While all this was going on, at the back of the line, Cesar was about to erupt. His head was red and veins were bulging all over his face, his eyes red and quivering with rage.
'Bastard, I'm going to kill him! I'm going to kick his ass and I'll do what I want with Emily! Should I break his legs and make him watch while I have an all-nighter with her? That's a good idea, that's a good idea, since that bitch seems to like him too!!'
Crazy thoughts popped into his mind as his sanity seemed to be going farther and farther away.
"Hey man, isn't that the girl you said you were going to be with?" The black guy was beside him, looking into his crazy eyes without the slightest tinge of fear. He was even teasing Cesar with the situation that was going on.
"Shut up!" Cesar replied angrily and didn't say anything else. His mind could only focus on how he was going to get revenge on Arthur and bring Emily to his bed.
'I meant to play with you a little, but tonight I'm still going to make you suffer, you shit!'
***
On the girls' side, when Arthur and Emily arrived, they were speechless to describe their performance.
"What was that?" Sara asked still shocked.
"That was the result of a good combination and efforts by the team, which with a competitive spirit managed to- ok, i stopped!" Arthur started to spew a lot of nonsense, but when he saw the strange looks from the girls as if they were going to laugh, he stopped. But it was because he stopped that they began to laugh.
"Are you like superman? You managed to jump almost 2 meters carrying Emily!" Madison got to the point where they were most curious. Even Emily was curious how he managed to do that, paying attention to the topic.
"Emily can't even be considered heavy. I've been training since I was a kid in the mountains and I'm used to carrying 50 kg rocks everywhere- I can't tell any more stories?..." Arthur commented with pride, but the girls' eyes soon came and he was a little annoyed.
The girls just laughed at his performance, not wanting to get too deep into the topic. If he wasn't counting, then they could deduce that he'd simply been going to the gym for a long time.
Arthur really wasn't the chattering type, but this was making the girls laugh. His vision went from time to time to Emily's smile, and he was finding this feeling of satisfaction quite pleasant, so he continued to make them laugh.
It didn't cost him much, as he sometimes constantly had to make Thomas laugh as a child.
Soon it was Sara and Madison's turn, who sacrificed a lot to get to the other side. Madison turned out to be quite strong, while Sara had near-perfect balance. Arthur suspected that she must have practiced something like ballet or something.
After they got back, Emily and Arthur went to buy some cold drinks to beat the heat and continued watching the competition.
"Look, Cesar!" Madison pointed out curiously. It was only now that she remembered that they had left him alone and hadn't even said goodbye. "There's a guy next to him, it looks like it's the duo. Did he call this guy to beat the two of you?"
"It doesn't really matter, the important thing is to be fun." Emily said while drinking water. She blushed a little when she saw Arthur looking at her strangely. "What is it?"
"That was my bottle..." He replied without making a point of hiding it.
"Eh..." Emily panicked for a few milliseconds before her face completely flushed. Even her neck was flushed. "I-I didn't know, why-" She didn't know what to say and didn't look at Arthur.
"Me kidding, look at mine here!" He soon took a bottle off his back and showed it to her. On his face was a satisfied smile, as if it was good to tease her.
"idiot!" She grumbled and turned to the girls. Her hands gripped the bottle tightly and she didn't know why she wasn't angry with Arthur, but her heart was beating like crazy.
Arthur didn't say anything else and just walked a little closer. What he didn't say is that the bottle really was his, and he did it on purpose to play with it.
"15 seconds! The last ones in line also managed to break the record!"
"It seems that today is very competitive. Just when you think it's over, there's still more."
Unbeknownst to them, the last in line, Cesar and the tall guy, managed to arrive at the same time as Arthur and Emily.
"Looks like there's going to be a stick fight to break the tie! This is really cool!"
"I hope there's no blood, otherwise I'll be sick..."
"It's a stick fight, why would there be blood?"
With the crowd's comments, they soon made room for Arthur and Emily to pass. Some sort of referee had already arrived on the mat and called their names.
"Do you want to proceed with the tiebreaker?"
"Yes!" Cesar replied without hesitation. His red eyes clearly showed his willingness to hit Arthur.
Unlike Cesar, Arthur looked to Emily for confirmation. It wasn't just him who participated, so he didn't have the right to decide alone.
"I don't think so, it looks a little dangerous and you could get hurt..." Emily beckoned Arthur closer and said in his ear in a worried voice, "Not to mention Cesar seems to be quite angry and I've heard he knows how to fight. It wouldn't be good for you..." Her face was also a little flushed, but her loose hair prevented this beautiful scene from being shown to Cesar.
"If so, then you don't need to worry. Look how cute that teddy bear is, it has to be Julia's, even if I have to be beaten!" Arthur put on a brave front.
His sentence made Emily smile a little, but it didn't dispel her concern. Realizing this, Arthur stroked her arm before saying, "Don't worry, it's going to be okay!"
Emily waved and walked away. Her worried expression didn't go away. This only served to incite Cesar's fury even more, and he was determined to make Arthur suffer in this fight. His years of training with his master were not for nothing, and he devoted himself to training with all weapons.
A staff was soon handed to Arthur and Cesar.
As soon as he picked up the staff, Arthur realized that it was quite heavy. He was around 15kg, with the ends completely padded to avoid any damage. His staff was white and smooth. Looking at Cesar's staff, he already realized it was different. It was a little dark and had some lines that only Arthur's eyes could see from afar. He wasn't that padded. It looked like a metal staff.
Knowing something strange was going on, Arthur only smiled at Cesar's naivete. For someone else, a 15kg stick would really be a burden, but for him it weighed the same as nothing, a toothpick. And even if there was some kind of trick in this fight, he wanted to test how far Cesar's courage would go.
"The rules are simple, leaving the blue area is considered a loss, and it's not worth hitting the stomach or head, or else you're disqualified! Begin!" The referee pointed to the blue area, which was about 5 meters in diameter.
As soon as the "fight" started, Cesar already ran towards Arthur, with his staff aimed straight at the head.
"Aaah!" What greeted him was a scream from Arthur as he lowered his head in fear and fled away afterwards.
This drew a collective laugh from the crowd that was caught off guard. It was actually quite funny, and even Emily couldn't resist laughing.
Cesar thought Arthur didn't know how to fight and was scared, so he ran after him trying to hit him in every way possible.
"Aah!"
"Go away, demon!"
"Do you like men by any chance? Why do you just keep running after me?"
"Get out, you perverted creature!"
The comments along with Arthur's awkward and unexpected dodges turned this fight into a true comedy. Emily had long ago thrown her worry into the air at seeing Arthur like this.
Cesar was the one who was stressed the most, seeing that any attack from him was dodged by Arthur. He would look with the corner of his eye and see that Emily was laughing at these antics, and his heart filled with fury as he charged at Arthur.
The tall black man was the one with a serious look on his face as he looked at Arthur's "ridiculous" dodging.
"Stop, stop, stop!" Arthur suddenly reached out to Cesar, who unconsciously stopped. Arthur turned to Emily and asked, "I'm done playing around, so you want me to fight seriously?"
"Show me what you're capable of!" Emily caught Arthur's gaze and joked along, her cheeks flushing and giving him a coquettish look. His eyes looked like when he was playing before, with all that bullshit.
"Young man, I pray for your soul now!" Arthur turned to Cesar and made a cross on his chest in a prayerful gesture. This drew another laugh from the crowd, who were finding this young man quite funny.
Cesar was irate at Emily's reaction, so he shoved his staff towards Arthur's head again.
This time it wasn't what everyone expected. Arthur tilted his body a little to the side and then his head. This made the staff go straight through and not hit him by a thread. The staff in Arthur's hand then suddenly made an upward arc, hitting the center of balance of Cesar's staff's with force.
Arthur's mighty strength and the weight of the staff transmitted a vibration to Cesar's staff, and he was unable to contain it as it was sent flying. Before he could focus on the fight again, he felt something like a very heavy pillow hitting his chest and he was sent into the red area, outside the blue area.
Just as his feet hit the ground, a look of disbelief appeared on his face, outraged at having lost so easily.
Arthur, who was standing in the center of the blue area, looked at Emily and said, "Easy, isn't it?"