The monkey adventurer and Jack were a few meters away from each other, the audience's attention was completely on them, and no one was paying attention to the holographic screens anymore as these two squared off.

The monkey glared daggers at the red-haired young man in front of him, his eyes turned into slits, his gaze was so intense that it's almost as if he was trying to cut him open with his glare alone.

Meanwhile, the red-haired young man was more relaxed compared to his opponent, to him, the enemy in front of him was a complete joke, and he didn't take this duel seriously at all.

'What the hell are you doing? Why are you picking a fight all of a sudden?'

A feminine voice suddenly resounded inside Jack's head.

'Relax will ya? Some small fry wanted to pick a fight with me, I got to humor him somehow'

Jack didn't get flustered due to the sudden voice's appearance, he knew the person behind this voice personally, he then looked around, turning his head left and right, trying to find her but to no avail.

"You! How dare look away"

He heard an angry voice in front of him but ignored it and continued to search for the owner of the voice.

"Punk, looking down on me will be your biggest mistake"

The monkey man said as he pulled a pair of steel gauntlets out of his bag, there were mana stones embedded in the middle of the palm area.

Jack finally turned around and looked at his opponent, he was a bit surprised at what Max just pulled out.

"A magic weapon!" Meona, who was sitting on one of the spectator seats, exclaimed.

"An intermediate ranked magic weapon... though it is a shame that is only powered by mana stones" Revlo further explained.

"I heard some stories about the reason why people call him Max the Crusher, it's not just because he crushes newbies but also because of the magic weapon that he wields, the crushing gauntlet, it multiplies his strength depending on much mana he channels into it, his grappling and crushing techniques are not half-assed either, at the end of his matches, he always crushes at least one limb from his opponent, there was one time that he crushed someone's hands in a test of strength once, hence the nickname [Crusher]"

Meona turned her head to look straight at Revlo and further said.

"And that someone was an expert rank champion, he crushed the hands of someone higher ranked than him"

"Because of this, no one dared to steal away his magic weapon, despite not being in any adventurer group to protect him"

"It is also said that he got his magic weapon through a fortuitous encounter"

Revlo nodded at her words and then turned his head to look at the golden spear behind Meona, Revlo could tell that it was not a normal weapon nor it was a magic weapon, he could sense the spirituality coming out of that weapon.

'A spirit weapon' Revlo thought.

Meona saw where Revlo was looking, she grinned sheepishly.

"This was the spirit weapon that the founder of the Kiply family once wielded, it is way better than that monkey's gauntlet, only someone with the blood of the Kiply family could wield it but for some reason, my father was unable to form a spirit contract with it but I did"

She said while puffing up her chest.

Magic weapons and spirit weapons are fundamentally different, magic weapons used a champion's magic core as a power source to unlock their abilities while spirit weapons only require the use of spirit power to control them.

But that doesn't mean that spirit weapons could be used infinitely without reservation, using spirit weapons can be taxing on one's spirit, just like mana, it could be exhausted as well.

People generally accept that spirit weapons are better than magic weapons.

For one, spirit weapons require something like a spirit contract to be able to use them, people have different essences of their spirit power just like how people have different thumbprints.

In other words, it is generally useless to steal another's spirit weapon unless the original owner dies or if the owner himself annuls the contract.

Sure there are techniques and magic out there that can forcibly cancel the spirit contract but not a lot of people know this and the process of canceling the contract by force is arduous and takes up a lot of time.

Things like compatibility, the magic attributes that you specialize in, bloodline, etc. These are the different factors that determine whether or not you can form a contract with a spirit weapon.

Revlo's fate destroyer sword is a spirit weapon as well, it's just that it hasn't unlocked its spirituality yet, meaning it hasn't unlocked its abilities because the sword is too young.

'I have already formed a spirit contract with it but I can feel that the sword is still asleep, its gonna be a while before I could unlock its and '

'But I can feel that it won't be too long before it wakes up'

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

Revlo thought.

"Woah, looks like this is not gonna be boring after all, I hope you can last for at least one minute"

Jack said while grinning as he pulled out a long sword from his waist.

The sword looked ordinary, there was no gem embedded on its surface so it was not a magic weapon and no spirituality was present on the sword itself so it was not a spirit weapon either.

Seeing this, Max the Crusher laughed derisively and mocked his opponent.

"I should be the one saying that you impudent brat"

Max said as he slammed both the gauntlets on his hands together as sparks flew out of it while smirking confidently.

The mana stones embedded on the armored gloves started glowing, he bent his body and launched himself forward.

'This will be too easy, my rank is higher and I have a magic weapon with me, there is no way I'll lose'

'Brat, just you wait, I'll wipe that grin off your face, I can't wait to see you begging on your knees for mercy as I break the bones in your body one by one'

Usually, he would only break a single bone from the newbies he fought with but Jack's attitude towards him was so intolerable that Max judged that he needed a harsher lesson.

"You little shit, don't blame me, blame your unbridled arrogance, you think you're all hot shit just because you did well on some test don't ya?!"

He pulled back his arms and performed a big punch that should've landed on Jack's face.

Wind gusts blew everywhere due to Max's actions, it looked like Jack was done for good.

However, what Max just hit was only Jack's afterimage as the latter swerved sideways to dodge the attack.

Jack positioned himself, mana veiled his sword as he swung it at his opponent.

But Max did not back down, he clenched his fist tighter, the pink glow on his gloves grew brighter and he sent another punch, intending to break Jack's sword with his power alone.

Max was confident that breaking Jack's sword would be as easy as breaking a toothpick, however, the expected scene did not play out as intended as Jack sent him an ominous smirk.

Max had a bad premonition from that smirk but the arrow has already been fired from the bow, there was no stopping his attack now so he put more force and mana into it.

Just as his gauntlets were about the make contact with Jack's sword, something unexpected happened.

Jack's figure suddenly turned into black smoke and disappeared along with his sword.

Max's fist hit nothing but air as the black smoke dispersed due to his punch.

"An Illusion!"

Max exclaimed.

His instincts suddenly had gone haywire inside his head, it was like it was telling it to get away from here as fast as possible.

Mana gathered in his legs and he jumped backward.

A thin red line suddenly appeared on his chest as drops of blood gushed out and fell to the floor.

"Since when?"

He touched his bleeding chest as blood was trickling down on his body, Jack's sword managed to cut through his armor and skin, and worse of all, he didn't even see that attack coming.

The cut was a bit shallow, probably because he dodged in the nick of time. If he reacted a bit slower then the wound would have been much deeper.

He look straight ahead and saw Jack smiling at him with mockery, the edges of his sword were marked with some red liquid.

"Man, your reactions are fast, is this the famed instincts of the beastmen race?"

Max said as he shook his sword, trying to get rid of the blood sticking to it.

"You.... "

Max said in a voice that is trying to restrain his anger.

"You what?"

Jack said as he tilted his head while keeping up the smile on his face.

"How did you set up that illusion, I didn't even hear you chant"

Max asked.

"Hmm? That's what you want to ask? Do you think I'm gonna waste my breath in telling you? You should be more worried about what is going to happen to you instead, I don't like it when someone picks a fight with me you see, just like how you were not going to let me off easily, the same could be said for me as well"

Jack said while releasing a terrifying aura as his eyes glowed ominously.

"Krthk"

Max flinched and unconsciously took a step backward, he was sweating profusely due to the aura that Jack was emitting.

"No way, Max the Crusher is actually losing and got backed into a corner"

"He even got intimidated as well"

"What a terrifying aura! Who the hell is this guy?"

"He doesn't have a magic weapon and his rank is lower yet he is overpowering Max, how is he so strong?"

"This is the same Max that managed to fight back an expert rank right? How is he losing to a third-class intermediate rank? Is he holding back or something?"

"I don't think so, the speed and power he displayed are even stronger than the last time I saw him, Max was not holding back at all, this new guy was just that strong"

A commotion suddenly erupted among the spectators as they watched this battle. Most of them were convinced that Max was going to squash the newbie but instead it was the newbie that did the squashing.

'Why is he showing off? Wasn't he hiding his powers or something?'

Revlo though did not feel any awe or amazement from Jack's abilities instead he felt confusion.

Revlo did not know what the pair of demon's goal was, but he knew that they were hiding from someone or something if they have gone through the trouble of concealing their true powers and disguising themselves to look human.

Mana gathered in Revlo's eyes as his vision became clearer, Revlo scrutinized Jack closely, Revlo could feel some faint spirit power coming in and out of Jack's head.

'It looks like someone is communicating with him through spiritual transmission, it's probably that other demon'

Revlo could see that Jack's eyebrows twitched a little and his mocking smile had turned stiff, but these actions were so small that no one seemed to notice it.

Revlo could pretty much guess what they were talking about.

'He probably got scolded by his partner'

'This Jack guy has the tendency to show off'

Revlo assessed, from his demeanor and the way he talked. Revlo could pretty much guess what type of personality the red-haired young man had.

'What are you doing? Weren't you supposed to hide your powers?'

A feminine voice sounded in Jack's head.

'Relax sis, I made sure to hold back my expert rank strength besides your seal prevents me from doing that anyway, I am still fighting with my intermediate rank power'

'Relax my foot! You just used our bloodline's illusion ability, if someone found out that we are from the demon race, even I cannot protect you'

'But sis, most of the surface world dwellers never even seen a demon in their life, even if I show them our bloodline ability, they would just think we were just using some regular illusion magic'

'Are you really saying that? Who was the one that got us caught in the first place? Your carelessness got us into this situation, when I lay my hands on you, you are gonna get it'

Jack's body suddenly stiffened.

'Sis, no need to go that far, I promise I won't do it again'

'You better'

'By the way sis, do you think that brat from the trash Mason clan knows about us?' he said in his mind but he slowly emitted a hostile aura.

The voice didn't reply for a while until a few seconds later.

'I don't think so, the other side that is after us are very secretive in their operations so there is no way those bastards are telling them anything, plus the brat is only a novice rank, the Mason Clan may be full of scum but they are not stupid enough to send such a weak brat to go after us'

'Make sense, however how about we go after that brat...'

'No, we already alerted the surface dwellers enough, we have no time to mess around and that horned bear that is always around him is a master rank, taking it down would cause a commotion, let's just finish the damn mission and go back to the Nether Realm'

'Tch, whatever you say, sis'

Meanwhile, in the perspective of Max the Crusher...

'Why is he just standing there?'

Seeing that Jack was just staying idle, Max was in a state of confusion, his opponent looked to be out of sorts but the terrifying aura that Jack emitted made him hesitate in making a move.