Dragonslayer’s Class Regression Chapter 83

Chapter 83

After finishing the first round of the main competition, Zeke’s group returned to Atlas’s mansion.

When Zeke told Farrell that the second round would be tightrope wrestling according to Reina, he made a serious expression.

“Tightrope wrestling…”

At that reaction, Zeke asked Farrell.

“Sir Farrell. Is there a problem with the tightrope wrestling event?”

Farrell shook his head.

“No, Sir Zeke. There’s nothing wrong with the tightrope wrestling event itself. It’s just concerning that Jiemens chose this event.”

Tightrope wrestling itself wasn’t an event with very complicated rules.

It was a competition where two people fight on a single rope, and the one who endures wins.

In a way, it was an event where one could fully demonstrate their martial arts skills.

At that time, Catherine entered the reception room.

‘Everyone’s gathered here, perfect.’

Catherine sat down with an excited expression.

She spoke to Zeke.

“I found out about the second round event.”

Felix, who was next to her, said to Catherine.

“Lady Catherine. We already found out about the second round event from Reina Draker. It’s tightrope wrestling.”

Hearing Felix’s words, Catherine nodded as if she had expected that.

“Yes, it’s tightrope wrestling. But not just simple tightrope wrestling.”

Zeke was surprised at those words.

“What do you mean it’s not simple tightrope wrestling?”

“They say it will be conducted as team tightrope wrestling.”

“Team tightrope wrestling?”

Even Farrell, who had watched the Draker martial arts tournament several times, had never heard of such an event.

Catherine pulled out a piece of paper.

There was a drawing on the paper.

It showed people fighting with swords on ropes strung in all directions between walls.

Farrell looked at the drawing and his expression hardened.

“This… is clearly advantageous for whichever side has more people.”

Zeke also nodded at Farrell’s words.

While tightrope wrestling was a match between two people on a rope, when conducted as a team event, those with fewer numbers would have to face multiple opponents, and if someone decided to cut the rope while prepared to fall together, it would be difficult to move to another rope.

It meant that if Jiemens family’s collaborators all rushed at Zeke at once and cut all the surrounding ropes, he would have difficulty enduring as well.

After understanding the situation, Farrell gritted his teeth.

“They must have changed the event in a hurry. Because they wouldn’t be able to handle Sir Zeke in one-on-one matches.”

If the Jiemens side had prepared, there would surely be several other rules disadvantageous to Zeke’s group.

But then Catherine snapped open her fan and smiled.

“Don’t worry too much, Sir Zeke.”

Zeke looked at Catherine with a puzzled face.

“Lady Catherine. Do you have another way?”

Catherine said while waving her fan.

“What’s the use of having sponsor families if not for times like these? hoho.”

Catherine whispered something to Zeke’s group with a relaxed smile.

Zeke’s group was surprised at her words.

Looking at everyone’s expressions, Catherine gave a splendid laugh.

“I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s match.”

* * *

From the second round of the main competition, outside spectators were allowed to watch.

This meant that sponsor families would be more actively involved than before.

The arena where the team tightrope wrestling was scheduled was already full.

On one side of the stands, blood alliance families connected to Jiemens made noisy cheers while hanging the Jiemens family banner.

Pampararara!

The band played trumpets, drums, and percussion, singing for Jiemens’ victory.

On the opposite side, the Agamemnon family and central nobles occupied the seats.

Though they didn’t make loud noises, they applied tremendous pressure by waving dozens of flags.

Their numbers were twice that of the Jiemens-allied families participating in the competition.

It was a scene that clearly showed the authority of the Agamemnon family, the hegemon of the central region.

Just before the competition began, contestants came out from both sides of the arena.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Amid loud drumbeats, the contestants stood in front of the team tightrope wrestling setup where ropes were chaotically tied between pillars.

The distance between ropes was quite far, so it seemed it wouldn’t be easy to move to another rope if one was cut.

Gareth stepped forward and briefly explained the competition rules.

The rules were simpler than expected.

Falling below the rope meant elimination, and those who endured until the set time could advance to the third round of the main competition.

Felix gaped at the quite large tightrope wrestling setup.

He whispered to Zeke.

“M-master. Maybe I should just quit here…?”

“Liam, Felix. Anyone who gets eliminated here will undergo closed-door training for a year.”

At Zeke’s threat, Felix headed towards the wrestling setup while whining.

The judge announced the start of the competition.

Twang!

The contestants each got up on the ropes.

The ropes weren’t tightly strung but were quite elastic, so maintaining balance and moving on them wasn’t easy.

But Edward Jiemens stood on the rope in a very comfortable position with his arms crossed.

He looked at Zeke’s group with a sinister smile.

‘This is Jiemens’ unique training tool. I’ve been playing here since I was five years old.’

In fact, this rope was one of many training tools developed by Jiemens for aura control.

Although it was regrettable to reveal the family’s secret training tool, it was worth it if they could definitely eliminate Zeke and Reina here.

Zeke, Felix, Liam, and Reina moved across the ropes to positions closer to each other.

However, almost everyone except them was from Jiemens-affiliated families.

Edward shouted to them while standing on the rope.

“Go and make them fall!”

Zeke’s group drew their swords and watched out for those approaching.

As expected, they seemed to be planning to rush in from all directions and drag others down with them.

Noticing this, jeers erupted from the Agamemnon side of the audience.

“Unworthy of being knights!”

“Jiemens, you cheap and dirty bastards!”

The central nobles were hurling crude insults, throwing away all pretense of dignity.

Yet neither Edward nor the Jiemens faction batted an eye.

If they were the type to be affected by such insults, the current Jiemens wouldn’t exist.

The participants from Jiemens’ allied families rushed toward Zeke’s group with weapons drawn, paying no mind to the jeers.

But then something completely unexpected happened.

“Ahhh!”

One of the Jiemens side members accidentally fell, grabbing others and bringing them down together.

Thud!

Four people fell and were eliminated simultaneously.

Edward, watching from behind, frowned.

‘What incompetent fools.’

But that wasn’t the end of it.

THUD! THUD!

People kept falling from the ropes before even reaching Zeke’s group.

Nearly half of the Jiemens side had been eliminated already.

Seeing this, Zeke smirked while looking at Catherine sitting in the stands.

‘The power of money is truly frightening.’

The Graham Duke family had a tight grip on the Central Continent’s financial sector.

This meant some families participating in this competition had borrowed money from the Graham Duke family.

Catherine had compiled a list of participating families who had borrowed from the Graham family and made them an offer they couldn’t refuse.

If they simply got eliminated from the competition, she would extend their loan terms and introduce new loan products with lower interest rates. The bait was taken immediately.

Those who accepted Graham family’s proposal acted out falling from the ropes accidentally.

Additionally, if they grabbed other participants and fell together, they could receive benefits like interest-free loans or fee waivers, so many pulled down their own teammates.

As his forces suddenly decreased by more than half, Edward frowned and shouted.

“What are you all doing?! Grab those guys and fall right now!”

His intended tactics had been completely stolen by Catherine.

Although they were close allies of Jiemens, loan maturity and high interest rates were reality itself.

The more financially struggling families actively accepted the Graham family’s proposal.

It was a counterattack befitting the Draker martial arts tournament.

Zeke grinned as he watched the Jiemens knights falling one after another.

“This should be manageable now.”

At those words, Reina and Liam nodded and charged forward.

Twang!

Reina used the rope’s elasticity to jump high into the air.

Then she drove down a powerful sword strike.

Tourn-style Dragon Slaying Technique

Charge Skill

Bull Skull Crusher

Crash!

A bold sword strike worthy of the Tourn family overwhelmed other participants.

Liam approached in a completely different way.

Hanging upside down from the rope, Liam used his characteristically long arms to swing his sword from below.

Swoosh!

“Ugh!”

When the sword suddenly appeared from below, those standing on the ropes were startled and lost their balance.

Liam swung his sword while moving around the ropes like a long-armed monkey.

Participants couldn’t properly focus against his irregular attacks.

Felix was the unexpected one.

Although he struggled to adapt to the tightrope at first, after getting his breathing under control and finding his balance, he stood on the rope like a huge immovable rock while holding his sword.

Other knights even backed away from the pressure emanating from Felix as he stood motionless with his sword.

Zeke smirked watching Felix.

‘His potential really is incredible.’

After checking his surroundings, Zeke began moving in earnest.

He ran across the ropes as if on flat ground while holding Bahamut.

Whoosh!

To Zeke, who had mastered the Wind Storm technique, there was little difference between a rope and the ground.

What he had worried about was them cutting all the ropes in a suicide attack, but fortunately, they had gained a chance to counterattack thanks to Catherine’s help.

Zeke rushed toward the knights standing on the ropes.

Swoosh!

Crash!

A knight who received Zeke’s strike lost balance and fell to the ground.

“Ugh!”

It was already difficult to maintain balance on the rope, and they couldn’t withstand the heavy sword strikes.

Soon several knights rushed at Zeke all at once.

They tried to grab Zeke’s ankle while hanging on the rope and then attempted to cut the rope with a sword.

It was a muddy fight with no trace of knightly honor.

But Zeke could escape if there was even a small gap.

WHOOSH!

Before his ankle could be caught, Zeke jumped up and moved to another rope.

Edward shouted.

“You idiots! Move aside! I’ll cut the rope!”

Edward started swinging his spear from behind to cut the rope.

But it was already too late.

As many were eliminated, space was created for Zeke to move. Zeke moved freely between the ropes, attacking and eliminating the Jiemens knights one by one.

“Arghhhh!”

THUD!

Realizing they couldn’t withstand Zeke’s attacks, the knights began to take defensive positions.

They isolated themselves by cutting all the surrounding ropes while keeping only the rope they were hanging on.

Zeke spoke to Edward who was standing behind the knights.

“Edward Jiemens. How about a one-on-one duel like a proper knight?”

Edward gritted his teeth and glared at Zeke in response to his provocation.

“What do you take me for?”

Though he was a ruffian, being a direct descendant of Jiemens, he wouldn’t fall for such simple provocation.

“If you won’t come, I’ll come to you myself.”

Zeke stepped on a single rope and leaped to jump to where Edward was.

However, Edward, who had trained in rope wrestling since childhood, avoided Zeke while moving across the few remaining ropes.

Simultaneously, other knights on Jiemens’ side stood in front of Edward to block Zeke.

‘These Jiemens lackeys are annoying.’

But then, something flew toward Zeke who was in mid-air.

Clash!

A heavy sword strike collided with Bahamut.

Bang!

Zeke absorbed the rebound and landed on the highest installed rope.

Then someone else stood on the opposite side.

A female knight with short hair wielding a sword.

It was Helen Draker.

Zeke pointed his sword at Helen Draker.

“Elin Sabrina. I didn’t expect you to be on Jiemens’ side.”

Zeke was probing, though he knew it wasn’t true.

Helen raised her sword, ignoring Zeke’s words.

Woong!

A clear sword sound rang out.

Then she rushed straight toward Zeke.

“Haah!”

Helen unleashed a powerful strike toward Zeke.

As Bahamut and Helen’s sword collided, it created a powerful shockwave.