Zero No Tsukaima Fan Fiction ❯ Zero no Tsukaima The Holy Knights ❯ Chapter 4

Month Later

 

Gen opens the door to his wards room once again with a bucket of water just like all the times before, “You awake Seth?” No response urges Gen to bring the bucket back but a hand suddenly snatches the bucket of cold water away. Gen turns around and a splash of water hits him in his upper chest.

Seth puts the bucket down on the floor, “Morning Master Gen.”

Gen wipes a few long white strands of hair form his face, “You'll pay for that later Seth?”

Seth smiles and helps his Master to his feet, “I kinda figured that but it was worth it.” Gen grabs a towel and wipes off his face. “So Master what are we doing today?”

Gen re-ties his long hair back and changes his shirt, “Today is a very special day Seth, today is Strongest Day.”

“I don't understand, I mean I know this place is called Strongest Town but what is Strongest Day?”

Gen sits down at the small wooden table in the middle of the room, “Strongest Day is the day of our town wide tournament. The idea of this tournament is to see who has the most strength and cunning and that person will be the leader of the town until the next tournament.” Seth sits down across from his Master, “I have entered you in the tournament as my representative.”

“You can do that?”

Gen smiles and puts his hand under his chin, “Well I won the last tournament so I pulled a few strings.”

Seth's eyes grow wide, “In all this time you never told me that!?”

Gen smoothly says, “It never came up.”

Seth gets up from his seat and pushes in his chair, “So when does the tornament start?”

Just as smoothly Gen looks up into the green eyes of his student, “About fifteen minutes....”

The news catches Seth off guard and he runs into his room. A few minutes later Seth comes out wearing black pants, his own black and white chuck talors, and a black sleeveless shirt showing off his better toned body. Seth looks at his arms and the rest of his body, “I can't believe that in just a month you have made me into what I am now.” Gen smiles and nods, “Master you said before when we first met that out of one hundred levels I was a five, how high have I acended?”

Gen stands up and scratches at his forehead, “I'd say.......six”

Seth practically falls over, “What!?”

“I haven't fought you since that night, all I've done is train you.” Gen slides his chair in and wave for Seth to follow him out the door. The whole way to the center of town Seth is harping at Gen about how could he only have progress from five to six. Before Seth realizes it he is standing in front of a big board that has a majority of the men's names in the whole town.

“Wow......Hey wait, Tristin isn't in the tournament?”

Gen puts his hand on Seth's shoulder, “This town is rare in that nobels or mages don't get special treatment. Tristin knows that he isn't allowed to enter because of his use of magic. Besides I think he has found himself happy to be the right hand man.”

“What do you mean?”

“Because of his familiar, his natural fighting skills, and his ability to use magic and deal with other nobles he has garnered the reputation to be a shoe in for the second in command under the town leader.” Gen looks over the crowd and finds that Tristin is sitting in the front row, “He is an invaluable asset to this town, but certain rules must never be broken.”

Seth nods and notices that on the board he is going against the biggest man in the whole village first, “Ah shit, that sucks.”

“Seth any enemy can be beaten if you try hard enough, no defense is impenetrable.”

Seth nods and a man calls his name from the stage that the fight is taking place on.

Seth puts his gauntles on and jumps up onto the stage, as he is walking towards the ref, he looks forward at Gray the most muscular man in the whole town. Seth never faught him but he has seen his fists shatter stone. A bead of sweat falls down his forehead. Gray starts laugh as the ref says the two rules, “No killing, if you fall off the stage you lose.”

Seth nods and Gray lets out another hardy laugh. The ref runs off the stage and a bell rings before Seth is ready. Gray slams his fist into Seth's gut dropping him to the ground coughing and hacking for air. Gray picks Seth up and throws him to the edge of the stage. Seth quickly gets back to his feet and finds the hulking man overly intimidating. Gray runs at Seth and swings Seth ducks under the punch but gets a back hand from Gray's left hand. The blow sends Seth sliding along the edge of the stage. Seth kips up to his feet and wipes the blood from his mouth. Grey starts laughing again. As he is laugh Seth runs towards him and flips over the six foot man and punches him square in the forehead. The giant man falls to his knees.

'no matter how muscular his body is his head wil still be just as vonerable'

Seth spins and slams the heel of his foot against the side of Gray's head. Gray gets back to his feet and swings trying to connect with another back hand but Seth ducks again.

“GOTCHA!!!!”

Gray raps his tree trunk like arms around Seth's body and begins to squeeze the air right out of him. Gray slowly begins to intensify the pressue of his bear hug. Seth begins breathing very shallowly and final stops and Gray drops him. As the ref is getting back on the stage Seth rolls back onto his feet and shoulder tackles Gray knocking him off the edge of the stage. The crowd is completely silent, Seth just not only tricked Gray but legally beat him.

The silence continues until Gray starts laughing his big hardy laugh again, “Well done boy, you sure are a strange one, GAH HA HAHAHAHAHA!” The crowd starts claping and cheering for both of them.

Seth slowly gingerly gets off the stage wincing as he lands on the ground. Gen walks up to him and has a frown cemented in his face, “Master?”

Gen's frown turns in a big smile, “Well done, I wasn't sure if you'd win, but I am happily proved wrong.”

Seth smirks but doesn't say anything he just sits down and holds his gut where Gray first hit him. After four other matches the ref calls for Seth again, he stands up and is pleased to find that a majority of the pain has gone away.

Seth stands in the middle of the stage opposite to a young man Seth had seen many times outside of the town farming.

The ref quickly gets off the stage and the bell rings. Seth tries to take advantage like Gray did but the man pushes down on Seth's incoming fist making him loose his balance and fall onto his face. Seth quickly gets to his feet and tries to connects with a spinning kick but the farmer ducks and slides forward. The man jumps as Seth's leg is over his left sholder and once again knocks Seth to the ground. Seth slowly gets up this time and waits for the farmer to attack, he doesn't... Seth slowly walks towards the man, every step calculated. As soon as he is within range Seth tries to connect with a right crossing punch but the man pushes the fist and Seth falls to the ground. This time Seth plants his hand and just like Gen did to him, mule kicks the farmer in the gut. The farmer stumbles back and Seth quickly gets back to his feet and jumps forward. Using gravity to give him momentum Seth connects with his elbow knocking the slender farmer head over heals and down hard on his face. Seth turns back to the fallen farmer still ready for him to rise......he doesn't.

The ref runs in and whispers to the farmer. The farmer shakes his head and the ref calls the match, Seth wins via unable to continue.

Seth hops off the stage and finds Gen sitting next to Tristin, “Hey Tristin how have you been?”

Tristin looks over Seth and scoffs, “You won't win.”

Seth figures that Tristin is mad because his hawk has been gone for a whole month trying to find the village that Seth was abducted from, “So Master, how was that?”

Gen smiles and looks at his pupil, “Tristin is right.” Seth is completely demoralized and sits beside Gen and stays quiet.

As the tournament continues Seth defeats challenger after challenger until he is in the last match to determine the leader of the village. Something seemed way to easy as the tournament continued. After the first two rounds all the challengers where much easier, not because they were fatigued, but something else seemed very worng.

Seth stands face to face with a man a good two feet taller and easily two hundred pounds heavyier, “No matter you made it to the finals.”

“Time to teach you a lesson boy.” The bell rings and the behemoth jumps off the stage. The ref calls a ring out and Seth is standing before a majority of the town completely dumb-struck.

“I just won the tournament......I can't lead a town.”

“You won't have to,” Gen stands up and hops onto the stage, as he rolls up his sleeves he looks at Seth who is more than just a little confused, “I am your final oponent.”

“Master? But you weren't even in the tournament.”

“The leader of the town is the final challeger in the tournament, to become leader you must be able to overcome many things this tournament tests one over thing that I didn't mention, your will to survive.” Gen finishes rolling up his first sleeve and starts on the second, “Why do you think it was becoming easier, that last man was happy to be third in the village, but he knew that I would win.”

Seth can't belive what he is hearing, “Why did you lie to me? You could have just fought me like the time before.”

Gen finishes and drops into his stance, “I don't fight for no reason.” Gen hops backwards and thrusts off the ground launching himself at Seth.

Seth dodges some of the attack but Gen manages to connect with an elbow strike to his side. Seth rolls to his feet and jumps as high as he can. Gen stops skidding and looks up as Seth flips forward and slams his leg down onto Gen's blocking forearm. Gen doesn't faulter and pushes Seth off making him backflip to his feet. Gen lands seven palm strikes to his chest and ends the combo with a spinning back hand knocking Seth down to his knee. Before Seth can get up the rest of the way Gen connects with a spin kick and knockes Seth over the rest of the way. Gen kneals down and picks Seth up by the color of his shirt and drops him onto his feet. Seth looks at him confused, but quickly shakes the confusion and tries to connect with a straight left punch. Gen dodges and catches his wrist leaving Seth wide open. Gen whips his foot up and begins to pummel Seth with a flurry of kicks. Seth falls to his knees and tries to block as much of the attack as possible. Gen jumps over Seth still holding his wrist, as Gen lands behind Seth he yanks on his arm pulling him over onto his back. Gen flips backwards and lifts his legs so that his knees will land on Seth's chest. Seth quickly rolls backwards barely dodging the knees. Seth grabs hold of Gen's shoulders and falls backwards throwning Gen backwards into the ground. Gen hops back to his feet and charges at Seth. Gen feints a right hook and slams his left forearm into Seth's chest. Seth falls backwards but pushes off the ground with his hands and flips behind Gen as he turns around. Seth drop kicks Gen in the back making him stumble forward. Seth charges at Seth but suddenly stops as a light catches his attention.

Gen stands up and looks at Seth who is looking at his left biscep, “Seth! Pay attention.” Gen charges forward until he notices what Seth is looking at, strange glowing makings on his arm.

“Master what is this?” Seth looks at Gen, turning so that the rest of the crowd can see his arm.

The crowd starts booing and looks like they are about to rush the stage. Gen stands in front of Seth with his arms spread out.

“Seth what is that?”

Seth tries to reason, “I don't know this has only happened once or twice, I don't know what it is!”

Gen nods and turns back to the crowd, “You all will stop, I won't have you treating this boy this way.” The crowd slowly quiets down, “Seth you said you don't know what that is right.”

“Yes!”

“I believe you, and all of you should as well. What reason would he have to lie to us?” A strange sound echos from above the crowd.

Tristin's familiar swoops through the crowd until it finds and lands on Tristin. He looks at the note tied to its leg and nods at Gen.

Gen looks back over the crowd, “He won't be staying here much longer anyway.”