[Calamity Calendar: Year 1010, Month 6]
It had been roughly four months since Shu made his debut as a slave warrior in the arena.
His record so far was 10 wins with zero losses.
In a show where the spectacle was life or death, losing meant dying.
There were occasional cases where both fighters killed each other, but it was rare for the loser to survive and return.
Shu had gained strange confidence.
"I'm strong!"
That confidence was certainly what gave him his calmness in the arena.
Although Lester was the ruler of Bangan Island, he did not manage everything himself.
The selection of slaves for the arena was handled by other executives.
It was fine to let slaves scheduled for disposal die in their final fight, but losing regular slaves was problematic — mainly for financial reasons.
Slaves were not an unlimited resource.
There were customers all over the world who wanted them.
While there were many slaves in the world, legitimate slaves could not be brought into a place like this.
They were procured from black-market traders, and since the merchants took risks to deliver them, they naturally sold to customers who would pay high prices.
As a result, illegal slaves were quite expensive.
If a slave bought at a considerable price died after just one show, it would be a loss for the organization.
Moreover, shows with an overwhelming difference in strength were not exciting.
What the audience preferred were fights between opponents of similar ability — ones filled with screams, desperate cries, and occasional comebacks where the loser begged for their life.
If they simply wanted one-sided slaughter, there were special VIP-only shows for that.
Those involved fights against bears or lions starved in cages.
Since they charged high admission fees, providing better shows for the customers was the organizers' sincerity.
The event also had a gambling aspect.
Simple bets on who would win a single match, or "bingo" bets where gamblers had to predict the winners of all four to eight matches in a day.
Either way, an overwhelming difference in strength made gambling impossible, so opponents of similar ability were matched against each other.
From the spectators' point of view, it didn't matter who won, but the masters who had carefully raised their slave warriors felt differently.
If their fighter lost, all the money they had invested would go to waste.
Of course, they could simply choose not to enter them in such shows, but there were slaves whose only value lay in fighting.
In that case, they would enter them, earn some fight money, and try to recover their investment.
If a slave made a name for himself in these shows, information would spread among the black-market traders, making it easier to obtain higher-quality illegal slaves.
Therefore, entering slaves in the shows was not necessarily a bad thing.
There was a noble named Battel.
He was an arrogant middle-aged man and a minor lord who ruled over several small towns and villages.
Apart from the taxes paid to the kingdom, lords were allowed to collect their own taxes.
Originally, these taxes were meant to be used for the development of the territory, but this man had embezzled a considerable amount as personal funds and frequented illegal casinos and underground arenas.
He was a regular visitor to Bangan Island.
Battel approached Lester and expressed his desire to enter his own combat slave in the shows.
There was no objection to the entry itself — in fact, it was welcome — but the problem was the slave warrior's ability.
If he was too weak, it wouldn't work, and if he was too strong, there would be no suitable opponent.
Lester sent one of his subordinates to assess the slave's strength.
Battel entertained Lester's subordinate lavishly.
He provided luxurious meals, women for the night, and even gifts of money and goods to take home.
The actual assessment of strength was over in just a few minutes.
Battel was confident in his combat slave.
Having watched the arena many times, he knew exactly how strong his slave was.
Of course, he had instructed his subordinate to underestimate the slave's ability when reporting back to Lester.
After receiving the false report on Battel's combat slave's strength, Lester arranged the match.
Shu's current record was 10 wins with zero losses, and all his opponents had died.
Because he created scenes that pleased the audience while winning, he was favored by the organization and popular with the spectators.
The combat slave Battel brought was named Liam.
He was still only thirteen years old, but his large build made him look older.
He had originally been chosen as Shu's opponent, but the match was canceled at the last minute because pitting a debut slave against someone with ten straight wins would not make for good entertainment.
However, to evaluate Liam's ability, an exhibition match outside of gambling was held.
Shu had been preparing for his own show, but Lester ordered him to rest and explained the reason, so he watched Liam's fight instead.
Liam's strength was undeniable.
He charged bare-handed at an opponent armed with a weapon, and the fight was essentially decided within the first thirty seconds.
His opponent was trembling with fear.
The real show began from there.
Both his violence and cruelty were impeccable.
He grabbed the opponent's hair with his left hand and repeatedly punched his face with his right fist, carefully adjusting the force so the boy wouldn't lose consciousness too quickly.
There was no escape in the ten-meter-square ring.
Still, the opponent tried to crawl away.
He pressed his back against the high wall, desperately searching for a way out, but Liam stood blocking him.
Liam grabbed one of the boy's legs and hurled him back to the center of the ring.
Beating him near the wall would make it hard for the audience to see clearly.
The spectators roared with approval at this consideration.
Liam broke the boy's leg so he couldn't run.
A dull crack rang out, followed by a loud scream.
The boy tried to drag his broken leg and flee into the distance.
Liam watched calmly.
After letting him get some distance, Liam moved again, deliberately grabbed the broken leg, and threw him back to the center once more.
The pain of having his broken leg gripped tightly, combined with the impact of being thrown, left the opponent in utter despair.
No matter how much he begged for his life, there would be no mercy. Yet he begged over and over.
In the end, Liam hoisted the opponent onto his shoulders and snapped his spine, killing him.
(So the next opponent is that guy.)
Shu was impressed.
So there was also this way of entertaining the crowd.
He realized that fighting wasn't just about slashing or stabbing with a sword.
One week later, the match between Shu and Liam was finally scheduled.
It was the sixth match — the semi-final.
The immediate pre-match odds were Shu at 1.6 times and Liam at 1.2 times.
The bingo odds also heavily favored Liam.
After the fighters' introductions, the two stood facing each other.
Shu held a sword in one hand, while Liam, as before, was bare-handed.
The side that landed the first effective damage would hold the advantage for the rest of the fight.
Even if the opponent was unarmed, that fact remained the same.
The moment the gong sounded, both charged forward, then stopped in surprise.
From Shu's perspective, he had not expected the unarmed opponent to rush in.
From Liam's perspective, he had not expected such a small boy to charge so bravely.
It was Liam who entered a state of caution first.
(He may be small, but he has fought more than ten times in this arena and survived. I must not let my guard down.)
Shu, while not careless, somewhat underestimated his opponent.
(How should I cook him? If possible, I'd like to defeat him bare-handed like he did last time.)
Both slowly circled, keeping the midpoint between them as the center.
The atmosphere was nothing like what one would expect from a ten-year-old and a thirteen-year-old.
Shu had accumulated real experience in the arena.
Liam may have been only in his second arena fight, but he had plenty of street fighting experience.
Liam deliberately made it look like his stance had broken.
Thinking it wasn't a trap, Shu leaped in and thrust his sword toward the opponent's abdomen.
Liam had anticipated it.
He knew that an opponent with a blade would always thrust.
No fool would swing their sword widely just because their stance was slightly broken.
Doing so would allow him to land a punch before the sword reached him.
And if the opponent could be thrown off by such a simple feint, the fight was already decided.
Having read the thrust, Liam deflected Shu's sword with a backhand strike.
He then grabbed Shu's face — which wore an expression of "Oh no!" — with his left hand, while his right fist flew toward Shu's face to smash it.
The memory of last week's fight flashed through Shu's mind.
He instinctively thrust his face forward and took the punch on his forehead.
Both let out small cries. Shu's forehead was bleeding.
Liam was not unscathed either; his dominant fist was injured.
For a split second, Shu hesitated — should he pick up his sword or push through like this? — but he prioritized landing more effective blows and charged at Liam.
Liam took several hits, but none were decisive. He quickly counterattacked.
With just one punch, Liam's left fist slammed into the right side of Shu's face.
The difference in physique was too great; Shu was sent flying backward.
Liam picked up the sword Shu had dropped and gave it a light practice swing.
The situation had clearly turned very bad.
Shu prepared himself for death.
He had misjudged the opponent's strength.
He hadn't thought Liam was weak, but he hadn't expected him to have this much experience either.
After that impressive debut performance, even if he was a rookie in the arena, as a fighter he was clearly superior.
And now that superior opponent held the sword, while Shu was unarmed.
(I need to reflect on this. But right now, surviving and leaving this arena alive is the priority.)
How could he turn this situation around?
He searched through the memories of his past ten fights.
There had never been an opponent who had come at him bare-handed… none.
In all ten fights, those who became unarmed had either run around trying to escape or used their size advantage to charge at him.
Dodging a charging opponent was easy — he could simply slash their thigh or abdomen with his sword.
He realized he had no experience dealing with the current situation.
(Now I have two things to reflect on.)
Liam, now in an overwhelmingly advantageous position with the sword, did not move immediately.
Shu's mind raced.
(Could it be that both last time and this time he fought bare-handed simply because he didn't have a sword?)
Shu had sharpened the sword the day before. He knew how sharp it was.
He did not want to experience that sharpness with his own body.
He had to find a way to take the sword back.
Shu, still unarmed, began to probe Liam's strength, deliberately shaking him up.
He purposely entered the range of the sword and tried to slip into Liam's guard.
Liam swung the sword to keep him at bay.
Watching those movements, Shu became certain.
Liam could not use the sword properly. He was just swinging it around.
Liam had the advantage in physique.
He also had the edge in the number of life-or-death battles he had survived.
However, when it came to observation ability, Shu — who had watched life-and-death fights every week since he was five — was superior.
And the same went for swordsmanship.
Shu had never been taught swordsmanship by anyone.
In fact, it had not even been half a year since he first held a sword.
But he had watched roughly four to eight matches per week — about 300 matches a year — for a total of around 1,500 fights over five years.
He had seen warriors who only swung their swords wildly, as well as those who used them with proper technique.
Whenever he had free time, he devoted himself to sword practice. Of course, during his one day off each week, he swung the sword all day long.
In terms of sword handling, Shu had an overwhelming advantage.
The worst-case scenario for Shu was if the opponent discarded the sword and challenged him to a brawl. Due to the difference in size, he would be helpless.
He considered himself lucky that Liam, having picked up the sword, had abandoned hand-to-hand combat and chosen to fight with the blade instead.
However, the fight had to be decided quickly.
The more Liam swung the sword, the more he would adapt to it.
Since Liam had excellent combat sense, Shu had to finish the fight before he could adjust.
Shu's mind was clear.
Liam's tension had eased because he now held the sword.
Shu stepped in. Liam tried to respond with the sword.
Due to the size difference and the fact that the opponent had a weapon, the reach was completely different.
The audience cheered and applauded Shu's brave charge.
But what they truly wanted were even more brutal scenes.
Little by little, Shu's body was being cut. His white shirt was stained red in several places.
Shu noticed that he only felt pain in his upper body.
That meant his waist and above had been cut in various spots, but below that he was unharmed.
He used his legs to step in and to dodge.
While inside the sword's range, his lower body was constantly moving.
His upper body only tilted back when dodging attacks, but otherwise stayed relatively still.
In other words, as a swordsmanship amateur, Liam could only aim at the upper body.
So what should Shu do?
He briefly considered deliberately letting Liam target his upper body, but quickly changed his thinking.
(The legs are what allow movement. That applies to the opponent as well. Then the target should be the opponent's legs!)
He lowered his head, dropped into a low stance, and charged.
A simple thrust would be easily dodged.
So Liam swung the sword horizontally.
Since Shu was already in a low posture, he could not drop even lower to dodge.
His only options were to jump backward, lean back where he stood, or deliberately take a painful hit and aim for a counter.
While the sword moved horizontally.
Shu tried to provoke Liam into making a vertical attack.
He closed in, pulled back, and used footwork.
(How can I make him swing vertically?)
Why was he waiting for a vertical attack?
When swinging a sword vertically, the user always raised it overhead. That left the side of the body completely unguarded.
If he could drive a powerful punch into that opening, the opponent would be defenseless for a few seconds.
Shu saw his chance there.
Liam's left arm, the one holding the sword, began to twitch.
He had used up his strength just keeping the sword pointed at Shu's nose.
To rest his arm, he lowered the sword.
(Now!)
Shu's instincts told him this was the decisive moment.
On the next low-stance charge, a panicked Liam raised the sword overhead.
Finally, Liam's sword moved vertically.
Shu barely dodged the downward strike and slipped into Liam's guard. His tightly clenched right fist slammed into Liam's side.
Liam's body bent in half around the impact, his face twisting in agony.
Even with his excellent combat sense, Liam instinctively realized the attack wasn't over.
Keeping a firm grip on the sword, he glared at Shu, preparing for the second wave.
Shu lightly stepped back, creating distance.
To Liam, it felt like a relief.
But Shu's aim was elsewhere.
Liam's left arm held the sword.
His right fist was probably injured.
That meant the target should be Liam's right side.
Because the right punch had landed solidly in his side, Liam's body was now bent forward.
Shu moved slightly closer and unleashed a kick with his left foot aimed at the right side of Liam's head.
Liam tried to guard with his right arm. At that instant, Shu changed the trajectory of his kick and struck the outside of Liam's right thigh.
"Guaaaahhh…"
The dull pain in an unexpected spot made Liam scream. Unable to support his own weight, he collapsed to the ground.
In a back-alley street fight, the match would have ended there.
He could have delivered a cool line and turned his back.
But this was a battlefield where lives were at stake.
It could not end here.
Using the sword as a cane, Liam stood up.
Shu calmly assessed the damage to his opponent.
Clearly, strength had left the right side of Liam's body.
To protect his right side, Liam adopted a half-stance with his left side forward.
Shu carefully closed the distance.
Liam slowly retreated.
Boos began to rise from the audience.
From the spectators' perspective, a stalled fight was boring.
No matter who screamed, they wanted the next development to happen quickly.
For those actually fighting for their lives, it was no joke.
They could not afford to charge in recklessly and throw away their one and only life.
Meanwhile, Liam's breathing was gradually steadying.
Even if his breathing recovered, the damage had not left his body.
He needed to test how much he could still move.
However, the small fighter in front of him did not seem willing to allow that.
(Vertical attacks are dangerous. The risk if dodged is too high. I'll aim horizontally. Let's target the neck. Even a one-centimeter cut would be good. The opponent will lose the will to fight.)
Liam's aim settled on the area around Shu's neck.
Until now, he had been swinging the sword to drive Shu away whenever he got too close to the edge of its range.
He could inflict small wounds, but not fatal ones.
If that was the case, he should deliberately lure him in deeper.
Shu wanted to destroy the opponent's legs somehow.
He could stab with the reclaimed sword, focus attacks on the legs like before, or even take it to grappling and break a leg.
Both had made up their minds.
They charged at the same time.
Shu had expected the sword tip to come at him, but what flew toward him was Liam's injured right fist.
(Shit!)
He hadn't let his guard down — in fact, he had been wary.
He had thought Liam would use that fist at the decisive moment.
And that decisive moment was now.
Liam's right fist caught Shu's nose in a counter-like strike and smashed through it.
For an instant, Shu's vision went completely black, and strength left his body.
Shu had suffered a concussion.
After staggering back a few steps, he fell backward, landing hard on his rear.
Liam's sword plunged deeply into him there.
Shu was pierced through the left side of his abdomen.
Liam, exhausted himself, no longer had the strength to pull the sword out and collapsed to his knees on the spot.
Shu lay motionless from the concussion.
Blood poured heavily from his abdomen.
The audience rejoiced loudly.
The referee judged the match over and stopped the fight.
Liam raised his fist high in response to the cheers and left the ring.
Shu was placed on a stretcher and carried to the medical room.
No one thought he would survive.
Even Shu himself, when he regained consciousness, thought the same.