A few minutes ago, Armand was retreating frantically for his dear life into the corner of audience seats where the Nephilims were. Alas, the only thing waiting for him was the scornful gaze of the 22th rank Jinkan Nephilim.
"I.. I am sorry, Sister Jinkan. I… He's-"
Before Armand could finish saying his words, he suddenly felt his body extremely weak and thus fell to his knees. It was such a strong spirit attack, that even a capable acolyte like Armand could not afford to resist. Struggling to lift his head, he looked at the woman standing in front of him.
Jinkan looked down coldly and opened her mouth.
"Such an embarrassment to the clan, so weak even with your second wing formed." She sneered with great disdain. "If it weren't for the fact that you were able to form the second wing, the higher ups would not mind even if I killed you right here right now; Do you understand what I mean?"
Armand who pitifully knelt on the ground nodded his head weakly. Afterwards, Jinkan waved her hand and two Nephilim acolytes swiftly took him away to be punished.
Jordie who watched all of this was scared that he would be punished as well. But after seeing Jinkan didn't do anything else, he heaved a sigh of relief. Then, he asked in a hesitant tone.
"Will you fight and avenge us, sister?"
Hearing the question, Jinkan coldly cast his gaze at Emery's figure standing in the center of the arena challenging anyone to fight him. After a while, she finally opened her mouth.
"That kid must die, but I can't kill him with my own hand." She then turned her gaze toward an acolyte that had been sitting not far from them. This particular person was wearing a cloak that covered his entire body completely.
"Atlas… It's a good time for you to repay what the family has given you."
The acolyte didn't say anything when he heard that. He just stood from his seat and removed the robe covering his body before walking towards the arena. Just as he took a few steps, Jinkan's cold voice sounded again.
"Remember, I want him dead."
For a moment, this acolyte called Atlas stopped in his tracks. He nodded his head and then continued walking towards the arena.
[Rank 36- Atlas III (30)]
[Rank 64 – Emery Ambrose (68)]
If Emery managed to win this match, he would literally soar to the heavens as it would be an increase of 30 ranks at once. However, he would certainly not have an easy time as this acolyte has a higher test ranking than his real ranking.
This showed that the opponent he was about to face was someone with an extraordinary raw stats.
However, Emery was in no condition to stop right now. The bow had been drawn, and every single muscle of his body was demanding to fight!
As usual, a ten minutes break was given to Emery and he utilized this precious time to properly channel spirit energy to and from his double core, recuperating his body condition to the best it possibly could.
As much as he wanted to fight again, Emery clearly didn't want this to have any harmful effects on his cultivation. Throughout the ten minutes of peacefulness, he tried to keep in check the strong desire within and prepared the very best for the difficult fight that was about to come.
Corruption is entering his blood, was the message Emery received in his mind.
This gave him a hint of what was actually happening to him at the moment; An unknown kind of essence had somehow entered his heart and subsequently corrupted it.
After a thoughtful contemplation, his best guess would be the side effect of the [Lycanthrope Corruption] that he found in the three claw island. After all, he did consume a large amount of it despite not knowing its origin.
Emery took the chance to cast [Nature Blessing] on himself to analyze his own body. A few moments later, he could perceive that the corruption was not only spreading throughout his body through his blood, but also having some kind of reaction to his spirit cores.
It tried to make its way into his spirit cores, but when it came close, the two cores immediately rejected and blocked its progress – as if it was some kind of bane. No wonder his [Fey Transformation] was unable to take effect; As his two cores rejected the corruption, the spirit energy necessary for the ability to active also became unavailable.
It didn't take long for Emery to conclude that this is the same bloodline that affected Morgana, the one that King Fjolrin said was the curse from the outer planet.
Afterwards, Emery turned his attention to his stats and realized that there was a new change.
Battle power 136 (180)
The 32 point of battle power boost from his [Immortal Gate] has another 12 added into it;
This certainly surprised him, 12 points was a pretty high number. No wonder he felt much stronger. Perhaps, this boost would be more than enough for his next fight.
The 10 minutes break time was almost up, and except for his still chaotic heart, Emery newfound self regeneration combined with his unusual [Nature Grasp] has allowed him to completely heal the wounds on his body. Although there was still some degree of natural fatigue from successive battles, he was still ready for another one.
It was time to focus his attention on the opponent.
Apart from his unusual limbs that seemed to be made of metal, the man standing several meters in front of him had a youthful arrogant appearance with messy yellow hair. One thing that immediately caught Emery's attention was the other party's eyes – a pair of eyes with gleaming red light.
This out of the ordinary appearance made him wonder if this man was really a human or just a construct. Either way, the man would be the next opponent to see how far his newfound strength would allow him to go.
After just standing in silence for the last 10 minutes while he was recuperating, the man finally moved his body. He calmly walked a few steps closer to him and then said,
"Emery Ambrose, I am here to eliminate you." Such words were said in a very serious manner.
In fact, the serious look and stern tone the other party used gave credibility in the words, showing the latter was determined in what he just said. Emery's face turned serious as he realized this fact.
At the same time, the senior staff signaled that the 10 minute break was over.
"The fight begins!"
Right away the hundreds of spectators start to cheer toward the fight.
Without another word, Atlas immediately mounted his fighting stance. There were some strange noises coming out of him before his body suddenly emitted some smoke, and then there was an explosion following his figure shooting towards Emery at breakneck speed.
Emery was surprised to see Atlas approaching him very quickly.
"He's really fast!!"
The man has roughly similar speed to the speedster Emery had fought before, but when he tried to block the knee that was going to his stomach, Emery could feel a momentum of power that was stronger than any attack he had ever received from his peers.
BAAMMM!!!
His feet slid a few steps back across the ground as his newfound 182 battle power was unable to completely neutralize Atlas's attack.
Emery narrowed his eyes as he saw the unique face that was before his eyes. The man definitely has higher physical strength than him.
With his arm still numbing after the block, Emery started to use his battle art as well
"Fight!!"
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Written by Avans, Published exclusively by W.e.b.n.o.v..e.l,