Henry walked down the ring satisfied and relieved, he was expecting this fight to be harder than it was and associated his win to the potion. Such a "relaxed" win had even allowed him to keep a hidden card he could use in the final round against Rose.
"I think I know who was attacking us, or at least I have a hint on who it might be."
Rose sat down next to Henry who was checking for hidden injuries he might need to attend to, he looked at Rose who had her eyes locked on where the people from the Capitole were sitting on the stands.
"Hahah we're fighting in a few minutes, shouldn't you be focusing on something else ?"
"It's ok, I'm very annoyed by that person tho."
Henry couldn't help but sigh, was he not even an opponent in her eyes ? Or was it simply that she didn't care about the results ? The top three will join the academy so that might have been the reason.
"Alright, who do you think it is ?"
"It was probably someone from the Capitole, he's the boy wearing a blue hat and face mask. First his outfit is really suspicious and second he didn't stop looking at you during the fight, I started analyzing the crowd when my fight ended."
"We have no way to prove it right ?"
"Yes... that's annoying, mental attacks are super rare amongst native skills so we don't have a way to check."
"Then forget it, winning your next fight should be your priority."
Rose looked at him and pouted, he had realized already but with her sitting so close to him and acting cute he couldn't help but blush.
'She's really cute...'
The crowd who saw that scene of the two finalists acting so close and talking friendly before the final showdown were surprised
and a lot of people started imagining stuff.
Thomas who was also in the stands looking at his friend who suddenly became close with a beauty had a knowing smile plastered on his face while his classmates who saw him hanging with Henry since they had came to planet Reso started asking him questions about their relationship.
"Hey Thomas do you know what's going on between these two ?"
"Are they dating ?"
Henry's "fans" from his school were going crazy and they started emitting a murderous intent from their eyes towards Rose who was acting coquettish with him.
"They better not be dating or I'll kill her..."
"Can you do that ? She's strong enough to reach this far into the tournament hahah."
Thomas found it funny and joked about them, they were way too serious about Henry. He couldn't say he wasn't jealous but at the same time he was happy it wasn't him, it seemed annoying.
"Humph ! Can she survive poison ?"
"Hey you're not serious are you ?"
Finally Thomas started being scared for that poor girl who had asked for nothing.
RUMBLE
"Everybody are you ready for the final ?!"
The lady who had supervised every fight of Henry's left her place to another man who was standing on a rising stage while the other ones were pulled into the ground.
"I'll be the referee for this final ! My name is Smith and I'm both a smithing and fighting teacher in the academy !"
Although some people had a doubt when they saw his familiar face they all recognized him when he named himself !
"That's the 92nd WUC finalist Smith !"
"I thought he worked for the forge !"
"When did the Academy get such a famous teacher ?!"
Henry who had also watched the WUC 5 years ago had shining eyes, although this person hadn't won the cup he had showed great talent in both smithing and fighting ! The equipment he wore during the WUC was all made by himself, it was a never seen thing before, on top of that his talent in fighting had taken him as far as the finals !
"Alright without further ado let's start the final ! Henry from planet Buton against Rose from planet Hyron."
"Alright let's go, good luck."
Henry said and extended his hand towards Rose who shook it. Both of them walked on the stage and signaled they were ready to the referee who blew into his whistle.
FWEEEEET!!
Contrary to all her previous fights Rose had taken the time to wear a golden armor this time, although it wasn't covering her whole body there were very few openings. She had a dark blue saber attached to her waist and on her back was attached a bow and it's quiver full of arrows made of dark iron.
On the other side Henry who had been wearing the body tight armor even against Rick had changed it to the second form because he respected Rose and refused to lose because he underestimated her. On his waist was the whip and he held the two daggers in his hand, his whole body was tense while waiting for her to make the first move.
He had seen her fighting and was a hundred percent certain that she was stronger than she showed, it was mostly a feeling but he trusted his guts. Rose took her bow from her back and nocked an arrow in a split second, she was so fast that Henry barely had the time to lift his hands and use the daggers to protect his face, as his body was covered by the armor he had to focus all his defense on his face.
The arrow came with a whistling sound made by cutting through the air and hit right where both of Henry's daggers were making a cross, his arms were sent back and the daggers hit him right on the nose. The fight had started a second ago but he already had a bloody nose !
'What's this strength ?! What the hell !'
The issue with this fight was that he had almost no knowledge of Rose's strength, on the other hand he had only one last hidden card he wanted to use as last resort to take away the win.
A second arrow came flying at neck breaking speed aimed at Henry's chest, when he remembered the impact it had on his daggers a second ago he took a stable stance and prepared to take it head on.
BOOM!
Even while being ready, Henry was forced to take a few steps back.
'I can't stay on the defensive, if I want to win I'll have to attack.'
Since he wasn't able to get close to her Henry pulled his whip and slashed it down towards her armor. After seeing the effects of the explosion he didn't doubt he could kill her if he hit an unprotected part of her body !