Chapter 257: Whacked
Shye desired to place a larger bet, yet the manager of the betting station, being both astute and cautious, imposed a betting limit of 20,000 silver coins.
Well, he'll take what he could get.
This chance to earn both points and money was a pie that dropped from the sky anyway.
As a bonus, he also gets to indulge in one of his recent twisted hobbies: ruthlessly destroying those who dare come after him.
Overall, today was a nice day for Shye.
As time ticked away, more and more people came to watch. Even adventurers from guilds located on different streets went out of their way to watch two rookies destroy each other's futures.
When it was time for their duel, there were around 10,000 spectators.
"Well then, little sister Seira, I'm off."
"O-Okay, make sure you win!"
Heading towards the center of the small local arena, Shye made his way as Seira nervously searched for an empty seat among the audience.
Luckily, one of the seats near a few of her friends was empty.
"Heh, you've been talking smack since earlier. Let's see if you can back it up." Mason confidently said as he faced off with Shye in the middle of the small arena.
He recently learned that Shye was a mage, making him more confident of his victory.
Although he's bad at fighting slippery archers, mages were easy pickings for him. Well, based on his experience in the past that is.
He never struggled in sparring against mages.
"Hahaha, I can more than back it up. I told you, you have no chance against me. I'm not insulting you, I'm just stating the facts. You're far too weak and idiotic to be a threat to me." Shye retorted with a condescending smile.
Hearing Shye's words of absolute confidence, a raging mix of anger and apprehension filled Mason's heart.
Shye was just too confident.
As though the bastard was sure that he was better than him, the son of mithril-ranked adventurers.
'Don't overthink this, Mason. This bastard is just a frog in the bottom of a well, nothing but an inexperienced idiot…' Mason thought to himself, realizing that the nerves were kicking in.
He felt nervous.
On the contrary, the bastard was chill as f*ck, making him doubt himself more and more.
Taking out his gold-tier elemental staff, Shye copied Harry's stance, making him look like a seasoned mage.
On the other hand, Mason took his katana out, prompting blazing embers to arch in the air as Mason waved his blade to assume his fighting stance.
His gold-tier mid-grade relic katana looked menacing, however, Shye was unperturbed.
The guy's attributes were all below him by quite a decent margin.
If it comes down to him using his greatswords to win, then he wouldn't hesitate to do so.
Hopefully, he wouldn't have to.
As the two guys stared each other down, the arena's referee, who was more than happy to help facilitate this duel, jerked his arms upward, signaling the start of the duel.
Immediately after the match started, Shye aimed his staff towards Mason and "chanted" a few gibberish looking like he was casting some sort of spell.
Fully anticipating Shye to do so, Mason swiftly kicked up a fierce cloud of dust as he ferociously charged towards Shye to close the gap instantly using his skill [Dash Lv.4].
He then followed up with a warrior's trusty skill, [Power Slash Lv.4], creating a dazzling trail of embers as Mason's katana viciously slashed diagonally toward Shye who still seemed to be in the middle of casting a spell.
A few more milliseconds later, a fireball suddenly appeared in front of Mason, forcing him to use his skill to slash the decent-sized fireball apart.
This was within his expectations though.
Now that he was close to this dastardly arrogant yet incompetent mage, the fight would surely go in his favor.
Or so he thought…
Mason expected Shye to use blink now that he closed the gap, planning to chase him down with another gap-closer skill.
However, who would've expected that Shye would stand his ground with an arrogant smirk on his face?
Enraged, Mason stuck to Shye like glue, hacking, slashing, and stabbing from different angles as he gracefully advanced, chasing down the arrogant mage who dared fight him head-on.
Shockingly though, none of his attacks managed to land cleanly as Shye masterfully used his staff to parry and block Mason's blows, no matter which angle it came from.
What everyone couldn't comprehend was, that no matter how Mason tried, he couldn't force Shye off-balance.
It was as though…as though he was weaker in terms of raw strength.
Heck, the darned mage even managed to sneak in a few staff whacks here and there, causing Mason's face to slightly swell up.
F*cking embarrassing.
The whacks slowly piled up, leaving undeniable marks on Mason's face and gnawing at both his dignity and sanity.
Fully determined to strike back, Mason decided to use his ultimate skill, [(Light)Holy Sword Lv.3(Rare)], slowly coating his katana with a golden glow.
Unfortunately for him, Shye predicted that he would use his ultimate skill right at his most desperate moment, allowing him to capitalize and blink right in front of Mason, who hadn't finished casting his skill.
He then held his staff as if it was a two-handed greatsword, swinging it horizontally like a baseball bat with all his might towards Mason's unguarded right cheek, enhanced his blow's power using [Power Slash Lv.4], or in this case—[Power Bonk Lv.4].
*WHACK*
A resounding whacking sound reverberated across the entire arena as a limp body hurtled across the air, uncontrollably spitting a mixture of saliva, blood, and teeth, looking extremely miserable.
Shye wasn't an idiot who would wait for his opponent to finish casting a skill.
He knew that whacking the shit out of Mason while he was in the middle of a power-up was the best course of action.
Witnessing their respected boss limply rolling on the ground like some sort of tumbleweed, Mason's lackeys were horrified—their mouths—agape.
"B-BOSS MASON!!!"
[Congratulations! You've earned 9,820 points!]