I tried to duck by jumping to the right to escape from the killing air, but the killing air ate into my left hand faster than I could react.

''Gah, gah!''

　With a crunching sound, I felt a sharp pain in my left elbow area. It looks like the bones in my left elbow or the area above it were crushed.
　When I was halfway through the scene, I took the distance while being flung away from the spot and assessed the situation, I found Blanca in a right-handed swinging stance at the spot I had just been in.
　Blanca didn't have a spear, and the spear was stuck in the floor with its hilt bent around three meters behind the left side of the position I was in.

''You sacrificed my beloved spear, yet you only managed to get one left arm...''

　I thought Blanca's figure was blurred as she muttered that, but now she was coming right in front of me.
　I managed to evade the intense pain in my arm, and Blanca passed by me for about five meters before stopping.
　When I looked closely at Blanca's feet, I saw two marks that looked like they had been lightly gouged on the fighting table, and those marks led to Blanca's feet.

''High speed movement due to enhanced magic........''

　Blanca laughs admiringly at my mutterings.

'Hoho, I see you've noticed. It's true that I do use enhancement magic. However, none of the opponents who have used it so far have died without noticing it!

　Saying that, Blanca activated her enhancement magic again to close the gap between the two.
　I felt that it was impossible to stop that momentum in its current state, so I concentrated on avoiding it until the opportunity to counterattack arose.

　After avoiding it a few times, I wonder if my eyes have become accustomed to it. Gradually, though, my eyes are able to follow Blanca's figure, which I couldn't see until a while ago.
　I found out when I became able to see him, but this Blanca's technique was actually a simple one.

　To explain it simply, he used an enhanced magic to temporarily increase his physical abilities and then rushed in at high speed.
　However, right before he performs the technique, he feints slightly, so that when the opponent's consciousness is momentarily distracted, he bends down and lunges at them.
　I suppose he's trying to make it look like he's disappeared by moving himself out of the range of his opponent's consciousness by ducking down and lunging at them the moment they are momentarily disoriented.
　This move seems to be more effective against opponents like me who have numerous cards in their hands.
　The guy who has several attack methods has many opportunities to lose consciousness because he is subconsciously following the opponent's (Blanca's) movements with his eyes, trying to change his attack method to match his opponent's (Blanca's) movements, down to the smallest movements. Moreover, although it's not that accurate, Blanca seems to be using magic that has the effect of inhibiting recognition in combination with it, and that may be a factor.

　Whatever it is, it's not so difficult to deal with it once the species is known. Besides, I could see the weaknesses.
　This technique of Blanca's is extremely fast and powerful, but it seems to only move in a straight line, and when she was first hit, she just used her own spear to force a change of direction.
　In return, his beloved spear was no longer usable in this match. As for Blanca, she probably wanted to decide on that one strike. The proof of this is that he keeps dodging the straight-line techniques that he is currently performing, and he's becoming a bit impatient.

　However, my injuries are not minor, so I don't have the luxury of time. If possible, I'd like to take care of this as soon as possible, so it's time to get to work.
　The timing is easier to match than at the beginning, since Blanca's movements have slowed down slightly.
　I figured out the moment when Blanca would unleash her technique and jumped forward.
　Blanca didn't seem to expect me to counter my technique, and the sharpness of my technique has clearly slowed down.
　Still, Blanca swung her right hand at me to attack me.
　I bent down to scratch it (my right hand) while wearing magic power in my left hand and struck the place where I had just damaged Blanca as hard as I could.
　The moment you hit him, he releases the magic power clothed in his left hand. The released magic power instantly becomes a wave of impact, running through Blanca's entire body, amplifying the damage many times over.
　It's a good idea to have a counter to the fast-approaching Blanca, and it's usually impossible for my fist to become so powerful that my fist has been dug into Blanca's body.
　Fortunately, the fist didn't penetrate through the body like in the cartoon, but still, from the feel of the fist, it seems to have shattered most of Blanca's right side ribs and crushed her lungs as well.

　Blanca spat out a lot of blood from his mouth with my fist wedged in, and he went limp.
　As soon as the referee saw this, he called for a medical team to bring Blanca in, without declaring me the winner.

'Winner, Temma!'

　As Blanca was being carried off in a tanka, the ref finally declared me the winner.
　But I wasn't there, and I was writhing in intense pain. After all, I had struck him with my left arm, which was shattered bone, and rightfully so.
　No matter how much magic you wore and fixed it, you couldn't kill it to that impact. In addition, it was a counter, so the burden on my arm was also large.
　I endured the intense pain and waddled toward the waiting room, healing my arm with magic. Naturally, I couldn't respond to the crowd's cheers, but they seemed to understand that it had been a fierce battle, and they cheered louder and louder.
　Before entering the aisle and returning to the waiting room, one of the attendants noticed me and took me to the treatment room.

　When I entered the treatment room, the place was as hectic as a field hospital. It was caused by Blanca and, more importantly, by me.
　Blanca's wounds were worse than I had thought, and the doctor was screaming that she was somehow not dead right now, and that her condition could deteriorate at any moment.

'If it's not life-threatening, you'll have to be patient!

　The doctor shouted this as soon as he saw me at the side of the room. I was taken to a chair in the corner of the room and told to sit down and wait, where he began to treat my arm.
　As a result of the magical examination of my arm, I found that the bones were shattered, as expected, and under normal circumstances I would never be able to move my arm again, but fortunately I had just been injured and I have experience helping to heal such injuries myself, so I should be able to heal it somehow.

　First of all, I used magic to dull the pain, and then I used magic to roughly fix the bones in place. At this point, pieces of bone inevitably remain in the muscle, but I dare to ignore them.
　The next step is to apply a recovery spell to the bones that have been fixed to some extent and harden them in earnest. At this point, the metabolism is accelerated and adhesion may occur, so the process of recovering with some magic, moving the arm to remove the adhesion, and then applying the magic again to remove the adhesion is repeated.
　When the bones were mostly hardened and the pain was reduced, I decided to help Blanca heal this time.

　When I first offered to help, the doctor told me that I shouldn't be an amateur, but when I mentioned my arm injury and my mother's (Shelia's) name, the doctor knew my mother (Shelia) and allowed me to help after checking my arm injury.

　It's a good idea to have a good time with your friends.
　I'm sure you'll be pleased with the results.
　I'm sure you'll be pleased to hear that he was working as a doctor in the dungeon cities and other locations, but a few days ago he was recruited by the royal family to come to the capital.
　He still hasn't decided if he's going to open a practice in the royal capital, but he has time to work in the martial arts treatment room.

''You managed to make it in time.......If it were an ordinary person, they would have died a long time ago, but as expected of a beastman,'' he said, ''the life force is strong. His life force is strong.

　The doctor, who had finished his treatment in less than twenty minutes after I came in to help, was taking a breath, admiring Blanca's vitality.

'Now it's your turn. I see you're doing the bare minimum, but I'll make sure you're properly treated.

　Then the doctor grabbed my arm and started rubbing it. It was quite painful at first, but the pain gradually faded as he seemed to be using a combination of recovery magic and other techniques.

'Well, it's just like that. The pain should be completely gone. I've fitted large pieces of bone into the places where they were missing, and the smaller pieces will eventually be absorbed by the body............If the pain persists, though, I'll have to have it removed.

　The treatment took about five minutes. Just to be sure, I moved my arm around in various ways and didn't feel any discomfort.

'It doesn't hurt at all. Thank you!　

　As I was thanking the doctor, another patient was brought in.
　As I recall, this guy was supposed to be the other quarterfinalist on the same block as me, and he was facing the winner of the last round, and the underdogs had said that he had a low chance of winning.
　From the looks of it, he wasn't as bad as Blanca, but he had cuts all over his body and seemed to have lost a lot of blood.



　The doctor muttered to himself and quickly gave instructions to the nurse. This time she didn't seem to need my help and didn't say anything to me.
　I looked at the patient from behind the doctor and saw that there were several shallow cuts on his body, and the wounds were mangled, as if he had cut the same spot over and over again.

''After being subjected to this much, it's impossible to completely erase the wounds on a stone.......''

　As he said this, the doctors administered the treatment. Finally, his whole body was wrapped up in bandages like a mummy man, and he finished the treatment by giving him blood-boosting and recovery medicine.

''Your opponent's man seems to be as good as his reputation...''

　I agreed in my mind as I mumbled a few words. The reputation of the last winner is that he is quite a sadist and an a**h*le who loves to torture opponents weaker than him. Honestly, it's even said that if he wasn't the winner in this, he'd be imprisoned for some crime.

　By the way, last time, Ash had lost in the final and Blanca had lost in the semi-finals.

''Yo, did the little fish from earlier die?''

　While I was thinking for a bit, the door to the treatment room was suddenly kicked open and a man walked in.
　This guy was the guy who had just torture the man, the previous winner, Keos My Sails.......I think.

"Oh, well, well, two deadbeats here we're one step away from the grave, aren't we?

　Keio points to the person he had tortured and to Blanca, who is asleep after her treatment, and laughs.
　The doctor stood in front of Keos, who looked like that.

This is a place to heal the wounded. Unfortunately, we don't treat head ailments..........get out!

　It's a good thing that you're not a doctor, because you're not going to be able to get rid of Keos, but Keos is twitching at the temples and won't move.

"You're just a doctor and you want to challenge me?

　Cayos moved his hand to grab the doctor by the neck, but he managed to restrain his arm in the nick of time.

'A mere doctor, they say, but this man is here at the request of the royal family. If you weren't an idiot, you'd know what that means.

　Keios, who had been glaring at me as I grabbed his arm, withdrew his hand with an abhorrent look when he heard that it was the royal family.

''Keh! You're a kid who can't do anything without taking out the royal family... no, you're the one who failed to kill Blanca earlier... just fine, at best, hope your life is spared in the next game!

　Kayos walks out of the treatment room, spitting a discarded line.

'What's he doing here, he's...'

　The doctor heard my mutterings and knew the answer.

'I guess he likes to watch the guy he's torture, because he's been here after the second round is over, just like that.

　The doctor's spitting words made sense to me, but there was still something I didn't understand.

'But that guy definitely looks weaker than Blanca........and he looks weaker than Ash.......'

　My biggest question is that I can't believe he beat Blanca in the last tournament because I don't feel he's as strong as Blanca.

'It didn't look like it would be fun to fight a guy like that until he got serious... he fell out of the field at the right place.

　The one who answered my question was Blanca, who was lying in bed.



　As he said this, the doctor checked on Blanca.

'I just woke up with an unpleasant feeling. I can barely lie still and talk.

　After telling the doctor about his condition, Blanca looked at me.

'If that guy (Keio) was at least half as interesting as you, I would have won the last competition...'

　As Blanca blurted that out, I asked her one more thing that was bothering me.

'Why did Ash lose last time? There's almost no difference between the two in my eyes... or rather, Ash looked slightly stronger.

'That's simply because Keio was stronger last time. There was a clear difference in strength between him and Ash. But this time, he's beaten me, albeit slightly, and at this rate, I'm sure the gap between me and Ash will widen next year. I would have liked to have fought him for real this time if it was Ash...

　Blanca says as she spits. The bottom line is that Kayos didn't train, and Ash didn't lack for training. And for Blanca, 'fighting the powerful' is his favorite, and moreover, 'interesting (to Blanca) battles with the powerful' is his favorite. However, there is a condition: 'except for the fools'. Kayos is stuck on that condition and he doesn't want to get serious about it.

The fight with you on that point was a lot of fun. After all, it was the first time in years that I went to kill you for real, and instead of finishing you off, I got beaten back.

　Blanca laughed, sounding very happy and very ferocious as she said this....
　When Blanca realized that me and the doctor had pulled away, she hurriedly turned her face back to normal.

'Well, I was kidding about him going to kill you or something, but it was fun.

　The joke may be a lie, but it seems to be true that it was interesting. And from the atmosphere, he doesn't seem to be holding a grudge, especially about wandering the border between life and death.

　At that moment, there was a loud cheer from the arena. It seemed that the Bandit King's match had begun.

''I'll be back then.

　I had to check out the Bandit King's game, so I headed to the door of the treatment room.

''Oh! Come on!

　I answered Blanca's voice from behind me, raising my hand lightly as I ran out the door and ran straight to where I could see the game.

　I was in quite a hurry, but the match was almost over. The Bandit King's opponent was one of the few pure wizards in this tournament (the only one in the main competition), and he was said to be a reasonably famous adventurer.
　However, the Bandit King seemed to have attacked before he was able to eat the magic, and his opponent had wounds all over his body.

''Gehoho!''

　In the meantime, the Bandit King's stone-thrusting thrust hit his opponent in the abdomen and sent him flying out of the arena.
　Feeling like a winner, the Bandit King turned his back on his opponent and walked out to the center of the fighting table.
　However, the match was not completely decided. The victory or defeat had been decided, but the opponent's magic attack had been unleashed.

　The opposing wizard seemed to be injured and was about to unleash his magic, which was completed when he was sent out of the field by the Bandit King.
　The magic itself was a more powerful version of the fireball, but the careless bandit king was caught off guard by the attack, which grazed his back.

　The Bandit King fell a little exaggeratedly. Fortunately, the tiger fur that the Bandit King is equipped with seemed to have magic resistance, and the fur didn't catch fire, but the Bandit King went back to the waiting room, looking a little embarrassed.
　Afterwards, the referees gathered and conferred, but it was decided that the current magic attack was considered to have been triggered by the supposed attack and did not constitute a punitive action.

　Next up was Jin's match, and since his opponent seemed to be much lower in rank than Jin and seemed happy to have come this far, he decided to go back to the waiting room, thinking that Jin would win anyway. As expected, Jin won the match in a landslide.　

　On the way back to the waiting room, I met a smiling Keos. It seems he was waiting for me.

''Hey, you little bastard. You're going to have to drop out of the next fight. Your arm still hurts anyway, right?

　Kayos started to say something joking, so I ignored him and tried to walk past him, but he came around to the front.

'Don't ignore me, man. I'm just saying it out of kindness, you know. After all, if you kill a stone or something, you'll regret it for at least a day, no matter how much I am!

　Kayos is getting excited and laughing a lot by himself on his own. I was about to walk past Keios, thinking, "Here we go again........

'You still haven't heard my answer!

　Kayos suddenly shouted and tried to grab me, so I shifted halfway out of his grasp.
　When I moved out of the distance to face him while Kayos was swinging blankly, Kayos, who didn't like my attitude, seemed to manage to restrain himself from jumping on me, even though he had a blue streak on his forehead.

'You little bastard lickin' bastard you'll remember that when this tournament is over! When this tournament is over, I'm going to be a nobleman! Then your ... well, as I recall, your cronies were full of women ... then I'll f*ck them right in front of you! You're looking forward to it!

　Kayos let out a laugh and was enjoying himself. Honestly, I was confident that if I cut Cayos off here, I could take care of him without leaving any evidence that I killed him. In fact, I would have acted if I hadn't heard the crowd cheering and kept my cool. That's how angry I was at this man's (Keos) words.

　Kayos didn't notice my killing intent and was still sneering.
　Just then, Jin, who had just finished his match, walked by and immediately noticed my murderous intent.

''Hey, hey, hey! Tenma, calm down! I don't know what happened ... but just calm down!

　On his way to stop me, Jin saw Keios and guessed that Keios had done (or said) something stupid, so he grabbed my arm and pulled me into the waiting room.
　I followed Jin without any resistance, and Keos laughed again, as if he thought I had gotten help and escaped from this place.

''It's a good thing you're here to pick me up~! But they can't help you in the game!

　My anger cooled a bit at that sickening language. In the meantime, Jin had sped up his speed to pull me towards the waiting room.