Strongest Duo Part 1

Chapter 28- The Tournament (3)

"Yep, no matter how many times I stare at him, he reminds me of Solgen and Volken."

I nodded my head at Isaac's observation. Airon is most definitely an Apithien. I guess pale skin and gray hair with lavender eyes are what they usually look like. Not only that, the man's tall as hell. Maybe around... six feet and six inches? The dude could be a basketball player if he wanted to.

Wait, why am I thinking about basketball? I should turn my attention to what he's doing here. I'm sure Volken's top priority is to look for Solgen. He wouldn't bother to look for Isaac and I, right? Did he send Airon to spy on us? It's possible since Volken is the self-proclaimed leader of the Apithiens. If he sent Airon knowing we were here, does he think we'll head back to Solgen after our business here? If that's the reason, why would he make it so obvious? What's his goal here...

The buzz of the announcer pulled me out of my trance. "AIRON HAS WON HIS MATCH WITH A DOMINATING PERFORMANCE!"

Shit. I was too deep into my thoughts that I wasn't watching the fight.

"Most of these matches have been boring so far. All the big names are crushing their opponents without breaking a sweat." I heard Isaac grumble. Looks like my brother is complaining now. You'll just have to wait until the quarterfinals.

"These NPCs need to be weeded out quickly..."

Do you hear yourself right now? You sound as if you're the main character of a story.

"The next match will be between Laila and Maaaaanndeeeerrrrrrrr!" Nevar called.

Oh? That's a new one. Is he trying to hype up the crowd by letting the name Mander roll off the tongue?

My orange opponent Mander stood before me with two swords strapped behind his smooth, orange slick skin. His pupil-less eyes blinked at separate times. I felt uncomfortable just staring at my opponent, so I tried to dissipate the awkwardness.

"Uh... hello there. Lovely day we're having."

"Cease this frivolous small talk. We are here for one thing. To battle." The Mander snarled. Its voice sounded like he was speaking underwater. I couldn't take him seriously at all.

"May the sixth match of the day... BEGIN!"

Mander armed himself with his two swords and rushed at me as if to give me no chance to arm myself. I'll have to hand it to him, that's a pretty good strategy. Too bad it won't work on me since I have the Inventory and all that.

Hm... I should've looked at my Stats before the match began. Silly me...

"Why do you seem so distracted?" The Mander huffed. He swung his swords diagonally as soon as he reached me but with my speed, it was easy to dodge.

"Distracted? I'm not distracted at all..." I answered politely. Mander continued his onslaught of sword swings, showing no signs of fatigue even while I'm evading them all.

"Where is your weapon? Are you mocking I, Mander?!"

He lunged one of his blades at my torso like he wanted to skewer me alive. I did a front flip over his head and landed gently. As soon as I landed, I threw a swift kick to his back, making contact with his skin. When I pulled my leg away, I felt a sharp pain- like a tiny needle was piercing through my leg. As I looked down, I noticed that a part of my shin was turning purple.

Is this poison?

While I was distracted, the salamander took that chance to take another swing at me. I noticed him last second and barely dodged in time as his sword grazed my arm. I retreated far enough to assess the situation.