Chapter 19

“Are you going to be using that?” Alicia asked, indicating towards the metal bar that Zack kept on his person.

“Nah. There’s no reason to kill each other over a test of strength. Let’s just fight bare handed”

“Yeah, we wouldn’t agree to this fight otherwise,” she replied, quickly relaying that information to the others. Once that was done, it was time for the contest to begin.

The four of them walked into the makeshift arena, stepping past the oblong lunch room tables stacked high and vertical. Although the campus had been ostensibly converted into a university, as far as Zack could tell it still looked very much like a high school, possibly an indication that the university renovation had not been fully completed for whatever reason.

Having entered into the ring, the gazes of two dozen examinees were centered upon the combatants. On the one hand were the three silver marks, and on the other hand was just Zack. A three-on-one situation like this was quite obviously tilted towards their favor, but he wanted this.

“The fight will start in ten seconds after I start the countdown,” one of Alicia’s followers orated, his eyes shifting nervously between the contestants. “You’ll fight until one side gives up. Weapons are not allowed, and try not to hurt each other too much. Don’t forget that we’re trying to get out alive together.”

Placing his bent metal rod to the side, Zack stretched his limbs out. Thankfully he had fully dried out from his dousing earlier, but the dried water had made his pants a bit crinkley in an uncomfortable way. Not too big of a deal, though.

He observed the combatants in front of him carefully. Alicia was roughly 5’6, and Sofia was a bit taller. The former had a particularly slender build that was typical of an art student, while the latter had a bit more muscle but was not exactly well built.

Neither of them was a trained fighter, but they both had the insight to survive and counterattack against their respective monsters in the preliminary. So he couldn’t underestimate them too much. Nicolas was the biggest problem. Under his leather jacket were some bigger muscles than Zack had expected at first.

“Ten.”

“Nine.”

The countdown began, and Zack rolled up his sleeves in preparation for the bout. He didn’t have enough time to collect any more observational data from the three of them, so he’d just have to learn on the fly during the fight.

“Three.”

“Two.”

“One.”

A nervous energy filled the cafeteria as everyone was dead set on spectating the fight that would decide leadership for the future of the examination. Abe cheered him on from the sidelines, but his sister looked a bit less enthusiastic about the whole prospect of the fight.

Well, that didn’t matter. It wasn’t possible for her to know how important it was for him to secure these tokens, and truth be told Zack was used to walking a path less walked and being doubted. He was alright with that, as long as he himself knew that his choices were the right ones.

As the countdown ended, Zack was left standing about four yards away from the three of them. Then they charged. Nicolas went straight for him, while Alicia and Sophia went around the sides. Zack could tell that they were aiming for his arms and legs. If that was the case, all he needed to do was pick a side and crush it.

With a deft movement, he dodged the side lunge of Nicolas trying to wrap up his legs and tackled Alicia to the ground, instantly closing his left hand around her throat and squeezing, just like he’d normally do against elephant monkeys when they got too close to him. His hand was so much bigger than her neck that it was almost comical, and his grip was strong, but he squeezed for a brief moment before letting go of the art student. “Stay down,” he whispered sharply into her ear, showing that he could easily have slammed her in the face or choked her unconscious if he wanted to. His goal wasn’t to actually physically harm or maim her, after all, so he showed restraint.

As Alicia gave a feeble nod of submission, Zack knelt back up just to see a left hook being thrown at his face by Nicolas, as well as Sofia crashing into him from the side.

Zack ducked under the punch with a quick head movement, something that even he was surprised that he could do, and drove his elbow into Nicolas’s weak knee.

[A warlike sponsor is interested in your display of strength.]

[A romantic sponsor is alarmed by your aggressive treatment of the fairer sex.]

Apparently the sponsors were allowed to comment once in a while, as long as the comments did not directly interfere with the examination, it seemed. Aggressive treatment? He was already being considerate, although maybe he squeezed a bit too hard there. If that was the case, he’d probably have to apologize afterwards.

Nicolas immediately yelped in pain and sank, but not before slamming the bottom of his fist into Zack’s shoulder. It was a move that came from his blind spot, so he wasn’t able to dodge it. He then headbutted Zack, driving the tough cranium of his forehead right towards Zack’s face.

Sofia Alley wrapped her arms around his from the back, constricting his movement. But Zack broke free with sheer strength as he kicked Nicolas away right before the headbutt could land on his nose.

Getting back up, he saw that Alicia had removed herself from the arena and was sitting idly on one of the tables, a red handprint around her neck which she was massaging with her hand. She had pulled down her turtleneck to rub the bruise, and it had turned black and blue.

“Don’t bother grappling with this guy, it’s no use,” Nicolas said to Sofia, as he stumbled back to his feet and raised both his hands in a boxing stance.

Sofia harumphed. “You can try boxing him, but I’m going with the original strategy.”

So they did have a strategy going into this, huh. Well, it was obvious that they did based on their start. Anyway, if Nicolas decided to box him, he was going to be in for quite the rude awakening.

“Be my guest then,” Zack said, walking straight towards Nicolas with his hands idly by his side. When it came to boxing, he had quite the experience against the high level punching badgers he’d come across before in the game. When Nicolas threw a right, Zack immediately stepped back, and when the left hook came again, he threw his head back and retaliated with a punch of his own.

The examinees watching from the sidelines oohed and ahhed with interest at the remarkable display of dexterity from him, and Alicia crossed her legs while watching the remaining two of her comrades fight on.

“Is he a professional boxer?” the teenage male examinee who was arguing over chips earlier asked his friend.

“I don’t think so, but he kinda moves like it,” the other teenager replied. “That guy is pretty strong.”

“Tell me about it. I wanna learn moves like that too. Damn… he might actually win this three on one fight. Aaaaahh, my hard earned tokens! I should’ve bet on Zack instead.”

[A swift sponsor is impressed by your unexpected dexterity.]

[Several sponsors are watching this fight amongst examinees with moderate interest.]

[A prideful sponsor is disappointed in the silver marks’ performance.]

Zack laughed. Watch all you want, you bastards, because I’m about to put on a show for you. Raising his hands up, his hands flew towards Nicolas’s face and connected again and again, as he easily sidestepped and dodged a sweep of an arm from Sofia from the side. After the hardy biker looked a bit disoriented, Zack switched focus to Sofia, dodging a kick with surprisingly good form that she threw at him. He then punched her in the stomach hard, the impact causing her to lurch. He was going to throw another punch, but Sofia held up a hand of surrender as she clutched her stomach in pain, groaning.

[A romantic sponsor is thoroughly annoyed by your treatment of the opposite sex. She demands justice.]

Well, this sponsor was quite the dramatic one, wasn’t she.

[A dark sponsor demands that you torture the infidels that dared to challenge you.]

Alright, maybe the romantic one wasn’t all that bad, compared to some of the other sponsors. Zack was starting to get the feeling that each of these sponsors had their own rather strong perversions, whatever they may be.

Spinning back to face Nicolas, he saw that the biker had a swelling black eye and a surprising smile on his face. “You won this round, brother. I give up.”

[You have proved yourself in an unarmed fight against other examinees.]

[Your cosmic notoriety has increased.]

Nicolas walked up to Zack and placed a hand on his shoulder. “Thanks for going easy on us. That was one of the toughest fights in my life, and I’ve been in a few tussles myself. I couldn’t even land more than one hit on you, dude.”

“Well, with enough practice anyone can learn a thing or two,” Zack replied with a chuckle. He felt great after that fight, exhilarating almost. He tried not to admit it, but sometimes he did get a bit of a thrill when getting himself into deep shit and fighting his way out of it.

Zack looked around and addressed the other examinees that were standing around. The teenager who was fighting over chips was actually clapping for him. “Let’s work together then. The way to drive the demon away is by using water, by the way, as much as you can get. Oh, and don’t forget to hand over your tokens.”

Some examinees including the teenager were excited to hand over their tokens to the guy who just won a three-on-one fight with style, while others groaned and were more reluctant.

[A greedy sponsor is not satisfied with just tokens.]

“No, we’re not doing that,” Zack muttered to himself quietly, although he looked quite amused.

[A lusty sponsor is intrigued by your aggressive treatment of female examinees. She would like to see more.]

…

He had no comment for that.