John's aura emanated with incredible power, while his attitude radiated absolute confidence. The other fighters in the arena narrowed their eyes as they stared at John, both guarded by his display of power, while also insulted by his previous words.
"Listen here boy," one of the stronger fighters spoke up, clearly agitated by John's provocative words. "You may be strong, but no matter how strong you think you are, you are far from being able to dominate this arena. You're about to learn a lesson in humility."
John's aura was doubtlessly strong, but each of the youths in the arena were geniuses of their sects and clans, and carried themselves with pride. They would never bow their head against a Meridian Forging youth just because of a strong aura.
John's gaze shifted to the youth who had just spoken, who wore a purple robe with the image of a snake on it. The youth had a chiseled face, short blonde hair, and was ruggedly handsome. John could instantly tell that this youth was a Middle Heaven Tribulation cultivator, and was most likely one of the more talented geniuses from his power.
"A pity," John replied calmly. "If your cultivation was not restricted to the Early Heaven Tribulation Realm, you may have been a good opponent to fight. However, as you are now, you are not worth wasting my breath over."
The youth's eyes narrowed as he heard John's words. He opened his mouth to reply again, but his narrowed eyes instantly widened as John suddenly appeared before him, his speed far greater than anything the youth had thought possible.
John's fist, augmented by both the Supreme Battle Art and Limiter of Power, smashed forward towards the youths chest, who hastily raised his spear in front of his chest.
Peng!
John's fist smashed against the shaft of the spear, causing a piercing metallic ring to echo out. The youth, unable to resist the might of John's punch launched backwards, his feet scraping across the surface of the arena until he came to a stop over a hundred yards away. The youth who had blocked the attack lowered his spear as he stared at John with a new look. Instead of the haughty arrogance of before, only guarded caution could be seen now.
His spear trembled in his hands as his arms still struggled to recover from the force of the blow he had just blocked. Before anyone could process what had just happened, John shot forward once more towards the youth.
Lightning from his lighting domain crashed violently between nodes, forming a powerful lightning cage around his body, nearly fifty yards wide.
"Attack him! Eliminate this bastard," the spear wielding youth shouted out in panic as he watched John quickly approach him. In that singular exchange, he could tell he was outmatched.
"Tch, this fucking cultivation restricting formation is ruining everything," the youth cursed as he steadied his spear and unleashed a powerful battle art towards John. A purple spear battle art pierced towards John, its power capable of overwhelming most of the other fighters in the arena.
Bang!
The spear battle art slammed onto the lightning cage, its power attempting to pierce within. After a brief struggle between the two battle arts, the purple spear image faded away while the lightning cage remained, shocking all that saw it.
Following the words of the spear wielding youth, the other fighters all unleashed their battle arts towards John, intending on eliminating him once and for all. Unlike all the other participants, John was attempting to swallow up the entire arena with his battles, something that was looked down upon. Doing so would only draw the ire from all the fighters as was currently happening.
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
A barrage of battle arts slammed against John's defensive lightning cage, as a battle between battle arts raged out. John's twenty times compressed dantian churned with absolute power as it spewed out as much Qi as it could handle, strengthening the lightning cage to its peak.
'While my body could most likely handle all these attacks at once, it's best that I don't try my luck against so many attacks. Even for me, fighting against this many opponents will become overwhelming if I don't start whittling their numbers down right away. In that case, I'll start with the weakest and work my way up.'
John's gaze swept across the arena as his lightning domain continued to resist the flurry of battle arts slamming against it. The arena lit up like a battlefield as dozens of battle arts exploded each second, drowning most of the arena in the explosions. The fighters all utilized their Qi to form protective barriers around their bodies as they continued to unleash battle arts, hoping to overwhelm John's lightning barrier.
From the center of the platform, Alderen watched the fight with great interest. At first his expression was calm, but it slowly became graver as he watched John's display of power. The battle arts between the two sides exploded over him constantly, but a flaming inferno suddenly sprung up around him, shielding him from the explosive attacks.
"How the fuck is his lightning barrier still standing," one of the youths in the arena cursed out angrily. They had already landed dozens of attacks on it, and any other person in the arena facing such a barrage would have already been overwhelmed.
"He must be using some sort of defensive formation or artifact. Keep assaulting him, and it will eventually run out of energy," the spear wielding youth yelled out, unable to believe this was John's true power.
John's gaze shifted back towards the spear wielding youth, their eyes locking onto each other through the small gaps in John's lightning cage. John narrowed his eyes as he stared at the youth, who felt a shiver of fear crawl up his spine.
'I was going to start with the weakest, but I'll start with him first. He's acting as their commander of sorts, so taking him out should scatter the rest a bit. In that case, there's no need to delay any further…'
Without any warning, John shot forward towards the spear wielding youth, while the barrage of attacks continued to powerfully explode against his lightning cage. A few of the battle arts managed to pierce the lighting cage, although their power had been greatly reduced by the cage. The remaining power exploded against John's body, which took little to no damage at all.
John appeared before the spear wielding youth, whose expression turned grave as he unleashed his strongest battle art. A purple and red spear shot out, its power shaking the nearby arena. The spear slammed against the lightning cage, and after a brief moment of struggle pierced through the cage.
The youths eyes lit up in elation as he watched the spear slam onto John, who was not holding a weapon at the moment. John's fist punched out with his full power to meet the spear, the two attacks resulting in an incredible explosion within the lightning cage.
The attacks from the outside quickly ceased as the youths all looked on with shocked expressions. They had been attacking John fruitlessly, and were becoming hopeless in the fight against him. However, the spear-wielding youth had clearly landed a direct attack against a weaponless John, and his spear attack was not something many in the arena could resist with a weapon, let alone directly.
With the thick density of the lightning cage around John, visibility was reduced, and not much could be seen within. Even their divine senses were restricted by the lightning cage, which made them unable to determine the truth.
"Is it over?" a female youth asked as she stared at the lightning cage.
"It should be," a nearby male youth replied, both from the same power.
"Just who is that boy?" another youth asked. "How does a Late Meridian Forging cultivator have this much power?"
"Wait a minute," the female who had first spoken up chimed up again, interrupting the youths' question. "If he's been beaten, his lightning cage should have faded away when he became unconscious."
The girls words were like a spark in the minds of the others, who instantly realized their assumptions had been incorrect. Just as they realized this, the lightning cage moved forward once more, indicating that their fears were correct.
The spear wielding youth's smiling confidence instantly evaporated as he watched John dash forward once more, appearing before him in an instant. The other youths all watched in growing horror as the lightning cage swallowed up the spear wielding youth, trapping him within.
Shrieks of pain and fear cried out from within the lightning cage for a moment, each shriek of pain sending another shiver up each fighter's spine. A few moments later, silence descended on the arena as the cries from within the lightning cage ceased.
The other fighters all watched on in silence as the spear wielding youth was spat out from within the lightning cage. His body, clearly bloodied and bruised, flopped to the ground in an unconscious mess. Were it not for the fact that their divine senses could tell the boy was alive, some of them would have believed the youth to be dead.
The spear-wielding youth, one of the strongest amongst them, had been eliminated in less than a few seconds of combat.
"How…how is this possible," one of the weaker youths muttered out softly, almost unable to muster their voice.
"I'll give all of you one opportunity," a calm yet commanding voice from within the lightning cage boomed out, the voice clearly belonging to John. "Leave the arena now, healthy and in one piece. Or remain and end up like this youth here. The choice is yours."
