Armipotent - Chapter 1931 - 1931: Disaster in the Making? Maybe Not (2)
The whole arena was dead silent. The cheers, the buzzing whispers and conversation, and the host, everyone stared at the hanging headless corpse at the top of the west entrance. Hector Willem, a God Rank that had made a name for himself in the Sorcerer Monarchy, died tonight.
The seven spears slowly pulled out from the wall, and the hanging flesh fell to the ground. Everyone followed the spears’ movement as they sped up and returned to their owner, Gianni. The seven spears floated behind him, pointing upward as he looked toward the host, then turned toward the referee.
“Shouldn’t you announce my win?”
His question to the referee broke the silence. The whole arena erupted in an angry roar, all kinds of curses thrown at Gianni. They vented out their frustration and anger toward Gianni, who killed one of their own. Their voices echoed through the city, and the buildings were shaking from the roar.
Despite the ruckus and uproar, no one was insane enough to step into the arena.
“SILENCE!”
Gianni opened his mouth as an image of a lion formed behind him. His word was followed by the roar of a lion that silenced the whole arena.
“This is a duel initiated by him! I accepted his challenge, and he died in the duel. If you can’t accept the result, then come at me! Come here and speak to my face if you are not a coward!”
The whole arena fell silent, and no one spoke again as most of them were looking around. They were seeking another God Rank that might stand up for Hector Willem, but no one dared to step into the arena. Most of them did not understand how a God Rank died like that, so no one was stupid enough to jump into the arena.
“Can you announce the duel, referee Justen? Or do you want me to burn his body until nothing is left?”
Justen snapped out and raised his hand toward Gianni, “Gianni won!”
“Both parties agreed to the Last Man Standing Rule, so Gianni will continue to fight until he loses or surrenders or dies!” He announced, “Let’s proceed to the next duel!”
All the attention was on the west entrance. They were curious and hopeful about who would fight Gianni in the second round. They expected someone stronger than Hector to return the humiliation from the short duel. That was right, the audience took it as their loss when Hector died because they regarded Hector as the Sorcerer Monarchy’s representatives.
Ten seconds passed, but no one came out from the west entrance. Someone approached the host. The host had been silent after the duel started.
“Because of the nature of the first duel, the second participant is not ready for the duel. He will be ready in ten minutes, so there will be a ten-minute delay for the second duel.” The host announced what happened.
He was smart enough not to say how fast Gianni won the first duel. He chose the nature of the first duel, a good choice of words, not to further humiliate the Sorcerer Monarchy.
Gianni turned toward the host and nodded, meaning he was willing to wait. He did not leave the arena; the man stood there with his floating spears.
*** ***
“Now do you understand why I don’t want the duel to proceed, General Ravenbarch? We just lost one God Rank, and we will lose four more God Ranks tonight. That will weaken our force, and not just that, the soldiers’ morale will reach a new low. No one is winning in this pointless duel!”
Alves expected a one-sided duel, but not to this extent. It seemed like whatever Young Lord Albin did, they pissed the knights. Then he remembered about the duel between Gianni and Hera. The knight went easy on her for sure; he slowly glanced toward Hera.
Guild Master Hera’s face lost all its color, her eyes shook as her imagination ran wild. He could understand Hera because she fought Gianni, and she was lucky that she did not piss the knights just like Albin did.
“Then stop him, Alves!” General Ravenbarch opened his mouth after he snapped out of the shock as he watched Hector Willem’s body being carried out from the arena, “Tell them not to kill their next opponents.”
“It’s too late, Ravenbarch! It’s too late. They are part of the mercenary guild, but I don’t have the absolute authority to stop him. He will not listen to me,” Alves shook his head. The disaster could not be stopped anymore unless the remaining four challengers fled.
That was a variable Alves did not like. Gianni went this far, and the knights might be openly hunting them if they fled from the duel. That was the worst scenario, not just that the Sorcerer Monarchy would lose their God Ranks, but they would ruin their reputation because their people ran away from the duel they initiated.
“Does that mean they will listen to someone?” General Ravenbarch got the feeling that was what Alves tried to tell him.
“Yes, they will listen to him,” Alves pointed his thumb at Tang Shaoyang, who sat next to him.
General Ravenbarch glanced toward the man. He remembered Tang Shaoyang as the mercenary with a weird outfit. This reminded him that this person was part of the God Rank team, and he was the only one who did not participate in the fight.
Ravenbarch thought the man was the weakest one at first, but he changed his mind when Alves said those knights would listen to this man.
“We are in the war against the Dominion, Sir. We can’t afford to lose more God Ranks. I will not ask you to stop the duel if you want to humiliate, but please don’t kill them.”
After seeing how Hector Willem died, he was confident that Gianni would kill whoever fought in the following match as well. It might not be an overwhelming win because the second opponent would be more ready for what would come for them, but he believed Gianni was too strong for them.
People made a ranking for the God Ranks based on who was the strongest. That ranking list told them who was stronger, but the gap was never this big. Even when the number one fought against the number thirty, it would still take a lot of effort for the number one to defeat the ranking thirty God Rank.
There was a gap between the God Ranks, and people were aware of it. However, the gap was never this big. Hector Willem was the ranking twelfth in the Sorcerer Monarchy, and he was killed in the blink of an eye. That should never have happened, and the worst part was that Gianni did not put in that much effort to kill Hector.
Tang Shaoyang let out a chuckle as he turned toward General Ravenbarch, “Aren’t you in the meeting, General Ravenbarch? Why didn’t you stop it back then if you are so afraid of losing a God Rank? You didn’t even try, and you want to stop it now because it’s not your people who died? Will you ask the Forest Family to stop the duel if Gianni dies?”
“No one expected it to be this one-sided! Everyone thought it would be a close fight, and the duel would end before one of them died. This is not okay, Sir! We—”
The west entrance opened before General Ravenbarch finished his words. He turned toward the arena to see who came out for the second duel. Just like General Ravenbarch, everyone else also turned toward the west entrance.
They were curious who would fight in the second duel. They hoped it would be the first rank in the list, even though it was unrealistic. The realistic strategy would be sending the rank sixth or the rank third. Sending the twenty-fourth rank would be a suicide after witnessing what happened to Hector Willem. The Sorcerer Monarchy’s people’s hope was the first, the third, and the sixth rank God Rank to win the duel.
The whole arena burst out in gasp when they saw who came out from the west entrance. It was not the first rank, or the third rank, or even the sixth. The worst part was that this person was not even twenty-fourth rank.
A hurried step resounded in the quiet arena as someone approached the host, who was also jaw-dropping with what he saw. Everyone turned toward the host because someone whispered something to the host. Everyone in the arena wanted an explanation for why the Sorcerer Monarchy sent someone who was not on the list to fight.
The host widened his eyes in shock after he received the message. He turned toward the messenger in disbelief, but he could tell that the messenger was just here to deliver a message. The messenger had no voice in the decision.
The host slowly turned toward the audience as sweat poured down his face and back. He could already imagine what would happen when he announced the message.
“Sir Zico, Sir Patrick, Sir Oliver, and Sir Heron could not make it for the duel because they are leaving for an emergency mission. To honor the duel, they will be replaced by the people of their choice…”
