Of the next 5 battles that Alex let Pearl fight, only one person manages to give Pearl enough trouble that he has to take the loss. The person who did so was a girl, who Alex had a suspicion was in fact a player.
The movement skill she used was something even better than anything Alex had. Not that Alex would've had trouble catching her if he had to.
He gave the girl a pill of her choice and decided to let Pearl have a breather. He had been fighting for the past hour straight, so he needed that.
"I'll be the one that fights next, so come at me accordingly," he said to the group.
A few more people had come to him during the time Pearl fought and the group had increased again. Newer folks were more than happy to fight him, not knowing just how strong he was.
So they did.
Half an hour and 5 matches later, Alex won a total of 112 more points. It quickly became apparent to him that keeping track of the points was not going to matter much under the circumstances he had put himself in.
Instead of having to go out looking for points, people came to him to hand it to him.
"Who next?" he asked, looking at the surrounding group that hesitated a lot now. They had seen the sort of fights he won. Even Saint Soul's 2nd realm hadn't been a problem to him.
Alex was a little surprised to see a lack of answers. "No one?" he asked.
Just then, someone flew from far away, arriving at their location with a little grace. He slammed onto the ground, creating a bit of a crater, before walking out of it.
"Haha, greetings Your Majesty." The man bowed a little in respect. "I hope I haven't been late."
"There is no early or late here," Alex said.
The man wore a black robe with azure linings on the inside and had his hair in a ponytail, tied high above him. His face was somewhat handsome, but what people noticed even before that was his muscular build.
Alex was slightly curious as to who the man was. With Saint Soul's 6th realm cultivation, he was clearly no joke.
"Ah, great!" he shouted. "My name is Teng Roukang, and I am the heir of the great Teng family. Certainly, Your Majesty has heard of our family."
Alex nodded. "I have," he said. He had heard of the Teng family of the Emerald Kingdom, but it wasn't to the same degree as the young man might have hoped.
Still, the young man gave a wide grin, knowing that he had been recognized in a way.
"Of course," he said. "Then would it be alright if I request you to a duel?"
Alex said nothing, letting the question linger in his mind for a bit. He saw a problem with accepting the next fight. He would lose.
Losing by itself didn't worry Alex. It wasn't like he was going to lose points or get a Loss. He didn't even care that he would have to give out pills. The problem here was that his loss would be a quick one.
With how strong the man in front of him was, there was little doubt in his mind that he would get anything out of that fight.
'No, I can't judge which fights I can fight and which fights I can't,' he thought to himself. 'I'm here to train. Losing is a part of training, even if I get nothing.'
In the end, Alex nodded.
"I accept your challenge," he said.
The man opposite him smiled and brought out a metal staff with no sharp edges to it. "Let's have a good one, Your Majesty."
Alex said nothing and coated his sword with his Sword Intent, outlining it in bright white. His opponent did the same, coating his in Staff Intent, something Alex had known existed, but had never seen before.
The battle started with the man throwing a casual strike at Alex, which Alex dodged easily by striking it to the side. He dashed in, holding nothing back in sword and body, and struck at the man.
The man swung his staff, striking aside Alex's sword, and was surprised to find it quite tougher than he thought. He was still not aware of what Alex's cultivation base was, but he remembered his father's words, mentioning that the King of the Southern Continent wasn't particularly strong, and was simply gifted in Alchemy.
'Just gifted in Alchemy, huh?' the man thought, striking toward Alex. Alex blocked the staff with his sword and was sent flying back. 'He's quite gifted in fighting too.'
Alex rolled on the uneven ground, stopping only when he crashed into a rock, breaking it completely. He walked off the rubble before anyone had the chance to even think he was injured.
'He's talented, but still quite weak,' the man thought. 'He's a player, so he will catch up to me sooner or later. Good thing it's not now.'
He charged forward, sending a flurry of staff lunges at Alex who had to struggle to defend himself. Alex managed to stop about 70% of those attacks, the remaining 30% hitting him at different parts of his body, fortunately, nothing vital.
There were no wounds —if there were, they were healed— but the pain remained. It hurt quite a damn lot. Alex grunted.
"I must say, you're quite the tough one, Your Majesty," the man said, seemingly having stopped himself from attacking white Alex was in pain.
Alex looked at him. "You're not using your skills, why?" he asked.
The man shrugged. "Because you aren't using any," he said. "I thought to keep it fair."
Alex raised an eyebrow. "Fair, huh?" he asked with a chuckle in his voice. "I will have to thank you for your fairness then. It seems I will last a little longer because of that."
"Are you ready to continue, Your Majesty?" the man asked.
Alex took a deep breath and answered with an attack.
The battle between the two continued for 2 more minutes, during which the man managed to attack Alex in 18 different spots across his body. If the staff had been a spear instead, Alex's body would've been dead by now.
'Still, no broken bones? Are his bones extra tough or what?' the man wondered. He could tell he was hurting Alex, but it didn't reflect in his wounds at all.
That was enough battle. He decided to end it here.
He struck Alex's sword to the side and used the rebound energy to strike him across his left arm. He could hear a satisfying crunch before he sent Alex flying over a hundred meters away.
His talisman buzzed and he won.
Alex didn't go any further than a hundred meters thanks to the mountain's side he was slammed into. His talisman buzzed and he lost, but thankfully the distance wasn't too high for it to be an Out of Bounds loss. That would've been a bad one.
"Urgh!" he grunted in pain and waited as his bones restructured themselves, his wounds healing by the second.
He dragged himself out of the rubble, and then he saw the man land in front of him.
