I look around the room and take a sip of my drink. The people here are not really good at subtlety, huh? They look at me as if I am a rare animal. The reason? Asia and I are the only humans in this gathering.
What makes matters worse, they are looking down on me. I know that this is my dragon side, which is demanding me to rip every single one of them apart, but even my human side agrees with my dragon side.
Some of them even sneered at me when they thought that I was not looking. If not for the presence of Amaterasu, Susanoo, and Tsukuyomi, they would have already kicked me out of the banquet.
The Trio and Yasaka had a pleasant talk with the Four Satans, leaving me with Kunou and Asia. Luckily, I brought some game cards from Fairy Tail with me to entertain Kunou and Asia. I can see Yasaka give me an apologetic expression, but I give her an assuring smile that I don't mind acting as a babysitter.
Sadly, my peace gets disturbed by someone. I can see a familiar blonde young man walk toward me. However, to my surprise, he did not have his usual arrogant smirk. This man is Riser Phenex.
I look at him for a second before saying.
"Can I help you?"
He looks at me for a second and says.
"I want another fight."
"I beg your pardon?"
"I want a rematch. You might have defeated me in the past, but I've been training so I can beat you. I want a rematch."
What? What happened to him? Wasn't he a horndog? How can he become a battle maniac after only a short amount of time?!
"I don't mind," I said slowly, "But you need to ask the others for this. We are guests at this party, after all."
Riser looked at the Four Satans and the Shinto Factions before bowing his head.
"Please grant me a match against Ryan Hernandes."
Susanoo walks forward and says before one of the four Satans can say something.
"And why do you want to fight my chosen one, child?"
Instead of looking down, Riser looks at Susanoo right in the eyes and says.
"I want to test my power against someone who can push me on the edge. After fighting him, I realize that I am not the strongest fire user in the world. Sadly, our family is the greatest fire user in the underworld."
"So you want to test your fire against his, huh?"
"Yes"
Susanoo looks at him for a few seconds before suddenly he starts to laugh. After a few seconds, he looked at me with a massive grin on his face.
"Ryan! Fight him and give us the biggest entertainment at this party! Think of it as a friendly match. Don't worry. Ryan here can heal you after the match ends."
The four Satans stay silent for a few seconds before Sirzechs sighs and says,
"Very well. We will prepare the match right away."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
|3rd POV|
"Riser?! What are you doing?!"
Riser looks to the side and sees his father running toward him.
"Why are you doing something this reckless?!"
"I am not doing this just because I am reckless, father. I am doing this to restore our family honor."
"Restore family honor?! Don't joke around, Riser! The other houses already look down on us when you challenge that human!"
"Then they will take back their insult once they see how powerful that human is."
Riser has changed since the day he knew fear. Seeing a blazing fire hitting him, a creature of fire, is a humbling experience. Seeing an overwhelming power beating you until you cannot regenerate is something that he had never felt before, and it changed him.
After that day, Riser had a goal in his life for the first time. He wants to get stronger and beat Ryan and never again feel that kind of fear.
Lord Phenex can only sigh when he sees his son's expression. He is glad that his son already changed from his usual arrogant self after the beating he got from trying to R*pe Yasaka of the Western Kyoto.
He sees his son start to train his body and his peerage member every couple of days. Not only that, he also started to fight in combat in Rating Games. Usually, Riser will give up when facing someone who is way above his rank, but now, he wants to try to fight someone above his Rating Games rank.
It affects his record because he starts losing, but at the same time, he starts to grow from all that he lost. Lord Phenex is glad that his son is learning from his loss because he knows that his son can only grow from his defeat.
His only hope was that his son would not do something this reckless when important guests were coming here.
"Very well. I give you my blessing. Did you need anything?"
"Not at the moment, father."
"Good. Win this and show the others that our family is not something they can look down on."
"Yes!"
==//==
'That man smells like a dragon.'
Issei blinks for a second when he hears Ddraig's words coming from his head.
'What do you mean, Ddraig?'
'That means he is either a dragon or has Sacred Gear with a dragonic nature.'
'I see.'
Issei frowns at that news—another handsome person with dragon power. Another person who stood in his way to his goal to be a Harem King.
'Who do you think will win this fight, Ddraig?'
'Hmmm? That man. Dragons will always win against flaming birds.'
'You are just biased because you are a dragon.'
'But it is still the truth.'
Issei shakes his head and looks at his king, Rias.
"Buchou, who do you think will win this fight?"
Rias looks at Issei and says.
"Truthfully, I don't know. I don't want to admit it, but Riser has grown powerful since he got beaten by that man. Riser starts to become obsessed with getting more powerful and beating him. The last time I saw him, he beat someone on the brink of getting into Ultimate Rank."
"T-That is…"
"Yeah. If not for Ryan beating him, we will fight Riser. He might not be this strong, but still a strong fighter."
They snap from their conversation when they hear Ajuka suddenly announce a match.
"A friendly match between Riser Phenex of Phenex Clan against Ryan Hernandes of Shinto Faction shall commence!"
The Rating Arena is a pocket dimension created by Ajuka and takes the form of a colosseum arena. Two people walk into the area. Ryan is on the east side, holding Doujigiri Yasutsuna in his right hand, and he has already entered his Dragon Sage Mode. Riser is on the west side, and his entire body is covered in fire.
"Are both fighters ready?! Fight!"
And the fight is on.