"The weapon tournament is…" as the woman merchant explained to Angus and Jayna about the weapon tournament.
Apparently, it is similar to a Battlefield Arena in the Ancestral Ruin. However, the participant cannot use mana at all. They fight only with pure physical strength and skill. Most of the time, the participant compares their weapon skill in the fight.
The purpose of the arena is to improve weapon mastery through the fight. Because of this reason, killing in this arena is prohibited. Furthermore, most of the participants are experts that could stop their attack before killing or fatally injuring their opponent.
Hearing about the explanation, Jayna and Angus are intrigued about the weapon tournament and decide to look into it. After asking around for directions, they find a colosseum-shaped building like the Battlefield Arena in the middle area of Porros.
Entering the Arena, they found the seat was already quite crowded. There are at least a hundred or more people scattered in the audience seat.
After paying for the tickets and taking a seat, "Welcome everyone to the Battle arena. In a moment, you will witness an interesting match between two veterans. On the blue side is…." said the announcer.
At this moment, Angus finds using his [Analyze]. There are actually countless complicated runes under the arena.
'Hm.. It is probably the one that could suppress mana usage in the arena.' thought Angus while the match was going on.
The current match happens between a sword expert user and a spear expert user. Since both can't use mana and have roughly the same physical strength, they could only rely on their skill to win the fight.
Despite the lack of mana, the match is still exciting. They clash with pure skill, combat sense, and physical strength. Just by observing their fight, Jayna feels her understanding of sword art is increased, especially with the help of [Analyze].
Angus also notices this and decides not to disturb Jayna. However, like every beginning has an end. Soon the match ended after a dozen minutes with the sword user as the winner.
The match is fierce as the two contestants have equal strength. Although it's prohibited to kill, injuring the opponent still could be done. The sword user also wins since one of his attacks hurt his opponent and reduced his opponent's stamina.
"Give applause once again for Artus and the mind-opening fight. I hope some of you get an insight from the battle. Now, we have another match between two new contestants."
"On the blue side, an ice-cold woman that managed to beat a few veterans in these past few days. Everyone gives applause to Ice Maiden." said the announcer.
"Huh?? isn't that, her?" said Jayna.
"Yeah, it is her." replied Angus.
"In the red side, another newcomer with a small figure and also has unbelievable physical strength. Everyone gives applause to Bubble Destroyer." said the announcer.
At this moment, a small petite girl with black hair wearing oversized metal armor and an iron helmet comes out from the blue gate. She is also trying to bring many weapons like a big mace, great axe, sword, spear, and others on her back that do not match her size.
Looking at the girl's strange appearance, everyone couldn't help but laugh. On the other hand, Angus and Jayna couldn't help but have a facepalm.
"Angus, let me be clear. She is Anna, right?" said Jayna.
"Yes. However, I am not sure how she even got into the arena and fought with Ice Maiden. If I am not wrong, the match could only happen when both of the contestants agree on one fighting each other." said Angus.
"Haa.. If I know this will happen, we should just bring her along. Besides, where is Ilgor? Isn't he supposed to be here to prevent Anna from causing trouble." added Angus.
In the meantime, inside the arena, "Little girl, you should surrender while you can? This feels like I am bullying you." said Ice Maiden.
"Pfftt… No way, why should I surrender to weak blue bubble? Look at the others even laughing at you." replied Anna.
"Y-You… They are laughing at you, not me. Tch.. fine, just don't cry after I beat you up." said Ice Maiden.
"Angus, shouldn't we stop this?" asked Jayna
"Don't worry, this will be a good experience for Anna." said Angus.
"But, Anna could get hurt." said Jayna.
"Anna gets hurt. That's impossible, at least in this match. If I were you, I would be more worried about that Ice Maiden." replied Angus.
"Based on their conversation, Anna seems to hold a grudge against that Ice maiden. Let's just hope Anna didn't go berserk and transform on her own." added Angus.
In the meantime, "Alright... Alright… Everyone calms down, Pfft.. Hahaha." the announcer still cannot hold back his urge to laugh at Anna.
Hearing this, the audience once again wants to laugh at Anna.
"Hahaha… Well, We can't judge the book by its cover, can we? Maybe we would find an unexpected fight from Bubble Destroyer. Alright, without further ado. Let's begin the match… Ready, Begin!!" said the announcer.
As soon as the match starts, Ice Maiden begins to charge at Anna, who struggles to grip her weapons. Arriving in front of Anna, the Ice Maiden decides to stab her wooden staff at Anna. She wants to end the match by forcing Anna out of the arena.
Before the staff's end reaches Anna, she tilts her body and dodges the staff by hair breath using her superb reflex. Ice Maiden couldn't help but be surprised at this, but before she could get out from her stupor.
She feels a dangerous presence from the front. *BAM* Anna struck her gigantic club towards the Ice maiden spot and even cracked the arena. Because of Anna's strength and the hardness of the arena, the metallic club immediately broke down into pieces.
"Ehh… Why do you dodge my attack? The weak blue bubble should just receive my attack. Too much hassle." said Anna, shaking her head.
'Are you going to kill me?!! Who the hell would survive under that kind of attack?' thought Ice Maiden as she managed to avoid the giant club in time.
In the meantime, everyone is shocked at Anna's strength.
"Oi.. Did you see that? the arena is cracked."
"Did she use mana?"
"No, we didn't sense any mana fluctuation. It should be her pure physical power."
"What?!! Is she a monster or something?!!"
Many different reactions happen from the audience.
At the same time, a big hairy man who observed the match from afar, "Hahaha… It seems Layla will have a hard fight. But, I'm curious what a monster minded person is doing here? Moreover, she seems to be able to control herself completely." said the man.
"W-What an outstanding physical strength. It seems we cannot judge the book by its cover. Who knows that within a small petite girl contain unbelievable power?" said the announcer.
At the same time, Anna grabs a great axe from her back and throws it at Ice Maiden. Seeing this, Ice Maiden decides to avoid the fast incoming great axe. *BAM* The great axe is embedded at the nearby wall and makes a crack on it.
However, Anna didn't stop there and threw her weapon in her back to Ice Maiden. Ice maiden couldn't help but use her all to avoid the dangerous incoming weapon.
Because she couldn't use her mana, she couldn't get away from all the weapons and was forced to deflect them. Using all her strength, she decides to parry and deflect the incoming weapon. Still, she didn't expect the power behind the incoming weapon. *Bang*
"Urgh.. Such power!!" muttered the Ice Maiden.
After deflecting one of the weapons, she immediately staggered a few meters back and felt like being hit by a train. Her hand and wrist are hurt, just deflecting one weapon. Before she could think further, another weapon was already in front of her.
In the end, she pushed back until the edge of the arena while deflecting the incoming weapon. At this time, her whole hand is already bleeding and numb from deflecting Anna's attack. Fortunately, Anna also ran out of weapons to throw at Ice Maiden.
Finding some weapon scattered in the nearby arena, Anna dashed towards the nearby big morning star. Seeing this, the Ice maiden decides to run towards Anna.
She couldn't let Anna once again throw a weapon with such monstrous strength as her hand was already numb and hardly able to grab her staff.
However, Anna's speed once again surprised everyone. Anna seems to have moved so fast like she used a movement skill, despite in truth she just running normally.
Getting the morning star mace, she plans to throw it at Ice Maiden. But, Ice Maiden is already approaching her. Anna didn't think any further and slammed the morning star to the Ice Maiden. *BAM*
Ice Maiden already predicts this and dodges the attack easily. The morning star embedded itself on the ground and created another crack in the arena. Using this opportunity, Ice Maiden launches a kick at Anna as her hand is still numb.
To her surprise, Anna dodged the incoming kick and grabbed her leg. *Crack* as Ice Maiden's foot broke under Anna's grip along with her protective metal boots.