"Since we are holding the first match in my place then it’s only natural that I be among the first fighters!" The Gamemaster said.

The first fighters were called. The man with the white hair, Gorvo, and Zara were called.

"Yes!" Zare shouted as she was called and she looked at Thaedric smugly as if she had done something he should be jealous of.

But Thaedric was glad he wasn’t going first. He wanted to see what it all looked like and better even that it was that boy Gorvo who was fighting first– the Gamemaster’s slave fighter. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

They entered the fighting stage and at the sight of Gorvo, the crowd began to shout, higher than they did for Thaedric. They clapped and shouted his name till the whole arena shook with it.

Thaedric understood what Zara meant by what she said that Gorvo had such a hold on the crowd. They faced each other and Zara looked as if she couldn’t wait to start fighting.

Gorvo looked...Thaedric frowned. He didn’t look bored to him, more like not interested in what was happening at all. He carried a sword at his waist, his hand resting lightly on it.

"Is it me or does he look like he’d rather be in another place?" Thaedric asked.

Malak nodded and narrowed his eyes. "I don’t like him. Why doesn’t he look interested in the incoming bloodshed? A man should always look forward to blood!"

"I don’t think that’s what Thaedric meant, Malak," Urlk muttered.

"It isn’t?" He asked.

Thaedric sighed. "He’s confident in his power. Tier two rank three. Either he can’t increase his Tier through the years or he doesn’t want to. Either way, he knows his power."

The Gamemaster hovered between the two and smiled down at them, his eyes highlighted with glee. "You can fight!" Then he darted away.

Zara lurched forward immediately, right hand lifted emitting a white glow that solidified into a Grapnel that shot off at Gorvo, lashing the air.

Gorvo dodged it and the Grapnel passed by harmless but she reeled it in and the hook turned came back but he dodged it again.

"Well..." Thaedric said.

"That’s an interesting weapon," Malak said. "And made entirely of mana too. What a technique."

Grapnel is a hook with a long rope. In Zara’s case, it was made of solidified mana and the hook was pointed and sharp, as big as her palm.

"You are fast on your feet aren’t you?" Zare said. Whirling her weapon slowly.

Gorvo didn’t answer, he just kept watching her flatly, his hand still on his sword.

She sent her Grapnel snapping around like a whip trying to get him but he was like a fish in water. Her hook will get inches from his face and it won’t touch him.

The crowd was playing along. Each time she missed they would laugh. Thaedric could see that it was getting to Zara, she gritted her teeth and sent her weapon faster and faster even getting closer to him herself.

Maybe what got to her more was the way he wasn’t showing anything more than disinterest in her. She growled with each miss of her weapon.

Finally, she stood and glared at him. "Fight me!"

The crowd laughed at her even more.

Thaedric shook his head. "He’s gotten to her." Ignoring her was making her frustrated and that might not be what he planned but it was making her behave recklessly.

Malak laughed. "Even if you project chaos then your state of mind should be calm. You should be a hunter always!"

As usual, Gorvo ignored her. He looked at her calmly, his hand resting on his sword. As if she wasn’t worth his time at all.

She threw her Grapnel again and this time she didn’t draw it as it missed its target. She let the hook slammed into the floor and it sunk as if the stone floor was made of sand.

Then she jerked the weapon back and the section of the stone floor five inches deep and four feet wide was ripped apart, held by the hook.

Gorvo started to see stone coming towards him instead of a hook but he saw it in time to get out of the way. Still, the stone glazed him.

’Yes! Finally, I touch you," Zare shouted. "My weapon can reel anything in as much as it’s not stronger than me. How do you like that huh!"

She used her weapon to lurch the stone up then she snapped her grapnel in quick succession, breaking up the stone into smaller pieces. Before the pieces reached the ground she used her hook to send them to Gorvo. Projectile of stones.

Gorvo focused this time. He wove between the bullets of stones, his form bending and weaving seamlessly between them. Zare used this to her advantage and sent her weapon spinning between the stones until she got what she wanted.

She hooked Gorvo in the neck. The hook sunk into the flesh without drawing blood.

Zare laughed at the crowd as they became silent. "See that! I got him like a fish dangling at the end of my hook! He can’t do anything now! I win!"

Some of the people in the crowd shouted back that she shouldn’t celebrate before her fight was over. And some sent insults at her. But most were quite, tensed. Anticipation hung heavy on them.

"What now, Gorvo," Thaedric muttered.

"My hook will draw you to me and if you resist I can rip off your neck," Zare gloated. She showed her right hand where the other end of the grapnel ended in a small dagger. "This is it, Gorvo!"

Gorvo finally looked at her. Not like since where he seems to be looking through her. He frowned at the hook and slapped it but the weapon vibrated and sent his hand back with a small shockwave.

Zara laughed again. "It’s better not to get hit by my hook. Because you can’t get it off. If you try to shake it off by slamming or cutting it then the grapnel will double the force and send it back!"

’That’s powerful, the crime lords did bring interesting and powerful Bloodline’ Thaedric thought.

Gorvo tilted his head up and the hand on his sword tightened.