As soon as I confirmed my choice, I felt a slight headache, before a stream of knowledge entered my body. Yes, despite how I perceived my consciousness to reside solely in my brain, I felt my muscles twitching, as if someone infused them with memory, allowing me to suddenly display an average level of proficiency in the Xernerian swordsmanship.

Yes, despite obtaining this set of moves from the system and instantly being able to use it without shame, I was nowhere close to what a true master could do with it.

I already realised it with how different crafting skills could complement each other, but outside of paths, all my abilities or skills were at most, mediocre.

At first, when I noticed it, I wanted to blame Bonger. In this typical modernist and adult approach to life, I was looking for fault anywhere that wasn't me. But this wasn't the earth, where if I didn't like something, I could call the manager and make his or her day worse by throwing a bunch of invectives on them.

Forced by the reality of this brutal world to accept responsibility for my own shortcomings, I had to discover why this situation occurred on my own.

While it was quite painful to my ego at first, the results turned to be quite obvious.

It wasn't a matter of the ability to use certain skills, moves or techniques. It was about the required mindset that normally people would obtain on the road of mastering said skill. As someone who got the physical effects straight away, I lacked this proper mind training to be able to perfectly perceive what move would be the best to deal with certain situations.

With the last bout of real fighting taking place way back in the wandering sword sect, I had no way of honing any of my battle tuned skills, putting me in this disadvantageous situation right now, where I couldn't properly gauge how much Veriel has in himself left!

Hoping for the best, I picked up my pace and started approaching his lifeless body while turning my attention from his beast currently licking its paws with leisure written on its snout to the part of tribunes with Katenaris and Dracons sitting down and observing the fight.

For now, I couldn't feel any fluctuations in the energy, hoping that it wouldn't change no matter how far I would go.

But there was simply no way I will just approach him like that!

Wasting even more mana, I prepared another weak shield, while casting simultaneously burial and shockwave under Veriel's body.

Apparently, my worries were unnecessary.

With his body first sinking down to a hole that appeared under it, he was instantly covered with a layer of the soft earth, before being sent flying towards me, with all the dirt blocking the sight for the spectators.

I didn't care about being theatrical, but still kept my act of hitting the air with my staff. Only when the dirt covers my entire silhouette, I could drop my fake attitude.

Sensing more than seeing Veriel's body flying towards me, I took note of his general direction and trajectory, before bringing down my sword.

As if I repeated this move for thousands of times in my life, I felt my muscles contracting and relaxing in a perfectly harmonised manner, making this swing as effortless as lifting the spoon to add sugar to the tea.

Slash.

With a blood splattering on top of my shield, I barely felt any resistance when I separated some kind of Veriel's body away from the rest. Stepping to the side as I brought my weapon down, I managed to avoid the rest of my cousin's body from colliding with me.

Thump. Thump.

Only when I could feel Veriel's aura turning weaker by every second did I calm myself enough to realise that I subconsciously activated my 'predator mindset'. The first thing that struck me after forcing it down, was how heavily my heart was beating.

I guess making this cut wasn't as easy as I took it to be!

As the dust finally settled down and the air cleared enough for both myself and the spectators on the tribunes to see the effects of the last clash, I noticed that somehow I got Veriel's leg.

It's a pity I was unable to aim with my vision blocked and Veriel's body spinning frantically due to the violent nature of shockwave. It would be far better to get his arm instead, but I guess I had to settle with what I achieved.

Finally relaxing enough to take a look to the part of the tribunes where Eve was supposed to see, I suddenly felt blood boiling in my veins!

Despite how far away she was, I could not only see her enmity towards a small group of expert that surrounded her but also detect a faint similarity to Veriel's aura steeming from them!

"You just saw what happened to him, yet you dare to lay your fucking hands on her?"

While the small squabble that was taking place above the arena could otherwise go unnoticed, when I brought it up to the public attention, I expected them to give up on whatever they were trying to achieve, but contrary to my expectations, they turned way more violent instead!

While they were limiting themselves to pushing and pulling on her, they now clearly acted as if they were a bunch of kidnappers caught redhanded but unable to give up on their target!

Initially shrugging off, I thought that someone would come to help Eve, if not Jellier out of gratitude for the sword I gave him, then Venna or one of her henchmen since we were about to join her damn sect!

"Help me!"

While I could feel the faint traces of the aura of spectators, the barrier that surrounded the fighting pit successfully prevented any sound from coming in. This preemptive measure created to not let the cheers distract the contenders, turned my anger into wrath where I had to escape to reading Eve's words from her lips instead of simply hearing what she had to say!

From the fact that she went as far as asking for help with her eyes squinting in desperation, it was obvious that those men that tried to apprehend were at least at her level!

With no one stepping up to rescue her from the hands of those bastards, I threw a look around, trying to comprehend what the hell was going on.

If not for the fact that the first phase of the tournament was already over, every important person would sit in their Vip lodges, making it impossible to peer through the enchanted one-way glass. Thankfully, all of them were forced to sit in regular spots, making them viable to my sight.

Since it was outright abuse of city law, my sight went first to the city lord place. While I initially would never expect him to attend this duel, I spotted him before the fight even started. Considering how my private conflict with Katenaris escalated, it was expected of him to attend this fight.

In just one second, after just one gesture, my blood froze.

When I managed to look him right in the eyes despite the quite far distance between us, he turned his head to the side, avoiding my stare….

Okay, he doesn't want to act against the two powerhouses in his city, that's understandable! But surely, as soon as Heavenly Sect will make its move, he will be forced to act!

Darkness.

Spotting Venna's and seeing her react in exactly the same way, turning her head around in some sort of shame, made me realise that the things were going awry.

Without her backing, I was just an insignificant pest, daring to go against major power!

What was initially my anger turned wrath, with the addition of a fair dose of disappointment, fear of losing Eve and most importantly, immeasurable hate for those who were supposed to have my back but didn't act when I was for the very first time in dire need of their help, turned into resolve.

Since I couldn't count on anyone, I had to take the matters in my own hands.

With just a slight speck of hope, I tried looking for Neterian, only to see his confident smile!

This was the last straw that broke the camel's back!

Feeling all the emotions washed away by the predator's mindset influence, I could only feel the power coursing through my hand as I approached the unconscious Veriel with the intention of dealing the finishing blow and getting rid of one of the obstacles that stood between me and Eve.

Appearing near his body in a flash, I raised my hand with the intention of dropping my sword down and plunging it into his hear, when my heightened instincts kicked in, forcing my body to dash away.

"I can't have you killing him."

Out of sudden, I saw a power sweeping through the place that I was just a moment ago. While it was something that my weak shield could still withstand, it approached dangerously close to its limit.

The appearance of another contender on the ring made me realise that this situation was not a haphazard and desperate action from the Katenaris, but planned and executed with cold blood set of actions, forcing me into a corner from which I would be unable to retaliate!

"Who are you!"

Scanning the entire fighting pit and the barrier surrounding it, I didn't notice any new presence. Just like before, only the dying Veriel's body, his tamed beast licking its paws and the intact barrier separating us from the outside world.

"There is no point trying to save your mate. Since I was focusing on my growth, they didn't bother to hide their plans from me. Unless you can defeat me and destroy this annoying barrier, you can consider her gone."