Mixed Blessing System

Sometime later, Annaliese and Viktoria said goodbye to Lothur, heading towards their combat platforms while he and Elke made their way to the 8th platform, where he would soon be fighting Merten.

"So you're going to fight that annoying person, huh?" Elke commented to him, walking alongside Lothur as they arrived at the match site.

That place was already packed with people, with many even standing on the stairs in the surrounding area, as there were not enough seats for everyone who wanted to see the fights that would take place there.

There were family members of competitors who would soon be competing. But most of these spectators wanted to see Lothur in action, as this young man had already become the big surprise of this competition.

Being so excellent in so many areas, no one doubted Lothur's abilities, and many already considered him a candidate to be fought. And because of this, the moment he and Elke approached that area, the crowd in the area began to look at them thoughtfully.

That was particularly true for the Baier family members in that area, who were either terrified at the thought of having to face Lothur or with hatred for the slim chances of getting their revenge.

At the same time, many high-level members of the Frost family's enemy powers were around to follow the matches of this young man standing in their way.

Kai, Frits Stauss, Martin Waldauer, patriarch Baier, Simon Frost, and many more were in the vicinity, anticipating the start of Lothur and Merten's match.

Lothur ignored the many stares in his direction and said to his woman. "He will suffer for all he has done in the past few weeks... Perhaps his situation will become worse than his cousin's."

"Oh?" She smiled while the Baier family members looked in her direction, not liking this young woman next to Lothur.

'What is the Becker family doing? How can they allow their young lady to be close to a married man and the Frost family?' The matriarch of that family glared at Elke, feeling that such an attitude of the Becker family was like a slap in the face of House Baier.

House Becker was supposed to marry into Baier with the marriage of Elke and Alric. But now this young woman was showing such intimacy and closeness with Lothur...

It was an attitude to question!

The matriarch then said to her husband. "Perhaps we should reconsider the position of the Becker family. I don't know if we can continue considering them as one of our friends."

Devid Baier heard this and stopped looking at Lothur to turn to his wife. "Just on account of those two? I'm still unsure if this is a Becker family attitude or a foolish girl. Perhaps they are not yet making a mistake as you suggest, dear."

"That's why I said we should consider it. Let's arrange a dinner with Gomeric and Hilda so we can probe their current position." She said, feeling that her instincts were right and something wrong was going on with these friends of theirs.

While the two talked, Lothur and Elke found a place to wait for the start of his fight as young men fought on that platform.

But even standing there without doing much, they were still attracting the attention of people in the area.

'How can he have so many skills? What's wrong with him?' Fritz had an ugly expression on his face, not understanding why Lothur was so talented.

Lothur's father was a monster, but that referred to such a person's combat skills. Besides that, he was not exceptional in anything else apart from his unusual personality.

Considering Fritz's knowledge of such a person's lineage, he could not help but be surprised that Lothur was an excellent spiritual professional in several different specializations.

'Where does this talent of his come from? Maybe it's the side of his mysterious mother?' This young red-headed man wondered. 'But wasn't she supposed to be a normal person? Did our spies get that wrong?'

Unfortunately, only more questions appeared with every moment Fritz thought about Lothur, quickly worsening his mood.

'This wretch will turn out to be an even worse variable than my family had expected! We have to do something about it!' Fritz clenched his fists as he looked in Kai's direction, seeing that this individual was also concerned.

...

After some time on that 8th combat platform, the referee of this competition finally called out the names of Lothur and Merten, indicating the time most awaited by everyone in the surroundings.

The moment the two placed their feet on the combat platform, every person there fell silent in anticipation of what was about to begin.

Even the referee of the match looked at the two, especially at Lothur, curious as to what the event's outcome would be.

'Will he kill his opponent as he did earlier?' Some spectators wondered similar things, eager to see how brutal Lothur was.

That was a violent society that enjoyed bloodshed. Thus, it was obvious that the people there wanted Lothur to unleash the demon within and brutalize his opponent.

Sure, not everyone wanted that, but that was the majority feeling of those who were there for the show, not for the local power struggles.

"You two," The referee said. "You will have 6 minutes to fight each other and define the winner of the match. But in case both of you are standing at the end of that time, the judging committee of this platform will vote and decide who will move on in the competition."

The two saw the three people sitting around a table on one side of the platform, a committee similar to which was also present in competitions for spiritual professionals.

There was always the possibility of a 'tie,' so there were people in each contest to decide the winner in these rare situations.

With that, the two nodded in acknowledgment of the rules of this match, allowing the match referee to step away from them, preparing to begin this combat.

As the two also moved away, Lothur looked at Merten and smiled. "Let's see if you still have all that courage you had at the academy... No one will save you, Merten."

Merten clenched his fists, sweating coldly. "Lothur, don't take this so seriously, or the consequences will be catastrophic for you!"

"Is that so? Then give up the fight since I won't hold back." Lothur said as his eyes narrowed. 'Of course, I won't do that. If I do, my next opponent will be someone stronger than I can handle!'

'Then I will use you to pretend that I am weaker than I am, that my skills are only in spiritual professions.' Lothur held himself back from laughing.

Seeing his opponent's serious expression, which indicated that he would take it hard with him, Merten shivered, but he could not humiliate his family by giving up.

"From the looks of it, you are willing to see this through to the end... It looks like you really did that to our young master!" Merten said, shouting. "Admit it, Lothur, you are responsible for that cowardice!"

...