"God fucking damn it! You're going to pay in full and with interest!" The Conqueror shouted out angrily as he suddenly backfaced Jisung, and turned back after a few seconds, "Now you're really dead meat."
"What...Did he just?!" Seunghyuk exclaimed out of shock as he stared angrily at what the System screen was showing him, "He used strengthening vials! Jisung is in danger!"
"How is no one seeing this?" Seunghyuk sounded out angrily and the introducer just shook his head as he informed Seunghyuk solemnly while lowering his head, not daring to look Seunghyuk in his eyes, "The judge must have been bribed by the opposing Conqueror, hence your friend did not stand a chance at the very beginning."
Seunghyuk thought of jumping out to save Jisung, but there were numerous amount of guards wearing scary-looking masks standing guard beside the judge. It was like a fortress, completely impossible to infiltrate.
"So is there no way out!" Seunghyuk was exasperated and looked at Jisung standing his ground weakly with his hands shivering, "Jisung...I'm just too weak...I'm just not strong enough to save you..."
Jisung knew something was off, but he was not able to do anything, so he just stood his ground, holding up his mana energy-made sword as he dashed forward. Jisung used Blade Dance once again, slashing and piercing at random direction. Even though Jisung successfully slashed the Conqueror numerous times, it did not seem to hurt the Conqueror much.
"Are you done itching me, flea?" The Conqueror said with a crazed face, seemingly the side effects of taking the strengthening vials, as he immediately shouted out again, "You are going to pay for this! I've already made myself crystal clear!"
The Conqueror dashed out and used his skill Mega Palm, sending a huge 3-metre tall palm that advanced rapidly towards Jisung. It was like a man thrown into the travelling line of a train, being able to only look at the bright headlights of the train and waiting for a whitewashed sight signifying death. Jisung had no idea what to do at that moment and let the palm slam into him painfully, forcing him backwards like a muscle car knocking into a small mouse.
"Jeon Jisung!!" Seunghyuk shouted from the top, crying out loud like his life depended on it and turned back, aiming for the flight of stairs leading down to the centre arena stage but he was immediately stopped by the introducer, "I'm sorry...I just don't want to see you get pulverise by the judge and his guards behind him. I'm really sorry...but there's nothing much we can do but watch."
Seunghyuk's lips were trembling and shaking as he watched Jisung painfully get up on his feet as he grimaced in pain. Seunghyuk felt powerless for the second time after he had became a Conqueror, once when meeting the mysterious assassin, and the second was at this exact moment, being only able to watch someone close to him get injured over and over again like a movie replaying itself through the recorder.
"I'm weak...I couldn't prevent this from happening..." Seunghyuk said to himself, but Jisung definitely was not able to hear anything that Seunghyuk had said given the situation he was in together with the reason that he was situated many height metres far away from Seunghyuk.
"How did he suddenly get so powerful?" Jisung asked himself in disbelief, lighting up his energy-made sword with mana once again as he shouted out, preparing to go all out, "Horse of Three Kingdoms!"
The Conqueror watched as a horse materialised in front of him, and Jisung hopped onto the horse charging towards him.
"You know that wouldn't work!" The Conqueror shouted out and used his skill Body Drill, spinning his body at an impeccable speed, driving forward like a killing machine but Jisung did not back down a single bit, "Your drill's not going to hurt me! Caocao's Strength!"
Jisung brought his mana sword down and it created a deep wound across the Conqueror's chest which made him scream out in pain once again out of the many times he had done so. The Conqueror did not fall down this time, it seemed like with the stat point increase, he had better defense and health capacity.
"Zhu Geliang's Intelligence! Reed of Speed!" Jisung shouted and casted two skills at once, an ability that can only be used after going through times of experience and practice, which was evident as Jisung had went through much practice under Kim Seongwon when Legendclad was still ConcCube, "HARRGHHHH!"
Jisung zoomed forward like his horse was given engine boosters behind his hooves, making Jisung fly across the arena stage within seconds and landing another strong slash on the Conqueror's body.
"I've had enough with your games!" The Conqueror shouted out with a mix of pain and frustration, preparing to sprout up many spikes from under the ground, but Jisung had Zhu Geliang's Intelligence on, being able to predict the Conqueror's move and Jisung immediately jumped off his horse and sent it dashing forward towards the Conqueror, "Aquarius's Water Jug!"
Jisung's skill casted a huge pour of water out and pushed his already quick horse to dash at an even faster speed until the horse was running at the speed of a bullet train in Japan, knocking the Conqueror over before it finally dematerialised. Jisung breathed in and out loudly as the silence started to get deafening, and his own heartbeat was audible to his own eardrums. Just as Jisung was about to let his guard down and tell himself that he did it, the Conqueror stood back up and laughed maniacally to himself.
"Well! That didn't hurt as much as it's expected! Looks like I didn't buy fake goods!" The Conqueror said as he dashed forward, grabbing the worn out Jisung by his neck and raising him up in the air, "Not so confident now, eh? Lil' boy, you were destined to be tortured once you stepped up onto this very arena stage fighting against me. Let me tell you that its all pure luck that you've been survived this long under my flurry of attacks."
Jisung struggled stubbornly under the Conqueror's bull-like grip, and it almost seemed impossible for Jisung to wriggle out of the grip. The Conqueror took that chance to use his skill of the House of Arrows to summon the same twelve crossbows levitating in the air around the arena stage. The Conqueror laughed to himself as he looked at Jisung's face of desperation slowly change into a face of hopelessness.
"I guess we say bye bye, lil' boy! I'll make sure not to kill you, I'll leave you still breathing and if you die after that, it's not my fault anymore!" The Conqueror laughed to himself again and the audience seemed to have picked up the atmosphere and started to fan the flames again from the sidelines, chanting to have Jisung shot with the crossbows until he was fully penetrated with bloodied arrows.
"Goodbye—"
"Goodbye my ass," A voice sounded as a pillar of fire burned the Conqueror all of sudden, causing him to release his grip on Jisung, dropping Jisung to the ground gasping for air.
"Wait! Who are you? Why are you disturbing this match?" The judge finally stood up from his seat and confronted the masked man, which absolutely ignored the judge's words and walked towards the injured Jisung, then knelt down beside him saying, "Sorry...I was unable to protect you sooner..."
Jisung's whole body shook as he tried to sit up but the masked man immediately carried Jisung up and placed him gently outside the arena stage, allowing Jisung to rest.
"Seunghyuk...hyung...Thank you..." Jisung said as the masked man was about to leave, and Seunghyuk, wearing the mask, replied with a hoarse voice, clearly due to long durations of pained shouting, "You knew who I was immediately...Now, you should rest, Jisung."
Seunghyuk walked back up onto the stage, the Conqueror still standing there fuming that he was unable to finish Jisung off. The judge seemed to be even more annoyed as he shouted at Seunghyuk arrogantly.
"You there! Don't you know that not adhering to the words of the judge is going against the rules of the Arena of Mightchaser?" The judge said and immediately added while smiling slyly, "You know, according to rule number 5, I am able to do whatever I want with you with my guards, you know?"
Seunghyuk smiled under his mask and sounded out with an ordering tone, "Nighthowlers, do you still not know your place?"
The guards standing behind the judge immediately knelt down before Seunghyuk, one of the five even started shivering under Seunghyuk's tone.
"Wait...What...What are all of you doing? I didn't hire all five of you to kneel before a random rule breaker!" The judge started to speak and one of the guards stood up and smacked the judge at the nape of his neck, causing the judge to faint as a result, then he immediately returned to his kneeling position as all the five guards said, "We, nighthowlers, kneel before and swear fealty to the king!"
Seunghyuk's apprehension immediately seeped out of his body after knowing that his plan worked completely. A few minutes ago, Seunghyuk had remembered about the Nighthowler King's Mask that he has received as a reward from completing the Conqueror System Mission, and Seunghyuk realised that the masks on the five guards' faces were similar-looking to Seunghyuk's mask. Then, the two ends of the wires joined together and the electric current flowed in his brain, hence his initiated plan now.
"So...The Penetrator...Was that your arena name?" Seunghyuk asked with a scarily deep tone that felt like it could press the Conqueror's whole body down, and the Conqueror did not had the guts to do anything when faced with five strong guards who had just called a random guy "king", "You have broken the rules by using a strengthening vial in battle, and I think I have all the reason to do whatever I want with you."
The Conqueror stepped back one step at a time, until he clumsily stepped on his own foot and tripped, falling backwards.
"So...I'll make sure my fellow Nighthowlers won't interfere, because I want you to feel what Jisung had felt myself, like how you were having your supoosed fun with him just now," Seunghyuk said terrifyingly and allowed the five Nighthowlers to stand down while he continued, "To be honest, I'm pretty sure no one would say anything even if I took your life here now. Don't believe me? How about you try me?"