Ch.247Sweeper

Like a comet, the brown-skinned cat girl Seti had turned Hell’s Garden’s underground arena into a cauldron of excitement.

Neither the boxing-style fighter with his flashy footwork, nor the muscle-bound pig reminiscent of a sumo wrestler, nor even the tattooed man who looked like he could drown a person or two—none of them could lay a finger on Seti’s body.

Under the harsh conditions of consecutive matches, fatigue and injuries accumulated, and with the winner having to down strong whiskey before each match, the odds of continued victory decreased over time. Proportionally, the betting odds would normally rise.

Yet for Seti’s fourth match, the odds were merely 1.2 times.

This number suggested that the arena audience was highly confident in Seti’s chances of winning.

“How does she look?”

“Well, she still seems to have plenty of energy… but how long she can hold up against the whiskey will be the key.”

“If I could fight like Seti, winning ten matches in a row would be a piece of cake.”

Mina said this while throwing punches like a boxer.

Despite appearances, her physical strength is at least equal to Seti’s…

‘Woooah~’

Startled by the sudden cheering, I looked up at the ring to see the curly-haired round girl who had been brought in since Seti’s winning streak began. She was removing her top with erotic movements.

The round girl’s exposed bra and lace corset should have been quite provocative, but…

“Even with her undressing like that, Lady Seti still has more skin showing.”

“Her cloak usually keeps it from being too noticeable, but when you think about it, her outfit is quite daring…”

In terms of exposure, fitness, and body lines, Seti was the clear winner in every aspect.

The round girl seemed either conscious of this fact or perhaps thought it didn’t matter between women, as her skinship with the winner after undressing seemed somewhat perfunctory.

‘Ooooh~’

The audience, who had been cheering for the round girl’s striptease, now gasped in admiration at the challenger climbing into the ring.

He was about my size but had the solid muscles of a bodybuilder, scars covering his entire body, and eye-catching dreadlocks. Unlike the other challengers, instead of looking Seti up and down or making provocative gestures, he glared at her face as if he’d encountered a mortal enemy.

“The atmosphere feels ominous. He doesn’t look like someone who entered for the prize.”

“And he doesn’t seem like the type who enjoys fighting for its own sake either.”

“Indeed…”

Other spectators must have felt the same way, because when betting began, a surprising amount of money was placed on the dreadlocked man.

It seemed they were estimating the win ratio between Seti and the dreadlocked man at roughly 4:6.

Feeling like they were underestimating Seti, we bet the maximum amount on her.

‘Ding!’

With the sound of the bell, Seti’s fifth match began.

The grim-faced dreadlocked man slowly closed the distance while maintaining a solid guard position. Seti quickly dove to his right and delivered a lightning-fast low kick aimed at his shin.

‘Thud’

“!?”

But the opponent calmly extended his arm to block the low kick, then stepped forward slightly and launched an uppercut toward Seti’s chin.

‘Whoosh! Whoosh!’

The dreadlocked man threw uppercuts and hooks without any exaggerated movements, delivering his strikes in quick succession.

Seti easily avoided these attacks while throwing counter-strikes, but her opponent’s guard was so solid that she couldn’t inflict significant damage.

“That challenger is quite composed.”

“Yes. The big guys who came before tried obvious heavy attacks or attempted to grab her, only to be knocked out in one hit.”

“He seems to be focusing more on preventing effective hits rather than landing his own attacks. At first glance, it looks like he’s on the defensive and unable to attempt major attacks…”

“This match has no time limit or decision by points. He’s probably trying to wear down Seti’s stamina before going for the win in the later stages.”

“I wonder… if that’s all there is to it.”

Strengthening one’s guard and aiming to drain the opponent’s stamina could be a valid strategy, but this man wasn’t withstanding Seti’s attacks through overwhelming physical size or weight advantage.

Rather, judging by how his body staggered each time he blocked an attack, he was definitely taking damage even through his guard.

Even if he managed a comeback at the end to defeat Seti, would he have enough stamina left to continue for nine more consecutive matches?

‘Could it be… he’s only here to take down Seti?’

The thought suddenly crossed my mind.

The underground arena’s popularity was possible because of the “Box of Stopped Time” prize for winning ten consecutive matches.

If someone achieved ten consecutive wins and claimed that prize, Hell’s Garden would need to prepare a prize of similar or greater value to maintain the arena’s popularity.

That would undoubtedly be an unwelcome situation for Hell’s Garden.

‘Hell’s Garden would prefer to avoid having someone achieve ten consecutive wins and would want to host as many matches as possible. But while the ten-win condition isn’t easy, it’s certainly not impossible. Especially if match-fixing is involved.’

Despite minimal preventive measures like expensive entry fees and shuffled match orders, achieving ten consecutive wins wouldn’t be difficult if a large group was willing to sacrifice their entry fees for match-fixing.

An effective way to prevent this would be to send “a challenger who would never participate in match-fixing”—in other words, an employee of Hell’s Garden as a spy into the ring.

‘If that man is truly a spy from Hell’s Garden, he doesn’t need to think about the next match. If he can break Seti’s winning streak or at least drain her stamina, he’s accomplished his mission.’

His defensive style that baits Seti’s attacks, his occasional counter-strikes persistently targeting her face—it all makes sense if his goal is to wear Seti down rather than win himself.

And unaware of this fact, Seti’s attacks were gradually becoming more aggressive.

“Seti! Don’t get impatient! He’s only targeting you!”

“?”

“…Tch!”

When I shouted to warn her that her opponent might be a Hell’s Garden spy, Seti, who was about to attempt a major technique, stopped her attack and backed away.

The dreadlocked man, whose strategy seemed disrupted by my interference, clicked his tongue once and then charged at Seti with a ferocity we hadn’t seen before.

“Hup!”

“!!”

Seti, whose face had been persistently targeted until now, instinctively raised her guard against the opponent’s punch that came in the blink of an eye. But the dreadlocked man drove his fist not toward her face but toward her right knee.

“Seti!”

‘CRACK!’

‘Ooooh~’

There was a sound of something hard colliding, and the audience stirred greatly. A moment later, the dreadlocked man’s sturdy body slowly began to fall sideways.

It was the opposite of what I had expected—that Seti would be at a disadvantage after suffering a joint injury.

‘Thud’

‘Waaaah!!’

‘One! Two! Three!…’

The referee’s count began amid the audience’s cheers.

“Huh? What just happened?”

“I don’t know. It looked like the man who was on the defensive suddenly rushed in and attacked Seti’s knee…”

“But Seti’s fine and the opponent is down?”

“…That guy wasn’t caught in his opponent’s feint.”

I saw it.

Seti deflected the punch aimed at her knee with her left back-knuckle while simultaneously striking the opponent’s chin with her other fist.

It seemed that from the beginning, Seti had been unaffected by both the deceptive tactic of hiding speed behind a solid defense and the feints that persistently targeted her face to focus her attention there.

‘…Nine! Ten! K.O!!’

‘Ding ding ding ding~’

‘Whistle!’

‘That’s five wins! Time to take off the skirt!’

‘I don’t care about the round girl anymore! The cat girl is the best!’

In the midst of the referee’s victory declaration and the audience’s cheers, Seti was repeatedly sitting down and standing up, checking her own physical condition.

It doesn’t seem like her knee was grazed in the final attack; she’s probably just concerned about the amount of exertion in this round.

“Will, what did you mean when you shouted to Seti earlier?”

“Ah, I thought the previous opponent might have been a saboteur sent by Hell’s Garden.”

“By Hell’s Garden? Isn’t that cheating?”

“Strictly speaking, I don’t think it could be called cheating. They never said all participants were ordinary people.”

“Well, that’s true, but…”

“I don’t have definitive proof anyway, so there’s no point in arguing about it. What concerns me more is…”

“Whether the upcoming matches will be conducted fairly.”

“Exactly.”

Honestly, whether the opponent is a regular participant or Hell’s Garden’s pawn doesn’t matter much from a broader perspective.

The difference lies in whether they’re considering ‘the next match’ or not, but we can’t definitively say that someone sent by Hell’s Garden would necessarily be stronger than an ordinary person.

The issue is how far Hell’s Garden will go to prevent Seti from achieving ten consecutive wins.

They might send in someone loaded with magical doping substances not allowed for regular participants, or they might tamper with the whiskey that the winner drinks.

‘Since it’s a legally operated bar, they probably won’t openly poison a customer… but we should be cautious.’

There are five opponents left, and I can only hope nothing happens to Seti until then.

If something does happen, I’m prepared to tear the place apart to save her.

Watch your step, Hell’s Garden.