Bennett’s POV

  Honestly, I thought it’d be harder. People keep calling me lucky like I just stumbled into the finals. There are only a few matches left before the last round, but after seeing how my remaining opponents fight, it looks like a clean sweep.

  Still, I’m not getting cocky. That’s the easiest way to lose. Especially when I’ve been holding back.

  these weighted clothes slow me down more than most people realize.

  The next few matches go by fast. Nothing special. Mikasa and I both crushed our opponents without much effort. Yet the crowd still treats me like a fluke, a lucky idiot who slipped through the cracks. They refuse to see the difference between surviving and fighting to win.

  “Alright, that’s my match done,” I mutter under my breath, walking off the stage. “Time to get serious.”

  In the locker room, I peel off my weighted clothes.

  The shift is immediate I feel lighter, faster. Every movement is sharper now. I’ve been waiting for this moment.

  I can’t afford to underestimate Mikasa. Jason told me she’s one of the few fighters here who’s actually dangerous. The only reason he beat her, he said, was because he found the weak spot in her barrier somewhere on her back.

  He wouldn’t tell me exactly where.

  “Figure it out yourself,” he said.

  That’s fine. Just knowing the general location is enough. I’ll find it.

  Mikasa’s POV

  Ugh. Seriously?

  My final opponent is a human? Some weakling who stumbled his way to the finals on sheer luck? What a boring tournament.

  This whole thing has been a complete waste of time. Everyone here is weak, barely worth a glance. I should’ve just stayed home like my family wanted. Even my instructors would’ve been more of a challenge than these nobodies.

  Hmph.

  I smirk, already thinking about what I’ll have for dinner after I finish this joke of a match.

  “Welcome, everyone, to the final match of today between a cripple... and the one and only, Mikasa ‘THE WALL’ Arc!”

  The crowd erupts, chanting her name like a battle anthem. Mikasa stands proud, soaking in the applause like a queen on her throne. All eyes are on her.

  None are on Bennett.

  And that’s fine by him. He’s not here for glory. He’s here for the reward of the staff. Nothing else.

  “Let the match... BEGIN!”

  Mikasa smirks, eyes locked on what she assumes is her easiest win yet. But before she can taunt, Bennett dashes forward, lightning-fast, his quarterstaff already in motion.

  A sharp jab.

  She instinctively reaches to grab it but it’s gone before her fingers even twitch. The staff slams into her left side. The first layer of her dual barrier shatters, fragments of magic flickering like broken glass. The second layer holds firm, undamaged for now.

  Then comes the barrage.

  Bennett blitzes her from every angle, sides, legs, hips, back. Each hit pulses with a magic shockwave, fast and relentless. His raw speed keeps her on the defensive, her eyes struggling to track him. Every strike shatters the first layer of her shield, but the second remains solid, unbroken.

  “Heh,” Mikasa scoffs. “Keep swinging, cripple. It’s useless.”

  Bennett doesn’t reply. His expression stays calm, focused. He keeps moving, keeps hitting but now there’s method to his madness. He’s probing, testing. He’s masking his real goal behind the chaos.

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  Her back. Somewhere there, the weakness Jason mentioned.

  Suddenly, Mikasa lashes out with an uppercut her fist crashing upward like a cannon blast. Bennett narrowly dodges, the wind from her swing grazing his chin. The force throws him toward the arena’s edge, heels scraping the platform.

  “Hah! I told you, cripple it’s useless! Just lie down and take your beating, like all the other time-wasters!”

  She grins, drunk on confidence.

  But while she monologues, Bennett shifts gears.

  His mana flares through his body raw enhancement magic fueling his limbs, increasing his speed even further. In a blink, he’s on her again, staff drawn back for a strike.

  “Now ge-”

  She’s cut off mid-sentence as he slams his staff just below her nape the same place he’d grazed earlier.

  CRACK!

  The first barrier shatters, but this time the second splinters, a thin fracture breaking through her defenses.

  His eyes narrow.

  He’s found it.

  But before he can press the advantage, Mikasa's barrier-covered fist comes flying, forcing him to disengage with a quick backstep. Too close. One more second and he would've been flattened.

  Mikasa’s POV

  Mikasa doesn’t notice the subtle shift in Bennett’s attack pattern. She’s too focused on the random barrage of strikes, convinced they’re just desperate jabs from a lucky fool. Each hit, though annoying, isn’t anything she can’t handle.

  What she doesn’t realize is that Bennett isn’t throwing these punches mindlessly. He’s calculating. Each hit is deliberate, landing on the same spots, wearing down the first layer of her shield a little bit more each time.

  Mikasa, for all her strength, has been reinforcing her barrier. She knows that if she lets her guard slip, this human might actually break through, but she’s confident it won’t happen.

  Her thoughts drift to Jason the only person who’s ever managed to find her weakness.

  “Focus, Mikasa. Don’t let him get inside your head.”

  But Bennett’s persistence is starting to distract her. For a brief moment, her mind wanders, and she doesn’t notice the subtle shift in Bennett’s strategy

  Bennett’s POV

  This is it.

  Bennett sees that small slip in Mikasa’s focus. She’s still blocking most of his strikes, but there’s a subtle distraction in her posture.

  Now or never.

  He shifts into high gear, his body enhanced by magic, his speed cranking up a notch. His strikes become quicker, more precise, his moves a blur as he attempts to exploit her brief lapse in attention.

  He launches into a flurry of rapid Savage Swipes. The shockwaves ripple with each swing as he aims to break through her defenses. The first layer of her barrier shatters under his onslaught. Another hit, and the second layer trembles. It doesn’t break not yet but the cracks are visible.

  For a moment, Bennett allows himself to believe he might actually have a chance.

  “Oh my... you actually hit me.”

  Mikasa’s tone is sharp, laced with growing annoyance. It’s the first time he’s seen her angry, and it’s only a matter of time before she explodes.

  Mikasa’s POV

  Her teeth grind together in anger.

  “You little fool!”

  She can’t believe it. Another human has gotten through her barrier? This crippled fighter how dare he?

  Her rage boils over, and she abandons her calm, calculated approach. She’ll just crush him. Her fists fly in reckless abandon, each punch carrying the force of a freight train.

  She’s moving faster now, the air around her trembling with the sheer power of her blows. If one of those punches lands, Bennett is done.

  Bennett’s POV

  Stay light. Stay fast.

  Bennett’s heart is racing as Mikasa’s fists come dangerously close to him. Her power is overwhelming, but Bennett can feel the strain in his body-enhanced magic. His staff’s energy is draining fast, but he can’t afford to stop now.

  He’s dodging her punches, but he knows he’s running out of time. The first staff is nearly drained, and now he has to switch to his second staff the one with the same limited amount of magic. The only difference is that he plans to overload the Cinderfall technique, pushing it to its limit.

  One shot. Just one.

  Bennett’s plan hinges on getting Mikasa close to the edge of the arena. He needs her off-balance, and he needs her right on the edge before he can land the devastating blow.

  Normal POV

  Bennett feels the weight of the moment pressing down on him. His second staff hums in his hands, the runes glowing faintly as he prepares for the final attack.

  He knows the consequences of overloading Cinderfall. The shockwave will be stronger, but once it’s used, the staff will be drained completely he won’t be able to use it again.

  There’s no turning back.

  Bennett begins to back toward the edge of the ring, carefully maneuvering Mikasa into position. He’s pushing her, staying just out of range of her crushing blows, and his body-enhanced speed is the only thing keeping him from being obliterated by her strength.

  Her anger fuels her recklessness, and Bennett knows that’s his opening. If he can just push her far enough…

  He takes a deep breath, focusing everything on the attack that will either win him the tournament or cost him everything.

  This is it.

  Crowd's POV

  “What is happening? This match should have been lost. The guy’s cheating.”

  “Yeah, he must be cheating. No way Mikasa would be struggling like this.”

  “I agree. Just because he has some speed, he’s still a cripple. I refuse to believe he’ll win.”

  A small part of the crowd

  “Damn, the kid’s got some skills.”

  “Yeah, seems like he didn’t get this far by fluke or luck. Maybe he can surprise us.”

  Jason’s POV in the stands

  “Heh, I see what you’re doing, but be careful. One mistake, and you’re out.”

  He said, grinning as he watched the match. Every movement, every twitch, he could see it.

  Back to the match

  Bennett got hit directly, but just before he did, he managed to pull out his drained staff from earlier to block part of the hit. The staff shattered under the strength and barrier of the ogre, hitting his chest and causing him to vomit blood.

  But he stabbed the ground with the broken pieces of his staff, stopping himself just in time. He was a split second away from being taken out. He was low on energy, magic, and now had a few broken ribs, which hurt like hell. He could hear the crowd cheering, thinking he had lost.

  “Heh, finally got you, you fast bug. Now, to finish you off and show you why you’re a cripple.”

  She approaches quickly, focusing the majority of her barrier into her punch, thinking that now that she has a direct hit, I won’t be able to move.

  “TAKE THI-AGGHH!”

  Just as she was about to hit him, she saw him give her a bloodied grin and disappear. He hit her with his overloaded Cinderfall, and the force of her own forward movement pushed her off the stage, giving him the win by knocking her out of the ring.

  The quarterstaff have been switched in that split second, and has been used with an overloaded Cinderfall, shattered, leaving Bennett without his quarterstaff. The result was a win.

  The crowd is silent, surprised by the outcome. They couldn’t understand what happened. One second, she was about to finish off the cripple, and the next, she was the one out of the ring. This caused them to start shouting, accusing the cripple of cheating.

  A small portion of the crowd, however, was surprised but also grinning. This group had taken a risk and made a huge bet on Bennett, despite everyone else telling them not to. Now it was paying off. Only about 23 to 32 bets had been placed on Bennett out of the 400 people present, meaning they won big.

  Jason was surprised.

  “I see… that was unexpected. You took the hit and sacrificed your quarterstaff so she’d let her guard down. Heh, a miscalculation on my part. Well played, Bennett. As expected of someone I’ve sparred with many times. Never thought you’d sacrifice both quarterstaffs.”

  The judge was also shocked. He was about to shout Mikasa’s name as the winner, only to have to reverse it. With a hesitant tone, he said,

  “The… c-cripple… I mean, Bennett won…”

  Mikasa, on the other hand, was on the ground in a kneeling position.

  “W-what happened? How am I out of the ring? How did I lose? I’m the one who’s supposed to be on the stage, not some cripple…” she questioned herself.

  Bennett, barely conscious, whispered, “I w-won.” Then he fell to his side, unconscious. Fortunately, he had been conscious long enough for the win to be announced, so it couldn’t be renounced.

  Chapter 3 End