Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

With the eighth fight over they were halfway through today's program and a small break was announced. This would have originally been the time for the musical event, but since they had pulled it forward, it was just a normal break before the ninth fight began.

"Should we try to recruit Dowloon? She seems quite effective in fighting the crowd. She could wreak havoc on a bunch of Urthans," a slightly older woman, wearing a tight white robe suggested to her colleagues. They had watched the fight on a screen in a plaza of the Pythian Village.

However, the men two men beside her shook their heads.

"We already tried after the preliminaries. She is only here for the heaven-grade weapon. Unless we offer her one, there is probably no way for us to get her on our side," he gave a simple explanation. he still remembered the fairy's cold eyes, as if she stared directly into his soul.

His fists balled. It had felt like she was looking at him like he was a vermin. The worst part is, that he couldn't do anything against it. Even if he risked their plans and fought her then and there, he was unsure whether he could even beat her. She wasn't someone they should associate with...

"But I have to admit, this show is somewhat entertaining. It's different from the martial tournaments at home," their third companion suddenly said, changing the topic. At his words, they looked at him and then at the screen where he was looking.

It showed the arena, where the ninth fight had just begun. The contestants were a fairy wearing a suit of armor that looked like big leathery leaves and a slightly green skin tone and a massive hunk of a man. He barely wore anything, just a harness of leather strips, boots, and a skimpy leather skirt.

"Oh my...if I was a little younger..." the female cultivator mumbled at the sight, having her companions cringe.

...

Breakheart, the barbarian was a fan favorite among the female audience. His great muscles and handsome face had many swoon over him, but he was up against a favorite of the male audience, April Vine. She was a chosen from Delta of an undisclosed god, but the effects were quite pronounced. On top of her High Druid class, she was able to manipulate plant life as she wished.

"N-No! Not like this! Not so rough!" Breakheart cried out with a surprisingly gentle voice as he was bound and hoisted by vines, spawning some new fetishes among the viewers.

The fight between the buff warrior and the plant-wielding druid went as expected and Lady Vine moved on to the next round, after gifting the audience the unforgettable scene, of Breakheart being professionally bound by roots and "punished". It didn't seem like this display was an accident either.

The tenth fight was between two foreigners. Hankleberry Sawyer, a beastman knight from the Chrona Empire, and Naginata Totonikova, another female cultivator. Their fight was the most normal, to date. Neither showed any overwhelming skills or special powers. it was an honest, hard-fought match that ended in Hankleberry barely eking out his victory.

The eleventh match was one of the quick ones since one of them was the natural enemy of the others. Kozzos, a demon who had shown overwhelming talent in magic during the preliminaries faced off against an Exorcist from the Voracious Cloud Continent.

Although demons as they existed across the world of the Pathworks were not as common on the Cloud Continent, it didn't mean there weren't similar existences present. The exorcist Fan Juan easily countered the cursed magic of the demon with his formation skills.

Using familiar spirits and obscure spells, he managed to beat the demon in combat after sealing his magic. It was one of the quicker fights, but very popular with the audience. Especially the seven-tailed fox he summoned in the end caught the crowd's fancy.

Seth also couldn't help but feel curious about these connections between demons and these spirit creatures. However, Yu their walking encyclopedia of the Voracious Cloud Continent couldn't help him a lot on this matter, as Fan Juan was the cultivator from a different province far in the east.

There were no such creatures in the XiGuang Province that bordered Urth. Taking into account that, according to Master Mountain, the provinces of the Cloud Continent were each comparable in size to Urth and used to be their own worlds, it made sense that there would be great differences...

The twelfth and thirteenth match ended very quickly, too. Both had monsters that dominated during the preliminaries, easily wiping the board on their own. In the twelfth match, it was an illusive cultivator who simply called himself Nam. The cultivator had a nice face, but mostly expressionless. He was tall and his body, although covered in runic bandages, was visibly toned from intense training, but not bulky with muscles.

Nam was a sword cultivator. Although there were others like him during the previous round, he was the strongest that had appeared in the tournament so far. During the preliminaries, his aura alone was able to take control of his opponents' swords, killing them with their own weapons. It was a power move that had him move on to the tournament barely revealing any of his true skills.

It was an incredibly bad match-up for the swashbuckler from the Pathworks who barely managed to get through his preliminary round. The moment the match began, Nam only unsheathed three centimeters of his sword, before his opponent was beheaded by his own saber.

The blacksmith was intrigued by this weird skill. Seth was curious whether this would also work on ego swords or weapons soul-bound to their owner. Yu explained a little about it and it seemed like this kind of trick was usually not possible among strong cultivators, since they would usually imprint their weapons with their Qi.

The other short battle featured Bercy, the Beast. From what Seth heard about her, she was a notorious adventurer from the Pathworks, wanted across many worlds. She had a tendency to lose control, especially with nobles. After beating up a few, and allegedly helping in killing a few more, she had quite the reputation, as shown by the boos she received from the noble audience when she entered the stage.

Bercy was a huge woman, but still in the realm of humans and not barbarian. Still, she satisfied all criteria for the chat to chant Muscle Mommy. The mix of simple leather and fur armor she wore, was more of a fashion statement to keep basic decency and cover the basic areas that should be covered.

Although she had a rough face, it had its appeal as she seemed to be a joyful person in general. She always had an amused sneer on her lips. However, the reason she wore no great armor and scratched a different kink for some people in the chat was a different one.

The moment she entered the fight, she turned into a massive, distinctly female werewolf with incredible powers. Her preliminary round left the arena drenched in blood and pieces of her opponents. It would have been a nightmare to clean up if the bodies didn't vanish thanks to the Adventurer Guild's formation.

Her opponent was a fiendish cultivator, as Yu called him. In general, they counted as people who would kill without mercy for their own gain and only respected strength. They were also known to be cruel and erratic because of the techniques they used to cultivate. However, the person with a cruel fate was the cultivator in question.

Despite giving a good performance during the preliminaries, he was ripped apart by the juggernaut in a hot second. Bercy ignored his dark magic and skills, all of them glancing off of her body, and literally tore him to pieces. It was quite the gruesome display, yet it was unable to discourage her hardcore fans, spamming "Eat me too, Mommy!" in the chats.

Seth started seriously questioning whether it was a good idea to have invested in bringing back streams. But he was also curious to see how Bercy would react if she saw these ... avid reactions to her performance.

Thanks to the quick fights, they were ahead of schedule and decided to give people another short break, before they started the last two fights of the day.