"Yesss!!! Finally, that despicable person got what he deserved!! A f*cking retribution!!"
Armand's voice contained an untold amount of happiness when he saw Emery was injured by the lizard's attack.
Emery snapped his head to the lizard as he grabbed the latter's spear and crushed the shaft into pieces. Immediately after, he took a few steps away from the summons. His right shoulder continued to bleed heavily as he retreated and was chased by the two other summons.
When Armand inadvertently shouted such words in his excitement, the people around him – his Nephilim teammates – looked at him with a weird look. Noticing the gazes he was receiving, Armand quickly calmed the bubbling excitement within him and schooled his expression to normal.
"Ehem.. I mean… it looks like his journey will stop here.." Armand sighed as he turned to Jordi. "It's really unfortunate, Jordi. If he survives, I really want to get revenge for your loss as well as mine. Alas.. fate seems to prepare other things for us. I'm really out of luck this time, I wish he would fall under my hand."
The others nodded their heads in agreement, but secretly wondering why their senior kept changing his words. Of course, there was no way they would directly ask this to the other party as they knew what kind of fate awaited.
Not far from them, a girl with brown hair who has a huge bow and a set of a special quiver and arrows caught Armand's 'magnanimous' words.
She sneered. "Huh! You can only talk big, Armand! I bet you are actually scared of him, that's why you were so happy when you saw him injured earlier."
Hearing that, Armand immediately turned to the direction of the voice and realized who spoke such crude words to him – Reyne.
The girl was currently rank 68, the last person that foolish lower realm acolyte had to fight before the latter was finally able to challenge him.
Reyne was also part of Group 7 who worked together in their endeavor of defeating the Bone Dragon. Unfortunately, she was eliminated early because of the Nephilims' devious scheme. Hence no wonder she displayed such strong hostility toward the latter.
"Huh! Reyne, if you are still upset about the past, then I have to tell you that it's nothing personal really.." Armand chuckled. "It was just a game, after all. At that time, all of us were only trying to get the best result, and naturally, I did my part to achieve the same.
Upon hearing that, the girl scoffed as if she just smelled garbage. "Are you sure you are a man, Armand? Because you talk like a girl, too many excuses!"
As if the fuse had been lit, the Nephilims around Armand exploded into a crowd of angry and irritated people. The expression on Armand's face also turned cold as he opened his mouth.
"I am ready to fight you after this, Reyne. Let's talk with our strength in the arena!"
"See! Arena is for fighting, not talking!" Reyne said with a mocking tone.
Armand became even more incensed when he heard that. "I am telling you that I'm not just talking! I am ready to fight!"
It was at this moment that the bickering of the two was interrupted by loud cheers from the crowd around them. The two of them immediately turned their gazes to the arena to see what would elicit such a reaction.
Emery, whose body was dyed red all over by the blood bleeding from his wounds, managed to launch a counterattack to Vegoth, employing a powerful sword art. A dark energy blade attack that was able to dispatch the skeleton and the lizard at once.
This naturally left Vegoth with two less meat shields, and Emery didn't plan to let such a golden opportunity. He immediately sprang into action, darting at the former at breakneck speed so that he didn't have a chance to summon the two back.
The winged creature flew to Emery's back as it tried to protect its master. Emery ignored it entirely as there was something more important to deal with. As a result, it managed to bite his shoulder and tore off a chunk of his flesh as its teeth were sharp enough to pierce through [Granite Skin].
The sharp pain forced Emery to drop his sword. Even so, he didn't scream nor cancel his attack toward Vegoth.
He used his elbow to hit the winged creature before tackling Vegoth down to the ground. The two rolled across the ground, Emery positioned himself at the top before he delivered a series of punches to his opponent.
Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam!..
In the air, there was a clear sound of Emery's fists continuously hitting Vegoth's body, accompanied by the latter's screams of pain.
Emery shouted loudly as he continued to hit Vegoth's face until it was difficult to recognize his original face. Eventually, the latter passed out and his summons were all dispelled, signifying the end of the match as well as Emery's victory.
"Emery Ambrose wins!!"
The spectators once again cheered when they saw that Emery managed to win his ninth match of the day. This was an extraordinary feat, especially since he fought consecutively and against young talents of the privileged class.
[Your Privilege rank increased to 70]
While the crowd cheered and applauded their hearts out, Armand on the other hand was dumbfounded at the brutality he had just witnessed. Fear suddenly rose within him as he watched Vegoth's blood drip slowly from Emery's fist.
He was even more surprised when the senior staff announced that Emery still wished to continue and fight.
Subconsciously, Armand turned his head to the next opponent Emery had to face, Reyne. However, the latter was surprisingly also staring at him. A wicked smile appeared on her face when she saw that he was looking at her.
"I surrender!"
She look toward Armand and said "i don't mind waiting for another month, now let me see that brave words you said just now"
Reyne's immediate forfeit meant that it was now Armand's turn to fight. Unknowingly, one of his arms was trembling, and when he realized it, he quickly used his other hand to stop it forcibly.
The people around him, however, seemed to not notice this. They all looked at Armand with hopeful eyes.
"Brother, it's finally your time! It's your chance to beat that scum! Look at him, he's half dead already!!"
Armand was sweating bullets; he was terrified at the lower realm acoyte currently standing in the center of the arena. Still, there was no way for him to back down at this moment unless he didn't want to show his face ever again.
Gulping his saliva, Armand forced himself to speak.
"No.. No.. I- He can't force me to fight… yeah.. I have a higher rank… no.. I mean… it's too humiliating to fight such a half-dead acolyte.. Yes… yes.. I'll be magnemous this time and let him go for now."
His teammates were confused, but his seniority made them afraid to say anything.
Armand was about to relax and heave a sigh of relief when a familiar female voice came from behind.
"You are not going to embarrass the family now, right Armand?"
Chill crawled up to Armand's back when he heard that. He turned around and saw someone he didn't want to meet in this kind of situation.
The 22th rank, Jinkan Nephilim – the second best of this year's Nephilim acolytes.
"Seriously, Armand?" She said with a faint smile. "You are not afraid of him, aren't you?"
Armand panicked, but he quickly tried to hide it. "A-afraid? Who? Me? O-of course not!!"
The referee had called his name, and Armand knew that he had to accept the challenge.
"Yes… I will fight him."
Armand walked down from the audience seats and walked into the arena, his complexion was pale while his body trembled faintly.
"Fight begins!!"