"Winner, Greta Oak!"
The words of the referee echoed in the coliseum, declaring the victory of the deerkin girl.
Hearing that, Bloed could not help but sigh in pity.
"… She lost, huh."
Liu Ying nodded beside him. "Well, her opponent was rather strong."
Bloed could not deny it. Certainly, that deerkin girl was very strong.
In fact, since the start of the battle, she always had the advantage.
Her skillful use of the spear plus her ability to manipulate wind made it hard for Aya to face her.
Aya was strong too, of course. She even had a clear opportunity to win when she disappeared and ambushed Greta.
But in the end, she ended dancing on Greta's palm. Greta not only predicted her ambush and used her wind manipulation to stop the daggers; but at the same time, she managed to use Aya's all-out attack against her, grasping the instant when she put everything in her attack and using wind to restrain her movements.
After that, victory and defeat were already decided.
"… In the end, the catkin girl was too inexperienced." Regina sighed and said.
"Inexperienced?" Rana and Liu Ying tilted their heads confused.
"Yes. You probably did not notice, but the reason the deerkin girl managed to grasp the opportunity successfully was that the cat girl emitted too much killing intent when she tried to ambush her. It ended helping the deerkin girl to find the cat's position, allowing her to use that brief bit of time to lay a trap."
"Regina is right." Eve nodded. "That girl, Aya, is a cat from the Sharpclaw family. The Sharpclaw family has been a family of assassins for generations, and Aya has enough talent to be considered as a genius even between them. However, an assassin must not emit killing intent before an attack, much less when the target is a powerhouse. That is a taboo for assassins."
Bloed nodded. Certainly, he had battled beside Javelin several times, and Javelin was incredibly good at hiding his killing intent.
Aya's assassination techniques were child's play compared to him.
Even so, Bloed thought it was a shame Aya lost. To be honest, he would have preferred if she was the one that won.
After all, they could be considered as acquittances. Plus, he had fought beside Aya, and the two of them had pretty good synergy.
He was sure they could cooperate pretty well during the mission.
While Bloed and the girls were talking, Aya was taken to a healing mage to treat her injuries. Bloed could see Javelin standing near her with an expression of concern.
Meanwhile, the next pair of candidates went to the stage.
One of them was a batkin, another acquittance of Bloed. He was the batkin that Bloed injured one day ago during the hunt.
Bloed learned that his name was Rhone Nightwhisper. He was the heir of one of the remaining families of batkins, and a known genius in The Freeland, one of the five beastmen countries.
As for his opponent, his name was Cliff. A two-meters tall turtlekin that wielded a mace.
Contrary to Bloed's expectations, turtlekins did not have a shell on their back. Instead, they were blessed with a robust body and a tough skin filled with small scales in their arms and legs that granted them outstanding defenses.
Their astonishing defensive abilities were considered one of the best through the continent.
When the battle started, though, Bloed realized that even the best defense was not impregnable.
The batkin, Rhone, attacked fiercely since the start. He flapped his wings, flying at low altitude and rushing towards Cliff, evading his mace and hitting his chest with his palm.
That palm attack was enough to show who was the superior one.
Hundreds of low-frequency sound waves invaded Cliff's body, messing his internal organs and rupturing several veins and vessels.
Even although Cliff tried to endure and retaliate with another attack, Rhone evaded it easily and attacked again, this time hitting Cliff's shoulder, followed by his abdomen, neck, and back.
By the fifth attack, Cliff was unable to continue standing. His body collapsed heavily on the ground, bleeding from his mouth, nostrils, eyes, and ears.
In fact, when the healing mage checked on him, he said he would have died if he remained like that for five or ten minutes more.
The results of this battle made Bloed increase his wariness towards the batkin.
He had already tasted the effect of the batkin's soundwaves attack during the hunt, so he knew how powerful it was. In fact, he probably would have collapsed much sooner than the turltlekin if he received that barrage of palm attacks.
"In the end, my body is still a weakness, huh." Bloed smiled bitterly. He had to find a way to make up for this weakness, and fast.
But now was not the moment to think of that.
With Rhone and Cliff's battle finished, it was Bloed's turn to go to the stage.
Taking a deep breath, he stood up and got ready to face his opponent.
"Good luck, Bloed."
"Master, take care."
"You must win, Mr. Bloed~"
Liu Ying, Regina, and Rana encouraged him. Bloed nodded to them with a confident smile and walked towards the stage.
Soon, his opponent appeared before him.
And when Bloed saw him, he smiled wryly.
This time, his opponent was another acquittance.
Gorde, the wolfkin belonging to Moonlight Glow.
"So it's you, huh…" Bloed sighed heavily.
"Surprised? I think it's good. I can eliminate you personally this way."
"If you say so," Bloed said casually and stopped paying attention to the wolfkin's words.
With a thought, his mechanical puppets were summoned from his storage ring.
Several people raised an eyebrow when Tito, Leto, and Oculus appeared on the stage. After all, summoned creatures, constructs, and other external objects that did not rely on the user's mana to work were forbidden.
But neither the king nor the demigods say anything, so the people in the coliseum understood that somehow the mechanical pets did not violate the rules.
Plus, some sharp people directly noticed that Leto, Tito, and Oculus were not simple. Instead, they depended completely on Bloed's abilities to work.
Ignoring the gazes on him, Bloed ordered Tito to turn into a set of armor. At the same time, Oculus turned invisible, and Leto turned into a whirlpool of metallic sand circling Bloed.
"I'm ready," Bloed said.
The referee looked at Bloed fixedly and nodded. He then looked at Gorde to confirm he was ready.
When Gorde nodded, the referee raised his hand.
"If you are ready, start!"