Rogue Villain-Chapter 201: Pins

Ackster wanted to continue fighting Tunk in the hopes of learning more. Unfortunately, it didn’t take long for him to realize that Tunk only fought using brute force. His attacks and moves were simple and straightforward, and he won his fights thanks to overwhelming strength rather than technique.

Since there was nothing more to gain from reading Tunk’s moves, Ackster stopped wasting time, and he stepped in, dodging Tunk’s fist, and threw an uppercut straight to the burly guy’s jaw.

Ackster didn’t put in a lot of strength. He didn’t even use a move from the Unimportant Whatever Arts. He threw a simple punch. But that was still enough to knock Tunk out and send him flying into the air for a couple of seconds before crashing down.

The crowd turned deathly silent as soon as Tunk collapsed on the ground, but only for a moment before the crowd burst into cheers, and four guys crawled up on stage to carry away Tunk.

Ackster had just beaten the biggest and strongest guy around, but he hadn’t scared the crowd of challengers in the least. It was finally time for the guy who had shouted at Mike to fight. He seemed just as eager as before.

Ackster couldn’t help but think that the unstoppable fighting spirit was admirable. But that didn’t stop him from beating the snot out of the challengers who came up to the ring.

After it became clear that Ackster was undeniably the champion and that it wouldn’t matter who challenged him, a grizzled old man with leathery, weathered skin came out of a tiny hut on the other side of the courtyard and tossed Ackster a bronze pin. The bronze pin was in the symbol of a fist, and it was what Ackster had come here for.

The old man didn’t say anything after throwing over the pin. He just headed back with slow but steady and measured steps.

’Interesting.’

Ackster could tell that the old man was strong. He couldn’t tell exactly how strong. But his senses, honed by Bo’s training, alerted him of the powerful potential strength lying dormant in that old body. He hadn’t expected to find someone like that on a small island like Vivi. But then again, if every island had men and women fighting like no tomorrow, there were bound to be a lot of people growing old doing that since not everyone died young.

Besides, with how much the people of Matar dueled and fought, they were also bound to have excellent healers since they had done it for quite some time now—several generations at least.

"Thanks for the fun, everyone!"

Ackster gave the nearby fighters who had yet gotten the opportunity to challenge him or who had already recovered a smile and waved as he left the ring. He received applause and a bunch of pats on his shoulders and arms as he strode through the crowd and left the courtyard.

The attention he received gave Ackster mixed feelings. The feeling of being part of such a happy and festive community was surprisingly nice despite the violence it stemmed from. But his paranoia didn’t let him take it deeper than the surface level, and he was worried about his identity.

Ackster tried to rationalize the fact that there was no way somebody—anybody—could connect the dead, bratty, annoying, weak, and dumb-as-shit Ackster Phileam of the Badhurst Kingdom’s Degrest City to Lex, a one-armed, red-haired martial artist strong enough to pummel seasoned fighters.

It also didn’t make any sense for Ackster Phileam to have ended up in the Central Isles of Matar after a year of not existing.

But Ackster’s brain told him that he looked the same as he had done in Temir. And before that, the Space Jelly Habitat. Someone might be able to track him back to Tenger, then to the Habitat, his activities in Ilto, and before that, Degrest. 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

One small comfort was the fact that the Blood Moon disaster had taken care of most potential witnesses of his existence in and around Ilto and the Cloven Grasslands.

However, as Ackster traveled from island to island, gathering bronze pins, he stumbled upon another comforting fact. The islanders, the fighters, and the challengers treated every strong fighter with cheers.

A strong fighter with a friendly attitude who happily accepted and took part in friendly spars was something to celebrate. And even if Ackster stood out a little, he wasn’t the only foreigner who had come to Matar to test himself and experience combat and martial arts.

So, when he arrived on Charloga Island, one of the Twelve, carrying ten bronze pins and not a single bruise, he wasn’t the subject of scrutiny. The islanders happily welcomed him around the island and into the dueling arenas so he could gather silver pins and further prove himself.

While proving himself, Ackster also studied his opponents, who were significantly better than their counterparts on the smaller islands. They hadn’t gotten this far solely relying on brute strength, and most of them belonged to various schools of martial arts on the island. Ackster learned a lot from them.

But he also learned from the adventurers who had come to Matar and risen up the ranks, some using weapons or magic and some not.

All the fights Ackster went through gave him a great deal of experience. But it was too shallow and not enough for him to make any real progress other than in terms of learning how to predict what his opponent would do. There also weren’t many who could take several of his punches or strikes without fainting, so there weren’t many opportunities for Ackster to test his limits and see how far he had come on the road of combat and martial arts.

It was only when fighting in the Charloga Arena, the Charloga Island’s prime dueling arena that he could begin to stretch his limbs and unfurl his wings.

The Charloga Arena was also his last stop before moving on to the next island. Ackster just hoped the other arenas could give him the same challenge.