Chapter 876 876 Beast Pushing
After contemplating what to do for a few minutes, Marcus eventually descried to let these guys go ahead with their plan If je killed them now, that would be all there was to it. But if he waited until they attacked them in public, he could make sure to capture the leaders and have them turned in.
That would likely prevent the Guhbaa Clan from trying to attack them again since the Eazim Clan would put a huge amount of pressure on them. If he just finished these guys off now, it was possible that their leader might try and pull off some scheme against them later that Marcus would not know about.
Frankly he felt a bit bad for Amira and her guards, but he highly doubted that these guys could gather up a force strong enough to be a threat to him or Mrazivý. It would be easy enough to clean up whatever goons they tried to throw at them and then catch them in the act.
Having figured out what he wanted to do, Marcus left the building and returned to the restaurant that the others were eating ate.
However, when he returned from the bathroom, Amira was giving him a concerned and pitying look, while Mrazivý was holding in a snicker.
'I really need to think of a better excuse to sneak away than going to the restroom.' Marcus thought as he sat down.
He had been gone long enough that their table's appetizers had already been brought and eaten, and it was not long until their main courses were brought out.
"Marcus are you sure you should be eating that? It is pretty spicy." Amira asked, worry in her eyes.
Naturally she was assuming that Marcus was having stomach problems and that eating such food would only make things worse.
"Its fine." Marcus said curtly.
He then glared at Mrazivý who was barely keeping her laughter in. She quite enjoyed watching him struggle despite knowing what he had actually been up to.
Thankfully, as time went by, Amira forgot about Marcus' long absence from the table after he ate everything on his plate without any issue.
"That was very good Amira. Thank you for finding such a choice place for us to eat ate." Mrazivý said once they were finished.
"Oh, it is no problem. This is part of my job as your guide. Though it was the grand elder that recommended this place to me, so I really did not do much." Amira said, her head lowered slightly.
"Hey, no need to feel down about it. You do not live in the capital, so it makes sense you would ask someone more knowledgeable about things like restaurants. Anyway, you did a great job as our guide earlier, defending Mrazivý against those guys trying to say she cheated." Marcus said.
"Yeah, the way you stood up to that guy was great. He looked like he was scared out of his wits when he found out you were a member of the Eazim Clan." Mrazivý said, a joyous smile on her face.
At this Marcus remembered that he had not told Mrazivý about the plan to attack them yet. He had been overwhelmed by the embarrassment of Amira's misunderstanding.
'Mrazivý, there is something I need to tell you.' Marcus said with his telepathy.
Swiftly he summarized what he had heard and told Mrazivý to stay on guard.
'Got it. I will keep my eyes and ears open.' Mrazivý responded.
Once they paid for their meal, their group exited the restaurant and Amira led them closer towards the center of the festival where the more prominent and famous events were occurring.
"Now that sure is something you don't see every day." Mrazivý remarked.
In the middle of a large arena a man was wrestling with dual horn. The beast that looked a bit like a rhinoceros, but was a bit small and stouter, and had two horns instead of one.
Right now, they were standing in front of a famous event called beast pushing, where people tried to push back against beast that liked to charge their opponents.
Several tens of thousands of people stood around watching and cheering. Some with tickets in their hands showing that the had bet on the event.
Currently the man wrestling with the dull horn was red in the face and looked like he was having a hard time keeping his footing.
He had one hand each gripped on the beasts' horns to prevent himself from being skewed, but it looked like he was going to lose the contest of strength.
'Hm, the guy is level twenty-nine. Certainly not low by normal standers, while the dual horn is only level twenty. I suppose that this is simply the difference between a strength-based beast and a person.' Marcus thought, watching the man falter and get trampled.
The dual horn turned back around to finish the guy off, but several members of the clan hosting the event enter the arena and using ropes tied the dual horn down and pulled it away, while a healer attended to the man who now had several broken bones and was bleeding all over.
"Seems that this is a pretty rough event. Though I guess it is quite popular." Marcus said, looking around at the crowd.
"Yes, it is one of the most attended challenges. It is conserved a great honor to be able to successfully push back a large beast. The tournaments are the highlight of the festival, but this is where many people that are not quite strong enough to participate come to show off their prowess." Amira explained.
"So, can anyone enter?" Mrazivý asked, looking interested.
"Yes, but it is dangerous. Most of the beasts were recently captured out in the wild and are not tamed. I know that my father ordered the capture of a rare grade beast called a gigantic ram beetle. I did not here exactly what level it was, but apparently it gave the men that went to subdue it a great deal of trouble, so I imagine that it must be over level thirty-five. Other clans also captured beasts of similar or even greater power. Many people die every year after taking on a beast they could not handle." Amira said, a frown on her face. She was evidently not a fan of violence.
Still, Mrazivý said that she wanted to participate, and Marcus figured he might as well. This was their chance to experience another culture, and though he figured that there were likely no beasts that would posse a challenge to either of them, it would still be fun to participate.
Swiftly they found the registration counter and waited in the relatively short line.
"Are you wanting to register?" the receptionist asked, a baffled look on her face.
Neither Marcus nor Mrazivý looked overly impressive physically like most of the participants did. But with stats and levels even someone that looked like a beanpole could rip a house off its foundation if they were high enough level, so the receptionist did not turn them away immediately.
"Yes, what is the strongest beast you have. I would like to try my hand it against it." Mrazivý said, a confident smile on her face.
Of course, the receptionist was stunned by this, and it took her about six seconds to recover before she began vehemently trying to convince Mrazivý against doing so.
Eventually Mrazivý convinced the receptionist that she was strong enough to go toe to toe with the beast by pulling out a mithril dagger she had and crumpling it like foil with her bare hands.
It was hard to argue with this show of strength and the receptionist registered Mrazivý to wrestle against a rare grade beast called a lead ox that was apparently over level fifty.
Marcus asked for the second strongest beast to be his opponent and the receptionist seeing that he was with Mrazivý figured he was a monster as well.
His opponent was going to be a rare grade beast called a diamond head, and from its description Marcus realized that it was actually similarly to a dinosaur he had heard about on Earth called a Pachycephalosaurus.
He was surprised to hear that such a beast lived in the desert, but he remembered the furry dinosaur-like beasts he had fought in the Great Gome woods and chopped it up to just how this world was.
"Looks like we are going to be highlights." Mrazivý said, seeing their time slots.
Both of them were going to be participating at peak hours. Marcus was going to have his match just after sunset, while Mrazivý was scheduled to go last. For the event having anyone want to go against their strongest beasts was going to be a focus of the event.
So far, they were the only ones crazy enough to challenge these powerful beasts barehanded in a match of pure strength.
"Let's go look around at some other interesting things before our matches. There are bound to be other cool events we can try out." Marcus suggested.
With that they went around the heart of the area, watching a play that was being put on about a campaign held long ago to subdue a powerful horde of monsters in the desert, participating in a classic arm-wrestling event and handily winning. As well as trying loads of the food being offered.
Eventually the sun began to lower, and it was nearly time for Marcus' turn to participate in the beast pushing event.
"I'll make sure to bet on you. I already know you are going to win." Mrazivý said, as she and Amira separated with Marcus as he headed towards the participant's entrance.