Fifty

"Demon Dale, the human from the outskirts!" The Teno referee roared as the remnant of the crowd hopped to their feet, shaking their fists as Kon cracked his neck side to side, waiting for his opponent.

The last two matches hadn't gone the way they'd envisioned. There had been little in the way of holding back, an avatar of wrath incarnate; he'd fallen upon those poor cultivators with iron fists and left nothing but mulched flesh behind. Benny hadn't said a word but Diur's concerned looks followed him as they waited in Turja's cave loft between matches.

His newest opponent was looking a bit nervous as she dropped into the pit. She wore sect clothing and had managed to make it through her side of the tournament bracket to arrive in the pit at the same time as him. She was from the same sect as Hyth'on had been from, the Purifying Flame.

"Wanderer, your fists have started to make a name for themselves," she called to Kon. She was lithe, pale, delicate looking with sharp cheekbones and golden eyes. As she moved Kon could see the faint ripple of fur across her body as she hopped in place, rolling her arms around in circles as she waited. Kon didn't say anything, just shook his arms out.

"Silence. I don't know what it is that has made you so upset that you injured your last foes so badly, but I would like to say it wasn't me," she said. The nervousness was so evident in her bearing, the weakness wafting off of her as she stayed as far away as she could while still staying inside of the fighting pit.

"Yield," Kon offered her. She stopped for a moment, tongue licking her lips as she seemed to contemplate it. The scowls of the older cultivators wearing similar robes to her stopped her before she could make a choice.

"That would be a dishonor to my sect. I can not," she said slowly, a hint of acceptance entering her eyes as she settled into a fighting stance.

"FIGHT!" the referee roared. Kon crossed the distance in a split second, his leap breaking stone as his fist sailed through the distance. The cultivator jerked her head to the side in time, Kon's fist blowing apart a crater in the pit as she rolled away. She came back to her feet, long curved knives falling into her hands as her golden eyes widened in fear.

Kon was after her, a hound chasing a rabbit, his fists nothing more than blurs of steel, sparks flying as she slashed out in wild panic. He could smell it on her, the fear, the anxiety wafted from her like a stench and Kon pushed harder, sensing the easy victory as he sent a flurry of blows toward, not once trying to hold back his strength.

"Demon," she spat, dodging and throwing a wild kick that Kon took without flinching. Ribs creaked and threatened to break as air slid out of his lungs, but he didn't stop punching. She was slow to turn, a thin edge slicing apart her cheek, fur and bright red blood covering her pale cheek as she staggered back, bounced off a wall and threw a dagger in desperation.

Kon swatted it out of the air with his off-hand and punched her in the stomach with his dominant hand. She bent in half, mouth open wide as pain wracked her features. Kon lifted, shoulder straining, and she rose in the air to hover above him, mouth partially open as she tried to gasp.

She rolled across the ground as he pitched her out of the pit, ending the fight before the violence escalated. That deep well of rage that had been established a few days ago had stilled to a placid lake. Finally he could see through the red clouds that had obscured his vision as he slowly climbed out of the fighting pit as the referee called his victory.

His victory purse was shoved into his hand as he pushed out through the crowd and headed to the back of the cavern. Eyes tracked him as he left, but Kon was focused on getting back to Turja's hidden cavern at the top of the stairs. He checked his trail casually and noticed those following him and decided that he wouldn't mind a bit more exercise.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

Their rich robes marked them as sect cultivators, most of them wearing the same robes as the girl he'd just beaten, Purifying Flame. They were young as he was, eyes filled with anger and they marched forward with their eyes locked on him as they entered the far end of the caves and Kon continued into the small halls. They followed after him without hesitation. Kon kept moving, leading them deeper and deeper into the dark depths of the caves.

"If they're dumb enough to follow me in here, they're dumb enough to get what's coming to them."

"Wastrel!" a voice hissed from behind him, finally signaling the end of the pretenses. Kon stopped and turned, still relaxed as he took in the three cultivators who stood before him. All three of them hadn't been in the body cultivation brackets and he had a suspicion they were regular cultivators who would have access to basic techniques.

"All it means is I don't have to hold back."

"You have insulted our set with your brazen nature," the lead cultivator spat, their tongue long and forked, whistling between his missing teeth. The two behind him bristled together, letting their hands stray to their belted on weapons.

"You insulted me with your shit fighting," Kon snapped back. All three of them roiled with anger and the leader began to draw the short sword. Kon didn't give them time, simply moving at full speed and appearing before him before he could react. His heavy gauntlet sent teeth showering across the hall.

The cultivator slammed into the wall, sending an avalanche of small pebbles down around him as the other two stared at Kon with wide eyes. He didn't give them time to react, kicking the one on the right as he flared all the power in his body as his heel connected to the cultivator's chest. Bone shattered as they flew down the hall, lost in shadows in only a second before the crash of flesh hitting stone reached him a second later.

Kon squatted on one leg, dropping deep to avoid the final cultivator's sword swing. The blade hit the stone behind him in a spray of sparks and splinters of stone, Kon punched the cultivator in the gut. Blood sprayed across his face as the fighter's internal organs were liquefied and spewed out.

A gurgling moan met his ears and he looked down to see the leader trying to get up, face shredded from the hard iron of the gauntlets. Confusion and pain swirled in the cultivator's eyes as he tried to stagger upright.

"Didn't expect that to go that way, did you?" Kon asked. He lined up a punch and put the cultivator out of his misery, blood and bones splattering across the rough hewn stone passage. Finishing the last two cultivators didn't take long, both of them heavily injured, not able to fight back.

"Not bad," Benny said as Kon finished the final fighter. He'd dragged them together and left them in a stack at the end of the mostly abandoned hall. There had been a thin suspicious hint in his mind as he had looked around the abandoned hall. The old man hadn't managed to surprise him this time.

"They came at me. I put them down," Kon said.

"Don't have to defend yourself to me," Benny said waving his hand as if the death of three sentient beings didn't matter.

"What's the payout?" Kon asked as he straightened away from the bloody forms.

"Good. You have enough for the bath Diur says you need. We'll do it before her next fight, just in case," Benny said.

"You think she could lose?" Kon asked, derision in his voice at the thought.

"Everyone loses eventually. Don't think she'll lose to this trash though, she's decent with a sword," Benny said.

"Think they'll come after me for this?" Kon said, nodding his head toward the dead bodies.

"Of course. You just killed three of their number and embarrassed the last of their body cultivators. Even if they don't have proof of you killing them, they'll suspect it. Might wonder how you did it with the way you were sandbagging back there, but they're a suspicious bunch. We get you through this next step of body cultivation and you'll have a bigger ace up your sleeve," Benny said.

"What's an ace?" Kon asked as they walked out of the halls and back into the cavern. Benny was able to easily disguise them enough with a simple sentence.

"Don't worry about it," Benny said with a sigh, shaking his head in annoyance as they reached the stairs and started up.

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