The Author's POV

Descending down the elevator

I quickly headed towards where the changing rooms were located. Suddenly, just as I was about to enter the changing room, an official guild member wearing a black suit stopped me.

Frowning, pointing towards my name tag, I said in a somewhat disgruntled voice.

"I'm the one participating in the fight, can't you see?"

"Haha, it's not that. If you want to get changed you must head to another room"

Pointing to my right, the man pointed at a pathway next to the main entrance.

"Oh, thank you."

Thanking the man, I walked in the direction he pointed at and soon arrived at my assigned waiting room.

[Waiting Room 3]

Entering the changing room, I walked in and sat down on a random seat.

"Fuuu...."

Letting out a long breath, I prepared my mind for what was to come.

From what I've gathered, my opponent, Alex Cloudburm was a spear user whose rank was <F-> a rank lower than mine.

Meaning that I was stronger than him. At least stats-wise.

...Coming into this match. I decided that apart from using the [Keiki style] I would go all out. Meaning that I was about to expose my rank.

After thinking for a bit, I decided that pretending to be weak all the time wasn't something that would benefit me. At least not when I wasn't in the lock.

There was no longer a need for me to stop myself from exposing a part of my abilities. It was fine to expose some of it. Not all of it, but some of it.

...and that's exactly what I was planning.

Recalling Alex's arrogant face as he looked at me in disgust, I was sure I wasn't going to pull any punches in our fight today.

...I made up my mind to absolutely destroy and humiliate him in front of everyone present.

I needed to destroy Martin's rising momentum and give my father some breathing space. And the only way to achieve this was through thoroughly beating the crap out of Alex.

Beat him to the point where he would forever remember the humiliation.

Fortunately for him, before the match was decided, I had told my dad to block people from taking videos or photos of the match, saving him from future humiliations.

When I asked my dad for this request, he initially thought that it was because I was afraid of it spreading on the web, but my reason couldn't be any more different...I wanted to leave a bit of leeway for myself in case I would be forced to use the [Keiki style] to win.

If videos of our fight were to be exposed to the world to see, though unlikely, there was bound to be someone out there who would be able to recognize what sword art I practiced.

Chances were that once exposed, my family would definitely be put in danger.

Although I wasn't worried to the point I felt that I would need to use the [Keiki style] for my current spar, I just wanted to reduce any chances of this coming back to bite me in the future.

...

Galxicus, stadium

The guild's official arena was designed to be a more modern version of the Colosseum. The central arena was split into three squared platforms, while the stands started 10 meters above the platforms and could house more than 2000 people.

The design was extremely popular amongst the guild members as there would always be fights happening in the arena.

Large TV screens stood at the top of the stadium giving a clear picture of what was happening in the arenas for the spectators to see. Because the screens were controlled by the guild master, Ronald Dover, there was no need for him to worry about the footage being leaked.

Ten minutes before the start of a duel, the guest seats were packed full of people. Because of the earlier warning by the guild master, photos and videos were prohibited from being taken during the match.

Some assumed that it was because he didn't want videos of his son losing miserably to Alex to spread, whilst others thought it was because he didn't want people to find out about the internal struggles happening within the guild.

Either way, no one was really against the idea of not being able to take photos or videos since they weren't expecting a decent match to begin with.

"Can Ren do it?"

Watching the battle arena from above, inside of a glass cube, a few individuals sat on large red sofas.

Worriedly glancing towards the arena, Samantha Dover glanced at her husband and squeezed his hand tightly.

"I believe in him..."

Nodding his head, Ronald Dover too looked at the arena.

However, even though he didn't show outwardly, he too was extremely nervous. This fact was quickly picked up by his wife who felt the grip on her hand tighten.

Recalling his meeting with Alex thirty minutes ago, Ronald couldn't help but worry a bit.

'This is going to be a tough match for Ren...'

"Hmph"

Sitting a few rows behind Ronald, Martin arrogantly looked at the arena below him as he sipped on some wine.

Twirling the wine cup in his hands, Martin looked at Ronald before slowly saying.

"I hope your son can last long enough for this to actually be considered a match..."

"..."

Ignoring Martin's provocations, Ronald kept his eyes on the arena causing Martin to clench his teeth in anger.

'Just you wait you bastard...just you wait until Alex absolutely destroys your son in front of the whole guild. I want to see if you can ignore me then!'

"It's starting."

"…Tsk."

Seeing the lights around the stadium turn off, Martin crossed his arms and leaned against the back of the seat. From the way he was smiling, it was obvious that he was confident in Alex's chances of winning.

The informal duel between the Vice-guild master and guild master was starting...

Standing in the middle of the arena, a middle-aged man equipped with a headset and a microphone, stared at the audience with a big smile on his face.

—Ladies and gentlemen, this is going to be a duel between Vice-guild master representative, Alex Cloudburm, and the Guild-master representative as well as son, Ren Dover!

Pausing slightly, to keep the crowd in suspense, the host said

—How will Ren Dover, who was rated as a D ranked talent overcome Alex Cloudburm who was listed as a B ranked talent? Isn't the result already obvious?

Looking at the crowd, the host put on a confused expression as he said the last bit. However, his expression soon changed as he spoke with more enthusiasm

—However, don't lose me just yet crowd. Did you know that Ren Dover over here is also a student at the lock? Yes, the most prestigious academy that there is?

With all the information he had, the host tried his best to hype up the match as much as he could. And this was evidently achieved as the cheers around the stadium intensified.

Soon, a translucent blue barrier covered the whole arena. The blue film which was created out of mana was made to prevent the shockwaves from the fights to leak out. This way, if things got out of handy, the spectators wouldn't be affected.

"Oh, I see big brwader!"

Pointing towards the arena, Nola couldn't help but shout as soon as she saw Ren's figure slowly walking into the arena.

"Come Nola, cheer for your brother"

Nervously staring at Ren who walking out from the right passageway, Samantha Dover held Nola tightly in her arms and nervously bit her lips

'Please be safe...'

...

"Are you ready?"

"…Yes."

Led by the staff, I walked up to the main arena stage.

As soon as my foot stepped into the arena, the rumbustious cheers coming from the crowd instantly drowned out any other sound.

-Waaaaaaaaaaaaa!

Just as I was about to get adjusted to the cheers, an even more boisterous round of cheers engulfed the entire arena almost turning me deaf.

Entering the arena after me, Alex waved at the crowd as he posed with his spear in his hand. His every pose and action would arouse more cheers and claps from the crowd.

Ignoring him, I decided to look around me

First, I took a good look around the arena. A translucent mana barrier surrounded the arena with thousands of spectators looking down. On a small podium next to the arena, a referee looked at his watch as he waited for me and Alex to get into positions.

The more I took notice of my surroundings, the more I felt this indescribable pressure and excitement overwhelmed me.

It somehow filled me with energy...

While I was shaking from this strange sensation, Alex walked up from the other side. Arriving in front of his designated location, he looked at me and said

"You got lucky"

"...hm?"

"With a puny talent like yours you actually managed to enroll at the lock while I had to settle for the second-best option. How is it that someone of your caliber can enter the academy and I can't?"

...without saying a word, I looked at him straight into the eyes.

Although his words had some truth to them, right now he was merely trying to shake my mentality.

This was a common practice used when opponents faced each other in duels.

Regardless of who your opponent was, a key component in increasing your chances of winning was to get into your opponent's heads.

If you managed to enter their heads, the chances of you losing drastically reduced.

A person's mentality was one of the most important things fighters needed to take into consideration before fighting.

A person with a weak mentality would find it much harder to win compared to someone who remained rational throughout the whole fight.

—Counting down! Three!

Glancing between me and Alex a couple of times, the host started counting down.

Shing!— Shing!— Scraping his spear on the ground, Alex smirked in my direction.

—Two!

Igniting his mana, a red hue slowly started coating around Alex's body and his spear. In contrast, a white glow enveloped me.

—One!

Leaning forward, Alex's shifted his center of gravity towards his right foot that had dug deep into the ground.

Currently, the distance that separated me and Alex was about 10 meters. It was a distance Alex could close in just a few seconds.

This meant that as soon as the match started, I had three seconds to either defend or counterattack whatever he was planning on doing.

Gripping onto my sword, I trace of a smile appeared on my lips.

...fortunately, I had a plan.

I already knew what to do.

—Start!