Author: M_W Cancer 

Proofreader: M_W Miss Fierce 

"They have arrived," Elmont reminded as he turned to look towards Leo, "So, who will you choose?"

"Wait," Leo said as he quietly activated his unique capability to see the future while looking at Erson first. 

Whooosh! 

He can't help but inwardly heave a sigh of relief after seeing that the unique capability to see the future had worked.

Just like what he had expected before, Erson was indeed considered as average by the Fate Cube, causing him to only lose a quarter of Mana. 

Within his consciousness, a light screen suddenly appeared. And in the next moment, the screen showed Erson standing tall like a mountain and covered by a lot of wounds with blood continuously oozing out from it. His lance was in front of his chest with both of his hands holding its hilt while closing both his eyes as if he was drowning himself with the loud cheer of the crowd chanting loudly his name, signifying his victory. All of a sudden, Erson opened his eyes and waved his lance, making it dance in front of him as he said to Ehud currently half-kneeling on the ground while covered in many wounds and panting for his breath, "I win again!"

Instantly, Leo opened his eyes as his lips slowly formed into a mischievous smile and saying, "I'll choose Erson,"

Hearing Leo's choice, Elmont secretly felt glee and thankful deep inside of him. It seems like he was going to win this bet.

As a battle fanatic, it was very clear for Elmont to see that between Erson and Ehud, the latter has more chances of winning here. 

The weapon that Ehud was using is a battle-axe, specifically a very heavy and powerful two-handed weapon. Anyone who dares to use such a weapon needed two requirements before being able to use it, a lot of strength and power. 

Considering that Ehud is a Mage, and not a Battle Mage, then possessing a lot of strength and power is definitely a tremendous advantage for him.

Such a fact has already been proven in Death's Cage before. As long as one has enough strength and power, even if they are fighting against a Magical Beast one or two levels higher compared to them and not being able to use a single Magic spells in their arsenal, they would still have a possibility of winning. 

Leo also understood this point as this was one of the main reasons why he was able to kill Mages with a much higher cultivation level compared to him. 

It is already common knowledge that Mages are weak in terms of physical attributes such as strength, agility, stamina, and more. Such a thing is what Magical Knights and Battle Mages are proficient with, allowing them to easily overpower Mages, even those with a higher cultivation level than them. 

And such a reason is why exactly Ehud has a clear and very high chance of winning in his fight against Erson, specifically because he possesses the strength and power that the majority of the Mages are disadvantageous against.

However, Leo already has a vague understanding of why Erson had still won against Ehud despite having such a disadvantage right after seeing the former using his lance and making it dance in front of him in his consciousness. The only case now is for him to confirm whether his assumption was indeed correct or not.

"Then I will place my bet on Ehud," Elmont said while wearing a confident look on his face. 

At the side, Elvis can't help but secretly shook his head at Elmont. He turned to look at Leo as he thought, "No wonder you dare to have a bet with Elmont. My only question though is how exactly did you know that Erson can defeat Ehud?"

Both Erson and Ehud were his men, so Elvis naturally has a clear understanding of who would most likely win in this fight between the two of them. But Leo was different since he had only seen the both of them once, and there was also no time for him to thoroughly investigate the two since most of the time he was busy doing important things related to the Mischievous Lion Guild.

Of course, there was a reason why Elvis didn't say any of this to Leo or anyone else and had even chosen not to join in the betting despite having such an advantage. It was because doing so is against his principles and integrity, that's why he didn't choose to do any of that.

And honestly, this was the exact reason why the small arena in the Smiling Lion Village had attracted almost a full house of the crowd to come and watch this fight. 

A lot of the arena around the Emerald Tree Kingdom could provide a fight between capable people, but only this arena could provide them the exact meaning of betting.

From the day this arena was opened to the public up until today, those that had bet on the fighters had found out that the Mischievous Lion Guild doesn't actually involve themselves with the betting aside from taking a commission of five percent. Simply put, the income that the Mischievous Lion Guild could earn from the arena was only from the ticket sales and the commission. 

Such behavior was, in their opinion, weird and strange. After all, they had definitely created this arena to earn money, so why would they miss the chance to earn even more money? 

This is seriously against the stereotypes that they have seen, since almost all the Guilds, organizations, and even the Noble Households and Evergreen royal family that has built an arena in their own territory would use their advantage of knowing all of the fighters that had participated in their arena to win the betting and earn even more money. Of course, they would do it in secret. 

No matter how much they hide such a secret though, as long as the people in-charged of the arena has a mouth, information about it would eventually spread. 

And this was exactly what real experienced and veteran gamblers would use in order to win the betting in an arena. They would simply look for the secret people of those that owned the arena and bet on the same fighter that they had bet on.

Nevertheless, this honest arena had still attracted them to come as they preferred this style more and made them reminiscent of the time when everything related to betting was purely about luck, skills, and experience. In other words, the real meaning of betting.

Whoever has more luck and more skills and experience when it comes to judging the fighters would win the betting, not who could find the secret people of those that owned the arena. 

"The fight is about to start," Elvis informed everyone.

On the stage, Erson and Ehud took out their respective weapons and hold them tightly in their hands, preparing for the other to initiate the fight. 

"I have long waited for this moment where the two of us would fight again, and this time, I will show you the fruits of my training!" Ehud said before quickly charging towards Erson.

Forming a smirk on his face, Erson replied, "And I will show you once again that your training is not enough... Thorn Cage!"

Whooosh! Whooosh! Whooosh!

Dozens of roots shoot out towards the direction of Ehud, and every time a root reached his location, it would immediately form a cage to try and entrapped him inside. 

However, Ehud was still able to escape from it every single time by either using his weapon or by just simply maneuvering out of the thorn cage before it could complete its form.

"Hmph! What an old trick," Ehud said as he put his other hand forward and casted, "Clawing Breeze!"

Whooooooosh! 

A breeze of wind shoots out from Ehud's hand straight towards the end of the root. 

Bang! 

As soon as the Clawing Breeze spell hit the end of the root, the Thorn Cage spell of Erson was immediately interrupted. 

Along with the interruption of the Thorn, Cage spell was the arrival of Ehud in front of Erson. 

With a wide grin on his face, Ehud waved his battle-axe towards Erson. 

With how thin his lance was, Erson would definitely not try to block Ehud's attack. He instead chooses to parry the battle-axe in order to change the trajectory of attack.

Bang! 

Booom! 

Ehud's weapon landed on the marble ground, creating small traces of crack on it. 

"My turn," Erson said as he clenched his other hand and punched towards the stomach of Ehud. 

Seeing such a sight, Ehud quickly understood what Erson aimed to do. He instantly abandoned his weapon and jumped back to dodge.

"Not enough," Erson muttered as he casted, "Flaming Shot!"

Whooosh! Whooosh! Whooosh! 

Dozens of fireballs shoots out from the fist of Erson as it quickly went straight towards Ehud's location. Although the latter was able to dodge a direct hit from the former's attack, the distance separating the two of them was still close enough for him to be unable to dodge. And without a weapon to use to defend, he found himself in a bit of a difficult position. 

Fortunately, Ehud had already experienced this kind of situation many times in the past. So, he quickly pulled himself together and casted, "Earth Wall!"

Whooosh! Whooosh! Whooosh! 

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

A line of dozens of earth walls appeared, quickly blocking off the dozens of fireballs. 

"Now, you don't have a weapon," Erson said as he waved his hand, quickly storing the battle-axe inside his Storage Ring. 

"How stupid of you Erson. I won't repeat the same mistake again!" Ehud responded by taking out another battle-axe inside his Storage Ring. 

"Very good, it seems like you have indeed learned your too-many-to-count previous lessons," Erson said before brandishing his lance. He continued, "But in the previous fights, you were not able to come this far. So, I hope that you are prepared!"

Whoooosh! 

After saying that, Erson immediately disappeared from his location. And in the next instant, a fog appeared around Ehud's location. 

Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! 

A series of sounds caused by both Erson and Ehud's weapon hitting against each other was soon heard inside the fog followed by orange-colored sparks shooting out everytime the sounds rang out.

Soon, Ehud's figure was seen retreating out of the fog. Around his body were a few wounds. 

Whooosh! Whoooosh! Whooosh! 

Instead of Erson following after Ehud, it was surprisingly dozens of earth spikes in a form of an arrow. 

Waving his hand, Ehud began circling his battle-axe in front of him, creating something similar to a shield to block off the dozens of earth spikes. 

While Ehud was still busy dealing with the dozens of earth spikes, another type of earth spikes was unexpectedly used by Erson, and this time it was shooting out of the ground. 

BANGGG! BANGGG! BANGGG!

"How cowardly of you Erson! Come and fight me with your weapon!" Ehud exclaimed loudly as he sidestepped in order to dodge the earth spikes shooting towards him. Then, he brandished his battle-axe and hit it on the marble floor, "Earthquake!" 

BOOOOOOOOOOM!

The ground immediately split into two, causing the earth spikes shooting out from the ground to be interrupted as there was no longer any source for it to come out. 

All of a sudden, Erson's figure suddenly appeared behind Ehud, completely catching the latter off-guard.

"As you wish!" Erson said as he began waving his lance behind Ehud. 

"Arghhh! Arghhh! Arghhh!" Ehud began exclaiming painfully as he received the continuous attack from Erson. While enduring Erson's attack, he quickly cast his own Blink spell to dodge from the barrage of attack. 

Whoooosh!

"Who's the coward now-" Before Erson could finish his line, he suddenly felt a bad premonition coming from behind him. 

"Not me!" Ehud replied as he used the hilt of his battle-axe for fast and easy attack to hit Erson's back, causing the latter to fly away for a few tens of meters before finally stopping. 

Standing up again, Erson wipes the blood from his lips, making his lips unusually brighter red in color. He stared solemnly towards Ehud and then said, "It seems like I can't casually fight with you anymore like in the past!"

"Only a fool will not learn his lesson after so many times of failing!" Ehud stomped his weapon on the ground. 

"Let's go for round 2!" 

Whoooosh! 

Whoooosh!