All the contestants filled the stage standing as one big long line. In front of them in the middle of the stage are three wooden chairs painted and crafted exceptionally giving them a look of thrones that are made out of stones.
Skiouros is seated in the middle seat with Yang and Roy's father Clayton (31) sitting on either sides of Skiouros. Roy and Caitlyn are standing beside the chair of Clayton.
This whole stage is right in the middle of the stadium, there is another stage just in front of this main one which is built at 3 foot tall and 20 feet width.
"Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to the festival that takes place once every two years. As you all know, this is a two-phase test. The first round will be a 1 V 1 and the second round will be awakening." The announcer announces on the Mic, goes back down from the stage and stands in his designated place.
"The one who passes both phases will be judged by the three sitting on the stage and the chosen ones will be going to the mainland."
Yang gets up from his seat and walks up to the mic, he leaned forward in front of the mic with his head lifted above, he says - "The matchmaking for the first round will be given on the big screen and both contestants are to face each other in the arena. Let's begin the match making!" He says enthusiastically and goes back to sit in his seat with a proud smile on his face.
The matchmaking then begins. Many contestants face against each other, the one who lost and the one who won, both come back to the main stage when they are done with their fight.
Even Roy, Caitlyn, Nick and Tim were done with their fights and emerged victorious. The screen starts to shuffle the remaining participants. And the matchmaking ends with Faust and the elder brother of Ahito.
"Faust & Barkha!" The announcer announces and the whole stadium goes nuts! Faust is the top candidate recommended directly by the village chief Yang and Barkha is the villagers' underdog.
Barkha is also 2 years older than Faust. He is tall and well built. Completely opposite from how Faust looks.
"Skiouros, he is the kid I have spoken about." Yang says while his eyes are filled with pride watching Faust getting off the mainstage and walking towards the fighting stage.
Skiouros takes a look at Faust while keenly observing his body upon Yang reminders to him, "He didn't catch my attention in the first look, let's see what he is capable of." Skiouros replies to Yang with an unimpressed look on his face.
Yang just smiles at the reply of Skiouros, he doesn't want to use words to describe talent. One will automatically know what Faust is made up of if they see him in action he thought.
Both Barkha and Faust face each other as the crowd cheers for both of them equally. "*Both of us worked hard eventually, who knows how many hours of work we have both put into this. But, this is a good opportunity for me to see if I can read his moves."* He holds his wooden waster sword with his left hand which was strapped to the left side of his waist.
He scans the entire stadium to see if he can come across Gus or Bella.
"Get ready!" after hearing the words of the referee, he takes a deep breath and stands still taking the stance of unholy sword.
"Sheathe your sword and be ready, you won't be able to once the match started." Barkha says with a smirk on his face as he takes gets into his martial art stance.
*"What a weird stance- the balance of his body is unevenly distributed."* Faust doesn't move a muscle but keeps staring at Barkha.
"Start" As soon as the words come out of the mouth of referee, Barkha jump starts his Sprint towards Faust.
*"Too slow"* Faust stands still and observes the movements that Barkha makes. *"Starting off with a knee huh?"* He says while watching the moments of Barkha's left hand, as if he is uninterested in this fight.
Suddenly, the left arm of Barkha comes swinging at Faust and in the blink of an eye, a powerful knee is shoved into Faust's gut. The impact is hard and painful and it's a clean hit.
The whole crowd goes crazy, hands of Yang twitches in disbelief, he becomes even more shocked than anyone.
*"The speed of Barkha is not any impressive, but why? He got hit easily."* Yang disbelieves his eyes.
Faust's eyes bulge out and his whole body trembles. He falls to the ground on both of his knees. He widens his eyes to the extreme to focus on his enemy and backs away a few feet from Barkha and rests on his one knee while holding his stomach and breathing hard.
"I told you, you should draw your sword out, or it will be bad for you. Now, I won't show you mercy from the next hit." Barkha says with his hands folded in front of him.
Faust gets up on his feet while wiping off his mouth. He again holds his sword with his left hand and stands still.
"Ok if that is how you want to play it cool. I won't show no mercy." Barkha storms at Faust. This time, he flips on the ground with his hands touching the ground, balancing this body with feet up and head down he lands another kick on Faust's face.
He doesn't stop there, he quickly retracts his feet to his chest while his hands still on the ground and throws his both feet on Faust's chest sending Faust back three feet away. He quickly gets on his feet and throws another thunder like punch in Faust's gut again, many attacks from many sides start landing on Faust without giving him any time to recover.
*"Too slow… too slow, I can see each and every one of his moves. Yet my body doesn't dodge. Dammit! This is - definitely a wrong choice. I should have quit rather than taking this beating.'"
*"The whole crowd is silent, they must have been shocked huh! I can only hear a dog barking." Faust thinks as the whole crowd goes silent as Faust is taking the beating. The only sound that can be heard is of a dog barking.
"*Wait- dog? Isn't it Bella?"* Faust watches to his right from the corner of his eye. Gus and Bella are standing and staring at him.
"Barkha finally ends it with a blow from his two hands combined and he thumps on the back of Faust making Faust instantly collapse on the ground.
His tears roll out as he still watches Gus and Bella.
Suddenly the whole crowd goes loud in cheers for Barkha. He won so easily, Faust did not even land a hit on him. This made the crowd go crazy.
"What happened?" Yang says as he stares at his disciple lying cold on the ground.
"I think he went down on purpose, wantedly lost." Skiouros bends over to his left side, tilts his head down and tells Yang what he feels.