Kedar stumbled backward, barely dodging the spear, only to trip over his own feet.
Brady was stunned by Kedar's level of incompetency and sent a quick glance over to Dyon. Seeing that he didn't care, he only grew bolder, sending forward another piercing strike.
Lightning crackled along in his grey spear, following a swift boom of thunder.
Brady couldn't help but relish the feeling of the weapon in his hand, he could have never imagined that weapons so good existed.
After Dyon confiscated all of their weapons before, he thought that it was because he wanted to use them for his own army. But who would have known that a casual wave of Dyon's palm could create a weapon far better than he had ever laid eyes upon?
His qi surged through its body with ease and its balance couldn't have been more perfect… The ideal weapon for murder!
Kedar's was cut a sorry figure as he stumbled around the underground grey space. At one point, he directly began to run, avoiding Brady in every way he could.
At this sight, the geniuses of the eight conquered clans felt their lips twitch, their gazes falling upon Dyon's lazy appearance.
Geniuses, you say? If they're geniuses, then isn't everyone in existence a genius?
Soon, Kedar's stamina began to falter. At the end of the day, how could someone who was effectively still a saint match a celestial in qi density?
The saddest part was that, by Dyon's senses, Kedar's qi actually was the denser of the two. Though Brady was a Celestial, Kedar was a Ninth Order Saint, while Brady was a Second Grade Celestial, there should have been a massive gap between them.
But, Kedar foolishly overused his qi, putting his full effort into dodging. Instead of using just as much qi as he needed, he always overdrew himself, not having the calm state of mind a warrior should.
Injuries began to accumulate along his body, none of them shallow.
"I forfeit!" Kedar cried out.
Dyon casually munched on a grape. "Sorry, no such thing in this competition of mine. Also…"
Suddenly the arena shrunk by half.
"Every time you speak such nonsense, the arena will shrink by a fold."
Brady's spear pierced forward, aiming directly for Kedar's heart.
At the last moment, Kedar only just barely managed to dodge to the side, but it wasn't for enough.
A heart-rending scream escaped his lips as his shoulder was skewered. The momentum of Brady's strike was so heavy that two men and a spear cut through the air, slamming into the protective barrier and causing nothing more than a small ripple.
"I'm sorry! I'll never look at your wife again!"
The arena shrunk by another half.
"Please, please save me!"
The arena was halved once more.
Dyon yawned before munching away at a meat filled leg. "Wyvern meat is really too delicious."
What once was a 100 cubic meter arena became barely 10 cubic meters. If before their fighting space was akin to being in a phonebooth, not it was practically as though they were tied down together, sharing the same faith… Unfortunately, there was nothing further from the truth.
Brady yanked his spear from Kedar's shoulder, causing a rain of blood to pour downward.
All of Kedar's boisterousness had disappeared. He had entered the martial world with such confidence, but it had all suddenly vanished.
No, it was deeper than that. Just about a year ago, after watching Dyon man handle the Patriarch of the Raven Clan, he had felt a great shame in his heart. Then, when Dyon found them to apologize, taking responsibility for their failures, the shame in his heart only grew fiercer.
Yet, what had changed? Wasn't he the same coward he had always been?
The 35 geniuses looked away, unable to watch as the spear approaching Kedar's heart once more. This time… There was nowhere else to run.
Kedar suddenly felt that time had slowly. He knew well that he didn't have time to react. His qi was running on empty, and even if it wasn't, there simply wasn't enough space left. There was nowhere for him to go.
His gaze fleetingly turned back toward Dyon who was lazily reclined. He inwardly begged to be saved, for Dyon to move at the final moment, to pull him from this inevitable fate.
But in his current state, he could somehow see that Dyon had no intention whatsoever to move to a single inch. In the final moments he could have acted, Dyon instead reached for another pile of fruit, it was as though he didn't see that Kedar was about to lose his life.
Seeing that Dyon really had no intention to help him, despair took over his entire being.
[I won't blame you if you kill them, that would only mean that they were useless].
'… I guess I'm useless…"
Kedar's eyes dulled. He hardly noticed that an experience that should have taken nothing more than a split second lasted several minutes for him. In fact, he had finally stopped trembling, as though he had finally accepted something. The only part of him that still moved… Was his quaking clenched jaw…
It wasn't due to fear nor unwillingness… It was due to rage…
Once again, everything was going to be taken from him at the whims of someone far more powerful.
His chest burned, fueled by a hidden anger. He met Brady's eyes, one filled with cruelty and disdain, the very same eyes Kedar saw when he closed his eyes at night…
He always wondered just who devastated his people to such a degree… His father died before his birth, and his mother succumbed to her injuries after bringing him into this world because the underground bunkers couldn't spare enough medical supplies.
He had never seen the person who destroyed the mortal world, but whenever he saw their face in his dreams… these were the eyes he saw… every single time…
'Even if I'm useless… Before you, I'm still many times better, you scum! How many families did you tear apart? How many lives did you reap? Did you even regret your actions?!'
"FUCK OFF!"
Kedar's sudden roar sent a ring of qi blasting outward. Before anyone could react, Brady was slowly sliding down the opposite wall of the arena, completely unconscious.
