Leo’s foot crunched on the hot sand as he made his way to the weapons rack. Looking at the selection, he saw a variety of weapons. But unlike the first trial, these were real weapons. A selection of swords, daggers, spears, maces, even a glaive.

  Leo glanced towards Anthony, who picked up a spear with a metal cross guard. Anthony mimicked stabbing moves to get a feel before resting it on the sand.

  Leo picked up a spiked mace, the silver spikes glinted in the sunlight bearing down upon them. The spikes looked as though a mere touch would cut the flesh.

  He finally looked around the arena to see that he was in what he believed people called a stadium. A crowd of people encircled the sandy opening as they roared in cheers from the anticipation of the upcoming slaughter.

  Higher up behind the crowd was a large secluded room, which he presumed the officials or nobles remained. He waved for Anthony’s attention and pointed at the box.

  “Do your best, they’re watching.”

  Anthony nodded in acknowledgement, biting his lip from the pressure on him.

  Leo continued scanning the arena until he noticed a weird glint in the sky. No, it wasn’t the sky…Something was reflecting the sunlight a bit. He realized the entire opening of the arena was covered in a transparent dome, muffling the sounds of the crowd, but not dulling the raging Sun.

  He looked directly above him to see a man speaking in a weird black stick with a sort of black foam near his mouth. He seemed to be speaking to the crowd because whenever he motioned to his ears, the crowd would roar louder than before, the sand rumbling at the loud shouts of excitement.

  Thinking a little more, Leo bent down to pick up a shield as well. Since it was a mace, he didn’t have much protection or defense for anything, so a small metal shield was wrapped around his left arm.

  Leo gave Anthony a nod. “I’ll follow your lead, Anthony.”

  Suddenly, the announcer could be heard from the two. “Contestants, are you ready?”

  Unable to voice their response. Leo hit his weapons together, making a clanging sound while Anthony thumped his spear on the ground in response.

  The announcer nodded and gestured toward the arena opposite of the two. Saying something, he slowly raised his hands, causing the crowd to go wild, the people jumping out of their seats.

  “That’s not good…”

  If the crowd was so excited, then their opponent wasn't some weakling.

  On the opposite side, Leo saw some sand disperse as the ground opened up, revealing a square-shaped hole, some sand sifting down below into the dark opening.

  But Leo could hear the sound of metal in the distance rubbing against each other, with the sound of chains shaking as a platform in the hole began to show, with the room-like floor he was in earlier.

  But this time, the room was more of a cage than anything. Inside, a behemoth of a man was escorted by two guards. The man towered over the two guards beside him, with the tallest guard barely reaching his shoulder. It was as if his body was designed for destruction—his arms the size of the guard’s body.

  The cage opened with the guard motioning for the prisoner to exit. Much to his surprise, the giant listened without much struggle, almost as if eager to come out and fight.

  The platform cage descended back beneath the ground along with the guards as the sand filled the hole after, leaving only Leo, Anthony, and the goliath.

  The huge man looked around, evaluating his surroundings, his gaze landing on Leo and Anthony. Upon looking at the two, the man smirked, walking toward the duo.

  Tension filled the air, even the crowd in the stadium had gone silent, excited to see what was about to happen.

  Leo and Anthony tensed up, their weapons ready to react to whatever the man was about to do. Holding their breaths as he drew closer, his steps in the sand pressing down on them.

  Finally, they stood face-to-face, the duo remained vigilant, ready to react at a moment’s notice.

  Upon closer look, Leo realized just how giant the man really was. He stood at around seven feet tall, his body looked as solid as a rock and his legs looked like pistons when he closed in on them. That was just him walking! And this guy was a D rank criminal? And wait, didn’t they starve their opponents? This guy is anything but starved!

  The upper half of his face was covered in a bright red mask in the shape of a dragon’s face, the eye slits in the mask glowing a dark red, highlighting his eyes.

  And even that was covered by long, messy black hair as if he had been living in the wild for years.

  To Leo, his demeanor was similar to Patrick’s, but the difference was the murderous intent he emanated towards him.

  The man broke the silence, his face contorting in disappointment.

  “So you two rats are who I’m facing? You’ve gotta be kidding me. You’re nothing but a bunch of little pups.”

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  Anthony clenched his teeth upon hearing it, but didn’t budge.

  “Hmph, well that just means an easy release for me. C’mon then, come at me!”

  The man beat his chest with both hands, welcoming an attack.

  He stood about ten feet away, giving the two enough space to maneuver properly.

  Anthony charged in, with Leo dashing to the side of the man. Much to his confusion, the man didn’t budge, let alone react to the two’s movements.

  Anthony suddenly stopped near the man and went in for a stab. But before the head could penetrate, the spear was caught.

  “Really…?”

  Disappointed, the man raised a thumb and snapped the spear like a twig. A chuckle rose from his mouth before a fist rammed into Anthony’s side. Luckily Anthony had brought up his guard, using the remnants of the spear and his arm to absorb most of the damage. But he was flung back upon impact, sending him flying.

  Landing on the sand, he fell to his knees gasping for air as if he had just been suffocated.

  ‘Holy shit.’

  Leo stopped, putting more distance between him and the opponent.

  From afar, he could see Anthony struggling to get up as the blow had broken something in him.

  His looks weren’t just for show. That punch alone told Leo everything he needed to know. The man was built for close-quarters combat. His fists alone were enough to take the two on.

  “Oh right, I forgot. The name’s Thane.”

  He introduced himself before immediately flying towards Leo, his boots sinking into the golden floor. It looked unnatural for someone so large to move so fast. Catching Leo off-guard, Thane’s fist shattered his shield, knocking Leo to the ground in surprise. It was as if a sledgehammer had been slammed into his shield!

  Focusing again, Leo rolled to the side before Thane stomped down on Leo, a cloud of dust forming around it. Blinded, Leo stayed low. Hopefully Thane’s height would allow Leo to slip by his vision.

  He could see Thane’s shadow through the cloud in front of him. He prepared to swing his mace at the back of his leg, but the back of his fist came flying through the cloud. Narrowly dodging, Leo lost his balance and fell back. How had he been seen?

  He quickly got up as another fist came slamming down where he had fallen. His movements were so incredibly fast that Leo didn’t have any time to even counterattack.

  A small shockwave shook the arena as the fist slammed down onto his ribs, cracking his bones with ferocious force. His vision quickly became hazy from the pain, barely able to stay awake as it shot across his body.

  Another hit landed on his face causing his cheek to swollen. Now, all he could see was darkness.

  ‘What…Shit! Wake up, Leo!’

  His vision quickly returned before he saw Thane’s foot threatening to crush his skull. With a pained roar, he quickly launched himself to the side away from the behemoth and was able to catch his breath, even for a moment.

  He couldn’t check on Anthony at all, he had to focus. If he lost track of Thane’s movements, he was finished. No, they were finished.

  He was already winded, his breaths had become heavier than before. It hadn’t even been a minute since the fighting began…

  Eyes locking onto Thane, Leo saw as he, once again, charged at him like a raging bull. This time, Leo sidestepped and tried to swing down on the mace, but was pushed back as Thane stopped mid-charge and slammed into Leo with his shoulder, stabbing into his ribs.

  Just from the shoulder slam alone, he was launched into the nearby wall that easily knocked the air out of him. He had definitely broken a couple of bones by now and maybe a rib, but the damage could’ve been worse. Sprawling on the floor, he struggled to get up as Thane wiped his nose, looking a little more satisfied. Leo glared at his opponent while doing his best to breathe again.

  “That’s it. You gotta fight back, not just run like an annoying fly! I ain’t done with you yet though.”

  Leo sighed in disbelief. “Are you really a D Rank criminal…?”

  Thane surprisingly responded with a shrug. “Kid, if you saw what this city had, you’d be thankful it was me.”

  Leo shook his head. “Unbelievable…”

  Thane charged Leo again, this time, his arms reeled back as his muscles visibly tensed, his hands open in preparation of grabbing his victim.

  ‘Think! Think! What can I do here!?’

  The distance between the two quickly shrank as rushed towards him as if drawn to him by a magnet. Leo had a small gap to think of something to do. He couldn’t take it, he couldn’t sidestep. What could he do?!

  Finally something clicked.

  Leo took a knee on the ground, preparing for the charge. His hands gripping the ground, he kept his eyes locked on the growing goliath.

  ‘Closer…’

  Thane smiled hysterically and maniacally roared:

  “You’re dead!”

  Just in time, Leo rolled to the side, but not before throwing a handful of sand into Thane’s face.

  For the first time, Thane was caught off-guard as the sand entered the eyeslits of his mask, causing him to stumble. Shockingly, the giant knelt down covering his eyes as he went still.

  Not wasting this chance, Leo rushed to slam the mace into his head.

  But somehow, Thane raised his hand, allowing his hand to take the spikes. With his hand still impaled, he gripped the mace with the rest of his hands and ripped it out of Leo’s grip.

  Thane looked up, an enthusiastic smile hiding behind his hand.

  “Got you!”

  With a roar, he quickly spun himself around like a top and launched a savage kick at Leo.

  ‘How had he seen him again?!’

  It made no sense. Thane was blinded both in the sand cloud and with sand in his eyes. There was no possible way he could’ve blocked or attacked Leo from either angle.

  Not unless…

  Leo weakly laughed at the absurdity.

  “Thane, answer this one question, will ya?”

  Thane, with his crimson eyes glowing intensely, angrily yelled, “What?!”

  “You’re a Smogborn, aren’t you…”