The Unwanted Tamer

Gaia walked in with Titania beside her. As they entered, Gaia sensed everyone turn and look. Only this time Titania was beside her and spoke for her.

"So, let's not just stare at her this time? She's already uncomfortable enough after earlier." Titania stated.

"Sorry!" Fergus, Griff, and Stephanie all said as they stood and came over to her.

"Sorry, we didn't mean to make you uncomfortable. We just didn't know what to say and stayed silent. Which had the exact opposite effect anyway." The Baron stated.

"Sorry." The rest of Flora added.

The others also apologized, and Gaia calmed realizing they'd all been just as Titania stated. They'd all been unsure of what to say and stayed quiet, which just made the earlier situation that much more awkward. She'd just been overwhelmed even from before falling asleep and the odd situation from earlier had just made it worse, leading to her running into the gardens. Now hearing everyone apologize, just made her relax and realize she'd been over thinking.

She didn't feel that the questions she'd asked Titania were unfounded, even if they'd come from her being overwhelmed. They were still questions she felt were important and ones she'd eventually answer, but the situation had brought them to the forefront of her mind. That was a good thing in a way because it showed her some of her insecurities that she didn't realize she had or was suppressing before.

"It's alright. I think I was just overwhelmed after everything earlier and then waking up to come down to that. I know none of you meant anything by it." Gaia replied.

"Sorry. I scolded you earlier and felt guilty after finding out everyone else did too." Fergus stated as he hugged her.

"We'd just heard the story of what happened, when you came down so we stayed quiet. We didn't want to scold you after everyone else already had." Stephanie explained for herself and Griff.

"Let's just move on from it. I'm ok now and I think everyone is on the same page as well." Gaia suggested.

After a moment, everyone agreed. They all moved on since Gaia was alright and everyone was just saying sorry over and over again. They all decided to talk about the next day.

"Tomorrow is my competition. The Martial arts one. It'll be similar to the swordsmanship tournament that Stephanie was in. It should also just be the quarterfinals on." Griff stated.

"That's right yours is tomorrow. Did you see any of the other participants styles? Do you think you'll have any issues?" Stephanie asked.

"I saw a few of their styles, none were overly worrying aside from two. One was just extremely erratic in their movements like they were in some kind of flow state. It was almost like they could feel their opponents movements and moved instinctively. The other's style was just brutally efficient without any wasted movement. It was terrifyingly efficient." Griff said with a shudder.

"Really? That bad? The flow state sounds interesting. What makes that person sound easier than the efficient one? Is it just that they were brutally efficient or something else?" Fergus asked.

"The flow state was fluid but erratic. The other was just brutal. If they could block an attack, they did and aimed to break rather than end the match. Then would only make the slightest of movements to dodge attacks. This would only happen for the attacks that would actually deal a lot of damage. For any that would only bruise or scratch, they'd just take it and grab the appendage and aim to break it. They would try to break their opponent until they couldn't move but not aim for the kill." Griff explained.

"Oh. Brutal, truly brutal. Got it. That's messed up. Isn't aiming to maim or just injure like that, against the rules?" Gaia asked worriedly.

"In the martial arts competition, no. Martial artists heal from such wounds quicker due to their ability to manipulate the mana, chi, or whatever other force they use within their body. It helps to speed up recovery and with healing magic basic broken bones can heal rather quickly as long as they're not completely shattered. The only ones that take extremely long are when larger bones either crack or are broken, such as when my pelvis was." Griff explained.

"So if you're up against this person, they could break your arms if they're able to and want to? Just because you'll heal quicker? That doesn't seem like it should be allowed." Stephanie replied.

"Yeah, that seems like it's abusing the rules for the pleasure of hurting people." Gaia agreed.

"Even if it is. It's not against the rules so nothing can be done about him unless he does something that causes someone damage that can't be healed quickly."

"He's right. We've had a few participants like that over the years. It's not against the rules because certain martial arts are based around techniques that cause that type of injury. Therefore, no rule against it since it's a type of martial art and can be healed rather quickly. As uncouth as it is, it's within the rules." The Baron explained.

Griff just nods, acknowledging the Baron's words.

"So this type of thing has happened before?" Gaia asked incredulously.

"Yes, it happens almost every year. The competition can't just discriminate against a certain type of martial arts just because it's brutal. Any martial arts could cause the same type of damage after all. That would cause more issues since entire branches of martial arts would be denied participation. It also works to keep those branches from acting out against the public. If they have a legal way to use their martial arts against people , then they're less likely to act out against the regular populace." The Baron explained.

"So, they allow these brutal martial artists to participate and break people so they don't do it to the citizens?" Gaia asked angrily before understanding hit her. "So it's to let them break people that can heal from it within a day rather than the populace that would take a month. It's minimizing the damage they deal to people, to those that can handle it. That's messed up but I understand why."

"Yes. It's primitive but it works. Ever since this was allowed, the number of injuries caused by this amongst the commoners has decreased drastically. That's why it's allowed." The Baron finished explaining.

"That's why I'm worried about that participant. The other will just be difficult to deal with because of their style." Griff explained.

"Got it. So, hope you don't end up against the brutal one, but expect it." Stephanie said.

"Essentially." Griff replied.

Stephanie just hugged him immediately after that and everyone was now worried about the next day. It was extremely likely that Griff would be up against this opponent whether it was early on or not. Unless the two he was worried about were put together, he would be facing one or both at least. This did not make any of them relax but they couldn't do anything about it. The complaints continued for a while longer before Griff decided he needed to go and try to sleep for the upcoming competition.

Once Griff went to his room, Stephanie was quick to follow and then everyone else slowly trickled out. Gaia and Fergus were the first two after their party members to follow but they left Griff to Stephanie and went to Fergus' room. They sat and tried to relax but worried about what would happen tomorrow. Their companion and friend would be in a fight where he could actually get injured, which they hadn't expected during the competitions. They knew injuries were possible, and likely, but not that someone would be purposefully inflicting them.

They worried but eventually fell asleep. Griff and Stephanie did the same after a while, as Stephanie ran her fingers through his long hair helping him calm down. He fell asleep long before she did, but she eventually did from the exhaustion from her Blacksmithing competition and the worry she was feeling for Griff. They all slept fitfully but slept through the night.

Griff awoke early, his head in Stephanie's lap. He didn't move for a while letting her sleep since he knew she was worried and she looked like she was sleeping peacefully. He also just wanted a short while where he could relax and enjoy the moment while not thinking or worrying about what was to come later in the day. He laid like this for about an hour before he knew they needed to get up and move.

He gently shook her shoulder as he laid there until she awoke. She awoke with a start but soon realized it was Griff waking her up. She looked down and smiled as he started to move she held him where he was and continued as she had before falling asleep. This only lasted for around ten minutes before Griff got up. Stephanie did too, a bit reluctantly because she knew that it meant the day was starting, and that she was only going to worry until the competition was over.

Griff started his usual morning ritual of stretching. He stretched each part of his body to ensure he wouldn't get hurt while fighting and moving. Then he started going through some of the stances of his martial arts style. His was a self-made style using a multitude of techniques he'd taken from many different styles and mashed them together to work for him. His unique constitution helped with this.

Mana was usually a less fluid force for martial artists to manipulate because it wasn't something that was naturally ingrained in the body. For Griff that wasn't true, and mana was a force that was neutral. This meant that its flow could mimic that of the other types of forces martial artists used. This meant that unlike other martial artists, he could mix and match techniques from every style since his mana could flow like the forces all of them used. Most other martial artists were limited to techniques that used the force they could manipulate.

This made Griff extremely flexible in his techniques and style and allowed him to move unpredictably when compared to many other martial artists. He could use a technique from one style and then switch to a completely different one immediately after. He demonstrated this with his style that mashed different parts of techniques together to better fit him. He still used the techniques by themselves when they worked better for a situation but preferred his style over any other.

He proceeded through each of his forms slowly then switched up the order the next few times he did it. This let him warm up and engaged different muscles from different positions, so he was less likely to hurt himself if he did so quickly during a match. His warmup took around an hour, but he felt good when it was done, like he was ready for the competition. He languidly stood from his final stance which was a low crouch with one leg extended and his torso stretched backwards in an arch. It was a variation of a counterattack stance that allowed him to dodge a strike while kicking his opponent's leg possibly knocking them off balance.

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When he was upright, he shook himself out and walked over to where Stephanie had been watching before they both went to the dining room to eat. They found everyone there, including Gaia and Fergus, who turned towards them.

"Hey Griff, Stephanie. I hope you both slept well." Fergus stated.

"Hey, Griff? Can I get you to teach me those stances? Some of them looked amazing and I think I could use the help dodging things." Gaia asked, which threw everyone off.

"You sensed my warmup? How? I was in my room almost halfway across the mansion." He asked incredulously.

"You remember the whole breaking my brain thing from yesterday? Well, it had an upside to it. I can now shape my mana easily along with my aura's range increasing drastically. I can now sense nearly two hundred feet from me? You know, I never actually had someone count it out so that's only a guess, but I can also shape it to be much, much larger and sense stuff in more detail. I can also do all of this without a headache or pain at all!" Gaia stated proudly.

The room went silent for a bit before Stephanie sighed and spoke. "Griff? You really hit the nail on the head. She does something ridiculous, gets hurt, and then gains some new power."

"That does seem to be a pattern with her, doesn't it?" Griff asked back.

"I-it's not like I t-try to do it!" Gaia cried indignantly.

"It doesn't matter if you try or not if it happens constantly." Fergus added.

Gaia turned to him like she'd been betrayed and thus Fergus got his first taste of her cold shoulder. "Either way. I can now watch the matches without an issue!" She stated finally, ignoring Fergus to the amusement of everyone.

"That's wonderful news Gaia. I know that had been something you'd been frustrated by for a long while." Titania stated.

"Congratulations Gaia!" The Baron and Baroness cheered.

"That's awesome, but next time figure out how to do it without scaring everyone?" Said Francois.

"Congrats." Jess and John added.

"Wait. You could only sense a small area around you? How in the hells did you manage to do everything you have?" Delilah asked.

"You can sense that far now? Congratulations Gaia! I still remember when you couldn't sense at all." Freya finished.

Gaia blushed from everyone's genuine happiness for her, even if they all knew she'd hurt herself to achieve the goal. "Thanks, but that's enough about me. Today is Griff's day. How are you feeling about the competition?"

"As good as I will be. I'm not nervous about any matches outside of the one against the two that I told everyone about yesterday. I think I'll be fine unless I'm up against one of those two in my first match." He replied.

"Got it. So, you think you'll be alright for the most part. Those two are the only ones you're worried about?" Fergus asked.

"Yeah, they were the two that stuck out the most during the preliminaries at least. It's possible there's another that will prove troublesome, but they were the main two I noticed."

"Good. You recognize you focused on the main two threats and might have missed a lesser but still significant one." Titania stated.

"Yeah. Nothing I can do about it now though. Let's eat before we need to leave for the competition." Griff stated.

Everyone sat and ate together before they all went to the colosseum for the competition. Griff split off and went to his waiting room. He waited to see if he was part of the first match and the light in his room lit up. He left and made his way to the arena. He arrived, listened to the judge's spiel of the rules and agreed to them before stepping up into the arena. His opponent did the same. His heart sank when he saw his opponent. It was the participant that had brutally broken each of her opponents. She was a tall, muscular and lean minotaur woman with long legs. She looked mostly human with the sole exceptions being the two horns sticking out from her temples that curved up to points and her long ears that were similar to a bovine's. Her long purple hair flowed down to her lower back.

Griff prepared for the start of the match as his opponent did the same. They each got into a stance as the Judge announced the match. "Welcome everyone to the Martial-Arts Tournament Quarterfinals match, between Griffon Magnus and Freida Steelgrip. Begin!"

The moment the judge said begin, both of them were moving. The arena had become a forest which Griff was thankful for. He'd been fighting in forests since he'd joined Fergus and Gaia as an adventurer. It felt like it was familiar territory and he knew what to look for. The two met around the middle point of the forest. Griff stepped into the clearing at the forest's center not seeing any sign of Freida. She swung down from a tree kicking him into the clearing, removing any obstacles for both so they could only block, dodge, or counter in order to avoid getting hit. This meant neither had a definite advantage.

Freida didn't stop with just the kick though she launched from her crouch towards Griff who expertly dodged the lunge and her arms. He took the time to counter with a kick using his dodge's momentum landing the hit to her hip as she was midair. She wasn't sent flying but instead took the hit and slid from the change in direction when she landed. She dusted herself off and rose before looking at Griff. She smiled, the expression more predatory than anything else.

"Ah, you're decent, aren't you?" She asked, her voice unnatural like it had a growl to it.

"I don't know what you mean, but why don't you just attack?" Griff asked not wanting to waste time with banter when he needed to focus on ensuring he didn't get injured.

"Ha! Fine. I like your style." Freida said before rushing towards Griff her arms bent, and fingers curled like claws.

Freida's attacks were quick and fierce. She swiped her hands like claws and jabbed them forward like palm strikes. Where her fingers caught the trees, the trees were ripped like they'd actually been slashed with claws even though she didn't have any. Her attacks were ridiculously strong too, likely derived from a Minotaur's natural strength and the style of martial arts she used. Her attacks were very animalistic with most imitating clawed attacks or pounces.

This made it easier for Griff to dodge since he knew what to look for in order to read the attack's trajectory. It didn't help him to read what the next attack would be though. She could move from one such animalistic attack into a grapple as easily as she could move into another attack. Griff focused on watching her attacks so he could read them better to dodge with less movement.

Freida smiled, seeing him start to read her attacks so she switched stances. Her brutal claw like slashes turned into quick jabs like a viper's strike. The first strike hit Griff in the left arm. When he spared a glance at the spot she struck, he saw that it had left a cut, but he knew it wasn't from her hand, so he guessed it was some kind of technique. One that seemed to allow her to manifest her Qi around her body and seemed to allow her to make it into a blade.

This was a problem because it explained how her attacks could mimic an animal's claws and fangs. Now, he wondered what else it allowed her to manifest. Could she make her skin as strong as a magical beast's hide? If so, how strong a creature can she imitate. The thought caused Griff to slow just enough for her to catch his arm and grapple onto it. She wasted no time and the bones in his arm snapped, making that limb useless during the fight.

Griff let out a loud grunt at the injury but, otherwise, didn't give any other indication. This seemed to anger Freida since she lunged towards his other other side as he started moving to catch the attack with his other arm. He pivoted and brought his hand down on her head with a loud thud as he held his broken arm to his chest. His strike had landed, and she wasn't moving but he knew it hadn't been enough to knock her out or end the fight.

He didn't know what she was doing but he quickly dashed back before she moved again. He prepared for whatever her next move could be, and it was a good thing he had. The next moment she started charging towards him head down and horns poised to pierce his chest. He was barely able to dodge the attack thanks to the distance he'd retreated but her speed increased until she slammed headfirst into a tree causing it to crack and fall.

Griff used the moment her horns pierced the tree to hit her with a palm strike hoping to hit her with a high damage skill. He immediately dropped and kicked her knee backwards as she threw an incredibly quick punch towards his face that slipped right over his head. The strike to her knee was stronger than either had thought though. Both of their eyes went wide as they heard a crack when his foot struck her knee forcing it straight and overextending it in the wrong direction. Then they both heard a pop from it and Freida was down a leg. Something in her knee had popped and been cut. Neither knew what but it meant that they were even now. Griff down an arm and Freida down a leg.

The upside was that meant Griff had the advantage of mobility to dodge and strike from, but it also meant that she could focus on defending and grappling. That was what she was most dangerous for, her grapples. Her other techniques and attacks were exceedingly dangerous, but in a match like this and pretty much any scenario where there was a fight occurring, being grappled by a stronger opponent meant serious injury. The match became a game of testing each other's weaknesses. Griff used his speed to launch quick probing attacks to see how she would respond. She would move as little as possible to block or dodge without needing to move from her position.

Freida on the other hand would try to grapple and catch his attacking limbs with varying degrees of success. She was able to catch his leg once during a kick, but he was able to slip it away before she could do anything. Eventually they both realized it was an even fight now. Griff would have to try and whittle her down little by little with swift short attacks while she had to find a way to grapple him. Griff knew his strongest technique could work but it would cause her to be able to grapple him and end the match before the attack landed. That left him using the hit and run tactics he knew were his best options. The rest of the match turned into a back and forth of quick strikes and blocks with intermingled struggles when grappled before barely slipping away.

The decisive moment came after a flying roundhouse kick to Freida's head while his other leg was grappled. Freida had grappled his leg, and he'd used the momentum he had to spin and slam his other foot into her skull. This had caused her grip to loosen slightly before she grabbed his leg with her other arm and started trying to break his femur. He felt the bone bending and trying desperately to keep from breaking so he did something desperate. He charged as much mana as he could into his palm and slammed it into her face in a palm strike. He was worried what it could cause since he'd never done this before. Her grip immediately faltered but his leg was still gripped in her arms as he saw her eyes roll back and she face planted into him on the arena floor. It had been a last-ditch effort to bring the fight to an end before either got injured any more.

As soon as she fell, he crawled out of her tight grip and checked her breathing. He was relieved to find her breathing normally albeit a bit ragged from exertion. He made sure he hadn't caused any permanent damage to her before relaxing and the healers checked him. They were surprised to find his leg hadn't been broken but the bone had been weakened so they healed him while he circulated his mana to increase his own natural healing as well. The arm was healed within an hour in his waiting room thanks to a dedicated healer for such injuries being present at all times.

He sat in his waiting room happy he'd won against someone he viewed as the most dangerous threat. He was also annoyed and guilty that it had taken him doing the exact things he had called brutal and unwarranted in order to win. It left him feeling bitter because he felt that he had lost because of it, even though he'd actually won. It felt like a betrayal of his own beliefs. This was causing more turmoil within him than he'd thought it would. It was enough that he'd completely missed the next two fights as he was stuck in his own thoughts and healing.

When he finally forced himself to focus on something else, he saw the last two participants walk on stage for the final match of the quarter finals. One was a man that was all muscle, like a walking mountain, and bald aside from a magnificent blue mustache. He walked and flexed to show off all of his muscles to everyone. He wore no shirt, letting his incredibly muscular torso and arms be seen by everyone, but had on semi-loose-fitting pants. His opponent was an average looking man that walked confidently with an odd gait. It was like he was walking and dancing at the same time. He wore nice pants and shoes; a button-down shirt and the oddest thing was that he wore a big red ball in his nose. When Gaia sensed it, thanks to the increased mana concentration of the arena, she nearly spit her drink out. He wore a clown nose on his own while dressed and moving like that. The only thing Gaia could think about was one of her favorite movies from earth that featured a main character exactly like this person. It almost seemed like whoever created that story had pulled the inspiration from this man. The judge chose this moment to announce the match.

"Let the final match of the Martial Arts Tournament's quarter finals between Mr. Eugene Right and Mr. Connor Legstrong, begin!"

Griff focused on the odd man with a clown nose because he was the other person he'd pegged as being a threat during the tournament. The man had an odd and erratic style that made him extremely unpredictable and able to dodge attacks that even Griff thought he shouldn't. It almost seemed like the man could sense what was coming before it even started. It was uncanny and unnerving to see against his current opponent. This mountain of a man used an elegant style that allowed him to show off his muscles as he attacked.

The elegant man didn't land a single strike the entire match, instead taking attacks that it seemed he should have been able to dodge. It was scary to see. Eugene Right, as Griff now knew, was an enigma that left his opponents beaten but he remained untouched. It fascinated Griff but he knew that would only distract him from the rest of the tournament. He had another match coming up today. He braced himself for whatever was to come next. Whether that would be his next fight or another's that he would watch. He assumed it would be his and he'd be up against one of the two winners whose matches he missed from being trapped in his own thoughts. Either way, he was ready and was just waiting for the next match.