Finally Henry could forget about the people around him when he was called on the stage for his first fight, on the other three rings 6 other contestants were standing and ready to fight. Everyone looked determined to win and the mood was very different from the training tournament where most people didn't take it seriously.
"Henry from planet Buton against Dom from planet Rolor !"
FWEEEEET
The referee on the stage, a middle aged woman said in a loud voice that was transmitted all around the Arena and blew in her whistle, while Henry couldn't hear any reaction when she said his name a group of hundreds of people if not a thousand started yelling, whistling and clapping when she said his opponent's name !
"Good luck !"
When his opponent said with a smile he realized that Henry was already standing a few centimeters away from him and using a martial arts move flipped him over his back.
DOOM
With a loud sound his opponent landed on his back, the fall was so loud and strong that Henry wasn't sure if he had broken his opponent's back. He had wanted to take the advantage by attacking first after the whistle blow but didn't expect his opponent to have no guard at all !
"HEY DON'T YOU HAVE ANY MANNERS ?!"
"HE DESERVES TO BE DISQUALIFIED!!!"
From the side of the stands where all the cheers for his opponent came earlier now came angry voices.
"Dom from planet Rolor is in the incapacity to move, the winner is Henry from planet Buton !"
After checking on the boy lying down in pain the referee announced the winner but was met with a wave of complaints from his "fans", Henry guessed they were probably people from the same planet and school.
"No point in arguing, the fight start with the whistle blow."
The referee stopped the complaints with one simple sentence, although what Henry did was kind of unfair it was all his opponent's fault because it wasn't against the rules. You should always be ready for attacks when in a fight, this will be a lesson for his incoming fights.
This round of the tournament was a "cleaning", you were allowed to lose once but you had to win all your other fights to move onto the next round. People lacking in talent would be eliminated now and it will be a lot easier for the judges to focus on the good seeds.
"Alright Henry you can head back to the waiting area, don't be influenced by them. They are just angry that their player lost, if it had been him using this method they wouldn't have a complaint."
"Thanks !"
Henry smiled to thank her and went back down to the benches for the participants, in fact he didn't care about what the other said because this was a strategy like any other to him, winning and losing were the only results possible so any method was good to win since he refused to lose !
Henry's next three fights were so easy that he didn't need to use his armor or weapons, he used his bare hands and the boost of the rings and armor to throw his opponent's off stage or to K.O them.
"That kid is good, his instincts are sharp and he probably didn't show us all he could do yet."
"I agree, I think there are four kids who deserve our school in this batch at most."
"Maybe more, we can't tell since they are all probably hiding their strength but yeah I also think that there are four kids who stood out already."
On top of the stands were the VIP lounges where the higher ups from the Academy were sitting and judging the fights, in only 4 fights Henry had already caught their attention.
After a short break Henry was once again called on stage, this time his opponent was none other than Harry he had already beaten during the training tournament !
"This will be an interesting fight !"
"A semi-final so early !"
The crowd had already been making their pronostics and they believed these two would go far in this tournament but they didn't except to hear Harry say this.
"I give up."
This was the direct elimination phase of the tournament so giving up meant he was definitely out ! Only the people who had been at the training tournament understood what had happened, Henry had already beaten Harry once without taking any damage so they guessed this time wouldn't be any different, another reason they didn't know was that Harry dreaded Henry !
At the end of their fight the other time Henry had threatened Harry to kill him because he hadn't held back his sword during their fight, the eyes Henry had looked at him with were still engraved inside his mind and would come back every time he saw Henry.
"Winner Henry from planet Buton !"
"What happened ?"
"Who knows..."
"I had hope for that kid since he won his earliest fights so easily, we can't see him fight anymore now and there is no point in taking a coward into our school, what a waste."
"Do you think that other boy might have blackmailed him ? It's weird giving up before the fight even started..."
"That's true... I'll send someone to ask that boy the reason he gave up."
Inside the VIP lounge a conversation was going on and this sudden forfeit had given Henry a bad image in the judge's subconscious. Although they had no proof that little hesitation in their mind just made them biased against Henry.
Meanwhile Rose was fighting against another young girl while using a scythe, once again she showed her perfect use of a new weapon, Henry as usual was sitting and analyzing her fighting style trying to look for some kind of weakness he could use during his incoming fight with her ! At the same time he tried to analyze how the favorites from the Capitole fought, if there was someone who could beat Rose he believed it was one of them so there was a high chance that he would have to fight them !
All their equipments and weapons were sparkly and had really intricate designs, it was obviously good items !
'Relying on my items against them might be a bad idea, I wouldn't be surprised if their weapons were of the same quality or better than mine.'