The Adventures of Rose Hood Chapters 76-78

Chapter 76: The Tournament of gods

One month had passed and Amanda’s party had made it to C rank.

“I’ve never seen such a fast ascension of rank except for Rose.”

“I mean it does make sense. It has two gods.”

“Yeah, but even Silith’s party only barely reached D.”

“I guess.”

Of the 5 groups, there were 2 F, 1 E, 1 D, and 1 C. Each group ascended quickly, but Amanda’s group still seemed to grow at an entirely different rate.

“What’s their secret?”

“Maybe it’s because both Ausar and Celios recognized Amanda as the leader.”

“That can’t be it.”

“That’s all I see.”

A god spoke up.

“It’s obvious that it was because there were two King candidates.”

Ausar snorted in laughter.

“Given how vain I was at the start of this, I was more a detriment.”

All the gods looked at him in absolute shock. At this point, all of the party members had reached A rank in strength.

All of us were terrified to know how much power would be there when we removed the binds.

“Maybe their party should also have the cuffs.”

I shook my head.

“That wouldn’t do anything. All it does is squelch the nature to that of a human level, so the two humans would be unaffected.”

The gods reluctantly agreed, they already were aware of that, but they hated that two humans had so easily surpassed them.

Mammon walked in.

“Alright, th’ tourney is startin’ soon, so get yer behinds out ‘ere.”

The gods obeyed. They understood that they had to reach at least Mammon’s power before their bindings could be removed.

The Preliminary round was almost starting. The announcer began to speak.

“You all heard the rumors, and I’m here to tell you that they are true!!! The gods all have been training here as adventurers.”

Some people started protesting their involvement.

“Now, for all you people who are thinking it will be easy for them, think again. Each one is equipped with a relic that limits their potential to that of a human’s, so in combat they will be no more advantaged than anyone else, and their magic is sealed too.”

The people calmed down but were still grumbling slightly.

“NOW!!! START!!!”

People attacked the gods, and the war god, Demerial, struggled greatly against the B class that attacked him.

Despite being one of the strongest at base strength, Demerial was still very vain and was only at a B rank in terms of strength.

Upon seeing the struggle, the combatants began to band against the gods.

At the end of the preliminary round, 3 of the gods were eliminated from the tournament.

The people had entirely stopped their grumbling after seeing the gods fall.

People looked over at me to see my disappointment.

The gods started grumbling about it being unfair.

I spoke.

“What did I say, you keep thinking that being a god gives you a free pass to life. It’s because of this that you lost. If you trained harder and were less vain, then you could have decimated that competition.”

“You can’t talk, you are too strong to understand.”

“Oh, do I. May I remind you of my past? You are right, as an elven prince, my affinity for magic is more than most, but it’s because of that that I grew complacent. I thought I could beat anyone, and someone who could beat me was simply either cheating or in a realm beyond me.”

Every competitor had stopped to listen.

“Then I met Rose, the same person we are currently training you to be able to last a single second against.”

Some adventurers began to recall our first meeting.

“In the instant that I met her, I considered her an equal. I engaged in a rivalry, and even after she beat an A rank, I still assumed I could best her. Then, do you know what happened?”

The gods shook their heads.

“She demolished me. In that instant, I realized I was merely complacent and trained my butt off. At the point that she demolished me, she wouldn’t even be able to touch a hair on any of your heads.”

The gods looked smug, so I continued.

“Now look at both her and me. I can best each and every one of you individually, and Rose alone could do so as well. Even if I put on the bracelet, I’d just lose my magic. I guarantee that with the possible exception of Celios, Ausar, and Silith, I could beat any of you unbound, even if I wore the bracelet.”

The smugness has faded, but I continued to grill them.

“And you know the most disappointing part of this? The bracelets put your potential at a human level, but your growth rate is still at the level of gods, and two humans surpassed you. Now you can argue that Amanda started with skills, but even then, her skills were less than Demerial’s. Now she could wipe the floor with any of you. And even if you want to argue that point, Amy started with nothing but an archery proficiency that was suited only for stationary targets. Now she could best you all with swords. So cut the vanity and work if you want to improve.”

The gods, who were close to crying, nodded. I had crushed both their pride and vanity in an instant.

Only Silith, Ausar, and Celios, who had already discarded with vanity nodded easily. Silith understood that he still had a lot of room for growth, as expected for the current king of gods, but the other gods really understood their weakness when the vain Ausar was eating with humans as equals.

_

In the following two days, the gods all increased their efforts and got stronger.

Me and Mammon were talking in his office.

“It seems they really have taken to you.”

“I guess they weren’t expecting me to empathize with them.”

“Eh, they should have seen it coming.”

“Why?”

“Because you are as powerful as you are, equals with Rose, and able to keep up with Kala’s attacks.”

“Yeah, but they probably suspected that I wasn’t ever much weaker than they were.”

“Then our pantheon is made up of fools.”

His blasphemous words would drive any cult into an outrage, but, seeing them, I couldn’t help but agree.

“My only hope is that we will be ready when Kala makes the next move.”

Chapter 77- Coming of Age

My party members all passed with flying colors. No one could come near any of us, even while apart.

That includes Galas, god of water, who attempted to defeat Amy and endured an embarrassing loss.

Kala was so happy to see Amy as powerful as she was.

We had drinks to celebrate, but Amy refrained.

“I’m too young to drink.”

“How young are you?”

“I’m only barely 18.”

Upon hearing how young Amy was, the gods looked even more depressed that a child was able to surpass them.

Ausar seemed to focus on a specific word.

“What do you mean barely?”

“My birthday was actually yesterday.”

We froze.

“What?”

“Why didn’t you tell us, the coming-of-age party is a big thing.”

“I guess better late than never.”

“What?!”

Dallel explained.

“Not sure how it works in your world, but when someone turns 18 here, all of their family and friends have a party. At said party, they hire advanced chefs and make exotic foods. Usually they also choose their career, but I guess that you are already an adventurer, so we can skip that part.”

“Oh, on Earth we just get gifts from family and maybe mention it to our friends. If we are in school, they’ll sing an annoyingly embarrassing song.”

Everyone looked at her.

“For such an important event in someone's life that’s an annoyingly little response. Do you even throw parties?”

“For birthdays closer to 10 to 13. While some people still throw parties, the guests greatly decrease each year.”

“That world must suck.”

“Eh, some cultures have something similar to what you described but for 15.”

“Weird.”

Amy was red at this point, but Ausar and I already started planning it.

Kala began chipping in Amy’s likes.

‘It’s amazing, even after a million years, you still know exactly what she likes.’

‘Of course, the reason I didn’t make a move to destroy it earlier was because of her and Amanda. You can never forget a true friend.’

‘That’s touching.’

“Cats, we need cats.”

Ausar raised an eyebrow.

“Like the animal cat.”

“How do you know that’s what she’d like?”

“Because whenever she sees a catkin, she goes googoo eyes.”

“I see.”

We began listing things we thought she liked, and Ausar seemed to be quite observant now, as he managed to nail quite a few subtle things.

_

The preparation of the party happened in one night. We decided to take a break to prepare, and a few of the gods who had grown closer to Amy helped.

Nala was still very advanced in terms of botany, so she was in charge of growing flowers for the event.

Amy gave us a list of allergies, which confused everyone until she explained that in her world there were people who could get killed by things like peanuts because of allergies.

“So, people in your world can die to… peanuts?”

“Depends on the person, but yeah.”

“Allergies sound like weakness.”

“I guess, but that’s pretty judgey, and you haven’t even heard of the allergies to grass yet.”

“People die to grass in your world?!”

“Not usually, normally allergies are limited to merely making your nose stuffy or causing mucus to build up in your throat.”

“Okay, so what is the worst allergy you have.”

“Nuts in general would make me need an epi-pen, but I guess healing magic would work as a replacement.”

“So, you, who is at the A level in terms of combat strength… can die to a walnut.”

“Only if I eat it.”

“Okay.”

_

They managed to prepare the food nut-free.

Amy tried to help as she could, but since we were preparing her birthday, we wouldn’t let her.

Dallel was a masterful cook, so he made the cake, which then he was surprised that Amy knew of.

“You know of cake?”

“Of course, that’s standard for birthdays in my world.”

“Wow, really only royalty get a cake, even on the coming-of-age party.”

“People don’t eat cake here?”

“Not usually.”

“That is sad.”

“I guess, but yeah I’ve only ever had cake on my and Doleaira’s coming-of-age parties.”

“Woah.”

And so, with that surprise out of the way, the food was prepared.

Alright, the decorations are up.

Jalad came into the guild hall with a confused look.

“What is happening?”

Dallel answered.

“It was Amy’s coming-of-age yesterday, and she didn’t tell us, so we are celebrating today and tomorrow to make up for it.”

“That sounds fun, how can I help?”

And just like that, Jalad was in on it.

_

The next day was the celebration.

Thalia, who had grown close to Amy attended. She was shocked by the taste of the cake.

“Do dragons have coming of age parties?”

Thalia nodded.

“We usually get them when we mature, but since I matured in the middle of a war, I kinda forgot, but as that was half a year ago it’s kinda useless to throw the party.”

“I guess.”

Everyone ate and were merry.

Tunel, god of music, gave the entertainment with her wonderful music skills. As the only noncombatant god, she was still one of the strongest. She was the other god in Silith’s party.

Amy was smiling, but she still seemed sad for some reason.

I understood and sat next to her.

“You miss the Amanda from your world, right?”

“Yeah, I guess. I always thought that we’d always stick together, but now I’m in another world, far away from her. She probably thinks I died.”

Despite her smile, she was close to crying. None of the gods took offence. They understood that she had gone through something no one could understand.

Kala smiled in my mind and used magic despite the bracelet. To activate a single memory.

On Amy’s 17th birthday, when they sung happy birthday.

Then Amy smiled again, her sadness fading.

“Thank you all for this. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to go back, but I’ll be happy even if I can’t.”

Everyone smiled at the words.

Then Ausar spoke.

“Thank you for being our friend.”

Chapter 78- The Raging Tourney

The postings for the tournaments were posted on the board, and those who didn’t see Jalad in the preliminary round were surprised to see him on the posting.

“I always sign up, though thank goodness I’m not against a powerhouse first round this time. Though, Dallel, why didn’t you sign up.”

Dallel snorted.

“I’m pretty sure that it would be absolutely unfair if I did. People are already upset about the gods despite the restraints. I’ve beaten gods. I’m sure they would complain even more.”

Jalad laughed.

“I guess so.”

The duo, despite no longer being direct coworkers, still remained best friends.

_

The first day of the tourney arrived. I was the first battle, against Duhnheim.

“Remember, Amanda, you may be able to beat him in skills, but he still is the smithing god. He can probably break your sword with a single swing, as he’d be able to find the weak point.”

I nodded.

“I will be careful.”

I entered the ring.

“And this first battle is between two god’s party members. One from a C rank team. Amanda the Swordqueen. She is versing the king of fire, Smithing god Duhnheim. Despite his limiter, he can destroy any weapon without a second thought, so can she stand up to him?”

The crowd cheered for both of us. The dwarves and elves were overwhelmingly cheering for Duhnheim.

“Ready?! START!!!”

Duhnheim charged, and I blocked his first attack. Then began our back and forth.

He struck at my head. I countered to his legs.

He slashed at my stomach. I cut at his head.

Both of us were full of minor injuries, but his endurance was better than mine… or so he thought.

I was a god too, but he didn’t know that, so we just continuously went back and forth.

Eventually, I got frustrated and pushed forward, crushing him. He didn’t even get the chance to break my sword.

_

Amy’s battle was against a regular guy who was crushed easily.

We celebrated with meat and wine, except for Amy, who seemed content to wait until she was 21 to drink. We just got her apple juice.

_

The next day was similar.

Each god passed their rounds, and moved to the next point, except Duhnheim.

Almost everyone knew that the tournament would end with the members of my party.

My second round was against one of Silith’s party members.

“I have been trained by the great, Lord Silith.”

“Please, I trained Celios and Ausar.”

I was simply too far out of his league.

_

Amy also had a fight against Nala.

“Sorry if I win.”

“You won’t, but I won’t be mad.”

“START!!!”

Amy immediately let off a shot that hit Nala in the eye. She quickly followed up with a blade attack.

Nala, who was magic oriented, was beaten easily.

The rest of the fights were similar.

My party reached the semifinals easily, as Ausar finally settled his rivalry with Silith in an epic battle in the quarterfinals.

“Ausar, it’s time to finish this rivalry.”

“Agreed.”

They charged, but this time, Ausar left no openings. He struck and fought on par with his old rival.

Their clash shook the arena despite the restraints. They both gave their all, and everyone could feel their strength. Equals in combat.

Ausar struck for the head, and Silith struck for the stomach.

They kept going at it, continuously getting more and more injuries.

Silith grabbed Ausar’s blade and threw it, but Ausar followed up with a kick to the stomach before grabbing his blade again and reclashing with Silith.

The duo continued to throw slash over slash. Then the finale occurred.

Silith gave his strongest attack. An opening opened up. So small that no one would be able to see it, but Ausar took it and cut Silith in half.

But Ausar sustained massive damage from Silith’s blow as well. He could still stand, however, which made people decide that he was the winner.

_

“Good job Ausar, you won!”

“I did. I won, but it was pyrrhic.”

“So? You still bested the king of gods.”

“Yeah, while our power was restrained. He still probably could beat me if we weren’t.”

Celios smiled.

“Even so, you still won, so celebrate.”

“I guess.”

He smiled and we celebrated the whole night.

We were all ready for the next day.

Amy would fight me.

Ausar would fight Celios.

The winners would fight each other.

“I’m obviously going to win.”

Ausar was motivated again.

“Nah, I think I could win.”

Amy wasn’t any less so.

“Hmph, please, I have the most experience.”

Celios wasn’t giving up.

“Don’t forget who taught you.”

I wasn’t going to fall behind.

_

The next day came, and the kingdom gathered. Jalad, who had lost to Ausar, was cheering both of us on.

“Alright people, it’s been a very interesting tournament. With gods being bested, and humans showing their worth, we have seen such amazing battles that I wouldn’t be surprised if this tournament is remembered for the rest of eternity.”

The people cheered.

“With all that we’ve seen, you might ask, what could we get from watching two humans battle, well these humans have defeated gods. Now that they are in the finale of the tournament, it is time for the semifinals to begin.”

“Amy, I’ll win this.”

“ARE YOU READY!!!”

“Nah, I think I can best you.”

“FIGHT!!!”

Amy let off an immediate shot, but I dodged and blocked her follow-up attack. She came very far from the scared girl who shook while shooting at me.

We fought back and forth.

I was winning, but Kala wanted Amy to win.

‘Friend of mine, take my blessing and gain strength. Form in power and might and evolve.’

Amy began to glow. She met the requirements and evolved.

I leapt back in shock. I knew Kala did it, but I was still unaware until that instant that humans could evolve.

She didn’t change appearance, but a regal sense permeated the air. The gods looked in shock as she held her bow, which was reinforced with mana. Then Amy shot.