***
Back when John had downed his opponents, dodged the final set of arrows to him and finally snatched away their crests, Tumunomi Escaver had reached his own set of 10.
He had jumped low so that arrows whizzed over his head as he heard ankle bone snap.
“Gyron Umph, you have been eliminated.”
Tumunomi Escaver pushed the body away from him after he hit the ground and the archers jumped backwards to get him at a better angle.
But with the body of the disqualified before their enemy, Tumunomi Escaver had a chance to leap into their arc.
He approached with a knee to the chest, and by the time he snatched the bow and arrow which had been poised not long ago from the squealing hands, flying projectiles had missed him.
Following, they did not meet their target of him yet again when he rolled back to evade more before taking aim and firing at the ones on his left.
The remaining 5 that had time to knock more arrows watched him jump to evade their volley, then close in the gap, by the time their bows were up again.
All they could see was his mania of excitement as he punched both cheeks of the first of their teammates before suddenly spinning down low with terrible fluidity and speed to sweep him off his feet.
For the next man, Tumunomi Escaver pulled the boy by his bow’s wood and turned him in a full circle while keeping him at arms length so that 4 arrows embedded themselves into him.
“Rash Tiny, has been eliminated.”
Tumunomi Escaver let the boy go then began running forwards on that same branch before perfectly timing a Roundhouse kick which arrived on a face before the unfortunate owner could land a swipe with his bow.
After that Tumunomi Escaver jumped down to evade projectiles and landed to find himself between a boy with a shaking hand holding a dagger and 4 archers behind himself.
He dodged in a wide circle around the shaking boy which gave the opponent time to regain his wits but allow his own self to dodge projectiles at the same time.
Finally, the boy ran to him and he smiled as he jumped to tackle him.
When his arms where locked against the boys torso, he aimed the wrist as he had seen and practiced the month before.
Then head-butting him directly after to distract him, Tumunomi Escaver carried him and ran towards the boy’s friends.
They began scattering when they saw what was happening but Tumunomi Escaver had already tossed their comrade towards 2 of them.
So, even though this other 2 had also rolled to another direction and deftly placed themselves on one knee, Tumunomi Escaver threw the weapon he had snatched from the boy he tossed earlier.
An arrow grazed his cheek the next moment – and maybe it was fear or rage or both – but he moved faster than he had just been to pull a head towards his knee from the one who had released the arrow out of fear because of his sudden proximity.
Tumunomi Escaver then turned to the ones collecting themselves from their thrown comrades body.
One had run into the darkness of the trees and Tumunomi Escaver reached the one trying to gain his bearings while attempting to arm his bow at the saw time.
He kicked that one’s shin so that the other boy was forced to squat lower before reaching the back of his own boot to snatch a knife from there.
Weighing the weapon with swift judgment, he threw it so that the back of the dagger hit the base of the boys skull.
“Nathaniel Joe, has been eliminated.”
He then caught the staggering boy with a punch to the gut that made him keel over until he vomited before staring at the last boy on the ground.
The guy dropped his weapons and raised his hands in surrender.
Jacob was dancing in between them and this sparked something inside him.
He wanted to be able to crush this Jacob as he saw how this boy regarded his opponents as fat lamb for wanton slaughter.
Opponents had thought to surround Jacob but he was always out of reach.
Their cuts were too short when he tilted out of reach, their jabs were too far when he slipped under, their kicks were too wide when he closed the distance and their punches were too clumsy when they hit nothing but air where he should have been a moment ago.
And all this was while they were hitting themselves.
Jacob was the last to finish but his fight had their eyes glued on him.
Tumunomi’s Escaver gaze was a mix between excited and competitive so he watched with a feral grin.
Jake and Andrew pulled together their own captives when Jacob was finished and they were all begging him to take their crests out of exhaustion in mind and body.
Tumunomi Escaver took 10 crests from his victims and so did Jacob, John picked his 4.
Andrew and Jake took theirs according to their deeds but Jake insisted they shared it evenly.
So that instead of 4,2 it was 3,3.
Andrew kept shaking his head until Tumunomi Escaver clapped his hands to call their attention.
Meanwhile John was all but outwardly fawning over Jacob.
“How did you do that?”
John would ask Tumunomi Escaver later.
Not only because they both had normal bodies but because he had also dominated his fight without difficulties.
And Jacob felt more approachable to him.
He knew Jacob was training Andrew and Jake, and he knew Tumunomi Escaver was training alone.
So, he knew none of them had physique enhancements.
“Let’s see what we can get.” By the time they turned back, the bodies who had been said to be eliminated had all disappeared.
They got one of the archers to open his shirt to see that they had chest pad armor.
When he was told to strip to his breeches, he had on something to protect his thighs too.
Andrew would have pounced on it if he did not already have his own underneath his clothes.
“We will have to advance, any suggestions?”
“They are more in number, this was probably a small part of a larger batch.” Jacob replied his leader.
“Yeah,” John added, “we will need to strike only when sure of victory.”
“Meaning stealth, distraction and bait.” Jake was feeling excited and he did not hide it.
“Yeah,” Andrew was absent minded.
Jake put a hand on his shoulder and squeezed tight.
Andrew forced a smile then looked to Tumunomi Escaver.
“The lights, along with the announcers voice, will help them know this area is current occupied.”
Suddenly, Tumunomi Escaver jumped into the trees after shouting, “on me!”
They all scattered in different directions but ultimately circled around to follow their leader, even before arrows dropped from the sky like rain, flash bombs erupted to muddle their senses and tear gass filled the vacated spot.
The Genre 0 Potent Artefact would be useless against most cultivators.
But no one here was a cultivator.
Yet.
Jake was running on a branch when something hit his shoulder and knocked him to the ground.
Rolling to stand, he jumped to his feet but he felt a backlash In his head and fell to his knees.
Up above, as he constantly moved to avoid being a target, he saw a metal claw zap to the tree and the steel wire connected to it zipped an opponent to that branch so that he could pounce on Jake.
However, Andrew who was mid air, had seen his friend’s downfall from the corner of his eyes and made a full 360 by almost popping out his joints after he landed.
So that by the time he was running stably again, Andrew was where the boy should have landed and punched the guy to the ground so that his shoulder dislocated.
“Aron Tira, you have been disqualified.”
Another claw zipped down to them and Andrew snatched that one out of mid air, to slam him away from the branch and unto the ground.
The next opponents had used his comrades opening to dive at Andrew but he got knocked into the ground head first, not being able to stand up anymore.
Another, thought to throw a metal ball at Jake and Andrew but the latter kicked the projectile at the thrower and it allowed a small shockwave to impact him face first which tore the flesh on his face.
Maybe it was loosing Ivan, or his feeling of incompetence because of their last encounter but when Andrew roared and picked him off, ferrying him as fast as he could – after he had snatched the crests he could – John made no complaint and was actually impressed.
Tumunomi Escaver would have continued scaling through branches if he did not see that 2 opponents had been sent against him.
He ended up passing both of them in the air with machetes under his Inclined form as he had delayed his next jump.
So that, by the time their weapons were already below their waists, he had kicked off them and taken their crests.
He did not need to look back to know that John and Jacob took care of one set each.
He then heard a pull of several bows and roared when he landed in a crouch for the preparation for a mighty leap – the first wave of the projectiles hitting the trunk behind him or the branch beneath him or the leaves all around, – before he jumped forward into a hail of arrows.
– Jacob and John did not know if Tumunomi Escaver had predicted each arrows flight path or if he had deduced their general direction, but the worst of his injuries ended up being lines of scarlet that he did not feel at the moment –
And he crashed into someone who screamed, both John and Jacob coming in a second later to attack their opponents more gracefully before landing on the branch and taking care of the ones up top.
“Rackim Haro, you have been disqualified.”
Toby Naklo, you have been disqualified.
Shahir Mano, you have been disqualified.