The Ancient Genes

Competition Ground, Ishtar.

"Flare!!!" Black flames erupted from August's arm forming a giant hand of flames. He then turned his head towards Tia who was slowly being pulled into the sand, and immediately reached out to her.

The hand made of flames grabbed Tia's arm, and surprisingly it didn't do any damage to her and just pulled her out of the sand and brought her away from it.

"Thanks.." Tia wiped the sweat off her forehead as she looked at August. Even though she wasn't afraid of getting eliminated, being swallowed by sand sure seemed scary.

"It's not over yet.." August reminded her as his gaze locked onto the fast approaching quick sand. They had to think of something quick.

"Should we call a truce for now?" Faryl suddenly asked as he looked at August, and Melan who was very eager to mount a sneak attack on them earlier.

"I don't think we have a choice.." Melan shook his head. Arthur was already going crazy, and they on the other hand had already exhausted themselves by fighting with each other.

"Well, then I will leave the fighting to you guys," Faryl muttered with a smile. "As for a place to fight, let me create it for you.."

With that, Faryl clasped his hand, and it was as if someone had opened the dam.

"Whoosh!"

The mana around him suddenly seemed to plunge into chaos, and the next instance, water erupted out of his body like a fountain.

The sand immediately began to soak the water crazyily.

Faryl's face began to turn pale as water continuously poured out from his body, and he was beginning to run out of mana. Yet, he still gritted his teeth, and poured out everything he had before finally interlocking his finger.

Blood began to slide out of the corner of Faryl's mouth but a smile appeared on his face.

The sand which had been continuously absorbing the water suddenly seemed to stop, to be more precise, the water which was under Faryl's control stopped seeping through the small pores in the sand, and instead held onto it. This obviously made soft sand a bit muddy and sturdier. Even the quick sand which was forming seemed to have stopped.

Arthur too emerged out of the ground with a frown on his face. This sure was a nasty for him. But, it was not like he wasn't prepared for it.

"You might be able to make one place for yourself..but did you forget what's all around us?" He asked with a smile.

The next instant, sand began to flow from outside into the colosseum.

"You say as if you have an infinite amount of mana. Let me see if you can turn this back into your territory.. " Faryl asked with a laugh. He clearly knew that Arthur had been controlling this large amount of sand easily because he only needed to stimulate it a little with his mana. As there was nothing to stop him.

But, what now?

The sand below them had been taken hostage by the water which was under Faryl's mana. Did he really think he could gain back the control of sand from someone who was at a higher level than him?

Even if Faryl was exhausted, and had expended a lot of his mana. He was still way above Arthur when it came to mana control and purity. There was no way that Arthur could match him.

"Even if what you say is true, you are at your limit as well. Without you, there is no one else who could hold onto my sand…" Arthur's lips curled up into a smile as he raised his hand, and the sand which had flowed in from outside came crashing down onto him.

"Boom!"

The next instant, the sand began to wriggle in a strange eerily manner before beginning to take shape.

Everyone's eyes slowly began to turn grim as a huge shadow began to be cast over them as the figure made of sand slowly took its shape.

It was a creature they had never seen before.

It was a Golem.

But, the surprise had yet to come.

"Roar!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

The Golem released a beast-like roar, and it brought along a distinctive feeling which only Elemental Beast possessed.

"Damn it!!! This guy is going too far!!!!!!" Melan's eyes widened in surprise. He was shocked because he knew exactly what was going on.

Arthur had actually brought out an Elemental Beast Core for a competition!!!

Elemental Beasts were very rare creatures. And, not only were they hard to find, but even harder to deal with.

And, their cores could allow an Element user of similar nature to enhance their strength by a great margin for a shorter period of time.

Melan knew that Barnes had an elemental core as according to the rumors, this core was obtained after Barnes Lord and Roxley Lord stumbled upon a young Elemental Golem on one of their adventures in Orena during their Academy days.

And, since it was a sand golem, the Roxley Lord allowed Barnes to have it. After all, he had Earth Element which was very close to sand as an element, especially in comparison to his lightning.

The Core was an extremely precious object, and yet it was used like this!

Melan had no idea what the Barnes Lord was thinking.

And, now that he thought about it, the rules this time too didn't prohibit bringing items which could support you in combat. But, who could have thought that something like this would appear.

'Are they this desperate to win this time? But, why?' Melan had no idea, and so did others, who were thinking the same in their head.

….

In one of the Pavilions of Arena, a figure sat with a calm face. His gaze locked onto the screen as well.

This man was the Lord of Barnes House.

"Idiot…" Ander muttered with a sigh as a complicated look appeared on his face. But at the end of it, he couldn't help, but smile helplessly.

'Well, who am I kidding. I can't deny that I didn't see that coming…He is not like Lear…'