The rich youth had an expensive and probably high quality armor, therefore Nick had to make some alterations or improvements to his technique already before the fight. If he had his Wakizashi, no armor could stop it, but this experience was an excellent opportunity to learn as well – what if for some reason he didn’t have or couldn’t use Wakizashi in his next real fight against a Qi master? Or if the opponent had ability to block his godly weapon or had armor that he could not penetrate?

This was yet another realization he had – if there was an amazing weapon in this world, there could be a similar armor! And then Nick suddenly wanted to kick himself – he had a piece of such armor on his right wrist and emperor Osman had one as well! While inwardly laughing at himself he concentrated again while taking this lesson to the heart.

When the last person finished his round, arena master called for attention and explained, “This will be the last preliminary round, but since there are still over three hundred participants left, there will be an additional round tomorrow to narrow you all down to a nice number of hundred and twenty eight.”

Then, without answering any questions he sent out the first pairs of contestants for the next round.

‘If there are more than three hundred of us now, it means that three rounds ago we were at least two thousand four hundred and if multiple injured are added that won but couldn't take part in the next rounds, there probably were over three thousand young and promising people.’ Nick sighed, but quickly erased these thoughts since he will be in the next batch of fighters sent in to arena.

Ten minutes later he was called to enter the arena and, as expected, his opponent was the youth dressed in the expensive armor. Contrary to what Nick expected, his opponent didn’t try to say anything or show off, but, after getting the start signal, charged straight at him his sword drawn. He probably wasn’t putting the frail looking youth in his eyes at all.

Nick wasn’t startled though. He knew that even if the opponent was fast, his armor would impede the movement and therefore he didn’t even intend to compare in strength. He ducked opponent’s slash from his right to left and then the quick next one from left to right that left the rich youth wide open in front of him.

While the second sword swing was still in progress, Nick took two small steps forward and inserted his dagger diagonally between the armor pieces at the waistline and immediately after another short step he was already behind the ‘tin can’ and stabbed diagonally down in a thin opening near the collar where two other armor pieces were connected and immediately retreated because his opponent without realizing it himself was already deadly wounded and currently was trying to hit him while spinning in hundred eighty degrees and cleaving with his sword a wide area of … air.

Now Nick didn’t even need to do anything. He was confident that the rich guy would bleed out even from the first injury to the abdomen, but the second definitely damaged if not severed his spine and most likely only the adrenaline rush was still fueling his last movements.

Since Nick already decided to use everything as a training, practicing a strong mind and resistance to impulsive actions was also a form of training. While most other fights were already completed, the guy in the beautiful armor still tried to swing his sword, except he was now holding it with both hands and Nick was taking few steps back from time to time circling around the little stage.

People in the spectator seats already started to express their dissatisfaction when suddenly the body in the pretty ‘tin can’ dropped dead on the arena floor under their gazes. Most didn’t even notice the two stabs since there were more fun and flashy fights going on, therefore they couldn’t understand what happened.

The seasoned arena master, of course, was an exception and inwardly was praising this young participant. Even an experienced person would have an itch to slash another time to end the fight sooner, especially when the opponent was already dying. But there was no need to take the risk if your opponent was on his last breath and making his last move. Thus, after the rich youth fell, arena master confirmed his death and announced the winner.

Nick calmly left and joined the other survivors. This time they were not given any tokens, but had to wait until all were finished. Afterwards they would finally get registered.

‘As I thought, the whole big registration for the competition was just an advertisement. And now when I know that Mercenary guild belongs to the emperor, it makes even more sense.’ Nick pondered to himself.

An hour and a half later the registration was complete. After counting the surviving participants, few heavily injured were immediately disqualified and hundred and thirty nine were left. Arena master who was responsible for the registration grinned widely and told participants to be prepared since tomorrow there will be a short preliminary round and after which only hundred and twenty eight will be left. Nick sighed to himself – he was certain he would definitely be chosen ‘randomly’ again and will have one more fight than others.

Still, most youths left in high spirits since the bloodbath for them had ended and, even if they drop out tomorrow, in the worst case scenario there will be only few broken bones and they won’t loose their lives.

Nick returned directly to the Riverside inn and after ordering dinner, started to go over the files of ‘famous’ participants. Unfortunately for him these didn’t mean much and there were only described physical abilities, weapon choices and styles. This information probably was useful for seasoned gamblers, but for him it was useless. He didn’t recognize the style names and descriptions as well as combatant names, therefore he dropped the files to the side, ate and refined the materials Clayton left in his room into the ‘stealth powder’. Then, after a meditation session, went to bed.

During the night, Nick noticed Steven returning and then leaving before the sunrise, but the latter tried to not wake him up and therefore Nick pretended to be asleep as well.

Next morning Nick washed up, performed few stretching exercises and, after having a light breakfast, went to the arena again. He was already instructed to enter the ‘waiting hall’ he was in before the last round and just proceeded there to wait for the event to begin. Dozens of other participants were already there and most of them recognized each other from yesterday. Nick was especially eye catching with his young appearance and the lack of a ‘real’ weapon – none of the other contestants used something as small as a dagger. Most were swordsmen, several used axes, spears and even clubs, but Nick’s choice was unique.

After everyone was gathered, all had to wait for the emperor to appear again and this time his imperial majesty let participants and aristocrats in spectator seats to wait. Starting from today if one wanted to watch the fights they had to purchase a quite expensive ticket, apparently to make this event more high class and there were gambling desks available around the arena as well and were owned, of course, by the emperor.

After an hour emperor Osman finally arrived seemingly in a bad mood, but still, he held a short speech. Emperor praised the participants and explained that starting from today there will be only one match at the time, so the present ‘experts’ could evaluate the potential future pillars of the empire better, but the day was long and to not get bored, for some entertainment spectators could place casual bets as well. Unfortunately there were hundred and thirty nine participants remaining, thus they had to randomly choose twenty two to fight another round and, to maintain fairness, the fighters would be chosen by drawing lots.

While emperor held his speech everyone in arena and audience were kneeling with their heads bowed. Despite that Nick tried to take a sneak peak at the emperor before the speech and right after it. He was quite far away, but still could tell that the resemblance between brothers was remarkable, except this one was definitely on his last legs. No wonder he had to constantly absorb the lifeforce of others because he himself looked like a zombie.

While drawing the lots, Nick was trying to figure out in what way they would be manipulated, since he lost his trust in honesty of competition already yesterday. The best guess he could make was that the arena master who was bringing around the pot with lots was somehow arranging them so the few special people could pick the appropriate ones. He wasn’t certain if the participants were avoiding the ‘bad’ lots or were trying to get the arranged ones for easy match ups and show off in front of the capital’s aristocrats.

Soon Nick got an answer when he, as expected, drew a lot that indicated he had to fight an extra time and another ‘tin can’ was snickering at him from not too far away.

‘So it’s the second option. Some people are trying to use this opportunity to show off, because they can’t get in finals.’ Nick realized.

He wasn’t annoyed or upset about this. Firstly, because he had no power to influence it and secondly, because yesterday's fight already showed that these silkpants were not difficult opponents at all. Still, Nick wasn’t going to take his opponent lightly and regulated his breathing in preparation for the match.

From this day onward, participants were allowed to remain in arena and watch the fights of their competitors. This was done to reduce the downtime between the matches as well as make them more interesting since at the later stages competitors would be more familiar with each other. Thus, when the first match was announced, everyone moved to the shady side of arena and waited. Few sat down and closed their eyes to rest, but most youths were carefully observing the fights of their future opponents.

Nick watched the fights attentively as well. He didn’t have much practical fighting experience and more importantly, any information he could get might save his life during the next fight with the winner of the current duel.

“Young duke Hazazi against Dash from the Lion mercenary group!” Arena master loudly announced Nick’s fight.

It was the third in quick succession and the first two ended with immediate decapitations.

The audience lit up in cheers – apparently this young duke was a renown figure in the capital. Nick didn’t care much and proceeded to the center of arena that was already painted in fresh blood. There he stopped three meters away from his opponent and waited for the arena master’s signal to start the fight.

“You don’t deserve to serve His Imperial Majesty, but if you beg me, I will be magnanimous and accept you as my follower! You are still young and under my leadership will be able achieve something.” A young and arrogant voice from the shiny ‘tin can’ spoke and the crowd cheered at his words.

Nick’s expression didn’t change, he simply turned towards arena master and asked, “Can we start?”

The arena master was startled for a moment and then nodded and said, “Start!”

“Are you deaf? I’m talking to you, don’t you realize that …” While the ‘tin can’ was trying to impose his importance, he didn’t even notice, that the fight had started.

Nick took two quick steps forward and was already in front of his opponent and stabbed his dagger right in the eye slit of the young duke’s armor so deep that it hit the back of his skull. Then he kicked the convulsing body to the ground, bowed to the emperor and went back to his spot.

If during the previous two fights the decapitations were received by cheers from the audience, then now the whole arena was engulfed in silence. It was simply unbelievable – although the fight had already started, the famous young duke was still lecturing the peasant, but this hillbilly had the audacity to come up and kill the promising aristocrat in front of everyone without any warning and leave as if nothing happened!