Given Minos's unique appearance, plenty of people knew him, however he mostly kept a low profile, hence no one knew him personally.
"Begin!"
This time Minos didn't take the initiative. Trifen was clearly a much more experienced fighter then Ombrum, so Minos was unlikely to get any advantage from the first move. On top of that, given Trifen has the physical advantage, his thoughts would be to attack first, and that would be Minos's chance.
Just as Minos expected, Trifen wasted no time, lunging at him while using Green Bull Through Dirt. It was clear he was taking no risks, and wanted to crush Minos completely.
Time seemed to slow down as Minos watched Trifen's fist fly out. He immediately realized Trifen had achieved small mastery in the Green Bull Tendon Fist, but even without the 10% bonus to strength, he still overpowered Minos.
All these thoughts flashed by Minos's mind in an instant, allowing him to come up with the best counter.
Pulling out his "Shining Talisman" Minos quickly wiped some blood onto the back of it before closing his eyes. The bright light appeared out of the blue, catching Trifen completely off guard.
"AHHH" Trifen screamed as the light blinded and disorientated him. His stance was completely broken.
Minos followed his senses, and with his eyes still shut, he launched an uppercut right into Trifen's jaw.
The blow landed with impeccable accuracy, coupled with using his perfection level Green Bull Tendon Fist, Minos could almost imagine Trifen's body flying upwards into the sky.
The jaw was already a rather fragile part of the body, and while as a Second Life Lock, Trifen's physical qualities had been vastly improved, his jaw was still on the weaker side, at least compared to the rest of his body. With a loud bang, Trifen's body landed on the stage, and so Minos won his second fight.
At this time, Minos finally opened his eyes again. That was the annoying thing about the "Shining Talisman." It hit both the user and their opponent equally, hence Minos had to have his eyes shut after using it, instead relying on his other senses to land the blow.
Of course it worked perfectly this time, but in a faster pace fight with more factor's, it would be exponentially harder to get this technique to work.
The crowd that was loud a second ago suddenly went silent, no one had expected this turn of events. It took a second for everyone to come to terms with what just happened, before the crowd burst into cheers once more.
"Did you see that? That uppercut was amazing. For a second I thought Trifen's head was going to fly off his body."
"He's lucky his neck is so thick, otherwise that blow surely would have killed him."
"Minos is pretty smart too, using a "Shining Talisman" to catch him off guard. Still a waste of contribution points if you ask me though."
The handyman disciple competition gave no rewards unless one made it to the top ten. So unless you were confident you could fight for a spot, it was a waste to invest in talisman's to win a battle.
Most handyman disciples would rather use their contribution points on women, food, and alcohol, as well as the other sources of entertainment within the sect.
Few people were like Minos, who would swallow the dry and tasteless free cafeteria food supplied by the sect, and not spend a single point to entertain himself, rather saving it all.
In fact most handyman disciples were quite poor, this was exactly their problem. If one wants to escape this place, then they need either talent or discipline. Unfortunately both qualities were quite rare amongst the handyman disciples.
Maybe some could hold on for the first couple months, but as they see their own training bear zero results, coupled with their friends going out and enjoying themselves, it's only a matter of time before they get pulled in as well.
"Minos wins!" Hearing those words, Minos tossed his robe over his shoulder and walked off the stage with style.