The City Lord's idea is simple. To let even more people come in with the admission into the arena being halved. Then again, the halved prices of the admission fees were the supposed amount they had to lay before he gave the right to manage the arena to the Itol Family.
In hindsight, it should have been a red flag but in his defense, he had been too busy dealing with the bandits and other stuff to care for the arena. After all, it is an investment to improve the strength of his city so he had expected for a long time before any suitable candidate for his elite force to appear.
However, what happened can't be changed. The only thing he could do was make sure the changes he implemented would remain the same and there would be no more Itol Family equivalent in the future.
Besides the entrance fees being halved, there is also the large screen. Most, if not all capital cities of vassal nations had these large projection crystals, though the amount of said crystals depended on the wealth and prosperity of the nations themselves, as the price of the crystals and the cost to maintain them can be sum up as 'very high'.
While the Mariz Capital City only has one of these and is rarely used at that, the Karbin City has 10 and is used on important occasions. Clearly, the fight between him and the people on his blacklist counted as an important occasion.
He still couldn't understand why the city lord would do such a thing but he decided to let him do as the man pleases. Maybe he has a motive. Maybe it was just for his amusement and he wanted to share it with his people. Ryker suspected it to be the latter.
All of the people he wanted to kill, along with several more, by his request, will be forced to fight him. Their prize, their freedom. Their punishment, their death. With such simple prizes yet important ones at that, (which is a serious understatement) the survivors of the Itol Family would likely fight to the end, though Ryker had no intention to lose.
He had been prepared for quite some time, he had even been standing, well, sitting inside the arena for nearly an hour. All he had to do was wait for the sheep to be sent to him.
-x-
The young master of the Itol Family let out a shaky whimper. He had been running before he was tackled to the ground. His eyes then had been blindfolded, the garment used to blindfold him seemed to have the special property to dull his sense, making his hearing and smelling equal to a mortal.
While he doesn't know where he is going, he does know there are other people with him, most likely his family members who are still alive. The reason for their lives being spared for now is unknown, he is glad he is still alive.
He does hope he is able to keep the status for longer but they might be leading him and the rest to the execution ground for all he knows. He wanted to speak but he was also gag so, there is that.
With no way to talk and no way to see, he could only walk to what he believed to be his doom. The man leading them suddenly stops, almost making him stumble if not for the chain stopping him from falling.
As he steadied himself, the blindfold and the gag had been removed, allowing him to see where he was, though the loud sound allowed him to know their exact location almost immediately, the arena.
He looked around, only to see the guards already left, leaving behind a figure. One he quickly recognized, was the person that had been the bane of his existence even in the short amount of time since they had met the first time at the arena.
He was about to say something when he heard the city lord talking, "This is the last chance for the last remnants of the higher-ups and main lines of the Itol Family to live. And all they have to do is participate in a life and death match,"
Hearing about the life-and-death match made him shiver. He had been involved in a few of those. Mostly him against a weaker opponent, people who had made him angry and displeased him by existing. And now, he was about to face someone who was stronger than him, after all, he demolished his elite group that had 10 Genesis Source experts in it.
He took a look around and let out a sigh of relief. There are 3 members of the family with cultivation realm at the Genesis Spring. Even if he easily beat several Genesis Source experts, the difference between them and Genesis Spring is like night and day. He didn't seem to notice the fact they lacked strength or had no qi emitted from their very being.
"Without further ado, let the match begin," with the roar of the crowds, the beginning of the match was loud. To the people of the arena, the noises are merely disturbances, ones they don't care about as the only important thing is their survival.
With no shame, the young master hid behind one of the Genesis Spring experts, "Elder, beat the young man for me," he shamelessly said. Before the elder could say anything, the young man appeared in front of them before crushing the elder's head easily.
The blood and brain matter splashed towards the young master, covering his body, mostly his head, with the gore. The city lord took the chance to clarify one last thing.
"The Genesis Spring experts all have their cultivation crippled, so it will be a more balanced fight," the announcement made the young man's eyes go wide open. If the Genesis Spring experts are essentially mortals now, there will be no people able to stop the young man.
In his realization, he didn't realize his group was being systematically taken down, leaving only three people, including him, alive. When he soon came to the realization, he was met with a smile that could only be described as demonic.
In fear, the three survivors stumbled as they retreated, stopped only because of the arena's wall. Not wanting to die, the young master and the other two kneeled, their head hitting the ground.
"Please, we do anything as long as you let us live," they pleaded, promising things they couldn't even do, not that he would let them even if they could do as they promised.
His feet stepped on the young master's head before he pressed it, making the other young man scream from both pain and humiliation.
"You want to know why I did all of this?" he asked, making the other two nod in terror. If they are going to die, they would like to know the reason.
"It's because your group of bastards touched and humiliated my beloved. And so, I decided to end your pathetic existence," after he said his last piece, he created a Lightning Cage around the group.
The cage sends powerful bolts of lightning at them, making them scream from pain as their pleading become screams. By the time the cage dissipates, there are only charred corpses left, before Ryker swipes his hand and makes it blasted into the wind.
After that was done, Ryker turned his head towards the city lord, saying,
"This is the end of the show,"