Flat-Brim Samurai Chapter 42
Apollo, Cias and Devan sat in the stands observing the competition. Some matches were even, some were one sided and some were just sad. There was even one match where both were so weak that you wondered why they were in the tournament. It was answered when one of the greedy douche bags screaming ,"THAT'S HOW YOU DO IT BOYO!!!" The tournament was clearly rigged at some points to have really weak people fight against their stronger richer sons to get money from bets.
Cias was talking aloud to Apollo and Devan ,"I'm glad we don't be…" "C'MON MAN, HIT HARDER!!!" "LET'S DO THIS, KILL HIM!!!" Cias gaped at the two of them, surprised to see them gambling at the expense of others in an underground tournament no less. He then decided to pay no heed to those hooligans acting crazy.
… The announcer yelled out ,"THE FREELANCER HUJUR WILL BE FIGHTING THE BRUTE NOAH BECKETT!!!" Apollo heard that and moved his eyes towards the door which Noah was supposedly to step out of. The air became dense with tension as Noah entered the arena with a grimace saying ,"So who am I fighting?" The other opponent entered the arena, looking at Noah with terror. As soon as the match began, it ended nearly immediately. ,"3 2 1 GO" the announcer yelled out and Noah moved at blinding speeds towards his opponent.
What everybody else saw was Noah disappearing from sight, the cement on the ground shattering displaying a crater 5 meters wide and then Noah reappearing to strike his opponent. Air pressure built up from his speed to such an extent that the resulting boom made weaker people deaf for about 10 minutes. For the contestants that had enough strength to scratch a pedestal placement, they could sense what was happening. They saw Noah move at insane speed to punch his opponent with a right hook. He wasn't even using any ki yet his speed was already this quick, many couldn't imagine his enhanced attacks.
The announcer stated ,"THE WINNER IS NOAH BECKETT," and people remained silent. Noah having nearly no friends here just walked out. Apollo, astonished by what he saw, compared himself to him, Cias and Devan doing the same. His intense power mixed with his martial arts created for a nasty combo on strength and skill. Each step he took felt as if a monster was in your presence.
Apollo went out for another match and won much the same way except he wasn't keen to display all of his power. Most of his battles went like this, he walks out, his opponent starts fighting him, Apollo dodges and knocks the guy out. On the occasional chance that someone was stronger than usual, he would focus in his fight, but that was rare enough that he didn't worry too much about it. Apollo did not want to show anything to his opponents when he fought so he made sure to conceal as much power as he could. Whilst he was resting he was practicing with either doing calisthenics, practicing arts/techniques or going through most scenarios in his head as to how he would fight his opponents.
… ,"That damned Apollo, he's ruining our chances at making it big in this tournament," one extremely shady bastard said to another. ,"I think we should use his friends to stop him from advancing. An intimidation tactic I might say," A man said, dressed in a fully black suit ,"Agreed," another man replied. They all snickered and planned away, bouncing off ideas to one another as to how'd they torture Cias and Devan.
For now they would wait. If Apollo kept winning then they would torture his friends but if he lost, Apollo was the one who would be subjected to pain.
… Cias and Devan walked to their rooms and said goodnight to each other. When Cias entered his room, he practiced his techniques, meditated and then watched TV. Not known to Apollo or Devan, Cias loved to watch romantic comedies. He walked back and forth to make sure the door was properly locked so he could watch his show without disruption and/or embarrassment. Devan on the other hand practiced his dance moves whilst watching old school breakdancing videos.
The old men lied in wait as they continued to make their decision as the second round of the tournament was about to begin…