The Unwanted Tamer

Griff's next match came an hour later. He'd been completely healed from his broken arm thanks to a combination of circling his mana and constant healing by some healing mages that specialize in broken bones. These let him heal from the injuries he'd suffered in the fight against Freida Steelgrip, in a matter of a couple hours. When his light indicated it was his turn for a match again, he got up and proceeded to the arena. His opponent was a young man this time.

The young man was muscular but lean being a good mixture between both while hiding what Griff could only label as explosive strength. He had the feeling his opponent could move and strike much faster than he looked like he should be able to. This wasn't based on watching the man's fight because he'd missed it, it was more like intuition. Or what Griff could only describe as instinct. It was something he'd developed from fighting against all of the overwhelming monsters that he and Fauna had been battling. It helped him feel what an opponent was capable of, even when he didn't actually know. It helped him plan and determine how to respond in the beginning so he could adapt to his opponent faster.

The only thing was that he wasn't sure how fast or how strong the man's explosive strength was. Was it more for speed or more strength, or both. This instinct let him plan for how to handle both in their first exchange. The first exchange was crucial when against an opponent you had no information about. Thus, he planned and waited for the judge to start speaking. When the judge did, he got into a neutral stance to allow himself to move naturally into a strike, block, deflect or counter depending on what was needed.

"Let the First Match of the Semi Finals, between Fredrick Deephollow and Griffon Magnus. Begin!" The judge announced.

At the judge's announcement, Fredrick exploded forward at an incredible speed ready to strike Griff. Griff reacted quickly as Fred's fist shot forward in what would have been a devastating punch, only the punch went right by his head as he shifted slightly. One of his hands rose and guided the punch to the left so all he had to do was tilt slightly and the punch missed. He took the moment to bring his other hand into Fred's gut. Griff's punch was also powerful and was a counter using his skill. This meant the punch was even more devastating. Fred, upon being punched, felt his body lock up because of the skill.

Griff's counter skill used the momentum of his opponent against them, so Fred's extreme speed worked against him here. It caused Griff's strike to deal significant damage and caused him to be stunned which is why he felt his body had locked up. Griff took advantage of this and lashed out at Fred with multiple attacks. He punched, kicked, kneed and elbowed the stunned man before Fred was finally able to move again. The man took a kick to the side of face just before he exploded backwards to escape the onslaught from Griff.

Griff was obviously slower than Fred but not by too much. His style, skills and techniques let him bridge that gap. Fred started to circle as Griff did the same, neither moving to strike until they both moved. Fred exploded forward with his immediate bursts of speed and power while Griff dashed with his own incredible speed. Where Fred was instantaneous bursts of speed and power, Griff was sustained speed and power. This meant they were evenly matched and if they were equally talented. They were close but Griff had more experience fighting monsters, so his attacks, patterns and skills let him be more flexible. Meanwhile, Fred seemed to be a martial artist with only sparring experience.

He seemed to have only fought against people, so his techniques and experience were limited to that, making him predictable. While Griff's attacks came from nearly every direction, Fred's were straightforward. They were either from the side, front or diagonal. Griff was used to fighting things that could attack from any direction. He was able to block and maneuver around to strike Fred's back before the man knew what was happening. It turned the match into a spectacle as Griff systematically wore Fred down, he would block an attack and then hit with a few of his own.

Griff even managed to stun him twice more when Fred retreated to breathe and rethink his approach. Then the man exploded towards Griff again with different attacks hoping his explosive speed and power would be enough to end the match. Griff was able to counter both attacks and his counter skill stunned Fred due to his momentum while also massively increasing the damage of the attacks he took.

After this Fred was ravaged but still standing, while Griff had only taken a few hits. They were strong hits that Fred managed to make while Griff countered. One was a redirected punch that caught Griff's jaw, and the other was a kick that still landed before he was stunned. Fred wasn't giving up even though he realized he wasn't going to win. He stepped back and took a deep breath while Griff stayed where he was.

Griff waited for whatever Fred would do next. He watched as Fred took a deep breath and closed his eyes, he felt the flow of Fred's energy change. He wasn't sure what kind of energy Fred used, whether it was Qi, elemental energy or life force. Whatever it was, Griff felt it change and gather towards Fred's hands and feet before the man opened his eyes and burst forward. Fred's speed had increased drastically his usual explosive speed had doubled to the point that he almost appeared to teleport.

Griff hadn't been expecting that, so he was caught off guard but was still able to react fast enough to mitigate the damage from the strike. Instead of catching Griff in the chest it hit his shoulder piercing through his defensive barrier in one strike as he felt the extreme concentration of energy in Fred's strike. The strike hit Griff's shoulder causing him to spin from the momentum of the strike and his dodge. He spun quickly but managed to use the movement to kick Fred's leg knocking the man down. Griff finished the spin and rose, placing his foot on Fred's chest to get him to surrender.

"I concede." Fred said in resignation after a moment.

After Fred said this, Griff took his foot off of him and held out his hand to help the man up. He patted him on the back and spoke. "You did good. I enjoyed the fight."

"You enjoyed it? How? I could barely touch you."

"Your attacks were straightforward. You've only trained against other people, right?"

"Yeah. Is it that obvious or bad?" Fred asked surprised.

"It is to me. I've done both. I trained against people, and I fight monsters with my party. That's why my movements are erratic, they need to be in order to deal with creatures so different from people. If you want to improve, I'd suggest trying some basic hunter requests with a group. Fighting monsters is a completely different experience and can help you develop different strategies and techniques." Griff replied honestly.

"I-I just might then. Thank you." Fred replied.

"No problem. Good fight Frederick." Griff stated.

"Good fight, Griffon." Fred replied.

"The Victor of the First Semi-Final match is… Griffon Magnus! Thank you to our competitors!" The Judge announced.

At the announcement, Griff and Fred both turned after bowing respectfully to each other and left the arena to their respective waiting rooms. Griff went and sat happy with the last match. Fred had been a good opponent, he was quick, strong and had been able to focus his energy to increase both aspects. This had boosted his ability drastically and had shown Griff that he was arrogant. He'd looked down on Fred a bit when the fight started, and the man had shown he shouldn't be underestimated.

Fred's last strike had shown Griff his arrogance at looking down on someone and underestimating them. The strike had been strong enough to break his defensive barrier, which showed just how strong the strike had been. Had he not dodged most of it and it had hit him in the chest; he likely would have lost, then and there. His ability to partially dodge it had caused it to not land as well, decreasing the damage he would have taken. It had also translated into him being sent spinning and allowed the last leg sweep.

Griff was thankful for the match, since he'd learned a lot from it, even if Fred didn't think so. Griff stood in his waiting room and watched the next match as he meditated. He tried circulating his energy and focusing it into his hands and feet like Fred had. He watched the next match, which was between the flow state martial-artist and someone he hadn't noticed during the preliminaries. One was Eugene Right, the man with odd flow state Griff was worried about, and the other was a Sharken woman named Nissa. She was from one of the anthropomorphic races, just like John was, as a Tigren. Nissa was a bipedal shark and had the rough skin of one with a strong muscular tail and arms instead of fins. Her teeth were sharp and multi-rowed like a shark's with a dorsal fin on her back. She had short white hair that was pinned back and was extremely muscular.

Their fight was quick and consisted of strong strikes. Eugene would dodge or redirect attacks while Nissa just ignored the strikes that landed on her. The fight continued like this for a while, Eugene would attack quickly and retreat or dodge and deflect Nissa's strikes when he could. Nissa would make extremely strong attacks that would be devastating if they landed while taking Eugene's strikes with little effort. The fight continued for a long while until Eugene slipped up and one of Nissa's punches struck his chest. He doubled over from the force of her strike before being subjected to a spinning slap from her powerful tail that sent him rolling. He rose slowly and wiped his mouth which was bloody before he started dancing towards Nissa. She was ready for him, but his attacks landed with more precision while he dodged around her attacks. He stayed close to her and his erratic and fluid movements made it extremely hard for Nissa to strike him while he stayed close. The end of the fight came through an accidental strike.

Eugene was flowing around Nissa and dodging her strikes before his movement took him directly into the path of a spin. It was a spinning tail slap mixed with a kick which he'd flowed straight into. His eyes went wide as the strike smashed into him and sent him flying. He landed on the ground, hard, rolling a few times before just laying there unmoving. The medics ran out and even Nissa looked surprised and worried. There was silence for a bit before the medics announced he was alright, just knocked out and the judge announced Nissa's victory.

This was a surprise for Griff because he'd expected Eugene to win because of his flow state. It seemed Eugene, like Fred, was used to only fighting other humans, making him forget about Nissa's tail, leading to his defeat. It was both good and bad news for Griff. On one hand, he didn't have to fight the erratic fluid dance-like style of Eugene, but on the other he was up against someone that could shrug off most of his attacks. She'd also be able to deal devastating strikes if he got hit even once. He felt he needed to do something to increase his damage and speed just in case, so he focused more on the technique Fred had used.

He meditated and circulated his mana while he watched the fight. He wasn't able to do what Fred had but he felt the mana moving towards the area of his hands and feet. He knew that was progress and was happy with it. He planned to continue working towards it during the break before the finals. He had a few hours to try and imitate or even copy the technique to increase his speed and strength. If he did, he felt he'd be able to win against Nissa without making it a battle of attrition. He'd prefer that since it meant they wouldn't be fighting for hours. The competition might call it a draw after a certain amount of time which he didn't want.

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He focused on the technique and on other ones he already had, such as his skills to see what he could do to ensure the match didn't drag out like he was worried about. By the time the light in his room went off, indicating he needed to head to the arena, he'd not managed to copy the technique. He instead knew he would need to use his skills like counter, palm strike or shoulder charge. He wasn't optimistic about shoulder charge, but a charged palm strike might be his best choice since Nissa didn't seem to move much. She preferred to move slow and make her enemies come to her. That meant counter was less effective since it specifically used his opponent's momentum against them. Against a stationary target, or one that didn't move much, it was basically useless. That was unless it stunned them, which it had a very low chance of doing, and that chance only increased based off their momentum. He decided his palm strike technique and skill would be his best options unless she suddenly started fighting differently than she had against Eugene.

He started towards the arena, preparing himself for the upcoming fight. When he walked out, he heard cheers for him. A few voices standing out amongst the extensive wall of noise.

"Go, Griff! You can do it!" Gaia cheered.

"Come on Griff! You've taken on worse before!" Fergus cheered.

"Win for me? Who knows I might take you on a date if you win!" Stephanie yelled.

"I expect a win, my pseudo-apprentice." Francois called.

The rest also called out their support and cheers for him. These four being the main ones he heard. Stephanie's comment made heat surge to his cheeks but also made him want to win that much more. He still didn't fully understand why but knew he liked the feeling and wanted that date. With his determination settled, and a new source of motivation, he walked to the arena. He stepped into it and saw his opponent Nissa do the same to cheers of her own. When they were both in the arena the judge started speaking.

"Welcome everyone to the Martial-Arts Tournament's Final match. Our finalists today are Nissa Blanc and Griffon Magnus! Two martial-artists that have shown amazing talent and technique. Now without further ado, let the Final match…" The judge paused for a moment before continuing. "Begin!"

The moment the judge announced the beginning of the fight Griff dashed forward towards Nissa. She walked towards him not going fast but just moving closer. When Griff got close, she entered her stance. It was a neutral one that had her arms held up in fists and her legs slightly bent and spread to balance her weight better with her tail. Griff dashed in close, landing a punch to her side to see if his attack would do any damage. It landed and it felt like he was hitting a wall of pure muscle surrounded by sandpaper-like skin.

He quickly dodged backwards in a backwards bend when she threw a jab towards his chest. It went just over his body as he bent backwards before springing back. And landing on his feet a few feet away. He studied Nissa as he did, while she did the same. Both knew the other was an excellent fighter in their own right and had very different styles.

The fight turned into a series of probing strikes where neither landed a significant hit. Griff dodged all of Nissa's strikes knowing they could easily knock him out of the fight if they hit right. Nissa shrugged his strikes off aside from the couple palm strikes he made which seemed to actually affect her. This caused him to make up his mind, the fight would be decided by a single decisive blow whether it was one from Nissa, knocking him out of the fight or him doing the same to her. As they continued making probing strikes and dealing with the other's attacks in their own way, Griff started charging his palm with mana.

He would strike with his other hand or kick as he charged the palm strike. Nissa made her own attacks that he barely managed to dodge, like a punch into a spin to strike him with her tail. He dodged by jumping, bending, sliding, dropping and rolling in a couple cases to keep from being struck, all while he continued charging his palm strike. Nissa seemed to be getting frustrated by his ability to dodge all of her attacks and they became fiercer with fewer gaps between them. This led to Griff retreating so he could focus on charging his strike without having his focus broken.

When he finally felt the palm strike was charged enough, he waited for a chance to strike. He saw it when she slipped into a spin for a tail slap and he rushed forwards. He saw her eyes widen as he dove over the tail slap and thrust his palm towards her abdomen. He wasn't able to dodge a follow-up attack that hit him as his hand made contact. While his palm strike landed, her elbow had come down on his shoulder blade. He felt a creaking at the strike and was catapulted into the arena floor with a sickening thud. Meanwhile, Nissa was stock still like a statue as her breathing grew ragged and she fell forwards on top of him.

The medics scrambled forward after a minute, when they realized neither was getting up. They nearly sprinted towards the two competitors. They arrived and rolled Nissa off of Griff and started to check them both. Griff was moving and starting to get up now that Nissa was off of him so most of the medics moved to Nissa while one stayed and checked him. Griff finally rose to his feet and stood triumphant, short of breath and winded. The hit from Nissa had cracked a couple of ribs and broke a couple of them. It had also caused damage to his shoulder and spine but luckily hadn't broken his back. It had cracked his shoulder blade and messed with his back enough to ruin his balance.

The medics were holding him up, but he was conscious which was more than could be said for Nissa. She was truly unconscious, and Griff was slightly concerned he'd done some extreme damage to her. He worried that he'd done something that would incapacitate her for much longer than he thought. The medics were working hard on her which only made his worries worse but a couple intense and worry filled minutes later, they diagnosed her as alright. She was just unconscious now but not in any danger. His strike had caused some intense internal damage but luckily hadn't been overly severe. The medics had been able to heal her quickly so there weren't any issues.

With both the competitors wellbeing having been determined, the judge made the announcement. "With an intense fight and stunning conclusion, Griffon Magnus takes the win! Nissa Blanc displayed an amazing performance with a near tie for the victor!"

The audience roared with cheers. They all roared their approval and excitement while the other semi-finalists were called out for the awards ceremony. Nissa was unconscious still so she would receive hers whenever she awoke, which made Griff feel even worse for how he ended the fight. They were all raised on pedestals and had the podiums rose up afterwards. The item on Griff's podium was odd, he couldn't tell what it was, so he pocketed it and braced himself for the pedestal to disappear and drop him. He was still off balance because of the damage to his shoulder and back.

The pedestal disappeared and he dropped to the ground where he immediately stumbled into a medic who'd prepared to catch him. The medic helped him to his waiting room where he was healed by a few more medics at once. Within an hour, he was mostly fine and just needed to sleep while his circulating mana helped heal him the rest of the way. He was still a bit dazed and needed some help to walk so the medic helped him walk to his companions where he was deposited on Malachite with his party members.

He sat beside Stephanie who held him close as everyone congratulated him. He just smiled and laid down on the couch-like creation of Malachite's armor. They walked back to the mansion and Griff relaxed. It wasn't until they got to the mansion that he remembered the item he'd gotten as his prize for the tournament. He reached into his pocket and pulled it out. It was a small round pellet or stone that he couldn't feel anything from. It was weird since it wasn't something he'd ever heard of or could identify. He gave it to Gaia to analyze, and she did so immediately.

Energy Stone – A stone that should be consumed by a martial-artist. Once consumed, it will integrate into the user's body and allow for the creation of an internal energy space. An Internal Energy space will slowly create the internal energy of the body until the space is full. It will also allow for one to draw on the energy within the space before the energy within the body.

Gaia relayed the information to everyone. Griff was extremely surprised by what the item was. It would allow him to create a space within his body that would slowly but naturally generate extra mana. He would be able to draw on the energy within it first without touching his own stores allowing him to use more skills and spells before his mana ran out. It was a miraculous item completely worth all of the pain he went through during the competition. He wanted to immediately use it but decided not to until his injuries were healed. He didn't want the energy within the space to be tainted or mixed with the healing mana that was within his body from being healed.

He took the stone and put it back in his pocket, he'd use it later tonight after he finished healing but before going to bed for the night. He wanted to have the extra energy for the tournament tomorrow. It was the solo hunter competition tomorrow, which meant he could use any help he could get. The tournament tomorrow was also the longest competition unlike the others; it was more than the quarterfinals. It would last the entire day with the finals happening after dark. It would also have the greatest prizes, with the Hunter's League and the Royal family collaborating to decide the prizes.

Once they were all back in the mansion, they all split up into their parties and relaxed together before dinner. They met back up for dinner and ate together before Griff decided to go use the stone. He went to his room and sat on his bed before he finally questioned how he was supposed to use it. The description Gaia had gotten said to consume it, did that mean literally or crush it? These were questions he wished he'd thought of earlier, but he decided to just go by the exact wording.

He put the stone in his mouth and swallowed it. Then he waited, hoping he hadn't just done something stupid. He waited for ten minutes for something to happen and was about to start panicking when something finally changed. He felt a sharp pain in his stomach. It felt like something had been set on fire inside of him and then he felt it burst. It felt like he had been stabbed multiple times in the stomach while not having any actual wounds.

With the burst of pain and heat, he felt something being created within his body, it felt foreign but also natural. It was like he'd discovered something that should have always been there while simultaneously shouldn't be there. Then he noticed something that differed from Gaia's description. He thought it should only create one space, but he felt multiple form where the shards of the stone had ended up after their explosion. He felt each one as a different space that all had similar capacities. Like he'd somehow gotten a broken version of the space from the description.

Then he realized that as his mana circulated, the spaces moved with them. They slowly filled with mana as they circulated like they were filling by themselves while also absorbing some of the mana from his body. He let them circulate with his mana before they completely filled and became overstuffed with mana. They kept absorbing mana as they circulated only for them to slow their circulation the more engorged they became. He started to worry, as they grew to accommodate twice their original size then exploded.

They flooded his system with more mana than he was used to, or supposed to have, causing his body to tense and the mana channels he had to be forcibly enlarged. This caused a pained scream to rip from his throat before the spaces started filling at a significantly slower rate. They seemed to only fill from their natural mana generation, and they circulated slowly towards his core. Once there, they all stuck together, but didn't merge.

He felt like they should merge to become one space but also felt like he shouldn't force them. After the painful, forced enlarging of his mana channels he felt his mana flow and circulate through his body in a much easier and faster manner. He stayed there letting them stick together but not forcing the spaces to merge. They felt incomplete but he also felt that if they merged, it wouldn't be right either.

He just meditated and let everything happen as it would. Nothing changed after the spaces clumped together. They didn't circulate away from his core but slowly filled thanks to their natural mana generation. It was extremely slow now that their capacity had doubled. With them not merging it meant they generated much more mana at once while still allowing him to use more mana.

After a couple hours of monitoring the spaces, he determined he'd be alright, so he opened his eyes to find his companions worried faces around him. He quickly explained what happened and they slowly began to leave him for the night. After consuming the stone and everything that happened, he was exhausted and he fell asleep with Stephanie beside him. They were both tired and knew tomorrow would be hectic again due to the tournament since everyone was participating.

Gaia was worried about the next day as well. She didn't want to fight against her companions but knew she would likely have to at some point. This made it hard for her to sleep, when she finally did it was restless. Everyone went to sleep early knowing the next day would be tiring and that they would be competing with each other as well as all of the other competitors.