On the day of the Swordplay Tournament.
The Arena's spectator stands were packed with an audience, and His Majesty the King and various nobles were all in attendance.
Although those Noble Faction members absolutely did not want to see the Warrior Chief gain greater prestige in this competition, now that it had happened, they could only try to avoid the worst-case scenario.
They couldn't let the Warrior Chief win the competition, but even if they wanted to stop him, they couldn't find anyone capable of defeating him.
Although some wanted to invite the person known as the 'Genius Swordsman' to participate in the competition, that person stated that he had no interest whatsoever in such a competition between weaklings. Since that was the case, they could only spend money to invite Fine Steel Rank Adventurers to participate, but unfortunately, even Fine Steel Rank Adventurers expressed that they were not guaranteed to win.
The Warrior Chief was now close to reaching the realm of heroes, his strength approaching that of the Sword Saint of yesteryear, perhaps even on par with him. Even Fine Steel Rank Adventurers rarely entered this realm. Unless they could invite a retired Fine Steel Rank Adventurer, there might be hope of defeating this Warrior Chief; otherwise, their chances of defeating the Warrior Chief were very small.
But this matter was impossible to achieve.
Because the Noble Faction simply couldn't invite a Hero of that caliber to help them with such a thing.
However, since they couldn't deal with the Warrior Chief head-on, some naturally thought of approaching it from other angles. As long as the Warrior Chief couldn't participate in the finals on that day, they could still achieve the desired
effect. But ambushing the Warrior Chief was difficult to do, and a misstep could easily backfire. They had a better way to prevent the Warrior Chief from participating in the finals.
Behind the throne.
The various Noble Faction members nodded to each other, looking with sneers at the King on the throne, who was full of anticipation.
Everything was ready. This time, they not only wanted to disrupt the plans of the King and the Warrior Chief, but also to eliminate that troublesome Warrior Chief in one fell swoop.
Although the King could sense their schemes, he was powerless against the current nobles and could only choose to believe that his Warrior Chief would bravely thwart their conspiracies and tricks when the time came.
Soon, the first match began.
As the match intended to ignite the audience's enthusiasm, the Warrior Chief entered the Arena directly for the first match.
His opponent was equally strong, one of the two existing Fine Steel Rank Adventurer teams in the Kingdom.
The two unleashed martial skills in the Arena, engaging in a tumultuous battle that was incredibly exciting and shocking. The audience's enthusiasm was instantly ignited. Tsukasa and Alice, mixed among the spectators, watched the match intently. In truth, only Tsukasa was watching seriously, because Alice truly couldn't understand it. In Alice's eyes, those martial skills and magic were just flashy things; she could win against these two simply by continuously using her Substitute to beat them. But she saw her Master watching very seriously, so she could only pretend to be serious as well.
Ultimately, the Warrior Chief secured victory with a single move, the [Four Light Consecutive Slashes]. Four streaks of sword light struck the Fine Steel Rank Adventurer without any deviation. Faced with such magnificent martial arts, the opponent expressed his admiration and conceded defeat.
Because this martial skill involved swinging out four slashes almost simultaneously, it was extremely difficult to concentrate the attacks on a single person, as it meant you needed to swing four swords towards the opponent almost at the same time.
Theoretically possible, but achieving such a feat was by no means easy. Yet, the Warrior Chief accomplished this. Even if the power of this martial skill was slightly reduced compared to its original form, it had a miraculous effect in one-on-one combat. Because by seizing an opponent's opening and using this move, the opponent would find it very difficult to defend and continuously block four attacks swung out almost simultaneously.
The spectacular opening battle concluded, and the Warrior Chief and the Adventurer walked off the stage to enthusiastic applause.
"As expected of that Gazef Stronoff, has he already stepped into that realm?" Hanta's expression was full of admiration and envy. He introduced the two ladies, saying, "The previous Sword Saint once commented that Gazef possesses the potential to become a Hero."
Tsukasa asked calmly, "Has he reached the Hero level now?"
"..." Hanta didn't know how to answer. He suspected that Sword Saint-sama was testing him.
How could a mere Mythril Adventurer like him know if Gazef had reached the Hero realm? It was only because he remembered the previous Sword Saint's evaluation of Gazef that he had this thought upon seeing Gazef defeat a Fine Steel Rank Adventurer. After all, Fine Steel Rank Adventurers were the closest to the Hero realm, and Gazef's strength was even above that level.
"I apologize, I do not possess such insight." He sincerely stated that he didn't know.
Tsukasa said, indicating she didn't mind:
"I see, it's fine."
Hanta had some doubts.
Because in his opinion, the Sword Saint was undoubtedly someone who had already stepped into the Hero realm, so how could she not tell if Gazef had entered that realm?
Indeed, was that a test for him just now?
He nervously glanced at the Sword Saint, unsure if his answer was correct, but since the Sword Saint said it was fine, it shouldn't have been the worst answer, though he might have missed something important.
While Hanta was lost in thought.
Tsukasa herself genuinely wanted to know whether Gazef had truly entered the Hero realm. If someone of Gazef's caliber was already considered a Hero, perhaps she had previously overestimated the humans of this world, and those legends might not have been as exaggerated as she imagined. But the question was, was Gazef truly a Hero unit?
The match just now.
She only felt like she was watching children fight.
They were truly weak.
But exactly how weak.
It couldn't be felt without a personal confrontation.
Although some strong individuals could judge an opponent's strength by their aura and physical condition, and she could do that now, she still felt that the results obtained this way were somewhat unreliable, because sometimes strength wasn't just what could be seen from the outside. Perhaps the opponent might also be hiding very powerful skills and equipment.
She really wanted to spar with that Warrior Chief named Gazef. Thinking of this, Tsukasa couldn't help but ask Hanta, "Is there really no way to participate in the competition?"
Hanta, still pondering the previous matter, heard her words and couldn't help but break out in a cold sweat, whispering in reply, "This competition has restricted the identity standards of its participants. Only Kingdom citizens can participate, and the registration period ended long ago. Please forgive my inability to help."
"It's alright, thank you."
Tsukasa narrowed her eyes.
It seems she would have to find another opportunity to test Gazef's strength.
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