Emperor's Reckoning

"That's not fair!" shouted Faust as he pointed at the young man who stole his victory with a simple slap.

Lyon jerked his shoulders before going to his bench before taking a wink against Chloe who looked at him with half-opened eyes.

"Alright, let's take it up a notch and go for round two!" shouted Sophie before the roar of the crowd followed. She glanced at Van before the latter nodded and jumped to the middle of the arena.

"I will explain what the round two is going to be but first I will give you a leak, that, the final round will be an all-out battle for you five teams."

Lyon furrowed his eyebrows, (I have a bad feeling about this). Judging from his perspectives, the battle for the last round would have a wild twist.

Van coughed, "Regarding round two, I'll be your opponent."

His words made the entire crowd and the teams raised their eyebrows. This was beyond any reasonable act of a tournament. Why would the judge himself be the opponent for them?

"Of course, to beat me, all you need to do is throw me out of the ring, the team who did so will win the round, simple right?" said Van in a carefree manner.

"Oh, I need to mention that if you stepped out of the ring, you're out, but the rest of your team that is still on the arena may continue. So come on the arena the battle has begun!"

Luna immediately held Lyon's shoulder as she whispered, "This tournament is weird, you cannot depict a winner if from the last round there was not any point or anything to gain."

Normally, a tournament will count some sort of points based on the performance in each round, thus could pick a winner from the accumulated points. However, the first round didn't do so, so Luna didn't know how in the world would the three overseers pick a winning team.

"E-eh what are you doing?! Put me down!"

Lyon suddenly lifted Luna like a princess before jumping on the arena while muttering, "I'm guessing, there will be no 'winning team' but there will be a winner."

Though her face turned red hue, her eyes came with a realization from his words. "So only one winner?"

"That's right, the third round will be the 'last man standing' match," said Lyon as he smirked against the middle-aged man in the middle.

"Oi, oi, I thought this is a tournament, not a place to show off your date."

His sneering caught Luna's face full-blown red before she immediately stepped down and put her hands on her waist. It was amazing that her eyes immediately turned sharp despite the embarrassing event she was just in. (Why would they do that tho, it's just a waste of time and money, money?) She glanced at the woman in the middle with the dancing attire. The woman whose status was highly regarded among all.

"I see, now I understand. To think that we are used by her without even knowing."

Luna shook her head helplessly. Knowing the fact that the first two rounds were nothing but a mere show for the betting the Treas Family held.

"I see that all of you are eager to throw me out of the ring, haha! Come here and have a taste!" taunted Van with his hand.

"Then I'll be rude, Mr. Van," said the twins at the same time before they plunged to the left and right respectively.

Lyon calmly took a front from his team and said, "Leave this to me guys, save your energy for the last round."

"Hmph! Don't be foolish, I am still the captain of this team."

"C'mon big brother, we've been through worse than this."

"I won't lose to Luna."

"Princess is right, we must stick together till the bitter end."

Lyon opened his eyes wide as he heard those words. Even though they knew that the first two rounds were just a plaything for Treas to make fortune, they wanted to stick by him to the end.

(This is what friends for) thought Lyon as he saw the smile of the four of them. Suddenly Lyon crouched down, (Ah I can feel it! The power of friendship! Those shōnen stories are not bullshitting after all!).

"Raaaaaaah!!!!"

His warcry made him the center of attention, even Van had the others stopped attacking him. The crowds were on the edge of their seat as they were about to anticipate something once in a lifetime.

"As if I would let you! Die!" shouted Faust who was already behind him with his hand ready to break his neck.

*fart

His body immediately froze as his eyes opened wide before he saw Lyon glancing at him with a smirk. With one quick movement, Lyon sidestepped before kicking him right in the face.

Lyon's hand quickly, beautifully and skillfully cover his nose as he pointed at the man who was yet to fall to the ground. "God, you come all this way to me only to fart, please, have manners."

"Y-Y-YOU!"

Blood immediately rushed up to his throat before his mouth couldn't keep it in and sprayed the floor.