As everything was going on, Alyssia's focus was on several suspicious looking people who had a rugged and criminal vibe about them.
They seemed like mercenaries or gang members from the underworld because of the various scars on their bodies and the bloody aura surrounding them.
Certain professions carry themselves in certain ways and are often identifiable from some of these traits, habits and their overall atmosphere and these people carried quite a sinister vibe about them.
They kept talking among themselves and occasionally looked towards Liushi, Monera and several other promising participants which made her feel uneasy.
She turned to Carrot who had fallen asleep in her seat at some point during the competition and nudged her. "Over there, can you pick up anything with those ears of yours? Anything will do."
Carrot replied after letting out a small yawn and stretching her body. "I can try."
She closes her eyes and began to concentrate and filter out the many noises in the stadium to focus her hearing in one area and then began to repeat what she heard.
"Potential threats..."
"Injure or eliminate..."
"Sacrifice for the teams success."
"No mercy."
"Liushi."
"Monera."
"Boarman."
"Tiger style Tony."
Alyssia heard everything she said and then revealed a look of anger. "It seems that they plan on cheating to make it to the finals and even win... is it just for the title and reputation gained from winning or is there something else involved?"
She was lost in thought and then a possibility of a motive came to mind. "Is it the bets? Match fixing? To think that would happen here too."
In many sports where betting is involved, there are those that wish to rig the sport to get a huge payoff, some would miss opportunities to win or resort to dirty tactics to ensure others do not get a chance to perform to the best of of their abilities.
In a competition like this, the rules can be exploited and a heavy injury could be dealt to a participant at the cost of elimination or in a point based competition, their points deducted.
Those that are injured will be unable to fight on and would be forced to drop out before the next round starts or fight on with their injuries.
If that group had come with this motive then they were prepared to sacrifice for the greater goal and harm and kill others to achieve it, which would mean that this may not just be them that were involved but also some part of the criminal underworld or those involved with the betting system.
If they succeed, they will win big along with many others but if they lose and cause those behind them to lose out then they would probably suffer for their failure.
However Alyssia did not care for the consequences of their failure as she turned to Carrot. "Go tell Liushi, Monera, Boarman, Tiger Style Tony and anyone else from our crew to be careful when fighting those people. Watch out for sneak attacks, hidden weapons, fatal attacks or anything that may seem like a trap. Even if they try to distract them or try to make them drop their guard, do not allow them to."
Carrot revealed a playful smile and then left. "Yay! We get to disrupt their plans!"
Alyssia watched her leave and then sighed. 'Of course things will not be so simple and they will only become more desperate later. Exposing myself to the public was going to happen eventually during my turn in the competition but it seems that I may have to act earlier. This is not exactly the way I wished to appear though... I can either ignore it or attract the hate of who ever is behind this along with their minions. However the advantages outweigh the disadvantages in a way.'
Gaining the gratitude and respect of some martial artists with decent potential was beneficial for her and they also owed her a favour after telling them this information allowing future chances of interaction and opportunities to work together or recruit them.
Among them the person that most interested her was Monera, who had high combat power and was of a part of the Fishmen which was very valuable in her eyes.