Seeing Arthur's grim expression, Zein smirked.
"Did I perhaps rub salt on the wound?", he said as he drank the contents of his cup.
Arthur gritted his teeth before he ignored Zein and focused his attention back at the platform.
The other Half Emperors had different reactions, some remained silent while some laughed at Arthur's misfortune, there was a reason as to why Arthur hated Zein from the bottom of his heart.
He "killed" Arthur's confidence in an old partner he had, in other words one of his many night stands turned out to be Arthur's girlfriend, back when they were younger of course.
…
Gerome felt a searing pain on his shoulder, he bitted his lips to contain the scream and tried to kick Michael to force him to let go, but his kick missed.
Michael simply left the dagger on Gerome's shoulder and took a step backwards before he drew out another dagger from his belt.
Gerome gritted his teeth as he took out the dagger on his shoulder before he throwed it on the ground, lightning exploded around his body, while in the long run he could maintain a higher speed than Michael, in limited spaces like the platform, his explosive increases in speed gave him a crushing advantage.
"Lightning sphere".
"If I can't out speed you in a short amount of time, then how about this", he mumbled his lightning spread around five meters of his body.
Even if the strength of the lightning diminished the farther it went from Gerome, even in low quantities, electricity could numb an opponent's muscles and an assassin who can't move, it's as good as dead.
Gerome then rushed towards Michael, he pointed his short sword at him and when he was about ten meters away from him, a lightning blade extended with the short sword as its base, aiming at Michael's chest.
With his improved reaction time as a lightning mage, Gerome saw the tip of his sword scratching Michael's leather armor, but the feeling of stabbing a body which he expected, didn't happen, instead of that, Michael's image flashed sidewards avoiding the sword while entering the area of the lightning sphere.
Gerome's pupils contracted, he saw Michael not hesitating to enter the lightning sphere taking the shock just to throw his daggers at him.
Still, he simply jumped backwards while giving Michael a ridiculing smile, since the daggers were made out of metal, the lightning interfered with their trajectory.
"What!", under Gerome's shocked eyes, a fire explosion renewed the impulse of the daggers and that wasn't all, they abruptly changed their trajectory reaching their target as they stabbed Gerome's feet.
"Aghhh", Gerome couldn't contain the scream this time, the daggers were scorching hot due to the exposition to fire, still he didn't have time to lose to suffer enough, because Michael didn't stop his assault.
"You beast, you forced me".
Gerome's eyes were bloodshot, his teeth became spiked and his skin color became green, his blond hair fell off, but in exchange the output of lightning that was surrounding his body tripled and ignoring his wounds he jumped towards Michael.
A curtain of dust raised as Gerome's speed increased, Michael blocked his short sword with his daggers, but the short sword actually cut through the daggers sending half of their blades flying away in a ball of electricity.
"Clang~Clang~Clang!", Gerome was just starting, after his first attack failed, he continued slashing his weapon at Michael, with each attack another piece of the blade was sliced until only the hilts were left forcing Michael to use another pair of daggers.
Alexander smiled with sufficiency, besides his preference for those who have lightning element, this was the reason as to why he chose Gerome, the Rajin family are members of the Green Eel tribe.
While in their normal state they aren't at the same level of the Jolbaris or the Argent, they are one of the families which can manifest beast characteristics depending in their current mood, in this case the trigger is rage, they literally change into a hybrid of their human appearance and a green eel.
In exchange of some rationality, they gain a strong impulse in their lightning and battle skills, the only problem is that they will keep fighting until they faint, so it's a last resort kind of technique.
Michael frowned noticing the killing intent flashing in Gerome's eyes as he opened his jaws and to bite down on his neck.
"Humph", with a loud explosion Michael became a flash which appeared behind Gerome, before he could react Michael stabbed one dagger in each of his knees, forcing him to lose his balance, before he grabbed Gerome's face with his hand creating an explosion which smacked him against the ground.
"Aghhh", a guttural scream escaped from Gerome's mouth as he got up and continued with his assault.
In this state the members of the Rajin family didn't care about themselves, so ignoring the pain Gerome's hand which now had bone needles on his knuckles, moved backwards trying to crush Michael's skull only to kicked by Michael as he jumped and stabbed a dagger this time at a precise nerve which rendered his arm useless.
A large amount of wind gathered around Michael's body and he then flashed around Gerome's body, stabbing a dagger at different parts, shoulders, knees, feet, hands, ankles, tendons, around the area of his neck etc.
When the wind dispelled Gerome fell to the ground with about fifteen daggers stabbed on his body.
"H-How did you expel all the lightning that I injected in your body", Gerome returned to normal due to the loss of blood and couldn't help but ask.
Michael stretched his arms to get rid of the numbness, before he calmly answered.
"I didn't".
"Bullshit, how could you move if your muscles were being tortured by my lightning!", he screamed.
Michael shrugged as he slowly removed the daggers from Gerome's body so that he wouldn't faint… yet.
"My master often hid on the clouds while I was training to increase my speed, with the intention of throwing lightnings at me".
"In other words, I was literally struck by lightning on a daily basis, for about ten years, while I tried to runaway from a magic best or some angry guy, if I didn't learn to ignore the numbing feeling of electricity, I would have died".
Daimon couldn't help but look at Haylee which had an ashamed expression on her face.
"My grandfather said, that an assassin must be capable of concentrating on his target no matter the obstacles, and that being attacked while running will help Michael reach that state".
Daimon found the method quite strange, but the results convinced him, contrary to what others might believe, the most troublesome opponent isn't a stronger one, but a determined one, someone that can't ignore pain and wounds enough to survive and still cut your throat, the idea is terrifying.
"Being cruel to oneself, and crueler towards your enemies, what a weird method of assassination", he concluded.
At the seats of the Half Emperors, Solomon gulped down a whole barrel of liqueur, before he nodded in recognition.
"Zein brat, what was the "target" you induced into that kid's mind?".
Zein raised his cup at Solomon offering a toast before looking at his reflect on the liqueur.
"Survive… I taught him how to kill while surviving, my Haylee will cry if he were to bite the dust after all".
Back at the platform Gerome felt his body recovering some of its mobility as the daggers kept being pulled out by Michael and he inwardly snorted.
'What kind of assassin doesn't finish off his target, you are just an overconfident fool'.
As Michael took out the last dagger, Gerome slashed his bone knuckles at Michael's face, the wound would not be lethal, but it would for sure give him a chance to win.
Michael didn't move and when Gerome's hand was about thirty centimeters away from his face, it suddenly stopped.
"Urrghhh!", a large amount of blood exploded out of Gerome's mouth, he retorted on the ground feeling an incredible amount of pain running through his body, he smashed his head against the ground trying to lose consciousness but no matter what he tried it didn't work.
He even tried to move to jump out of the stage but his limbs didn't obey him, it was then when he noticed Michael ridiculing smile and realized he was just being played with, the "chance" he thought he had due to Michael showing mercy didn't exist from the very beginning.
"You are psycho", he mumbled with a defeated voice, and a desperate expression on his face.
Michael shook his head, as he grabbed Gerome from his neck before punching his chest using an explosion to send him flying off, he platform, not without saying.
"No, I'm an assassin".
The referees inspected Gerome and were shocked by the result, the wounds of the daggers were all made in non-lethal areas, but they were only a distraction, some very specific nerves were cut which probably explained why after a burst of pain, no matter how much he tried Gerome couldn't make himself faint.
'After this trauma, this kid will never be able to reach the Lord realm… a life worse than death for a mage', thought one of the referees after seeing Gerome's current state.
Even they couldn't help but feel a slight shiver imagining what Michael might be able to do in the future, they also looked at Zein as if he was a madman.
"The winner, Michael Lockstar".
Michael did some stretches to get rid of the remaining feeling of numbness before he jumped off the platform, not without looking at Alexander and making a throat slicing gesture.
Unlike Calvin he didn't say anything but the result was more or less the same, a crushing victory and another nail on Lars's coffin.
