For the one-on-one match, the group sent Reyal out first, since there was no way to know who their opponents would send out. Though Liu had the most battle-oriented class, Reyal had the most ability to adapt because of his enchantments. And though he was an Enchanter, and this world was setup like an MMORPG, this world didn’t really wish to take away people’s individuality and freedom. This allowed numerous ways to develop your ‘character’ and allowed classes to be less stereotypical.

Ever since Reyal picked up the sword, he was interested in mastering it, and with hard work and the assistance of his new skill, Insightful Eye, Reyal’s mastery over swords became no less than Zellin’s skill with spears, and perhaps he was more skillful.

Though this world only restricted the armors and clothing you can wear by level and not by class, Reyal still chose to wear free-flowing robes. They grew wide near his legs to allow free movement, but were still tailored perfectly as to not allow it to get caught under Reyal’s shoes. They were much like Zellin’s robes, and were likewise, Level 8 clothes.

Reyal wasn’t too worried about its defense. Though its defense was still quite good, compared to heavier armors it was somewhat lacking. But Reyal wasn’t worried about getting hit either, as he had a lot of confidence in his skill.

Reyal went up to the fighting platform and took out his sword as he waited for his opponent. To Reyal’s surprise a pretty girl walked up to the stage and also took out her sword, a katana. She was wearing the loose clothes of a martial artist and Reyal saw that she was a Level 10 Swordswoman. Swordswomen or swordsmen, typically had high levels of mastery over the sword compared to regular warriors.

Reyal was immediately disheartened and began to walk off the stage.

“Where are you going? Do you wish to forfeit?” The referee asked.

“Yeah, whatever.” Reyal said with a waved hand. “I don’t want to fight a girl.”

The swordswoman’s eyebrows furrowed in annoyance. “Why are you afraid I’m not your equal?” She asked with displeasure.

Reyal stopped and looked back. “No, it’s just you’re so pretty. I’d rather date you than fight you.” He said boldly.

The swordswomen only grew more annoyed. “Are you saying women are only good for dating and that they can’t fight?” She asked again.

Reyal grinned in response. “You’re feisty; I like that. I’ll fight you if you promise to go out with me.” Reyal said eagerly.

Zellin shook his head in shame as he watched from his seat. It won’t be long before you’re the enemy of all women, he thought to himself.

“I’d rather die.” The girl said frankly. “But if you impress me with a fight I might grow to respect you as a fellow swordsman.” She said, holding in her disgust. Though she had no intention whatsoever of respecting Reyal in anyway, she wanted to thoroughly cut him up for looking down on her.

“Okay,” Reyal said, resigning himself to the girl. “But when I win, we should get some lunch together.” He said confidently.

“Finally!” Someone from the crowd called out. As they were in the main arena and the matches were being held one by one, the packed crowd was forced to listen to that whole scene. “Seriously, who cares about your love life?”

“Start stabbing each other already!”

Reyal and the girl held their swords out, and slowly drew closer together, wary of the other’s skill. Soon there was only two meters between them.

Reyal moved into a more defensive stance before saying, “How ‘bout you go first? It’s the lady’s right.”

The girl’s eyebrow twitched as she charged in.

Reyal sighed at this frontal charge. I was hoping she’d show some more grace, Reyal thought in disappointment. But the girl unexpectedly disappeared as she was about to close in. Shit! It’s a movement skill! Reyal thought as he hurriedly threw his body into a roll, away from his original position.

Reyal felt the eerie presence of a blade pass above his head as he ducked and threw himself to the ground. Reyal’s hair was quite long, so some hair was inevitably cut off.

I better start taking this seriously, Reyal thought to himself as he got up and activated some enchantments. “You’re quite impressive,” he said as he prepared himself for the next bout.

The girl, was now behind where Reyal originally was, didn’t say anything. She fully focused in this fight. She charged once again.

Like before, the girl seemed to have disappeared, but Reyal was prepared this time and was about to send his elbow back to where Reyal sensed the girl’s presence. But he froze. Fuck! I really can’t hit a girl! He said helplessly as he felt a cold steel blade cut into his neck sending blood spraying out of the wound.

Reyal instantly threw himself to ground and yelled “I concede, I concede!” as he curled his body up and defended his face.

“Pathetic.” The girl exclaimed coldly.

The audience immediately began to boo in displeasure.

“You’re a fucking loser!” Someone called out.

“Go home! No one wants to go out with you!” Someone else yelled.

Reyal used his Preserve skill to stop the bleeding on his neck then slowly walked off the stage with slumped shoulders. This is the biggest failure of my life, he told himself.

“Wow, Reyal.” Zellin said as Reyal sat down. “You actually successfully dodged the first time and failed to dodge the same move the second time. As failures go, that was pretty impressive.”

“Las Cucarachas, send up your next competitor.” The referee called out.

“I’ll go.” Zellin told the group.

The girl grew quite wary as Zellin walked onto the stage. She knew that Zellin was a Summoner and that it would be tough to get past his pets and face him alone, so she decided to taunt him. “Tch! A summoner!” She exclaimed in disdain. “If you were a real man you’d fight me by yourself.”

The crowd immediately expressed their approval. “Yeah! Stop hiding behind your summons!” Someone called out, while others also expressed their agreement.

Zellin smirked in response. “Fine, I won’t use my pets. But the result won’t be any different.” He says with bold confidence.

It wasn’t long before the two competitors were facing each other. The girl thought that beating a summoner without his pets would be simplicity in itself and didn’t plan to do anything special as she closed in to attack. But as soon she got close, Zellin threw a powder into her face which served to immediately blind her.

Zellin showed no mercy as he stabbed the girl over and over, causing her to concede. Though Zellin also believed in equality for all, Zellin had no innate concern specifically for women like Reyal did. Fuck feminism, he thought. It’s better to simply be a humanitarian.

Reyal shook his head in shame as he watched from his seat. It won’t be long before you’re the enemy of all women, he thought to himself.

Zellin’s next opponent was an ice elementalist who sent a barrage of ice spears at Zellin, and tried to finish him off quickly before he could summon any of his pets. But Zellin pulled out his shield and dodged as he summoned a speed enchantment spirit; after fusing with it, it wasn’t long before the enemy mage was repeatedly being stabbed into conceding.

The next opponent was a paladin, to which Zellin immediately conceded, causing loud boos from the crowd. Instead, Liu went up to face the opponent.

Liu went up on stage and pulled out a large, weighty, meter and a half maul.

The referee announced the beginning of the match, and Liu confidently walked towards his opponent with his claymore. Liu’s strength stat has grown to be the highest among his group of friends, far surpassing the strength of regular Level 5 warriors, and was closer to, or might be higher, than most Level 10 Paladins; he could now wield his weapon like it was an extension of his hand.

As Liu got closer, he asked, “Ready?”

The paladin smirked under his helmet. “How could I not be ready for a child?”

Liu shrugged in response before holding out the full weight of his sword. He raised his weapon as if he was about to strike, but unexpectedly charged instead. Liu activated the skill Tackle, which tripled his speed and strength as he closed in from close-range.

The paladin was caught unprepared and Liu charged into him, causing him to step back and lose his balance. But Liu didn’t stop and immediately took a short step back before using the skill Guard Break, increasing the weight of his sword as it aimed to hammer the paladin’s head.

The paladin took another step back and hurriedly raised his shield. The sword and the shield collided with the loud sound of metal clashing against metal. As the force was too much for the paladin, his shield was forced downwards by the impact, and his chest immediately became the target of a heavy kick from Liu.

Liu concentrated all his strength above the paladin’s center of gravity, on his sternum, causing the paladin to inevitably fall down to the ground with a heavy thud.

“AAAAAHHH!” Liu cried out, activating the skill War Cry, which increased his damage by 10%, before ruthlessly swinging his sword onto the paladin on the ground.

The paladin became frantic and hurriedly raised his shield as he healed himself. This caused Liu to begin aiming for his legs, but just as his weapon was about to strike, the paladin rolled out of the way, causing the maul to clash against the solid arena floor. As this stage was usually meant for fights between much higher leveled people, the floor was extremely sturdy.

The rebound vibrated up to Liu’s hands with intensity, causing him to release the sword. “Shit.” Liu exclaimed.

The paladin got up and instantly pounced on the unarmed Liu, savagely slashing at him with his sword.

“We concede!” Zellin yelled from his seat.

“Las Cucarachas concedes, stop fighting!” The referee called out, causing the pissed off paladin to grudgingly walk away.

Liu wasn’t happy either. “Why’d you concede?” Liu asked after walking off the platform. “I could have beaten that guy.”

“Your stubbornness would have gotten you killed.” Zellin reprimanded. “Here take this.” Zellin said, handing Liu a pill, before leading the group to the platform for the team battle.

They immediately had an advantage as the swordswomen couldn’t fight because she was still blinded, making it that much simpler.

The opponents were somewhat smarter than their previous opponents. They had a warrior, a paladin, the ice mage, and an archer. They grouped together, with their fighters at the front, and waited for their opponents to come to them.

Zellin and his friends responded by pulling out their bows and sending a barrage of arrows at their opponents. Though most of them were only mildly skilled in archery, it wasn’t hard for them to simply aim and shoot.

The warrior and the paladin were hammered with arrows, and whenever the ice mage or the archer moved out from behind them to send out their own long range attacks, they immediately became targeted.

The ice mage did the only thing she could think of and prepared the spell Cold Mist, causing a mist to soon spread out over the whole stage. It effectively chilled Zellin and his friends, slightly slowing their movements, and hiding their enemies.

But Zellin was slightly positive about the situation. This could work out, he thought to himself.

Reyal activated Insightful Eye while Coral’s activated Night Hunter Vision, which all served to enhance their eyesight. Insightful Eye would be able to pick out subtle changes in Reyal’s surroundings, and Night Hunter Vision was a sort of thermal vision skill.

Reyal and Coral charged out to hunt, while Sasha took to the skies to see from above. Zellin also let Sparky out as many snakes had a skill similar to Coral’s.

It didn’t take long for the other team to quit.

“Is it me, or we much better at this than I think?” Zellin couldn’t help but wonder.

In the end, the crowd was still mad as Zellin and his friends cowardly avoided confronting the other group. Then when they won in the midst of the mist, they could only attribute it to foul play.

A couple days later…

5 teams remained, and the other teams gathered in the arena to see who would get the free pass to the next round.

“And the winner of the draw is… Las Cucarachas!” The announcer called out.

“Awww! Of course they won!” Someone in the audience called out in displeasure.

“Those guys don’t deserve it!”

Zellin could only smile wryly. “How did the crowd end up hating us so much?” Zellin asked his friends.

“Well, first, we won most of our matches by outnumbering our opponents. And that previous match probably didn’t help either; especially since you blinded that girl.” Reyal replied.

“Yeah, why didn’t we just fight them normally?” Liu asked.

Zellin shook his head in disappointment. “Liu, don’t you see? Fighting like cowards will only lead us further down the path of the cockroach. You need to meditate more and gain some enlightenment.” Zellin reproved.

Liu couldn’t respond, and only sighed as he thought, the only enlightenment I’m having is I’m slowly on the path of losing all my honor.