Chapter 43 Third Phase

“What are you doing here!?”
“Shhh! They’re going to hear you.” She said.
She smiled big and bright right after. Lenny started speaking on a low, whispered voice, trying not to be overheard:
“I told you, I’m going to follow you wherever you go.”
“But… I’m in the army. I’m a soldier. And we are in the middle of a camp. If the sarg finds out…”
“Don’t worry. Sargeant Koda knows me. He is also my Sargeant.”
“What?”
“After I found out you sacrificed yourself and enlisted for the sake of the people in the village… I followed suit. And did the same thing.”
“You did what!? Do you know what happens to child soldiers in the army?”
“Sshhh!”
Josiah got closer to Lenny so that they could talk on a lower voice.
“I know what happens…” Lenny said, “That’s why I don’t want to stay in the village knowing you are a child in the army.”
‘Silly girl. I’m not a regular child. You should have known better…’ Josiah thought to himself.
“Anyway, why did you show up now of all times? You need to get out. We are in the middle of the final test. It’s a secret tournament. We came all the way over here so that nobody would watch on us. Sargeant Koda is going to be p*ssed if he finds out you’re here. You should take advantage of the night and leave now while no one is watching.”
“Joe… It’s the middle of the night. You want me to walk back to the camp alone?”
“…”
“I came here because it’s the only time I can see you.”
“Urgh. Fine. You can stay. You can use my sleeping bag. I’m going to lie on my winter clothes. But tomorrow you’re going to go back.”
Josiah rolled his body around his winter clothes and lied down aside Lenny. His head was overtaken with worried thoughts.
‘And now that. Part of the reason I abandoned the blood school for the army was to make sure the people in the orphanage were okay. Well… I guess Lenny can fend for herself, but still… How am I supposed to turn against the army knowing she is part of it now…?’

The next day, the group woke up early and Sargeant Koda called everyone to the circle of burnt grass and presented the brackets. The tournament was as follows:

First day:
Morning
First Round:
A) Josiah vs Greg
B) Watt vs Lawrence
C) Ellis vs Douglas
D) Teagan vs Daniel
E) Quinn vs Reeve
F) Brooks vs Dave Johnson
G) Yvonne vs Will
H) Kyleigh vs Austin

Afternoon
Second Round:
1) Winner A vs Winner B
2) Winner C vs Winner D
3) Winner E vs Winner F
4) Winner G vs Winner H

Second day:
Morning
Semifinals:
Winner 1 vs Winner 2
Winner 3 vs Winner 4

Afternoon:
Third prize.
Finals.

“Nice! They even have a third-place prize! Know what that means? There’s more than only once chance of getting recognition from this.” Watt commented on a low voice to Josiah.
“Well… I guess I get to be the first one. Talk about bad luck… I won’t even see the other fights to get a grasp of it.”
“Haha. And worse: I guess we’re fighting each other next on round two. I warn I’m not going easy on you. I saw what you can do and now I already devised a plan against it.”
Josiah gulped. Watt was probably not joking around.
The small turmoil ceased as Sargeant Koda cleaned his throat.
“The brackets were done based on the performance of the second phase. Of course, the results of the second phase were not only for this, but they will also impact the final classification. As we can see, this morning everyone is fighting once. So, get your asses out and don’t take too long, we have to witness and grade each of you on eight fights before lunchtime. Prepare your weapons and the first two combatants can join the circle after. The fights are going to be held on this burnt circle. It’s the ring. You are not allowed to leave the ring. By that I mean: if you happen to step outside for a brief moment no big deal, but you are not allowed to leave it on purpose.”
‘I see, so there’s no pushing outside the boundaries to win. I have to actually knock the guy down or make him admit defeat.’
Josiah glanced at his opponent, Greg, who was still analyzing the board. He was the somewhat fat man who liked to crack jokes every now and then.
‘He doesn’t seem the type who would easily admit defeat against some nine-year-old kid…’
“All right, soldiers Josiah and Greg may show up to the arena,” Koda said.
Josiah wasn’t feeling as confident as he normally was.
For starters, he didn’t know exactly what he was being evaluated. Skill? Tactic? Should he strive for a clean victory or a victory at all costs? And second, those were the people he kept with the last eight months around. It was the group of the best. He wasn’t sure he actually could take on them.
‘Either way, I’m going to try my best to win. The more fights I fight, the more material they have to evaluate my performance.’ He thought.
Moments later the whistle sound began the combat.
Greg was facing him, carrying a very large sword with a small hilt and a very sharp blade. He held the sword on the two hands.
Josiah saw the number on the hilt. It was at level 13.
‘At this point, everybody already knows I have a strong sword and some skills. He should also know my previous dagger’s power. The dagger used to be good but I lost it in the first phase. It’s probably on the body of that damned talpig now. Well, but he doesn’t know that.’
Josiah caught a dagger on his hand, covering the hilt. It was just a regular one he grabbed on the armory earlier to pretend he still possessed his.
‘Using the rapier’s bloodbound power I can emit a false sense that the power is coming from this regular dagger. This way he’s going to believe the thing I have in hands is actually dangerous.’
Greg assumed a defensive stance. He was expecting Josiah to swing the dagger from the distance and stagger him at any moment.
‘If he knows he probably has something planned. Reveal your tricks, Greg!’ Josiah swung the dagger on the air to see what’d happen.
Greg stomped the floor and a huge lot of dirt came from the ground like an excavator had removed a square from the ground and thrown it upwards.
‘His weapon does that? He holds the hilt and it at least gives him strength on the foot. Judging by his face it was a desperate measure to try and deflect my dagger’s effect, causing it to hit on the dirt instead of his body. If he resorted to that, it means he doesn’t have any way of hitting me from distance.’
Josiah frowned pretending he was mad his dagger didn’t work and rushed to Greg with a leap. He wanted to get close as quickly as possible.
‘What is he going to do? He can’t stomp again while his legs are still recovering from the recoil.’
Josiah unleashed a hit with his sword, enhanced by the power of his rapier on his waist. Together with the sword’s own power, it was a formidable hit.
But Greg managed to clash and withstand the blow with his two-handed sword. Josiah could feel the impact of the level 13 during the clash.
‘That sword is really something. But I still have this…’
Josiah let his sword arm loose and spun his body to the side, aiming for a bare-handed hit. Not exactly bare, as he had was aiming for an elbow blow with the armor, but still, it wasn’t a weapon attack.
But his attacks could be enhanced by the rapier’s power.
Greg wasn’t fast enough to react in time and ended up just using his chest to defend the hit.
Had it been just a regular rapier enhanced attack, it would have been enough. Greg’s body would fall back but he’d be able to recover and keep fighting.
However, Josiah had slit a cut near the rapier before the fight began, so that he could draw more power from it. In the end, even defending the hit, the elbow blow was enough to make Greg fall with his back on the floor.
‘My arm and elbow hurt like hell! It’s now or never!’ Josiah thought.
The enemy in front of him was at a great disadvantage. Once on the floor, Josiah could just kick the weapon out of his hand, climb above him, and punch him repeatedly in the face. Not a very honorable way of fighting an army comrade, but it was all Josiah could come up with, since his dagger was lost, and his arm was already bleeding.
Josiah began a sequence of punches, but Greg gave up before his face would be more swollen. The fight was over.
Josiah lifted and nodded at Greg with respect.
‘Geez. If I have to do this sort of trick every time I fight, this is going to be painful until the very end.’
Josiah managed to win, but on the first round, he had already used most of the tricks he had up his sleeve.