This match was taking a considerable amount of time. Dodging his last attack I was starting to run out of energy to continue this fight. The other guy still seems to be able to fight fairly furiously, though it seems he also started running low of energy, if only a little, as he couldn't keep up those fiery moves from earlier.
His smile was still on his face from the start of the match. "Judging by how disheveled and exhausted you look it's my victory, I win!" Those were the first words he has said on stage.
'It had already been quite a while the match started and only now you say something?! And for it to be a proclamation of victory as well?! He isn't wrong though, my body's aching and I've started feeling the weight of every single movement just a little while ago. But doesn't he realize that if I've already hit him twice and sent him flying I could probably do it again?
I've got to finish this quickly, his endurance is definitely higher than mine. I won't be able to last if we keep this up. Although it seems punching him isn't going to work anymore, but his abdomen region certainly caused a reaction within him when I hit him before. It'll definitely work this time. I have to save some energy incase of emergencies so I'll only have a two to three chances to try.'
After taking a few steps toward him I was immediately hit on my right side to which I luckily blocked in time. It still pushed me over a little bit, but since he came over to me I took this chance to hit the area that seemed to actually hurt him a little.
Just as I was about to hit his stomach with my fist he kicked me on my stomach back a few steps. I tried going for it again a few more times but it seems like he knew my intentions as he always managed to get away before I could attempt to attack him. In the end we just exchanged useless moves with one another that slowly drained my stamina.
He once again swing his weapon towards me on my right once more. While my sword was still fending off his, I quickly lunched a punch toward his gut it is. My fist sunk in, but he didn't go flying this time.
"Ahh... My only weakness!! How did you know?" He spoke like I hadn't hit him there twice before during the match.
'Wait, was he not defending his abdomen area earlier? Damn, it was just a bit of bad luck.'
It took a second or two before I before I comprehended what he was talking about. His body had suddenly lost it's strength or something as he didn't move anymore, giving him a nudge he fell over backwards and just laid there. Well.. that wasn't what I expected. I thought I'd have to at least hit him a few more times before he actually fell, I guess third times the charm really worked for this encounter.
I guess I won. I walked off stage as they announced the victor back to my seat thinking back to that stupid victory a little as more matches were being started.
'He 100% should have been protecting his stomach region. I don't understand why he didn't if it was so important to him. Did he just think I didn't know about it? I hit him there twice, he was definitely just a bit of an idiot for not doing that.'
…
The matches now won't give me too much more insight into what to do. Entertainment was the only reason to remain behind and watch as others battled each other. Every battle was at the very least a little different from each other so it wasn't that bad in the end. Besides its not like I have anywhere else to go anyway so why not stay.
I'm pretty sure I'd forgotten many of the moves I saw random people used when I went up against the last guy. So focusing on people to memorize their move sets probably wasn't going to work at all.
Familiar faces were popping up once again facing others in the matches. Qiu Tu, Liang Jia, and Yao Ya all appeared on stage during the round fighting others in different matches.
Qiu Tu had once again used that thing where she would send a wave of fire from her weapon to defeat her enemies or at least she did well in using it for a distraction or something similar when necessary.
Liang Jia engulfed his weapon in fiery red Qi once again repelling the enemy and wining his match with his spearmanship. His weapon enhancement technique really seems to be effective in gaining an edge when one is needed.
Yao Ya goes into every match elegantly, refined, and gracefully, ending it the same way. She never used anything else besides her sword to attack the enemy like basically every other normal cultivator around. I remember the first time she showed me her manuals one of them had the name Flowing Swordsmanship or something similar. This is probably it considering all the fluid motions each and every one of her swings contain.
Every time she's on stage as well incites the crowd as well. They start cheering for her and even start telling the her opponent to just surrender before the fight even happens some times.
Rao Nuan... wait, where was she? Now that I think about it I didn't even get to see her fight in this arena. She's probably in another one, but I wonder why she wasn't put into the same one we were she was with us at the start after all.
Well it's too late to think about it now anyway. Better just to see the end of this round.
…
During the third round the opponent was a lot simpler and he didn't have any elemental Qi either so I didn't need to expect any surprise super moves from him, only his physical attacks. After a few clashes I quickly took him down after getting into a sword lock and kicking his leg, throwing him off balance. He had a face filled with irritation, but I didn't bother paying too much attention to him.
The other three were also quite successful in beating their opponents to advance. Each of them using the skills they had already showed us to defeat them.
It was very nice of the elder to pair me up with basically the last person who didn't know an elemental Qi even if it was pure coincidence. The next round will decide the people who will join the inner court and after that will just be fighting for the prizes of the top few places.
After the final match had ended the elder flew up onto the stage and projected his voice outward.
"That will conclude today's matches. Contestants who haven't been eliminated go back to your dwellings and rest for tomorrow's matches. They will decide who is placed into the inner court as well as a few further matches to determine who the top five are during this time's selection."
…
I felt tired even walking out of the building. We spent the entire day in the tournament area or at least I did, sitting in a chair for most of the time was really not good for me.
[You did... acceptable, at the very least you haven't lost.]
A voice I haven't heard all day finally appeared once more. Looking around my body I spotted her on the inside of my robes with her little spider head poking out and her four little beady eyes.
[You have to use your newly found time to restore yourself and maybe train a bit more as well!]