The others that had been hurt by Ray started to wake up from their heavy blows. The blows were strong but not lethal. Thanks to most of the beast gear they were wearing, they were saved from any fatal injuries.

Still, their injuries would need to be tended to as soon as possible for most of them. Especially if they wished to be in top shape before the tournament.

Bob was hurt the most out of everyone, but not physically. Savana could tell this, more than anything he had been affected mentally. While she was there to see if he was okay, other than the broken foot and a few shallow marks made on his neck, he actually wasn't hurt that bad.

Yet he continued to stay on the floor curled up in a ball. Shivering.

"Come on, let me take you to the medical centre,

" Savana said, but as soon as she would go to touch him -

"Don't move me!

" He shouted.

"I don't…I don't..

" His body was shaking so much that his teeth were chattering against each other, making it hard for him to speak.

"I don't want my blood to be boiled.

"

Savana didn't quite understand, but it must have been something the strange man had done when he had held onto him.

She looked around at the other contestants who were also limping or spewing blood from the Ki attacks. It was hard to believe that all of this was done by one person, and to the other kingdoms' strongest warriors.

'The Redwings might be even more dangerous than we first thought.'

Roki helped a few of the injured, placing his hand on them. He wasn't infusing them with Ki but instead helping their own Ki circulate around their body better. Speeding up the healing process allowed them to move with more ease and eliminate some of the internal injuries they couldn't see.

He hadn't seen Nes fight. He had come at the tail end of things, but he could tell they had been injured by a type of Ki attack and a powerful one at that.

The image of the multiple wounds appeared in Roki's head again. Nes was in no condition to fight. He was happy he had gone home. He would have been a fool to take on the emperor tier beast in the state he was in. He was happy that he had a smart head on his shoulders.

Now knowing that the others would all live, Roki walked towards the arena.

"I will show you. Show you my determination.

"

When entering the arena, the crowd was disappointed as one of their new favourite contenders wouldn't show up for the fight. The people were greatly disappointed, and when the Roki had entered to do his first fight, it looked like some of them were going to leave.

The excitement of two people competing had gone, and if they were just going to see Roki kill the beasts up until the king tier again, they would be bored.

After Roki achieved his first kill with a single strike.

He lifted up his sword to make an announcement.

"Today, I will be fighting until the end,

" Roki said.

Those that were about to leave suddenly were interested in what he was about to say. What did he mean by this? It couldn't, could it?

"I will be taking on the emperor tier beasts!

"

The crowd went into an uproar. More so than it had at any of the other events before. The cheering was so loud, it felt as if the very arena was shaking.

"This is excellent.

" The arena owner said.

"Make sure he gets every bit of rest he needs.

"

Knowing Roki's intentions, the owner ensured that Roki would be in top condition for his fight. Instead of waiting for contestants to finish their bouts, they used the rotation method with all of them.

Allowing them to each fight one beast each before moving onto the next gave Roki the most amount of resting time.

Just like before, Roki could feel it. His body felt better than it had ever done so before. Each beast was killed, and not a single scratch was put on him. He knew today was the perfect day to compete with the emperor tier.

After defeating everything up to the king tier, it was finally time, time for Roki to take on the emperor tier beast.

"I'm ready.

" He said with a fierce look in his eyes.

Although Roki thought Ray had run away due to his injuries, it wasn't true at all. Right after he had dealt with the others, he suddenly felt a strong presence in the city. Even though it was quite far away, even with him being where he was, he could feel it.

It was the presence of the shadow. There was the presence of the shadow in multiple places all around the continent, and surely the Empire would be no different. But this one was powerful, and the Empire was known to be the furthest away from the shadow continent.

Not knowing why, or how it was here, he was sure of it. Somehow his system not working the way it usually did, was all due to this strange presence. He tried to send the others messages once more, tried to teleport by their side, but none of this had worked.

Ignoring his injuries, he decided to soldier on, running towards the strong power. His wounds were still bleeding greatly, and the more he moved the more they were starting to open up. The reason being was the attacks had been infused with Ki. With more Ki than Ray had experienced before.

The Ki had been laced on the tip of the spear, and it would alter his structure slightly when piercing him. Making it hard for him to heal from such wounds. Still, he was going to see what was going on, injuries or not.

Running through the city a trail of black blood could be seen following a certain man.

****

Now with each of them with their weapons in hand, it was a lot easier for them to fight against the beasts. Still, it was a difficult task.

Martha had been using her bow, attacking the beast around her. Every time someone would scream, she would be distracted and would choose to try to save as many lives as possible. As for Kyle, when swinging out his heavy chain and weight, the beast had received a few slashes to it.

It looked like it was faring well and Kyle hoped to tie it up. That was until the beast had cut the chain to pieces, causing it to fall to the floor.

'This… it's definitely an infected king tier at least.

" Roy said.

"It has the strength of an emperor tier beast.

"

After seeing what had happened to Kyle's weapons, Harry was a bit fearful of what would happen to his own. So when deflecting attacks, he would make as little contact as possible with the majestic-like beast with four arms.

When looking at his swords, he could see that they were slightly chipping away.

"Just keep dealing it,

" Roy said. Roy, for some time now, had been gathering up a condensed powerful fireball. He knew out of all of them, he most likely had the strongest attack power there. Now wasn't the time to worry about being found out. This was a matter of life and death, and he needed to do something.

Harry and Kyle continued to distract the beasts, and whenever Martha would get the time, she would help out as well as for Slyvia. She was dealing with her own problems. Every time she would try to gather her own Ki to get in the fight, she could feel thatch was drawing a dark power into her from something else.

Because of this, she was being cautious about going in. Without the use of Ki, she wouldn't be helpful at all.

Most of the attacks were being deflected by Harry, while the other two were being used as a distraction. Martha's king tier weapon was able to hurt the beast, but with just using wind magic arrows, it was only enough to cause the beast to flinch a little.

Finally, Harry's two swords had given in, he deflected another attack, and his swords had shattered.

"Move!

" Roy had shouted.

A large fireball bigger than any before had come out and hit the beast away for a few seconds. It didn't look like an ordinary fireball, for this was deep red in colour. It managed to hit the beast squarely in the chest, sending it back a few feet. A few seconds later, a large explosion of flames arose.

"That fire user is incredibly strong. Nearly as strong as Ray's ability. Who the hell is he?

" Harry thought.

The group waited for the smoke to settle. They all looked nervously as they could see a shadow start to appear, and finally, the beast could be seen.

"No, no way!

" Martha shouted.

The beast looked completely fine. Not only that, but it looked different from before. Strange shadows shifted covering the chest of the creature where the fireball had attacked. It looked like the beast hadn't been hurt by the mighty blow at all.

"It's like the true infected,

" Sylvia said. The ever-moving shadows, moving to where one would attack. It was the first time they had seen something like this on a beast.

With Roy using his most powerful attack, Sylvia out of the fight, and the two boys without any weapons, it all seemed hopeless.

However, as the last bit of the smoke started to disappear, another figure could be seen. When it all eventually went away, they could see someone's back, and below his feet, a very small pool of black blood.

It continued to run down the man's legs, only growing bigger.

"It's that man.

" Roy thought.

"The one he had been following. The one known as Nes.

"

"Ray!

" The others shouted.

*****

For MDS updates and artwork you can follow on instagram and Facebook:jksmanga

If you would like to support the idea of a manga being created you can on P.A.T.R.E.O.N: jksmanga