Hitman with a Badass System

"Now the tournament committee will provide our audience with Revitalizing pills," Ishihara said,

"After taking this pill, you will feel rested and refreshed. There were several complaints about fights in inns and taverns between youngsters" The people heard James Hall

"Can you believe two noble families went extinct because the youngsters in their families couldn't wait until the chairs became available?" James Hall sighed,

"Unfortunately it happens all over the world. The family power clouds many youngsters' minds so they pick fights with the wrong people. There are many rogue cultivators in this world who are stronger than strongest families in some kingdoms"

Michael continued to listen to the commentators' blabber about the young masters and how they got their asses kicked and families destroyed. Meanwhile, the coordinators flew around the arena sending small emerald-colored round pills to the audience. Everyone including the cultivators got a pill.

Claire helped Cindy swallow the pill. The very next moment Condy swallowed the pill, the dark circles formed under her eyes due to lack of sleep faded away. Her face lit up like someone put a candle inside her mind. With newfound energy, Cindy started to clap her hands joyfully.

In a couple of minutes, the entire arena erupted in cheers as they did at the beginning of the tournament.

"In a few more minutes, we will begin the second round of the Body Strengthening stage championship" Darius' voice calmed down the people.

The people leaned forward on their seats,

"The second round of the tournament will be just like the first round with one simple change. In the second round, participants can use a weapon of their choice. But they can't change their weapons middle of the battle, you pick it, you stick with it"

"Can this weapon have runes?" Ishihara asked Darius,

"The committee had a long talk about runes but ultimately decided not to let the participants take rune placed weapons"

If it was before, Michael would have been worried about weapons with runes. After upgrading spells and skills, unless a participant had a Legendary weapon or used a legendary spell, Michael would be invincible among the Core Formation warriors.

"Remind me when my turn comes"

Unlike the rest, Michael leaned back on his chair. He took out the book he bought from Lord Information and started to read it.

"The 40 participants who qualified for the second round will be divided into four groups of ten. Among the ten, each of them will fight another participant in their group. It'll be one on one battle" James Hall described the format of the second round.

"How does the elimination process work?" Ishihara asked,

"A participant must make his or her opponent surrender or knockout to win the battle. Remember that the part of a battle experience is knowing when to back down, many famous cultivators had surrendered in their life to live to fight another day. There is no shame in surrendering"  Michael knew Darius's words were true yet he doubted these thick-headed young masters and young misses would choose to surrender. Many of them would rather die than surrender, for them surrendering was a shame.

"Yes, surrendering might just save your life because coordinators can't always swoop down and save you in time," James Hall said,

"If death were to occur, the families and sects are prohibited to harm the participant in any way. If any harm is to fall on the participant by the victim's family or sect, the Guardian Guild will take it as an action against them and come at you with full force" When everyone thought Darius couldn't sound any more serious, he proved them wrong.

Michael was glad to hear Darius. This way he wouldn't worry about getting chased by the Fisher family after he kills Alex. Of course, he knew they might try to harm by other means. Nonetheless, Michael had to kill Alex, it was Alex who pushed Michael to this point by putting a contract on his head.

Also after spending some time with Lord Information, Michael began to grasp how the Grim Reapers operate. Unlike he initially thought, grim reapers wouldn't kill anyone for money. They were picking targets with weak or no power backing them. The Grim Reapers were like a hybrid of assassins and politicians. That was why the Grim Reapers had never killed a high-value target like a king or a sect leader because they knew if they did, the guild would be decimated.

"Out honored guests and the judges would decide who faces who. Now let's begin"

****************************************

Four hours passed in a blink of an eye. Currently, the audience was relatively less cherry looking at the battle stage. On the stage, a man wearing silver knight armor was mopping the floor with the youngster in brown leather armor.

"Why aren't you surrendering?" Everyone heard the youngster in knight armor grunting. He lifted the golden-haired youngster by the neck and kept punching him in the face.

"This has stopped being a battle a long time ago. Why isn't he surrendering?" Ishihara's voice didn't sound as cheery as always. She felt pity for the golden-haired youngster.

"It was obvious Andrews lacks real battle experience but you don't need to be forged in a battlefield to realize when to back down and surrender"

"You're right James. Sir Galahar is offering the chance for Andrews to surrender. If anyone else was in Sir Galahar's shoes, Andrews might have lost his life by now"

"Why is he not surrendering?" Claire's voice was filled with concern and pity.

"Love" Michael mumbled under his breath looking at Princess Katherin on the stage. The princess's clenched fist and shaking hands were obvious signs of her being in love with Andrews. Otherwise, why should a princess look so pale and gloomy looking at Andrews bleeding on the stage? Michael lived long enough to differentiate pity from love.

The beating had been going on for almost half an hour. Michael was surprised by Andrews's ability to take the beating. At first, Michael thought he would lose consciousness after being beaten for ten minutes but he was proven wrong.

"Arghhh" after beating the crap out of Andrews, the knight started to lose his cool. He grunted before throwing Andrews a few meters away from him. Galahar's red-haired fluttered in the wind while the smile he wore on his face was nowhere to be seen.

While losing his patience, Galahr failed to notice Andrew grab the hilt of his sword lying beside him. Andrews rolled over to the side hiding the sword in his hand from Galahar's eyesight.

"I'm going to stop the fight" Emelda couldn't watch Andrews getting beaten to death anymore. She stood up from her seat, tears rolling down on her face.

Cling!

Pulch!

Suddenly a sound of metal hitting metal reverberated in the arena followed by the sound of flesh getting stabbed. Emelda wiped off the tears to make her eyesight clear. When her eyesight cleared, she saw Andrews hanging by Galahar's hand in the air but Galahar had a sword sticking through his throat.

Everything happened so fast. At first, Galahr lifted Andrews by his neck, as usual, this time everyone thought Galahr was gonna break Andrews's neck. In the heat of anger, Galahr failed to notice the sword Andrews's hiding behind his back. When Galahr lifted Andrews up, Andrews used the momentum to stab Galahr in the throat.

"Argh"

Galahar let go of Andrews as he tried to get the sword out of his throat. However, the sword was too deep and before he could muster enough strength to pull out the sword, Galahar's body gave up on him. He fell to the ground while blood gushed out of the throat. In a few moments, Galahar stopped moving once and for all.

The coordinators landed on the battle stage, it was too late though. After checking for a pulse, the coordinators shook their heads,

"Dead"

"Andrews Winston wins"

The crowd erupted into cheers the moment the coordinators announced. Many were still in shock, slowly letting the fact that Andrews, who was barely alive, was able to defeat a knight.

Even Michael couldn't help giving a nod of approval at Andrews.

"Give him a healing potion!" Princess Katherin's sudden shout stunned everyone. But most of them thought it was a princess's gentle heart that made her care for Andrews.

************************************

It was almost midnight when the Core Formation stage championship had only one fight remaining. Before announcing the last fight,  yet again the coordinators awarded the audience with Revitalizing pills for the crowd. Even without taking the pills, the crowd was so excited for the last fight because only two participants remained to battle - Ghost and Alex.

"Now it's time for the final battle of round two, the battle everyone including myself is looking forward to" James Hall sounded excited, just like the crowd.

"Participants Ghost and Alex, please come to the battle stage"

"Ghost!"

"Ghost!"

"Ghost!"

"Ghost!"

"Ghost!"

"Alex!"

"Alex!"

"Alex!"

"Alex!"

"Alex!"

Both the fans of Ghost and Alex shook the arena with their thunderous cheers. Soon the cheering turned into a competition of who's cheers sounded louder.  Under their thunderous cheers, Michael and Alex landed on the battlefield with a smile on their faces.

Alex took out a long golden spear from his back while Michael remained still. The coordinators flicked their wrists as Michael felt a warm air brushing past him. It was the runes placed on the battleground scanning him for hidden weapons or weapons with runes.

Looking at Michael, Alex let out a cold smile,

"It's time we finish our little dispute"

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