Asher was late signing in to the tournament, but he was still allowed in due to the nature of the event. There were plenty of guild members traveling far and wide from across the empire who had been dealing with missions that could not wait. The main exceptions were anyone S class and above. They all seemed to stay in Imperia mainly as their base of operations. With increasingly less people who even came close to qualifying for higher ranks as they progressed higher in level, there were only a few dozen people above the S tier.
Asher was competing in the C ranking, he had figured there would be a test to make sure everyone was put in the appropriate matches and he had been correct. Everyone was going through different challenges to make sure everything was fair. There was quite a bit of money to be made on bets from this sort of thing. Asher had made sure to give a good portion of his coin to Killian for him to bet on Asher since the rules stated that any of the contestants couldn't bet on themselves. Leah had already decided to put almost all of her money on Asher, which Willow had scoffed at. Their newest member of the group, Timothy had followed in suit behind Leah.
Asher was informed there would be one fight per day for him over the next week. Normally people would be more exhausted as the week went on as they participated in fights daily, but Asher had informed his group of hobgoblins to kill groups of monsters daily in order to recover some energy from each fight. The weak creatures that inhabited Imperia wouldn't increase his strength at the point he was at, especially with his minions taking the majority of the energy from fallen monsters for themselves, but it would assist him in not being so tired from the constant battles.
Asher asked the receptionist at the colosseum style arena, "When is my first fight?"
"In one hour. Try to make it an exciting match," the receptionist said with boredom dripping from her voice. Asher couldn't really blame her for being so bored, as she had likely been dealing with hundreds of participants over the past day. Since he had some time to kill, he decided to talk to his group.
Killian pulled him aside before he reached his group and said, "If you win the first round, the payout is fifty gold with what you had me put in for you. I want ten percent of anything that is made from your wins, since what I'm doing currently is actually illegal."
Asher nodded and agreed, "You can have it. I'll actually do you one better, keep putting the money you bet on me, into farther matches and I'll give you thirty percent. The payout will only keep getting larger. I have confidence I will come out on top."
Killian looked somewhat doubtful, but the thought of an extra twenty percent was enticing. "I take thirty percent of the winnings before I bet, each round after your first."
"That's fair," Asher said. "Are you participating as well or just watching?"
Killian shrugged, "Just watching. I know I'm not strong enough to win anything in my class."
Asher argued, "That can't be true, you're a seasoned adventurer and warrior."
Killian explained calmly, "If you were able to watch some of the fights in my ranking, you'd understand. I can't even begin to match some of those guys."
Asher let it go at that and proceeded to talk to Leah and Willow. Timothy was nowhere to be seen and Asher asked where he was.
"He signed up to fight," Leah stated bluntly. "The idiot seems to think he's going to give you an easy fight. What he doesn't seem to understand is there are literally hundreds of rank C fighters, so the odds of the two of you matching up are slim to none."
Asher smiled and said, "It's the thought that counts. He's a loyal man and I'd take more people like him any day."
Leah grunted her response and Asher resisted the urge to laugh. He never took her for the jealous type, but she seemed less than amused at what Asher had said. "I'm not discounting anything you've done for me," he explained. "I just appreciate those around me that show what they're willing to do for me. I've never had that before I met you."
Leah sighed and told Asher, "I'm going to go into the stands and grab a good seat to watch your fight." As she left, Willow began to talk to Asher. "I don't know what the others are thinking, betting on you. You're a good fighter, but you're going up against the best the guild has to offer. I actually bet against you on your first opponent."
Asher smiled at her knowingly. "Enjoy losing your money," he teased immediately. He wasn't going to hold it against her that she bet on him losing, it would be enough that she was going to lose every coin she bet on the other person. From what Asher had heard, his first opponent had participated last year in the competition and did fairly well, placing in the top ten contenders. He walked away as Willow looked confused at his overwhelming confidence in his abilities. She couldn't comprehend how Asher had no doubt about his victory in the upcoming fight.
Asher made his way into the arena where he was outfitted with the exact same gear as everyone else, it was Aetherian steel armor and weapons. He didn't like the idea of giving up his gauntlet in particular, but he understood why they didn't allow personal gear to be used. There was a large chance of extremely powerful artifacts being used and tipping the scales of the fights by themselves. Asher hadn't even fully discovered the powers of his gauntlet and he could still use it effectively enough to overpower a frost giant, he couldn't imagine what he could do once he learned the full potential of that piece of armor.
There was a gong that was hit to signal the start of Asher's first fight. An iron gate was opened and he walked into a large circular arena. His opponent was a tall and muscular man with short hair and a long beard, wielding a great axe. Asher felt somewhat nervous when he saw the weapon electrify, with sparks flying off constantly. He felt as though this opponent had quite a few tricks up his sleeve, but Asher did too.
Asher had a tingly feeling go up his back and realized it was the precognition ability. He leaned back just as his opponent rushed forward in the blink of an eye, riding his lightning ability. Every strike from Asher's enemy was enhanced with sparks and also sped up.
Asher knew he would be having a very hard time with this man in front of him had it not been for recently gaining the ability of precognition. With that ability, Asher just barely avoided each strike right as it happened. He smiled as his opponent became increasingly more frustrated with missing every hit.
As soon as Asher saw an opening, he struck against the handle of the axe with all his might, causing the man fighting against him to almost drop his weapon. Asher didn't let up, he slammed his sword against his enemie's armor, causing a large cut and then slammed his knee into the man's head with enough force to crush bone. Blood splattered across the ground and Asher watched his foe drop to the ground, unconscious.
There was dead silence, because most in the crowd recognized Asher's opponent from the last year and remembered how the man had bulldozed his way to the top ten. Watching how easily Asher had defeated him, they were stunned. All of a sudden there was deafening cheers from the stands.
He didn't know how to handle the kind of attention he was receiving in the heart of the empire. There was one thing for certain, there was already a crowd favorite in the newcomers. Asher recovered his equipment from the arena and made his way out to the crowd. He saw his group waving to him and Willow appeared more than a little irritated at how much money she had lost.
"Should have bet on me," Asher stated flatly. "When have I ever disappointed so far?"
Willow replied, "He had gotten so far before and even gave the top contender a run for his money before he lost the fight. How did you manage to defeat him so easily? So effortlessly? It just doesn't make sense. And now I'm out of money, I spent it all betting against you."
Asher smiled and motioned to Killian. "Give her ten gold coins to bet on me, Killian."
Killian nodded and handed them to Willow whose eyes widened immediately at the amount of money that was just handed to her. "You don't mind?" she asked Killian.
Killian responded, "It's not mine," and motioned his head at Asher.
Asher said, "Place your trust and loyalty in me and I'll take care of you. I have more in store than what I gave that guy."
Willow sighed as she stared at the money in her hands. She could easily report Asher to the arena for using a loophole to bet on himself, but he had given her a large sum of money to regain her losses. In fact, it was even more than she had bet on the fight in the first place. Asher stated, "The only thing I ask is that you give me twenty percent of whatever you win."
Willow shook hands with him and they parted ways. Asher looked around for Leah, but didn't see her anywhere. "Odd," he muttered. "Usually she would be here. Was she in that strange mood because of something else?"
--
Earlier on, Leah had heard someone talking about something called a corrupted one. She had initially ignored it as the ravings of a madman, but her keen hearing discovered they were talking about someone stealing life forces from monsters. She weaved in and out of the crowd, looking for the source of the conversation.
She had a bad feeling that she knew who they were talking about. If her hunch was true, she couldn't leave them alive. Asher was too important to her. He was the best friend she had ever had.
That was why at the mention of anything that sounded like it was related to Asher, she didn't hesitate to try and find the source of the conversation. She wandered farther into the crowd and saw a group of hooded men. "Not very inconspicuous," she remarked quietly. It wasn't hard for her to get closer yet. She heard the gong being sounded for Asher's match and saw the group making their way towards the arena. She had no doubt about it now, they were after Asher.
There were five of them, all seemingly armed to the teeth. She didn't know exactly why they were after Asher, but she had a hunch. It was likely due to his powers, someone had to have figured out what he was capable of and sent a group of assassins after him. Leah was determined that they wouldn't reach him alive.
She overheard them talking, "What are we going to do when we find him? These kinds of people are incredibly powerful."
"Exactly what we were trained to do, we kill him. If we don't stop him now, he very well could become powerful enough that no one can," another one replied.
"So what's the plan? Poison? Bow and arrow? Direct confrontation?"
The one in the back was about to reply, but Leah had already dug her knife into the back of his neck, severing the spine from his head. After that, she disappeared into the crowd before any of them could see who had killed their companion. She heard them speaking frantically, "He was supposed to be alone, who could this have been?"
"I don't know, but we'd best be careful. Whoever it is, they have no problem with killing human beings."
Leah watched them covering each other and wished she had taken another of them out before they had gone into almost a turtle formation. Her one easy shot was gone. She debated using her bow, but that would be too loud considering the arrows would turn into lightning bolts. She'd just have to wait for another opportunity to strike in the midst of them.
They kept getting closer to the arena and Leah decided to pull another move out of her sleeve. She went to one of the guards and informed them that there was a group of hooded men very conspicuously making their way towards the arena and they were armed to the teeth. After that, Leah watched the drama unfold.
The group didn't seem to like the idea of being arrested, so they all drew weapons immediately upon seeing the guards coming towards them. Leah snuck in quickly and slashed her own sword at one of the assassins, taking one out quickly. As quickly as she had taken that one distracted member out, she had retreated again. The hooded men were still fighting off the guards. One of them shouted, "One of us has to make it back to inform the rest that the corrupted one is still alive, fight well my brothers," and they bolted out of the arena. Before that happened, Leah had thrown a knife into his leg. Leah wasn't happy about the man fleeing, but there was a trail for her to follow, despite the man being too quick for her to track right away, especially with the crowd panicking around her. People were tripping over each other trying to get away. When she looked back over, the entire group was dead with the guards dealing with the aftermath. They had already called for cleaners to deal with the mess on the floor so people would be more inclined to stay at the greatest show of the year.
Leah had a feeling this wasn't the worst that had yet to come. She knew that one man getting away was going to cause trouble soon. As the action settled, everything went silent around her. The fight had continued on through everything. It was hard to believe, but it didn't seem as though either contestant had been disturbed. Leah looked down into the arena to see Asher stood above his opponent and a wide smile crossed her face. She was the first to cheer his name and the rest of the crowd began to follow in suit.
Asher had received a big win for himself and Leah was proud of him. Both of them had come so far since they had met. Leah had come from a broken bloodline, birthed from a maid that Leo Blackwood had slept with before meeting his wife and Asher had come from true poverty and nothing but tragedy had followed him until now. Leah felt it was about time he got something he wanted with all the challenges his life had thrown him.
She would have loved to have met up with the rest of her group to congratulate Asher, but she had other business to attend to. For one, there was a man she had to track. The blood trail went straight out the lobby. She didn't forget to grab her money from betting on Asher first, though.
She knelt down to the ground and smelled closely for the man's scent. Ever since she had absorbed the power of the drakes, she had felt more keenly in tune with her senses. Her nose was just as strong as any dog's. It allowed her to pick out individual smells with some practice. There was a trail for her to follow, however hazy it may have been.
Leah would stop on occasion and smell deeply whenever she felt she was losing the trail. She lost the scent about the time she found her knife laying on the ground. "Of course," she remarked under her breath. Her guess is that the man had bandaged himself on the spot and then kept moving. She sighed deeply and began to go back towards the guild hall where she knew Asher would be staying for the time being.
She had to inform him of what was going on, she just didn't know how exactly to do it. Leah was almost tempted to tell him to drop out of the tournament, but she knew he wouldn't listen. He'd rather risk his life than not receive the money from winning. She understood the sentiment, as she'd likely do the exact same thing. That was why they had both become guild members in the first place after all.
The guild hall came into view and Leah sighed deeply once again. She was already trying to figure out how to explain what had happened to Asher. In the end, she couldn't really wrap her head around it herself. It seemed as though the men were trying to kill him due to his powers, but she wondered, how did they know what he could do? Why did they fear his abilities so much? There were too many questions on her mind and no answers for them.
As soon as Leah pushed into Asher's room, she said, "We need to talk."
"Absolutely, what's on your mind?" an unfamiliar man asked. Leah drew her sword immediately and the man just chuckled in response.
"Who are you?" Leah snarled.
"I am the man who will purge this world of the blight that has become Asher. He has obtained the power of domination and I cannot allow that accursed power to fester in this world."
Leah took a long look at him, he had white hair and a long jagged scar running over the left side of his face over top of his blue eyes. This was clearly a battle scarred warrior who had seen quite a bit of combat. By her guess, he was likely in his mid fifties, with wrinkles beginning to form on his skin.
"And what if I refuse to let you?" Leah asked.
"You don't have a choice. You can either step aside, or die with him. Asher's days are marked in this world. It is unfortunate that he came across this power that appears to have laid dormant his whole life, but I cannot allow evil like that to rise in this world," the old man explained calmly.
"You say Asher is evil, but what proof do you have? He is my friend, surely he can be difficult to deal with, but there is no true wickedness in him. I will defend him with my life if need be."
The old man sighed. "It's not Asher himself that we fear, but the power that grows in him. There is a reason we have purged every ounce of knowledge of that cursed bloodline from history. If you knew what I know, your blood would go cold, knowing what you have been actively working with."
Leah narrowed her eyes and said, "I don't care, you are threatening my friend and I will defend him to the death if I need to."
The old man chuckled at her words and rose to his feet. He walked up to her in a non threatening stance and stated, "I am not here to fight, currently. If you wish to know more about Asher's powers, I will know. I can find you anywhere you want to speak. I know there is no use in telling you to stay out of our way, but use caution in how you defend yourself, heir of the house of Blackwood."