Perceived Fate

Malum regrouped with his squad as they talked about their second fight. Malums second fight was sadly extremely easy as he got one of the giver-uppers who had decided death was inevitable.

“I get why there doing it, but still I would at least put up a fight. Give it a try knowing that I had done the best I could.” Malum explained his feelings to the group, some bonding never hurt.

Alicia said her opinion, “Yeah, I think there no point in wallowing in self-pity. I want to die of old age, with cute grand-kids and children I can be proud off. Not rotting on some battlefield.”

Jake blushed at the mention of children to which the group could only smirk about. Except Gerald, he loved poking fun at Jake for any reason at all.

“Look at you so cute.” He said sounding like he was talking to a baby.

There ages would make you think that Jake was bigger than Gerald, but that nothing close to the truth. Although Jake was 2 years older, Gerald was almost a foot bigger. That was part because he was massive, and Jake was just a little below average.

For the trade off, he was faster and Malum would add that he was smarter as well. Though his laziness hid both of those attributes as much as it could.

Breaking them up, Malum spoke next of weakness’ in their coming opponents. With only a quarter left, there group had already done well but Malum wanted to come first to fifth and for it he needed his group to win them all.

“Eric, he has a terrible habit of only using his right hand. He cannot use his left, so if you attack his right hand he is essentially weapon less.

Fredrick is simply weak, use it to your advantage and just beat him to a pulp.

Bear is strong, the strongest in our troop but he is also pretty dim and has lacking speed so dodge and poke. Repeat until he gives up.”

Malum gave his advice that he had been collecting since he had joined the camp. He didn’t spy on people; he just kept his eye peeled for any weakness’ he could spot.

By now only reasonably strong people remained so the final fights were between people Malum had spent extra attention on when he was looking, and he hoped his efforts would provide rewards.

As far as other squads went, Malum's was one of two to still have all 5 remaining. The other squad was headed by some hunter from the second village, his name was Vigor and he placed third overall. Second was a guy named Sun who was the last on his team remaining.

These were his main competition and Malum looked at them with glee in his eyes. The second opponent had proved his theory right, experience was rapidly improving his technique and these people would provide the best possible teachings.

He hoped he was placed against one of them, actually as long as it wasn’t someone just mediocre he’d be fine.

Blocking a far to heavy axe strike downwards Malum hoped his shield wouldn’t shatter from the impact.

...

With a smile, Malum felt as the opponent tried to pull their axe back but to no success as Malum turned to strike with his sword he stopped moments before he hit the man’s body.

“I surrender.” He said, to which Malum then provided his advice.

“Honestly, just practice your chop. If you had the strength and technique my block just wouldn’t have worked, and I would have been cleaved in half.”

The gruff man nodded as he retrieved his axe from Malum's shield. His opponent was just above his expectations and Malum was feeling his arms ache from the beating his shield had taken. Thankfully his opponents had a terrible habit of being to inpatient and going for finishing blows.

Considering Malum's stamina, perhaps they were right in choosing so but Malum still would have given them better odds of winning after 3 hours of beating his arms to shreds but for his sake he didn’t mention that in the advice.

As rank 1 he got universal respect mostly from them witnessing his absolute madness during the endurance test.

Even thinking about that upcoming test made Malum depressed so he shoved that idea in a box for later and instead moved around the training area.

He spotted one of his squad mates and decided to watch from the sidelines.

It was Jerome, and his opponent was...

“Oh, that’s not good.”

It was Trent.

Pushing ahead in the small crowd gathered around the square and Malum began to spectate his squad members fight.

Jerome fought like Malum, with thought behind each of his actions and changing to match the situation.

Trent fought head on, attacking whenever possible even when taking minor damage to achieve it. He clearly wasn’t afraid of picking up a few wounds on the way as long as he won.

Their expressions could tell a lot about who was winning. Trent looked like a hungry hyena, ravenous and eager his eyes full of vitality and energy.

Jerome eyes darted around, observing every aspect of his opponent and yet even when he did so his wounds kept racking up. This caused his actions to speed up, to look for more.

He was facing the problem Malum was, overthinking.

The rules behind the tournament said that spectators couldn’t interfere in the match whatsoever, so Malum decided to have a completely unrelated talk to somebody next to him.

“Yo dude, you’re in Trent’s group right?” He spoke loudly, enough for Jerome to hear him.

“Yeah.” The goon was surprised Malum was even talking to him.

“Trent’s fight well ey, you think he is going to win?”

“Yeah.”

“Shame really, if only my guy stopped overthinking I reckon he would stand a chance.”

He got an odd look from the goon, probably thinking about how odd the conversation was. Starting a fight wasn’t an option so all he could do was nod continually and it’s not like Malum had disrespected his Leader yet.

Malum looked back to the battlefield where he saw Jerome sneaking a glance at him before refocusing back on the battle. The effects were clear, with Jerome gradually fighting at his fullest potential.

Both fighters were worn down by now, almost an hour had passed and Malum was beginning to think that the instructors would call it a draw.

Jerome however used Trent’s fatigued form against him and began to build up a fierce attack. Close shaves against his head, and chest made the audience refocus back in the battle as Trent put up a desperate defence.

Although desperate, Malum found no weakness’ that could be exploited for victory inside of it so he expected Jerome to not find one either however it seemed today that he would be destined for surprise as a good bash with the shield shook up the stale movement leading to a great opportunity for an all-in attack which Jerome did not miss.

As Trent staggered from the shield back he raised his sword in a protective manner closer to his chest, Jerome then closed in with his sword and shield. Trent went for a wide attack to the right of his incoming defender, using his strong arm against his opponents weak arm.

Wood met wood, and tension flew into both parties already tired bodies. Jerome was good, but his stamina began to hinder him as Malum noticed his next response was slower than it should have been.

An attack from Jerome’s free right hand towards Trent’s open body, an attack which was perfect if the opponent didn’t know how to respond. Because it was slower, or perhaps because Trent had planned it all along, he managed to prepare his sword enough where he could send it towards the incoming blade.

Jerome did not have the time to block it and his sight was blocked by the shield anyway.

With his wooden sword outside of the field, Jerome spent the next minute charging down his opponent, but a good swing managed to ruin Malums hopes of a complete top 5.

As great as that would have been, Malum was still proud of Jerome’s efforts and for one of the lowest ranked recruits at the start of the month he could say nothing ill against the man who had clearly put in his all.

Jerome and Trent’s fight had held up the tournament as the instructors didn’t want a finalist on one end whilst the other bracket was still in its quarter finals, so they decided to run it from tier to tier with both sides having the quarter finalists fight at the same time then the finalists.

3 rounds had been completed with 59 recruits so that left 8 people yet to be eliminated. Malum's group reconvened after all emerging from Jerome fight, it had been so tense that they had no recognised each other in the audience.

It turned out that Alicia had also lost her match against Bear which was fair as it was just a bad match up. Malum reckoned if Alicia and Jake, then Jake and Jerome all swapped he reckoned they all would have won. Some fighting styles just had poor match ups and alas Malum could do nothing against fate so he could only accept it.

There were now 5 others which Malum, and the rest of the group could fight against and that was enough to begin to strategize against the opponent. The instructors had disappeared for an assumed lunch, so they had time to think.