It was going to be a long day
Hello Shal
Shal’s gaze slid sideways from his student who finally became serious about the competition and killed two bottom feeders to find one of the people he detested most in the world
Egger He grunted his gaze returning to the window The less he was forced to interact with this pompous prick the better
I am surprised Who knew that you would have the delicacy to train a disciple I suppose even violence obsessed idiots have their moments Egger said stepping closer to Shal so they were side by side as they looked out the window I have 20 trained and tested disciples in this farce I have given them explicit instructions that they are to have one of them on each of the stages We will see whether your disciple will even be able to survive long enough for his Tassle to unfurl
And this was why Shal detested Egger For as children they had been rivals in Egger’s eyes until Shal summarily trounced him Since then Egger had bootlicked his way into one of the larger Styles and had become a rather well respected instructor for new disciples even if he was still a mediocre spear user At every opportunity Egger took the opportunity to lord his training accomplishments over Shal which was received with stony silence
After all previously there wasn’t really any competition But now Shal had a disciple recognized by the world although most of the world hadn’t realized it yet there was another Spear Phantom in training
Normally Shal would ignore him because your ability to train a disciple was secondary to individual strength But there was another truth here that Shal didn’t want to endanger
Shal had never lost to Egger in anything
So despite his distaste Shal spoke directly On this day a Tassle of your Iron Spear Style will be taken by the Spear Phantom Style I will wager
Shal paused considering his opponents financial straights Then he removed an old spear from his ring a huge almost 3 meter long monstrosity that had been forged of obsidian It glittered black in the darkness a huge hunk of black metal the Spear of the Devourer
Egger’s eyes paled and Shal experienced a certain satisfaction All had wondered how Shal’s duel with the Devourer had gone but Shal refused to speak of it But the fact that he had the Devourer’s spear could only mean one thing
Shal enjoyed the expression on Egger’s face as he did some quick calculations over the worth of such a spear and the fear and panic in Egger’s eyes when he realized what a large bet it was But strangely his face stilled and he smiled alright I will bet this hunk of DragonHeart ore as well as a bit of information
Sneering Shal opened his mouth to deride Egger not even wanting to hear the information Although the ore was valuable it was nowhere near as valuable as the spear of the Devourer But Egger continued speaking and Shal froze
I’ll tell you the location of Lucrecia
Shal blinked Then his eyes darkened It is a deal He hissed through his teeth turning back to the melee with fiery eyes
Randidly ran forward passing stage after stage his brooding eyes taking in the vicious struggles going on at each location where more and more people with ideas like his would break off swarming to the lesser populated stages that they would find for themselves hoping to see how well they would stack up against the competition But Randidly continued to jog
Not to restore his condition because he had almost instantly regained the Stamina he had lost in his little fight But because the heat in his chest was slowly cooling to a bubbling anger preparing to blow up again But at the moment he was unsatisfied by the large crowds he ran into
Still time was beginning to drag on Such was the size of the location that he had been jogging for almost 20 minutes and still hadn’t reached the opposite side of the arena It was simply too large more a small island than a boat Although there was already a large cluster of people gathered around the current stage that Randidly was approaching he was sorely tempted to stop and set up shop here
But again that flicker of rage made him grind his teeth and in order to avoid killing all of these spear users Randidly continued to run As he did so he noticed that a slim young woman with spiky red hair was shadowing him not coming too close but also clearly following the same path as him at the same speed
Again his temper flared but again Randidly pushed it down It wasn’t yet clear what this woman’s intentions were But if she planned some sort of vengeance for the two people Randidly had killed
Shaking his head Randidly put that out of his mind This world was different Perhaps killing was just killing here and wouldn’t lead to an endless cycle of revenge
Besides the young woman wasn’t really looking at him with any sort of malice But it was a strange deliberate intensity to her gaze that set him on edge It was strange to him why she would look at him like this when they had never met in the past Perhaps some relationship with Shal
The distance she maintained was enough that Randidly didn’t really have any plans to turn and attack her It would be a waste of time and there were so many other spear users lurking around It was best to just ignore her for now
A few minutes later Randidly arrived at the next stage which was strangely quiet There were fewer people here but also there was only a single man on the stage surrounded by around a dozen bodies The blood was already dried and the crowd around them was milling about looking at each other nervously
But perhaps the most eye catching thing about the stage is that the man standing on the stage was the two spears he held one in each hand both wet with blood His grip was casual his gaze bored scanning the crowd with open disdain
The raw arrogance in his slouched stance ignited the rage in Randidly’s heart even further His hands tightened around his spear Ignoring the dead bodies surrounding the strange man Randidly picked up speed as he ran forward Almost instinctively he activated Haste gaining speed When he reached the edge of the crowd he allowed his rage to just carry him forward activating Mana Strengthening and leaping clearing the nervous group of spear users and sailing through the air
In a rather ungainly fashion he crashed onto the stage sliding slightly on a patch of blood that was still wet But with the assistance of the Grace skill Randidly stabilized himself very quickly then turned to regard the man He had long hair cascading down his back and over his shoulders As Randidly arrived his eyes had narrowed and now he was looking at him with a sneer His skin was a yellow very close to lime green a bright vibrant color that almost made the man look like a clown to Randidly’s eyes
Are you a fool I am a disciple of the Thundercrash Style Leave or your corpse will fertilize rice The man demanded his eyes flashing
Randidly just grinned leveling his spear at his opponent
With a snort the man waved his hand and a strange energy surged through the air smashing towards Randidly When it reached him Randidly blinked and swayed It was like 1000s of ghost spears were surging towards him each with the speed and ferocity of a lightning bolt But Randidly simply frowned and focused and the strange spiritual attack warped and shattered cracking like glass
For a time there was silence as the man’s expression changed from derision to contemplative Randidly tightened his grip on his spear his heart beginning to beat with an increased intensity Finally a spear user near his own level The chance to see how well he stacks up against individuals from a world of the 5th Cohort of the Nexus
You who are you The man asked slowly
They call me the Ghosthound
I am Tartet It would be a great joy to kill you this day Ghost
I’m Dian
Both Randidly and Tartet turned rather confused Randidly’s eyes narrowed It was that woman with pointy red hair Most annoyingly she seemed content to produce a pallet from her interspatial ring lounging on the stage in the corner As the two men continued to stare she straightened and frowned at them