Chapter 20: The Fenrir Guild takes front Stage Part 1

After the match between the low level tank and swordsman the main stage was cleared once more for another match that would start after the sixty second countdown. Joshua took his attention away from that screen and started glancing through all of the other screens. From what Joshua could see there were several other fights going on, but all of them were between lower level explorers than the fight on the main stage of the arena. From that he could tell that if he or anyone in his guild decided to join in at the moment they would most likely be forced to fight on the main stage as long as there weren't a ton of high level combatants trying to join the fighting at the same time.

While glancing through all of the other fights that were currently going on Joshua had to hold himself back from laughing at some of the ridiculous situations that he was seeing. In one fight he saw a swordsman taking on a mage that was a good fifteen levels higher than him. From the rules Joshua had read earlier he was surprised that such a situation was taking place since the system liked to make matches as fair as possible. Then he remembered something Thoren had told him before that made that situation make more sense. The system would make the matches tougher on someone the longer they fought in the arena, but it wouldn't put them in a situation where the level gap got beyond twenty levels.

The fight went just about how Joshua expected. The mage was clearly more experienced as he used a lot of wind based spells that kept blowing the swordsman away whenever he got to close. The mage would then follow up with long range wind blade like spells that quickly tore the swordsman apart. It didn't take long for the fight to come to an end. He noticed other similar situation taking place across the multiple screens. As people won more they would be met with tougher opponents and at this point there hadn't been a single person that had gone beyond three wins in a row.

"Seems like after the first three wins things get a bit too hard to handle. Well at least for lower level entries I'm not sure how it would work if someone like me joined right now." Joshua said before turning his head back to looking at the main screen where another higher level match was about to take place.

"Yeah I can see why the system does that though. Don't want high level explorers coming here to earn easy money without a challenge. Once the large guild members started joining in it will probably be difficult to even win three matches in a row for most people." Henry said with a thoughtful look. "If I had to guess they will probably make things harder for higher level participants by giving them bad matchups."

"Bad matchups? Sounds interesting." Amy said with excitement. She was clearly ready to go out there and have fun, but was only holding back to see what the rest of the group were going to do.

"Yep. An example of this would be putting a tank that's been on a roll against a long distance mage with high fire power. The tank won't be able to close the distance well unless there some freak of nature like Joshua. The mage can then just use them for target practice. Even if the tank can block a few spells at first with a shield wall or just straight up endure the damage eventually they will get overwhelmed." Henry explained.

"If that's the case what do you think the weakness for someone like me would be?" Adrian asked with interest. He knew Henry would be the best one to ask such a question.

"If I had to guess it would be someone that can either lock you down in place to just out damage you or someone that can tank most of your hits without too much trouble. So in your case I'd avoid someone like Joshua who can endure your strikes or someone like Isabella who has spells that effect the surroundings and can slow you down and keep you away from her." Henry said before he started chuckling after seeing the annoyed look Adrian gave Joshua.

Before anyone else could ask Henry about match ups the main screen shifted to another match. This time it was between a martial artist and the mage that had previously taken down the swordsman. This was a bit of a surprise to Joshua and the rest of the group since there was so little time for the mage to catch a breather before his next match. This time Joshua had to believe the mage was the one at a disadvantage. While the mage was only level fifty-three the martial artist was level fifty-six and well rested.

Once the match started the mage casted a quick spell that sent a burst wind in front of him to blow the martial artist away. It was clear that the mage was trying to create some space so that he could channel some more powerful spells, but the martial artist seemed aware of this. It was clear to Joshua that the martial artist had sparred with several people in the past and was more experienced then all of the other competitors he had seen up to this point.

The martial artist responded to the blast of wind by lowering his body and leaning forward while placing his fist on the floor to brace himself. The gust of wind sent him sliding back slightly, but that was all causing the mage to panic a bit as he backed away trying to create space and channel a spell. The martial artist immediately flash stepped forward closing the gab immensely the second the wind subsided forcing the mage to change tactics at the last second.

The mage couldn't create any powerful spells in the amount of time he had gained so he was forced to use a small blast of wind to try and knock away the martial artist. The martial artist however coated one of his hands in a small amount of aura before knocking the ball of wind aside. This seemed to shock the mage, Joshua wasn't too surprised since his aura was able to do far more without him even having to be so precise.

After the martial artist was able to get in close range the fight became completely one sided. It ended up feeling like Joshua was watching a wolf toss around a house cat since the mage was constantly trying to dodge without gaining any type of time to cast a strong enough spell to hurt or knock away the martial artist. Within a couple minutes the fight was over as the mage took to many hits and ended up passing out. It wasn't like a video game where you could see how much health someone had left, instead the fight would end when someone took lethal amounts of damage. Of course since they were in the hub city lethal damage didn't mean the person would die. They would just be forced out of the arena and back to spectating from their room. The worse thing that could happen is having your feelings hurt and your wallet emptied.

After the fight had ended there was another countdown placed as the martial artist stood at the middle of the arena waiting for his next match. It was clear that he planned to continue his fights and that the system of the arena decided to keep his fights as the main attraction for the moment. After sixty seconds another martial artist was brought into the arena that was around similar level as the one that had won the last match. When the fight started they seemed fairly evenly matched and Joshua could tell that the system had upped the difficulty for the first contender after he had defeated the mage.

"Well now that we all know how things work around here who wants to try it out first?" Joshua asked as he turned to look at the rest of his group. He immediately saw his little sister jumping out of her seat in excitement trying to get everyone's attention. Being the older brother that liked to mess with his little sister from time to time when he was given the chance he turned to Adrian who was already stretching his arms out and trying to get warmed up for a fight. "How about you Adrian? Go on out there and show them all what the Fenrir Guild can do, but don���t show off all your tricks."

"No problem. I'll just stick to some basic swordsman techniques unless someone challenging comes along. Then I might cut lose a bit." Adrian said with a grin before he started to sign in for the next fight. He made his sign in process public so they could all see how it worked. It wasn't too complicated. You could either straight up entered and only place a bet on the match when challenged or you could challenge someone that's in the process of fighting so that you become their next opponent. Of course you had the option of either joining one on one fights or two on two, but Adrian joined the solo fights since that seemed to be what most people were doing at the moment. "Well wish me luck."

Adrian's body disappeared as he was apparently taken to a waiting room until it was his turn to fight. Everyone seemed excited to see how the battle arena would react to having someone as strong as Adrian join in on the fighting. Everyone accept Amy who was busy pouting as she walked over to Joshua and punched him in the arm. "Why didn't you pick me?" She said with a frown.

"Well I thought you'd probably want more of a challenge when you went out there for a fight so I went ahead and sent Adrian first." Joshua said while rubbing the spot that Amy punched. Even if it was a playful punch it was still strong enough to sting.

"How does that make any sense?" Amy asked still mad. Henry decided to jump in on the conversation to explain things before Adrian's fight would come up. He knew his explanation would probably mostly go ignored at that point.

"He sent Adrian out first because of his high level. At the moment many of the high level explorers aren't joining the battle arena because they don't want to be the first high level people to join. They might come across a challenging opponent of a lower level that could embarrass them if they aren't lucky. Adrian going out there now will just help speed things along." Henry explained. "If we're lucky, by the time he's done there will be several higher level explorers joining in."

While Henry was finishing up on his explanation the fight between the two martial artists had come to an end with the win streak holder continuing to win. With that the man was going on to his third fight in a row and was building up a ton of momentum in the main stadium arena. With the win the man seemed filled with confidence and since he was still standing there waiting Joshua was certain that he planned to continue even though he looked slightly tired out.

When the countdown came to an end the martial artist next opponent appeared in the arena directly across from them. Adrian showed up with a big grin on his face fully geared out with his dual blades already drawn and ready for the fight. When the martial artist looked at Adrian he immediately started sweating in surprise at seeing his level. Adrian was currently level seventy-eight which was way beyond the strength of the poor martial artist. The man didn't say anything as he got in position to fight, but everyone in the battle arena knew that he was screwed.