Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

“Finally, what all of you have been waiting for! The first round of the Pythian games’ Martial Tournament! 42 high-level players have slaughtered their way through the preliminaries to arrive at this point. They have come from all around the Pathworks, all of them aiming for the top, the glory, and the final prize of a legendary item! Welcome back, everyone!” Umi Kaldrops greeted the crowd, winking into one of the golem's eyes.

Heavy rain was drumming on the roof above the stands, but the rain magically evaded the prominent announcer, floating in the air. It wasn’t the best weather for an event. The weather couldn’t diminish the amount of poltern the audience was engaging in, before anyone even entered the oval.

Raindrops splashed on the fresh stage, mirroring the lights of the crowd.. Once again, the center of the stadium had changed overnight. The preliminaries had left irreparable scars on the arena, so much so, that they had to completely exchange it. The new square was covered in expensive <Impact Marble>, ready for the abuse of the intense fights of the tournament. It was also shielded by a freshly strengthened barrier to ensure the safety of the audience.

“Please greet our participants!” she called out and 41 people lined up on the stage, being drenched by the heavy rain. Of course, they could have blocked the rain, with the fancy new barrier, but Minas Mar made the executive decision, that battling in the heavy rains was a much more dramatic and interesting setting.

“Before I explain the tournament and we begin with the pairing of the participants, I have an announcement for our esteemed audience. Bart, the winner of the 38th Preliminary round will unfortunately not be joining the tournament. Which means we will have a bye in the first round's drawing,” she revealed and continued without losing any momentum.

“The tournament will be random single elimination, “ she started and a simple tournament tree appeared on the big screens. It had six levels of rounds, however it lacked the usual progression path up to the final.

“Unlike a traditional tournament where the opponents a participant could face in the following round would be fixed, there will be a new drawing at the start of every new round, meaning the participant will never know who their enemy in the next round will be, exciting, right?” she explained the tree graphic to the audience.

The tournament structure was acknowledged with mixed feelings, mostly by people who were into gambling. This structure made traditional betting harder as there was no clear path of possible progression to bet at. As if holding back the structure of the tournament up to the first day wasn't bad enough, choosing this structure one could think Minas Mar was against gambling.

On the contrary, there were many bookies instructed by Jane, that offered various different opportunities to bet on and specialized in the tournament. Minas Mar wasn't against gambling, they were trying to monopolize it.

“As you can see, our numbers are a little unfitting, so there is a little specialty. There will also be a bye in the drawing for the second, and third rounds, but on top of that two of the losers will get another chance to return in the fourth round!” she revealed to the crowd.

the rule of random drawing for every route already seemed whimsical, but the whimsy was about to continue.

“How will these lucky ones be chosen you may ask,” Umi leaned into the camera questioning. “Of course, by popularity vote from the live audience! You, the viewers, will be able to vote on who you want to see return for the quarter-finals!” she called out with a big smile.

the audience was shocked for a moment. They would be given the power to decide on two placements in the quarter-finals. Was this proper? Was this fair? Probably not, but it was original and the crowd loved the power given to them, as they answered the moderator with overwhelming cheers.

“Well, then, let's proceed to see, who will fight each other in the first round!”

A gaudy man with a draw pot entered the arena. His clothes and charisma outed Rayki as a talented bard and showman, which was why the Faer was chosen to appear here. He was holding a very special kind of drawing pot, an item that could not be influenced by a player’s luck attribute. It was a small gift from Bryce, the local master of the Adventurer Guild.

When prompted to, each participant of the tournament stepped forward to draw a lot, one by one, the pairings appeared on the big screen around the arena. The pairings were met with cheers and poltern, but when the eponymous participant stepped up to the draw, his expression crumpled up in bitterness. He had drawn the bye!

Like the dwarf, the audience cried out in disappointment. The bye meant that Polter would only get to find during the second round.

“Hey, Knee Splitter…D-Do you maybe want to trade with me?” a voice asked from behind him. It was a tall, barbarian woman. Her body was riddled with bulging muscles She wasn’t just muscular, but was also well endowed and had a beautiful face, satisfying a very special kind of kink the audience and the people in chat had warmed up to during her battle in the preliminaries.

The number of times people asked to be “crushed between her ties” or “drown in her ****” would explode whenever she was on screen. Polter was shocked, as he didn’t expect the so-called muscle mommy to be able to speak so softly and gently. She even blushed a little when talking to the dwarf. Even going as far as to use one of the appropriate honorific pronouns for a dwarven warrior.

“Why would you want to trade with me?” he asked a little perplexed, more in shock about her approach, than about her question. Was it even allowed to switch opponents?

“Th-That guy is a creep. I do not wish to risk my chastity in this battle,” she whispered but the golem microphone picked it up. Many people looked at the pairings and nodded, while the chat kept raving as it had already been since her pairing was announced.

The man she was supposed to fight was a buff cultivator. He had no fancy techniques or elegant sword moves as the other cultivators had shown so far, but he was incredibly tough. The people of the Voracious Cloud Continent called people like him “Body Cultivators”.

Martial Artists that focused completely on their physical prowess. But that wasn’t the problem. Using his unbelievable tankiness, the man had already caused an uproar during the preliminaries as he... took his time with female opponents, even if it meant suffering a beating.

The new cult surrounding the barbarian idol was spamming in the chat ever since the pairing was announced. Polter looked at the cultivator in question, who only had a smirk to offer at the woman trying to evade him. The dwarf himself had also seen his preposterous act during the preliminaries. Using a fight to the death to harass the opponents of the opposite sex, it was clear this wasn’t an exception for this guy, but his modus operandi.

“Is that allowed?” Polter asked Rayki, whether they were even allowed to exchange places. Rayki put his hand to his ears, as he listened to the instructions he was given directly from Minas Mar’s VIP booth.

“Two participants exchanging opponents is not valid,” he started, a big “oh” of disappointment and some boos came from the audience. “However, since this is a bye, it does not matter. If both of you agree, it can be done,” the bard ended his sentence, causing the audience to heave a sigh of relief.

“What about my opinion on this?” the buff martial artist came over and asked in a bad mood. It seemed that he didn’t expect the rules to be bent so easily. Again, Rayki put his hand on his ear, to get instructions.

“I will relay the Tower Master’s words. “Nobody gives a fuck about your opinion. Now shut up, or there will be a second bye in the first round.” Is what I was asked to tell you,” the bard relayed the message word for word.

“Who do you think you are? Do you know who I am?!” the cultivator exclaimed offended.

“Yes we know, do you wish to continue like this and forfeit the tournament?” the bard asked wittily, but his eyes were cold. There was nothing he wanted more than to get the chance to kick this guy out right now.

However, the muscle brain had more wit than one would expect, and he begrudgingly reigned in his rampant ego trip. Self-control was apparently a virtue among cultivators, but for some reason, very few of them actually held that virtue. Seeing the man back off was a wonder in and of itself.

“Good, then it is decided. Participant Polter Onyxheart exchanged his bye with the barbarian Simplicity and will fight the cultivator Dumm Ting in the third fight of the third round!” Rayi announced and the pairing on the screens switched to reflect the change.

“Okay! With everything in place- Do you want to finally kick this party off?” Umi roused the audience. They were all stoked for the first fight, poltering away in the stands. All participants except the first pair left the arena.

Left in the arena were two men. On the left stood a tall, muscular man, his only special feature being the bald head and third eye on his forehead. On the right stood a warrior covered in full leather armor, wielding a Halberd. His face was hidden by the spectacle helmet and chain veil.

“You all know them! On the right, we have Tien Shen, who has shown terrifying martial prowess in the preliminaries! On the right is Byron, a rising star of the Boulder Guild, a local guild of Urth! Are you two ready?”

She waited for the two combatants to give their okay before continuing.

“Then let’s start our first fight! “

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