"Oi! What the hell is going on here?"
"If it was a draw, we should at least get our money back!"
"Nah, fck this. They must have staged all of this. There's no way that Vince guy would have jumped out of bounds on his own accord."
Following the momentary silence, the crowd went berserk. No announcement had been made regarding the bets everyone had placed, and yet the people were going berserk thinking they lost their money for good. Seeing as the crowd was about to get out of control, the event overseer or the manager as he was referred to, called for backup.
The moment the crowd saw the mercenaries making their way inside, all of them immediately calmed down. They were still upset about their money, But fck their money, their lives were far more important.
Moreover, none of them wanted to get on the wrong side of the market owners either. As that would leave them getting banned from ever placing bets again. At least in person.
Once everyone had calmed down, the announcer got on the stage along with Ashton and Baiter. Since there was no clear winner, they should have declared the match as a draw. At least that would have happened a decade ago when the last draw match was registered in the database.
But now, they had increased their budget and thus had already placed high motion cameras, alongside the arena. The market owners had been wanting to expand their business for a while and since they had the funds, they were about to start a streaming service and open settings globally. But for now, everything was in a sort of beta-testing phase.
Still, it was the perfect opportunity for them to test whether the cameras and other pieces of equipment were of any use or not.
"What an exciting match it was! Hehe...he..." The announcer wanted to cheer the crowd up, but with the mercenaries being there, it was a difficult thing to do, "Ahem, so moving on, I think all of us are excited to know who was the winner of such a thrilling match, right?"
"..."
There was no response this time either.
"Without any further ado, let's check the footage... you boring mofos."
The announcer snapped his finger, and the next moment, multiple screens dropped down from the ceiling for everyone to watch the result with their eyes. In slow motion.
'Well, looks like they really spend a lot of money here.' Ashton thought to himself, 'Damn, if I had known this would happen, I wouldn't;t have jumped out in the first place.'
Before jumping out of the arena, Ashton thought if they'll end up with a draw, they'll either get their money back or will have to start the match again. He would have been happy with either result. But he had not expected them to decide a victor like this.
'Although I jumped after this Master Baiter did, I'm not sure if I hit the ground first or not.'
By now Ashton was a bit worried. While he could afford to lose the money, he really didn't want to. Well, because money was money after all!
One could never have enough of it. Those who said otherwise were plain liars. On top of that, he did not want to miss out on the chance to get a new weapon for 'Vince'.
As the recording started playing out, it became clear who had won the match. Because of the leg Baiter was holding on to, one of Ashton's feet touched the ground before Baiter's did. But his second foot touched the ground only after Baiter's entire body had touched the ground.
This could have led to another controversy, but the announcer immediately used his brain cells to remind everyone of the rules of elimination. The person whose both feet touches the ground first was eliminated, which meant, Baiter had lost the match.
There were some whispers about whether the decision was right or not, but ultimately there was nothing they could have done with the mercenaries present there.
"Congratulations to the guy with the lame name Vince for winning such an exciting match! Sarcasm most definitely intented. Do not forget to claim your winnings before leaving." The announcer announced and once again scurried away.
With that, the match came to an end and although Ashton did not earn as much exp as he would have wanted to, there was something more important than victory which he could still gain.
As Ashton headed to the counter to claim his prize, he realised the troubled look on Baiter's face. That look was exactly what Ashton had been waiting for. It was time for him to make his move. He walked up to the man who was checking his broken and dented armour.
"What do you want now? Came here to rub your victory in my face?" Baiter said in a downed voice. The loss was affecting him more than Ashton thought.
Ashton didn't say a word and transferred Baiter 20,000 blue units, about half of what he had won. Baiter was surprised and jumped up as soon as he got the notification. But his reaction soon faded away and he stared deep into Ashton's eyes.
"I don't need anyone's charity." He mumbled and even though he needed the money, he was about to transfer them back when Ashton stopped him.
"I don't care what they say, I know it was a draw." Ashton smirked, "As far as I am concerned, I'm just giving you what should have been yours either way. On top of that, I already have a reward I can claim so... I got what I wanted in the first place."
Baiter was stunned. He had been fighting here for weeks, ever since getting his first class, but this was the first time he had come across such a fighter. It wasn't surprising that this was his first experience though.
Most of the fighters who fought here had their circumstances. While the rest just fought for fun. There were a lot of things going on in Baiter's mind. But the thing that came out of his mouth was...
"Thank... you, you have no idea how much I needed this money."
"I knew you needed money for something." Ashton smiled before patting the man on his shoulders, "Otherwise you would have invested more money on your armour and get proper materials for it. I can sense you have some extraordinary talent and it would be a waste to see it not get utilised properly. So, I'm glad I could help you out just a bit."
"You are quite observant young fella, aren't you." Baiter wiped away his tears, "I'll remember this generosity of yours. Whenever you need me, just call me and I'll be at your service!"
"Don't worry about it. I'll rather have you as a friend than be your benefactor. But I'll take you up on your offer." Ashton replied and left after exchanging contact info with Baiter, 'Looks like mission 'Bait the Baiter' was a success.'
When Ashton said he knew about Baiter's talent and potential, he wasn't kidding. Having a creationist as an ally was worth much more than the 20k blue units he just spent. Thanks to Baiter, Ashton now had a dependable source to get his weapons and armours from, in future. That is, as long as he could provide Baiter with enough materials.
"Soon even that won't be a problem. But for now, everything was right on track. The slaves are under control and I got an 'ally' as well.. Things have started to look up for me."