The Ancient Genes

Competition Grounds, Ishtar.

"This is getting annoying.." August muttered with a frown on his face as he stood on top of a mushroom rock, overlooking the vast land filled with sand. The sun was shining above, and the heat was getting unbearable, but the competitors couldn't let their guard down.

"That sneaky guy…it seems he was prepared for this situation.." He further muttered before getting down, and walking into the shade of the mushroom rock.

Their plan of eliminating Arnold, seemed to have been predicted by the enemy. The sneaky guy had been prepared beforehand. That was the reason that he had managed to run away again and again from him.

August gave a look to his food and water supply, and his face turned dark. Even though he was capable of surviving at bare minimum, it would definitely hurt this combat ability. Not to mention, there didn't seem to be a time limit on this competition.

It was entirely possible that a person who had brought nothing but food supplies with him to win the competition. After all, who could guarantee that others won't be eliminated due to starvation in this vast desert.

"Whoosh!"

August suddenly heard a sharp noise of something tearing through the air, and the hairs on his body rose as he felt a chill rising up his spine. His body instantly reacted to this change, and he pushed his feet into the sand, and leapt away.

"Boom!"

Suddenly, the mushroom rock behind him exploded into smithereens and August felt droplets of water splash onto his face. That cool sensation was definitely like a heavenly touch in this terrible weather condition.

"Everyone is hoping to find water in this place, and look at you running away from it.." A light laughter rang out as a figure appeared on top of the now destroyed rock pedestal.

This person was Faryl Zen, from the Zen House.

"You sure are being generous. Shouldn't you be hiding? This place doesn't seem to be a place which suits you. And, yet you are still boldly walking in front of me to fight," Agust replied with a smile. He didn't sense any hostility from Faryl, but there surely was some intense battle intent.

August had no idea why it was so. He had obviously seen this guy, and he definitely wasn't the type to be interested in exchanging fists with anyone just for comparison. But, something was definitely different here.

"Well, now that I have walked in front of you, we can't just pretend to have not seen each other, can we?" Faryl asked in return and the mana around him began to fluctuate.

"You are at a disadvantage in this kind of terrain. If you don't mind, I sure can pretend to have not seen you." August sure didn't want to waste his time here.

Faryl on the other hand was taken back by August's words. He sure wasn't expecting someone from the Ancient Family to act like this.

"Talk about a disappointment; I didn't see this coming for sure, but it might have been my fault for evaluating you people too highly." Faryl shook his head as if he was a fool here.

August looked at the guy with a little frown on his face. He sure didn't feel good about this. But, there definitely was something even more important at stake here.

As Faryl turned around planning to leave, his footsteps suddenly paused.

"This never gets old.." He suddenly let out a smile, and August shook his head as well.

It seemed luck wasn't in August's favour. After all, when he finally managed to make Faryl turn around, new guests seemed to have arrived. And these people who had surrounded them didn't seem to have any intentions to leave peacefully.

"Will you come out, or should I drag you people out?" Faryl asked as he looked around.

"Well, it seems it's useless now.." A familiar voice rang out, and the next instant, Melan appeared.

On the other side, there was another person standing from the West Gale Academy. Even though he was not the strongest, he had been able to remain until now. It was more than enough to describe his ability.

"Oh my, it sure is lively. More people than I expected.." A cheerful feminine voice rang out, and the next instant, Tia, Mr. Cool's girlfriend from Ethera arrived at the scene as well.

All of them stood at their places. There were no alliances on the surface at least, and no one wanted to get taken advantage of.

Faryl suddenly turned around, and looked at August, "It seems there is no more pretending thing.."

"So, it seems." August nodded with a smile, and then stretched his body a bit, "I will stop pretending to not see you as well."

He then raised his beckon to this guy as his fighting spirit soared through the sky.

"Whoosh!"

Both Faryl and August immediately moved, and in an instant, the two clashed.

"Bang!"

There were no fancy moves between them. It was as if they had decided to compare themselves, and the first round would be nothing but pure physical might.

On the other side, Melan too moved. There was nothing better for him than this. Those two were definitely stronger than him. As long as he could strike and injure them using this chance, the outcome would be in his favor.

But, his expression changed mid way, and he immediately halted his step and took a leap behind.

"Boom!"

And, it definitely saved him as something crashed right at the place where Melan was earlier. The impact shook the ground, and sand flew into the air as if someone had let out explosives.

Only when it calmed down that, it became clear, the thing that crashed was not an object, but a human.

It was Tia.

The girl's fist was in the sand, and it seemed that the explosion from earlier was nothing but a punch from her.

Melan definitely was shocked to see such a monstrous strength in this frail looking girl. But, his shocked had yet to die down when he felt the ground beneath him shake and the next instant, a huge worm-like beast appeared out of it with its mouth wide open, trying to swallow Melan.

There were thousands of sharp teeth in that worm's tunnel-like mouth. Being eaten by it would be a nightmare that would even haunt people in the afterlife.

"Crackle!"

Melan let out a strong jolt of lightning, and momentarily shocked that Beast and got away from eat.

He then looked at the guy from the West gale who was controlling the Death Eater, an apex level predator in Deserts of Orena. It was another thing that it hadn't fully matured yet.

"I see, so we are playing this way…" Melan looked at those two with a grim look in his eyes.