[Chapter Size: 2100 Words.]
Third Person POV
Northern kingdoms.
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"Send in the next challenger group." Madara's voice was heard in the midst of the silence, his tone calm. Madara spoke calmly, leaving the entire area still stunned, everyone wondering how he moved so fast that no one saw, arriving behind one of the warriors.
"What the hell is this child?" Eithné, the leader of the dryads, couldn't help but murmur, looking at Madara with suspicion, her brow furrowed. Even she didn't know how he moved so quickly, while the boy watched, waiting for the next challenge.
Clenching her teeth, feeling as if he saw her as a fool, she decided she wanted to see more of this. "Send in two to face him." She exclaimed as two more women leaped into the arena, advancing to the center after moving their companion, placing her in a corner of the arena.
Meanwhile, Madara waited for them to finish preparing as they no longer seemed to mock him as they had the first time.
"Let's finish off this human." One of them said to the other, while Madara stood still, waiting for them to begin.
"Begin!" The Dryad leader gave the order, watching the fight closely so as not to miss any detail this time.
But this time, Madara didn't move, simply waiting for the dryads to raise their bows, while he looked at them calmly, causing them to frown, wondering why he was so calm with weapons pointed at him, not making any movement like before.
"Shoot!" One of them shouted, and then they released the bowstrings, arrows flying through the air as Madara could see them twisting as they traveled toward him at high speed.
What everyone in the arena saw next was, to say the least, disconcerting and impressive, as Madara simply moved his body to the side with a smooth motion, dodging the arrows, returning to his initial position and looking at them with boredom, his hands in his pockets.
"Let's do this: I'll keep my hand in my pocket the entire time. If I take it out at any moment, I lose and admit defeat to you." He said, while everyone looked at him strangely.
"Act seriously! Defeat him, and let's finish this!" One of the warriors exclaimed, grabbing her arrow and readying her bow again. "Don't underestimate us, human!" Then, they launched their arrows, even though they were only 10 meters away. Madara, without taking his hand out of his pocket, moved his body again, easily dodging as the arrows buried themselves in the ground behind him under the gaze of the entire arena.
"What kind of movement is that?" They exclaimed, seeing him dodge the third and fourth arrows again.
This time, one of them didn't stay still. Upon seeing the fifth arrow being fired, Madara finally decided to act and ran at high speed. He easily dodged the arrow, which passed centimeters from his face.
The second dryad tried to shoot the sixth arrow, but Madara was already on top of her companion, delivering a kick to her stomach, sending the woman rolling on the ground, unconscious from the force of his blow.
The last warrior wasted no time and launched an arrow point-blank, already having it aimed at him quickly, and once again, Madara surprised everyone with his reaction and extreme measures, spinning his body to the side, dodging the arrow fired just 2 meters from him.
"Impossible..." The dryad murmured. At that moment, it was all she could say before being struck in the chin by a kick from Madara, causing her to fall unconscious.
"Next challenge?" Madara asked, taking his hands out of his pockets after proving he had beaten them without doing so, crossing his arms, looking bored at the leader.
"Three of you, advance into the arena and remove these three dryads from this place." Eithné spoke quickly. Six women descended into the arena, while three removed the three fallen bodies for a healer. Three remained, looking at Madara with frustration.
"Begin!" Eithné said, with less enthusiasm than before. Cirilla appeared in a part of the arena to watch the fight this time, accompanied by a few Dryads to keep an eye on her. The girl watched Madara fighting against dryads simultaneously.
As soon as the fight started, Madara wasted no time. He charged at the three of them, receiving arrows at high speed but dodging them easily, then starting to strike each one, knocking them down and leaving them unconscious in a matter of seconds. His gaze returned to Eithné in her chair, who clenched her fist, her brow furrowed.
"Who are you? No witcher can move like that! How is this possible? I've never seen anything like it..." Eithné muttered to herself, visibly frustrated.
"Four!" she exclaimed, and four more warriors advanced, removing the fallen bodies, now somewhat fearful, after carrying their comrades out of the arena. Quickly, Madara put his hands in his pockets.
"I'll beat them without using my hands," he said, and he quickly advanced as soon as Eithné gave the signal, defeating three and knocking out the fourth at the end, easily, as she tried to retreat.
His gaze turned again to the leader. "Five!" Eithné shouted, seeing five more warriors lying on the ground.
"Go, Madara!!" Cirilla seemed to be the only one cheering happily for Madara with admiration as he defeated his opponents one after the other.
"Six!" she exclaimed, and soon six warriors were also lying on the ground a moment later.
"How is this possible? How can he be defeating so many of us so easily?" the crowd murmured, now silent, looking at Madara with a certain fear, wondering what he was, because clearly to them, he wasn't human.
"Seven!" Eithné said, seeing seven bodies on the ground.
"Send our eight strongest!" Eithné ordered. The warriors, who had been silent, watched as the eight most powerful, except for Morenn, who was still under Madara's control, advanced into the arena, visibly frustrated and eager to prove themselves as well.
"Begin!" Eithné said. As soon as the words left her mouth, Madara charged at the eight warriors, easily dodging eight arrows at once, moving at high speed. Cirilla, watching from a distance, observed with fascination as he moved like that, performing flips as he danced between the arrows.
Madara reached the group of attackers, beginning to strike them all, knocking them down one by one, until, to everyone's surprise, he was hit in the chest while advancing on the last three. Quickly, the last two fired arrows, which lodged in his chest.
"Madara!" Cirilla exclaimed, incredulous at what had happened. And to everyone's surprise, the girl's body simply exploded with energy, frightening the entire arena, which began to shake. Even Eithné looked at Cirilla, surprised, as the Dryads near her were flung away due to the explosion.
"Calm down, Ciri." Madara's voice emerged in the arena. His body, pierced by arrows, turned into smoke, revealing itself as a wooden log with arrows embedded in it. Madara reappeared behind the three warriors, striking them quickly and leaving them unconscious in the arena.
"Calm down. Do you think that can stop me? I thought you had more faith in me." He spoke in a calm tone, jumping from the arena more than 10 meters into the air, with everyone watching as he landed easily in front of the girl, unfazed by her chaotic energy explosion, while he saw Cirilla in a trance, her energy surging. She blinked as soon as she noticed him, and all that energy began to subside.
She rushed towards Madara awkwardly, her body somewhat weakened by it, relieved that she hadn't lost him, it had been just a scare.
"Just rest and keep the kunai I gave you, understood?" Madara said, and she nodded.
"Now stay here, I'll take care of the rest. There's no need to worry." He said in a serious tone and jumped back into the arena.
Madara watched calmly, while Eithné, still stunned by everything that had happened, saw him walk again towards the arena, waiting for the next challenge.
"Let's finish this. Send your final challengers." He said.
All the remaining warriors looked at their leader, wondering what she would do now. After all, he had easily defeated all the challengers so far. To everyone's surprise, what seemed to have been Madara's body hit by the arrows before Ciri's explosion was revealed to be an illusion, transformed into a wooden log, while he reappeared without a scratch. Everyone had believed he was hit, but they had been deceived by some kind of illusion he had created, in their opinions.
"Very well, send in our centipedes... send nine of them." Eithné exclaimed. The dryads, despite their surprise, began to move quickly into the arena. Madara stood still, waiting.
"Very well." He murmured, having heard what she said. It seemed to be the same monster he killed last night; nine of them would be no problem for him.
The dryads then prepared the caged monsters they kept for occasional use in the arena, but no one had ever seen Eithné send nine at the same time for a challenge. The dryads wondered how that human could handle this.
Madara waited for the cue to attack. As soon as the order was given with Eithné initiating the fight, the cages opened, and giant worms began to emerge, searching for any food, as they hadn't been fed properly for days due to the dryads deliberately withholding food, even fighting among themselves. But as soon as they saw Madara, they found their "meal."
He remained calm as the worms, 30 meters away, began to approach. When they reached 20 meters, Madara simply reached for his bracelet with symbols, pulled out nine kunai from his storage, and threw them.
In the next moment, he hit all the worms with such force that the kunai embedded themselves in their heads, making them scream in pain, but nothing fatal, surprising everyone present.
But what happened next left everyone in shock, because each kunai had explosive tags attached to their handles, and they began to burn. The next instant was a series of almost simultaneous explosions, detonating in the arena, blowing off the worms' heads.
"What is this?" Eithné exclaimed, forced to stand up, stunned by the explosion that echoed throughout the forest surrounding the capital.
Madara emerged through the smoke, standing before the corpses of the worms, making the dryads now look at him with great fear, for they couldn't comprehend any of what was happening there.
"Let's move on to the final challenge. I'm getting bored." He spoke loudly, mocking the challenge. In the end, this was nothing for him.
"Fine... 10 monsters... send all kinds of monsters!" Eithné ordered, having no choice and visibly irritated, seeing that she would have to give him what he had been asking for from the beginning, which was an eternal shame for her race.
With no other choice, the dryads returned to the arena, bringing different types of monsters. Madara watched them being brought to the doors: drowners, ghouls, and all sorts of creatures, even nekkers, which were more basic monsters, none of which posed the danger of an alghoul, so this would be easy to handle as well.
As soon as the battle began with Eithné's command, all the doors opened, and the monsters charged at Madara. This time, he simply raised his hand and began to perform a series of hand seals until he completed the sequence, crossing his fingers. He took a deep breath and exhaled forward.
"Fire Style Technique: Great Fire Annihilation!"
He unleashed his jutsu, which immediately exploded from his mouth, hitting the ground in front of him before advancing, burning the entire battlefield with a roaring sound, greater than the previous explosions. Everyone could see that part of the arena engulfed in flames, as the monsters screamed, unable to react, and all shielded their eyes from the light emitted by the enormous flames, with a collective sense of awe towards Madara, even more intense than before.
In the next moment, the flames still burned, and the creatures within them began to fall, one by one, all being destroyed.
Eithné's eyes trembled. "What kind of being can do all this?" she wondered, questioning whether they could even fight against that boy. He could launch that jutsu into the forest and burn it down, which would be disastrous for them.
'If they fought each other... who would win...' She couldn't help but murmur as she watched Madara, standing in the middle of the flames, unbothered by the heat, as if he were a creature of that element.