with ease as he positioned himself outside of its range.

‘Not enough force. It only fracture. I didn’t want to use mana.’

Yuki widened his stance and began to trickle mana into his staff. The troll swung toward him, its eyes glowering and its breathing pained. It let loose a thunderous roar at him which failed to impress Yuki, his eyes unchanging. 

‘Now come here.’

As if obeying his commands, the troll charged him, its arms clawing at the air as it snarled, its tusks glistening. Yuki side stepped it and swung his staff low. It slammed into the troll’s legs, sweeping it off the ground, causing it to fall face first into the earth. Then without any hesitation, Yuki stabbed downward with his staff, the blunt tip jutting out to create a spearhead before he drove right into the area he had just fracture moments before. The troll spasmed before its movements ceased.

‘There we go.’

Yuki stepped on the troll’s back and yanked his staff out from its neck. Then with a bit more mana, he reshaped the end to its original shape. A few seconds later, the troll began to dissipate, leaving only a small drawstring bag that was perfect for coins. Yuki picked it up and took a golden coin from its depths.

‘Here it is. And there seems to be a small amount of money in this bag as well.’

He shook the money pouch and counted the coins that fell out. A few bronze coins and one silver. All in all, a decent amount.

‘And this bag seems fairly useful. I think it has a small storage upgrade enchantment on it.’

Sticking his fingers into the bag, he felt more space than it should have based on its appearance. 

‘I can use this for some cash.’

He folded the bag neatly and placed it in his left pocket. Then he placed the gold coin he held in his other pocket, putting it with the other two coins he had in there. 

‘That makes it three. I should regroup with Yuna now. We should have enough.’

Yuki connected to the ground and located Yuna a few hundred yards away from where he was now. Finding her was much easier now that he had fine tuned his search to locate someone that matched her dimensions exactly. He climbed up a tree and began to traverse the swamp from the treetops until he caught up to where Yuna was. 

“Yuki?” she said, glancing upwards.

“Are you done?” Yuki asked as he dropped down.

“Yes. I have two coins.”

“Good. Now we can just relax and wait until the two hours are up and the round ends. Let’s find a good spot to camp.”

“I was wondering,” Yuna started. “Why are we taking more coins in the first place?”

“To potentially limit our competition,” Yuki replied.

“Then why only five?”

“Taking more than that would start to attract attention and could give you a bad reputation which is something I do not want.”

“Oh. I understand.”

“And there’s a chance that we could get something for getting more coins, so I figured that five would be a good number. It is one fourth of the available coins.”

“A prize for getting more coins?”

“Mhm.”

Yuki had read that there was going to be a special reward given to those that amassed the most coins. The documents about the tournament didn’t specify what that reward was, however. 

‘Still. A reward is a reward. It can’t be that bad.’

“So now we just go and look for a good place to rest?” Yuna asked.

“Yes.” He paused and thought for a bit. “Unless you want to do something else? Maybe scout out the potential opponents?”

“That sounds like a great idea,” she nodded. “That would help us a lot in the later rounds.”

“Great. You can do that then,” Yuki said. “I’ll be finding us a place to camp first. Then once I do, you can go scout them while I watch the area around our place.”

“You’re not coming with me?”

“I’m sure you can do it yourself. This is something you’re comfortable with, aren’t you?”

“I guess.”

“Let’s go then,” Yuki said, pointing with his head to the side.

They set off and Yuki began scanning the area around them for a suitable location. Being a swampland, there was lots of vegetation and water around and not that many earthen formations. After a few minutes, Yuki located a small clearing that seemed to be surrounded by a number of trees and shrubbery that could hide it from view. He signaled to Yuna to follow him and the two of them quietly made their way to the area. 

They stopped just outside of the clearing. As he suspected, it was well hidden by the vegetation that grew around it. He motioned to Yuna to walk the other way as he went to the right to scout. After searching for a bit and finding no one, he returned to the clearing, Yuna coming back a few seconds later.

“Clear,” she reported.

“Good. You can go scout now. Can you remember where this place is?” Yuki asked.

“It’s about two hundred yards southeast from a small fork in the stream a few feet from here,” she said. “I should be able to get back here without a problem. At the very least, very close.”

“I’ll call out to you if I see you then,” Yuki said. “Go.”

She nodded and ran off, her feet lightly hitting the ground, barely leaving any traces. Yuki went into the clearing and cleaned an area within it for him to sit in. And then he waited.

‘I wanted to scout as well but it’ll be more beneficial for her than me,’ he thought as he sat. 

Yuna’s reputation was something that Yuki wanted to preserve and grow. It would benefit both him and her. Some of the tactics that Yuki used weren’t ones that would be approved by a majority of people in Ethros. Tactics like hiding in a place like he was doing right now. By sending Yuna off to scout, it made her look better since it would show her taking the initiative and trying to prepare.

‘This honor thing can be really annoying at times.’

He touched the ground beneath him and spread his senses around himself and the clearing. As he waited, he monitored the area, ready to fight at a moment’s notice. After an unknown amount of time, Yuki glanced at his watch. Time was winding down rapidly. There remained only ten minutes in the round.

‘Yuna should be back by now. I wonder what happened.’

He stood up, brushing the dust off of his pants. Then an intruder breached the area he was monitoring. He frowned before his expression relaxed.

“Yuna,” he called out quietly. “Here.”

Rustling came out from the bushes and she popped out a few moments later. She was sweaty and held her sword in her hands. 

“What happened?” Yuki asked.

“I was scouting but I think a group had a hunter in their team so they could feel my presence,” she said. She sat on the ground, pausing a bit to catch her breathe. “I had to fight them off and get away at the same time. And the fighting attracted attention from other groups and monsters. So I had to deal with those as well as I escaped.”

“No one followed you?”

“I don’t believe so. I should have lost them in the river. I took a very roundabout way to come back here.”

“I see. Well, we have less than ten minutes left in the round. We can hold out until then even if someone comes by,” he said. “Let’s move.”

They left their clearing. Yuki led Yuna to a jutting rock formation that rose to the sky, connecting a platform to the ground. Without a glance back, he scaled the earthen pillar, creating hand and footholds as he went up. Yuna followed him closely behind. When they reached the top, he sat down and stared at his watch.

“Two minutes,” he muttered. 

He glanced up and saw Yuna destroying the footholds he had made on his way up.

“Two minutes, Yuna.”

“Understood,” she said. She sat beside him. “So what now?”

“When the round ends, we’ll go back to the base and discuss what you found during your scouting,” he said. “For now, just wait.”

The two minutes flew by and Yuki felt himself suddenly get dragged out of the arena, magic pulsing out from the bracelet he wore that was given to him before. He found himself on the side of the arena in the area he was when he was being guided to the transportation room.

“And that concludes the first round!” the announcer declared.

The crowd roared in reply.

‘That barrier that was erected around the stage was impressive,’ Yuki thought. ‘It looked like the sky. And was pretty good and muting the sound of the crowd.’

“Now. Let’s get to the fun part! The results,” the announcer said. “Let’s see who passed. And who failed.”

FriendlyDragon

There may be no chapter on Monday. I have things I need to work on so it might be delayed a day.