Shock covered Clifford's face as he witnessed the horse stomp on the skeleton, crushing it and scattering its bones to the ground. Slowly, the bones began flocking toward the horse, seeping through the mud as they entered its body. The only idea that came to Clifford's mind was that the two beasts had merged, becoming one. The fight continued, and boredom began to assault Clifford as he realized the beast's intelligence was too simple to do anything besides charge at him directly.
"Meh, it won't stop unless I get rid of the world's owner, probably." No matter how often Clifford blasted it into pieces, the beast returned, making him suspicious about its nature. Tired of this pointless fight, Clifford transformed into his eagle form and flew away, abandoning the beast behind. Shortly, Clifford landed on a high cliff overlooking the entire arena. Taking his meditation position, Clifford started recharging the Qi he had lost trying to get rid of the mud beast.
The cliff was empty as Clifford was the first to reach it, thanks to his ability. Its size was about thirty percent of the place's total area. The screams echoed, forcing the candidates to make their way to the cliff to avoid the unkillable beasts that flooded the forest below. After an hour, about ninety percent of the bronze candidates found their way out by snatching another bronze token or by being disqualified for losing their tokens.
Slowly, one by one, they reached the high cliff, breathing heavily from the long climb. However, not everyone was the same, as some climbed effortlessly due to the methods they used. Finally, someone had enough courage to approach Clifford while he was busy: a boy with long red hair reaching down to his shoulders and a muscular build.
"I have come seeking thee. Surrender it forthwith." Speaking oddly, the words reached Clifford's ears. Looking at the boy, Clifford aimed his index finger at him.
"What? Who are you?" Tilting his head, Clifford looked at the boy with a frown, clearly not understanding what he meant.
"My identity is of no consequence. Surrender the diamond token forthwith, or face immediate demise!" Shouting, the boy marched toward Clifford, who thought he had an anger issue. Clifford was aware that killing wasn't allowed, but if someone came for his life, he didn't mind taking theirs in return.
"Then I shall call you Cocky from now on." Making fun of the boy, Clifford gave him the nickname Cocky based on his attitude. Watching his approaching opponent, Clifford waited with a smirk on his face.
"Ten attempts; the 11th will be your death. Now, come at me!" Curious to see how far the boy could go compared to the cultivators he had fought before, Clifford flipped the boy's red hair with his middle finger, further intimidating him and causing him to increase his pace.
Charging at Clifford, the boy infused his fist with Qi, ready to execute one of his techniques. Unfortunately, it failed to cause any notable damage to Clifford's body. Only a mark was left on his robe so far.
"Nine attempts left." Speaking lightly, Clifford looked at the boy, who had distanced himself to prepare for another attack. Failure after failure, Clifford's patience started running out slowly as the boy wasted seven attempts, leaving himself with only three.
"Put more effort into your attack, cocky. You have three attempts left." Clifford's words seemed to strike the boy deeply, causing him to rage.
"Don't you dare underestimate me, commoner! OVERDRIVE!" Screaming in anger, tiny red horns started growing on the boy's head as his crimson hair turned pitch black. His muscles grew stronger, and his veins bulged as his skin slowly turned red. Contrary to Clifford's expectations, which had pushed his body to its limit, this transformation—seemingly the result of a technique—only increased the boy's strength slightly. Clifford judged him this way because he didn't feel any increased threat from the boy.
Once his transformation was complete, the boy burst forward, aiming for Clifford's life. Soon, his fist made contact with Clifford's chest, pushing him back a little. Feeling happy with his success, the boy failed to notice the danger he had put himself in.
"You are such a disappointment." Tired of fighting, Clifford spoke as he transformed his left arm into the Wendigo's counterpart before catching the boy by his shoulder. Pulling him in, Clifford looked at the boy with disdain painted over his face. Thinking patiently, Clifford aimed for the best way to deal with this boy and benefit at the same time. Although the elder didn't mention any rules about killing, he guessed there would be interference once someone's life was in danger.
'Hmm… hatred could be the fuel.' Making up his mind, Clifford proceeded to crush the boy's right arm and left leg, crippling his movement and heavily reducing his strength. Looking for the boy's token, surprise covered Clifford's face as he found no fewer than a hundred golden tokens and a couple of platinum tokens stashed in the boy's spatial ring.
"Look at that," Holding the tokens one by one, Clifford started throwing them off the cliff, leaving the boy with nothing.
"Are you ready to… you know?" Carrying the annoying boy toward the edge, Clifford spoke, smiling at him before kicking him off into the distance. Suddenly, the boy's body started levitating mid-air, flying high toward the staff suspended in the sky as the elder slowly revealed himself.
"You've broken an unspeakable rule; you aimed for someone's life. Not only that, you ran around wasting your time collecting golden tokens when you had a platinum token from the very start. You overestimated your strength and got your ass handed to you in the end. Although you didn't take his life, you will still be punished for it. Hence, you won't be going back to the trial, and your status will be equal to silver rankers until next year." Finishing his words, the elder snapped his fingers, making the boy's red hair vanish and kicking him out of his world.