“You’re strong. Strongest I’ve ever fought.”
“Thanks.”
“You’ll be up against an absolute beast next, but I think you can win.”
“Of course.”
Colbert had Gaudartha in mind. Fran responded with a grin that said she couldn’t wait. A normal person would think her crazy, but Colbert only chuckled. “That’s the spirit.”
“Hm!”
They chatted for a while, and Fran eventually left. She didn’t want to place undue stress on Colbert while he was still recovering. As she walked away from the infirmary, I could make out his faint cries.
“No! I definitely got carried away! Am I gonna get kicked out of Dimitris…? Knowing Master, I’m definitely getting expelled…!”
I could picture him holding his head in distress. The warrior in him wanted to spare Fran the sight of his embarrassment. I chose to pretend I hadn’t heard that.
All the best, buddy.
“Hm?”
Nothing. Let’s get going.
We left the infirmary and headed for the seats. We could learn a thing or two from the fights today, assuming we beat Gaudartha tomorrow. There were six matches left to go. The first of them was already wrapping up. Yet again, Amanda made quick work of her competition.
“I wish we could’ve seen it.”
Well, you know Amanda. Elza’s up next.
She would be fighting a C-Rank adventurer—a technically proficient lancer. I was looking forward to this one. The seats were completely filled, though… Could we just make our own seat with Earth Magic? As I weighed our options, a voice called out to Fran.
“Hey, are you the Swordceress?” a middle-aged man asked.
“Hm?”
The man had a shish kebab in one hand and a bottle of wine in the other—the picture of a sports fan enjoying the show. Although Fran had pulled down her hood, he was sitting and could still see her face. That was how he recognized her.
“I-It is you! Are you here to watch the other fights?”
“Hm.”
“Well, in that case, feel free to take my seat!”
“Are you sure?”
“Of course! Your wins have made me a lot of money. Enough that I don’t have to work for the rest of the month!”
That was good to hear. Apparently, the man had been betting on Fran since round one. Maybe it was just in case Fran caused an upset, but the fact remained that he had supported her since the beginning. That was nice of him.
“Just shake my hand and we’ll call it even. I can’t wait to tell the boys!”
“Sure.”
“I’ll keep rooting for you. Good luck!”
“Hm.”
And that was how Fran legally secured a seat for herself. She shook the man’s hand and he left looking like a million bucks. He would still watch the fight, albeit standing.
Good for us.
“Hm.”
Fran sat down just as Elza’s match began. In line with what we’d heard about him, Elza’s opponent was agile. He wasn’t fast enough to create a gap in Elza’s defense, but he chipped away with his spear regardless. Unfortunately, chipping damage wasn’t going to work against Elza’s rock-hard defense. Elza charged at the spearman without so much as pausing to feign pain.
The lancer managed to dodge, but he saw the great hole the blow left behind. The sight of it was enough to chill his blood. His movements grew more awkward after that. He escaped unscathed, but one wrong move would be the end of him. We’d also had battles where this was the case, but this match was looking particularly grim. The lancer needed to be more aggressive to have any chance of winning, but Elza’s terrible mace kept him away.
Even so, the lancer made up his mind and leaped toward Elza. He slipped past the awful mace and launched multiple strikes in the hopes of breaking Elza’s balance. The crowd roared with anticipation as the lancer’s spinning spear made contact with Elza’s bare chest, but her skin stopped the spear dead in its path. As with the fight with Jakusho, it was like plate armor. The fight came to a dreary end after that. Elza pulled the lancer into a chokehold, and the spearman could only flop about as the last of his will was strangled out. Elza enjoyed his surrender even more than Jakusho’s.
We don’t want to end up in that position.
“But we can deal a lot of damage up close.”
Sure, but…
Was I going to let Elza put Fran in a chokehold? Absolutely not.
We have to avoid close quarters at all cost. Especially her ground game.
“Hm. Very dangerous.”
The rest of the fights weren’t worth watching—they ended too fast to be useful. Forlund took the fourth match in about five seconds. Even the crowd complained about that. Phillip Christon made a good showing in the fifth match, but he didn’t show us anything we hadn’t seen in Bulbola. He hit hard, fast, and strong, and his defense was difficult to penetrate. As for the sixth and seventh matches, Phelms and Royce fought for barely more than a minute. We only caught a glimpse of their full power, but that was enough to know how strong they were.
The third round was filled with powerful combatants. A-Rank adventurers really were more terrifying than the monsters and criminals they hunted down.
We’ll be going up against that kind of monster tomorrow.
“We’ll win.”
I have every intention of it.
The day’s tournament came to a close, but instead of returning to our inn, we went to the dungeon to train. We had just acquired some new skills, and we wanted to prepare for our fight against Gaudartha.
It’s taking up a lot of mana.
Nullifying attacks from weak monsters with Physical Immunity took anywhere from a hundred to two hundred mana per hit. Walking about didn’t trigger it, but the motions of battle were enough to be a significant drain, even without taking any hits. Anything from killing a monster to blocking its attacks triggered it. Half my mana was gone by the time I’d even noticed.
The skill was strong, though, that was for sure. Unlike Barrier skills, Physical Immunity nullified the shock and inertia of an attack. Even a direct hit from a giant ogre didn’t faze
