Chapter 369: Better Again

———Lynda———

<9: 38 am>

“Fucking hell, I thought I was going blind!” Histon complained. I feel like even if that’s the case, they will find a way to cure it, or even overcorrecting that mistake.

Now that we can finally see the stage again, what we witness is two sides still looking unharmed after that massive explosion. Did they even fight at all?

“<What a spectacular ending! Give it up for our two warriors!>” Rico said as the battle came to a sudden end. Neither side even takes any damage!

We still clap and cheer in response, best to just run with it since it’s at least a good show.

“<Now that that’s over it, it’s time for the main event!>” Rico said as the rest of the decor disappeared from the field. There’s not a lot of it, just a bunch of ashes on the floor.

*Leap*

Navi simply chose to jump out of the stadium while Terry remained standing there in the arena, who then raised her hand up and grabbed a microphone that dropped from the sky.

“Ehhh…” Trener and many others are confused by how extra the transition was.

“<Test… Ah! Attention, students! As you have heard from the stadium’s host, I am today’s special guest! You may call me Terry for short.>” She introduced herself one more time. “<I can see that all of you have some fighting potential in you, and I have taken a bit of interest! I believe many of you know me as that one streamer who keeps raving on about monsters. So, put two and two together, I’ll have you fight one of my monsters! Don’t you all want to fight one for yourself? It’s quite different from fighting the wild ones. No need to answer, I know you have all sorts of reasons to try, so let’s try!>”

*Stomp* *Leap*

She dropped the mic before smashing it with her foot before jumping off just like Navi earlier. They have certainly upped the ante this time around.

“If we didn’t know they could fly we would seriously be concerned about their trajectory. Who knows what kind of impact such a tall jump will have?” Kroin remarked as a strong wind blew the broken microphone away.

*Shine* *Zoom*

A magic circle appeared on one end of the arena, summoning a creature on it and…

“Pinocchio?” I said, seeing the wooden puppet with a long nose. It wields a simple wooden pole as a weapon, two white gloves, toothy maws, red bandanna covering its eyes, and only a blue scarf to hide its wooden body. It’s an interpretation of Pinocchio, right?

“<This little one here is Wodpet. He might not be the last king of the arena, but he is still plenty dangerous! So go get him, champs!>” Terry said from the casting booth, when the heck did she get all the way over there?

“Huh. Looks like you can’t try to avenge your uncle today.” Histon playfully said to Trener. That’s quite the low blow.

“Like I care about that. Even my mom got over it at this point.” He said in a tired tone. Crazy to think that one of our schoolmates is a certified murderer like that… I mean, it could be a bit justified, but Emmie’s words are never reassuring. She’s saying a lot of vague stuff that sometimes it feels like she’s cursed or something. At least Luik knows when it’s a good time to not say verbose bullshit.

“You would be signing your own death warrant by trying to do that, so it’s good that you weren’t consumed by such a thought.” Luik chimed in. The power difference between them is more than tenfold, it wouldn’t even be ridiculous to say she is over a hundred times stronger than him. There is no competition to be had there.

“<Just like last time, there is a perk to be the first person to enter. Also, for anyone who had participated last time, your individual scores carried over and can stack with this for more rewards, don’t be shy.>” Rico announced with quite the bombshell. I looked at Luik and saw her shifting a little bit. “<That’s right! No matter if you fight the last time or not, it doesn’t matter, and because this monster isn’t as ferocious as that girl, don’t play as safe as last time!>”

“...How reliable is that intel?” I said with a doubtful expression. Even if it’s weaker than Emmie that still leaves a large range of ‘it can easily maul you’.

“Someone has to take it for the team, unfortunately.” Kroin replied. I don’t think that’s going to be me. I’m not even hungry at the moment, so the incentive for going in first doesn’t do it for me.

“<Oh! Looks like someone has already chosen to fight!>” Rico announced. Not the same guy as last time, but he doesn’t look like a better fighter either. At least this time around the first fighter should have more composure going into it.

Hmm… I don’t know his specialization, it’s hard to memorize everyone’s fighting style let alone their preferred elements.

“<Let the match… begin!>” Rico announced as the two sides immediately started fighting.

*Clash* *Clang* *Block* *Parry*

Just the standard exchange, that guy with a sword is matching evenly with the wooden puppet at the moment, but how long will that last?

*Clash* *Push* *Strike*

Despite the seemingly equal exchange at the beginning where neither side were getting solid hits in, now the wooden puppet has gotten our first challenger on the ropes and began pushing him to the edge of the arena with a particularly strong pole strike.

*Sizz* *Swing* *Evade*

He lit his sword on fire and retaliated, stopping its advance with a sword swing that covers more area than usual. Is this thing actually weak to fire?

*Swing* *Parry* *Strike*

It doesn’t seem that way, or it’s not enough to make it not brave through the flames and get another good hit in after parrying the incoming fire slash. It’s hard to believe that this is a monster. I guess its humanoid shape does lead to it acting similar to one in a battle. It’s not the only humanoid monster she got if memory serves.

*Clash* *Clang* *Leap* *Dash* *Swing* *Block* *Leap*

They began around the arena some more and using the massive playing field to their advantage. Our challenger is now playing defensive and making sure he has the amount of space needed to catch his breath and to give him the time to anticipate the incoming attack. Even if they move at a speed that would make a race car blush, the larger gap between him and the puppet will give him the valuable amount of time to contemplate his next move.

*Sizz* *Blast* *Boom*

Probably due to him expecting the monster to run straight at him again, he quickly conjured a large fire spell that is launched right as the puppet monster is running at him, making contact and causing an explosion.

*Dash* *Swing* *Evade*

It doesn’t slow it down that much and it continues with the assault. Even if it is susceptible to fire magic, the gap in power probably means it doesn’t help much.

*Clash* *Clang* *Strike* *Bash*

He finally goes down as he is overwhelmed by the barrage of attacks that he can’t fully countered, taking more punishment and finally collapsing from exhaustion.

The usual comments from Rico rang out, no need to focus on that.

“He certainly lasted decently long.” Trener remarked. “But the puppet is definitely weaker than Emmie. It doesn’t really command the same kind of pressure that she emits.”

“Still, we can’t be careless if we want to join in.” I chimed in. It’s still stronger than us, most likely. “It might not look like it, but it doesn’t seem to be trying that hard. It has plenty of strength to spare even now.”

“Yeah. If anything, being beaten by a monster doesn’t have much dignity to it.” Histon remarked. I think the rewards are worth tainting that a little bit.

“Screw that, I want money.” Trener said, being bolder than he was last week. Looks like he might actually participate this time around?

“Then you might as well go down there early, don’t you think?” I said, wondering what he’s waiting for.

“...In a bit.” He takes a long pause before replying. Then don’t say something like that in the first place, where did that bravado even come from?

“Hmm… Doesn’t look like the collective score carried over.” Kroin pointed out. I guess that would be a little bit too generous, suspiciously so, even.

While we were talking another person had already chosen to fight. That was quicker than I thought. We didn’t even get to discuss the score yet. It’s 601 which is definitely on the higher end compared to how last week has been. One has to wonder if Luik’s record will be broken soon if the trend continues. How much stronger can an average student grow stronger in just a week anyway?

“478…” Kroin muttered as the match finished quickly. This one doesn’t provide much flare.

“<And here comes our next contestant already! It’s a familiar face in the arena!>” Rico said as Fiss surprisingly joined in. I would have thought she’d have enough after last week’s solid performance. She stood there with a trident just like last time. “<...Begin!>”

**Dash** *Clash* *Parry* *Block* *Evade*

They quickly go at each other much like the first two matches. The only difference so far is that their weapons are of equal lengths, so their pacing is a lot more similar compared to the other two that use shorter weapons with more frantic pacing.

*Splash* *Blast* *Strike* *Crash*

She threw out a quick water spell that pushed the wooden puppet back for a bit before landing a good trident hit right in its chest, sending it packing.

“<Oh! A big hit to start it off!>” Rico starts commentating, it’s rather rare for her to give any input.

*Leap* *Lunge* *Evade*

It doesn’t take that lying down as it jumps towards her with a move not too dissimilar to what she used on Emmie last time, but the trajectory is obvious enough for Fiss to move out of the way.

*Clash* *Clang* *Clack*

The two then once again get into a scuffle as they try to gain an advantage over the other. The monster’s movement is quicker and seems more deadly, but Fiss still managed to hang on and make it look even. Even with the earlier cheap shot the wooden puppet still looks like it hasn’t taken any damage at all.

“It is definitely stronger, but the skill it displays is rather lacking…” Kroin remarked as the fight rages on. Fiss has managed to keep her ground against the wooden puppet so far. While not a lot of noticeable things happened, she doesn’t seem to be at a disadvantage right now.

“It does look a bit too predictable.” Histon chimed in. “Strong, but looks kinda like a buffoon. Where was the big guy in that incident?”

“You want to fight against that?” Trener said in disbelief. The giant suit of armor certainly feels more intimidating, and probably stronger as well. I think not a lot of people would want to fight against something like that, so she didn’t bring it along.

“At least losing to it wouldn’t make me feel too bad. This thing looks rather ridiculous.” Histon explained.

*Leap* *Drop* *Crash*

Fiss performed a jump attack that managed to connect and sent the wooden puppet flying to the other side of the arena.

*Dash* *Lunge* *Evade*

She then tried to boldly follow that up with a strong follow-up, lunging towards it with a spear thrust that unfortunately did not land.

*Smack* *Kick*

With such a heavy attack leaving a lot of window of vulnerability, she got hit with a smack to the back before getting kicked in the stomach, this time being the one sent flying.

*Slam* *Scrape*

She managed to get back on her feet quickly, slamming her trident into the ground to create friction and halting her current momentum.

*Dash* *Clash* *Block* *Parry*

Doing so gives her enough time to get back into a fighting stance and intercept the wooden puppet that has run straight towards her without any mercy.

“She’s losing steam.” I remarked as she was visibly struggling. It won’t take more than a minute or two for her to run out of gas.

“Still a better showing than last time, I’d say.” Histon commented. I would say that we had already seen what she is capable of, so today’s demonstration doesn’t feel noteworthy even if her performance looks better. Obviously her opponent this time around is weaker, but she being more proactive during the fight would no doubt help boost her score this time around.

“Yeah, definitely.” Kroin also shares that assessment.

Soon enough Fiss collapsed to the ground, having spent everything she had and the wooden puppet stopped attacking.

1,491… That is a noticeable improvement. It’s actually quite a drastic jump considering that only a week has passed. I know that the P.E. classes are very effective, but this seems kinda crazy.

“Just barely missed out on… No, she has last week’s score added to it.” Kroin was about to remark her missing a points threshold, but with the scores carrying over she could enjoy a nice reward that is still publicly unrevealed.

Now how would the others do against this monster…