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A bit embarrassed, Zelsh nervously chuckled, “Let’s just say I owe Iron Academy some perennial scrolls…”

The entire team immediately understood what had happened. Disappointed and furious, Yeter yelled, “HAHH?! You bet against me?”

“It made a good excuse to help Iron Territory!” Zelsh laughed while flying back to his seat, making use of his abilities as a king cultivator to flee the scene.

Oli broke out in laughter. His stone had started glowing but he wasn’t in too much of a rush. Everyone knew who he would be facing and the colosseum staff was still cleaning up the arena. “Hey, that means Leader Bradok trusted you, Yeter.”

“Yeah, but how much do you want to bet that it was cause I’m using his essence armor!” Yeter complained. “Master Zelsh probably bet that Hiztor found a way to breach Leader Bradok’s special armor, then Leader Bradok called Master Zelsh a fool and made the bet! I know my masters too well!”

Hearing that reasoning, Oli laughed even harder, as did everyone else. Even the security staff and the team’s sanctioned medic let out a few chuckles.

When the arena was cleared, Oli raised his stone and hopped down. He stopped laughing but Oli didn’t stop smiling. Oli was excited to face his opponent, especially after learning that Yeter would be joining him on the trip to the prefecture qualifier.

At the center of the arena, Oli bowed to his foe. “Oliver, representing Rot City, Rot Region.”

.....

“Leenel Atkar, representing Avalanche City, Permafrost Region.” Leenel bowed his head but held up a hand to Kelna, giving him a moment to say more, “Oliver, I’ll be honest. I believe that you’re stronger than me. But I hope you can understand that I wish to fight to the end to best represent my home and to give your strength the respect it deserves.”

“Of course! What I’m after is a good fight anyway, so you’d better give me everything you’ve got,” Oli replied with a smug smile.

Only then did Leenel retrieve his spear, followed by Oli retrieving his gauntlets and mace. It was the first time Oli had retrieved his weapons, startling the crowd. Considering how Oli took down the Night Hawk barehanded, it was easy for everyone to forget that he could also use weapons.

Sensing the morsel of rivalry growing between the two candidates, Kelna smiled. She knew Leenel very well thanks to his clan in the city. Unlike the elder candidates, her cultivation was high enough to recognize Oli’s true strength, overlooking the natural cloaking abilities of Oli’s Roxite Gorilla bloodline. Yet her warning regarding Zelsh’s confidence couldn’t be overlooked just because Oli was a mid-elder. It was a fight Kelna was overjoyed to see but a battle she was hoping wouldn’t end in bloodshed.

“If you two are ready…” Kelna hesitated slightly longer than normal, glad to see the friendly smiles on their faces. “... FIGHT!”

Ching!

The icy spear was thrust forward immediately, clashing with Oli’s mace covered in earth and dark-death essence.

“You’re fast,” Oli chuckled while stomping his feet, shattering the thin layer of ice trying to grow underneath him. “But you’ll have to go all-out if you don’t want this to end too quickly.”

Stomping again, Oli reached out for the spear to no avail. Leenel retracted his weapon and sprinted forward with the spear ready to swipe at Oli’s side. But it was again deflected while all ice around Oli crumbled long before it could be of use.

Leenel wasn’t disheartened by the sight. He became extremely wary. The best thing he could do was try and figure out how Oli’s earth essence nature worked, considering how effortlessly Oli was shattering the ice.

Oli kept playing things by ear. He was on guard but always ready to counterattack. After watching Leenel fight both during the survival round and the exhibition, Oli was certain that Leenel had yet to show off his true abilities. How else would he have been chosen to lead a team guarding the region’s equivalent of a princess?

Without a word, Leenel gave Oli exactly what he wanted.

The air within one krin of Leenel drastically dropped in temperature. The ground was instantly covered in ice, which Leenel started skating across. Rather than focusing on tripping up Oli, Leenel focused on gaining as much speed and power as possible. At the same time, a small blizzard was gathering around his spearhead.

While Leenel skated around Oli to gain speed and search for the best opportunity to attack, Oli smiled and stood still. He followed Leenel with his eyes but never fully turned around.

Leenel noticed this and decided to attack from the rear.

Both of them knew Oli left that gap open on purpose. But despite knowing that, Leenel couldn’t find a better place to attack. So he went through with the charge fully committed.

Suddenly, Stone pillars broke through the ice to cut Leenel off and force him to react.

Leenel quickly skated around the pillars. They had appeared far faster than Leenel could anticipate but Leenel gracefully and skillfully skated past them with minimal losses in speed. Rather than waste his charging attack on a pillar, Leenel was determined to let the small blizzard grow until it could reach his opponent.

But Oli’s next move caught Leenel off guard.

Suddenly, the stone pillar at Oli’s back was blown apart. Oli leaped through it without any issues and was almost at his second pillar, avoiding the ice entirely.

The two were about to converge when Leenel suddenly lost his balance. Leenel nearly fell flat on his face before realizing what was going on. Just as he was passing the third pillar, the one before reaching Oli, black tendrils reached out from the pillar’s shadow to latch onto Leenel’s feet.

It wasn’t enough to harm Leenel, but it was enough to slow him and get Leenel uncomfortable before Oli’s incoming charge.

Leenel responded better than Oli had expected. He stopped and readied his stance, covering his feet in ice to force back the shadow tentacles and stabilize his footing. Swinging the blizzard spear ahead, Leenel threw everything he had into the attack.

Oli did the same. Earth essence surrounded Oli’s mace but mostly his body. What had a greater focus on the mace was Oli’s dark-death essence. Similar to the blizzard surrounding Leenel’s spearhead, the half-dark-half-death essence swirled and twisted around the mace. It looked like a sickly, black gas preparing to afflict whatever it touched.

CHING! Shrck! CRACK!

The mace and spear collided but not as harshly as people were expecting. Rather than forcing each other back, both weapons redirected the blows and softened them before each weapon struck its target.

With a blizzard on the spear, Oli had to make sure he was ready to accept such a blow. That’s why he concentrated his earth essence on his body while letting the dark-death essence eat away at the water essence inside Leenel’s attack. But the spear still struck Oli’s side, piercing it but missing Oli’s vitals.

The mace was the next to collide with its smaller reach. But all Oli had to do was make contact in order to force Leenel back. With his inhuman strength, Oli’s heavy swing crashed into Leenel’s lower torso. The ice supporting Leenel’s foot cracked apart as Leenel was knocked back. Though it was thin, Oli’s earth essence nature was still a natural counter to something like ice, breaking through any ice essence defenses Leenel could put up. But the worst part was the dark-death essence. With his essence armor breached, Leenel had nothing left to protect him from the invasive dark-death essence.

Small splurts of blood hit the icy ground and froze on impact while Leenel bounced and slid across the ground.

Oli didn’t chase his foe. He just stood there while breaking the ice under his feet. “Still want to keep going?”

Leenel’s face had already started to turn pale. To have the dark-death essence breach his defenses and hit him so close to his core only made the pain more unbearable. After standing back up, Leenel realized that some of his ribs had broken as well and his leading arm was numb from the colliding attacks.

He swallowed down any blood that dared come up his throat while quickly scanning and assessing Oli’s injuries.

Oli, however, wasn’t limping or even reacting to the injury, apart from surrounding the wound with extra dense earth essence. Oli’s stance, countenance, and confidence were all in tip-top shape.

Taking a long breath, Leenel stole a quick glance at Lady Kelna. When Kelna gave him a subtle nod, Leenel felt dejected beyond belief.

“... I give.”

Kelna appeared beside Leenel in that same moment, pressing an open vial of life essence elixir to Leenel’s lips.

Once the vial was empty, Kelna lightly chuckled and whispered, “You did good, kid. You were just unlucky.”

“Yeah. I guess I was…” Leenel softly sighed, making sure no one apart from Kelna could hear him.

Kelna walked over to Oli and smiled, lifting his arm to the sky. “Oliver, representing Rot City in Rot Region is our third and final winner!”