Chapter 130
How does one battle an ant? This is a question that I had been forced to ponder ever since I left my pond. Within that pond, I controlled my environment. Everything that happened occurred within my domain, and so I had perfect control of my output and input. Ever since I emerged from that pond in human form, I had been worried about my extreme stats that sat in the billions.
To a normal human, they’d likely train their entire lives. Each time they reached their next evolutionary level, they’d spend countless months preparing their body and getting used to their new level of strength. Yet for me, my strength had never been combined as a multi-cellular organism until my last two evolutionary forms, and only this last one forced me to contend with an external environment.
I had a feeling that if I punched hard enough, I could likely shatter mountains. If I tried to move too fast, I might tear space. This was one of the reasons I had ultimately chosen to leave Mara for a time. I was afraid that I’d eventually make some mistake, and Mara would end up collateral damage.
Most of the time, I had just allowed the enemies to attack me, as I did with the bandits. It wasn’t because I couldn’t kill them, but because my only option was to kill them. When it came to death, I had depended on tricks from my single-cellular days to dispatch my enemies. Such strategies worked if I was committed to mass slaughter, but when it came to a one-on-one match in front of thousands of spectators, anything that inadvertently revealed my secrets wasn’t acceptable.
For example, there was this guy who was attacking me now. He was presumably moving at a speed that was likely amazing to the mortals watching, but to me with my higher status and skills like Parallel Thinking, he appeared like he was moving in molasses. If I tried to defend myself, his sword would either bounce off me completely or become embedded in my body. Neither would deal all that much damage, but neither would reveal my status immediately.
Of course, I could attack back, but most of my attacks would turn him to dust, and possibly even injure those behind him too. Once I acted that way, I likely wouldn’t be welcome in the city anymore and things could become problematic.
Since I couldn’t defend and I couldn’t attack, this left me with one option, and that was to dodge. I couldn’t help but think about how Sammy had taken care of his opponent. He practiced some kind of technique similar to the drunken fist that allowed him to confuse his opponent. I didn’t have access to anything so elegant.
Instead, I just watched as the blade slowly descended on my head. As it grew closer, I could see the looks on the faces of all the spectators. Most of them were looking on with excitement, waiting for the bloodshed. Some were sneering in my direction. Others had pitying looks. I could see that Lady Abigail had a frown and a look of pity, while the woman sitting with her was sneering mockingly down at me.
I tilted my head, allowing the blade to continue. With a small amount of effort, I stepped to the side and dodged the sword as it slid by where I was supposed to be. A small gust of wind blew from the impact, which I took full advantage of by reaching out and then lightly tugging his sword. The force was a bit greater than I expected, as I ripped the sword straight out of his hand.
The guy looked shocked as he was suddenly yanked forward. He lost his footing, stumbling forward, and then right off the edge of the stage. The sword went flying like an arrow. Luckily it hit a post within the spectator stands, embedding itself to the hilt.
There was a moment of silence as the crowd tried to process what just happened. Anyone looking would have just seen me standing there. He suddenly attacked with his blade, and when I stepped to the side, he stumbled and threw his blade as he fell out of the stage. Of course, for those higher-up paragons, something didn’t seem right about that, but they still didn’t have a high enough status to have seen what happened.
Huntington stood up, looking just as confused as everyone else. He shot a look at me. I raised an eyebrow. He then looked over at his sword. Some of the spectators were grabbing the sword and trying to pull it out of the wood, but it was far too embedded to be pulled back out.
At this point, a group of people started laughing. “He fell off the stage!”
“The Spirit guy is lucky.”
Once the crowds concluded what had happened, they began to laugh and jeer at Huntington. In their minds, he had to have miscalculated his attack and ended up tripping. He was still young, so he likely was trying to show off only to end up making a foolish mistake. After all, I was merely a mortal. No one present believed that I dodged him, and no one could have seen me tug on his blade. Although I hadn’t done it as smoothly as I had wanted, I still managed to avoid suspicion.
The most suspicious of anyone was Huntington. After all, he had felt his sword suddenly tugged. He even gave me a considering look, but then he glanced around as if he was looking for the hidden expert who had aided me. Even he didn’t believe I had been responsible, but that there was some hidden expert that was helping me behind the scenes. To these people of Stormberg, that was more probable.
Yet, even if the results were suspicious, without any proof, he could only accept it. He still wasn’t out of the race, and he gave me a look as if to say that even if I cheated, my true talent would eventually be revealed. It was only a matter of time. I agreed with that sentiment, but coming from the opposite place. I could hide my talent all day, but I didn’t think I’d be able to win this entire competition without revealing at least some of my strength.
As I returned to Sammy’s side, he couldn’t help but slap my shoulder. “Not bad. A little untrained. You might want to consider learning some techniques.”
“So, I’ve been told…” I made a face.
Every time we increased a tier or evolved, we gained a skill, but a skill was merely the raw dough. Humans molded that raw dough into something far more powerful, and that’s what they called techniques. I might have high stats, but I had never learned a single technique. That was part of the reason I was struggling so hard to use my skills now. Meanwhile, Sammy who had his evolutionary path blocked had only been able to work on his techniques, yet I did not doubt that if my status matched his, I’d probably lose to him.
“Not bad?” Shui leaned over an ugly expression on his face. “You were lucky. If you were intelligent, you’d drop out immediately. A mortal has no place in this competition.”
“You never know the results until they fall. Aren’t you here even though you’re below most of the elites? Lot Lou is better than you and even he lost a match.”
“Hmph! Cousin Lou just ran into someone with a higher evolution. It couldn’t be helped. He can still win second, as could I. Your friend here has no chance.”
Shui’s voice wasn’t quite as disrespectful when he spoke to Sammy. He didn’t have so high of a status that he wanted to start a fight with a powerful paragon like Sammy. Sammy may have fallen, but his origins still earned him a bit of respect. After all, the coup that put Lord Nikola in charge only happened a short few years ago, and there were still those out there who loved and supported the old regime, although its more stringent supporters had been directly wiped out.
The round finished after everyone had a match. The other top pick, Jordan Stride, seemed to be lucky and he had a challenger who immediately surrendered. The next match immediately began without fanfare. New names were being called up, and it wasn’t long until my name came up again. As I went on stage, I couldn’t help but overhear several spectators grumbling.
“This guy again? He already was lucky the first time. Does he want to test that luck again? He can’t possibly expect a second person to trip.”
“A mortal should know his place.”
I heard that sentiment a lot, and amusingly enough, the ones who said it most of the time were mortals. It seemed like this gap between paragons and mortals was enforced by both sides.
The person who came up was a level 2 paragon. Of the evolved who appeared on the stage, he was probably one of the lowest levels. He had lost his first match, and this was going to be his second. Yet, everyone assumed he’d be the victor on account of me standing across from him.
“I will give you a chance.” He spoke up. “You can have three hits. If you can knock me down, I’ll step aside.”
Although you had to be on the stage in ten seconds, the people didn’t have to immediately attack each other. A few tried to sneak attack, but most gave their opponent enough time and a few even bowed to each other, yet none of that was required. This guy chose to talk to me.
“If you say so.” I was planning to win, so if he was going to make it easy for me, I might as well.
I just hoped I didn’t blow him up in the process.
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