Chapter 19: The Arena of Life and Death
The message arrived at dawn, pinned to the front door of Villa Number 1 with a dagger.
It wasn't a subtle note. It was a scroll made of red beast skin, dripping with a pungent, metallic smell.
I pulled the dagger out of the wood and unfurled the scroll. Ria stood beside me, analyzing the text, while Anya sat on the porch steps, trying to teach a stray squirrel how to cultivate fire (the squirrel was terrified).
"Faction War Declaration," I read aloud. "In accordance with Academy Bylaw 77, the Golden Lion Faction hereby challenges the Dining Hall Faction (Provisional) to a duel of dominance.
Stakes: Total Annexation.
Conditions: Death Match.
Time: Noon today."
I smirked. "They move fast. I expected them to lick their wounds for at least a week."
"It is a trap, Master," Ria stated, her eyes scanning the magical signature on the scroll. "The challenge explicitly forbids 'External Artifacts' but allows 'Mercenaries.' Prince Valerian intends to hire a senior student to fight you."
"A senior?" I yawned. "How boring."
"Based on the energy signature," Ria continued, "he has hired Karn the Blood-Drinker. A Third-Year student from the Combat Department. He is a Peak Core Formation expert known for crippling his opponents. He practices the Forbidden Blood Burning Art."
"A blood cultivator?" I chuckled. "In my 3rd Life as the Demon Paragon, I wrote the book on blood cultivation. Literally. I think I titled it '101 Ways to Boil Your Enemies.'"
I crumpled the scroll into a ball and tossed it into the abyss below the cliff.
"Anya, get your shoes. We're going to the Arena."
"Are there snacks at the Arena?" Anya asked, dropping the traumatized squirrel.
"If we win," I promised, "we get their entire treasury. You can buy all the snacks in the city."
Anya's eyes lit up with the intensity of a supernova. "Let's go kill them!"
The Colosseum of Valor.
The Academy's central arena was a massive stone structure capable of holding ten thousand spectators. Today, it was packed.
Word had spread like wildfire. The "Freshman Monster" who destroyed the black market was fighting the "Golden Lion Prince." It was the main event.
When we walked into the arena, the noise was deafening.
"There he is! The C-Rank trash!"
"Is that the maid who scrubbed the floor with Tyrion?"
"Look at the little girl! Why is she here?"
On the opposite side of the sand-covered ring stood Prince Valerian. He was sitting on a gilded throne, surrounded by his lackeys. He looked smug. Beside him stood a giant.
This was Karn. He was seven feet tall, shirtless, with skin the color of raw meat. Red tattoos pulsed on his chest, and his eyes were completely black. He held a massive jagged cleaver that dragged on the ground.
"You actually came," Valerian shouted, his voice amplified by the arena's formation. "I thought you would run away!"
I walked to the center of the ring. "I hear you have a death wish, Valerian. You want to bet your villa against mine?"
"I want everything!" Valerian stood up. "When Karn kills you, I take your villa, your fortune, and your maid. And I will expel your sister to the slums!"
Anya growled. Smoke started coming out of her ears.
"Big Brother, let me fight him! I want to burn his hair off!"
"No," I patted her head. "Karn is using a Blood Art. It's messy. You'll get stains on your uniform."
I handed Anya to Ria. "Stay behind the barrier."
I stepped onto the sand. The referee, a grim-faced Elder, raised his hand.
"The rules are simple," the Elder announced. "Surrender or Incapacitation. Killing is... frowned upon, but accidental deaths in a Faction War are not prosecuted."
He looked at me, then at Karn. It was like looking at a rabbit standing in front of a wolf.
"Begin!"
BOOM.
Karn didn't waste time. He slammed his foot into the ground.
"Blood Art: Berserker State!"
A red mist exploded from his body. His muscles swelled, tearing his pants. His veins bulged like snakes. The killing intent he released was thick enough to make the freshmen in the audience vomit.
"I will drink your marrow!" Karn roared, charging at me. He moved faster than sound. His cleaver swung down, aiming to split me in half.
I didn't draw a sword. I didn't dodge.
I just sighed.
"Too slow."
I took a half-step to the left. The cleaver slammed into the sand where I had been a microsecond ago, blasting a crater five feet deep.
Karn roared and swung horizontally.
I ducked. The blade cut the air above my hair.
"Is this it?" I asked, looking bored. "You sacrifice your lifespan to burn your blood, and this is the speed you get? Inefficient."
"Shut up and die!" Karn screamed. His skin turned crimson. "Blood Explosion!"
He detonated the Qi in his own arm to accelerate his swing. The blade approached my neck at supersonic speed.
It was a good attack. For a mortal.
"Seal 1: War God," I whispered. "Passive Mode."
I raised my right hand.
I didn't catch the blade. I flicked it.
TING.
My index finger hit the flat of the massive cleaver.
To the audience, it looked like a gentle tap.
In reality, I had applied the Vibration Force of the Void.
The vibration traveled from my finger into the steel.
CRACK.
The massive, High-Grade Spirit Weapon shattered into a thousand shards of metal rain.
Karn froze, holding just the hilt of his broken weapon. He looked at the shattered blade, then at me.
"My... my sword..."
"You rely too much on tools," I said. "And you rely too much on borrowed power."
I looked at Valerian in the stands. His smug smile was gone, replaced by horror.
"Karn!" Valerian screamed. "Kill him! Use the Forbidden Technique! I'll pay you double!"
Karn's eyes went wild. He was a mercenary. He didn't care about his life.
He bit his tongue and spat a mouthful of blood onto his hands.
"Forbidden Art: Blood Demon Transformation!"
The red mist around him turned black. His skin tore open, and bone spikes erupted from his shoulders. He was turning into a monster, sacrificing his humanity for a burst of Peak Core Formation power—bordering on the Golden Core level.
The audience screamed.
"He's turning into a beast!"
"Run! The barrier won't hold!"
The referee prepared to intervene, but I waved him off.
"Finally," I said, rolling my neck. "A moving target."
I looked at Karn, who was now a hulking monstrosity of bone and blood, roaring at the sky.
"You think you are strong because you are heavy?" I asked. "Let me show you what 'heavy' really means."
I reached down to my wrists.
I wasn't wearing bracelets. I was wearing Gravity Seals. Since the Stairway to Heaven test, I had kept the 50x Gravity pressure locked onto my own body to train my muscles 24/7.
"Release," I commanded.
THOOM.
The moment I released the seal, the ground beneath me collapsed.
I didn't attack. I simply allowed my true mass to interact with the earth.
Spiderweb cracks spread from my feet to the edge of the arena. The entire colosseum shook as if an earthquake had hit.
The air around me distorted. The sheer density of my physical presence was warping the light.
Karn stopped roaring. His beast instincts screamed at him. He looked at the small human standing in the center of the crater.
He didn't see a boy.
He saw a Mountain. He saw a Black Hole.
"Come," I beckoned with one finger.
Karn shrieked in terror and rage. He charged. He poured all his life force into one punch, a blow capable of shattering a city gate.
I waited until his fist was an inch from my face.
Then, I moved.
I didn't punch. I didn't kick.
I simply stepped forward and flicked my finger against his forehead.
"War God Art: One Finger Shakes the Mountain."
BOOOOOM!
It wasn't a flick. It was a kinetic bombardment.
The shockwave exploded from my finger.
It passed through Karn's skull.
It passed through his body.
It exited his back and blasted a hole through the defensive barrier of the arena, then through the stone wall of the stadium, and finally dissipated into the clouds.
Karn didn't fly backward.
He just... stopped.
His blood mist vanished. The bone spikes crumbled.
His eyes rolled back into his head.
He collapsed face-first into the sand. Unconscious. Every bone in his body fractured, but—with surgical precision—none fatal.
Silence.
Absolute, terrifying silence.
Ten thousand students stared at the scene.
The "Berserker" Karn was down. Defeated by a finger flick.
I stood over him, dusting off my sleeve.
"Next time," I announced to the silent crowd, "hire someone who knows how to fight."
I turned to the Royal Box. Prince Valerian was trembling so hard his throne was rattling.
"Valerian," I called out.
"I... I..." Valerian couldn't speak.
"The bet is settled," I said, my voice cold. "Your territory. Your resources. They belong to me."
I walked over to the center of the arena and grabbed the magical microphone.
"Attention, Stellaris Academy!"
My voice boomed across the campus.
"The Golden Lion Faction is dissolved. From today onward, their headquarters, their trade routes, and their members belong to me."
I looked at the camera.
"The new faction is named... The Dining Hall."
A ripple of confusion went through the crowd. "The Dining Hall?"
"Our mission is simple," I declared. "We do not seek dominance. We do not seek politics. We seek Ingredients."
I pointed at the students.
"If you find a rare beast... bring it to me.
If you find a thousand-year-old herb... bring it to me.
If you bring me good food, I will protect you. If you try to take my food... you end up like Karn."
I dropped the microphone.
"Ria, pick up the trash," I gestured to Karn's body. "And loot him. He owes me a new floor."
"Understood, Master," Ria said, stepping into the ring.
Anya ran out and hugged my leg. "Big Brother! That was awesome! You went Boop and he fell down!"
"He was sleepy," I smiled, picking her up.
As we walked out of the arena, the students parted like the Red Sea. They looked at me with fear, awe, and confusion.
I wasn't the C-Rank Trash anymore.
I was the King of the Dining Hall.
High Above in the Shadows.
Vice-Principal Vex watched the scene from a hidden alcove. His hands were shaking. He crushed the stone railing he was holding.
"One finger..." Vex whispered. "He didn't use Qi. That was pure physical force. That boy... he isn't a cultivator. He is a Humanoid Beast."
Vex pulled out a black communication talisman. It hummed with dark, forbidden energy.
"He is growing too fast," Vex spoke into the talisman. "The Academy rules protect him. If I act directly, Altair will kill me."
A raspy voice answered from the talisman. "What do you require?"
"I need an outsider," Vex hissed. "Someone who doesn't care about rules. The Inter-Academy Tournament is coming up. The students will be leaving the safety of the campus."
"The price will be high."
"I will give you the Heart of the Academy," Vex promised, his eyes gleaming with madness. "Just kill Rudra Ye. And bring me his corpse. I want to see what makes a monster tick."
"Deal."
Vex lowered the talisman. He looked down at the arena, where the students were chanting my new faction name.
"Enjoy your victory, Sleeping Dragon," Vex sneered. "Because the Shadows are coming to eat you."