"He is an interesting specimen."
At his office, even Talho was watching Mares' battle. He was taking various notes, ideas for merchandise, scenes to reuse, edit and compile to sell, and so on. However, even he had to admit that the silver-eyed was currently a force to be reckoned with in that arena.
"What are your thoughts Mafe?"
The owner asks his subordinate and right-hand man.
"He is an unusual one. Not only strength-wise, but also on his way to act. He is not open to conversation or negotiation, not caring about how this will affect the state of his stay here. But contradictorily, he seems eager to advance. He is not seeking the benefits then? However, there is nothing else to gain by reaching higher ranks, and he is jeopardizing his chances by offending the factions."
The subordinate set his thoughts free, just as Talho had asked. There was the slightest frow in his forehead as he tried to make sense of Mares' intentions.
"Forget about it. I know almost nothing about that fellow, and the small amount I know is that his goal and intentions are very separated from ours. Taking that he is under their control, we don't need to figure out what he wants. At most, we have to keep an eye on his actions."
Mafe nodded and Talho went back to taking notes. This Trial was giving him a lot of potential for future merchandise. Independently of the result, he would be the one to profit the most from this Trial.
The only thing that annoyed him was that topping this event in a short period would be an annoyance.
Mares passed through each battle as if he was born for that. While he no longer kept his status as untouchable, having been hit already, more and more people, both gladiators and viewers, believed him to be an unstoppable force that would only be satisfied standing at the top.
This didn't mean that the fights had been uneventful, the opposite actually. The more he advanced the trickier the steps got, and added to that was the versatility of different innate characteristics.
There was one who could use his arms like a jackhammer, but with his bones being tougher than Mares' mask. He had landed some good hits on the silver-eyed and allowed Mares to see how his reinforcement did in aspects of defense and how it compared to another foe with great strength.
The results were greatly satisfying.
Before the technique would only enhance his physical power, if there were any improvements in his durability it was neglectable. Now, once the reinforcement was active, his skin would be toughened to great lengths.
Mares took the hits from the jackhammer's arm and while the impact shook him, going to his internal organs, it only caused a tremor through his body, any internal injury healing in that same instant. Most of the damage had been taken by his tough skin.
And all of this was just the secondary effect of the technique. Once Mares was satisfied with testing his defense, he went to the offensive and broke his opponent's arm in a hit.
It was necessary to know that those bones were nothing like human bones, they were denser and stronger, comparable to some minerals used in spaceships, and Mares broke through them seemingly easily. His opponent was destroyed after that.
However, while it looked like Mares achieved that with a simple punch, he was using a great deal of his strength on that attack, trying to test his current upper limits.
The one big downside to this technique was that his poor control over Astral Energy resulted in considerable waste. Thankfully, his reserves were colossal, so he could ignore the losses. But it made his technique suboptimal, not allowing it to show what it could truly achieve.
It was something he and Esen could only take care of after this event, unfortunately.
But after winning that fight, Mares once more just moved on to the next step.
At that point, the people cheered less, entranced by the fights. The bets and thoughts of Mares' defeat had been forgotten. All the focus went on the battles as they did not want to lose even a simple detail of it.
The various fights had also been a great learning experience for the silver-eyed.
For example, there was one who could throw spikes that attracted the elements, and that step was covered in tornados of all types of elements. That gladiator had probably been put there on purpose.
The spikes constantly attracted the tornados, being an annoyance to deal with. They could also take on the elements, making them a real threat for most. Every time Mares got near, this foe would use the spikes to flee or distract the silver-eyed.
It was made worse by the that from the third step forward, all the gladiators worked together, covering, defending, and striking together.
That step had one of the longest fights, but Mares eventually took everyone down and moved on.
It was one of the fights that made Mares realize how vast the universe was, with all types of species and powers. Even without a technique, someone with Astral Energy and an innate characteristic could achieve power all the same.
One that had been particularly tricky to fight had been an alien with an angler fish-like appearance but that didn't seem able to live on water.
The creature could turn invisible like a gladiator Mares thought before, but once the illicium in its head shined it would cover most of the area in its Astral Energy, making it virtually impossible to find by tracking said energy.
Esen could lend a hand, but Mares wanted to experience that fight by himself.
He had to deal with flying flaming rocks that moved at surreal speed and various other gladiators that the rocks avoided, making him the only target. Besides having to take care of sneak attacks by the invisible foe.
It had been the most challenging fight, attacks were coming from all sides taking a lot of Mares. The ground was also desertic, not being an environment he was used to fighting in, and horrible to stay stable on. The sand was slippery, and it was a testament to how Mares could keep his equilibrium under that environment even if with difficulty.
It was only when started attacking in all directions non-stop for what was probably around four to five minutes that he managed to hit the angler fish alien, and knowing its location, cut the illicium off, disabling its ability to spread Astral Energy on the surroundings. After that, the creature did not stand a few hits.
With the biggest annoyance had been taken care of, the rest of the gladiators on that step soon fell. In the current stage, Mares basically needed to kill everyone to advance.
The fights had only grown tougher each time. His fighting style had been figured out, they knew he had a technique that improved his physical strength and regeneration. Of course, they had no clue about his eyes, repulsion, or the other techniques that weren't going to be used during the Trial.
Each fight required more and more on Mares. He had to admit that, had he not made the trip to the forest, he would not be able to take on this Trial. But he did, and his strength had improved by leaps and bounds, and even now, every injury and every battle only made him grow, until eventually, he reached the final stair.
The Colosseum was in a state it had never been before while hosting so many. Absolute silence, a pin drop could be heard throughout the whole if it happened.
The tension was palpable and justifiably so. No one thought Mares would do a fraction of what he did, so they all believed in his chances now. They already considered Mares to have won, after all, while his clothes had been damaged, all injuries he sustained regenerated fast.
In everyone's eyes, he was a force that could not be taken down. Unstoppable and unbreakable.
"That was great! As soon as we get the chance, I am going to talk to him. Even if we can't recruit him, we could start a good relationship."
"You speak as if he had already won."
The two female gladiators in the top thirty and the top three said respectively.
"What do you mean? He already won through every step, and it hasn't even been two spans yet."
The higher-ranking one shook her head in disagreement.
"That bastard wouldn't make it so easy. There is going to be some sort of last tricky, I just know it."
Hearing her boss say that, the lower-ranking one looked at the screen with curiosity. If her boss thought so, she would probably be proven right.
The last step was different from the ones before right from the start. It was covered by the head of the pyramid, making so that whatever or whoever was inside, passed unnoticed during the whole Trial.
And at least for now, there seemed to be no special additions to this step. It looked like a normal platform where an arena fight in the Colosseum would happen. Mares could only guess if it would stay like this or change soon.
But that wasn't where his focus went to. As soon as he reached that stage, Mares could feel it. It was a similar feeling to that of when he was walking up the cave, before facing the Variant Earthly Brute, except that this time it wasn't so abundant. Meaning whatever was inside the head of the pyramid was strong, but not overwhelmingly so.
The gap, if there even was one, was trespassable.
'I know you will do great Mars.'
Esen cheered for him, and it was all cheering Mares needed.
The top of the pyramid started opening, slowly revealing a figure inside of it. Only one person standing at the very top against Mares.
"Hi, Silver. The pleasure is yours."