Chapter 92: Competition!!!
Lancelot Jr stood by the side staring at the arrogant monk before him, he was speechless, unsure of how to respond. Right then, a shout from a place not too far from the battling ground alerted him.
"Hand in your tokens if you have registered for the competition. The fights would be paired based on the tokens."
The announcement was done by a monk sitting down on a wooden chair and his hands were on a desk, he had a pile of wooden tokens close to him, they were similar to the one Lancelot Jr received from Elder Kali. Lancelot Jr noticed that there were numbers written underneath the tokens the monk flipped.
Lancelot Jr then decided to upturn his token and discovered that there was indeed a number written underneath his own. The number 2 was written boldly.
He marched to the place where the monk was seated and handed in his token. "What is your name?" The monk asked.
"Lancelot Jr Night" Lancelot Jr answered. The monk was initially writing something with his head facing down, but suddenly he raised his head, his eyes became wide open, upon hearing the name.
He looked at the fellow, you're not even a monk yet, are you sure you want to participate?"
"Hmmm" Lancelot Jr nodded his head.
"What sort of competition do you want to participate in? Is it the brawl, weapons competition, or mixed?"
Lancelot Jr thought of the answer for a few seconds before responding, "weapons"
"Don't forget the number written on your token, the person you would be battling with, and the exact time would be posted on the board in a few minutes. Although, without you checking on the board, the numbers would be announced. Good luck to you" the monk said as he shifted his attention to the next person in a queue that had already formed behind Lancelot
Lancelot Jr nodded and turned to leave. He returned to where his other buddies are, they stared at him with a questioning gaze.
"What was that for?" Alisha asked.
"l handed in my token, it's the registration needed before the competition."
"Are you nervous"
"Barely"
They both stopped talking and focused on the next fight.
A few minutes later, the announcement for the fights to come and the specific sequences was announced.
..and the third fight would be between Lancelot Jr Night and Monk Bruno..." A series of fight-pairing were announced later on.
Lancelot Jr turned to Alisha, "do you know anything about Monk Bruno?"
Alisha had a hint of fear in her eyes. "He is a crazy monk" she then pointed to a muscular monk in the crowd with a funny hairstyle.
The middle of the head of this particular monk was without hair, this was from the forehead to the back of the skull, while both sides of it had an overgrown hairstyle that was thick and wavy
Bruno was black-skinned and he had a scar that stretched from his temple to underneath the lower eyelid of his left eye.
The man also looked in the direction of Lancelot Jr for a few seconds and gave a mischievous smile before looking away.
"Monk Bruno wasn't given birth to in the monastery like many monks here, neither does he have a relative in the monastery. In fact, it was said that many years ago, monk Bruno fell in love with a girl from a foreign kingdom."
"The girl initially didn't have affection for him but over time, she fell in love with him. It was also said that although they did their romance in secret, it was always in Bruno's house or other areas but never in the vicinity of the girl's house, nor any place close to where her relatives stayed."
"Bruno got curious one day and asked for the reason why the girl doesn't allow him to come to her house. This small matter became a big matter later on as they argued a lot of times on this matter. At a time Bruno even concluded in his mind that the girl wasn't proud of him and didn't want to introduce him to her parents."
"But that wasn't the case, over time due to pressure, the girl brought Bruno home and it turns out that the family was a royal family. The parents were very disgusted with Bruno on the day the girl introduced him. They called him all sorts of names. The girl cried so pitifully that day."
"The parents vehemently refused and did not accept their relationship. The girl tried all she could but to no avail. It became so serious one day, that the father of the girl brought out a gun, corked the gun, and aimed it at Bruno."
"Bruno could not dodge in time and it was certain that he was going to get hit if the bullet were to be released. The gun was shot at Bruno but the girl jumped in at the nick of time to receive the bullet with her chest. It lodged in her heart and killed her instantly."
"Bruno was heartbroken, enraged, and unbalanced. Since then Bruno cried bitterly on a daily basis. A few days later, he came back to the house of the parents of the girl and brutally murdered both of them."
" It could be said that since that day Bruno had been mentally damaged. The entire kingdom chased after Bruno to vent their anger for killing a member of the royal family but he managed to escape."
"Later on, a monk found him unconscious on the road side and brought him to the monastery to tend to his wounds. Although he recovered physically, his mental state hasn't really been stable ever since."
" Over the course of five years, he had killed over 20 monks, but they still allowed him to stay here without any pressure because of the Elder that brought him in. The Elder took him as his own son."
"He looks quiet on the surface but deep within, he is a monster. Any monk who offends him would be brutally murdered and everyone turns a blind eye as if they havent witnessed anything."
"He uses two big axes as his favorite weapon for battle, he is very fast and also very cunning. You would have to be particularly careful of his sneak attacks."
"He holds a grudge like his life depends on it so you would have to be even more wary of this.
I wish you would not go up against him." Alisha explained it carefully not leaving out a single point, Both Lamil and Zain simultaneously chorused
"Madman Bruno!" they said with a smile.
"1 wanted to fetch water from the stream one day, many years ago, before the boreholes were constructed, and I had already started to get the water, Bruno brought his bucket and dropped it beside me and commanded me to fetch his water and carry it to his quarters."
'It wasn't a funny story at the time. I ignored him and fetched mine, he suddenly charged at me and attacked me that day, he nearly killed me. If not for an elder that was around to mediate and chastise him, explaining that I was a guest, you probably won't be seeing me here right now."
"Unfortunately for that elder, he was killed and no one behaved like they knew nor did they say anything about it after that. I asked a lot of questions but no one answered me."
"It was later that I discovered that he had died in a plot that wiped him out. I still have a deep grudge against Bruno you see, it's just because of the appreciation I feel towards the monastery that has kept me from going on an all out attack to kill him." Lamil finished and clenched his fist in anger.
Zain also spoke about his experience with Bruno, "He was on the same hunting party I followed in search of fresh meat for the monastery. At the time I caught a deer and was processing it to get a payment of equal value for my contribution. Bruno came to where I was, he hadn't caught anything throughout the entire event, he saw me as I was tying the deer in a polythene bag, he looked at me with a hostile gaze and a temper that seemed edgy at the time, and told me to give him the deer and scram."
"l ignored him, I thought he was just joking.
Who knew he was serious. He would have killed me that day. I managed to escape and for the time being, I hid myself from sight to avoid detection till he forgot about the matter."
"Brother, he is a really crazy person, you have to be careful when you go up against him. He might just kill you if you're not careful and everyone would not bat an eye on the matter." Zain finished with a frown.
Lancelot Jr smiled as he heard what they said, he was naturally unbothered by their words.