Amazon Apocalypse 6: Chapter 38

Running off to join a tournament on a whim was more Myrina’s thing than Sakura’s. Since Sakura had joined this tournament, I was guessing there was a reason for it. Since I didn’t want to mess up her plans, I just bought a ticket and enjoyed the show.

Sakura was a B-Grade, and I didn’t expect anyone in the city to be a worthy opponent for her. Much to my surprise, several B-Grades appeared to challenge her, one after another.

The first was a large beefy man bearing a glaive over one shoulder. He walked into the arena with a confident swagger and stared Sakura down.

“Some brat dares to claim she’s from the Miyamoto Clan? I’ve never heard of you. Once I beat you, you’ll shamefully admit your lies for our audience, understood?” the man growled at Sakura.

The match began, and Sakura rapidly handed out a one-sided beating that turned her formerly cocky and overconfident opponent into a whimpering mess.

“I submit! I submit!” the man whimpered before crawling off the stage.

The crowd roared in approval, and then the next opponent showed up, bigger and brawnier than the one before.

“You dare to call yourself a member of the Miyamoto Clan with such little skill? Let me show you a thing or two,” the bigger and brawnier oni grinned widely as he hefted a much larger glaive over his shoulder.

Sakura promptly thrashed him in combat, too. It was a pretty good show. I hadn’t realized until now how much Sakura had been practicing. Her technique was leagues better than what I remembered, and she showed off a few new abilities I hadn’t seen before.

That crusade on Ladwick really had been something special, at least for all of us who survived it. The System’s bonuses to experience gain, plus the constant fighting, meant that Sakura was more than a match for warriors who’d been fighting and practicing longer than she’d been alive.

“You’re pretty damn strong, Sakura Miyamoto. It’s your win,” the other oni limped out of the arena, using his glaive as a crutch as he favored his broken leg. Sakura had snapped it at the ankle midway through the fight.

I turned to the people sitting beside me. “She’s great, isn’t she?”

“Aye, though you won’t catch me chasing a woman like that. I like my legs unbroken. And now that she’s won two fights,” said the oni warrior seated beside me.

“Do you think she’s really part of the Miyamoto Clan?” I asked.

“Oh, definitely. She has their looks about her. The Miyamoto Clan doesn’t want weaklings using their family name to bully others, though. It’s an open secret that they’ll reward you for beating their junior clan members if you can claim they’re too weak to be a real member of the Miyamoto Clan,” the oni explained.

In other words, this really was as much of a show as it looked like. Here in Miyamoto Prefecture, plenty of people were able to recognize Sakura for what she was. What she was doing now was merely proving she was a member of her family worthy of respect.

Sakura’s third opponent was an oni far beefier and brawnier than the two she’d faced so far. This guy stood so tall Sakura was only at waist height with him, and the glaive he wielded looked like it was meant for decapitating horses or smashing down city walls.

He proved by far the most durable of Sakura’s opponents. He refused to go down easily, but Sakura shocked the crowd when crimson mist enveloped her and created a giant version of herself even larger than her opponent. Her crimson phantom brought down her club on her opponent’s head, smashing through his defenses and the arena floor beneath him.

The crowd roared with approval. I’d seen the attack plenty of times before. That was Sakura’s ultimate ability, Might of the Colossus, accessible through teaming up with me. I was glad to see she was pushing even that ability to the next level. I’d never seen her wield it with such control before.

“Anyone else?” Sakura yelled, and the crowd went quiet. “I heard tell that a distant cousin of mine was in the city. Perhaps he’d like to step forward, just in case there’s anyone out there who doesn’t believe I’m a Miyamoto?”

Eventually, a new oni appeared. He was leaner and smaller than Sakura’s previous opponents, but had a more dangerous look to him. He looked much as Sakura did, with two large horns where many oni bore only one small one.

“Perhaps you are a cousin of mine. But seeing you fight has really gotten my blood pumping. What do you say to a spar against me? If you agree, I’ll help you with your little problem,” the new oni from the Miyamoto clan asked.

“Bring it.” Sakura spat a wad of phlegm and blood on the ground from her previous fight, then pointed her club at the enemy.

Her opponent hefted a metal kanabo. It resembled Sakura’s self-made club, but made Sakura’s weapon look like a toy in comparison.

It was clear he shared a similar class to Sakura too. A feral rage seemed to overcome them both for a short time, and for the first time Sakura got the short end of the exchange. She tried to be fast and maneuverable instead of strong and brutish, but her opponent matched her there as well. The fact that Sakura had fought three other matches back-to-back also wasn’t helping.

When I realized most of the crowd was using examine on both him and Sakura, I did the same.

Kogai Miyamoto (Level 305)

At somewhere in the mid B-Grade, Kogai had a level advantage over Sakura, though not a huge one. Normally, Sakura had enough fighting experience and powerful abilities to overcome such an advantage, but it was clear Kogai was an elite fighter and could punch above his weight in the same manner.

I was still rooting for Sakura, but things didn’t look too good. Sakura never surrendered, no matter how she was hit. By the end of it, she was bruised, exhausted, and glaring furiously at her opponent as she struggled to defend.

Seeing Sakura attacked like that irked me. I wasn’t about to let her get thrashed in the ring by some upstart prick who wanted to show off.

I’d been the one who had wanted to come here in disguise and gather information quietly. I’d hoped to find Sakura’s father, rescue him if he needed rescuing, and then carefully plan our next move with knowledge and foresight.

Mentally, I threw all those plans away. Sometimes, you had to think on your feet.

“So who is this Kogai guy?” I asked the oni next to me again.

“He’s a real son of the Miyamoto Clan, that’s what he is! He comes to the fighting pits every month and kicks the ass of whoever ends up champion for that round of matches. It’s just Sakura’s bad luck he happened to still be in the city,” the oni spectator shrugged.

“So, I take it he loves showing up late and showing off?” I asked.

“He sure does. Again, too bad for Sakura. She should have taken home the win. Then she could have waved her champion title at her family and won great merit for her branch of the Miyamoto Clan. Instead, she’ll be returning home empty-handed.”

“Since he can drop in unexpectedly, I imagine anyone can, right?” I fingered a mithril coin.

“Yeah, but who’d be crazy enough to fight Kogai Miyamoto?” the oni spectator chortled.

I grinned. “You’re looking at him. Thanks for the tips.” I flicked him the coin, then jumped down, flexing my dragon wings to sail clear over hundreds of rows of seats and land in the arena.

The arena broke into an uproar at my entrance. Sakura stood, straightened, and glanced at me.

“Carter?” Sakura asked.

“Go on, dear. Step off the stage and let me have a crack at this cousin of yours. If you think he’s a wall we need to bust down to meet your family, then I’ll lend a hand.” I flashed Sakura a smile.

“Okay. I trust you.” Her firm expression slackened, and her entire body seemed to go from hard as steel to soft and warm all at once. She jumped out of the arena, rubbing sore arms and even sorer legs.

“Who the hell are you?” Kogai growled as he stared at me. He was clearly unhappy with my sudden entrance.

“Your opponent.”

“Some dead man, then,” Kogai growled.

I reached into my pocket and grabbed another mithril coin, and this time I flicked it at the referee. He’d been kicking back most of the night, eating from a bucket of fried something while the fighters surrendered on their own.

Despite having greasy hands, he caught the coin without issue, sat up, and announced the beginning of a new match. Kogai glowered at me the whole time for ruining his fun.

He hefted his club as soon as the referee gave us the signal and came charging at me.

I leaned into my Instrument of Fate ability. I had a few ideas on how to win this fight without showing off too much. If I were lucky, it would look mostly like bad luck on Kogai’s part. I channeled ice mana through Mana Arsenal like I was preparing a spell, but then I shot the ground instead.

Instantly, the sweat-slickened, packed earth froze over and turned to ice. Between the slippery ground and my fate magic, Kogai went sliding head over heels as he passed by me, and I stepped casually to the side.

I cast Mage Armor while waiting for Kogai to climb to his feet again. I looked like the picture of serene confidence, while my opponent was already dirty and huffing with anger. It served him right for forcing me to discard all my previous plans. Looking inward, I realized I was more than a little annoyed with him for how he’d dared to beat up Sakura.

The smarter thing would have been to let him save face and walk away with a narrow victory, then convince him to help us once we were outside the city. But I had discarded the smarter path already.

When in Onibushi, do as the oni do.

I cracked my knuckles and activated Eldrich Augmentation, swapping incredible magical power for brutish physical strength.

Kogai used his kanabo to lift himself to his feet despite the puddle of ice around him. He glared at me hatefully, lunged, and unleashed a ferocious swing backed by the crimson aura of a skill.

I stepped into his attack and grabbed his kanabo just above his hands. The weapon came to a dead stop just above my head. Then, I took my other hand and punched Kogai in the face.

He reeled backward, bleeding from the nose. I shook my off hand a little. This guy had a hard head. Fist fighting had never made much sense to me, though Myrina had tried to teach me how to do it a few times.

“Who the hell are you?” Kogai asked. His voice seemed full of curiosity as he grabbed his broken nose and twisted it back into place.

“Someone you shouldn’t have crossed.”

Kogai snorted. “That doesn’t narrow it down at all. I’ve picked a lot of fights.”

I reached into the pouch at my waist in search of a weapon. My dragon bone rapier would make short work of Kogai, but it would also leave him dead. I wasn’t about to let him die until he’d made good on whatever promise he’d made to help Sakura.

I found something a little less lethal in the form of metal bar stock. It was one of my early attempts at making adamantium, and this was still mostly tungsten, but it was plenty strong in a rod the size of a baseball bat.

Kogai’s eyes lit up at the familiarity of the weapon, and he engaged me in battle once again.

The weight and balance were off, and wielding a club felt all wrong to me. The way the weapon moved and blocked seemed strange, and I took several steps back while I adjusted.

Eventually, I imagined the metal rod in my hands as a very blunt sword, and then things started clicking once more. I had next to no proficiency with a kanobo, but my sword proficiency was higher than most could ever dream of getting it. As soon as I got into the right headspace, the heavy lump of metal began to feel as light as a feather and moved as quickly as lightning.

Kogai overextended twice over, and I jabbed him with the tip of my rod. Stabs were probably an unusual attack when fighting with clubs, so the unorthodox attack threw Kogai off his game. I pressed that advantage and scored a hefty smack on his side.

Whack!

That was going to leave a bruise. But I wasn’t done. Not until he matched Sakura.

I hit him two more times on his other arm and both legs before he recovered and started fighting back again. The crowd was quiet as they realized what was happening. I’d scored a dozen hits on the mighty Kogai, while he’d failed to land a clean hit even once.

“You didn’t answer me. Who the hell are you?” Kogai demanded, panting now.

I reached for the clasp on my coat. “If you’d just done as Sakura asked instead of trying to show off in the arena by beating her, I would have let you keep all your wins. My name is Carter Smith, and I came here from far away to meet with the Miyamoto Clan, and have so far avoided trouble and attention.”

I tossed my cloak aside. Kogai’s eyes went wide, and I felt a tingle run up my spine as he examined me again and discovered I was a peak B-Grade. If he had had illusions of winning before, they were probably gone now.

A sudden gust of wind caught my cloak, carrying it forward until it struck Kogai in the face and wrapped around him and rendering him momentarily helpless in the middle of our fight. That was probably Instrument of Fate’s doing.

By the time he pulled his face free, he looked up just long enough to see my metal rod slamming into his forehead, right between his horns. A tremendous bell-like ding rang through the arena, and Kogai’s eyes rolled up into the back of his head before he collapsed to the ground unconscious.

I scooped my cloak out of his hands and wrapped it back around my shoulders. Then I looked at the referee, who seemed just as shocked as the rest of the crowd.

“We have a winner by knockout! The challenger, Carter Smith, defeats all-time champion Kogai Miyamoto!”