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"Kill his Axel," a loud shout came from the crowd.

"Get revenge for Esker. Kill this arrogant bastard."

Many similar shouts immediately drowned out the stadium, slightly surprising John once again.

\'Just how unpopular was the person who I assumed this identity of, to get such a reaction?\'

John found the issue slightly amusing, but put such thoughts aside as he looked towards the boy before him. It was true that he was definitely stronger than Esker, but his strength was still far beneath John\'s notice.

John smirked as he stared at the boy. "You think the only thing I\'m good at is sneak attacks?" John asked in an amused tone.

The Bloodfiend Sect disciples had gotten quite the wrong impression of his skills. He had not attacked Esker like that due to it being his strength, but due to him not wanting to waste any more time on a useless battle.

"Am I wrong?" Axel mocked back. "Your strength is laughable, and without sneak attacks, you are as good as dead. But like I said, they won\'t work on me, so you\'re already as good as dead anyways."

Axel took out his weapon, which was a long spear with barbed tips on the side. It was quite a gruesome looking weapon. His aura also flared out, as he prepared for the battle.

John smiled and shook his head at the boy\'s incredibly stupid assessment. His blood red scythe appeared in his hands, and he casually raised it above his head while looking straight at Axel.

"In that case, block this \'weak\' attack for me," John mocked.

Axel was about to reply with another mocking insult, when his expression suddenly froze. John\'s scythe had suddenly exploded with a horrifyingly powerful aura, as a battle art was channeled into it.

Before Axel could say or do anything, John slashed his scythe forward with a single casual motion. The motion appeared incredibly casual, but was completed incredibly quickly. In fact, it was too fast for most in the crowd to see, as his attack already pierced towards Axel.

Crimson Blade Slash!

Red light immediately lit up the fighting platform, as a massively powerful blood red scythe image slashed directly towards Axel. It reached him almost instantly, and Axel just barely managed to raise his weapon in time to block it.

Boom!

An incredibly loud explosion rocked the arena, as John\'s Crimson Blade Slash collided against Axel\'s hastily raised weapon.

Boom!

Almost immediately after, another thunderous boom echoed out, and the defensive formation surrounding the stadium stands lit up. All eyes turned to the point where the defensive formation had been assaulted, and those eyes quickly opened wide in absolute shock.

Where the defensive formation had lit up, Axel\'s half-broken corpse was pressed against it. Blood splattered everywhere, while bones were sticking out of his mangled flesh at various locations. His neck was snapped to the side, and his lifeless eyes were half popped out of his skull.

Axel, who had been mouthing off confidently, was now reduced to this mangled state. If the attack he had just blocked had not killed him, the incredible speed at which he had impacted against the defensive formation had.

His dead body slowly slid down the defensive formation, and eventually settled to the ground below. The crowd, which had just momentarily ago been shouting loudly, was as silent as the grave.

John looked at the corpse on the ground for a moment before he pressed off the ground and jumped high into the air. Shortly after, he landed high in the stadium stands where he had been sitting before, and took a seat next to Chase.

The crowd, still stunned silent, looked up to John who sat there casually, before they all turned to each other as thunderous discussion broke out amongst themselves.

"What just happened? How was his Crimson Blade Slash that powerful? And how did he release it so quickly?"

"I don\'t know, but it was so strong that Axel was reduced to a smear just by blocking it!"

"Was John always this strong? What\'s going on? I thought he was only good at sneak attacks?"

"I heard he wanted to challenge Alix. Everyone thought he was joking, but maybe he\'s actually going to do it."

"Even if he is strong, challenging an Emperor is just suicide."

At the same time, a set of workers came out to the arena grounds and cleaned up the mess Axel had left behind.

John suddenly felt two pairs of eyes stare directly at him, and he glanced in the direction of the first. Elder Praxx was staring right at him, with a look of approval on his face. Clearly, John\'s display had been to his liking. There were several other Elder\'s in the area staring straight at him with inquisitive looks, as if they were trying to figure out how they had never noticed John before.

John swiveled his head and looked to the second pair of eyes that stared intensely at him. He slightly raised his eyebrows as he noticed who it was, but his face remained calm. The girl staring at him did so for quite some time, before she looked away, as did John.

Next to the girl, a boy had noticed her gaze and began to mock her.

"What is Azalea? Have you taken a liking to that boy?" Thraks, one of the Three Emperors, amusingly jeered.

"As if," Azalea scoffed. "For some reason, he seemed familiar to me, but I\'ve never seen the boy before. Must have been my imagination."

"Oh? How interesting," Thraks replied as he stared at John one last time before looking away.

John breathed out a sigh of relief as Azalea looked away. \'There\'s no way she can recognize who I am through this mask, right?\'

"Silence," a loud shout boomed within the stadium, silencing the heated discussions.

The lead Elder walked out to the central arena once more.

"The outer disciple battles have now concluded, and the inner disciple battles will now commence. Inner disciples who wish to challenge core disciples, step forward now and register."

The second round of placement battles had begun.