Jacob was having a hard time deciding. On one hand he was a warrior and wanted to do the honorable thing which was to challenge someone fairly. But if that was the case he'd have to fight Gwen or Grendolyn who he was convinced were the strongest in the group. In a way he wasn't wrong, just counting strength and mana capacity those two would probably be in the top of both fields.
At the same time he wanted to save Faris, which he could only do if he won. But the other spectrum were all slaves, there was no way he was fighting the little girl or the cripple as his honor wouldn't allow him. That left the man-slave.
Zhao Wei's body was quite muscular sure, but like they all heard before, he was the cook. It wasn't uncommon for slaves, especially under tough masters to have a well built body, but it never meant they were good in a fight. He considered that he would take him down slowly after looking like he struggled in the fight so that Zhao Wei wouldn't be punished by his master too badly.
"I pick him!" He pointed at Zhao Wei. If only he took the time to notice the smile that was creeping up on Grendolyn's face and the pity that was plainly shown on everyone else's he might've rethought his decision.
Zhao Wei's lazy expression was interpreted as seriousness to the young man as he stepped forward. "Let's get this over with." He said as he analyzed his opponent.
"Sorry" Jacob muttered under his breath as he rushed forward, weapon in hand, all the fighting techniques sorted out to subjugate the slave. But then the slave disappeared, no that wasn't right, the slave didn't disappear. He was the one currently looking at the sky, in fact he wasn't even standing right now.
"Oh hey you're awake." One of his companions walked up to him with a skewer of meat in his hands.
"Bart! what happened?" He tried to sit up only to have his head have a sudden onslaught of dizziness.
"Whoa! slow down kid, you fell on the back of your head pretty bad." Bart replied while holding him. "Here, they told me you should drink after you wake up, you remember anything?"
"I remember getting into the fight and then... nothing."
"Well... sounds about right."
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A few hours back.
Everyone was absolutely dumbfounded by the scene in front of them, especially his squad. The boy had just reached Zhao Wei and was about to reach him with one of his attacks while his opponent hadn't even moved. But in the next instant Jacob's face was planted into the dirt while Zhao Wei had one of his hands raised.
Most of them couldn't see what happened, but Ode could. He'd flicked the boy's chin as he was moving forward, that was it. The person they considered to be one of the weaker ones was a monster in human skin.
"I guess that's that." Zhao Wei's voice broke the silence as he turned to return to the kitchen. Ode suddenly crawled forward and bowed before him and the rest.
"Please let them both go. They're still young and have a long life ahead of them, I'll take their place, I may be old but I can do far more work than both of them combined as a slave."
"Slave? What are you talking about?" Zhao Wei asked.
"The bet was if they lost, the boy would be our slave." Gwen explained. "I explained it to you."
"No... you just said that one of them wanted a challenge and that if I didn't come out, Grendolyn would mess up my room." Zhao Wei retorted.
"That's impossible I gave you like a 10 minute explanation." Gwen stated.
Suddenly they heard a whistling coming from one of their own who was trying to escape into her lab right now. Holding the door she found that it was now locked. With beads of sweat running down her face and shifty eyes that didn't want to make contact with theirs, she stuttered. "G-g-Gwen o-O-open t-the door."
"Master, did you hijack my voice projection?" Gwen asked looking hurt.
"Grendolyn, did you hijack her voice projection?" Zhao Wei asked at the same time.
"N..no?" She again constantly turned the knob trying to get in, the clacking of the gears inside deafening in this awkward silence.
"No more popcorn chicken for you." Zhao Wei said.
"NOOO!!!!" Grendolyn screamed as if she would rather die.