"AAARGH!"

The deceased’s screams wrought through the coliseum as fountains of blood erupted from within the Chaos Brotherhood's ranks. Heads and torsos were flung into the air as the Maggots cleaved through the masses like incarnations of divine judgment. The air itself was so saturated with blood that several warriors breathed the blood of their brethren shortly before theirs was added to the thickening red mist.

Zeing observed the slaughter from Froy's (soon-to-be-former) VIP seat with a grim smile. His nostrils greedily drank in the blood mist, but it was not nearly enough to excite him to take action. "Ahhh..." He sighed as Syèl clenched his fist, causing a corpse to explode. "Back in the day..."

The cruel one-sided slaughter reminded Zeing of a time long gone past, a time when his tribe had to fight tooth and nail to survive. Traditional dwarfs ostracized them because they were the rampaging giants’ bastard children.

Zeing recalled the taste of metal and blood he'd consumed daily for him and his 'siblings' not to perish in a world that loathed their existence. With a tribe less than a hundred strong, with no one above thirty years of age, he and his tribesmen still managed to forge a bloody path to survival, forcing the world to acknowledge their existence. Only then did the dwarves realize they could not ignore this tribe, ultimately giving Zeing’s people a mountain peak in which to create their abode.

The fact that this mountain peak was kilometers away from the main dwarven settlements was something everyone noticed, but no one chose to point out for various reasons.

Zeing, having secured a place for his tribe, then set out to get revenge against the giants who brought them into existence without their permission then abandoned them as they liked. Who would imagine that after extensive training, even going so far as to sign up as a mercenary to encounter the greatest dangers, that right when he made his way to slay the giants, someone beat him to it?

That damned human, after defeating the ruler, even went as far as to take the giants across the Forever Sea to another continent entirely, thoroughly destroying any hope Zeing had of gaining revenge. Even worse, the defeated giant king happened to be the one who left his seed in Zeing's mother. The man Zeing once wished to destroy with his own hands.

Zeing's brows furrowed, and his mood grew irritable as he recalled the indifference of that damned human when he challenged him a year later, only to be defeated without even managing to lay a finger on him. That was the first time the dwarf ever felt true difference in power. How many times did he challenge that human after that? Fifty? A hundred? He could not remember. Back then, whenever he felt a significant increase in his strength, he would once again challenge that human, and without ceremony, he would be staring at the clouds seconds later.

Zeing could not recall why he challenged that human any longer. Was it for pride? To reclaim his tribe's honor? Maybe? In fact, he was not sure if he hated the human or not. All he knew was that he wanted to destroy him with his own hands.

"You just want to fight," a voice suddenly proclaimed behind him. "Thinking too deeply has never been your strong suit."

Zeing's eyes widened as he shot off the chair and spun around. There before him stood a man who some might mistake as a simple vampire at first glance. Dressed in rich black garments, the pale-faced hybrid had a hint of a smile as he gazed at his old companion.

"Fight!" Zeing roared with excitement as he rushed at Rider without another word. However, Rider vanished. Instinct guided Zeing to the right, where his fist struck forward.

Unlike when Zeing fought with Kashi, there was nothing showy about this fist. It was not exceptionally fast, nor was there wind generated around it. Even his muscles didn't seem to be bulging as they should when exerting tremendous force, yet the smirk on Rider's face dimmed a little as he appeared at the exact spot where Zeing's fist shot to.

'This damned battle maniac.' Rider's right palm formed a claw which he used to catch the fist.

Surprisingly, there was no sound of impact, no fierce wind that would usually escape when masters exchanged blows. The ground did not even crack beneath their feet. This was the real realm of masters where their control of energy had reached its peak.

Those who reached this level never wasted any energy in their attacks. They ensured they transmitted all their power to the opponent without fail.

Though these two men seemed fine on the outside, unease flashed in their gazes as both their insides churned from the chaotic energy rampaging inside them. Fortunately, that unease did not last because the blessing(?) of the goddess, Aerith, instantaneously activated, returning their bodies to normal.

Rider's fingers were more like claws as they dug into Zeing's fist, firmly holding it in place. He then said in an even tone that bordered on apathy, "There is no point to a battle without a victor."

Zeing knew what he meant. Due to Aerith's curse(?), they could not die. Their injuries healed instantaneously and they did not feel fatigue. Their mana pools were incomparably large and regenerated at a frightening pace. With all of this, if they were to fight each other, they could keep going for a century without either claiming victory.

As much of a battle junkie as Zeing was, he knew the greatest reward of the fight was either emerging victorious or losing. The former gave a sense of accomplishment, while the latter gave one a goal to work toward. As they were at the moment, he would gain neither if they were to fight. Zeing knew this, and so reluctantly, he relaxed the tension in his arm.

Zeing dropped his arm and clucked his tongue. "Still, you could have played along, even for a little while."

Rider's brow shot up with a hint of ridicule. "The last time I 'played along,' you kept at it for two decades without pause. We may be immortal, but that was the first time I felt a decade long headache."

Zeing's eyes twinkled as he let out a heartfelt roar of delight. With a speed that did not match his side, his right arm was already slapping against Rider's back. Even though no sound escaped, minor shockwaves exploded from the contact. It was only that neither man wished to disturb the fight below, or else each of those shockwaves could have wiped out half the coliseum. "HAHA! Come on! You know you enjoyed it too! Even that girl and the cosplaying grandpa admitted they were entertained for those decades. Our lives are boring except for those moments, you know?"

Rider's brows creased. Even though the mountain destroying taps did not hurt him in the slightest, they still had an irritable itch. "I hear Fladnag's been bored the past couple of decades. Surely you would like to drop by for a visit. You can be the amusement for the next thirty decades, no?"

Zeing's complacent grin froze in place. Of the seven guardians, the one man he did not want to meet no matter what was precisely that fake fogey. As strong as Zeing was, he had found no way to break out of Fladnag's illusions easily. If he fell into that crazy coot's clutches, it would not be a matter of fighting but a matter of finding ways to run before Fladnag drove him insant.

Zeing immediately stopped slapping Rider's back and instead sheepishly smiled. "Big brother, you would not do that to your little bro, will you?" Zeing chuckled for a bit before his expression turned extremely grave. "Besides, I believe old Fladdy has a new source of excitement."

Rider ignored Zeing's 'big brother' endearment. This shameless dwarf would say anything to get out of trouble when he could not punch his way out of it. To be fair, there were extremely few situations the muscle-brained oaf could not use brute force to solve. Rider instead focused on his purpose for dropping by in the first place. "What do you think of him?"

Zeing furrowed his brows. "He's strong. I'll give him that. Got an assortment of monsters working with him too." Zeing's gaze focused on Hektor as he cleaved through several guards with a maniacal smile on his blood-red face. "I have not seen residents reach this height on their own in a long time. Proves that daeben's doing something right after all."

Rider waited patiently. "But..."

"He's not ready yet," Zeing declared. "If Razznik were to appear here with the same stats, weapons, and level, he would still slaughter that daeben eleven times out of time. I don't know what his story is, but that daeben is caught between identities. Until he resolves this..." Zeing turned to Rider. "Are you going to advise him?"

"No," Rider said matter-of-factly. "He must work this out on his own. The rules do not allow us to influence his decisions in any way."

Zeing sighed and shook his head. "Even till now, you still follow the rules. You, losing 'her' was not enough?" Zeing immediately regretted his words as his entire body suddenly felt a chill that it had not felt in a long time. This was the aura of death. It was inconceivable since they were immortal, but the cold only got worse, until Zeing felt like he was submerged in the Northern seas. "Sorry! Rider—Lucius, stop!"

Rider immediately snapped out of it. He glanced apologetically at Zeing and then ruefully smiled. "A thousand years, and I still lose myself when it comes to her. I apologize, Zeing. I needlessly took out my frustrations on you."

Zeing harrumphed as he regulated his body temperature such that the rivulets of sweat that had drenched every inch of his clothing completely evaporated. "That's why I always recommend a good fight at least once a decade. Guys like us, the stress only piles up over time. Without an outlet, we would have ended up killing ourselves ages ago."

Rider shook his head. "We are not allowed even that."

"Right," Zeing snorted. "Isn't that why so much is riding on this kid Old Flad found? And you still insist on playing by the book with this one?"

Rider turned around. "It will only help his growth in the long term." He made his way towards, then paused at the mouth of the tunnel. He glanced casually over his shoulder and said, "Of course, if you wish to train him under the rules, then I have no objections. What you say and do during said training is naturally out of my hands."

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

Zeing watched Rider disappear with his mouth wide open. Did that old man just bend the rules? Zeing shook his head with a rueful smile. "Yare yare. Just can't be honest, can he?" ‘ Then again, Rider of all people agreeing to bend the rules is all because of her, isn't it?’ Indeed, there was nothing like a thousand years of festering regret to bring out the term 'lifetime regret.'

"Hmm, looks like they’ve almost wrapped things up over there," Zeing muttered as he turned his attention back to the fight below. Truly, there was almost nothing left in the arena save thick pools of blood. The few remaining pockets of resistance were well on their way to oblivion. "Seems my worries were meaningless." Zeing shrugged as he turned his head to the side, seemingly staring at a far off wall. But if a line were to be drawn from his eyes and through the wall, it would be seen that eventually, it would meet up with two men who were running with everything they had, one fleeing and the other chasing. "Let's see if this kid can impress me."

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At the same time, away from Zeing's prying eyes, three Maggots faced off against a terrifying opponent. Baleful aura burst out endlessly from the suit of armor like smoke from a smelting furnace. The aura alone was enough to lock down lesser warriors, leaving them vulnerable to attacks.

As a bard, Lunette lacked the natural buff that resisted such intense fighting spirits, so she was forced to shoulder immense waves of violent oppressive energies manually. Her shoulders bent over from the massive pressure, and it took all she had not to collapse on the spot.

Shadow was the first to notice the abnormality. Blood rushed to his eyes as he screamed, "Bastard!" He burst forward with the innate superior agility of assassins, covering ten meters in a single step. He leaped at the armored head. "Let her go!" Cold steel flashed toward the helmet, but to Shadow's surprise, a black spear appeared in the armor's hand, which it then used to parry the blow.

Sparks flew from the contact, illuminating Shadow's rage twisted face. He gritted his teeth and launched a volley of strikes at the berserker armor. The armor, however, responded in kind with blinding speed, erupting fireworks of sparks wherever the blade and spear clashed.

The only thing that could be seen of the assassin suspended midair by the counterforce of the strikes were numerous afterimages as he unleashed a blitz of attacks.

However, even though Nadir could not attack, its defense was impenetrable, not allowing Shadow even the slightest opening to reach its neck. The duo was locked in a stalemate for about five seconds, in which they traded countless blows.

Shadow cursed in his head. Launching a frontal assault like this was not the assassin's style of fighting, which left him at a considerable disadvantage. What's worse, that armor did not have the concept of fatigue. He could not keep up this speed much longer. Shadow knew very well that the advantage of the spear was its long reach. If he were pushed away, the situation would go from bad to worse. ‘ Should I use it?’

Shadow hesitated on whether to use his trump card so early in the fight when a booming roar shook his core. Even Nadir, which should have lost the concept of fear, had its actions slowed for a second. A sense of impending crisis bore down on Nadir, and it swiftly took advantage of Shadow's distraction to punch at the assassin's chest.

Shadow crossed his blades to receive the blow. His eyes widened, and he coughed up blood from the impact as he was launched away from Nadir.

Nadir didn't even spare the assassin another glance as the sense of looming crisis grew heavier. Guided by perverse instinct, it jumped a step back then thrust out its spear. A black mass appeared on the spear’s blade, growling as it arched its body like a beast.

Before Nadir could react, the beast sprung from the ground with blinding speed and was right in front of the armor, claws already poised for a strike.

Nadir swiftly decided to abandon the spear. Its armored hand barely made it in time to prevent the claws from ripping off its helmet. Its right hand trembled from the impact, as the blow had ripped clean through the hand, almost lopping the whole thing off.

Nadir stared at its foe in terror. Steel knives and arrows could barely leave a nick on its armor, but the claws of this little beast shredded through so quickly. If it had not reacted in time and blocked the strike...

Zuri glared at the terrible armor, all traces of her innocence buried behind primordial savagery. Her canines, long and prominent, moved to bite off Nadir’s face, but it bent its neck to the left, dodging the strike.

Zuri swiftly changed direction and bit into its shoulder instead. Nadir's guttural roars seemed to spur her savagery, as she tore piece after piece of armor with her bare teeth. Her claws and feet latched onto several areas of its armor for better stability as she roared and tore through the armor like a lion on its prey.

Surprisingly, only a dense black cloud existed beneath all the layers of metal. Zuri made to bite into this mass, but it pre-emptively gushed into her open mouth of its own accord.

The strange cloud froze Zuri’s body stiff, as a status notification informed her it would be thirty seconds before she would be free.

Nadir issued a roar as it grabbed Zuri's bountiful hair and yanked her off its body. It lifted the child till they were face to face, and then roared as it slammed her face-first into the ground. The earth caved in as spiderwebs cracked from that center. With a pleased roar, it raised its feet and stomped down on her head again.

Zuri could not prevent the strike and was buried deeper into the ground.

Nadir materialized its spear and raised it high above. It struck down, aiming for Zuri's head. "That's about enough," a cold voice reprimanded from behind.

Nadir did not get a chance to readjust as an intense stimilus ran up its backside. It was launched into the air causing the spear to miss by a considerable margin. Nevertheless, it still stabbed into the ground. Nadir used it as a fulcrum to rotate round and launch a blow to the fellow at its back.

"This is where it ends." A mass of white appeared in front of Nadir’s face. Before it could react, the white mass rose above it and a strong knee crashed into its forehead.

Nadir was once again launched back through the air, but Shadow had no desire to let it off so easily. He followed up, appearing on Nadir exposed chest area. Before Nadir could set up a block, Shadow launched several strikes with his dagger, connecting dozens of hits within a second. He then spun around and kicked Nadir into the ground.

The earth erupted where Nadir crashed down. It pushed everything it had and fled the crash site immediately as Shadow dropped down with a finishing strike.

Nadir swiftly turned around and glanced toward the most defenseless of the trio: the songstress who had somehow moved close to the Perdition pit. Nadir swiftly made a decision and launched at her.

Lunette was still doubled over when she heard the tell-tale whistle of the approaching armor. A small smile spread on her face when Nadir was but a meter from her. "Do I look like the hostage type?"

Nadir ignored her words as it launched a blow with all it had.

Lunette laughed as she effortlessly slapped the approaching arm, so it passed by her face. She grabbed the armored arm with her left hand, then stabbed its midriff several times with the sword Kashi gave her. It did no damage, of course, but it was enough to distract the armor for a fraction of a second.

Lunette displayed mind-numbing footwork as she nimbly moved to Nadir's back in that fraction, arm in tow. She pushed the arm against Nadir's back then yanked it upwards. A sadistic smile celebrated the sardonic crack that followed. She ignored Nadir's roar as she jumped back and to the side just as a mass of black slammed into Nadir from behind.

The two masses fell into the perdition pit, punching and scratching their way to the bottom.

Zuri's growls lessened as the anti-magic pit slowly dissipated her transformation.

Nadir, on the other hand, had it much worse. Its entire being was made of magic, so the magic runes were like poison. It screamed bloody murder as vast puffs of smoke escaped from cracks and holes in its armor and then dissipated. Panicked, it jumped for the mouth of the pit.

Zuri growled as she jumped onto the wall like Kashi did and kicked off of it. She slammed into Nadir's midriff then crashed against the opposite wall.

Nadir roared in rage and smashed its fist onto Zuri's back. Zuri nearly blacked out from the pain, but she fought off the darkness and latched onto Nadir like a leech. Once again, the foes crashed to the floor. They wrestled on the ground, tearing and clawing at each other like the most primitive of beasts.

Skills? Techniques? Zuri and Nadir forgot all those as they battled according to their most primal instincts for the sake of survival.

Nadir managed to get the upper hand eventually. It grabbed Zuri's leg and flung her against the wall. The young daeben coughed blood as she bounced off the concrete surface.

Nadir roared and then charged at her, fist straightened into a knife. It swiped at her head, having decided to eliminate the primary threat.

"AAAH!" A scream echoed through the depths of the pit.

Nadir stared in disbelief as its arm floated through the air then fell to the ground. It never got a chance to understand what happened as its helmet suddenly dropped to the earth.

Its body fell to the earth to reveal Shadow behind it with an apathetic gaze. He raised his blade then stabbed into the helmet once more just to make sure. The dense black clouds let out several screams of terror and pain before completely dissipating.

As Nadir perished, the entire armor and loot dropped to the earth as cursed loot. Next to the armor was a dark gem with a large crack through its center.

Shadow stomped on the gem, crushing it beneath his feet. He watched as the last of the soul hidden in the gem let out a reluctant cry before completely dissipating. Shadow took all the loot into his inventory then walked over to Zuri to check on her. "You okay?"

Zuri showed a pained smile as she lay on her back. "Zuri is fine. Zuri heals fast."

Shadow smiled and ruffled her hair. "You did well." He looked up as two pieces of rope dropped to the bottom. "Come on. I'll carry you. A lot of people are waiting for us..."