Enlightened Violence 63

Chapter 63: The Tournament.

(Author's note: the first part of this chapter, between the first two "..." is a continuation to the previous chapter because it came out kinda short. I already added it to that chapter, but I decided to add it into this one just in case anyone missed it)

...

It didn't take me long to find Clark, as he usually hung around in his little office room, surrounded by paperwork, as he goes the reports of the various missions my Phoenix Wings go through on a daily basis.

I had already introduced him to Charmaine's subordinates, who were responsible for delegating missions, and let him handle the assignment of our members.

And he proved more than capable of doing that as he used his ability to calculate the chances of success for said missions, anticipate potential risks, and choose the most suitable person for the job, but that is neither here nor there.

"Clark," I greeted in a neutral tone as I stepped into his office.

"Boss," Clark greeted with a nod as he raised his head that was buried in paperwork, nodding at me with a deadpan expression. "What can I do for you?" he asked in a curious tone, seemingly confused as to why I'm visiting him right now, as I rarely do so.

"Billy awakened an ability, and I'll be needing the training room to test it tomorrow," I said while gesturing with my hand in the training room's direction.

The training room in question was actually a simple storage room that came with the compound, but we needed someplace for our members to train and release some steam, so we proposed it into a training room after enforcing the walls.

"Hmm, so that's why he was sick for the past day..." Clark said with a thoughtful expression. "At any rate, how soon do you need it? Because I was planning to start a fighting tournament between the Phoenix Wings members, and it's scheduled for tomorrow..." he added, trailing at the end of his sentence as he resumed his deadpan expression.

"Oh, yeah, I almost forgot about that," I said with a sigh, rubbing my forehead. "Then I guess testing Billy's ability will have to wait for the day after tomorrow," I added with a shrug.

"Very well, then. I'll have it ready for your use after the tournament," Clark said with a nod as he buried his head back into the paperwork.

"Good. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to get some sleep," I concluded as I turned around and left.

...

"So, who do you think is going to win?" Briar asked with a grin as she sat next to Kaden in the compound's training room.

Briar, Kaden, and other senior members of the Phoenix wings were seated on a slightly elevated platform, overlooking the simple fighting ring they had set up for the tournament as they got ready to spectate it.

"Probably Arden," Kaden replied with a shrug, his eyes flashing as he surveyed the contestants, finally settling on Link. 

Though Kaden tried to convince Arden otherwise, the battle-hungry man was adamant about participating, making Kaden helpless to do anything other than getting a promise from him not to go overboard. 

"But I can't say for sure until the tournament come's to a conclusion," Kaden added, his eyes lingering on Link for a couple of seconds as he resumed gazing at the others, looking for any sign-in irregularity.

"Oh, you think that Link guy has a chance?" Briar asked, raising an eyebrow as she noticed Kaden glancing at Link while speaking, understanding what he was hinting.

"Maybe, but that's not all...," Kaden replied, trailing at the end of his sentence. "None of the people who survived the game are average joes," he added with a grin. 

"I hardly believe Link is the only one who's more than meets the eyes," He remarked, shaking his head with a sigh. "But that's one of the reasons we've created this tournament in the first place," he concluded with a grin. 

Other than the obvious reasons, someone would make such a tournament, such as creating a competitive atmosphere among the group members, getting a better idea of everyone's abilities, and raising morale. The competition was a chance for anyone hiding his abilities for one reason or the other to display them.

Kaden knew that there were bound to be one or two, possibly more people from the original survivors, who were taking a wait-and-see attitude regarding the group. 

In fact, Kaden already knew that someone other than Link was hiding his abilities thanks to reading that person's status screen, and he did the same with all of the Phoenix Wings, be it the original members or the new recruits after Link's incident back in Marcus's night club.

And despite not finding any irregularities besides Link and that particular person, he still decided not to rely on the system-provided information entirely because of his overthinking nature.

That said, Kaden hoped the steady pace the Phoenix Wings were growing at would be ample enough for those people to drop their wait and see attitudes and wholeheartedly support the group. 

And the tournament would be the perfect chance for such people to step out of the shadows and showcase whatever abilities they were hiding, so he gave everyone a day off to make sure everyone who wanted to take part would be able to do so.

"It's always one scheme after the other with you, Kaden," Vilhelm commented from the side with a frown. "When will it ever end...?" He asked with a sigh, shaking his head. 

"It's thanks to those schemes that you escaped the game without getting caught by the OWR agents," Clark said from the side in an indifferent tone, seemingly hinting at something. "So you might want to think twice before uttering such nonsense," he concluded, adjusting his glasses. 

"Don't test my patience, or else, Corp City scum..." Vilhelm growled in a low tone as he turned to look at Clark with murder in his eyes. 

"I know exactly what happens to people who test your patience," Clark replied in a calm tone. "But I'm not afraid of you, Butcher Of-" Clark added, suddenly going quiet as I cleared my throat. 

"Enough," I said with a frown, gesturing with my hand to the side. "Stop making fools out of yourselves in front of everyone," I added while gesturing at several Phoenix wings, who were secretly stealing glances at the quarreling duo, causing them to turn around in panic.

"We'll talk about whatever you two have against each other at a later date, but we have better things to focus on right now," I concluded with a neutral expression, and Vilhelm merely growled again, going quiet, while Clark just shrugged his shoulders.

That wasn't the first time Clark and Vilhelm disagreed, as were they almost solar opposites. Clark had little personal strength, and he usually favored whatever approach that would use the least amount of force possible when solving problems, while Vilhelm was the exact opposite.

Vilhelm was considerably strong, and he took pride in that, usually preferring to use violence and brute strength to solve most problems, and he was particularly good at that.

So it was to no one's surprise these two would butt heads at every chance they get during strategy meetings and their own time whenever they run into each other, especially since Clark seems to know something about Vilhelm's past, but that is neither here nor there.

"You're up, Briar," Kaden said as he turned to look at Briar, causing her to shrug her shoulders in disappointment as she seemed to be looking forward to enjoying the drama between Clark and Vilhelm.

"Awe, and here I was about to get some popcorn to enjoy the show..." Briar said with a pout. However, she quickly got over it. 

"Oh well," she remarked with a grin as she jumped down from the elevated platform, making her way towards the ring. 

She stood in the middle of the ring and transformed both of her arms into metallic blades, scraping them against another to create a loud screeching noise that got everyone's attention. 

"Alright, people, I'm going to announce the rules, so pay attention because I will not repeat myself," Briar exclaimed after getting everyone's attention, standing akimbo as she looked down on the tournament contestants.

"There are 46 contestants, so we'll randomly split you into three groups of 15 people each," she said, letting go of her waist as she raised three fingers. 

"Each group will take turns to participate in a free-for-all battle between its 15 members, with the last person standing becoming the winner," she explained, pausing and waiting to see if anyone had any questions, which someone did.

"You there with the funny nose!" She remarked while pointing towards a contestant, raising his hand, causing the man to touch his nose in bewilderment.

"But we're 46, and splitting us into three groups of 15 would leave out one person..." The participant, one of the new recruits who decided to participate in the tournament, remarked while awkwardly rubbing his nose.

"Oh, so you know math. Congratulations!" Briar sarcastically said with a mock appreciative nod, causing the man's eyes to twitch. "But your incredible mathematical Prowers aside, the last person will be qualified to participate in the semi-finals without taking part in the free for all," she added, gesturing with her hand to the side. 

"But isn't that unfair...?" the same recruit asked in a hesitant tone. 

"Well, the person who will be automatically qualifying to the semi-finals is Arden," Briar replied with a smirk while gesturing towards Arden, who had an annoyed look on his face. 

"He'll just win the free-for-all, no matter what group we put him in, and ruin everyone's chance to showcase their abilities," Briar added with a snort. "So we decided to have him automatically qualify to make things fair for everyone else... any other questions?" she concluded, pausing again to see if anyone else had any question.

Having Arden automatically qualify to the semi-finals was the middle ground Kaden managed to make the battle-hungry man settle for after great effort, as he merely wanted to participate for the sake of fighting and nothing else.

"The lanky one with the funny hair!" Briar exclaimed while gesturing towards a participant with spikey black hair.

"Well, if it's unfair to have him take part in the tournament, then why is he doing just that...?" the participant, one of the original survivors, asked while self consciously touching his hair.

"Just look at that face!" Briar said while pointing towards Arden, who had already stopped listening at some point and started polishing his axes with a creepy smile. 

"He gave Kaden puppy eyes, and you can't exactly say no to that!" she added with a chuckle, causing everyone's eyes to twitch. "Any other questions?" she asked, again pausing as she waited for more questions. 

"Good!" Briar exclaimed with a nod as no one raised their hands again, uncaring if the participants didn't ask any because they didn't want to get roasted or if they didn't ask because they didn't have any questions.

"We'll use a custom app to decide the groups randomly, and the first fight will start in thirty minutes," Briar explained while gesturing with her hands to the side. 

"So go jerk yourselves off, warm up, or whatever until then..." she concluded while shooing everyone off as she jumped off the stage. And the participants immediately began murmuring among themselves, likely discussing the tournament.