Chapter 78: Earth?

"Fine, you’re free to battle, Grandpa. However, we don’t have much time."

"Estimating a bit, we’ve probably used about ten to twenty minutes across the three battles before this."

"In that case, the battle on the outside should be wrapping up."

"Let’s deal with Lucian and link up with the others."

Remembering the other forty veterans, Ethan briefly peered through his illusion and saw they were doing fine.

Although there were injuries, their situation was overall quite stable.

"Alright then, Grandson! This grandpa of yours will show you he’s still got it!"

Jumping into the center of the arena using Air Walk, Christian landed with a shotgun in hand.

"Haha! Stand up, monster! Don’t forget after me; you still have seven more people to go!"

Feeling his mana churn, Christian was ready to act.

’Shit! These people are leaving me no choice... Do I really have to stay here and deal with this nonsense?!’

’Even when I was killed in my past life, I died to a bullet, never have never been tortured like this!’

With half of his body practically gone, his regeneration ability failing to activate, and his stamina rapidly depleting, Lucian had long since realized the truth:

He wasn’t any invincible Monster King the System claimed he was; rather, he was just a disposable punching bag brought here for these so-called Smiths to play with.

"Fine, you old bastard! Even if I lose all ten of these fights, I’m going to make sure I leave my mark on all of you!"

"Skaaaaw!"

Screeching angrily, and with his wings gone, Lucian was unable to take flight.

Dropping onto all fours, despite one leg being completely severed, he charged straight at Christian.

Right now, he changed his fighting style: no longer aiming to win, but to trade blow for blow, injury for injury.

It was a reckless style used only by those with no regard for their lives, and at this moment, Lucian was precisely that.

"Interesting... Is this what they call an injured beast’s last counterattack?"

"Unfortunately, if it’s just this, the only thing you’ve succeeded in trading is your time for mine."

Looking up at his grandson for a moment, a smile curled on Christian’s lips.

"Hey, you old men and women up there! Since my grandson said we should hurry up..."

"watch how I end this! Haha!"

Laughing with joy, Christian watched Lucian charge with extreme calm.

His Mana Sight activated, and at the same time, his Body Strengthening spell kicked in.

While not as specialized as Darius’s technique, his physical attributes still received around a fifty percent boost.

Feeling this surge of strength, Christian acted.

Voom!

Using the Air Walk technique, he leaped over Lucian’s body right as the beast was about to crash into him, cocking his shotgun mid-air.

Flipped upside down in the sky, his mana began to flow directly into the breech of the weapon, coating each shell with dense energy as he lined up the shot.

"Now then, monster, I’ll be taking your right arm, since your left one is already gone!"

Boom!

He pulled the trigger!

Instantly, the arena floor was dyed in purple blood as Lucian’s right arm was blasted clear off his body.

"Arghhhhh! You damn bastard, how?! How?! How?!"

"My skin is tough enough to be impervious to all bullets! How did you do it?!"

"Arghhhh!"

Unfortunately, no matter how much he screamed, Christian had no intention of explaining what mana was to him, nor telling him anything at all.

"I surrender! I surrender!"

"Damn it!"

Shouting out in pain, Lucian was now left without his left arm, right arm, left wing, or left eye.

His entire body was a mangled mess of horrific injuries, forcing him to surrender instantly, a scene that made Christian nod in satisfaction.

"Now that was a good warm-up. Who’s next?"

As he asked, a hunched-back old woman carrying a cane, equipped with a pair of black leather gloves, and sporting long silver hair jumped down from the upper tiers.

"Christian, you old coot! How could you leave him without both his arms?! Now what am I supposed to do?!"

Bang!

Whacking him playfully with her stick, the next person on the roster arrived: the Veteran Squad’s unarmed combat expert, Maya Sterling!

And watching everything from high above, seeing his grandfather easily and skillfully blow off Lucian’s remaining arm, Ethan knew the outcome was completely settled.

’Sigh... I guess that’s it for now.’

’The current Lucian is far too weak to help anyone else develop new skills.’

’In that case, I too should prepare.’

Muttering this, his attention once again focused on the center of the arena.

........

Time soon passed, and just as Ethan expected, the remaining battles were swift and completely one-sided.

Maya easily won, tearing off Lucian’s right wing in the process.

Next was Viktor Dragunov, a master of spear combat and precision, who pierced through what remained of Lucian’s chest structure.

With only his torso remaining, an old veteran named Helena took his left leg, and another named Cassian took his right.

In less than ten minutes, all of his limbs and wings were stripped away, leaving three people still left to compete.

The battle was well and truly over.

Cough! Cough!

"Smith Patriarch bastard! Kill me!"

"Kill me! You can’t humiliate me like this!"

Bleeding out on the floor, Lucian screamed toward the sky.

Suffering through the agonizing ordeal of watching his limbs torn off one by one, he had deeply begun to regret listening to that damn System of his.

Now, all he wanted was to die.

"Kill me! If you kill me, I’ll tell you everything I know!"

"Didn’t you ask me where I’m from?! I’ll tell you!"

"I’m from a world called Earth!"

"Not only that, I have a Syst—!!"

Yelling hysterically, just before he could finish his words, Lucian’s body suddenly froze.

His body stopped squirming, and his jaw locked up mid-sentence.

Dark, swollen veins began to bulge violently across his head and neck, indicating that he was under some kind of lethal internal distress.

’Is it some kind of system restriction?’

’Even so... don’t think you can die without my permission!’

Watching what was happening to him, Ethan didn’t hesitate for a single second.

Boom!

From high above, he manifested a giant hand made of compressed ice, slamming down to firmly clamp onto Lucian on the ground.

Not stopping there, he instantly froze all of the beast’s open wounds shut to halt the bleeding completely.

Whatever entity was trying to execute him, Ethan would absolutely not allow Lucian to die until he had extracted every last secret