“That was…a close one…”
Wolf slumped into a seat in the locker room and let out a sigh of relief.
“Thought I was a goner more than once.”
Wolf’s opponent was a B-Rank Archer, a Hawk Eye. She’d proven her strength by making it to the finals, but Wolf had underestimated her because of her rank. The attack she unleashed on him in that moment of misjudgment almost cost him the match. Somehow, Wolf managed to recover, and though he clawed his way to victory, it had been anyone’s guess who would win. Even now, Wolf’s heart continued to pound in his chest.
“You stupid, mangy stray!” fumed Veronica, Mirage Triad’s vice-master, as she slapped Wolf in the head.
“Ow!”
“You took out an A-Ranker to make it to the finals. How did you get yourself in so much trouble with a B-Ranker?!”
“Shut up! I won, didn’t I?!” Wolf’s eyes teared up as he rubbed the back of his head.
Logan, who was also in the locker room, heaved a sigh of his own. “I thought you would have fixed that bad habit when you became clan master, but you haven’t changed a bit.”
“What bad habit?!”
“Being so arrogant that you don’t actually apply yourself.”
Wolf didn’t have a retort. His two companions shook their heads, exasperated.
“Well, I guess this is as far as he goes,” said Logan.
“Pretty good results, considering it was Wolf,” added Veronica.
“Hey! Quit acting like I’ve already lost!” Wolf snarled, leaping from his chair to point at the others. “I am going to beat Noel! No more being conceited!”
Logan and Veronica’s eyes grew wide.
“You’re going to beat Noel?” said Veronica. “You realize he still has to get through Sharon Valentine, right? Now, I’ll be the first to admit that Noel is strong, but he doesn’t stand a chance. You should start preparing to go up against Sharon.”
Wolf shook his head, his gaze resolute. “No. Noel won’t lose.” There was none of the usual playfulness to his tone; Wolf really refused to believe otherwise. His intensity made Veronica flinch.
“Well, I certainly don’t think he’s going to make it easy,” she said.
Logan grinned. “He’s an exceptional martial artist, and he hasn’t even used a skill yet. He won’t go down without one heck of a fight.”
“That’s what I’m talking about,” said Wolf. “And that’s why I’m preparing to fight him next.”
The two men nodded in tandem. Usually the two got along like oil and water, but here they were in complete agreement.
“Ugh, men…” Veronica groaned, shaking her head. She couldn’t deal with them anymore, so she turned to Lycia. “Would you help me out here? Say something to these idiots!”
“Hm? Oh, uh, right…” After a vague nod, Lycia stared off into space without another word.
“She’s utterly useless.”
Wolf saw Veronica’s reaction and replied with a defeated shake of his head.
“She’s been like this ever since she first heard about Noel and Bernadetta,” he said. “She can get it together when she has to, so I made her my cornerman, but leave her alone for one sec and she zones out completely. It’s going to be a long time before she goes back to normal.”
Veronica shrugged. “It is what it is. Let’s just leave her for now.”
The two gazed pitifully at Lycia, who was like a puppet with her strings cut.
Then Logan shouted, “Hey! The next match is about to start!”
The third match in Block A pitted Keith Zappa against Blade Flash’s number-one rookie, the Sword King Fiore Liebert. Keith had made it through the preliminaries by knocking each and every one of his opponents unconscious with a front kick, and all eyes were on him to see how he would tackle an A-Rank opponent.
“He’s up against a Sword King,” Wolf said from the window. “And regalia clan Blade Flash’s top attacker to boot. Keith is a back-liner, right? Hard to imagine his hand-to-hand fighting abilities helping him out here.”
Veronica nodded. As the name suggested, Blade Flash was all about swords. More than half the clan’s members were Swordsmen, and even those who weren’t chose to use blades as part of their specializations. The weapon was such an integral part of the clan that even the back-liners were trained in swordsmanship.
The McBain school of swordsmanship was said to be the best in the empire. It boasted a storied, four-century history and had been passed down from one generation to the next. But what made the McBain school leagues ahead of other schools was that it was also suited to back-line classes like Wizards.
In fact, past inheritors of the McBain school of swordsmanship included Wizards and Archers. Through these classes, the school evolved to encompass both short-range and long-range fighting styles. Thus, it became a worthwhile reference even for back-liners outside of the McBain family. Nowadays, it was even a compulsory art at the Seeker Training Academy.
Fiore Liebert was a Sword King who had learned the art through its current master, Arthur, who was said to be the strongest Swordsman in the family’s history. Just imagining his power sent shivers down people’s spines.
Everybody had already counted Keith out of the fight, but the young man wore a confident grin—or rather, a dismissive sneer.
“Does that boy have a death wish?” Veronica asked no one in particular.
Wolf and Logan couldn’t help but chuckle. The effect of Keith’s goading glare on Fiore was clear as day even from a distance; the Swordsman was furious at being disrespected by someone of lower rank. Fiore could probably picture himself slicing Keith’s hateful grin off his face in seconds.
No one could have predicted the way the match ended.
“The winner of Block A’s third match,” the astounded Luna said after the fact, “is Keith Zappa! Another giant-slaying! A B-Rank Seeker eliminating an A-Ranker! Who imagined we’d see this in the finals?! It’s mind-blowing! And what’s more…”
She took a deep breath before ramping up her energy levels.
“Keith took victory with a single strike! On top of that, he won in exactly the same fashion as Noel Stollen! I don’t believe it! Did they study martial arts under the same master?!”
“Of course they didn’t,” Wolf muttered.
True, Keith had won his match almost move-for-move the way that Noel had. At the very instant the bell rang, the furious Fiore launched a quick attack and Keith’s counter mirrored Noel’s. He slipped past the slash and spun into a vicious elbow jab, hitting Fiore in the back of head and taking him out of the fight.
But Wolf had never heard of Noel training with any partners or disciples. Keith and Noel hardly looked like blood relatives either, so that seemed out of the question. That got him wondering how Keith had used the very same technique. As the answer dawned upon the members of the Mirage Triad, they found themselves covered in goosebumps.