An evening of worry.

If Sylphid wanted to spook me, she certainly achieved that.

I was proud of my speed. I made it to the preliminary finals by quickly eliminating my opponents, without them even realizing what happened. I was convinced that, even if I was lacking in other areas, speed was where I excel.

And she just tore all of it down, as if my years of training was nothing but a dream.

No, this is poison, I knew. The fight has already started, if I enter my first bout in this mental state, I crumble.

I decided to empty my mind with training. I exhausted myself completely and after a light dinner I rode the magic elevator up to the sixth floor where my room was located.

Despite supposedly being a single room it was incredible spacious and well furnished. Our entire house would fit in this room alone, but there was also an adjacent marble bathroom and even a second bedroom. As for the bed itself, it was big enough to easily accommodate three people, which depending on a combatants success it might very well end up doing. Not that I personally had any interest in acquiring a ****.

After a lengthy shower, I relaxed myself in the high quality massage chair with a nice cup of black tea and turned on magic vision.

The pre tournament show was just about to begin.

“Huyo and a super great welcome to the 129th Rasheul **** Tournament preshow. I am your host Ben. Are you excited? I sure am!”

I was not expecting to see the cute clerk from this morning on the screen. I guess, with the registration process over, she doesn't have much else to do.

...Ben?

“And yes, I am male ♥“

…

I spat out my tea.

That girl is a guy?

The cute, bubbly and definitely male announcer made a snap with his finger and a huge tournament chart popped in.

“On our first day we will have no less then 64 fights! Now, we commonly refer to this as the lightning round as there is a time limit of only 10 Minutes per fight! Pow! That means you can look forward to 9 or 10 hours of nonstop action tomorrow! Kick! Bang! Fights start at eight in the morning and except for a small lunch break will last until evening, so better clear your schedule! Snooze and you loose!”

From what my brother told me, there are plenty of **** Tournament enthusiasts that take a 10 day vacation, either to spend that time glued to to their magic vision or at the arena outright. The tournament may pay close to a quarter million of gold coins in prize money, but that's a fraction of what they make through tickets and sponsorships. In fact, the prize mansion itself was flat out donated by the city council, so eager are they for the revenue stream that this event brings every year.

That's the public side of things. Not everything is so sunshine and rainbows when it gets to the seedy underbelly of Rasheul. Rumors of a huge **** blackmarket and organized crime are well known. Naturally I have no plan of getting entangled with either of these things.

“We will now take a closer look at each fighter.”

Ben snapped once more and the screen zoomed in on the tournament chart close enough to actually read the combatants names. Naturally, I was immediately scanning the chart for my own name.

Sure enough, Ben was not screwing with me. There I was in the A Bracket of the matches. Not only that, but I starred in the third match of the day! That was really great luck, I rather not spend the whole day dreading my match.

“And here we have Mari Beta! One of only 13 male fighters this year. Would you look at this adorable, little cutie!”

The picture showed me brandishing a dirk.

Naked.

Apparently Ben managed to take a picture during the stunt he pulled earlier. The only saving grace was that it was relatively zoomed in. So only my face and a part of my upper torso was showing.

“He is the type you both root for and want to see lose. But don't underestimate him! Under these stunning amber eyes lies the hearth of ruthless killer, who murdered his way through the preliminaries!”

I rolled said amber eyes. So did everyone else. Of course, there was a revival spell in place at the preliminaries as well. Nobody actually died, although admittedly that one was of a rather low quality. Depending on the injuries, victims could take weeks to recover.

“We can only hope that he gets a gentle and caring master who will tame this wild beast and show him what love is all about!”

That this wasn’t the introduction I wanted would put it lightly. But I, suppose I should be grateful that they didn't make my status as Lucky Loser public. On that note, I was also rather grateful that my opponent from the qualifier final wasn't in the same bracket. Neither was Sylphid or that red demon for that matter.

“And speaking of...Mari's opponent iiiiiis Aijuka Zoroi!”

…

Where did they get these pictures?

“As you can see Aijuka is a Galmon. A Nekotamata to be precise. She fights with her claws and does not stop until her opponent is completely dominated. Nekotamatas are also know for their very strong desire to mate. So, little Mari better watch out!”

...

This was absurdly good luck. I couldn't hope for a better match up.

Nekotamatas are a Galmon species that is fairly common in Helman. While I never fought one myself, I had a pretty good idea of what I was dealing with.

True, Nekotamatas easily surpasses humans in power and speed. But they are very much ambush predators. In an arena with no cover to stalk their prey they have **** but to go for a direct confrontation. I am fairly certain that I can match her in speed and beat her with my skill. Still, she made it through the qualifiers, I can not allow myself to let my guard down.

I decided to shut of magic vision there. While it might seem prudent to check out potential later opponents, it's nonsensical to do so before a match even took place.

Since my fight was in the morning I decided to go to sleep fairly early as well. Stripping down to my boxers, I set the magic vision alarm clock, lay down on the luxurious bed and stared at the ceiling. Now that the magic vision was off, I was surprised by how quiet it was. Despite this only being the sixth floor the hustle and bustle from the city below was completely cut off. The work of a noise canceling spell no doubt. A subtle reminder that there is no need to keep your voice down, for any activity inside this room.

Tonight, huge fireworks would go off all over the city to celebrate the start of the tournament. Half of Rasheul would probably party the night away. Naturally, these types of frivolities are not something I could afford.

I closed my eyes and drifted off surprisingly easy.