The fact he couldn’t tear through her meant that he was rooted to the spot for a moment—and that was his downfall. Lynokis had already grabbed onto him. She’d grabbed his hair as if hugging him and pulled him in so he couldn’t escape.
And then, with the sound of falling thunder, Lynokis rammed her fist into Zeon’s stomach. It was a little unorthodox, but that was most certainly Rumbling Thunder.
So she’s finally learned how to use a Technique in a unique form, has she?
She must have been training much more seriously than I’d given her credit for. If she’d become able to use Techniques in a different form than I taught her, that would mean that she’d reached a point of understanding the basic principles and logic behind it. In other words, it was no longer simply just a Technique, but her own Technique. At least on some level.
A heavy collision sound echoed out, and Zeon slowly fell to the ground.
The match was over.
Lynokis stepped down from the ring amid thunderous applause. Blood was trailing down from her left shoulder and dripping off her fingers. The rules stated that she couldn’t receive magic treatment for the bite, so she would be going into the next match with the wound if she didn’t drop out. All she could use were ointments and bandages.
I wasn’t sure how deep the wound was, but it didn’t look like a wound that would heal in one or two days. I could have healed it right away, but she wasn’t so proficient at chi yet to manage that. What effect would the injury have on her coming matches? That was just another thing to look forward to.
“Zeon tried to bite into Leeno’s neck, but Leeno deftly dodged and finished him off with a direct punch to his body. Did you hear the rumble that came from it? It might have just looked like a punch from afar, but the destructive power of such a move is immense. Zeon’s ability to survive that attack is a show of his strength and endurance. Had that been a normal person, their insides would’ve been all messed up and they’d be vomiting blood every—”
Bendelio signaled at me.
“Ah. Yes. I’m looking forward to Leeno’s next match. How will her injury from this match affect the rest? Make sure to watch how this drama unfolds with your own eyes. I’m sure many of you were looking forward to the rematch between Zeon and Gandolph. However, Zeon’s journey in this tournament must end here.”
At Bendelio’s command, I quickly wrapped up my comment.
Goodness me. I still can’t judge just what is good or bad to say. But if I don’t give them details, the audience won’t truly understand, will they?
Lynokis went straight to the infirmary the moment her match was over. The bite on her left shoulder hurt like hell.
“Hmm... Yeah, it’s pretty deep.”
When her wound was assessed by one of the doctors, his response made her worry for her future matches.
The one looking her wound over was Dr. Drisla, a serious, middle-aged man, and one of the most famous doctors in Altoire. There were a lot of other doctors and nurses surrounding her, examining the state of her injury.
Zeon’s many fangs had sunk into her shoulder and nearly ripped it apart. She’d grabbed onto him as soon as she could to stop him from pulling away, but he’d still had an opportunity to widen the wound. If Lynokis hadn’t grabbed onto him at all, he might have taken a whole chunk out of her shoulder.
“Are you aware of the rules? Those with matches tomorrow onward cannot receive magic treatment from us, which means all we can do is basic first aid. If you intend to drop out, however, we can do more for you.”
“I won’t drop out.”
Lynokis was well aware of the rule, but she didn’t think the wound was so extreme that she had to give up here—it wasn’t as if she’d been poisoned. If her shoulder had been broken, it would certainly have made the choice to stay more difficult, but something like a bite wound wouldn’t stop her from fighting. The pain was irrelevant; what mattered was how much she could still move it. Broken bones would greatly affect her range of motion. A broken leg, for instance, would be the worst—the chances of winning after a wound like that would be nearly nonexistent. If there were no issues with her bones, though, then she would be fine. It definitely hurt, though.
“I see... Well, I can’t say I approve as a doctor, but I will respect your wishes. Would you like us to suture it?”
“Yes, please.”
Lynokis would seek out proper treatment the second the tournament ended, but for now, the finals were still days away. If her wound would have to remain for a few days, then she’d at least like them to patch it up enough that the injury wouldn’t worsen.
“Dr. Shine, would you like to try?”
“Is it okay for me to do it?”
“Of course. I’d like to see how you handle an injury like this without magic.”
“All right.”
Hang on, Lynokis nearly said, but then hesitated. What was that about? Did Dr. Drisla just ask a magic physician he didn’t have full confidence in to suture her wound? Were they using an injured person’s body to test the extent of someone’s medical ability? They were. They definitely were. Dr. Drisla wasn’t going to be the one to treat her? That famous Altoire doctor wasn’t going to treat her?
“U-Um...”
Her worry must’ve shown on her face, because before Lynokis could say much more, the new physician reassured her. “Don’t worry. This is the second time I’ve treated you, after all.”
“What?” The...second time? “Have we met somewhere before?”
“Yes. Your arm had been cut off at the time.”
Her arm had been cut off... She must have been referring to the Umbral Arena. Had she met this magic physician back then? She’d barely been conscious—her arm had been reattached before she knew it. She’d even wondered if her arm being chopped off had only been a bad dream.
Was this woman the one who had treated her back then? Whatever the case, she absolutely could not speak carelessly here. She had no idea how much this woman knew about her and Nia. While she had no way to judge, she had to be careful.
“I’ll stitch up your wound now, okay? If you could come to this bed over here, please.”
Right now, she couldn’t say anything careless. All she could do was continue observing the situation by giving her body up as a test subject.
Are we sure we didn’t just watch the finals?
The majority of the crowd’s chatter was about the match between Leeno and Zeon. I was fairly sure it went by too fast for the uninitiated to have any idea what had really happened, but they could at least tell that they had borne witness to an exchange between two highly skilled fighters. It was clear they had felt that that match had been different from everything else they had seen to this point.
And it very much had been. No match thus far had been carried out at such a level of speed. If this was how excited they were already, I looked forward to seeing how they’d react to the real finals.