"Alright. Stag, Sontas, please step forward." Zen motions to them.
"See? Told you we wouldn't be fighting each other." Stag pats Rom on the shoulder before heading out to the ring.
"You kidding? This kid's already injured!" Sontas points out.
"Oh, don't you worry about me." Stag raises the knife with his left hand. "I can handle myself. Besides, I'm rank 5 last I checked. And you are?"
"Not rolling over for some cocky punk." Sontas finishes.
Stag frowns, gaze becoming more focused. He's not as confident as he makes it sound, but he's determined.
"Any changes?" Zen asks.
"First one with a critical wins." Stag answers.
"Blade has to touch the skin." Sontas adds.
"You have to hold it there for at least five seconds then." Stag tightens his grip on the knife, refusing to give in even though the fear in his eyes is growing.
"Time limit?" Zen grins, Ren eagerly peeking at the fighters.
"No time limit." They both answer.
"Alright then." Zen raises his arm in the air. "Ready?"
In perfect coordination, they ready their stances.
"Fight." Zen cuts his hand through the air and backs out quickly, Stag and Sontas not waiting a second before going at it.
It's obvious to any observer that Sontas is great at using a knife, and even knowing Stag isn't, using his non-dominant hand puts him at an even bigger disadvantage. Stag is much better at dodging though, his speed out pacing Sontas by a lot. In their exchanges, it starts to gain a pattern pretty quickly. Sontas will get Stag with a critical, and Stag will get out of it within a second or two. If he hadn't added the five second rule, he'd have gone out a long time ago. Sontas keeps his cool, catching Stag over and over again while Stag runs out of steam with each evasion.
After a few minutes of this, Stag changes it up, backing away and subtly moving the knife from his left to right hand. It was so smooth, I wouldn't have noticed if his back wasn't to me. Stag acts like he still has it in his left and goes to attack. With his right hand, the knife makes contact with Sontas' chest.
"What the—" Sontas starts, Stag crying out in pain as he pushes into the attack anyway, touching the skin.
Sontas attempts to pull Stag's arm away, failing. Counting in my head, Stag gets to four seconds when we hear a loud crack. The knife stays on Sontas still.
"Was that your wrist?" Sontas screams, letting Stag go so he can back away after the fifth second. Stag collapses, bent over in agony.
"Looks like we have a winner." Zen claps a couple of times. "I almost picked you at the beginning, you know."
"You got all the good ones..." Ren mutters unhappily.
"Hey, you okay?" Sontas approaches warily.
Stag glares up at him, sweat running down the side of his face. "You heard him." He shakily lets go of his right hand, holding up his left for the prize. "I win."
"Yeah, you win." Sontas shakes his head, offering to help Stag up instead of handing over the gem. Stag takes it reluctantly. "Look, can you give the twins my coins?" Sontas points over to the side at the ones we haven't met yet. All three of them look like they should be in their mid-twenties, reaching the upper age limit for the contest.
YOU ARE READING
Assassin Skills Required - Round One
Fanfiction**Complete** Class 3-E is enlisted in a brand new contest that no one knows anything about, except that it has a large cash prize. Since Principle Asano signed off on it, they can't say no. It's an exciting reprieve from Kunugigaoka's usual discrimi...
