Now it was obvious what Ragnar had to do, he had to take advantage of his ability to see the projectiles gunning for him. It would also appear that his opponent had some sort of shield that he needed to deal with. Now the safest way to deal with this situation would be to maintain his distance and get a feel for his adversary’s capabilities, alongside devising a plan to take him down. He should do that but... then he wouldn’t be Ragnar, would he?

The white-haired guy was starting to get serious about this fight since it seemed that his opponent wasn’t an ignorant first timer who simply overestimated himself. He had fired this volley of blades in hopes of at least damaging the guy, if not directly ending the fight. This was already the maximum amount of seriousness any Arcane had gotten out of him.

But what he saw next wasn’t the least bit expected, because he saw nothing. His opponent disappeared, and in the next instant, along with a resounding boom that closed in on him within that very instant, he felt his Spectral armour getting ripped apart. A sharp object penetrated deep into his defence, only stopping after it had prickled the skin around his neck.

Everything seemed to have paused as time came to a crawl. A drop of blood trickled down his neck accompanied by a drop of sweat from his forehead. He looked down, only to see a pitch-black dagger pointed at his neck, completely isolated from his own armour. For some reason he was unable to regenerate the armour around that region.

His gaze followed the blade to see the person holding it and it was, of course, his Arcane ranked opponent. Grinning at him menacingly.

“I ended it quickly for you.”, he said.

He was speechless. Wasn’t this fight supposed to be just some free Enders for him. How did it turn around so quickly? Now that he thought about it, what exactly was his opponent’s ability, didn’t it have something to do with burst attacks. But how did he suddenly appear in front of him? He was standing at that spot and in the next instant, he was already here. Tainted perk? Teleportation? Neither of them seemed plausible. Then it had to be his ability.

That was the conclusion that most keen watchers of this battle had reached. Which there weren’t many of, but this surely got the few watching interested in this unknown Arcane. Guesses were being made about his identity and background, but they were sure to get it wrong.

Ragnar stepped back from his opponent, finally allowing him to let go of the breath he had been holding in this whole time. He definitely wasn’t going to waste his time with meaningless opponents. He did have plans of testing out his abilities with an opponent, but for that too he needed someone good. These people were only good enough for quick money.

He walked out of the Arena towards the seats without any more words with anyone there. It hadn’t even been 5 minutes since they came into this Arena and the first fight was already over.

Aura was just as much shocked as the rest of the crowd with this result. She knew he was strong, sure. She even had hopes of him actually winning this one, but to win so crushingly… He might actually make the plan they discussed work, the once about farming a lot of money while moving up the ranks.

She definitely wasn’t expecting this to come to fruition while suggesting it. She had hoped that he would either lose to the first Spectral he fought, resulting in him getting slightly humbled, which was good for everyone to be honest. He could use some humility. Or maybe he somehow defeats one opponent and is too tired to go on anymore, after which they can calmly leave the Arena, for their future endeavours. But things never go as one expects, do they?

Reaching the duo in the seats, Ragnar faced Kalix who was still slightly overwhelmed by the things he had witnessed. But he wasn’t in the mood of questioning him, he had his own secrets that he wouldn’t want others to know either. Ragnar didn’t take note of the struggle ongoing within Kalix’s mind and instead went straight to business.

This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

“Show me the list again, time to choose the next victim.”

Kalix coughed at the wordings but still handed his tablet over with the list opened.

“You can collect your money now if you want.”

Ragnar shook his head as he scrolled through the names, eventually settling on one.

“Nah, just use it to challenge the next. This one here”

Just as Ragnar was moving the tablet to show the challenger to Kalix, something odd happened. Honestly, what else did Ragnar think would happen.

The name disappeared from the list. Ragnar looked at Kalix with confusion visible in his eyes. Kalix had his doubts but he didn’t raise them yet, instead suggesting alternatives.

“He might have exited the Arena or maybe someone else challenged him, just choose another one.”

Ragnar simply nodded and went back to scrolling. But as he did, he started to notice a trend, the names that he could potentially challenge near his newly gained 111 rank started to disappear one by one. Now this definitely couldn’t be a coincidence. They continued disappearing as he watched with pain visible in his eyes, all the potential money vanished, just like that. He gave a deadly glare to Kalix as he showed him what was happening.

Kalix was having a hard time deciding how to react to this situation. Whereas Aura was having a hard time stopping herself from giggling. She wouldn’t want to die right now.

What was happening was quite obvious. Those people who witnessed this fight were sure to have an inkling about how they would perform if put up against this person. And if someone knew that they couldn’t beat him, they why would they keep the challenge active just to lose to an Arcane in front of an audience. Their prides weren’t bloated enough to accept a fight just because their opponent was ranked lower than themselves. They were also forced to do this since if their challenges were accepted by someone, then they had no way to get out of this without losing their wager. Hence, they found it much better to simply withdraw from the challenge until this devil left the Arena.

By now, Ragnar had also understood what was brewing here, and he wasn’t happy with it. All that free money just went to waste.

Even Aura hadn’t expected things to go in this direction, but she very much liked the way it was going. Since this would mean less chances of him losing money or worse, getting injured. Now that she knew that her goal was so close, she wouldn’t want to lose it because of something like this. They could also leave quickly this way. But boy was she wrong.

Ragnar had no intention of leaving even if he had to challenge the top ten Ranked individuals, let alone the people that he currently had available. So, he showed the tablet to Kalix again, this time pointing to a challenge from the person ranked 79. That’s how low he was forced to go. The rest all didn’t wish to find out how they would perform against him. Even if they had a chance of winning, most people weren’t willing to risk it.

This person’s wager was 200000 Enders, which was quite honestly perfect for him. Kalix didn’t say much, he was now really invested in how far this person could climb before someone knocks him down. He wasn’t ready for the answer though. He simply took the tablet and went to register for the challenge.

Ragnar sat down with Aura, getting stares from several directions. This time the stares weren’t just directed at Aura, in fact, most were observing this new guy who suddenly popped out of nowhere. They linked him up with the Sylvancrests, since most people recognized Aura’s outfit, some of them even knowing her personally. But they couldn’t manage to narrow down his ability because of how short the fight was. They hoped that the next one would reveal more about him.

The word circulated quite quick across the Arena as most people present there were now interested in this person’s next fight. And they were sure that it was coming. The people who missed the first one cursed at their luck while the ones who did witness it bragged.

Meanwhile, Aura was currently lecturing him about the type of opponent he was facing next. She spoke with visible disgust in her voice for some reason. Ragnar didn’t ask for this by the way.

“It’s good that you don’t know about them, they aren’t worth knowing. But I will still tell you since it could help you in the fight. The Sanctisouls are the Faction situated in the continent of desire. Their abilities usually have something to do with charm or illusions. The one you are facing is quite weak among the other members of the younger generation of this faction. I don’t know his particular ability since I don’t know everyone, but I can ask someone if you want. It will just take a message on the Ethlet.”

Ragnar just shook his head. Charms and illusions seemed simple enough, and he had a sneaking suspicion that his Shifted form gave him quite substantial mental resistance.

That should be helpful against this type of opponents, right?