Chapter 164: Mission impossible?
Unedited Chapter. It will be edited soon.
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"There are missions that only a few are qualified to know about."
"Like killing an emperor, destroying a district, or even something much darker, right?" Louis smiled, staring at her.
He grabbed the scroll after she didn’t react and began to read its contents.
His expression didn’t change, as he didn’t want to appear vulnerable in front of someone unknown who seemed to wield great power. But inside, he was in complete shock.
He closed the scroll and looked at the woman in front of him.
"You understand the contents of this, right?" he asked.
"Better than you do."
"The consequences of this mission are terrible and exceed the capacity of most people in this city, not counting those great colossi above. Do you think we are capable of facing them?"
"You are capable of completing this mission. Whether or not you are capable of facing its consequences is not my concern. I only intend to hire you."
Louis stared at her for a long time before placing the parchment on the table. "What could you offer for this mission?"
"I came here to find out the price."
"You came here to see me, you didn’t plan on knowing the price. You already have a price in mind and you know very well who I am, so don’t try to hide it." Louis was direct. "And please, don’t say money. I’m not interested in money."
Although the woman seemed a little surprised by this, she shrugged. She ran her hand over the parchment and a strange magic activated, warming it slightly.
"At the end is what I give."
"What powerful and strange magic. I couldn’t even see the fabric," he thought in shock, but he grabbed the parchment and looked at it again, this time focusing on the last part.
His eyes widened at that moment, and he closed them again.
"I’ll think about it," he replied simply.
She smiled beneath all her layers of clothing and stood up.
"Send me a message to that address, and I’ll know if you’ve decided to start the mission. Think carefully." After that, she threw him a small piece of paper and then left the way she had come.
"I wonder who she is," he thought, looking at the closed scroll and the figure walking away.
He could try to theorize, but he knew it would be useless. He would not discover her with such a high presence of powerful figures in the city, who could be looking for the very thing she brought him.
On the first day of the tournament alone, he saw more than 30 women who seemed incredibly powerful in every sense, both in physical strength and status. And perhaps many of them wanted to do what this person was telling him.
Although her identity could be narrowed down to a few people if he read the mission carefully. But for now, he needed to think about what to do with her.
It was too dangerous, but not only would it leave him with an extremely juicy reward, it also served his own plans for the near future.
He couldn’t think about it any more for now; he needed time. So he decided to return to his mansion and prepare for tomorrow.
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The next morning, the tournament continued.
The few elimination matches ended quickly (Louis fought 1). Once that was over, the real tournament began.
When that happened, the chairman of the Board of Directors and the Principal Director of the Academy stood up to give their speeches.
"The famous elimination phase that many fear and few appreciate has finally come to an end. From this phase onwards, the tournament officially begins."
His words were embellished by a series of confetti that came out of the floor in different places.
"From now on, great fighters who have gone through the elimination phase, I hope you give your all to show us that the new generation is in good hands. Here begins the real tournament." He declared, and with that, his words came to an end, so he sat back down.
Then, a single referee climbed into the largest arena, where everyone had gathered.
"The matches will take place quickly, one after another. Each winner will have three matches, before finally entering the final stretch. Tomorrow the tournament will end, so get ready," he said.
At that moment, Louis could see that most of those present were stunned that the tournament was going to end the next day. Not because it was too soon, but at the same time because it was too soon.
If each winner played three matches today, tomorrow everything would start from the round of 16. Then the round of 16, quarterfinals, semifinals, and finals would be played on the same day.
In other words, the two overall winners would have played four matches in one day, three the day before, and several more on the first day!
The exhaustion in several of them was already beginning to show. It was difficult to keep up, because the matches are exhausting in terms of stamina.
Although there were potions to recover, they were not enough for such terrible muscle fatigue. Most of them were continuously beaten, and as the end approached, the blows became stronger, fractures were common, and muscle pain was terrible.
Furthermore, it was one thing to have great muscle endurance gained through statistics, but it was quite another to have overall physical endurance, having to fight in an arena against a powerful opponent, whether they were as powerful as you or more powerful than you.
There was physical wear and tear that was difficult to remedy with potions, so many were truly exhausted today.
Others, like Louis, the stars of the academy, and several of the Top 10 were in good shape. In fact, Louis was not affected at all.
Their fights ended very quickly, but in the last match, there were many who also ended just as quickly, the only one who didn’t was Laura, because she was still wearing that huge armor.
"The matches will no longer be chosen by you, but awarded according to your performance in past matches. This guarantees that you will have difficult fights, so we hope you will do your best and not underestimate your opponent, no matter how they look," said the referee, stepping down from the arena.
Numerous arenas were going to be used today, so different referees, who would now choose the fights, climbed into them and began calling out those who were going to fight.
In one of those arenas...
"First match, Arena 11..." A referee took out two pieces of paper and read. "Louis vs. Lam!" he shouted.
Louis wasted no time and jumped up.
He stared intently through the sand, waiting to see his opponent.
"Hm? Did I win by default?" he thought, frowning. He didn’t think anyone would not show up today...
But suddenly, a strange reflection caught his eye and a voice reached him.
"I’m here, idiot. Don’t look anywhere else."
Louis looked down and saw a rather small figure, very small.
He must have been less than 5 feet tall and didn’t look muscular at all. He was a dwarf in his own right, perhaps even belonging to the dwarf race. He was a man with dark skin and a slightly youthful appearance.
"Are you Lam, my opponent?" Louis asked, in shock.
"Who else would it be?" Lam sneered.
Louis swallowed hard. ’This... Isn’t this unfair?’ He wanted to look at the referee, but the referee gave the order to start the fight at that moment, and in an instant, he could see a reflection crossing the distance toward him.
Louis had to jump aside and stumbled from the suddenness of it.
’So fast?’ He looked up and stared in shock at his opponent. He had a sword in his hands. Although it wasn’t very long, it was long enough to put him in danger.
Besides, it looked like it was made of pretty good material.
A swordsman.
"Are you going to keep underestimating me because of my size?" Lam asked as he lunged at him with great speed and tried to strike him.
Louis jumped aside several times, dodging his advances.
’Quite surprising strength,’ he thought. ’What’s more, his technique is flawless, his movements are really fast, even though he’s not using swordsman magic. This guy, even though I haven’t heard of him before, has the strength to go far,’ he thought.
It was a pity that he had encountered him so soon.
In the last dodge, Louis tried to attack him with a punch to the side. His speed and strength quickly gained the upper hand, but in the end, his technique failed and Lam was able to quickly move his sword to that spot to mitigate much of the blow.
Even so, Louis’s attack force, though restrained, was enough to send Lam rolling across the sand, finding it difficult to stabilize himself due to the pain in his wrist and arms.
Lam looked at Louis in shock. "How could he be so powerful? That seemed like a casual blow..." He thought and looked at his sword, which was still shaking.
’Damn. Is he a top-level martial artist? I’ve never heard of him, and he looks so young that he doesn’t seem like it.’ Lam was able to recover quickly, as he realized that Louis was not attacking him.
Louis was staring intently at his fists.
’I need to improve my martial arts skills,’ he thought. His striking power was good, but his technique was crap, to say the least.