Emery took a 10 minute break to calm himself down. Right now, he very well understood his spirit defense was too weak, so anyone specialized in that would be the most annoying opponent for him to face.
Fortunately for him, he did manage to upgrade his spirit defense. Now that the [Soul Tempering Meditation] book was proven useful, Emery made a mental note to buy the second volume after the arena battles were over.
He spent the ten minutes of allocated rest by meditating and recovering his strength. A quick glance revealed his next opponent was merely a rank above him.
[Rank 85 – Median (79)]
Even though they almost shared the same rank, Emery had no idea of his opponent's power. Hence, he decided to be cautious.
From the other side of the arena, a good looking man with long white hair walked in. He entered the arena with a casual expression and started to casually walk towards Emery.
When they were right across from each other, the referee called out.
"Fight starts!!"
Immediately, the white-haired man took out a pair of black fingerless gloves decorated with a pattern of vines and with a white lotus in the center. As he put them on, he said. "I wonder if you don't mind sparring in hand to hand combat?"
The question certainly made Emery turn suspicious, but after a thought later, he denied such possibility. After all, this was just a simple ranking battle. An acolyte in the privilege class would not embarrass himself by cheating, where everyone could clearly see, would he?
"I'm not going to force you, though! Anyway, here I come!"
The man moved fast, throwing sand and dust in his wake, quickly throwing an unarmed attack, a jab directed straight at Emery's face.
Emery decided not to waste his time and energy by giving him any thought. He opened his maximum [Immortal Gate] and met the man's fist head-on.
Bamm!! Bamm! Bamm!!
A flurry of punches and kicks were exchanged between the two individuals fighting in the arena. Overall, it was a solid fight. But, both of them knew that, unless the white-haired man had something else under his sleeve, there was no way he could defeat Emery in a contest of strength.
After a dozen exchanges of attack at each other, Emery felt it was finally time. He raised his fist before his chest and took his stance, ready to end the fight. Right as he was about to land the final strike, the man suddenly raised both of his hands.
"I give up… I give up!"
"…."
Emery stared at him with an incredulous expression on his face, his fist stopped in midair thanks to utter shock he was currently experiencing.
"Haha, why are you looking so surprised? You are clearly stronger than me. Even the audience knows that."
As if to jolt Emery out of his dumbfounded state, the referee loudly announced his name as the winner.
"Emery Ambrose wins!"
[Your Privilege rank increased to 85]
The white-haired man approached Emery and said.
"Man, you are the real deal… Rank 86 and still this strong. I am not gonna embarrass myself by continuing the fight, really. Besides, you are going all the way up to fight Trish and everyone else, right?"
The fight ended with Median talking about his plan not to injure himself at all to have a shot at challenging the tired Trish to get the top 80 spot. Then, he told Emery about his faction, the "White Lotus Sect".
Despite the name, it was not an official clan at all, it was more of an organization that seeked to make new friends.
"Come visit us anytime," Median said with a friendly smile on his face.
With this fight, Emery had taken care of three privileged class acolytes. The next one he had to fight was from his favorite clan, the so-called "Nephilims".
From the corner of his eyes, Emery could see Armand and his two sidekicks were glaring daggers at him. Their expressions were twisted in great hatred, as if he had killed their entire family without mercy.
He watched as Armand leaned close to one of them and whispered some things, most likely some pep talk. Afterwards, the one who had to fight him walked to the arena.
[Rank 82 – Jordi Nephilim (85)]
The man was wrapped in golden robes. Emery remembered he was one of the Nephilims who fought together with him against the Bone Dragon.
At the moment, the man's expression was full of restrained rage. It was not a surprise he held a grudge against Emery. After all, he did send the Titan's bloodline holder Sigurd towards them, causing their formation to break apart and eventually leading to their elimination.
For a moment there, Emery felt a little bit sorry for what he did, but then he remembered what the Nephilim did to his planet, and every bit of the remorse quickly disappeared like smoke.
"Fight starts!!"
As he expected, the Nephilim did not even hesitate to take action. He swung his hand and started strong by taking out all of his [Soaring Shuttles]. Those strong artifacts circled rapidly around his body and looked extremely menacing.
Right afterwards, the Nephilim cast his special power, forming a glowing golden energy all around his body. A moment later, a light shaped like a wing came out of his back, as he started floating in the air.
Suddenly, eight spherical-shaped constructs gathered around him and shot towards Emery, so quickly they were almost invisible.
In response, Emery took out his two swords and blocked the artifacts coming his way one by one.
Clank!! Clank! Clank!!
The [Soaring Shuttles] were the most advanced weapon created by humans and were made to be used by spirit readers. Each was light and sharp, designed in such a way to maximize one's spirit force and increase its striking power. In addition, it worked by designating a target and using the user's spirit energy as fuel to dart towards the opponent.
This time, a rank 9 spirit reader with 6 pillars formed was the one who was using such artifacts. Therefore, no wonder each attack were so fast and powerful that they forced Emery to use his [Immortal Gate – stage 5] right away.
The Nephilim acolyte's Soaring Shuttle flew toward him vigorously like there was no tomorrow, he didn't even give Emery a chance to attack. Even though he was strong enough to block the attacks, the intensity the shuttle came at him made no opportunity for Emery to counter.
A few minutes passed, and the relentless onslaught still continued. By this point, Emery had somewhat guessed what the acolyte was trying to achieve by unceasingly bombarding with his Soaring Shuttles.
It was clear that Armand, who seemed to be their leader, merely wanted to tire Emery out, so he would fail in the next fight. This was proven by the fact that this Jordi Nephilim had not even once tried to give a decisive strike and been playing his card carefully all this time.
Not willing to be played by them, Emery decided it was time to stop restricting himself. He started using [Blink] all over, making his opponent's shuttle unable to follow him.
With their low-level defense capability, Emery really was the bane of the spirit readers.
The combination of Emery's new speed with the blink spell, allowed him to bypass the spirit reader defense. During the confusion, he sneaked behind him and knocked the Nephilim out.
"Emery Ambrose wins!"
[Your Privilege rank increased to 82]
Armand and his gang watched as Emery was quickly able to defeat one of them and nonchalantly walked off the arena, not paying any attention to them as if such an act was not worth his time.. Armand, in particular, narrowed his eyes and stared at Emery with pure rage.