The man charged at Shang with a huge and bloodthirsty grin on his face as Shang only walked toward him with a neutral expression.
A moment later, the man reached Shang and lifted his gigantic club.
BANG!
Shang exploded forward with more speed, parts of his back being injured due to the absence of life energy.
The man struck down.
The attack was incredibly fast.
The speed of Shang's opponent was far faster than his speed, and the club had an incredible reach.
Shang couldn't evade the strike.
Shang let go of Sword.
And then, he angled his head to the side.
CRACK!
The club hit Shang's left shoulder and didn't stop. It destroyed the entire shoulder, severed the arm, and pushed Shang's broken ribcage down. It was almost like he was shaving off an entire half of Shang's body.
The man only smiled widely.
Pack!
Shang's right hand touched his opponent's left hand.
A nearly-dead Shang hung from the man's arm.
The man only smirked with arrogance at Shang.
And then, the man's arm began to atrophy.
The man's expression changed, and panic appeared in his eyes.
He violently shoved Shang away.
CRK!
Shang pulled the atrophied arm with him.
BANG!
Shang's right foot hit the ground and exploded with ice.
The fear-filled eyes of Shang's opponent only watched as Shang touched the man's chest with his right arm.
In panic, the man let go of his club and punched Shang with his other arm.
BANG!
However, just before he could reach Shang's head, a regenerating stump intercepted the man's punch at his elbow. Shang was still hit a bit, and parts of his skull broke, but he managed to keep hold of his opponent.
The man began to scream in terror as he saw the muscles of his chest vanishing.
Shang's left arm had regenerated, and he also grabbed the other arm of his opponent, absorbing more life energy.
"AAAAHHHHH!"
The man screamed in unending pain as his body thrashed around in panic.
And a moment later…
BANG!
Shang's fist exploded on the man's neck, destroying it.
Silence.
Shang slowly stood up from the corpse of his opponent and moved his regenerated shoulder.
Why had Shang not looked at the wheels?
Because he knew that he would win.
There was a big difference between how a beast fought and how a warrior fought.
Over 90% of a beast's power came from their inherent abilities and their powerful body.
In comparison, a warrior's power mainly came from their techniques, which worked in tandem with their body.
How could Shang fight beasts above his level even though his body was much weaker than theirs?
It was technique.
Technique was the power of a warrior.
Technique was the very thing that decided a warrior's power.
Because of that, the gap between the weakest and the strongest warrior on a given level was many times wider than the gap between the weakest and the strongest beast on a given level.
Beasts couldn't fight across their level unless the most powerful beast of the lower level fought the weakest beast of the next level. After all, they relied on their physical powers.
Meanwhile, it was much more common for warriors to fight across levels.
One shouldn't forget Mattheo and Astor. Both of them had completely destroyed Shang when he had just appeared in the academy, even though Shang's body was far more powerful.
That was because Shang's techniques and battle experiences regarding humans had been horrible back then.
And the same thing was true with Shang and his current opponent.
The man with the club had nearly no experience, and he was obviously used to only striking with his club once to end the fight. In essence, the man had fought like a beast. He was using the power of his overwhelming offense to overwhelm his opponents.
Sadly, that only worked against people weaker than him.
Any decent warrior could counter such a one-dimensional battle style.
An average Early General Stage warrior could have equally fought this man.
As for a talented warrior?
Well, the woman with the bow would have decimated this man.
And Shang knew that he could do the same thing.
The difficulty curve of the beast category and the difficulty curve of the warrior category were very different.
The beasts became stronger and stronger with each level as their main source of power became stronger.
However, when it came to warriors, it was different.
Fighting a weak Early General Stage warrior was far easier than fighting a weak Early General Stage beast.
However, fighting a strong Early General Stage warrior was far more difficult than fighting a strong Early General Stage beast for Shang.
At least, it was like that at Shang's current level.
As soon as warriors and beasts reached the Peak General Stage, things would change.
At that point, beasts would outclass all warriors.
And things only got worse at the Commander Stage.
But for now, Shang could easily take care of the weaker Mid General Stage warrior.
The cheering returned, and the corpse vanished as Shang cleaned his uniform. Luckily, as long as the core of the uniform wasn't damaged, it would regenerate itself.
Such a uniform was expensive, and it would be a waste if it became unusable due to some random strike.
The two wheels returned.
Shang looked at them, filled with Mana and life energy. He had completely recovered to his peak during the fight.
"Level eight: Average Mid General Stage warrior."
The wheels began to spin.
'The next fight won't be easy,' Shang thought. 'A talented Early General Stage warrior can fight an average Middle General Stage warrior. However, being able to fight one is different from winning against one.'
The first wheel stopped at fist weapons.
Shang readied himself as he looked at the second wheel.
'An average Middle General Stage warrior should be about as powerful as an average Early Adept. I never won against someone with such power.'
The second wheel stopped at the Fire Affinity.
After a short beam of light, Shang's opponent appeared.
It was a man with short, red hair, and he wore a uniform similar to what Shang was wearing right now.
'Let's see if I win this time.'
The jester lifted his hammer and struck the bell.
And then, Shang's opponent opened his eyes.
