Chapter 456: Start of low-class tournament

After a bit more testing, he found out that the magic ’EMP’ lasted all around the blast zone, which was 40 meters in a sphere. And according to the description of the grenade, even Aubilities would be hindered inside the blast zone, but only for a limited amount of time.

He tested this out by using his switches inside a newly exploded Unity Grenade. And surprisingly, it looked like his Aubility was blocked for a good five seconds. Although this didn’t seem all that long, it would be considered a lifetime during intense battles, especially those like Chucky whose entire Aubility revolved around gathering momentum.

And after a few more testings, he realized that the grenade had a much longer cooldown than the Unity Guns. Those only took ten seconds to reload, while his grenade took an entire two minutes before it could be used again. It made sense, given how powerful the blast was. The Drone needed more time to gather mana in the air.

All in all, he was satisfied with the upgrades he had for the Drone. It certainly upped his fighting capabilities by a significant margin, especially fighting against Maugnetics.

Now, I’m prepared for the tournament.

He transported his Drone out of the forest and back to Metropolis in an instant. He exited the Drone Vision and put back the glasses into its container before he packed up the entire Drone itself into his pockets.

Once he was done, he headed out of his room and sought out Claudia to find out more details about the tournament for Main Street.

"Oh, have you recovered well enough?" she asked.

He responded with a flex of his muscles, which seemed to be enough for Claudia.

"Well then, you’re just in time. The low-class tournament for Main Street has already begun. Don’t worry, I put your fight to the last so that you’ll have more time to recover."

She handed him a parchment paper which showed the entire bracket for the tournament. He looked through the names and found none that he recognized. On the very edge of the paper, he saw that Reborn was matched up with a company named Peter’s Wood Carvings.

"How does this tournament even work? Where does it take place?"

"Right here at our very headquarters. Most ordinary duels take place here. But for special duels like the one between you and Chucky, which requires more privacy, we have special locations hidden throughout the Queens region.

But for the low-class tournament here, most of them don’t have that...thing that you have, so there’s no need for that much privacy. Some even request for there to have a public audience as a form of advertisement so that people would go to their companies once they saw how powerful they were. Of course, both parties have to agree to this before we approve of them.

But once the tournament has progressed to the semis and the finals, we’ll have to move them to a special new location."

Claudia guided him over through the Association headquarters, passing through the iconic marble pillars of their building until they reached the end where there was just a wall facing them.

He could hear faint sounds of swords clashing and some grunts and shouts over the wall.

"This is one of our duel arenas. It’s just a plain circular court where the duelers get to fight each other. Do you want to see?"

Of course, Michael didn’t decline. This would be a good time to see the competition that he was about to face.

He didn’t underestimate his opponents just because they were in the low-class tournament. Company status didn’t necessarily equate to fighting power. Maybe, there were some people here who were really good fighters, but very weak businessmen.

In fact, this would be their chance to shine through the competition and give themselves an advantage.

Michael and Claudia both entered a door to the side that led to the outside. This place, unlike the interior, was made out of stone with a lot of dirt on the surface.

They both walked through the stairs leading up, before they found themselves on the bleachers overlooking the entire circular arena.

They weren’t the only ones here. There were a few other spectators scattered around the seats.

"Some of them are just like you. They’re participants in the tournament too, and they come here to scout their opponents. Some are just civilian spectators who happened upon the public duel.

This is just the first round of the tournament, so there’s not many people here, but I bet there will be many more as the rounds pass by."

Michael looked at the arena, where two fighters were currently locked in a fierce battle. They clashed swords, chipping their very blades from how strong they pushed each other. Their blood and sweat flung off their bodies as they chased each other down, hoping to make the other surrender.

He noticed that they weren’t using much magic in the fight. At most, they’d give themselves a boost with some Physical Arts, but that was about it.

Eventually, one of the duelers won as they disarmed their opponent with a masterful sweep.

"I surrender!"

Some of the spectators clapped their hands both for the winner and the loser.

"Good fight!"

"They were both evenly matched. It was fortunate for us that they faced each other so early in the tournament."

"True. I’d be defeated by that guy even though he lost."

A lot of people were praising them for their battle.

As for Michael, judging by strength and skill in the sword alone, they were certainly much ’better’ than him. But that was if he didn’t use any of his spells or skills, and simply used the sword to fight.

More and more fighters took to the stage and dueled each other. He saw many varieties of weapons being used, but not that many magicians fighting in the arena. The only one he saw ended up losing to a guy who used gauntlets. The magician was too slow to cast his spell and ended up getting overwhelmed by the boxer.

Eventually, his name was called up by the Association employee announcing from the middle of the stage.

"Good luck," Claudia said. "Though, I know you won’t need it."

He nodded at her and slowly went down the steps. As he did, he garnered quite a few looks from the spectators who were curious to see an actual child participating in the duels.

"A kid? Who’s the leader cruel enough to do that?"

"Is that even allowed?"

"I feel bad. Can I just fight for him instead?"

Companies had the option to bring out any one of their employees to fight in the duel. It didn’t necessarily have to be the leader. So, most of these people thought that Michael’s boss played a cruel prank on him and signed him up for the competition.

Even his opponent looked at the Association employee to complain. "I can’t fight a kid. I don’t want to hurt him."

The Association employee then looked up at the stands, to where Claudia was sitting. After getting a nod, he knew that the fight could continue.

"Take your places. It’s time to duel."