The gazes of over 40 youths fell onto Leonel. When they saw that his mask had no markings on it at all, they immediately guessed that this man should be the so-called Indomitable.
As for Leonel, he was as confused as ever. What had he done to attract such hatred?
'Is it because I was late…?'
Leonel felt a wave of fatigue hit him all of a sudden. It was only now that he remembered he hadn't slept in almost five days. He had been diligently comprehending something when the old man suddenly appeared, grabbed his shoulder, then tossed him here.
If it wasn't for his high spirit, staying awake for so long would be impossible even if his body was many times more powerful. Unfortunately, his spirit had taken quite a bit of a hit now.
"Sorry, I was late."
These were the first words Leonel said, but they only made the gazes of the over 40 youths that looked toward Leonel burn brighter. This wasn't only because of what he said, but also because they recognized his voice. It was the very same voice that said it could defeat them all even without Hacker Hutch's training.
As for Leonel's words themselves, how could they take it seriously? In fact, they found it to be quite insulting. If his words didn't imply disregard, then what else could they imply?
They had all gotten here early, all to teach Indomitable a lesson. Yet, not only did he not appear on time, making them wait for him, but they had all just heard his voice clearly. Even to this point, he still hadn't wanted to come. Had it not been for Old Hutch, he might have not come at all. How could they not feel unsatisfied?
Seeing the atmosphere wasn't quite right, Leonel smiled bitterly and scratched the back of his head. But, at that moment, a yawn inadvertently came from his mouth, causing him to subconsciously cover his lips despite having a mask on. It couldn't be helped, he was too tired.
However, what he had forgotten was that since he was wearing a mask, no one could see his sheepish grin. But, they all very clearly heard his yawn. This made their already furious gazes spit fire.
At this point, even if Leonel wanted to explain, no one would listen.
The sound of a throat clearing rang over the arena.
"Indomitable, I presume? Please take your place on the arena and we can begin."
Leonel turned his head back toward the overseer box, seeing that the voice came from there, then complied. It seemed he really wouldn't be able to get out of this. He was usually well-liked wherever he went. This could be said to be the first time in his life where he was truly public enemy number one for reasons that were completely out of his control.
Though Leonel complied with the voice, his every action was under the scrutiny of too many people. His appearance in comparison to the perfect military form of the other youths on the stage with him stuck out like a sore thumb. It was clear that whether it was his posture or demeanor, he was lacking completely. He threw their perfect formation into disarray.
His steps weren't even, his back was slouched, and his eyes were perpetually half closed.
As if that wasn't bad enough, he kept yawning.
The flickers of deep disdain and disgust continuously came his way, but by this point, Leonel didn't have the mind to care for them. He had fallen into a trance once more, seemingly trying to grasp something that had just been within his reach.
Over the last several days, he had been trying to comprehend his Lineage Factor and by extension Spear Force, but he had ended up stumbling upon something completely different. It left him quite shocked, actually. In truth, he had almost completely forgotten about his infatuation with Spear Force.
Unfortunately, his absentminded gaze and his continuous yawning not only made him the public enemy of the youths, but also the crowd watching on. They hardly even paid attention to the Commanders who were in charge of reading out the rules of the gathering.
The more they paid attention to Leonel, the more he didn't seem to notice them, and the more enraged they became. Then, when they reached a tipping point, Leonel would yawn again, making veins bulge like slithering snakes on their foreheads.
"… The first will be Indomitable, I assume you don't mind?"
At first, Leonel didn't register the words. After all, he didn't know his name was Indomitable now. He wasn't the one who chose the name.
But, after a moment, he seemed to recall that the woman who spoke from the overseer's box earlier had also said Indomitable when referring to him. He hadn't thought much about it because his mind was too sluggish to care for other things. But now, he suddenly made the connection.
"Who, me?" Leonel looked up, only to find several more glares aimed toward him. "Sure, sure. Yes, yes."
He hurriedly spoke. He had no idea what was going on, but he thought his best option was to agree, or else these people might really pounce on him.
The woman in the overseer's box frowned. She had already had a poor impression of Leonel from the beginning, but his actions since coming here infuriated even her.
Under Leonel's confused gaze, the other youths who had shared the stage with him cleared out and left, not forgetting to send a few more threatening gazes toward him. Toward this, he could only be helpless.
'Am I supposed to leave too, or?'
Leonel hesitated. He was apparently supposed to go first, but he didn't know what he was supposed to do. Luckily, he got an answer quite quickly.
The ground separated to reveal a hidden underground passageway. Others couldn't see what was going on with just their eyes, but even with his weakened spirit, Leonel could tell that there was a small group of Invalids coming toward him now, all of which were at the A-grade. He could see that there were a total of five of them.
'Am I supposed to defeat them?'
Leonel came to an understanding, then. Since that was the case, everything was pretty straight forward then. In truth, Leonel's mind was groggy, all he really wanted to do was sleep, but whenever he had such thoughts, his curiosity got the best of him and he continued to study that weird feeling he grasped just a few days ago.
Now that his mind had cleared once more due to this tournament and he didn't have that curiosity to distract him from his fatigue anymore, all he wanted to do was take a nap.
The five A-grade Invalids stalked their way up from the hidden underground passage. The crowd had been quite interested in seeing all of their weird mutations and quirks. After all, there was a high chance that Invalids at the A-grade would have such oddities attached to them. But, they didn't get much of a chance.
With a flip of his hand, an atlatl appeared in Leonel's palm. With his increase in strength after forming a Two Star Constitution, defeating A-grade Invalids was as easy as a flick of wrist.
Five streaks of silver pierced through the air, leaving howling winds in their wake. A moment later, they shot through five foreheads, blasting the A-grade Invalids apart only for them to turn into several motes of light.
Seeing that the task was done, Leonel couldn't refrain from yawning again. He went off to the side to find a place to rest. He didn't seem to notice the silence of the arena when he sat back down. In fact, he had just been feeling tired a moment ago, but instead of closing his eyes, he actually sank back into that absentminded head space.
A light of fury flickered in the female Commander's eyes.
"Indomitable is disqualified for breaking the rules."
Unfortunately for her sanity, Leonel didn't seem to hear this either.