—

‘Lightning?’ Kieran thought to himself.

This was the first time he had gone against someone bearing lightning abilities since his rebirth. Many hailed lightning as a superior element due to its extreme speed and ability to immobilize if wielded in a sufficiently high concentration.

In some cases, it could even be highly destructive, but Kieran understood that the lightning before him wasn’t capable of the feat.

The lightning’s color was a symbol of its strength. Blue lightning was considered the starting stage of the Lightning Element, so at most, Senar could only enhance his speed and wield the element directly.

Although Kieran felt some contempt toward this low affinity, he couldn’t overlook that Senar was a genuine Epic NPC. His low elemental affinity didn’t detract from his physical abilities.

Nevertheless, Kieran raised Crimson Ashrune and pointed at Senar in silence. Only after the atmosphere grew palpably tense did he speak. “Are you fast? As someone of the Lightning Element, speed should be your pride, correct?”

“I’m not one to brag, but speed is indeed my bread and butter,” Senar remarked, acknowledging Kieran’s point.

An amused smile crept upon Kieran’s lips as he chuckled softly. “Then, watch as I surpass you without using any element.”

Whoosh!

“!!” Senar’s eyes widened in shock.

After Kieran finished speaking, he executed a simple Surge Step that, with the help of Berserker’s Burden, Tormented Beliefs, and Predatory Form, achieved an absurd level of propulsion.

A sonic boom occurred a second after Kieran moved, but his blade was already en route to impaling Senar’s throat at that time!

Clang!

Senar reacted to the attack at the last moment once he caught a glimpse of Kieran’s action. His counterattack was successful, but when he went to spin his lance and use it for a fluid slash, Senar noticed Kieran’s disappearance.

“Behind you!” Another participant screamed out. But the warning came too later as Senar felt a heavy pressure bombard his back.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Senar’s armored body bounced against the ground and came to a sliding halt as he gripped his lance. A deep frown surfaced on his face as he looked into Kieran’s savage eyes.

‘What are those movements? I can barely read them. He was right before me but suddenly disappeared before I could launch a counterattack. This speed is simply underhead of,’ Senar thought, taken aback by the situation.

“I don’t make baseless claims. If I say something, I will do everything in my power to make it a reality—that begins with eliminating you,” Kieran remarked callously.

Kieran felt that Senar didn’t fit inside the War Deity Council. If he were successful in joining, he would inevitably face ridicule, or his journey within the council would be short, probably failing to become a Captain.

As an Epic NPC without a title, Senar was at a disadvantage. Not to mention, he lacked the presence of a Lightning User. Lightning Users weren’t just famed for their speed; their lightning was felt throughout their realm of activity.

Senar’s current grasp of the element was so lackluster that Kieran couldn’t sense a threat even when on the receiving end of an ability.

“You should step down and save yourself the embarrassment,” Kieran suggested. It would save him time and Stamina by not having to deal with Senar.

Senar’s expression darkened after listening to Kieran’s comment. What right did he have to comment on whether or not he should remain in the competition?

He had trained for this moment!

“You’re in no position to dictate my actions,” Senar indignantly retorted. The blue wisps of lightning thickened around his lance as subtle crackles discharged from his eyes.

‘Hm… the rage of a Lightning User is as the rumors say. It can charge their element. But…’

Kieran drew back Crimson Ashrune and lowered his stance to prepare for an advancing step.

Senar somewhat mimicked Kieran’s actions, drawing back his lance. The sparse wisps of lightning converged at his lance’s blade and grew chaotic.

“Lightning Agitation: Flash Pierce!” Senar roared and thrust his lance forward despite the distance. The dazzling lightning flowed through his lance and discharged from the tip with astonishing momentum.

Many nearby participants felt the speed of Seran’s piercing thrust was commendable, but Kieran thought otherwise. After he focused and utilized the effects of his Focus Attribute, the lightning slowed down, as did many things.

‘Slow,’ Kieran inwardly thought.

Before the attack could reach him, Kieran sidestepped and compounded the action with an Accel Shift.

The Flash Pierce hit nothing but air, leaving Senar appalled. Such a big strike had missed!

Unleashing this attack left him vulnerable for a fraction of a second since his body had difficulty adjusting to the rapid accumulation of lightning.

During that small window, Kieran unleashed a Crimson Barrage augmented by Fervor Augmentation. The six blood blades gave off the impression of several bloodthirsty beasts intending to devour their target.

〈System: NPC Senar has been inflicted with «Fear»!〉

The ruby color of the incoming Crimson Barrage expanded within Senar’s eyes, but before they made contact, the blood blades veered off their initial path, attacking several unprepared contestants.

While Senar was frozen in fear due to being marked as prey and being easily overwhelmed by Kieran’s attacks, Kieran appeared before him in a flash and landed an excruciating blow.

“Wild Crash!”

Keuk!

Senar gasped as Kieran’s attack carried with it a force of great magnitude. The chest piece of Senar’s armor dented in from the attack as he was blown back near the platform’s edge.

Since his Mana was finite, Kieran resorted to using Blood Strengthening and Fervor Augmentation to enhance his weaker skills to the point they rivaled skills like Seethe Burst.

Kieran recalled Scar’s usage of a strange technique and looked at his free hand. He rushed up to Senar before placing all of his focus on his right palm. Tendrils of blood seeped from the Mark of the Maddened until it formed a thin disk.

‘This is how he did it, right?’ Kieran thought.

In the next moment, he placed his palm against Senar’s dented chest piece. Once he performed this action, Senar vomited blood as he was sent flying out of the ring like shrapnel from an exploding grenade.

When the dust cleared, it revealed an unconscious Senar with a hole blown through his armor.

Kieran stared at his hand in incredulity. He didn’t expect manual manipulation of his vitality to be so frightening.

However, Kieran was disappointed when his action didn’t yield any special notification. ‘Not even a skill? I suppose my utilization isn’t the best. Perhaps creating new skills will become possible once I master wielding my skills manually.’

There was still a long road ahead in that department.

All of a sudden, Kieran sensed a hostile presence directly behind him. Without turning around, Kieran pushed off his left leg and dodged to the right.

Surprisingly, the culprit of this surprise attack wasn’t one individual. It was four contestants working together to eliminate Kieran after witnessing his strength. Their raised hopes were deflated after learning their arena wasn’t as average as they believed it to be.

However, two of the culprits were unfortunately launched out of the ring by individuals that sensed an opportunity.

‘This is the entropic nature of such a competition. It will all plunge into chaos once the threat of failure looms too heavily.’

Kieran glimpsed his maxed-out Hunt stacks and used all of them to increase the remaining duration of his Predatory Form to 180 seconds.

Due to the rapidly declining number of participants on the coliseum stage, Kieran felt he should take advantage of the hostile environment as long as he could exploit it.

Despite using all his Hunt stacks, the counter rose rapidly, reaching 100 a few moments later.

Kieran repeated the same action, increasing the remaining duration by 100. ‘As long as I have this form active, I do not need to waste my power skills. Speed is an advantage that many struggle to prevail against.’

Coupled with the fact the Savage Beast Lord Set made Kieran’s attacks extremely heavy, Kieran became a force to be reckoned with.

“Crimson Current!”

The wide range of this skill forced everyone into action.

Since he was being targeted, no one would rest in his presence. When it came to a battle of attrition, no one in his current arena compared to Kieran, not with his perverse advantage.

Even when spamming Surge Step to move about the stage, his Stamina recovered a few seconds later. Thanks to the Breath of Life’s effects, he regained more than 400 Stamina per second.

If not for the residual effects of Abhorrent Paroxysm, Kieran’s recovery rate would have shot up to over 730 Stamina per second.

Less than two minutes later, the people on Kieran’s stage were forced to eliminate their fellow participants to reduce the mayhem. They couldn’t focus on Kieran zipping around the arena and the threat of the others attacking while their focus was preoccupied.

Kieran assisted in eliminating many people by entrapping them with Blood Bind. Depending on how he launched the skill, Kieran controlled it to interfere with one or many of the participants.

By the end of his malevolence, only three remained in their ring. But, the overall number of people on the platform had dropped below 1,000.

“I admit defeat,” the third person indifferently said. His only desire was to become an official member. The unique opportunity didn’t interest him.

All that remained was Kieran and Zerim in a silent standoff. The topic of Scar and Ezrath’s bet was about to clash!