F-ranker Sword Saint: My Soulbound Sword is Secretly SSS-tier!-Chapter 269: Baldworthy Scare

"D-Daru! What was that?!" Elune shrieked, grasping at the roots of her hair in delighted disbelief.

The break earlier was too short, and she needed it to recover on time. This was the first chance she got to bother Daru, and she grabbed it with no second thoughts.

Cody had always told her that Daru was hiding his strength, but with no proof, it was difficult to truly believe.

She also knew who Daru Finnley was even before they first met.

However, the odds of overcoming a disastrous awakening and showing up in a prestigious academy tournament like a cataclysm were simply too unbelievable.

Yet that impossible was achieved.

How could she not be going crazy, too? Soon, Cody arrived, and the two stood very close to where he was sitting, their faces demanding explanation.

"I knew you were strong, brother, but what the hell was that?"

Daru looked at them and scratched his right cheek with his index finger. Having his private space invaded quite aggressively wasn’t uncomfortable now, but he struggled to understand their questions. Really.

"What is what?"

"THAT!" The two answered in unison, with Elune continuing: "Defeating an A-ranker in a single attack!"

Daru exhaled heavily, mildly vexed.

"I...really don’t know how to explain...I’m just a lot stronger than him, I guess?"

He was trying to come up with a better, follow-up explanation — Egress-operations style, but little did he know, what he just said was all the two needed to hear.

That already told them a lot about his actual prowess in combat.

Perhaps it would be easier if they could see his hitpoints — the arena’s current settings hide them — but for now, the blunt explanation was enough.

Mixed emotions swirled in the hearts of the two who were willing to call themselves his friends.

They were happy for him, true...but also worried. He is still an F-ranker, after all. Wouldn’t watching him eventually fall behind as they aged be really heartbreaking?

"I see...then our promise, you remember it, right?" Cody probed, hoping.

Daru smiled wider than usual.

"Well, of course. You still owe me ten Actualizer Crystals, and you have to pay me back with a good match in the quarterfinals."

Cody froze, then beamed.

"Haha! Of course, leave it to me."

The three chatted casually for the duration of the break, leaving a pair of blueberry eyes a bit envious.

The crowd’s mouths never stopped, too, drowning the arena in spittle.

They discussed the future of the tournament — some with disguised fear. They were horrified at the thought of losing huge amounts of Swordcoins as their bets lost their spots in the top 16 to either Omaru or Moonpiercer.

Both have shown that they could defeat A-rankers, after all.

Still, this made the competition infinitely more exciting, as even the semi-finals seemed not set in stone yet, thanks to the demonic F-ranker who had seemingly crawled out of a hellish abyss to terrorize the brackets.

Perhaps only the Sky Prince was safe, but even that wasn’t so sure yet.

One-shotting an A-ranker was truly no simple feat.

What made the discussions more heated was the seriousness in the faces of Alopecion and Taiya. Despite trying to hide it, it was quite clear that they were feeling the pressure, making the threat Omaru brought to the table appear more legitimate.

The bets...were in true peril.

Meanwhile, there were a few pairs of eyes in the crowd who observed Daru’s every move. His expressions, subtle shifts...everything.

They had smiles on their faces, as though they’d found something they’d been looking for their entire lives.

Onimaru Kunitsuna.

Hailey Krauss had given her word that he’s participating, and that she had convinced the mysterious novice to reveal himself today.

Only these hidden agents from the Seven Sword Guilds knew that the grand finals wouldn’t be so simple, especially the man sent by Ashen Crown, who was more privy than most to the true abilities of the Sky Prince.

He was dying inside in excitement.

Onimaru Kunitsuna or Ourion, who’s stronger? If it were the latter, then they truly had nothing to worry about in the first place.

The government can have the former.

But if it was the other way around...they were ready for a bidding war after the competition.

With every individual in the arena busy with their own thoughts or activities, the minutes passed very quickly, and soon, it was time for the third round.

Only sixty-four class representatives remained from the original 256 — a ruthless elimination rate.

But this was how a competition is.

The weaker and unlucky ones get weeded out for the grand display of the strong in the later parts of the event. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

Unfortunately, there were still too many of the incompetent. Namely, the B-rankers, and so most of the third-round matches turned out even more boring than the second-round ones.

The fact that the opponents lined up for the two Dark Horses were mere remaining cannon fodder didn’t make Nathalie’s job any easier.

The story of the third round went mostly as expected; the perceived stronger rankers won — Cody Han, the Dark Horse duo, Snowflower, Taiya, and of course, the untouchable Sky Prince.

There was one surprise, however, that although not quite ended as spicily, was already piquant in and of itself.

Alopecion, the bald S-ranker, had almost been booted way too early from the competition!

He had been assigned to fight a middling A-ranker, who, as it turned out, had been hiding his strength all that time...and scheming — all for a potential upset against one of the S-rankers.

Kharsin’s strategy was to utilize his mediocre-among-his-tier reputation to get the S-ranker in his way to underestimate him to whatever extent he would get away with, and use that as the gap-bridger.

The gap...was definitely small.

Far smaller than anyone expected.

To make things better, it was Alopecion, whom Kharsin believed was the weakest among the three, who met him in the brackets.

The early parts of the match were incinerating.

The A-ranker dangled a juicy bait and took the sword hand of the S-ranker, making the rest of the match basically set.

Losing one’s sword hand was extremely lethal.

At least for others, but Alopecion turned out to be ambidextrous, and while his left hand isn’t as capable as his right, it was enough to allow him to counter-scheme.

The bald top-ranker feigned weakness, "losing slowly".

Then, when Kharsin had invested all of his Sword Skills and was about to finish Alopecion off, the S-ranker pulled out a darned emergency item — one that was given to him by his father to ensure he wouldn’t be killed the same way he did the first time.

Only, Baldwin Baldemar did not expect that his son would use the expensive consumable in a competition match that didn’t have any real consequences to one’s life.

With even his sword hand restored by the time Kharsin was low on steam and skills to use, Alopecion easily overwhelmed him.

The A-ranker definitely had a similar item of his own.

However, unlike Alopecion’s father, his family was not the owner of a thriving vassal guild. He could not use such items in a mere competition match, especially not when he had already achieved enough.

Forcing an S-ranker to use such an item and almost taking him out was enough to light up the eyes of the major scouts from the Seven Sword Guilds.

He had shown that he had both brains and brawn.

At the very least, it was enough to get Kharsin to be a member of a cohort led by an apex S-ranker or perhaps even an SS-ranker if he was lucky.

Who knows? He might be walking behind the Sky Prince himself six months later.

With a defeat brought about by mere inability to match the foe’s pockets, the third round concluded, allowing Nathalie to breathe an inward sigh of relief.

She was able to make the more boring part not boring at all. She made it.

From today onwards, her career will only soar.

Nathalie didn’t have to work too hard entertaining the crowd tomorrow.

After all, the battles are sure to be far more competitive and exciting than today’s.