Counter

Now that Johanna had left, Adrian had to get back to the arena. His wounds had almost fully healed already, thanks to all the healers. He was already almost at his peak condition, which meant Adrian could not help but get excited to fight.

Adrian went straight back to the arena, but he saw that he was not the next fighter. The first fight was between the first house, with Hugo, against the second house. Adrian had not seen this guy fight yet, since he was sent to the infirmary.

This guy was the man he noticed initially, the one with no presence. Adrian could see he was a dual wielder with two daggers. He was probably an assassin of some kind.

"Contestants, start the fight!" The judge saw that they were ready, so he started the fight.

This fight did not have any conversation; Hugo went straight into the fight. He did not want to be humiliated like last time. He wanted this fight to end quickly to regain some of the prestige he lost in the previous battle.

Adrian was not surprised by this, and it seemed the dual-wielding guy wasn't either. He just made a grin, and before Hugo arrived, he disappeared. Hugo could not feel the assassin anywhere, nor could he see him.

What surprised Adrian, though, was that Hugo closed his eyes now. Adrian knew why he did it, but he did not expect a hotblooded guy like Hugo to do it. He was trying to sense the assassin through his other senses. He was in a kind of trance that would help him track down people.

Hugo could not sense the guy, though, and before he knew it, the assassin was behind him. The assassin slashed his two blades sideways towards Hugo's waist. Hugo had sensed him, though, as soon as he appeared, so he reacted to the slash. He moved his body in a weird arch so that the knives only made two small lines. Nothing serious.

The assassin didn't expect this, as he showed a shocked expression. He tried to disappear once again, but before he could, he saw a blade heading for his chest. He quickly dodges it before running a few meters away from Hugo.

Hugo stood there with an indifferent look like this was to be expected. His confidence had visibly gone up again, and he was ready to fight now.

He again ran towards the assassin, and the assassin again tried the same trick with disappearing. However, it didn't work since Hugo had already slashed his katana at the assassin's head.

Just before the katana would hit the head of the assassin, he yelled, "I GIVE UP!" The sword stopped at that exact moment.

Hugo sheathed his katana after that. He bowed his head in respect to the assassin while walking back to the side of the arena.

Adrian had to admit; this guy is strong. He might have lost his first fight. However, that is because his opponent had an advantage in weapons. He used that advantage pretty well, which led to Hugo's loss in the first match.

The fights went on; Adrian's fight was the second to last, against number 66. Adrian was, of course, confident in winning this fight. Adrian was confident that he could at least get into the top 10 fighters. All he needed to do, was win this little group.

All the fights went by quickly; nothing special happened. Even the fight Adrian was in went by quickly. Adrian won with his first charge, which knocked the opponent off of the battle stage.

After this round ended, they started the next round. Adrian was against the second house this time. He was going up against the assassin. He was the second fight in this round. The first fight was between the first and ninth houses.

Nothing special happened in that fight, though. Hugo went straight into a charge and pushed his opponent off the stage. He did not do anything after this other than go straight to the side of the arena again. He almost looked like an emotionless robot.

It was now time for Adrian to fight against the assassin. He had already seen the guy fight Hugo, so he already knew a bit of his abilities. He relies on the surprise attack from his invisibility a lot. This meant that Adrian had the perfect counter already; his 'instinct' ability would give him this win.

Both Adrian and the assassin had made their way to the stage by now. The assassin was just staring at Adrian like he was prey. This already implied that the assassin was looking down on Adrian since he was in such a low leveled noble house.

This only made it, so Adrian was even more confident. If someone were underestimating you, you had the advantage of surprise. Adrian showed a small smile that barely anyone noticed since it was not really a smile.

"Let the fight begin!" The judge saw that both fighters were on the battle stage, so he decided it was time to start the fight by now.

The fight started as Adrian had predicted, which was that the assassin disappeared right in front of Adrian. Adrian did not panic at all and was confident that he would be ready for the assassin to appear.

However, what surprised Adrian was that the assassin had disappeared for a very long time. The assassin was probably trying to make him annoyed so that he would make more mistakes.

This did not work on Adrian, though; he was not the kind of guy who would get annoyed in a fight so easily. He did make a look that made it seem like he was letting down his guard in hopes that this would lure the assassin into making a move.

After a few minutes of this, the assassin finally appeared. He thought that Adrian had finally let his guard down for real. So he grabbed this chance to make a surprise attack.

Adrian was still ready for the assassin, though. So as soon as the assassin appeared, 'instinct' kicked in, and Adrian made his move. He used whirlwind, so he was sure to hit the assassin.

As the attack hit, the assassin flew a few meters before landing on his feet. He landed with a shocked expression. He was confused at how he was caught since his opponent had clearly let down his guard.

Adrian grinned at the guy before he charged at him again; he used to dash and thrust as he had used before to make the most damage possible. The assassin barely had any time to react, but he did respond by evading to the side. He still got hit with the spear on the shoulder, which made him stumble back a few meters before getting a foothold again.

"W-who are you?" The assassin had to ask. He was sure that he knew all the solid and talented fighters in the capital. He had never heard of this guy with a spear.

"Me? I am just a fighter for the Harlace family!" Adrian responded with a slight grin. He likes the Harlace family; why not give it a small taste of fame?

"You said for, not from! Are you a hired fighter?" Surprisingly, this assassin guy paid a lot of attention to detail. Adrian had to applaud this guy for that.

"That is surprising; I didn't know that the Harlace family had the resources to hire such a talented fighter!" The assassin could not help but blurt this out. He knew all the noble houses, and the Harlace house was definitely not known to be the richest.

"Hmm, well, I basically just participated for the fights anyway; money is not really that big of a deal!" By saying this, Adrian surprised the assassin a lot. This meant that Adrian was a battle freak. No one likes to fight against battle freaks unless you are one yourself.

"Let us just get this fight over with!" Adrian did not feel like discussing anymore; this was a battle stage after all.

Adrian jumped straight towards the assassin, trying to knock him out with an overhead swing. This surprised the assassin, but he managed to evade it by running closer to Adrian's body and stabbing towards his torso.

Adrian was shocked to see this. He honestly didn't know how to counter this; this was the first time someone had actually made a good counter on him. He grinned while yelling, "THIS IS EXCITING!" Adrian kicked the assassin in the head, making him fly for a few meters.

The assassin landed on his feet before disappearing. It seemed like this guy hadn't given up yet. Adrian tried to use the old strategy by letting down his guard. He had no hope for this, though, since he had already done it once. As he thought, the assassin did not appear in front of him.

A few minutes later, they heard the judge announce, "The winner is Adrian, from the Harlace family!"

This surprised Adrian since he thought the fight was still on, but then he looked down under the arena and saw the assassin standing on the side. The assassin had gone out of bounce.