Han Dae's shock became fear in an instant. He feels like the whole situation is devouring him in the nastiest way. His stomach is churning and every gulp feels hard.
"Han-chou!" Sei Chryseis cried and immediately went for a hug sighing in relief, "Thank goodness! Han-chou is so strong!"
Sei Chryseis, on the other hand, is overjoyed to be paired with Han Dae. He feels like he can finally breathe properly.
"I-I'm--" Han Dae panicked. Yes, he boasted that he is strong in front of this young lord many times but he knows his limits as well. 'Dang it! Do you really believe I'm that strong Young Lord Sei?!'
Two huge high level monsters went to their arena. Han Dae gulped upon seeing a tall skinny one and a short fat one. Still, they're humongous! They are twice their size!
'H-How can I win against those?! Besides, aren't they Hashi level prey already?!' Han Dae freaked. He faced Sei Chryseis who's still calming himself, thinking that everything will be alright because he is with Han Dae. Han Dae felt the chills from his spine.
He is in total shock and pressure. His pupils shrunk as his mouth trembles.
"Hold on!" Sei Cressida shouted to the female demon, "How come you are allowed to choose pairs and opponents while we aren't?!"
"Hmm?" she sat on a stone and crossed her slender legs, "You were saying?" she smirked.
"You--!" Furiously, Sei Cressida run towards her and is about to jump from her arena to her when she stated,
"Just so you know, if one of you left your arena, it's over. You lose." She smirked devilishly, "Not just you, but the entire Sen people."
Sei Cressida forced herself to stop. Clicking her tongue in anger, she faced her brother once again who is already waving happily at her, "Sei-ji don't worry! I'll be fine! Han-chou is really strong! He's super strong!"
'No I'm not!' Han Dae answered in his mind. How can he tell it to Sei Chryseis? He might panic and he'd be more difficult to protect if his mind is in turmoil!
If he fails to protect Sei Chryseis, the one who will take the responsibility isn't him, rather, his Hashi-ni. He cannot make a mistake. He cannot allow him to even have a scratch.
Dug dug...
His heart began beating fast, he started taking deep breaths and his sweaty hands are shaking terribly. He cannot find his words, and his own self is overthinking things already.
'I can't do it...' is what his mind is telling him.
'I can't do it! I won't be able to shield him! I really can't do it!' he panicked. His sweat rolls down his jaw. He cannot find his strength at all. He is at a total loss of what he should be doing.
Asher bit his nail on his thumb thinking, 'Han Dae has the now or never vibe whenever he fights. A do or die situation even. He is panicking now because he never really kept a person weaker than him beside him in a battlefield.'
Despite knowing that he won't be heard, he still said, "Han Dae, calm down. We'll get through his together..." his voice is gentle, very kind and comforting.
'Too bad you cannot hear me...' he thought with a sigh.
Han Dae closed his eyes and turned to face Han Zeno calling him on his mind.
'Hashi-ni!'
He saw him smiling at him once again.
Han Dae's uneasiness slowly fades, his heart and breath is calming down as well. 'H-Hashi-ni isn't worried...' he thought.
'That... does that mean that... I'll be fine?' he asked himself.
He held his chest tightly. He blinked upon feeling the hard thing under his clothing.
Asher realized what it was, 'That's right! Han Dae still has the flute!'
Han Dae took the flute out of his robe as he clenched it tightly using both of his hands. Han Zeno took notice of the flute that his servant is holding. It made him blink twice. Who would've thought Han Dae would carry it even now? He can leave it in his baggage or chambers but he didn't.
Looks like Han Dae is calming himself down. He closed his eyes while getting rid of impure thoughts that would not help him.
Taking a deep breath, Han Dae whispered words that even Asher could not fathom. Not because he couldn't hear it, but because he couldn't understand it at all. After all that, Han Dae kissed the lip plate of the flute to find courage.
Not moving his lips away from it.
Han Zeno's eyes widened upon seeing a sight he would never imagine. His cheeks turned pink, not able to avert his eyes to the scene he is currently seeing.
'Han Dae...' he thought, 'is kissing...' his ears turned tomatoes, 'the lip plate of my flute...'
After kissing the flute, Han Dae put it back inside his robe and smiled at Sei Chryseis who is trying to taunt the monsters by frowning and giving them a death glare.
Trying hard much?
Han Dae held his hands and said, "Stay behind me Young Lord Sei." He smiled.
Sei Chryseis blinked in surprise. He brushed his white hair behind his ear before giving Han Dae a nod, "Mnn."
Asher crossed his arms, "How disappointing. I'm the one who wanted to comfort you but you got comforted by someone else..." he snubbed.
.
.
.
"Wha--?!" he freaked, "What the hell am I thinking?! Scratch that! Scratch that Asher!" he messed his hair in shame. Why the hell would he be thinking that? He feels weirdly out of place for a second because of what he thought.
"Seems like everyone is ready." The female demon answered before running her fingers through her white hair, "Shall we begin?"
Every monsters groaned in pleasure, shouted like a beast and made loud noises by hitting the ground and signaling the start of the battle.
The demons on Han Zeno's and Sen Fajra's arena began their attack. Han Zeno avoided the one with a spiky hair that looks like a chameleon that is standignwith its own two feet and is walking like a human. Sen Fajra dodged as well flying, grabbing his throwing knives from the bag on his right leg, he threw it to his opponent that tried to grab him.
The demon dodged those and failed to grab him.
On Han Zeno's side, he unsheathed his sword while the huge hammer tried to strike him. He dodged the attack by jumping as the hammer hit the ground. He landed on the hammer and sliced horizontally, aiming for his opponent's head. However, the demon looked up, bending its back to not get hit by the blade.
He escaped it barely that he became sweaty. Had he been hit by that, he'd be dead on the spot.
He swung his hammer again as Han Zeno leaped.
On the other arena, Yu Gaia dodged her demon opponent by tumbling with a 'woops!' and then she released her sacred weapon. Before she can even swing her huge D-shaped axe, the demon tried to strike her again but she once again successfully avoided the gigantic rusty sword with a playful smile.
She then approached him with a sweet smile on her face saying, "Don't be so rough on such a sweet girl like me!" the moment she said her last two words in her sentence, her sweet smile turns into a maniac as she swung her axe that cut deep to the ground.
The demon managed to dodge her attack, however, he got slashed on his chest.
"Tch!" he clicked his tongue, "Why aren't I healing?!" he irritatingly wondered.
Yu Gaia flipped her long hair and smiled, "I wonder..." she stated, "Shall we continue? I still have my date with Young Miss Sen!" she uttered blushing, facing Sen Saiorse who is standing far away from her opponent the moment she said her name.
She hit and damaged the ground using her sacred weapon, Elastic Whip. She irritatingly faced Yu Gaia and replied, "No, I would rather you keep her busy." she continued with a smug, "For eternity."
"Oh," Yu Gaia held her chest, "How cold can you be?" she acted as if she was hurt. But then she grinned, "But I like it." before winking and giving her a flying kiss.
Sen Saiorse jumped and spun down towards her opponent. Slapping her whip to it seems not effective enough when the demon covered himself with iron shell.
"Heh!" he smirked, "A mere whip wouldn't do any damage to me!" he answered as they exchange blows, him letting her hit him in whatever spot she likes. She jumped backwards and attacked once again using her weapon when the demon caught it.
"I already told you." He said, "You're getting boring."
"Hmmm...?" she stated looking so bored. "Then..." her lips slowly curved upwards, her eyes looked sharper and sharper, as if she is slowly giving him a death glare and an alarming grin.
She pointed at his left shoulder, "Look." She ordered.
"Huh?" he wondered and faced where she is pointing. There, he saw a small scratch on his shoulder.
Her smile got wider and more intimidating, "Shall we continue dancing? You're getting boring." She repeated the same word he used.
Getting offended, he shouted and attacked her once again.
Going to the other arena, Yu Rui is battling the two monsters using his sword. He is fighting in front while Sei Cressida is waiting from behind holding her cerulean paper fan. Yu Rui managed to cut the arm of the monster in front of him when the other attacked from behind.
'Crap!' he thought as he turned to face the other one.
Just before the monster could do anything to him, a strong gust of the wind separated the two of them. Yu Rui faced Sei Cressida who swung her fan once again.
Yu Rui then remembered what she told him, "Are you confident with your sword skills?"
"I-I am... somehow." He answered.
"From the scale of one to ten, how confident?" she asked.
"S-Seven to eight?" Yu Rui wondered.
"Alright then, I won't use my sacred weapon." She said while picking up something from her sleeve. When Yu Rui saw it, it was a paper fan, 'I will use this heirloom instead. Just focus on attacking, I'll be defending you."
Yu Rui smiled and thought, 'Really, Majin candidates are awesome!'
On Han Dae's arena, he received a strong blow from the opponent that sent him flying. Sei Chryseis caught him as he coughs up blood.
"Han-chou!" Sei Chryseis exclaimed in shock with a worried face, "Sh-Shall we surrender?!"
Han Dae wiped the red liquid on his mouth and grinned at him.
"Nice catch, Young Lord Sei!" he said and stood properly even if the pain he is feeling is excruciating. His face once again let out a worried look, but unlike before, he has the strength to move his feet and attack.
He keeps on attacking, only making light cuts to their thick dirty skins. Dodging and attacking, getting hit and getting thrown, he didn't waste a second. He always run forward to both of them so that they won't mind Sei Chryseis who is standing still, looking worried at the edge of the arena.
Han Dae gathered some spiritual energy on his right palm that faced the punch of a huge hand of the fat one. The moment their hands met, it exploded a golden aura. Han Dae jumped out of the smoke and using his left hand, he grabbed the blade that is connected on his right arm's string and bit it.
The moment he landed, he ran back to the smoke, not giving the two monsters a chance to see everything clearly.
'I have to finish this here and now!' he exclaimed in his mind while his left hand is clenching his right arm. 'I can no longer feel this arm, if I failed, it'd be over!'
He then saw a tall very skinny figure, his eyes glowed red, as his face shows a picture of a hunter hunting his prey or a hungry lion ready to sate its hunger, 'You're mine!'
Back to where Han Zeno and Sen Fajra is, seems like they aren't a good match for the demons. Sen Fajra is still using his throwing knives in attacking and defending. His sacred weapon, the sword on his waist, isn't even used yet.
Han Zeno on the other hand is not even using his spiritual energy to the fullest, let alone half of his strength. In a single horizontal slash, the head went flying, separated from the body.
Blood from the neck of the demon splashed everywhere before it turned into ashes.
He turned to face Sen Fajra who threw the last dart he is holding to the neck of his opponent.
Han Zeno is quite amazed that Sen Fajra used the demon as a dart board. The demon turned to dust and Han Zeno smiled at him saying, "We should at least teamed up..."
"Oh?" Sen Fajra smiled, "I guess we should have..."
Sei Cressida opened her fan and swayed it from top to bottom to create an opening for Yu Rui who is already rushing towards his opponents. He used his remaining spiritual energy, releasing it to his sword, he managed to cut through the stomach of the monster in front of him as he dodged the other monster's attack.
Finding himself almost stepping out of the arena, Sei Cressida controlled him using her paper fan. A strong gust of wind forced him to shut his eyes, spin and stabbed the chest of the monster.
He opened his eyes slowly only to find that their opponents already turned to dust. He blinked in confusion thinking, 'Am I being controlled just now?'
"Over here." Yu Gaia whispered behind her demon opponent who looks dead tired already. He flinched and eyed her asking, "Who-Who are you?"
She flipped her long white hair with a proud smile on her pretty face, "From the Lily Yu Tribe, Majin Candidate Yu Gaia." She smiled and positioned herself, raising both of her hand to the side as it holds her humongous sacred weapon, and raising her left foot making her white robe show her fair leg, ready to attack him, "Nice to meet you."
"M-Majin?! Nobody informed me about--!" he freaked but before he can even say anything, he was already cut in half.
"Look." Sen Saiorse pointed the right knee of her opponent. The demon, who is sweating, looked at his knee with a scratch.
"H-How is it even possible?!" he freaked. His jaw, chest, elbows, forehead and knees are now covered in light scratches. "Your whip doesn't even hurt me the least bit!"
"Did you know?" she smiled as she stood in front of him, pointing her rolled sacred weapon to her opponent. "Why my sacred weapon is called Elastic Whip?"
"Huh?" he wondered in confusion.
She grinned once again. The demon suddenly feels suffocating. Holding his neck, his veins started popping out. Even the nerves from his eyes are showing, as his mouth started bubbling.
On his neck appeared a tightly rolled whip connected to Sen Saiorse's whip as if her weapon grew longer.
"I can manipulate the length of my whip without using my spiritual energy. By mixing those two, I can camouflage it. What makes you think that my weak attacks are the reason for those scratches?" she explained, "How idiotic. I was swinging weakly intentionally."
Her opponent wants to say something but the words aren't clear anymore. While trying to remove the whip around his neck, they heard a snap.
The snapping of a neck.
Yu Gaia clapped her hands, "Wow! Young Miss Sen you're so intimidating! I love it!"
She sighed while Yu Gaia hugs her from behind, "If you keep on doing this your servant will get jealous of me. Are we all done?" she wondered when she saw that the two teams are deeply worried eyeing the same arena.
It's Han Dae's and Sei Chryseis'.
Han Dae flew and stabbed the monster right through the eyes using his blades. After that deep stab, he began circling the groaning monster.
Han Dae had difficulty in circling the tall one that he ended up spending too much time and the smoke clears already. Good for him, because he already finished tangling it on his strings.
Using his spiritual energy from his left hand, he pulled the strings as his golden aura flows to his sacred weapon. 'This is nothing compared to Shihan Xu's barrier!' he thought and pulled harder until he chopped it as he bathed on its blood.
He fell on his knees as he hopelessly gasp for air. Just as he was about to stand, a glowing red huge monster, the fat one, is already behind him, looking so furious. His eyes widened in shock.
His whole body froze.
"Tch!" Sei Cressida uttered and is ready to leap when Yu Rui stopped her. Han Zeno's sword unsheathed a portion on its own, ready to leave its scabbard.
Suddenly, without anyone noticing, a glowing golden arrow hit the huge hand of the monster. Everyone's eyes shift to a certain person who is holding a golden bow with no arrows.
Han Dae is in shock, "Y-Young Lord Sei?"
Sei Chryseis is only eyeing his enemy, on his right eye appeared a golden circle, like a sniper's scope. He pulled the bow with no arrows. The moment he pulled hard enough, three glowing golden arrows appeared.
"Come!" Sei Chryseis shouted.
Han Dae faced him stunned. 'H-He... he is the young lord... right?' he wondered.
The monster groaned in irritation and pulled his arrow out from his hand throwing it elsewhere. It rushed to Sei Chryseis' direction.
"Young Lord Sei!" Han Dae shouted looking so worried when the monster's attention diverted.
Sei Chryseis waited for the right moment until the monster in near enough for him to hit. Two arrows scratched its shoulder and neck. The third one missed when the monster moved, dodging it. However, it did hit some of the monster's who are yelling and watching.
He started backing off when the monster reached him and slapped his bow away from his hand when he jumped in attempt for escape.
Using its right arm, he is about to squish Sei Chryseis when Han Dae used his left hand to tangle his sacred weapon to the arm that halted the movement of the monster.
A loud groan was once heard coming from the monster.
"Young Lord Sei!" Han Dae shouted.
Sei Chryseis, floating, positioned his arms like an archer. 'Release!' he said in his mind. His sacred weapon, Arcum, that has fallen on the ground disappeared and reappeared on his hand.
He pointed it on the monster's neck and took the shot. The moment the single arrow was shot, it grew bigger and bigger like a spear until it pas through the chest of the monster leaving a huge hole.
Seems like the arrow isn't satisfied still, it cut the cheek of the saintess who is watching and hit the one beside her.
Sei Chryseis landed carefully and looked around as his sacred weapon disappears.
Han Dae is still surprised. 'Whoa, I didn't know Young Lord Sei can be that awesome!' he thought.
Asher exclaimed in excitement, "Whoa Young Lord Sei! That's badass!"
Sei Chryseis finally spotted Han Dae. He faced him in tears and immediately hugged his wounded body.
"Han-chou!" he cried as Han Dae hissed, "I'm scared! Did you see that?! He almost killed me!" he bawled with his whole body shaking.
Han Dae sighed and pats his head saying, "Thank you for saving me, Young Lord Sei." Sei Chryseis wiped his own tears and giggled, "Thank you lots!"
Sei Cressida fell on her knees in relief. Han Zeno sheathed his sword once again and smiled. Sen Fajra faced the triggered self proclaimed demon 'queen' of this army.
"Four to zero." He said, "We won."
"Heh!" she smirked, "Die." And snapped her fingers.
The arena crumbled that surprised everyone. The remaining demons and monsters attacked randomly and feasted on them. There are also demons from above waiting to eat them since the mock battle began.
"Ha!" she exclaimed before finally laughing psychotically. "You measly humans! Do you really think that I will let you go?!"
"That's right, I did not think you would." Han Zeno answered with a smile. She jolted upon seeing them still standing on their own arenas with their pairs, completely safe from what had just occurred.
"Wha--?!" she freaked. She stood in surprise, 'They should've been dead by now! What the fuck is happening?!' she thought when Han Zeno pointed upwards. Her eyes widened and gasped. Everyone looked up and saw a woman falling down the ground.
She stood elegantly with a sweet smile on her face, "Referee Sei Shanna here!" she raised her bloody hand. "I took care of something that isn't part of the mock battle as Young Lord Han instructed."
"Huh?" Sen Fajra wondered and faced Han Zeno who is smiling still, "Please, I am only being cautious." he replied.
From below appeared another one, "As expected, they plan to destroy the arena. Gladly I put a barrier, although it is indeed difficult to do it in silence." He dusted off his hanbok.
"R-Rabbi Sen Yeol?!" Sen Saiorse exclaimed in surprise.
Sei Cressida smirked as she crossed her arms, "And here I thought Young Lord Han told us everything already."
The female demon then wondered, 'Then... if I am just seeing things earlier, where did all of my army go?!' she is just about to turn when a long sword with blood dripping on it appeared from behind her and is now on her neck.
"Just surrender, you lost fair and square." A man's voice said.
"That's..." Han Dae wondered.
"Ah!" Sei Chryseis freaked in amazement, "Rabbi Cheon!"
"You..." she glared, "What did you do to my—" she asked while still trying to look back only to see everyone on her side dead. As two youths stood.
"We did have a hard time killing them in silence. Waah! Rabbi Cheon is really awesome he slayed more than half of them!" He said.
"Sen Jizshuei?!" Yu Rui exclaimed upon seeing him.
"Yo!" he smiled back at him, "These babies are really something!" he said while waving the blue jewel he is holding. That jewel increases a person's spiritual energy. It triples the amount of it in a limited time.
"Yu Sam?!" Yu Gaia wondered in excitement and waved, "Yu Sam dear! How did you know that we're here?"
Yu Sam lowered her head, "Young Lord Han asked me for help." She stated.
"Oh my, what a guy!" Yu Gaia smirked.
Han Zeno smiled at the female demon, "So? What do you want to do now?"
Her pupils shrunk as she trembles while facing her dead comrades.
A voice echoed in her mind, 'If that's what you really want we'll help you out!'
'Yeah! There's no way we'd leave you alone!'
'Let's do this together!'
'Are you... really sure you want this?'
She glared not at Han Zeno but at Sen Fajra. Her eyes are full of hatred, she can no longer contain her anger. "I'll kill you..." she whispered.
"I'll kill you all..." she uttered with a voice shaking in anger.