Shi arrived at the town after a week of travel. Resisting the urge to just attack the walls, Shi entered through the gate using his disguise. Shi took off his blindfold and started looking for markers of a good fight.
After a while of walking through the town, Shi saw something that caught his interest. A flyer for a tournament that would be happening in a few days. Shi noted the time and location before heading back out into the forest.
After a couple of days, Shi went back into town and registered for the tournament under the name Tatsuo Takao. The man gestured Shi towards a doorway to his left. Shi walked through the doorway into a large circular room with weapons set up around the walls. There were about 40 people in the room, some sparring while others sat on benches set up around the room.
Shi found an open bench and sat down, practicing controlling 4 spells at the same time while he waited. One of the men started to turn towards Shi but was stopped by one of the older men, the older man shaking his head and saying something in a hushed tone.
Shi ignored them and kept on practicing, swirling three different elemental spells around each other while keeping the disguise up. After a while of this, one of the men was called through a door at the opposite end of the room from where Shi had entered, the man grabbing a spear from the wall before exiting.
Muffled cheers erupted from the area that the man had just gone into. Shi got up and headed towards the sounds, settling himself by a window facing the arena. The man from Shi's room was standing across from a middle-aged woman wielding a wooden staff.
The man approached cautiously, keeping his spear up. The woman launched a wind blade at the man, forcing him to roll to the side to avoid getting chopped in half. The man charged towards the woman, trying to close the distance as quickly as possible.
The man bobbed and weaved, wind blades skimming him, leaving cuts all over his body. He came in close to the woman and stabbed at her chest, only to have his spear knocked away by a wind blade. Recovering quickly, the man twisted the spear with the momentum from the woman's block, bringing the butt of it up to slam into the woman's jaw with a resounding crack.
The woman stumbled back, holding her jaw. The man pressed his advantage rushing in with jabs at the woman. The woman tried to dodge, but the spear caught her in the shoulder. The woman let out a shriek, but recovered and stepped towards the man, driving the spear deeper into her shoulder, the tip sprouting out her back.
The man tried to pull back, but it was too late, the woman put her hand over the man's face, and flames sprouted from her palm, setting the man's head alight. The man recoiled, screaming and tried to summon some magic of his own, but the woman launched another wind blade at the man's throat as the man was struggling to summon even a little water.
The man's body fell forward, collapsing to his knees before falling on the floor. His head toppled backward as he did so, falling to the floor behind his body. Cheers erupted from the crowd, loud enough for Shi to feel the vibrations from them. A man walked out from the edge of the arena and led the woman to a room off to the side of the arena.
A small group of people came out onto the arena after the woman was escorted away, a couple of them covering the body in a piece of cloth and taking it away while the others cleaned the blood off the arena floor.
After the men finished cleaning, one of the other men in Shi's room was called out, grabbing a sword on the way out. Shi looked out the window to see the man get on the arena to stand across from an empty-handed and grey-bearded man.
The man who had come out from Shi's side rushed in towards the grey-beard, swinging his sword downwards at the grey-beard's neck. The grey-beard leaned his head back, letting the sword pass by, missing his neck by inches. The grey-beard then chopped down and the man's neck, snapping his spine in one strike.
Before the man fell, the grey-beard was already walking towards the room that the woman before him had been escorted to. As he entered the room, the cleaners headed up to drag the body out of the arena.
A man came into the room and looked around for a second before his eyes landed on Shi. "Mr. Takao, you're up." He said, before gesturing to the door. Shi stood up and grabbed a sword before heading out to the arena.
Shi focused in on his opponent as the announcer started the introductions. He was facing a middle-aged man, with a large scar going down the left side of his face. The man was holding a spear across his shoulders, with his wrists resting on the shaft of the spear as he listened to the announcer.
After the announcer finished, the spearman readied his spear and charged at Shi. Shi bobbed around the man's thrusts, keeping his sword down as he did so. The man increased his tempo, stabbing at Shi quicker and more erratically. Shi kept dodging, staring at the man calmly as he did so.
The man retracted his spear after a stab, before swinging the shaft sideways at Shi's face. Shi leaned back, letting the spear pass over his head before stepping in and delivering a front kick to the man's chest which sent him flying back a few feet.
The man stood up, clutching his broken ribs for a second before charging in again. Shi sidestepped the man's wild stab and flicked him on the back of the head. "Strike 2" He muttered under his breath, watching the man turn around to face him again.
The man charged in a third time, stabbing at Shi's throat. Shi sighed, and stepped inside the man's reach before ramming the borrowed sword up into the bottom of the man's chin, the blade sprouting out from the top of the man's head. Shi let go of the sword, letting the man fall with it, before leaving to join the other victors.