Arena #3416.
Ten minutes before the start of the fight.
Nova had just teleported to the arena’s stands, fully expecting a sea of people already seated there. Instead, as he looked around, he noticed a sea of nothing.
The stands, which had been fully packed during the fights he had previously spectated, were almost empty for his civilization’s fight, if one could even call fewer than a thousand people a crowd in a stadium that could house billions.
‘Is this fight not even worth betting on?’ Nova wondered with a bitter smile as he sat down in a seat in the stands.
Every fight he had gone to spectate had been at least crowded, if not fully packed. That had led him to believe every fight received the same treatment, but it seemed he had misjudged.
‘I can’t blame them, even. An unranked civilization and one at the bottom of the top 100,000… I wouldn’t want to spectate such a fight either.’
He leaned back in his seat, staring at the large screen hanging in the middle of the stadium. The projection showed Jack and Oreto standing hundreds of meters apart.
Jack’s gaze was fixed on his opponent, his eyes as calm as a still pond. Oreto’s, however, gleamed with an emotion all too familiar to everyone. Greed.
“I didn’t expect to see you here. Thought you weren’t coming.”
It was then that Erevan’s voice rang out beside Nova as the former calmly took the seat next to him.
Not turning his gaze away from the screen, Nova simply asked, “Can you tell how strong that guy is?”
“Him?” Erevan took a good look at Oreto through the screen. Since he wasn’t there in person to feel the latter’s presence, it was a bit harder to judge his strength. Still, after a few seconds passed, he continued, “Below average. There’s no need to worry about Jack.”
‘Jack? We’re talking about 630,000,000 gold coins.’ Nova sighed internally. Having spectated several fights, he already had a grasp of how things worked.
Despite the portal only being cleared after killing 1,000 warriors, the death ratio in the arenas was low, strangely so. Most fights ended with one warrior admitting defeat after realizing the disparity between their strength and that of their opponent.
At first, he had wondered why. Wouldn’t it be better if the stronger party killed the weaker one? After all, they needed a total of a thousand kills to complete the portal.
But the more he listened to the crowds talking, the more he understood, and soon after, he found his answer.
Although the arena was the main place where killing could happen, it wasn’t actually used for that purpose.
Instead, civilizations preferred using the arena as a way to bankrupt weaker civilizations and have their towns’ arrays confiscated. It was then that the true purpose of the portal came to light.
What was one kill compared to tens or even hundreds?
As soon as the losing civilization lost its array, the winning civilization would immediately sweep through it.
This made the arenas both safe and the most dangerous places at the same time.
Losing didn’t just mean the loss of one life. It could potentially mean the loss of every warrior in a civilization.
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Minutes ticked by as another thousand people slowly took their seats in the stadium.
“It’s about to start,” Erevan commented casually.
Nova nodded.
/////
When the countdown on the screen reached zero, a notification rang in both Jack’s and Oreto’s minds.
[Fight]
Jack watched as the invisible barrier enveloping him, one he had never noticed while spectating fights through the screen, slowly disappeared.
He raised an eyebrow at the discovery, which finally made the actions of the previous fighters make sense, but he soon pushed the thought to the back of his mind.
It was time to fight.
His eyes glinted coldly as he stared at Oreto, who was calmly walking toward him with a huge smile on his face.
Unfazed, Jack tightened his grip on his saber and silently walked toward his opponent.
I can’t be rash or let my guard down. First, I need to assess his strength.
When the distance between the two was no more than twenty meters, Oreto suddenly burst into a loud cheerful laughter, his hands clasped behind his back.
“Hahaha, friend! Why don’t you give up and save yourself some pain? If you do, you can consider me, Oreto, your new friend.”
Jack stopped in his tracks and stared attentively at Oreto before asking, “My new friend? What do you mean by that?”
Hehe, I knew it. This civilization is nothing special. Oreto stroked his chin, trying his hardest to hide the grin threatening to take over his face.
“Having me as a friend will only be beneficial to you,” he explained. “I know you’re new to this place, and without allies, you might even feel lost. But worry not.”
Oreto spread his arms wide and continued, “Becoming a friend of mine is the same as becoming a friend of my civilization, and we’ll spare no effort in taking care of you. What do you say, friend?”
Does he take me for an idiot? All this talk, yet he still placed a bet that would’ve bankrupted any new civilization despite knowing we were one. Jack scoffed internally, but outwardly, a smile spread across his lips.
When Oreto saw it, he grinned.
“G—”
He was just about to speak when Jack’s figure vanished and, an instant later, reappeared right beside him, his saber gleaming as it swung downward without hesitation.
As the leader of a civilization, Oreto was momentarily taken aback by the sudden turn of events, but he wasn’t slow to react.
He hastily pulled a glaive from his Inventory and met the saber head on.
Clang!
A loud noise rang throughout the arena as Oreto’s arms went numb, feeling as heavy as lead after just a single exchange. The earlier grin was gone, now only a grim expression remained on his face.
Jack, on the other hand, didn’t so much as pant. He looked at Oreto calmly and said, “Still wanna be friends?”
Impossible. This is impossible. Oreto couldn’t even process Jack’s words as he screamed inwardly. How can an unranked civilization have someone this strong? Is he from a higher ranked one? No… I don’t believe it. What are the chances of me facing a monster like this among millions of civilizations?
Seeing that he was being ignored, Jack shrugged and dashed once more toward Oreto.
Blow after blow, Oreto found himself in a predicament. The bones in his arms screamed in pain every time his glaive met Jack’s saber, but each time, without fail, a green glow enveloped him, quickly healing him back to full strength, turning the fight into a vicious cycle of pain and recovery.
Wood Force? Early stage? This is my first time seeing someone who comprehended it, Jack thought as he swung his saber with an even greater amount of Force, making the blade gleam even brighter.
Oreto gritted his teeth and swung his glaive as he had in the previous exchanges, having had no time to register the change.
But when the two weapons met this time, the result was drastically different.
The saber sliced through the glaive like a hot knife through butter, making Oreto’s eyes widen in shock, but it wasn’t over.
With nothing to stop it, the saber continued on its path and, in the next moment, stood right in front of Oreto’s trembling eyes.
1… 2… 3…
Seconds passed as Oreto waited for the blade to cut him in half, but it didn’t happen.
“Admit defeat. You can’t beat me.” Jack’s calm voice snapped Oreto out of his shock.
The latter quickly looked past the saber and at the man he had once considered a fat sheep, a target to enrich his civilization, but it turned out he had been the fat sheep all along.
That… that was mid stage Saber Force… When did unranked civilizations become this strong? His mind was a mess.
He remembered that when he had entered this portal years ago, he hadn’t even comprehended the early stage of any Force. Yet now, before his eyes, stood someone who had already reached the middle stage.
It dealt a severe blow to his pride.
And when he remembered the massive amount of Gold coins he had bet on the fight, he couldn’t help but vomit blood.
“Hmm? Are you hurt? But that’s not possible, I stopped in time,” Jack said aloud, his voice filled with genuine concern.
It was so sincere that the already defeated Oreto vomited blood once again.
“Stop… please, stop. I admit defeat,” he whispered weakly.
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