Two days later.
A city on a completely different planet.
Sam and his friends are walking together in a street and entered a restaurant.
They sat in a private booth while Sam let out all of his shadow mice and specter to get some information from the surrounding talks.
“You didn’t tell us what kind of guy this third target is.”
“Arrogant and jealous.”
“Just like the first one then.”
“Not exactly. This guy is not jealous of outsiders. He is specialized in combat and he is really good at it. The only reason he ranked fifth is because of his cultivation level. But he still believes he should have been ranked third.
And he believes that the only reason he ranked lower is that the Mountain master didn’t acknowledge him because of the bias. In his opinion, the mountain master values the network Saint created with his skills and nature of the job than this guy’s effort at keeping their enemies in check.
He runs all the expeditions for the resources the mountain master and the three disciples need. He fights everyone that comes at them. But he feels unappreciated for his effort and he blames his fellow subordinates for it.”
“So, he is jealous of his own companions. What about the rest of the world? Does he not get jealous if someone beats the crap out of him in combat?”
“No. He accepts it, swallows it, learns from it, and improves. He is only jealous of his fellow subordinates, which is actually a really good thing for us.”
“What are we going to do now?”
“Just as we planned. First, we need to gain his attention. For that, I have an idea. As you already noticed, there is an arena in the city. The favorite pastime of this guy is to check out the arena for interesting fights.
And everyone tries to get his attention through these arena fights, because of the rewards he gives out. Sometimes, he even invites people to the expeditions he leads for the Divine formation mountain.
So, we are entering the arena and caused enough commotion to make him interested in our performance. When we get a chance to meet him, we are going to execute the rest of the plan.”
“Are we going there separately or together?”
“Of course, we are going separately. We will try to attract his attention by ourselves and whoever gets the first chance at meeting him, will execute the plan.
Anyway, there is not much we need to do in this place. We don’t need to risk our lives or set some traps as we did with the other two.
This is going to be easy.”
With that, all four of them finished the meal and waited for the shadow mice and the specter to get the information they needed.
They got the info on who is currently trending in the arena at different cultivation levels. If they target famous people that are on the same level as them, things will become a lot easier.
After getting the details, they all left the restaurant and went to the arena to register separately.
Philip managed to get the first fight and luckily his opponent is one of the more prominent ones.
He entered the large arena filled with cheers from the audience.
The opponent is half-naked with his upper body completely bare. He held twin sabers in his hands as he looked at Philip.
“A first-timer.”
“Yeah.”
Philip nodded as he took in the whole celebratory atmosphere of this place.
“Why are you wearing a mask in an arena? If you are here, then that means it is for the fame. So, what is the point of wearing the mask? Remove it.”
The opponent said casually as he held one of the sabers on his shoulder.
“No need. I am comfortable this way.”
“Your wish. It is not like you are going to get what you want anyway. It is your bad luck to fall in the same pool as me for the first time.
Your first time might just be the roughest time in this arena.”
As he spoke, he lunged forward with his twin sabers.
Philip extended his hand and metal elemental energy surged into it. His arms turned to metal and it extended to become a large shield that blocked the two saber strikes.
*CLANG* *CLANG*
He didn’t even move from that spot. He just stayed there as if nothing happened. He still looked around the arena as if he is curious about the crowd’s behavior.
“This feels nostalgic. It has been a while since I was in an arena. Maybe I should participate more back at home.”
He muttered to himself as he constantly blocked the saber strikes that are coming at him.
He is quick on his feet and he didn’t even use any of his fire elemental energy. He just danced around with his metal shield up as he gracefully blocked every saber strike.
The crowd that was cheering for his opponent slowly calmed down. At first, they thought, Philip was unable to attack, but as time passed, they realized they couldn’t be any more wrong. Philip is playing in the arena.
He is controlling his opponent like he is playing with a toy.
After ten minutes of this display. The opponent understood that he is being played around. Which of course he didn’t like. But no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t find a proper opening.
He stood still as he started thinking of a way to go past that shield.
“Don’t tell me you are done. I am just getting started.”
“You bast…”
Before the opponent could even finish that sentence, Philip lunged forward. The shield that stuck to his arm until now, suddenly changed into a large metallic spike as he jammed it straight into his abdomen.
“ARRGHH…”
The opponent screamed in pain as he tried to get himself out of the situation. But before that, Philip just raised his arm along with the guy into the air as he waved him around.
“You were saying something?”
“You…”
Philip just swung him around and threw him to the other corner of the arena.
“You didn’t finish saying it.”
Philip said as he looked at him from far away.
The referee went to check on the opponent and after noticing that he definitely fainted, he ended the match with Philip’s win.
Philip went out of the arena with the audience’s cheers.
“Do you really have to do that? You could have cut him some slack.”
“Well, it is not like I have a choice. I have to fall in the eyes of the boss here. So, this is the least I could do.
If that guy was a bit stronger, I would have done much more that.”
“Yeah, if he was a bit stronger, all you could have done is get your ass kicked and it is technically doing much more than what you have done.”
Watt said from the side.
“What did you say, you punk? You want another beating?”
“Another? I don’t remember getting one in the first place.”
“Of course, you won’t. I beat you so much, that you repressed it so deep after that. Let me just remind you.”
Philip and Watt started bickering out of nowhere. Sam slapped his forehead and said.
“We are still in disguises you fools.”
He then turned to Jack whose fight was up next.
Without many surprises, Jack won the fight very easily. He didn’t even take much time to deal with his opponent. Unlike Philip who toyed around with the opponent, Jack was straightforward and respectful.
“A swordsman is a swordsman after all.”
Watt said with a slight smile.
“Oh, you like that behavior so much? Are you going to follow that?”
“Nope. I am not a swordsman.”
Watt grinned as he went to the arena for his fight.
The opponent faced the worst nightmare of his light that day in the arena.
If Philip could be considered overboard for toying with his opponent like that, then Watt is on another level.
He first acted as if he is weak and directly let his opponent have free shots. At least that is what it looked like, but Watt used wind elemental explosions to launch himself away from the spot every time a hit was about to land.
To put it simply, not a single attack landed when the opponent thought, he landed every single hit.
As if that is not enough, when Watt started attacking back, he attacked with very minute moves. He didn’t go for a critical hit, instead, he went on to dismantle him.
He made his legs go immobile and then went on to move to his arms which finally made him faint in pain.
“Damn, you. Psychopath. Why did you do that to him?”
Philip couldn’t hold back and yell.
“The same reason as you did. To get more attention. You hear the crowd?”
