After spending the morning providing fan service for the visitors, we arrived beside the ring shortly after noon and began recording. The camera panned along the audience. There was not a single empty seat in sight—all of them were filled with spectators who were impatient for the last rounds to begin. Apparently, there were people standing outside the arena watching it on the MagiPads too, along with some of the losing fighters.
The arena was huge, but as the tournament progressed, there had been fewer and fewer matches each day. I’d thought that regular spectators would gradually lose interest, but...it turned out that every day was a full house. Honestly...it kinda made everything feel worth it.
So much had happened since I had decided I wanted to hold this tournament. There were nights I wanted to kill Bendelio, and several moments I wanted to try and take advantage of the crowds to give him a huge punch without anyone noticing it was me. I felt no different even now. Almost every day was spent recording, fully engaging in working away from home. There were very few days that I truly had time to rest.
But once I’d decided to dedicate myself to it, this whole period had passed in a flash. All of this started from my selfish desire to discover who was the strongest in Altoire. It became much bigger than I ever anticipated, and even though it all only increased my workload, even that was finally coming to an end. Everyone was here with different intentions, but in the end, it all came down to one single question.
Who is the strongest?
The answer to that question would now be decided. I felt overwhelmed with emotion.
Though, unfortunately, the tournament went as expected and there wasn’t a single fighter who I thought would be worth my time to fight. But enough of that. It wasn’t as if I’d expected one to appear to begin with. Plus, it wasn’t as if I’d be walking out of this with nothing.
“Our last day will have only two matches: the final rounds for both of our divisions. First, for the bare-handed division, we have Leeno versus Gandolph. For the weapons division, we have Sauzan versus Anzel. To be honest, I cannot predict the outcome of either match. I will watch with rapt attention along with all of you!”
This wasn’t a lie. For the bare-handed division, Lynokis had the greater all-around strength, but Gandolph’s improvement had been beyond what I’d expected. He’d beaten Tohaulow despite her speed.
They were also both injured—we would have to watch and see just how it would affect their movements.
For the weapons division, Sauzan was stronger. At least, from what I saw in the match with Lynette. But Anzel wasn’t weak, and the fact that he was willing to stand on this grand stage at all meant that he was willing to put his life on the line. I believe he said he was doing this to repay someone that he owed greatly.
Whatever the case, we could definitely expect to see matches worthy of the finals.
“WOOOOOOOO!”
The moment Lynokis and Gandolph stepped into view, the impatient audience absolutely exploded with cheers. They were so loud that it was impossible to single out any individual voices. Without a doubt, those voices held the expectations for the two who had fought this far.
“The finals for the bare-handed division will now begin! Can you hear the roars of the crowd?! Every single one of these voices is for the two standing across from each other in the ring right at this very moment!”
I had to strain my voice just to be heard over the crowd. There was a parabolic reflector nearby to help my voice be picked up by the camera, but I was starting to wonder if that was even working at this point.
The voices of the crowd were so painfully loud, and amid it all, those two stood facing each other.
On one side was a seemingly uninjured woman, yet hidden underneath her clothes was a deep wound in her left shoulder.
On the other side was a large half-naked man, bandages wrapped around his right eye. Raw scratches were visible all over his body.
“We have our expected champion, Leeno the adventurer. We have the vice-deputy instructor of the Heavenstriker style, Gandolph. At long last, we will finally see who the strongest bare-handed fighter truly is!”
The referee stepped into the ring. He looked tense, nervous. When he stood next to the pair, the cheers slowly died down. It felt almost as if we were bearing witness to a ritual, everyone sitting up straight in preparation.
The referee raised his arm.
And then finally...
“Let the match...begin!”
Boom!
It happened the second the match started. Lynokis’s fist collided with Gandolph’s chest with a sound like thunder. The referee had tried to escape the moment he started the match, but he’d been too slow, falling down in surprise at the volume and intensity of the noise.
But no one was paying him any mind.
Boom!
There was another thunderous rumble as Lynokis fell to her knees. Gandolph’s right hand, which had been positioned high, came down on her in a knifehand strike. It hit her on the shoulder, and her knees immediately buckled.
No, wait.
Lynokis had bent her knees herself to knock Gandolph’s aim off. That hadn’t been a direct hit.
Now that both had initiated their first hits, they made distance again.
A beat of silence passed, and then the crowd erupted into chants of their names.
This. This is what the finals should be.
“Both first strikes have been blocked! By taking half a step back, Gandolph succeeded in evading a direct hit from Leeno’s thunderous strike! Meanwhile, by lowering her body, Leeno managed to avoid a direct hit of Gandolph’s intense counterattack! Neither are going at this half-heartedly! There is not a single opening!”
You two aren’t half bad! Since they were fellow disciples who knew each other well enough to abandon me to go off drinking, I had been worried they would hold back against each other, but it was clear I had been worried for nothing.
Lynokis had fired a Rumbling Thunder and Gandolph had countered with a Roaring Thunder. Even Gandolph had become able to use a Technique in an unorthodox form. If either of those attacks had hit directly, they would have been dead. Lynokis had aimed for either Gandolph’s solar plexus or heart. Gandolph had aimed for Lynokis’s head—it only hit her shoulder because she’d dodged.
This is amazing! This is exactly what I’d been waiting for! Now go! Shine even brighter! Show us your martial arts! Show us how beautifully you scatter in the wind!
The match was extremely fierce, even taking into account every single match leading up to this point. To put it bluntly, it was just a fistfight. It wasn’t fast—each punch was calculated with full commitment. But the weight of each punch was different. Each punch was accompanied by the sound of thunder.
Though Leeno’s arms and legs were thin, the strength behind her punches and kicks was enough to shake Gandolph’s thick arms and torso. Though Gandolph was largely on defense, he was firing out his own attacks too. Considering his enormous body, each strike was very clearly fired with great strength. That same body had grabbed a beastkin with one arm and thrown them into the ground, after all. Right now, punches from such a man were hitting Leeno—strikes that would look direct to an amateur, but to a trained eye, it was easy to see that Leeno was shifting the point of impact ever so slightly.
The exchange of punches continued.
Blood danced in the air.
Leeno remained valiant, undeterred by their difference in physique.
Gandolph never backed down, even though he was covered in scars and bruises.
Everyone was holding their breath as they watched the fight unfold. They were so engrossed that they forgot to breathe, forgot to cheer.
The arena was so quiet that all that could be heard was the rumbling strikes of the two fighters.
Over and over again.