Michael didn’t want to waste too much time convincing Lokai to team up with them. Instead, he wanted to show her how strong he was, and what he was capable of. That should be enough to gain her respect as a fellow Warrior.
It didn’t take long before they reached the empty Ulran Arena. Since everyone was still in the Underground Colosseum, Michael and the others had enough space to train without getting disturbed.
Lokai glanced over to Michael and scoffed at his charade. He was obviously trying to act calm in front of her to seem more confident than he was. It was as clear as day. There was only one thing that confused Lokai.
Why would her brother ask her to join the Team Combat discipline if the little humans were weak and useless? 𝗇𝑜𝑽𝚎𝑙𝑛𝗲xt.𝗇𝓔t
‘No…in the first place…why is Thaor so calm and composed even though this little human brat said that he won’t make it into the top 200 in the Solo Combat discipline? Thaor wouldn’t allow someone weaker than him to say that. He would try to beat someone stronger than him for calling him weak as well… That doesn’t make any sense…’
While she pondered over that, Michael manifested the Wyverntooth Spear and the Spirit Armor Set as he jumped into the combat ring before he walked around calmly.
His crimson ring glimmered lightly, releasing bits of its dragon might. It was strong enough to be perceived subtly, but too shallow to affect Lokai. She entered the combat ring as well and summoned a pair of metal gauntlets and a necklace that had been made out of a skull and several bones. It looked fierce, but Michael spent only a few seconds observing the necklace.
His attention moved back to Lokai as Mekhaz’s voice rang through the arena.
“Start the battle at my commands,” He shouted, starting the countdown.
“Three, two, one…fight!”
The moment Mekhaz said ‘fight’, Lokai charged forward. She accelerated rapidly and looked like a train at full speed as she appeared in front of Michael. In the blink of an eye, her right arm pulled back to gain maximum velocity and she punched forward.
Her presence, speed and the force behind her punch increased all of a sudden as a crimson glimmer manifested in her eyes. She had activated her Soultrait, Burning Fury, to enhance her strength, agility and perception considerably. The next moment, her fist crashed down, punching in Michael’s direction.
However, Michael had long since moved from his earlier position. He took a long stride forward the moment Lokai appeared in front of him. With his Eagle Eyes fully unleashed and further amplified with several layers of Enhancement, Michael pinpointed Lokai’s blind spot immediately. He moved the moment he detected that Lokai was about to strike, and appeared to her right side by disappearing beneath her arm.
Under normal circumstances it was advantageous to be big and physically strong. However, Michael took advantage of the difference in their size by moving below her arm as Lokai punched out. A strong gust splashed against the back of his head as Lokai’s punch cut through the air, but that was all he felt from her attack.
In the next moment, Michael revealed his Legendary Ring’s dragon might. He released his dragon might at full power, while simultaneously manifesting dozens of Glacicles around them.
But Michael was not yet done. He applied six layers of Enhancement to Reinforced Sword Qi and conjured six Qi Swords that shot toward Lokai from all directions alongside the Glacicles. Following that, Michael used Spirit Whip to conjure three Spirit Whips that were intertwined with each other to maximize the damage he could deal. The three-fold Spirit Whip lashed out just as Lokai was about to unleash her bone necklace’s enchantments.
She wanted to protect herself, snatch Michael, and throw him to the side to win the battle immediately in a single move. Sadly, she ended up losing control of her Soultrait and the origin energy surging through her body as something heavy smashed onto her head, no…inside her head.
The Spirit Whip bypassed Lokai’s mental defense easily, smashing heavily onto her mind, stunning the female Berserker for a second. And that was all it took for the Glacicles and enhanced Qi Swords to impact.
The Glacicles shattered, releasing freezing mist all over the Berserker’s skin while the Qi Swords cut deep into her flesh. Lokai’s skin grew colder and it was only a matter of time before her tough skin would freeze and become brittle. But before that would happen, Lokai was bound to lose the battle with Michael.
She didn’t even know where he had disappeared at this point, and could only feel something cold and extremely sharp pressed against her neck.
It took Lokai a moment to realize that Michael was standing on her shoulder. No, he was squatting on her shoulder, pressing the Wyverntooth Spear against her neck all while another batch of six Qi Swords revolved around her neck, ready to cut her from all directions.
“Why does everyone underestimate my strength when I fight them for the first time? Do I look that weak?” Michael asked quietly.
However, his voice was such a big contrast to the silence that reigned through the entire arena that everyone heard him.
Michael’s silent complaint caused Mekhaz to look at Thaor, who kicked the ground. Meanwhile, Kaleb stared at his friend in shock.
“Since when did you obtain an ic–…Did you always have an Ice-type Soultrait?” Kaleb asked in a voice that was just loud enough for Michael to hear.
Michael retracted the freezing mist in the combat ring before removing the Qi Swords as well. He turned to Kaleb and smiled lightly.
“I got Glacicle in the Lord Rift. It’s not a powerful Soultrait but the Glacicles have a pretty good freezing property, and they’re quite cheap to create and easy to control,” Michael said with a shrug.
He didn’t intend to hide the truth. However, Kaleb continued to frown.
“But…you obtained the silver sword Soultrait in the Lord Rift as well…” Kaleb added.
“Nope. I obtained the Reinforced Sword Qi Soultrait as a reward for my contribution in the Lord Rift…even though I would have preferred not obtaining it at all…” Michael said, his expression suddenly filled with sorrow and a tinge of anger.
It was evident that Kaleb had many questions, but Michael didn’t intend to answer all of them right now. Explaining everything would not only waste several hours, but he would have to expose Extraction’s powers. That was not something Michael wanted to do in a public place, let alone with strangers around.
He jumped down from Lokai’s shoulder and looked at the female Berserker, who had trouble regaining her senses for a while. She was too shocked to move or say anything.
“I…just lost, didn’t I?” That was the first thing she said after several minutes of silence.
“Yup. Either you’re weaker than your brother, or you underestimated me a lot more than any Warrior should underestimate their enemies no matter how weak they may be,” Michael said bluntly, not even trying to sound nice.
Lokai grit her teeth when she heard what Michael said, but she knew that it was the truth. She had underestimated Michael even though there hadn’t been a reason to do so. He was only a Tier-2 Lord, but both Thaor and Mekhaz respected him. That should have been more than enough reason to consider Micahel a powerful opponent – not someone one should underestimate easily.
“You’ve grown a lot stronger in the last few days, Michael. Seems like you’ve analyzed our weak points more thoroughly than I expected,” Mekhaz pointed out, trying to console Lokai a little bit with his words, while also showing Michael that he noticed what the young human Lord had done.
But Michael merely shrugged.
“Either way, I hope you can take my words more seriously now that you’ve seen some of my Soultraits,” He said, trying to pull the subject back to the more important topic; the Team Combat discipline.
“I don’t really know what your Soultrait does other than enhancing your strength, agility, and perception a little bit. If that’s all you can do, we’ll have a problem in the Team discipline,” Michael said straightforwardly, “Can you only support yourself, or can you use it on someone else as well? How many allies can you strengthen and does your Soultrait have a side-effect? How long does the enhancement last?”
Michael’s questions could be considered rude, but if Lokai wanted to join them in the team combat discipline, she would have to reveal the utility of her Soultrait to a certain extent. A Support-type Soultrait was a little bit different than other Soultraits, after all. If they wanted to make full use of it – which they had to in order to fight opponents of a higher rank and Tier – they had to know the special perks of Lokai’s Soultrait.
Lokai nibbled her lower lip for a few seconds, her whole attention drawn to Michael.
She looked over to Thaor afterward and sighed heavily.
“I understand why you want me to join this team…but I hate you for not warning me, you piece of garbage!” She cursed Thaor, who flashed a smile toward his older sister.
“I am in. There is no reason not to join this team,” Lokai said, before adding, “But let’s beat up everyone thoroughly. There are a few Berserkers and Warlock Centaurs, who’ve been starting to look down on me and my brother. It’s payback time!”
Michael didn’t know what made Lokai say that but he didn’t really care too much. Since Lokai was willing to join their team they could register as a full team.
“By the way, my Soultrait is called Burning Fury. It is a mutated Support-type Soultrait. It enhances everyone’s Strength, Agility, and Perception as long as I’ve enough energy stored. Using Burning Fury on five people is rather simple. I can maintain it for an hour before I have to consume an energy pill,” Lokai explained, revealing the secrets of her Soultrait rather nonchalantly.
“But the mutation of my Soultrait is the most important,” She added.
“Burning Fury’s potency increases alongside the danger we’re facing. The stronger the opponent we’re facing the higher the enhancement!”