Aleister took in a deep breath, and then let it out. He could feel and hear his heart beat, blood pulsated throughout his body.

"Why are you so nervous?" Luo Yun asked. "Even though there's more people than I expected, thanks to Jehkad, this small arena isn't even sold out."

"It's my debut," Aleister said. "What if I mess up bad, and lose?"

"There's always next time?" Luo Yun said, not reassuring him at all. "But, you don't need to worry about that since you'll win."

"You're right, I'll win." He hyped himself up as much as possible, but still maintained realistic expectations. Jehkad had seen him tie against Brilnia, even if it was in such a compromised state. This meant opponent posed some real threat. Something he couldn't forget.

The metal gate in front of him rolled open, signalling to him that it was time.

Luo Yun put his hand on Aleister's shoulder. "Don't worry, you got this."

"Then, guess I'll be seeing you in a few minutes," Aleister said as he walked through the gates, spear in hand.

The rules for the Unranked Osetia Showdown were very loose and not well defined. Almost everything could go except of crippling or removing a body part, torture, mutilation, and of course, death. However, any weapon could be used as long as it passed inspection.

"And on the left, we have the first appearance of the Mysterious Stranger!" Magic projected the caster's voice throughout the small arena. The crowd let out a series of boos and heckling. Aleister expected this as it was full of Jehkad's cronies.

The first thing he noticed was how the dirt ground was incredibly solid. He purposefully dragged the butt of his spear across it, and it didn't even create the smallest of lines. This prevented him from kicking sand into his opponent's eyes. Something he thought of doing in the case of an emergency, even though it wasn't very honorable. Not that something as irrelevant as honor has a place on the battlefield.

His opponent Bjorn whatever The Savage walked out to meet him in the center. This time the crowd roared and cheered him on.

Aleister took this time to examine his opponent. Bjorn was a larger than him, but not extremely so. However, his entire stature was much bulkier in nature. In one hand, an enormous axe, in the other, nothing. No shield made things much easier for Aleister. Just based on looks and appearance alone, he could tell that Bjorn was the super aggressive, violent type.

As soon as the bell rang, Bjorn would try to close the distance and come swinging in with his axe in a vertical fashion as swinging horizontally would be slower and reduce his movement. If his prediction came through, it would be an instant victory for him. Almost too easy, actually. But, of course, that was only if the initial swing was vertical.

If Bjorn took a step in with a horizontal swing, it would be more difficult to counter as Bjorn's body would be more protected and structurally sound. He could still finish him off in one move if he was ready for that action, though.

As he walked up, Bjorn carried the axe in his right hand, but Aleister paid more attention to Bjorn's legs. He appeared to use prefer his right leg as well when moving. This meant that in order to predict which type of swing he would be attacked by, he needed to pay attention to which leg Bjorn moved first.

The left leg moving first would more than likely indicate the horizontal swing attack, as Bjorn needed to put more force onto his right to keep the correct posture. If the right leg moved first and covered the distance between faster, Bjorn could end on his left leg as gravity would strengthen the attack force of his axe.

Aleister started to think about other ways Bjorn could attack, but using an axe really limited one's options. The only other thing he thought he might need to worry about was if Bjorn decided to fight in a very passive fashion. Aleister completely threw this out of the window as it wouldn't fit Bjorn's character at all, nor would it match the atmosphere of this match.

"Ready to die?" Bjorn snarled in a rough voice.

Aleister pointed his finger out. "You know that we aren't actually allowed to kill each other, right?"

Bjorn looked at him with contempt and spat on the ground next to him.

The referee stepped between them and made him and Bjorn bow to each other. This was the way fighters showed respect to each other. Without any further warning, the bell rang and Bjorn moved his right leg first.

Aleister changed from his neutral stance to his second stance. There were no fancy names for them, just numbers, which he found just fine. In this second stance, he held his spear so the butt face his shoulders and the spear pointed at the ground.

Bjorn crashed his axe downwards. An action that was slow and very easy to counter. Aleister stepped inwards and pulled his spear with him as he stepped inwards. Just this one motion put himself inside the gap between Bjorn's arms and his chest as the head of his spear rested against Bjorn's neck. Aleister pricked through his skin and drew a small amount of blood. "Looks like this is checkmate."

The interaction between the two of them was so fast that the referee hadn't even gotten the chance to take a step back. But, upon laying eyes upon the current scene, he raised the white flag in his right hand.

"I—I can't believe it," the boisterous caster seemed to struggle in finding the words he wanted to say but quickly recovered. "If you had blinked, you would have missed it! But it appears that the Mysterious Stranger has won in what has to be record time!"

Aleister removed his spear from Bjorn's neck and ducked out as he walked back to the other side of the gate. The crowd didn't know how to react, which Aleister could understand. Even if they weren't biased against him, there was no entertainment in seeing someone win in just a second. The only ones that could appreciate such a performance would be other fighters of a similar style. Luckily for them, this wasn't the only fight tonight. In fact, this was battle was just the opener and to make a statement. But probably not the one the opposition expected.

"I can't believe you said a few minutes!" Luo Yun had a big grin on his face, his excitement unable to be contained. "At least your days of being poor, are no more! I bet so much money on you! Lashi and Jehkad are going to be so fucking pissed!"

"Are you allowed to do that?" Aleister asked.

Luo Yun cleared his throat. "Sorry, you're right, I didn't bet any money on you, but I know some of your really good friends did."

"If I'm a mysterious stranger I'm not supposed to have friends, am I?"

"Don't question the logistics of my massive brain plays."

"No problem."

"More than anything though, I'm honestly impressed by your technique," Luo Yun said. "Just one move and he couldn't do anything to you. If this was a real fight, he would have died without knowing what had even happened."

"Thanks, but, it isn't my technique," Aleister clarified.

"Maybe not fully, but it still is partially," Luo Yun said. "After all, even if it was originally someone else's, you still used your own understanding and applied your own knowledge and skill when using it, making it yours."

"You really sounded like Syn there."

"No problem, now let's get going, I don't want to be in this crappy place any longer than I had to."

"Are we not going to watch the rest of the fights?"

"No way am I going to waste my time watching a bunch of shitters fight," Luo Yun said. "This was the actual fight, and it's done, so it's time to go. It's as simple as that."

"Sounds good to me, am I heading back to your dojo or should I just head back to the manor?"

"Nah, we're going to some fancy and expensive restaurant and grabbing food to eat," Luo Yun said in clarification. "My treat, of course."

Aleister felt the saliva bubble in his mouth.

Luo Yun looked at him weird. "Uh, are you drooling?"

"No." Aleister slurped all of it back up and started to head off. "What are you waiting for, let's go!"