By the time I made it back to my building I was extremely drowsy. Whenever I used to get hair cuts at a hair saloon, I always dosed off a bit if the person didn't talk to me. The time used for them to finish usually took around one and a half to two hours to complete while I sat in a leather chair that was fairly relaxing.
The chair would feel like it was sucking me in as my body slowly relaxed and embraced the warm feeling of the chair. The soft buzzing noise of the hair clippers would always be near as my mind slowly became blurry as my head started leaning to one side from drowsiness. Then all of a sudden 'hey' would be heard as I gained a sudden burst of energy and remembered where I was.
Although the feeling of being at the tournament wasn't similar at all to what would have happened at a saloon, the drowsiness felt was similar to when I sat on those chairs. The time in between my fights felt like it to me as I sat in my seat. At first I would be into it, but as time went on the chair provided to me felt extra nice before hearing my number being called and once again being invigorated from it.
Sitting on my bed I knew I probably wasn't going to train, but that 'restoring' part was going to happen. The bed I sat on wasn't the best, but at the moment it felt like it was heaven.
Laying down with my head on the pillow provided I pulled up the blanket and closed my eyes.
[Hey]
Turning onto my side with both arms under the pillow was a good way to sleep.
[Hey! Listen!]
I thought I heard a voice for a second. Some kind of annoying fairy that looks like a floating blue orb with wings in particular popped up in mind.
[Shouldn't you be training? This is the perfect time to do so!]
"..."
A few moments later I really felt like I was sleeping at home. I always hugged something whenever I went to sleep, usually a normal sized pillow that didn't have a determined shape would be it. This time the pillow felt warm and a little big that one of my arms were pulled back until it only had the hand under it. It even kept its shape while I held it. It felt nice and it even started to hug me back.
At this point I felt something was wrong and when I opened my eyes a pair of crimson ones stared back only a few centimeters away. Once I saw her face I felt the drowsiness from earlier vanished. We stared into each other's eyes for a while more before the silence was broken. A soft smile was seen as she spoke "What do you think you're doing?"
"...Um.. sleeping?"
"Why don't you train a bit more? You don't need the rest of the night to regain energy! Only around four to five hours are necessary! Go train a bit more!"
"I'm not used to sleeping so little anymore." Thinking back to those days studying the whole night for tests, exams, and writing essays. I couldn't get much rest and looked like a zombie while falling asleep in classes.
"Anymore? Well you better start getting back into it! Why can't you be like before anymore, huh?"
"I don't want to go back to those dark days filled with stress and anxiety. Can't I just sleep?"
"...Well... only if you let me stay like this I'll consider it! Mmm." Hugging me closer
The warmth of her body getting a little closer instantly caused another bout of drowsiness in me. Unable to reject her demand from the sudden lack of motivation I let her remain as my eyelids once again increased in weight.
…
When I woke up she was no longer around my arms as a human instead she was a little spider on my pillow.
[Wakey wakey! Competition time!]
Getting out of bed I immediately went over to the tournament site. The place was just as packed as I left it yesterday and more seemed to be coming.
Once the place was filled the elder from yesterday once again appeared on stage.
"Welcome to the second part of the tournament. This will decide the twenty who will become inner disciples and the top five as well. Now we'll begin immediately. Number 302 and 293 please come onto the stage."
"*Sigh* Damn it I'm first again?"
Walking onto stage a young man already stands there holding the spear that others have once used. He holds his spear pointed up as he stares over at me waiting for our battle to start. It seems the elder has started to remember me as without even saying which weapon I would pick he already tossed me the one I always chose, the sword.
'This is it the final person I have to beat before I'll be accepted as an inner disciple. Then I won't need to worry about the later rounds as much.'
"Begin!"
The man charged over the moment the match started with his spear pointed at my chest seemingly ready to impale me. The weapon was already covered with a basic Qi. I only walked a few steps forward before standing my ground with my sword held in front of me to help me defend and possibly counter this attack of his covered in my own Qi.
A few steps before he would have reached me he abruptly stopped. Not expecting the sudden stop I still dodged to my right to avoid the spear that would of hit me. In turn he swings his spear in my direction only being narrowly deflected by my sword.
As his spear bounced away a bit I took my chance to strike only to be matched with the shaft of his spear blocking the way. Still wanting to deal a bit of damage I kicked his chest pushing him back two steps.
He once again resumed the position from earlier pointing his spear towards my chest. Taking a step forward he thrust his spear towards me. I dodged the thrust only to be met with another as he kept retracting and thrusting over and over again changing the position of each thrust every time. One at the head, another at the chest. and then the abdomen.
I got hit by quite a few of them while trying to defend the onslaught of his spear thrusts. He couldn't keep up this momentum and a moment later the thrusts stopped as he backed away a few steps to recover. This was an outcome I didn't really want to endure again so I went over and tried to stop him from being able to smoothly recover.
My own thrusts and slashes were just like his earlier and a number of them got past landing on him. I wasn't as fast with these attacks as he was so I managed to reserve some of my energy against him after trying to deplete his.
Another swing of my sword was aimed at him, but this time he deflected it and turned it back on me. I was expecting such a thing so after trying to memorize the rhythm and speed of his attacks I tried out my plan.
A spearhead just misses my head a few centimeters to the left of it. Before he could pullback his spear this time I used my left hand to grab onto the shaft near the head. As he tried to pull back the head my grip tightened as I started beating him with the sword in my other hand. He was helpless to stop the blows as his weapon was disabled from use.
In the end he gave up after a few more seconds of unsuccessfully pulling the weapon back out of my hold. He dropped to the ground on his hands and knees. The hits he suffered probably consumed a good chunk of his stamina as he struggled earlier.