"I am Banzan Nishibaya, one of eight professors of Moonster Academy as well as the one in charge of the entire tournament. And beside me is Knight Commander Isao Fukuzawa who is taking care of the security system of the arena. I am here to personally explain everything about this phase of the tournament including its rules and regulations. Pleased to meet you all."
The others are listening patiently.
"Let's begin from the tournament. The tournament is primarily vindicated into two phases, the inner phase, and the outer phase. There are a total of 16 seats in the inner phase meaning only 16 participants will be able to participate in it. However, 10 of these 16 seats are already occupied by the 10 legacy students from the academy who were chosen by the 10 Core Members of the institution including the principal and the vice-principal. You will be fighting for the rest of the seats which are only 6. And that's what the outer phase is about.
Does anyone have any questions?"
Everyone keeps quiet.
"Okay. I'll keep it short and simple. All of you should have the least idea about the first round, nay the outer phase.
In this phase, all of you will be sent to the arena in a battle against a giant spirit beast that can use multiple elements to attack or defend itself. The last 6 remaining participants will proceed to the inner phase.
As for the rules, the Use of Shiten is strongly prohibited. Killing is not permitted. Except for these, you have full control over your actions.
About the elimination process, you get knocked out, you are eliminated. You surrender, you are eliminated. You break any rules, you get kicked out. It's that simple.
Another thing, there is a hidden quest in this round.
If any of you manages to deliver the final blow to the spirit beast, he or she will directly be qualified for the semi-final.
That is all for now. I'll take my leave. Prepare for battle."
Mr. Banzan leaves.
"Aki, let's join forces for this round," says Zack while catching his fist with a smile and confidence as ever.
"I was thinking the same, brother," Akimitsu replies with a smile.
Meanwhile, in the pavilion, where all the Core members (professors, vice-principal, and the principal) are sitting...
"Hide(the one he chose) has improved quite a bit this year. I bet he'll take the championship this year.
"Hahaha, Mr. Shinjoru must be kidding. You can't just leave out our chosen ones. In my opinion, Izonu(his chosen student) will be one of the strongest rivals for the championship there.
"We'll see, we'll see. Though, I am pretty confident about what I said."
"I don't know where Mr. Shinjoru's confidence is coming from, but my student Izonu is taking it this year."
"From skills, of course. My confidence is derived from the skills that my student honed over all these years. While I wonder if Izonu could withstand Hide's exceptional fighting spirit."
The friendly chat between the two professors gradually turned into an argument between two rivals that started to get on the nerves of the Principal who was sitting close by.
"Enough with that. We'll find out who is the strongest pretty soon. For now, let us enjoy the outer phase," says the Principal in an annoyed but calm tone.
"The contestants are arivi....ng...!" the commentator started his loud comments followed by the louder cheers coming from the audience.
The contestants entered the arena from a gate.
"There are our talented participants of the outer phase!
And now…. Their opponent is a formidable one, one that has been said to be on par with the top adventurers of the city! Let's see..! Who will survive till the end! Ladies and gentlemen! Here comes their dreadful oppo~nent!!"
The big gate from the other side opens up. From within the darkness inside the big gate, something is coming out, with footsteps as loud as bass drum beats.
The air is unpredictably filled with tension.
The large shadow of the creature becomes clearer as it gradually comes out. It's a giant ape with four arms.
The ape is considerably calm and collective with no visible hostility towards the contestants whatsoever which is the exact opposite of what everyone expected.
At that moment, Zuko steps forward with a sturdy-looking war hammer in his hand only to ridicule the system.
"Only a big dumb monkey?!," he exclaims in a mocking tone. "C'mon, I thought they had something more challenging."
Seeing Zuko's war hammer, Zack just noticed that he is the only one there without any weapon.
"Where did he get that... that hammer thingy?" confusingly he asks.
"It's a war hammer, brother. There were plenty of weapons for the contestants in the back of that room." Akimitsu replies and shows him the Naginata(*) that he picked from there. "I've picked this Naginata from there as well."
"What!! I didn't even notice them."
"Probably because you were busy poking on the guard's metal armor, brother, ahahaha."
"Shuddup Aki! [Embarrassed] Anyways, don't worry. Just chillax (chill and relax) and swicked (being sweet and wicked). Against this, I don't need a weapon."
On the other side, Zuko is still on the same page.
"I guess I'll finish this myself," he says with confidence and initiates his actions immediately.
He runs towards the giant ape, jumps high, and launches a fierce strike on its shoulder with his war hammer that pushes the ape a bit away. The ape isn't reacting in any way. It isn't moving at all.
"Wo,wo,wo! What did we just see! Did he just handle the beast all by himself!" Loudmouth spiced up the moment.
They cheered up again as Zuko smiles confidently.
But some of them didn't feel happy about the one-sided battle. Kaoru, a student from the academy felt the same.
"Why is the ape not fighting back? It's no fun this way," he says.
"Hey kid, Do you know what happens when u anger a beast?" a mysterious-looking person wearing transparent spectacles replies to him with another question.
"It goes berserk...?'
"Exactly"
The ape that was so calm till now releases a murderous intent. Its eyes from the shadows of its eye sockets start glowing red as it shakes off Zuko from the ground and punches him with its immense strength when he is in mid-air.
Zuko didn't see that coming. He hits the arena wall with great speed causing the wall's first layer in that part to break.
Zack, Akimitsu, Unagi, Usagi, Fumihiro, and the others, all of them are shocked. The display of power shown by the Ape was out of their expectation.
"The opponent is not something to be taken lightly." is what all of them are thinking.
Displaying his power, the Ape finally marks its intimidating presence a sign of its domination, beating its chest and roaring loud enough to turbulate the air.
"ROAAAARRRR!!"
The Ape then hits the ground with 4 of its hands with a massive force that shook the ground, followed by a series of long sharp earth spikes coming out near every contestant instantly, almost at the same time.
5 of them were immediately eliminated being caught by surprise and instantly rescued by the instructors while Zack and most other contestants moved away and dodged them.
The giant ape jumps and lands near Zack and Akimitsu smashing the surface with its lower two hands. They dodged and instantly switched to attack.
Zack climbs up to the ape's shoulder using its hands that it punched with and punches in its face. The punch was very solid and the impact was great as well but didn't do much to the Ape.
At the same time, Akimitsu tries to slash its legs with his Naginata but couldn't penetrate the skin.
The ape tries to smash Zack but he jumps back and dodges; and at that moment, Akimitsu stabs its shoulder, spins the Naginata, and slashes the neck in a split second when it was distracted by Zack. Akimitsu's attack this time barely managed to penetrate the skin and left out something a bit more than scratches but the Ape felt it. It roars out again and starts rampaging randomly.
Grasping the situation, both of them backed down. Other contestants grouped up and are fighting against it, hoping to deliver the final blow themselves.
"Its speed isn't that great but its attacks are of pure strength and highly dangerous, be careful Aki."
"Yes, brother. Its defense is great as well. Let's use its slow speed to implore more of its weaknesses."
"Alright. This is going to be fun!" Zack smiles with eyes brimming full with excitement.
Both of them are more serious now.
A couple of unknown contestants come back flying as they were strategizing.
"Aki! Let's go"
Zack accelerates at a great speed and punches its jaw. Aki goes from behind and tries to slash its tendon in the ankle. Although he wasn't successful, he left a painful scar.
Fumihiro from a bit distance, throws his Kusarigama(*) with accuracy that twists around one of its legs (the blade penetrating the skin with its momentum) and pulls it.
"Can't let you take all the glory," he says.
A couple of other contestants joined in and hit the other leg with their heavy weapons using all their might at the same time as Zack hitits chest with a barrage of punches.
All of this happens in a quick moment. The Ape loses its balance and is about to fall down. Unagi and Usagi are standing still and observing the situation. All the contestants are getting ready to rush in because once the Ape falls down, it's all about who delivers the finishing blow.
However, at the final moment, it somehow regains its balance and counter-pulls Fumihiro. He(F) was about in his limit against that immense pull force when…
Someone lands a high-speed kick on its chest. The Ape falls down.
"You're dead! You goddamn monkey!!"
It's Zuko. He's back in the game.
"Look at their beautiful teamwork! The ape is down, everyone. What an amazing performance from the participants!" Loudmouth continues the comments.
They broke their silence and filled the whole arena with loud cheers.
The calm Usagi eventually considered going offensive.
"Unagi, time to join the battle"
Both of them rush towards Ape at a high speed, unagi with a Rapier(*) and Usagi with his two katanas. They approach the fallen down beast from both sides slashing its left and right arm, penetrating the skin, leaving shallow cut wounds.
The other contestants also rushed in to get the Trophy but the previous attack prompted the Ape to fight back and hurt them. One of them was immediately eliminated after gettinga direct hit. As it was standing up, it creates earth spikes around it almost immediately. But that didn't hold up everybody.
Akimitsu appears in front of the ape out of nowhere spinning his Naginata at a greater speed that is hard for normal eyes to follow. In a moment, a number of cuts in liner pattern appeared on its shoulder with blood dripping out as Akimitsu passes by. Following that, Unagi and Usagi slashed its legs in a blink of an eye when it attacked Aki.
"My eyes couldn't keep up with his speed a moment ago. He's dangerous," Usagi thinks as he is getting away.
Right after the siblings' duo, fumihiro appears on the front line and attacks the Ape.
The ape is struggling to fight back, punching randomly with its hands creating thinner and longer earth spikes around him that managed to stop and eliminate a few but couldn't stop others who were getting the opportunity because of its low intelligence and slow speed.
at that time, Zuko lands a heavy strike with his war hammer on its head, making it lose balance again and Zack smashes its head downwards. The impacts were big. The ape received damage.
Zack and Zuko are in mid-air when Zack senses danger. The air around them becomes violent.
"Crap, I forgot about its multiple elements."
The ape roars. The air around it forms a mini-tornado that pushed almost all of them away including Zack and Zuko. The vision got blurry because of all the dust in the air.
As Zack was getting up, he glimpses a long earth spike rushing toward him like a spear just before the moment it was about to hit him. His heart skipped a beat as he barely dodged it.
Looking through the dust, it was the ape who threw it.
A few other contestants almost got hit by them as well but were rescued before that by the instructors. Because if they didn't get rescued, they would have died on the spot. They got eliminated.
"Did it just start using its head?"Zack thinks with a shocked expression. But he got excited as well.
Nevertheless, everyone's coming to attack again.
Kaoru isobserving the battle from the pavilion.
"The Ape might lose at this rate," he says.
"Most likely....
No.
To be more precise, they lack the ability to do so," the mysterious smart guy replies again while resetting his spectacles.
The Ape roars out again with louder and intense sound followed by a sudden surge of air that threw almost everyone off the ground to the arena wall!
"ROOOAAARRRRRRRR!!!!"
Extra:
"Chillax bro and swicked" is Zack's favorite line.
*Naginata - The naginata is a pole weapon and one of several varieties of traditionally made Japanese blades.
*Kusarigama - A kusarigama is a traditional Japanese weapon, that consists of a kama (the Japanese equivalent of a sickle or billhook) on a kusari-fundo – a type of metal chain (kusari) with a heavy iron weight (fundo) at the end.
*Rapier - A rapier (/ˈreɪpiər/) or espada ropera is a type of sword with a slender and sharply-pointed two-edged blade that was popular in Western Europe, both for civilian use (dueling and self-defense) and as a military sidearm.
[You can Google them for more information]