“Place your bets, place your bets, who will win? The Boss or Prince Of Magic? Place your bets, place your bets….”
“Safe bet, safe bet, place your money on the boss, number one pick of the open round, guaranteed semi finalist. Safe bet, safe bet”
“All bet amounts accepted up to 10,000 gold! No receipt needed. 100% trusted, better returns than the official channels”
Before the fight began, the uprising guild members began doing their work within the crowd, gathering betting money from audience members and placing them all on The Boss in official channels.
The amount of money they gathered and bet with seemed to be steadily rising alongside every round, as more and more people seemed to be trusting their illegal betting channels.
Those who got a taste for winning, now gambled with more money for a better kick, while those who lost money gambled to cover their losses.
Overall, business was booming and so was their reputation in the underworld circles.
Today’s fight was an interesting one, as The Boss was scheduled to face a magical swordsman as an opponent.
Hailed as geniuses, these individuals were rare and considered national treasures and the opponent that Leo was especially facing today was a man named ‘Bonucci’ who was hailed as the ‘Prince Of Magic’ within the magic academy for his immeasurable talent.
For the first time ever, the bets made against The Boss winning surpassed the bets made in favor of The Boss winning, as if Leo won, the uprising stood to gain nearly 600,000 gold coins from this single fight alone.
“The Boss will win right? I mean…. We won’t lose all our money today right? The popular sentiment seems to be against him”
“Don’t worry, the opponent is an NPC, ain’t no NPC beating The Boss, he’s the GOAT”
“We will be fine, just enjoy and count the money”
Some of the Uprising members were anxious about this fight, while some were confident in The Boss’s skill to win, however, for the wider audience, this was one of those fights that they were the most excited to see.
**********
( The warm-up area )
Everyone could sense The Boss’s murderous intent within the warm-up area, as although he was cold and aloof in general, today he seemed especially unapproachable and on the edge, as if he were ready to kill anyone that annoyed him.
“Hey, I’m Bonucci, your opponent today. I’ve seen one of your fights in the round of 256, I’m a big fan” his opponent said politely as he came to shake hands with Leo before the fight, however, Leo was not interested.
“Fuck off-” Leo said without a hint of emotion in his voice, as Bonucci’s face visibly soured.
He wanted to fight his opponent without having any hard feelings, however, it seemed impossible to do so when his opponent was being such an asshole.
“Alright, please pay attention here” the match referee said, entering the room, as he began explaining the rules for the fight today.
“There will be swinging battle rams within the stadium and while being hit by it won’t mean automatic elimination, should you be knocked off the arena by the swinging rams, you will lose the fight.
Apart from being knocked outside the ring, you can also lose the fight by incapacitation and submission, as you are allowed to duel without restrictions.
Although injuring or maiming your opponent in this round won’t mean automatic disqualification, killing will.
So beware of how far you take your attacks.
Also, in my personal capacity as a referee, I must say that I won’t appreciate attacks aimed at permanently maiming an opponent, you get it?” He asked, as all the contestants present within the warm up area nodded in understanding.
“The battle rams are big and heavy and shall swing throughout the fight at a constant pace.
To give you an estimate of how dangerous they are, let me tell you that a master knight tried to block it’s blow using his shield and even a master was forced to take a step back to mitigate the complete impact.
Trying to block and incoming Ram will be almost suicidal, so don’t try it” The match official warned, as Leo scoffed in his head listening to this warning.
If Leo really wanted to disable the battle rams, he would not try to block the rams themselves but would rather try to break the high tensile rods holding them in place.
While stopping the rods is difficult, snapping the cords holding them is not impossible and can be done tactically when necessary.
“Does anyone have any questions?” The referee asked, as he waited for any doubts to be raised, however, there were none.
“Alright, since there are no doubts, contestants Fang Po and Tin Tin head to the fighting arena. The two of you are the first one’s scheduled to fight today” the referee said, as two contestants walked out to the arena amidst a thunderous applause of the crowd.
For the first time ever, Leo was not fighting first and had the luxury of observing the new arena and others fighting before him, as he marveled at the complex pulleys and lever system that slowly put all the battle rams into a sync motion after the contestants had taken their designated spots.
Once all the battle rams began swinging at full speed, the visual was indeed very concerning as one mistake could see one being flattened like a pancake, however, the danger of the arena kept the crowd on their feet as they absolutely loved this concept.
In this way, humans were an odd creature, because for as long as they were not the ones forced to put their own lives on the line, they enjoyed watching others do the same.