Chapter 614: A Surprising First Half
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With their opponent locked on to the Root Maiden’s shield, the two disciple zakos got ready to finish this fight in a most spectacular manner.
The finisher they had in mind was simple yet brutal.
The Root Maiden was going to swing her shield outward, which had Lin Fang ensnared, towards the Copper Oni. Meanwhile the Copper Oni was going to just punch the shield as hard as it could.
In essence, Lin Fang was about to get squashed.
However, just before they had a chance to pull off this obviously devastating move, Lin Fang said the one sentence that caused the two of them to literally stop mid-swing.
“I surrender!”
[?!]
[?!]
‘Oh. Cool.’
Needless to say, the zakos were a bit disappointed that they weren’t able to pull off their finishing move.
As the two zakos landed back on the ground, Zhen Liu could detect small waves of irritation radiating coming through his connection with them.
A part of them wanted to finish doing their attack anyways, even making slight motions suggesting they were going to do so, but Zhen Liu put a stop to it. After all, it was still considered bad manners to attack someone who had already surrendered…in a tournament at least.
In a life or death situation though…that was another matter entirely.
‘You heard the man, he surrendered. Now let him go.’
[-.-]
[=.=]
The zakos were a little hesitant about letting their opponent(prey) leave unscathed, but it was their lord’s orders.
Once everyone was more firmly on the ground, the Root Maiden released Lin Fang from her shield, allowing the man to stumble and fall.
Well, that would’ve been the case had Zhen Liu not intercepted Lin Fang’s fall and helped the man get back onto his feet. As Zhen Liu did so, he recalled the Root Maiden and Copper Oni, the two of them turning back into marbles that were slotted into an earring and bracelet, respectively.
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[Good…job…out…there…]
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[You appear to have plenty of power but not enough speed…hmmm…maybe we can try making it so people are more willing to come to you instead?]
[o?o]
‘Are the zakos speaking in emotes now? How…forget it. I got some tournament etiquette to attend to.’
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This kind gesture confused Lin Fang for a moment, but he decided to just roll with it.
He had seen what had happened to the last guy when he insulted Zhen Liu, he didn’t want to know what would happen if he refused the man’s kindness.
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*FWIP*
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Shortly after this exchange of small talk and pleasantries, Zhen Liu and his opponent had been teleported out of their fighting space and back into the arena floor proper.
Couple moments after this teleportation, Lin Fang proceeded to wish Zhen Liu luck on his future battles, before making his way back to the lounge area as quickly as possible.
Zhen Liu on the other hand lingered for a bit.
‘So that’s how they’re keeping track…talk about convoluted as fuck though…’
From where Zhen Liu was standing, he could see the giant illusionary scoreboard floating above the Wisdom Elder’s head that was listing off that he had won his second match in a row, while his opponent had just gotten his first loss. Aside from that though, he saw that within his particular block of fighters that the only other person up there with no losses was that dragon force guy, Ren Jin Yan.
Zhen Liu had a feeling that the deciding factor on who would be in the top eight at the end of this round robin shit would come down to a battle between himself and Ren Jin Yan…but another part of him really, really hope that wouldn’t be the case.
‘On the plus side,’ Zhen Liu mused as he looked at the round robin rosters, ‘looks like the rest of my family is holding their own and then some. Maybe the top eight will consist of the seven of us and a rando…provided they win their blocks.’
With this amusing thought in mind, Zhen Liu walked back to the lounge in order to relax until his next match.
‘Hopefully the next two matches go smoothly…for me and my cousins.’
(Un)surprisingly, this was going to be the case…and it was gonna attract a lot of attention.
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After a exciting day of fighting, many audience members were quite happy calling it a day here.
From an insane lottery qualifier to an even more absurd round robin preliminary, many people weren’t sure what to expect next in this year’s Zhen Clan competition.
The only thing more fun than watching a tournament after all, was gossiping about a tournament, and this particular tournament had many strange topics to gossip about.
Foreign nobilities vying for support through martial prowess.
Mysterious warriors that nobody knew about, making their debuts in this moment to grand fanfare.
A family founded by a criminal, fighting for redemption and glory.
There were way too many topic of interests in this year’s competition, almost too many to keep track of.
But there was one thing all these people were sure about though, they all had favorites they wanted to see win this whole damn thing.
“Man, y’all see how elegantly that Iona lady manage to defeat her opponents? It was like she knew what that guy was going to do before that guy even knew what he was going to do. I’m sure she’ll make top eight easy,maybe even champion!”
“Top eight, maybe, but if we’re talking championship material, what about Ren Jin Yan. Granted they have an incredibly pretty face that gets on my nerves, but I can at least admit respect in regards to power and that man has loads of it! One swing of his sword and BAM! Game over.”
“You’re both wrong and I’m going to tell you the reason why: Zhen Liu. Did y’all not see the man in his opening round? He, literally, slapped someone across the face so hard that they passed out. Do you know anyone powerful enough to do something crazy like that? I’m thinking not.”
“Actually, on the topic of people carrying the name of Zhen, I didn’t recognize a few of the names that got in there, like Zhen Hai and Zhen Yue, are those guys like outer disciples or something? They didn’t carry the same…gravitas as other true-blooded Zhen Clansmen.”
“You mean arrogance?”
“Yeah…”
“Well that’s not too surprising to see. The guys you just named, as well as I think five others you didn’t name, are actually from outside of the Empire.”
“What?”
“Dude, forget outside of the Empire, those guys are from another continent entirely!”
“No way!”
“When did the Zhen Clan establish a foreign branch?”
“They didn’t.”
“The fuck?”
Of course, it should be noted that the subjects of interest themselves had no idea they were being discussed about in this manner, they had more…personal things to deal with.
Like say, an awkward ass dinner between distant relatives.
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“Alright…why are we here?”
“Because, Zhen Hai, we’re technically members of the Zhen Clan so we have an obligation to be here and try to mingle.”
“I…do you really believe that?”
“No, but we gotta be here anyways so we might as well make the most of it.”
“Fine…”
