Hero of Darkness

In the following week, the third round for the competition was about to happen and millions of contestants who successfully qualified for this round flocked towards the top 10 districts of the capital Rathna.

Kahn's matches were allotted at the district named Erantel, one of the top 10 districts of the capital that was known for food and spice markets. It was also the 4th most economically successful district throughout Rathna since it was the central hub for the majority of the provisions and material supply exchange points.

As a result, the lifestyle of this district was costlier as well as more high profile compared to the majority of the districts in the capital.

The architecture and lifestyle of the residents in this district differed by a lot and the more advanced modes of transportation and utilities were used by the general population. Let it be flying ships or magic trains of the highest quality, everything was accessible.

For the battle arena that would host the third round, it was situated in the city named Marley. But for some reason, the citizens of this city were addressed as the Marleans by the common folk.

When Kahn traveled to the battle arena in this city, he had no choice but to enter as a swordsman for two major reasons.

One being that many contestants from this round were mostly above intermediate rank fighters and some were even peak master rank warriors.

Whilst there was a group of popular combatants as they were backed up by some major forces and corporations while the elite group amongst them were the heirs of prestigious clans and conglomerates.

The second reason being the top powers throughout the empire would start paying attention from this round as this was the stage where the fine crop of the empire was separated from the posers.

Someone like a beginner master rank individual would not be considered a big deal here and about 40% of the participants were to be eliminated based on the format.

But if Kahn were to be noticed by them, he won't be able to switch fighting styles from now on. Or else, his secret will be open to people as these matches were bound to garner more attention of the audience and someone switching weapons and fighting style would definitely be noticed by many.

Those who could use different weapons and combat techniques were never the master of any. So it would be questionable when he fought in the final rounds with the full extent of his abilities. Thus going back to fighting with a sword was his only viable option.

So Kahn decided to use a rare rank sword for these matches for now instead of taking Lucifer out. Hence, he would fight the remaining matches of the competition as a swordsman, the weapon he had the highest-ranked skills and abilities in.

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Ronin and Omega had spent millions for getting around fifty thousand people from their organization to travel and enter the battle arena as audience and the fifty billion gold coins had been distributed between them.

A chain of command was formed to inform their people on whom to bet and what to bet for. So that they would reap the maximum returns based on the result of Kahn's matches.

To most of them, Kahn was just a chosen representative who fit the qualifications to partake in the competition, a trojan horse whose sole purpose was to make them money by winning and losing matches.

Little did they know that he was actually Zeus, their main boss who they had pledged loyalty to and have been working for ever since the Sins took over Hydra.

After hours of waiting, Kahn's turn came and odds for the first match were 70:30 for him because of his previous match history.

While the opponent he was facing had won all previous matches and hence, the odds were in their favor. But this was also what Kahn wanted as well.

[Go all the way in.] commanded Kahn and the generals and Omega relayed his commands to their people.

As for the opponent, it was another mithrans warrior whose upper body was covered in heavy metallic armor but the lower half had legs and the stinger of a scorpion. A halfbreed between two different types of species Kahn's assumption was correct.

In his hands, were two big cleavers that were enough to cut a man in two with a single swing. And his 3 meter tall figure was as scary as it could be if someone hated scorpions.

The intermediate master rank opponent entered the battlefield while Kahn only released the aura of a beginner rank master for the sake of making his opponent look down on him.

[[Author : Scorpion King reference art given in chapter comments.]]

"Begin!" spoke the Wolfkin referee and the match started with a loud declaration.

Kahn dashed towards the opponent without waiting another second. His opponent on the other end used his aura and covered both his cleavers under a dense layer of mana that granted it the wind attribute and he made a slashing move in Kahn's direction.

Windcutter!

Kahn activated the windcutter skill and attacked back with his own highly compressed wind element blades.

Flutter! Flutter!

His clothes fluttered as both the attacks canceled each other out after clashing. The opponent sped up his crawling movements and quickly closed the distance between them.

Cling!

His swinging attack aimed for Kahn's head but it was parried in the last second by the sword of the opponent.

But without giving any room to retreat, his other cleaver slashed horizontally towards Kahn's torso, trying to fatally injure him.

Minutes passed as both of them tried to make a decisive hit but both he and the opponent were equally matching in attacking prowess and agility. And the mithrans had a poisonous stinger that he would use time to time whenever he had the chance.

"Admit defeat or we both will be disqualified." spoke the mithrans opponent.

"Let me ask you something.. Would your legs grow back with healing potions?" asked Kahn after parrying another swing from the opponent.

"What?! I guess.. Yes?" spoke the opponent in a confused tone.

"Good. I apologize for the pain." said Kahn and the next moment, he raised his aura and used the Executioner's Gaze skills after a long time.

Paralyzed! The opponent was paralyzed on the spot.

Swing! Swing! Cut!

One by one, Kahn quickly swung his sword like a seasoned veteran and cut off the opponent's legs swiftly as the mithrans couldn't even move a muscle.

Despite the pain, the mithrans opponent couldn't scream in agony and Kahn quickly decommissioned the enemy by cutting 6 of his legs.

He then quickly placed the sword on the opponent's neck.

"Winner is candidate 5,67,930!" declared the referee as Kahn had successfully subdued his opponent and as per the rules, he was the victor of this match.

As soon as the match was over, Kahn quickly took a high-grade recovery potion out of his space ring and put it in the opponent's mouth.

The potion started working in a minute and the bleeding stopped. The mithrans warrior finally regained control over his body and looked at Kahn with a hateful expression.

Kahn smiled back instead and spoke in a mischievous tone.

"Consider this as your insurance covering the hospital bills."