After Sunny left Morgan in the training hall, he headed for his house. It was still weird to him calling it his house, mainly because when he was young, he didn't have anything, and now he can almost have anything he desires.
"Time really flies, I guess."
As he was walking pass a main street, he looked across, spotting the outskirts in the distance, letting out a breath, he smiled slightly and faced forward leving his past behind.
"Is it that easy? Or am I just kidding myself."
"Since when are you so... intellectual?"
"Zip it, Haughty."
Haughty smirked to himself but said nothing, staying in a position as Sunny's shadow. Anyone else would say that it is just any other shadow. This was the main reason why Sunny loved his ability. He didn't have to watch his back constantly like others since he had eyes everywhere.
"Guess I should start preparing for that turney. After all, I don't want to change too much from the past...or is it present? Well, it is present now, but is it past for me specifically?"
He didn't say anything. Noone did. Silence stretched for a full block as if everything was silently observing what is going to happen in a next moment, the only thing that happened was nothing.
"Honestly, why do I even bother with taking keys? I mean, I can just go inside like this, right?"
He stepped into a shadow right in front of his front door and materialised inside the house, tripping and falling on his face.
"I guess I have to work on that a little."
Looking around, he didn't see anyone at home. There was a pair of shoes in the hall, but he didn't see where the owner of those shoes was.
"Weird. I thought Nephis was out. Oh well. Doesn't really matter."
He headed for the basement and for the dream scape sleeping pod.
Since sleeping pods he bought were of a model that darkens the glass whether there is or isn't anyone inside, he didn't really know whether Nephis was using hers or not. I could have checked by tapping the glass to see the inside, but he had no reason to do so.
"Let's have some fun, shall we?"
As he said that lid closed and he closed his eyes falling asleep in the sleeping pod.
Opening his eyes again, he was standing in a large arena, like a forest, but still an arena since the distance wasn't limitless.
"So boring"
With his weaver mask on and long, ragged pitch-black gear on, he cracked his neck and summoned his kodachi, setting it on his shoulder.
Blade itself was dark silver, barely reflecting any light, but it was shiny nonetheless.
"What do I do now....Oh, I got an idea"
Sunny walked toward the centre of the forest and found himself in a small clearing surrounded by thick forest all around him. Perfect place for a peace or ambush, more precisely, to be ambushed
He sat down on his knees and set his shed blade right in front of him.
Meanwhile, in the overview centre.
"We got ourselves a veteran here, guys, to help us with the analysis and commentary of the arena fight we will be seeing today. So please welcome Dimi."
"Thank you, thank you for having me Syclus. Yes, I won dream turnament last year, so I do know a thing or 2 about how these fights work, not to mention who has a winning potential and who doesn't."
"While we're at who do you think are our top players that we should keep an eye out for?"
He looked around the cameras, watching most of the players with interesting POV's and looked back at the camera facing the viewers.
"Honestly, into the top 3 I would put, Queen Bee, Dar, Chupcake."
"Really? I honestly thought you would say Mongrel."
"Mongrel? Honestly, I think people are overestimating him too much"
"Didn't you see how he was one-shotting everyone every time he fought?"
"All of them were newbies. Here, on the other hand, are mostly veterans, so no, I don't think he will stand a chance."
"Chat is suggesting we should watch him,...where do we have his camera...oh...got it."
As the Pov got put to the main screen, they could see Sunny sitting in his spot in a small clearing, not moving and well, not doing anything actually.
"Well. I guess I overestimat..."
"Is he crazy?"
"Do you see something we don't?"
"Isn't it obvious? He put himself into massive disadvantage. He can get ambushed from every direction, and he is unarmed? We saw everyone else constantly checking their back or hiding behind a tree or cliff sides so they have more protection, but he? He is as if inviting the challenge or just wants to die."
"I didn't think of that...oh, and look at that, we have some movement in the forest...all around him"
"That's a bit of overkill, isn't it?"
"27 enemies all around him. Although teaming is not permitted if they refuse to attack each other, we can't do much about it. Guess they see him as a threat too much."
As they were watching the circle of enemies closing up, Sunny looked directly into the camera lenses with his unblinking, terrifying mask.
"Is-is he looking at us?"
"That's impossible, those cameras are invisible."
"Guess I was underestimating him a little."
As soon as he said that, Sunny disappeared.
"Are we lagging? What just happened?"
Back with Sunny. He noticed the enemies ages ago. To be honest, this was the main reason why he came here. He wanted them to come at him, but this time make it a little more fun.
One of the guys couldn't help himself and attacked Sunny from behind with a giant spiked hammer, but before he could hit him, he saw everything upside down collapsing with his decapitated body in one fluid motion.
"You want to fight me, no? What are you waiting for? If you won't come at me, I will come at you myself"
Archers fired their arrows from the deeper section of the forest, but before they could land, Sunny cut down 5 front liners protecting them with 3 trees they were using as a cover. As he had his blade outstretched from his slash, he parried an arrow aimed at his head.
He quickly scanned area around him trying to spot him but...
"There you are. Wait your turn, friend."
"Also I don't think I was attacked by so many last time I think it was like 15 or something not 27 + some strays"
Sunny faced spear men with shields and rushed at them. They not knowing what else but strike, leaving themselves wide open, which was swiftly used by Sunny as he slashed from left to right, killing first and while using him as a meat shield, he piersed other 2 srpaying blood all around him, covering everything around himself as well as himself with thick dark red substance. This lasted only a moment because the next moment, even that substance disappeared into numbers as players were forcefully kicked for losing their lives.
"You think I can't see you?"
"Guys, I think this was a bad idea."
"You think? How could we possibly know this guy isn't even human? Does he even feel anything at all?"
They couldn't talk anymore since the trees they were hiding in were cut down together with them as trees fell and a cloud of dust covered the remaining fighters. Sunny dashed into it and slashed through them like paper.
"Right."
He parried another arrow aimed right at his head, followed by 3 other from 3 different sides.
He deflected 2 and side-stepped to dodge the third.
"You love hiding, don't you."
"Still, you are a decent archer, I give you that. Ignoring that. Piss off!"
As he said that, he dashed forward, looking directly at the archer's position.
Far away on the cliffside.
"This guy is not normal. Wait...does he...see me? No, that's impossible. But he is heading in my direction, cutting down the trees....oh no."
As he thought about it he lowered his bow with already another arrow loaded and dismissed his weapons, faced away and jumped from the other side of the cliffside into the even denser forest.
Meanwhile, Sunny stopped moving and looking around and behind him, seeing a devastated forest with rows upon rows of trees cut down, lying in piles of ripped destruction.
"Guess he got the message"
With that, he sheathed his blade and headed into the cliff direction with his sword on his side and his hands behind his back.
Back in the overview section, just as Sunny dissapeared they saw him standing behind the already dead attacker.
"When did he attack? I wasn't even able to see anything."
"I would like to change my top 3"
"Just from that?"
"Mongrel is in the top 3 with Queen Bee and Cupacake."
After that, they saw as he ruthlessly slaughtered the other 26 players, cutting down multiple trees in the porcess, barely moving or doing any exaggerated movements.
"That was very brutal"
"Hold on a moment, he is getting shot at by an archer...there"
He moved his hand to put a archers pov next to Sunny's to see where that archer is.
"This archer is on a cliffside. Completely obstructed by the trees, so he does have a distance and height advantage. What will he do now?"
As he looked back at Sunny's POV, he saw him running into the forest, but as he was moving, he was slashing down every single tree in front of him, getting a better sight at the arrow direction.
"He found him."
"What? Are you sure?"
"Yes, I am sure. He is breaking the trees, which would be a bad idea in any other situation, but because this archer can shoot from a very large distance, and he was shot from multiple directions at once, he figured out the archer was looking down, so the only remaining question is location. A flicker of light will be all it takes."
"Look at the archer, he disengaged from the fight and retreated into the deeper section of the forest."
"Yes, Mongel also stopped pursuing. After all, he doesn't know where he is anymore. Knowing where they were is not helpful that much. He could use his spot for himself now."
"That really was an incredible display of strength and tactic as well as sword style."
Let us move to someone else and let him be for the time being, we can see Cupcake engaging in a 10 v 1 scenario as well...
Back on the cliffside, Sunny sat down on the edge, dangling his legs over the edge and just looking around.
"I know this is fake and all, but they sure made it look nice. I guess there is nothing else for me to do just to wait until the zone starts to shrink or wait out till top 4, at which point we will be teleported to the main stage for semi-finals."
Sunny looked into the centre of the sky, seeing that he was ranked 2nd, right behind Cupcake, slightly in front of Queen Bee and with a good lead on the 4th, which was Dan the archer.
"Well, I guess waiting isn't that bad of an idea, honestly."
As he lay back and stretched, he thought back.
"Honestly, this is pretty good. I don't think I will regret it. All this happiness is something I need to enjoy as long as I have it...or till great clans make their move."
[You have earned the 4th position. You will now be forcefully teleported to Semi-finals arena.]
"Guess it's starting."
Sunny slowly stood up, and his body, together with the rest of the arena, transformed into 2 giant rectangles separated by a number in each centre. Sunny and his opponent were in arena 2, and on his left were the other 2 players in arena 1.
"It's been a while, hasn't it. Archer."
Dan looked at Sunny and summoned his short dagger and took a fighting stance.
"It was literally 30 minutes, what are you even talking about."
"Are you really using those? Are you as bad with those as you are with your bow?"
Since there was no time limit, the start of the duel would begin as soon as some of them would attack, which he did.
He is....
Sunny was sidestepping and dodging rapid slashes and stabs aimed at his body while saying.
"You are so amazing."
Not even breaking eye contact, he attacked even faster with rage building in his eyes.
"Guess that make sence. Still, how is he so incredibly bad? He does not have any guarding plan. just slash and hope you strike."
All Sunny saw were red marks with as if exclamation marks all around his joints, showing weakness points. Unguarded and unprotected.
Sunny deflected the next stab by redirecting his hand into a right angle, making him fall and lose his balance.
"This is interesting. How about this?"
Sunny lifted his blade and tossed it aside, making it clang on the hard surface of his arena.
"Are you waiting for an invitation? Give up now. Honestly."
He attacked even faster, his hands slashing from wide angles.
Sunny grabbed his closer forearm and twisted him, disarming him in the process and aimed his own dagger at his neck. Instead of finishing it, he disarmed his other hand as he side-kicked him away from him, making him slide across the arena.
"Stay down."
He tossed daggers back to him, making them slide across the ground.
As Archer looked up from the ground seeing Sunny was unarmed and unmoving. His breathing is calm.
"I underestimated you"
"And I overestimated you."
"Do you have to be such a prick all the time?"
"Brick?"
"Prick!"
"Not really sure what that means. But you can be the brick if you want to be."
"So be it. The only way I lose is if you kill me."
"You don't want to do that."
"Oh, I do. I will beat you..."
"Oh yeah, because I am fully armed and bleeding on the ground, right?"
Silence stretched longer than it was comfortable,e which was broken by Sunny.
"Why wouldn't I make it a little interesting for you. Why won't I tell you what I will attack? Do with it what you want."
"I don't need advantages."
"Left knee."
Instead of redirecting his knee, he focused more power into it, which didn't help because Sunny kicked so precisely into his joints that it forced him to fall in incredible pain.
"What are you doing? I even told you. This is boring."
He walked back a little from the still kneeling archer.
As that archer looked up from his painful position, he suddenly saw a loading screen with a title. You have been eliminated. Do you want to spectate?
"How...when...I don't even know what happened."
As soon as the semifinal match began comentator noticed after 1st echange something interesting.
"I will watch arena 1, is that fine with you?"
"Don't you want to know who will win in arena 2?"
He looked at him as if it wasn't obvious and sighed heavily.
"Mongel will win. I mean, he won already the only thing is how long does he plan to let his opponent live."
"I only saw one exchange, but look now. We have an incredibly skilled close combat player and a very skilled long-distance archer. Since this arena is built for close combat Dan... the archer just got incredibly unlucky. He might be strong for other opponents but against Mongrel, he just doesn't stand a chance."
"I see. Oh yeah now he is unarmed and he is still just dodging and not getting hit. If I were the oponent I would log out...like yesterday at this point."
"Alright, guys"
As for the Final Duel, we have our finalists.
From arena 1 Cupacake and from arena 2 Mongrel