Hero of Darkness

The atmosphere of the whole empire turned silent. Whether it was Kahn, the judges, the people present in Thamur Colosseum or numerous places across the empire… all of them were rooted on the spot as soon as the scythe made by Kahn shattered into small pieces. 

"No!!" bellowed Kahn in disbelief as he ran close to the testing area and tried to run his hands over the shattered pieces of the scythe's blade. 

Even Throk was taken aback because he had no idea why things took this turn so suddenly. 

"Hah! Can't even make a sturdy weapon and wants to compete against a dwarven blacksmith." one of the spectators spoke loudly, mocking Kahn openly. 

"What a joke… his weapon broke apart as soon as it touched the target… putting shame to all the blacksmiths of our empire." said a dwarven noble. 

"What a shame… and here I thought he had some skills." chimed in one of the leaders of the fireborne clans. 

"He must have overexerted the blade with higher grade runes to raise the rank of the weapon just like before. 

But this time, his attempt completely failed. 

Sometimes being over ambitious can ruin you." said an elven artificer in one of the pavilions. His voice resounding in the whole colosseum, thus reaching the ears of all the people of the empire through the live broadcast. 

This explanation from an expert was more logical and acceptable to everyone and thus, all of them instantly believed it to be the cause. 

Soon, a barrage of mockery and words expressing disdain landed on Kahn's ears. And he did not even hide his anger towards this blatant verbal bullying either. 

The three judges, on the other hand, were questioning themselves. 

[What is this? Did he lose this round on purpose?

Even if he messed up a few steps, the weapon shouldn't have shattered like a clay pot.] asked Fili to the other saint blacksmiths. 

[With his talent, his weapon should be on part with Helsi in this round as well. So why did he mess up?] questioned Druvagar. 

They were experts, even better than Throk and Tawerik in this field… so they naturally had their suspicions. This notion was shared by many others among the Blacksmithing community because Kahn went from 100 to 10 real quick. 

"The winner of this round is challenger Helsi." declares master Ivaldi, the number one blacksmith of the Vulcan empire. 

Helsi won the 3rd by default. However, his face had no sense of joy or accomplishment. He felt like this victory wasn't achieved with his own skills. 

Among the audience, Tawerik was fully berating Kahn and Throk and so were his people for this unacceptable display. 

Even many Humans across the Vulcan empire were cursing Kahn loudly. Saying that he's a shame to the entire human race. 

Throk on the other end kept his mouth shut. 

Because given Kahn's skills… He couldn't mess anything up even if he was just woken up from sleep. 

Means there was a reason why he chose to lose this round. Something that he didn't know. But given how crafty his disciple was when it came to planning and putting machinations… he chose to stay silent and endure the trash talking from Tawerik and others. 

This surprised Helsi who was stunned on his side of the arena. Because knowing his former master, the old dwarf would've already burst out in rage and cursed everyone's mothers already. But for some reason, he was quiet. 

Normal people couldn't guess anything at this moment but experts like the judges and many renowned blacksmiths were aware that something was wrong in this situation.

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Meanwhile, while Kahn showed a dejected face in front of the whole empire while bearing mocking words and berating from billions of people from their respective places… inwardly, he was laughing. 

[How many?] he asked his subordinates. 

[12 people.] reported his subordinates. 

[I see. Helsi and the judges also don't know anything. Means it they aren't part of it. 

Alright then, we will find everything in the next round.] he replied and carried on with their next forging round. 

In reality, he used Mineral Transmutation skill to ruin his own scythe. This was a skill he received from the Mountain Titan in Verlassen during their hunting spree. 

This skill had two main uses. One was to transmute different metals and minerals while at the same time, it could also break them during that process in order to level up their composition. 

Kahn first created the scythe to the best of his abilities. But while imprinting the runes using the chisel, he used mineral transmutation skill to break the strength of the body from the inside. 

This way, no one suspected that he was doing the job half-heartedly and couldn't see how the weapon got damaged either…

And right when the judges used it during the testing, it shattered like a thin layer of hollow glass and instantly shattered into small pieces. 

All of this… was part of the plan. 

For the fourth round, the weapon to be forged was a greatsword and the crafting materials were Mythril and Adamantite. These two metals were extremely complementary to each other and thus, the grade expected for the weapon was Epic Rank at best. 

But making an Epic Rank weapon wasn't something that could be done easily. Normally, it took days and an entire team of experienced people to make them. 

Since they were competing individually, Helsi and Kahn had to do everything by themselves and now that both of them were revealed to be at least Semi-Saint Blacksmiths themselves…

The judges gave them only 10 hours. 

This was a long period for many. Soon, many people across the empire went about their lives, many people left and returned to the colosseum based on their own convenience. 

Yet the judges, the organizers and the people from the Blacksmithing community didn't move from their seats. Even someone like Hector and Venessa didn't stand up. 

Just 10 hours of wait was nothing to saints like them. And finally, the finished products were presented to the judges. 

This time… both weapons were similar based on the aura they leaked. 

But after checking Helsi's greatsword, they moved to Kahn and without even testing it… 

The judges declared in unison… 

"The winner is challenger Kahn!"