Chapter 23: The Fenrir Guild takes front Stage Final

After Adrian won the match he didn't just continue on with his challenges for the day, but instead decided to leave the arena and go back to his room with the rest of the guild. Many people in the audience seemed surprised by this fact since someone came along that finally looked like they could win five matches in a row, but a lot of the audience members that planned to join the fights were glad that such a high level combatant had left. When Adrian got back to the room he had a large smile on his face from an exciting match.

"Well how was it on your end?" Joshua asked as everyone seemed excited to join in the matches now that Adrian was back.

"It was interesting. I'm not sure you guys were able to hear, but we were able to talk to each other so it was fun messing with my opponents a bit." Adrian said with a smile. "I decided to stop fighting now so some more powerful people might get involved before I do my final two matches. I highly doubt there���s anyone else currently queued up to fight that is stronger than that mage girl."

"Well how were the fights? They looked awesome to watch by the way." Amy asked. She already looked like she was ready to punch a hole in the wall in an irrational attempt to run out and join the fighting in the arena.

"The martial artist was a bit of a letdown. He couldn't even react to my speed or give me any reason to take him seriously. The swordsman had a decent array of skills though. They were a bit too easy to see through since I'm a swordsman myself. Any faints he used were too obvious and easy to predict, but his skills were interesting." Adrian said with a smile before he became a bit more serious as he turned to look at Joshua and Henry since he knew they were the main two in the group that were actually running the guild. "I'd suggest you guys try to recruit the water mage that I faced last. Her spells weren't all too powerful, but they were clearly built to wear you down in a long fight. If I didn't have the ability to get in close in multiple ways then it would have been a long drawn out fight where she would have had the advantage."

"We noticed that. She was extremely skilled and luckily for us she isn't affiliated with any guilds at the moment. Though that won't be for long with the skills she was able to show off against someone near the top of the rankings." Henry said with a thoughtful look. It was clear he was already thinking of the best way to recruit Brook over all of the other guilds that will be after her now that she had been seen holding her own against Adrian to some degree. Luckily for them Madalyn and Laura were both filled to max capacity in their main guilds and someone like Brook was likely going to avoid joining a sub-guild.

"Well we can't do much about it right now, but we can try to contact her soon. I'm sure she's busy taking in the arena like everyone else at the moment." Joshua said making sure to keep note of the information for later.

"I did talk to her a bit while we were fighting. She doesn't seem like the type to talk a lot. Not because she was shy, but more like because she was unenthusiastic about things." Adrian said seeming a bit confused as he thought back on his interactions with the odd mage.

"Well then we can only hope she'll be interested in our guild after seeing what our members can do." Joshua said before turning his attention to the more pressing topic considering his sister was giving him a death glare at the moment for not speeding things along. "Alright now that Adrian has tested the waters you all can join in on the arena if you're feeling up for it. Show off how strong our guild is and if you come across anyone interesting in your fights then remember to give them an invite."

"Anything else we should keep in mind?" Aito asked since everyone else had started setting up their fight request so that they can get to the waiting rooms.

"If any of you run across each other in a fight then the person who has the longer streak keeps fighting while the other gives up and moves on to another match. We don't need to show off everything we can do in the arena for now. Fighting each other will most likely lead to that." Joshua replied getting nods from everyone. "Oh and Lilly try not to show off your full capabilities. Maybe go with just one strong pet and one support type while fighting. Five on one seems a little over the top."

"Oh I wouldn't do that. It wouldn't be fun." Lilly replied with a smile before disappearing with all of the others. After a few seconds the only two people left in the room were Joshua and Henry.

"How come you didn't go down there to show off? Having the guild leader show off his power will bring in even more recruits, especially if you end up taking out some other guild leaders along the way.�� Henry said as he started looking through the arena system to find the viewing screens for every match that their guild members would be involved in.

"I'd like to see how our guild members do before I go in myself. My abilities are pretty unfair when it comes to one on one fights so it would be best if the people I go against are higher level anyways. The longer I wait the more likely high level explorers will join the arena and make things interesting for me." Joshua said with a smile getting an understanding look from Henry before they both turned their attention to the screens they had pulled up to watch.

In the main arena Amy popped ready to take on the guy who had won three matches in a row. Joshua felt bad for the poor guy since even though he was level sixty-seven and the leader of his own mid-sized guild, he was still a tank. Amy was the worst possible opponent he could get with her ability to bypass his armor as though it was nothing more than a normal shirt. Joshua could see that the tank hadn't realized this fact during the countdown since he looked so overconfident. He had a helmet on so Joshua couldn't really see his face, but the way he wasn't even taking his shield out to defend himself and was instead using two hands for a larger sword than usual for his job type. It was clear that he expected his heavy armor to fend off any blows that Amy was able to get in, so he went for a more offensive strategy.

Amy on the other hand was bouncing on her feet throwing out a few play jabs here and there to loosen up, Amy was a well-known figure in the hub city simply because she used to be a part of the Phoenix Guild. Not many people knew all of her capabilities at this point, but they knew she was powerful after seeing her in action at the large town subjugation. This man was clearly underestimating how powerful she was.

The fact that Amy had gotten into a fight so fast while the rest of the guild hadn't even gotten into the waiting room yet told Joshua that she most likely hadn't heard him say to avoid fighting each other at all cost. Luckily it wouldn't matter all that much since Amy was the first one to start fighting so it was likely that she would be the one on a win streak at the start of things. Everyone else would just have to give up the fight if she was their next opponent according to the rules Joshua had set up earlier.

When the match started the tank started rushing forward as his blade started glowing. From that action alone Joshua knew that the fight was over. A slow moving fighter should never blindly charge in unless he has back up. In a one on one fight there was no way a tank could rely on teammates to help out. Showing off his glowing sword was another huge mistake since it was basically a big warning sign saying don't let this attack hit you. He hadn't put Amy off balance or anything before using an easily readable attack. In the end he was running to his doom.

Amy responded by simply sliding out of the way of the tanks swing right when he got close, then she sent one blindingly fast punch to the man's stomach. The tank didn't even try to defend since he expected such a simple punch to be useless against his defenses, but he was stopped in his tracks before falling over in a hunched form as he started coughing up blood. Joshua couldn't see his expression but he was certain the tank was petrified in both pain and surprise based off of the way Amy was able to easily follow up the punch with a kick to the head that was powerful enough to send the man off into a blinding light signifying the end of the match. Amy looked saddened that the fight was so easy, but she just started to loosen up some more for the next fight.

Joshua turned his attention away from Amy's matches and started looking over the matches of the rest of the group. After a while of watching Joshua was happy to see that his group was doing so well. Even the new recruits that they brought along to the arena were doing well. Aito was completely destroying his opponents. Joshua caught the match between him and a berserker and wasn't surprised when Aito just blasted out the man's knee with a powerful rail shot before putting him out of his misery. Most berserkers were the type to willingly take damage if it meant they got a shot at you so Aito had no problem hitting his target.

Jayce was teamed up with Monika in the two on two matches and it was one of the funniest things that Joshua had ever seen. They were up against a pair of swordsman that were trying to get passed Jayce, but were stone walled by his shield wall. What was funny about the situation was the fact that anytime they tried to get around Jayce they would just end up getting his shield smashed into their faces. Monika would heal him if he took any injuries from the pair of swordsman which was rare. She also created orbs of light that she would flash in their opponent's faces to blind them long enough for Jayce to get in a clean shot.

Another interesting pair that were fighting were the married bards that had decided to go out and fight together. What was ridiculous about their fight was the fact that they literally just stood there and played music. Initially Joshua didn't have any idea how they planned on actually fighting, but the moment they started playing music he could understand how. Their opponents were screaming in pain while covering their ears. Jacob was playing some type of song that was causing them pain while Evelyn played music that seemed to boost the power of Jacob's offensive attack.

The swordsman on the enemy team was useless the moment the music started playing, but the archer was trying to fight back by sending an arrow at Jake. Sadly the new skill that Joshua had given them came into play and created a shield around the pair that easily blocked the arrows. The archer wasn't able to concentrate enough to use a skill or ability to empower her attacks so she eventually passed out as well.

All of the guild members were having interesting fights from what Joshua could tell, but that's when Joshua and Henry both noticed a fight that was rather interesting.