Today was the big day, Yu was finishing up preparations. He had already created 2 of the scapegoat dolls, and planned out his strategy.
"Try not to fail..." Anna's eyes seemed to carry an unspoken threat. She grinned as she followed him down the hall.
Yu cried in his heart. He had small hope that he was going to actually win. After all, even with the system's skills...he can't beat people who trained for their entire lives.
---
The tournament area was very grand. It was like a gladiator ring, but more civilized.
A few contestants started first, and Yu was waiting for his match to come up.
"Now announcing, His Royal Highness, the prince of Ertford Kingdom !Resui Ertford!" The announcer billowed. His opponent immediately cried out in disbelief as he saw how bad his luck was.
A mere commoner didn't stand a chance against a Royal who had been training their entire lives...
"What's this? It seems the opponent has already surrendered! The winner is Resui Ertford!!" The commentator boomed.
"..." Resui put down his equipment. That was quite anti climatic...
Finally, he was unfortunate enough to be paired against Athel. It didn't help that Yu didn't have that much hope to begin with...
Yu clutched his sword as the announcer began the countdown.
"....BEGIN!" The announcer bellowed.
Athel flashed as he appeared behind Resui. Yu managed to block it with great difficulty, and he grit his teeth as he slid back.
It continued on like this for a while. Resui just kept defending, while Athel kept attacking. Yu had to already use scapegoat one time, as Athel almost got him with a magic burst.
Resui had to do something if he wanted to win the battle. As Athel flashed again to his side, Yu blocked then activated Kotar's bracelet.
Athel seemed to fall into a trance as he slowly approached Resui, defenseless. Resui held his sword and hit smack dab on the forehead with the blunt side. Yu wasn't trying to kill him of course.
"-Kuh?!" Athel snapped out of the trance and flashed away. He bent down due to the dizziness caused by the smack.
Resui took the opportunity to use some yin energy gathered up in his body, and flew fourth and smacked Athel out of the arena.
The referee whistled as he announced the results. The announcer nodded.
"The contestant Athel has been knocked out of bounds by the contestant Resui! Resui Ertford in the winner of the match!"
The crowds screamed and cheered as Resui looked around a smiled.
"So handsome~!" The girls squealed. Resui grinned nervously but he felt something wrong. He pulled out a small pocket mirror and saw that part of his fox ears are sprouted out.
Yu cursed as he tried to discreetly make his way into the resting area.The crowd probably didn't notice it as it was far away. The referee also didn't seem notice, which was a bit strange...
He sneaked off into a small corner as he began frantically talking to the system on how to resolve the problem.
"Ahhhh!!! WhatdoIdo, WhatdoIdo, What do I do?!!!!" Yu asked.
"You can't do much about it. While using the finishing move, you used too much yin energy causing your form to reveal abit. All you can do now is wear a hat for the remaining rounds." The system replied.
Just before Yu could let out a sigh of relief, a devilish voice was heard by his ear.
"Oho~? Well if this isn't the most interesting thing I've seen..." A familiar husky voice whispered in Yu's ear, making him shiver. He slowly turned around, and was met with the smiling Maxilrin.
Yu harshly whispered. "Don't you dare talk about this." He hissed. Yu was scared.
"Or what~? You'll kill me?" Maxilrin purred. His hands then started examining Resui's fox ears. "Man, I've never seen a beastman in cities before...I wonder, how did you manage to fool everyone that you were Resui?"
"Ueh..." Resui's ears twitched in Maxilrin's hand. It felt weird...
Maxilrin gulped. "...Don't make that face in front of other people." He stopped fondling the ears and sighed. "If you're worried about your secret being leaked, you don't have to worry. I have no benefit in exposing you, plus I don't care about what happened to the old Resui. He was a pain after all, this is much better then him."
"..." Yu remained silent until Maxilrin left to do his match. Thinking about it, Yu didn't even know that Maxilrin was participating.
No use thinking about it now, he has to get ready for his next match.
...
"Begin!" A new announcer started the match.
Resui was up against a rising commoner, his swordsmanship was amazing and had bested nobles.
Since it was the semi finals, the opponents were above average contestants. But I mean, Resui went against Athel in the quarter finals (And Athel wasn't really considered weak....) so it should be fine as long as he had Kotar's bracelet.
Alin (the commoner), raised his sword. Stuff seemed to wade off the sword's blade.
The audience gasped, they didn't expect someone who could imbue magic into their sword. It was a rare and incredible talent to have.
"....I hope I don't die." Yu thought. He gripped his sword.
Alin swung his sword at the air and energy like blades began coming out at him. Yu avoided him and tried to get close, but Alin only pumped out more energy blades.
Yu was at a standstill. If he tried to get close, the blades are for sure going to hit him. He doesn't have anything that can be used as distance so the only solution was so get close somehow and use Kotar's bracelet.
"System, activate Beginner's lucky totem."