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Revan, who was lying on the ground, quickly stood up. He had narrowly avoided being hit in the face by Chole’s staff, by crossing both his arms to block it. Seeing both how the arm guards he wore, ‘Kanshou,’ didn’t even have a scratch on them, he once again felt grateful to Hiyuki.

“To think these would help me out right from the start. Good grief…. I truly am blessed with good women.”

Though, when Hiyuki herself heard this, she muttered something very worrisome. Then turning to face Chloe once again-

“Haaa…” he sighed.

Using the same [Thunder Legs] technique he had used against Hiyuki the day before, as if sliding on the ground, he closed their gap almost instantly.

The staff’s weakness is the space between the user’s outstretched arms. Getting in close to Chole, though her attacks could come from above and below, left and right, or from the front; she wouldn’t be able to make movements of any significant threat.

No, her movements were precise and incorporated feints, in addition to attacks that upset one’s sense of distance. Even a first rate warrior will inevitably take some damage. With her at the centre, Chloe formed a storm-like sphere of attacks.

However, now that Revan understood the special characteristic of her weapon, [extendable length], his eyes could easily follow her movements.

Revan had easily jumped in up close and personal with Chloe, and in the next instant, his right hand disappeared as the sound of multiple blows echoed almost simultaneously. It was a flash of jabs so swift that it was not even visible to most of the spectators, whose eyes were fixed firmly on the match.

“Tsk.”

At such a close-range the staff can’t be used. Having concluded such, Chloe took her weapon in her right hand and with her left, fired off a backfist towards Revan’s back. Naturally, she didn’t expect this sort of attack to actually hit; the purpose of such an attack was to force him to avoid it and take up some distance between them, so whether her attack hit or missed wasn’t really relevant. However-

“Ha-!”
“Hmmpf-!!”

Slipping past the strike, Revan struck his left elbow into Chloe’s exposed torso with all his might.

“…!”

The sound of a violent blow that struck made the audience think the match was over, yet Revan, whose attack should have decided the match, with his eyes wide open in astonishment, quickly distanced himself from Chloe as if he’d been played. Holding his elbow tightly, he groaned in pain.

◇◆◇◆◇

“What the, what’s the hell is going on?! Brother Revan is the one who attacked, yet why is he looking like he’s in so much pain??”

The moment the attack had hit, Asmina had been all smiles, but moments later the blood had drained from her face and she became noisy and confused. Hiyuki, who had a somewhat stunned expression on her face, explained:

“Just as his attack was about to hit, she stiffened all the muscles in her body, so rather than injuring her, the damage was reflected back towards her opponent. …..Still, that lady…. just what sort of insanely strong muscles does she have? You really never know what you’ll come across in this world….”

“Is, is brother okay?”

“Well, it’s as if he hit steel with all his strength… Had it been his fist, it’d probably have shattered, but the elbow is the strongest bone in the body, so I think it probably didn’t break….”

-said Hiyuki while tilting her head.

◇◆◇◆◇

“Fufu~n, looks like you’ve been training quite a bit aint’cha? I was sure a man’s slender arm would’a been crushed with just that one hit……. Well-, at least ya probably can’t use yer left hand for a while eh?”

In response to Chloe’s words, Revan smiled bitterly. Then taking his right hand off his aching elbow, he clenched it into a fist and took a combat ready stance.

“Yer still gonna go at it with just one hand?”
“Of course. My right hand and both of my legs are still fine after all. Besides, there’s no way I can let a ‘fine woman’ such as yourself, see me in a miserable state.”
“Hah! Well, I guess I ought’a thank you for the flattery at least.”

In response to Chloe who shrugged with a somewhat apathetic expression, Revan answered earnestly.

“It’s far from flattery. Overflowing with vitality, and having the resolve to live vividly; you who embody the true nature of beastmen, are extremely beautiful.” This time, his words put Chloe in a good mood, and she laughed heartily.

“How sweet of you to say! Turns out, you DO know what a fine woman is. Rather than a ‘so-so’ man, you’re just about good enough for me to acknowledge as a ‘fine’ man.”
“That is indeed an honor…. Well then, here I come!”
“Yeah!”

◇◆◇◆◇

“What the hell! He just called another woman beautiful!! Is it the muscles?! Are muscles the problem?!”

Asmina grabbed the shoulders of Hiyuki who was sitting beside her, and shook her violently. Incidentally, Jissie and the other members of the lionkin tribe had backed away from them from fear of being dragged into it.

“No~….. I’m not sure about that…”
“Very well! From today onwards I shall start building muscles! I need meat right? Yea, meat! Also, Lady Hiyuki­ do you know of any ways to build muscle quickly?!”
“Eh… Errr… protein shakes, or steroids I guess…”

There were two people here who were having a rather unproductive, yet disturbing conversation.

◇◆◇◆◇

Once again, Revan tries to evade Chloe’s fierce onslaught and get up close to her, but Chloe’s attacks are now focused on his left hand, which he can no longer use.

—it’s a very effective tactic.

For beastmen, there is no shame in attacking an opponent’s weakness. The fault lies with the one who allowed their weakness to be exposed.

Judging that things would only continue to get worse for him at this rate, Revan decided to bet all or nothing on a single strike. Dodging the tip of the staff that was aimed at his foot, he then stepped on it using the [Thunder Leg] skill. The tremor that was transmitted through the staff momentarily paralysed both of Chloe’s arms, allowing Revan to rush into the narrow space between her outstretched arms.

She must have been expecting him to do that to some extent, as the instant she regained use of her arms, her staff ripped through the air, swooping down onto Revan’s left flank.

Revan blocked the attack with the armor on his left hand, yet having been severely weakened, his left hand failed to muster the necessary strength to kill the impact, and a dull sound was heard.

-Did it break?

However, he’d already taken this into consideration. If he moved while protecting his injured left hand, his body movements would inevitably become unnatural, and he would expose many openings to the enemy. Plus, his center of gravity would have become unstable, reducing the effectiveness of his attacks. Thus he had no choice but to pretend like his left hand was uninjured, and use it to block that attack as he would usually have done. This outcome was within his expectations.

Confining the reality of his broken left arm to a corner of his mind, he ignored the pain in his left hand as if the pain simply ‘did not exist’; then without pause, Revan made a half-turn, and putting all his kinetic energy into his right elbow, he slammed it into Chloe’s solar plexus.

“De-yahh! ”

Receiving the attack, as if it were a repeat of earlier events, Chloe grinned sinisterly.

At the same instant, the sound of a huge blow, which could not possibly have come from the collision of flesh, echoed across the arena; and fissures ran across the ground arena in all directions, with the two of them in the center.

“…Fufun. What was the technique you just used? I felt the impact go right through the core of my body.”
“It’s a technique to send a shock straight into the body from outside plate armor… –To be honest, in using this move, I was prepared to lose my right arm as well……”
“…..I see. By the way, ya never aimed at my face, not even once. Were ya going easy on me?”
“It’s not like that. Just that, well, it’s to do with a man’s dignity.”
“…Hah. You’re an idiot. Still, rather than some smarty-pants, I prefer idiots. Anyway, from now on… Good luck. To be defeated by a fine man, that’s good enough… for me.”

With these final words, Chloe lost consciousness and collapsed as Revan supported her.

After a moment of silence, the crowd erupted into deafeningly loud cheers and screams.

◇◆◇◆◇

The first match of the first round of the preliminaries is over. The Winner: Revan of the Lionkin tribe. The Loser: Chloe of the Rabbitkin tribe.

After that, the rest of the matches proceeded favorably. All four matches of the first round concluded without incident.

◇◆◇◆◇

“The winners of the first round of preliminaries held at the Demon Wolves’ Feeding Grounds besides Revan are: David of the Cheetahkin tribe, Eugene of the Bearkin tribe and Cyril of the Snakekin tribe; exactly as we expected eh. And, over at the Earth Dragons’ Bed, Acheron of the Tigerkin tribe killed his opponent instantly…. well it was already a sure thing, so it wasn’t the least bit interesting.”

After returning to the castle and confirming today’s results, I let out a sigh.

“Well, that’s usually how things go, right? By the way, how are my idiot disciple’s injuries?” Said the Beast King nonchalantly, as he lounged on a sofa, drinking delicious-looking coffee, which for the time being is only available in my country.

“Asmina’s healing magic —‘Dharmic Arts’ right? With that he was fully restored as if he were never injured at all. Talk about effective eh?”

Well, I could have healed him on the spot, but as an uninvolved third party, had I healed him, there might have been people who raised complaints later on. So I refrained from doing so.

By the way, saying that clothes would interfere with the healing, Asmina gleefully stripped Revan naked, and placed her hands directly on to his body to heal him; but was there any real need to do that?

The last time she healed him, she just did it normally from on top of his clothes and it worked just fine….

It’s probably something I shouldn’t poke my nose into. Yup.

Thinking that, I turned back towards the Beast King’s thick face, to change the topic.

“…..Say, if you’re actually worried about your disciple, you ought to have come and seen him for yourself right?” Even though I invited him to come along, he made up all kinds of excuses to not attend.

“Well, be it the tournament or my idiot disciple, they’re both matters that are already out of my hands.”
“Hmph. Fine, whatever. By the way, Mikoto. Did you look into that thing I asked you to?”

Mikoto, who had been waiting patiently at my side, bowed before answering.

“Yes. With regards to how that Rabbitkin adventurer acquired the Nyoibō, she apparently purchased it from a traveling weapons merchant. I personally questioned the rabbitkin using the lie detection magic, [Sense Lie], so I’m certain that she wasn’t lying.”
“A traveling weapons merchant eh….. it’s certainly a good way of covering their tracks.”

Then, I suddenly remembered something that had been bothering me since the preliminary match, and decided to ask the Beast King about it.

“Speaking of which, Chloe used a magical weapon, isn’t that against the rules of the tournament?”
“Nothing wrong with that,” he answered instantly, “To be able to wield magical weapons like Magic Swords or Divine Swords and the like, it means you have the ‘status’ of being ‘chosen’ by such weapons. So rather, it is seen as something praiseworthy.”

“The rules are rather half-baked aren’t they? Using magic is not allowed, yet Magic Swords are okay…”

“Well, I guess that’s just the way things are. Besides, going by those standards, then even those mystical techniques you call ‘Skills’ wouldn’t be allowed, would they?”

“You mean it’s okay to use Skills?”

“Of course. Those secret techniques are the results of your training. No one would think twice about using it. Also, it seems no one made use of particularly advanced skills today, but it’s going to be different from tomorrow onwards. Each and every one of them will have more than just one ace up their sleeve; they’ll have all manner of tricks.”

-The beast king laughed cheerfully.

Revan’s going to have a tough time of it. At the very least he can rest properly today and restore his spirit in preparation for tomorrow…. Nah, that’s not going to happen. Asmina’s in the same tent afterall….

Well, all I can say is, good luck then.