Let's Make A Bet

The whole stadium went silent. The silence was loud, not a single sound could be heard.

Especially from the Spire. The reason as to why they are so shocked is because Jack's opponent isn't some no-name; he isn't a nobody; he is a son of Lysander guild. And Jack defeated him in less than a minute.

Jack points his blade towards the spire, and with a cocky and arrogant attitude, his words can be heard throughout the stadium, "Next." It instantly broke the silence and the crowd cheered.

WOOOOW!!!

One guy began to shout and slowly the stadium erupted, mostly from the Lander side but even then, some of the Spire can't help but find it impressive but of course there some people believe that was simply a mistake or more so that he simply was lucky to manage to land a hit.

The entire Lander years saw Jack's performance, and even they couldn't believe it. They know Jack is a monster but against Spire, they thought he simply a small fish in a big pond. 

The reporter finally gets rid of her daze and quickly gives her thought about the match. "Ah, forgive me for being such a daze. It's just I can't believe my own eyes for a moment. Everything went so fast. This isn't even a fight between climbers and yet his performance is simply one. He defeated his opponent in less than a minute, but not only that, he defeated him with a simple downward slash. Ladies and gentlemans, it seems Jackson Clover will have a great career as a climber. Or was everything simply luck?"

Of course it wasn't simply luck, the reporter knew that, but she can't outwardly say it isn't. All eyes are on Jack; some audience members on the Spire side shouted to get rid of Jack and accuse him of cheating, but the announcer reassured the audience that Jack couldn't have cheated since they already prepared countermeasures in case they did cheat.

It is almost laughably pathetic, Jack can't help but let out a chuckle as he saw the whole crowd get riled up by his performance. He knew that if he did this, the whole crowd would be focusing on him. As to why he is doing this? Well, he couldn't stand seeing people mock his own kind.

He rested the blade on his shoulder and glanced at the other side and smiled to see his next opponent, this time his new opponent, is holding a spear. A long and sharp cold spear, the size is probably around 190 or 200 cm.

The spearman glares at Jack the moment he enters the arena; he doesn't look like he was amused with Jack's bold 'challenge'. "That was merely luck what you did there, Lander. Now I will show you a real challenge. Don't expect you to be lucky this time." 

Jack wanted to laugh at that stupid comment made by the spearman, but he simply let out a chuckle and discarded his sword and shield away. "Ah yes, yes. I was simply lucky. That's all. Let's see if I am lucky for a second time." This time he chose a different weapon. A long weapon that is designed to be thrust from a safe distance.

At first the spearman is confused at Jack's sudden change of weapon, but when he sees the similarity of his own weapon, the opponent grinds his teeth and grips tightly at his weapon. "You dare insult me, you filthy Lander." He is now more pissed off than before he entered the arena.

"Haha, relax, mate, relax. If you are confident you will win, then it will be no problem, right? After all, I'm simply a filthy Lander." His words are simply taunts towards his opponent, and the spearman fell for it. When the barrier veils the arena, the fight begins.

Without wasting any time, the spearman lunged forward; he thrust the spear, fully aiming towards Jack's chest. It's a simple but effective strategy. If Jack was inexperienced, he would dodge and allow the spearman to poke a hole in his defence.

But the spear stop midway. Jack let out a grin, his hand gripping the shaft of the spear and when the opponent tried to pull back, he wasn't able to.

"What the hell?" The spearman is struggling to pull his spear back, and Jack isn't even moving an inch. He tries to pull it back once again but It's like trying to pull the weapon away from a gorilla. Jack's grip is too strong. The spearman panics and sweats, he doesn't know what to do. When he looks up, a sharp metal blind his point of view.

Stab.

The spear pierces towards the spearman's face, resulting in the barrier being broken. The spearman dropped to his knee on the ground, having to faint at the 'death' he faced. Jack chuckled as he looked at his opponent, "Awww, over already? And here I thought of actually trying."

Once again, the crowd was shocked at Jack's performance, they all cheered at Jack's displays of his own strength. Not only that, the fight lasts the same as last time, under one minute. The Spire went quiet, and everyone questioned what the hell Jack is?

"Alright, next."

This time, the third opponent walked up to the arena, looking nervous about the match with Jack. Obviously he would since the two Spire students easily lose. The opponent this time is holding a curved sword and a buckler, looking cautious. Unlike the first one he faced, this opponent actually held up his shield.

Jack stared at the cautious student, a bit shorter than him; if Jack could predict what kind of person he would be inside the tower, Jack would say he would most likely be a scout. Jack thought for a moment and decided to ditch the spear, and once again, Jack chose the same weapon as his opponent. It seems the scout expected this, and figured Jack's fighting style is to mock the opponent and let their guard down so Jack can eliminate them quickly. 

"Your taunts won't work on me." The scout shouts, almost timidly.

"Haha, oh wow~ I hope this one actually uses his shield. How about you give up, boy? You look like you're gonna piss your pants."

The scout gaze is full of determination, he doesn't look like he will fall for Jack cheap provocation.

The scout waits for Jack to make the first moves. He raises his shield and grip tightly, while Jack is not even bothering to put his guard up. Even though Jack held a shield, it doesn't look like he held it properly. He is full of openings while his opponent is fully guarded.

The scout anticipated this and figured that Jack gave him the chance to attack first, and so the scout remain and wait. A minute passes; none of them are moving. Feeling irritated, Jack raised his voice. "Oi, are you going to do something? "

The scout still holds up his guard. He looked extremely focused while keeping his guard up. He doesn't want to slip up and fail and when Jack realises that the scout is not gonna attack, he rushes forward.

Jack throws his shield at the scout and it surprises the scout. He managed to block it with his own shield and the shield being thrown off the ground, the scout thought Jack might launch and so he prepared to parry it but what Jack did is completely out of his expectation.

Jack leaps forward and bashes his blade at the scout shield. It's a reckless move, and normally the move can easily leave Jack with no defence, meaning that the scout can launch a counterattack. But Jack isn't normal. Just from that attack, it manages to stagger the scout. The attack was too heavy, and not only that, after that attack, Jack kicked the scout in the stomach, pushing the scout on the ground.

It left the scout vulnerable and exposed; Jack looked down at his opponent and smiled, "It's no good to be overly cautious, but you did good. Well done." He performed a downward slash, resulting in the barrier breaking.

Jack chuckle and look at the Spire once again, "Next."

Slowly with each and every opponent Jack faces, he overwhelmed every single one of them resulting in his inevitable victory. Whatever weapon his opponent chooses, Jack chooses the same, he defeats them one by one. At first the third year Spire assumes it's all just a mind game but after 7 straight loses, the Spire realise that Jack is simply a bastard.

The number of wins slowly goes up for Jack and that also means the number of losses also goes up for the Spire. The crowd left with shock after Jack's victory over 19 people and he doesn't look exhausted. 

Sweaty Yeah, but tired, no. He smiles in confidence, proudly claiming his victory, and raises his hand in the air. With each defeat the Spire faces, the teachers of the Spire Academy are not happy. Not only that, the Spire in the audience is disappointed with the third-year performance. A lot of guild scouts didn't even look at the Spire anymore; they were more interested in the new star instead.

So in a desperate attempt, the Spire can only use their trump card in the 20th round. They're going to use their strongest guy to go last, hoping that Jack will already be exhausted and give the Spire an upper hand.

When the time came, the leader of the third year entered the arena. A bow on his right hand, a dagger on his waist and a set of arrows on its back. He appears to be much more skillful than the rest of Jack's 19 opponents. Maybe that or he is quite exhausted after handling 19 different people.

"Oh wow, the big bad finally graced me in his presence. Must be nice huh? Defeating me when I'm exhausted. I didn't expect the Spire strongest to be this cowardly. "

"Shut up with your foolish taunts. This ends now. I make you regret humiliating the Spire name and make you pay."

"Wow, am In a drama or something? Why do you cunt kept speaking like that?"

The archer glared at Jack, "Killing you won't be enough."

Jack chuckles at the archer word; he looks at the inventory, wondering if he should change weapons or not. Most of his fighting style consists of changing weapons to match his opponent; this shows Jack's ability to handle multiple weapons at once. But ultimately he decided to pick a single weapon from the inventory and pull out a simple broadsword. The archer almost falls for Jack's taunt, but he calms himself and smiles as he prepares himself. When Jack enters the arena, it is filled up by the barrier once again.

"BEGIN"

The archer throws all the arrows he has in the back quiver to the ground; he grabs one of the arrows, aiming for Jack, who is still standing still, the archer was preparing to shoot when Jack moves but instead he did something unexpected again.

"Shoot." Jack taunted the archer, and the archer didn't take kindly to Jack's mockery. He shot one of his arrows; if it hit, it would stick in Jack's face and pierce his skull and lead to Jack's 'death.' But what happened instead is that the arrow got cut in half.

The archer's eyes widen; he didn't think it was possible for a human. If Jack were a climber, the archer would believe this, but Jack is not. He is a normal human. A Lander. A person who was born outside the tower, a person with only human characteristics, and yet he kept showing the difference between them.

"The fuck are you?" The archer shouted as he kept shooting arrows after arrow.

Jack chuckled as with each arrow shot, he got much closer the distance between him and the archer. What's worse, the archer realises that Jack is simply toying with him. A cruel sight to see.

'Fuck, he just likes that brat, Orion.' The archer thought that Orion was the only exception of a monster. But now he finally realises how small-minded he really is. Inside the tower and outside the tower, the world is much bigger than the archer realises.

After a barrage of arrows being shot at him, Jack deflected them all, he chuckled a bit, out of breath, "Out of arrows?" Jack ask as he caught one arrow with his hand and snap it like a twig.

The archer clicks his tongue and quickly unsheathe his dagger but,

Stab.

Jack shove the sword inside the archer chest, he gave the archer a smile, "it seems this pathetic Lander won again, mister big shot." He slash upward, resulting in the barrier breaking.

20 straight wins in a row, Jack raises his hands up in the air and the crowd cheers for his name.

"JACKSON."

"JACKSON."

"JACKSON."

Honestly, Jack didn't expect the match to be more stamina draining than he thought. He thought the Spire might put up some challenge, but it seems he wasn't. The point is, he won, and by a large number at that. He glanced back at his group of Lander and grinned, and even the people who feared him cheered him on, some crying while some happily screaming.

The strongest Student in Lander Academy, Jack proves that he is.

But just as Jack was about to hop off the arena, a blonde challenger appeared, "Can I help you, mate?"

"Yes, I would like to challenge you."