The Sword Saint Festival 1, A Lil Drunk

As Mitsuna sipped from her bottle, the surrounding people paid close attention to the placement brackets.

'I'm in B so I should only worry about that.'

"The General of Bracket A, ...!"

Mitsuna completely ignored it and took a large sip.

'At least I don't have to wait long.'

"The General for Bracket B, Mitsuna!"

'F*ckkk.'

As she looked at the B bracket, she saw a picture of herself, or rather a full 10-second clip.

The short clip was about how she was looking at the camera without paying attention to much else as she took a big sip of alcohol.

'Huh. They used a good clip. I did only look at one or two cameras.'

The people around her, immediately recognized her as they saw the clip on the wall.

"What?! Crazy! She can actually see the cameras? Aren't they protected by a layer of invisibility magic?!"

As a dude next to her yelled, most eyes gathered on her.

She took another sip and spoke.

"Hey look. The third General."

As she said so, all eyes turned back to the brackets as she stood up from the place she was sitting at and left the area.

'I'll just go to the portal relics.'

As she arrived, she noticed how the place was completely empty except for the workers who were setting things up.

Sitting down on a bench she just observed and listened as the voice of the announcer could still be heard here.

Seeing how a camera was following her, Mitsuna guessed that they constantly update the clips.

'I'd say it's high tech. But. It's not tech, and easily breakable.'

Mitsuna momentarily took control of the spell by simply waving her hand and inputting her own mana into the circuit. She pointed the camera at the bench next to her and left it there.

As Mitsuna sat there drinking and enjoying the atmosphere like an old Japanese samurai.

She listened to and remembered every name of each general in each bracket.

The people that were closely observing the constantly updating clips soon realized that camera B was just showing an empty bench.

"Did General B really escape the camera? But it can see through walls."

"Huh? But General B was right next to that group there a moment ago."

"Is she invisible so the camera can't show her?"

"Isn't that near the portal relics? Did the camera lose sight of her there?"

...

After a while, the announcement of the Generals was done and the next few steps started to be explained.

"And that is all for the Generals! All other participants will take on the roles of Soldiers."

"Now, you might be wondering. There are many less than 1500 participants inside the walls of our Oldlade. You are correct! Portal relics have been delivered to every major city on the continent and more than 4/5 of the participants will join from other cities! I hope you don't see any relatives or loved ones when the festival begins, because... Killing is allowed! How else would a champion rise?!"

"Now, future champions! Head to the portals and await for your bracket. All instructions will be given by the stationary workers and helpers. And to our lovely viewers, stay tuned as the first bracket will soon commence.

T minus 8 minutes!"

'Great, now people are making their way over here.'

Mitsuna looked at the approaching crowd as she wondered.

'How do they even know who has the most potential out of all the participants?'

Mitsuna sat on the bench and enjoyed her drink. A few minutes later, the General for bracket A was sent through the portal.

Afterwards, the workers seemed to activate a few magic circuits on the relic and sent the others through.

'I guess that's how they debuff the Soldiers.'

As soon as the last Soldier entered the portal, all the floating screens in the surroundings lit up.

'Might as well see what's happening.'

Mitsuna looked at the screen to observe the fight happening in the first bracket.

A man was standing between multiple sand dunes wielding a large silver scythe. The blade of his weapon seemed to be in the shape of a wing.

As all his opponents found weapons littering the ground, the man in the role of General made the first move.

He dashed towards a group and swung his scythe while activating a Technique.

A single slice shattered a sword and decapitated its wielder.

And with that single slice, many others appeared around him, harming and even killing most of the group members that were just about to attack.

Just with the first move, 6 participants had been eliminated.

The crowd roared as the first blood of the festival was spilt.

'Huh. Interesting. I wonder if they set up a barrier of some sort to keep the roaming monsters out.'

As the scythe-wielding General rushed around the desert while decapitating anyone in his way, Mitsuna noticed how he seemed to spare any girls by only scratching at their vitals and kicking them down.

'Guess he's one of those types, huh.'

Mitsuna took another sip as she rested her head on the bench.

'I really am guessing a lot today. Not really my style.'

Mitsuna closed her eyes as the fight on the screen didn't interest her anymore.

'Fighting while hungover is going to be a first. Hey, at least I won't be drunk.'

Mitsuna took another large sip of her alcohol.

'Still as good as yesterday... I won't become an alcoholic, will I?'

As she was laying there on the bench, a few minutes later the results of the A bracket were announced.

The General won although he suffered large injuries due to the last two enemies he fought.

As he returned through the portal, a few girls rushed to him with tears in their eyes as medical staff took him away.

The eyes of the General looked proud as the crowd surrounding the area congratulated him on his victory.

His eyes then fell on Mitsuna, even when all of his wives surrounded him, the pure sleeping figure made his heart skip more than all of his wives combined.

Yet he also lost that sense of pride as she didn't even look at him, a winner of the festival.

...

The start of the B bracket was announced.

The workers around the area were supposed to get the General to enter the portal first, but that General was Mitsuna.

The staff were either too nervous or scared to approach her so they debuffed and sent the Soldiers in first.

After that was done, they edited the coordinates and played a few rounds of rock, paper, scissors.

The worker who lost the matches walked up to the bench Mitsuna was sitting on and shook her slightly to wake her.

"General Mitsuna of Bracket B, please wake up. It is your time to enter the portal."

The worker slightly shook her while sweat dripped down his back.

"Hmm?"

Mitsuna woke up and yawned as she looked towards the staff.

Wiping the tear that came from her eye due to the rather heavy yawn, she spoke?

"It's my turn? Already?"

"Yes, please make your way to the portal."

"Alright, sorry for the trouble... can I take my drink with me though?"

"We would have to check if it has any strengthening side effects first."

"Go ahead."

The staff took the bottle and appraised it.

Seeing how there was nothing wrong with it except for the fact that it was rather expensive, they allowed Mitsuna to take it with her, although they did recommend her not to since fighting while drunk is only reserved for bar fights and the like.

"It's fine. Do I have to kill the Soldiers though?"

"No. It is entirely optional."

"But if I do? All of them that is."

"It would not be against any rules but you would incur some wrath from their families."

"Eh. I can deal with that."

Mitsuna walked through the portal, drink in hand.

"Does she even have a weapon?"

A staff member asked as the rest just wondered if they sent in a little girl General with no method to defend herself.

...

The Soldiers stood around between the dunes, not knowing if the General was in their midst.

Soon though, they heard course sand rubbing against itself.

They turned towards a large dune, weapons ready. The large dune straight in the middle of the soldiers shook.

The cameras all focused on it, capturing every detail.

Soon the shaking stopped.

The Soldiers were confused for a moment, a single moment.

A hand shot out from the top of the sand dune, it seemed like it was reaching toward the sky.

The wind blew ominously as sand and dust were blown into the surrounding sky.

The reached out hand slowly turned into a fist as it slammed down.

The large sand dune was turned perfectly level.

It seemed like a small hill that had a level top.

In the centre of that level plain, a single figure was seen, fist reaching out to the sky.

Their clothes were bloody due to the sand.

A sword appeared in one of their hands, a bottle of alcohol in the other.

Mitsuna looked at the surrounding soldiers.

"Stupid staff can't even set coordinates correctly."

She said out loud as she chugged down the bottle of alcohol.

"*Hic* what a bother."

Mitsuna picked a Technique, she slammed her sword into the bloody sand and said.

"Don't make me wait. It's a festival. Go wild."

Mitsuna activated a Technique from Twilight Lightning, Divide Twilight.

A cloud of cosmic dust flew into the surroundings filled with white glowing specks that represented stars.

Tens of Soldiers instinctively left the area of effect. The ones who were too slow had their fate written out.

The glowing white specks were connected and anything between those lines was cut in half even the very same cosmic dust.

And just like that, with one Technique, nearly 30 Soldiers fell.

"Why are you keeping me waiting? I have yet to even raise my sword. Not to mention I'm a little drunk."

The rest of the soldiers watched on in fear.

"I'm too drunk to move. You can make your way to me. Let's say that I'll only attack people that enter this level sand plain that I stand on. That should be fair."

The Soldiers started discussing strategies.

Seeing how they were taking their time, Mitsuna stomped on the ground.

A large area of the desert was turned level, surrounding the desert were nearly 10-meter tall walls made of that very same bloody sand.

"Looks like you're on the level area. Let's start."

Almost all the Soldiers panicked.

...

On the other side of the cameras, people were bewildered.

"What the hell?!"

"Holy!"

"I think we have a winner! Who wants to make a bet?!"

"Isn't that swordsman a little girl? How can she level a large area of a damn desert with a stomp?"

"She can't be above Tier 4, or else she would be placed in the later brackets. Besides, I doubt she's only a swordswoman."

"A Wind mage could probably level a desert if they used a high ranking spell and a ton of mana."

"True. But mages don't really take part in these events do they?"

"No! It would be suicide."

"Then. Was that a Technique?"

"A stomp? Seriously?"

"Well, what other explanation do you have?"

"None! But it didn't look like a Technique, she used her damn leg for it! Techniques can't be used without a weapon."

In the hospital, the winner of bracket A, the scythe General felt even more interested in the girl after seeing what she was capable of.

And he was not the first nor last to find Mitsuna interesting.

There were others.