Chapter 198: The Natural Favorite (2)

Three days quickly passed by.

Su Chen’s test had finally arrived.

This day, Anubi came to the gladiator arena like usual; however, this time Su Chen made an unprecedented appearance next to him.

Anubi waved his hand and said, “Three days have passed. My young, intelligent subject, what amusing show are you going to put on for me?”

Su Chen replied, “Please, Your Majesty. Pay close attention to the gladiator arena.”

Anubi lazily drawled, “Oh, is that so? Then it’s as you expected, Kenwo.”

The Ravager standing beside Anubi chuckled derogatively. “What can these lowly citizens from foreign tribes come up with? All they can do is use some cheap tricks based on what Your Majesty already likes. If my guess isn’t wrong, he probably chose a few rarer-than-usual Demonic Beasts and arranged for them to fight in a more creative format. However, because these lowly citizens haven’t seen many gladiator fights, I believe that it is very likely that the tricks he is about to show us are scenes we grew bored of a long time ago.”

“Hahahaha!” All of the Ravagers nearby began to howl with laughter.

Su Chen knew about this Ravager who was named Kenwo. He was Anubi’s chief imperial officer and handled all the internal affairs of the palace. Although he was in charge of all the servants, his main everyday task was to prepare all kinds of different amusements for Anubi.

At this moment, Anubi had a new Ravager female by his side. Unsurprisingly, Kenwo had the one who prepared her for him.

To Kenwo, Su Chen’s new job was digging into a part of his responsibilities, so it was not unreasonable for him to interpret it as Su Chen stealing away some of Kenwo’s food. This was why Kenwo forcefully used such disrespectful language when referring to Su Chen.

He absolutely had to attack his competitor viciously and mercilessly.

But Su Chen didn’t pay it any mind. He calmly said, “If His Majesty doesn’t like it, then I am willing to receive my punishment.”

“Then begin.” Anubi waved his hand, and Su Chen sat down next to Anubi.

This was his first time sitting so close to Anubi, but if he didn’t do a good job, then it would also be his last.

The first fight began.

Four warriors took the stage, but not in a two-on-two format. Rather, it was a one-on-three.

Gladiator battles didn’t necessarily need to be fair. In order to satiate Anubi’s bloodthirst through sensory stimulation, high-quality battles and unique ways of drawing blood had to be brought out. Stimulating His Majesty’s preference for novelty was the most important. As for the actual warriors participating in the battle, who cared which ones won, lost, died, or lived?

Of course, to make sure that the battle didn’t end too quickly, the opposing sides’ still needed to be roughly matched.

Even though it was a one-on-three fight, the first warrior to emerge was Burkitt, who had a very high win-rate in the gladiator arena.

Burkitt was a voluntary participant. He had entered for the sake of money and status. He possessed an incredibly vicious combat ability, and it could be said that he was unrivalled amongst his peers.

Even though he was facing three warriors at once today, Burkitt did not show any fear.

Because in this battle, he was the one with the advantage!

“A battle without any suspense! Prepare your flowers and applause!” Burkitt howled loudly at the audience.

“Roar!” the audience responded with howls of excitement.

“Burkitt!”

“Burkitt!”

“Burkitt!”

Countless Ravagers yelled uncontrollably.

The fight began.

Burkitt savagely charged at his opponents. As everyone expected, he held an absolute advantage in strength over his opponents, who held the advantage in terms of numbers. Burkitt used his overbearing physique and his powerful momentum to assault his opponents relentlessly.

He used his shield to defend against the attacks of his opponents as the flail in his hand crashed downwards. After probing his opponents and exchanging a number of initial blows, he finally managed to successfully hit one of them.

Taking advantage of the opportunity created by wounding one of his opponents, he charged forward mercilessly, slamming his shield into another Ravager’s head before firmly gripping the third, using his powerful arms to trap him. The muscles on his arms bulged as he forcefully crushed that Ravager to death.

The Ravager that had been initially knocked flying crawled back onto his feet and charged forwards again. Burkitt tossed the Ravager corpse in his arms aside and endured the blow, then pounced and grabbed his opponent, using his fists to savagely beat him up.

“Help me!” that Ravager warrior cried out.

The second Ravager warrior managed to get back at this moment.

Burkitt tossed the Ravager he was holding at the one charging at him, simultaneously unloading a ruthless barrage of punches and beating him to death.

The third Ravager had already stabbed a sharp blade into Burkitt’s body, but Burkitt seemed completely oblivious. He tossed the second corpse aside and headbutted his opponent’s nose, then bit down on the opponent’s throat, severing both his windpipe and major arteries.

Blood spurted everywhere. Burkitt’s opponent retreated a few steps, his hand covering his throat, before falling to the ground, sapped of strength.

Burkitt raised his fist at the crowd, his face and mouth stained with fresh blood.

“Not a bad performance, but that had nothing to do with you,” Kenwo said as he clapped, not forgetting to take a shot at Su Chen.

Su Chen said with a slight smile, “Of course that had nothing to do with me. The battle I arranged is at the very end…… the best place for the climax.”

Kenwo harrumphed. “That’s quite the coincidence! It seems that I also arranged a battle, and the battle I arranged will be the actual finale.”

Su Chen frowned.

He knew that this was Kenwo targeting him, purposefully not wanting to give him the finale slot.

Obviously, he had been observing his own movements quite closely.

But it was still fine. His plan had been arranged in complete secret, so Kenwo shouldn’t know the contents, just the aspects at the surface he had purposefully exposed.

But even so, Su Chen really detested this guy.

He harrumphed and didn’t say anything anymore.

The second duel consisted of Ravager females once again. This time, however, thirty people took the stage, fifteen people in each team.

Normally, the more people there was in a battle, the more intense and bloody it would be, meaning the entertainment value would naturally increase.

As such, these duels were of quite high quality. The first involved a celebrity, and the second a large horde of women. Even so, all of these battles had nothing to do with Su Chen. Kenwo was obviously the one who had arranged them.

The only one Su Chen could control was the battle he had arranged.

The ultimate reason Kenwo had increased the quality of these appetizer battles was obviously to suppress him; by putting on all kinds of high-quality “programs,” it would contrast against and effectively demonstrate the averageness of Su Chen’s programs. This would then cause his status to decrease in Anubi’s eyes.

Even the simple and crude Ravagers competed and schemed thoroughly against one another!

And the methods he had chosen were decent as well.

The slaughter of female Ravagers began. After seven or so had died and more than half were badly injured, the battle came to an end.

After the arena grounds were cleaned up slightly, the third battle commenced — this time it was between Demonic Beasts.

In order to satisfy Anubi and suppress his competitor, Kenwo had chosen two rare, powerful mid-tier Demonic Beasts to fight against each other.

Mid-tier Demonic Beasts possessed rather powerful Origin Skills, and these ones in particular could use a dazzling unique Origin Skill that boomed like cannons and shone like fireworks, making the battle far more interesting than one between mere Vicious Beasts. The barrier surrounding the arena shuddered violently under their furious assault, and light refracted everywhere. The nobility couldn’t help but cry out; only Anubi felt that the scene was merely average.

The fact that he had not yawned yet was already the greatest praise he could give.

There were normally four gladiator matches per day, so after the battle of the Demonic Beasts came Su Chen’s competition.

Very quickly, a team of twenty or so gladiators charged into the arena.

On the other end, a massive Terror Lizard was driven out into the arena.

The Terror Lizard was just a low-tier Demonic Beast, and was decently strong.

However, the twenty gladiators were obviously more powerful. Even though they weren’t Temple Warriors, they all had high-tier Totemic Inscriptions and powerful physiques. In addition, they were quite well-versed in team tactics, which was their trump card in this arena. If it wasn’t for the fact that their target was a mere Terror Lizard, there was no way the owner of these gladiators would have allowed them to participate and potentially suffer tremendous losses in these pointless battles.

Under these kinds of circumstances, the Terror Lizard was almost certainly going to lose.

Even Anubi was slightly taken aback when he saw this. He stared intently at Su Chen and said, “This is the show you’ve prepared for me? A one-sided slaughter with no suspense?”

Su Chen said with a slight smile, “Your Majesty, do you enjoy betting?”

“Of course. You want to bet with me?”

“Yes, Your Majesty. I will bet on the Terror Lizard. If I win……”

“Then I will not kill you regardless of whether this amuses me or not. If you lose…… well, there won’t really be much for you to lose anyways,” Anubi said.

Su Chen, however, replied, “If possible, I would prefer some other kind of reward.”

Anubi stared at Su Chen, relatively shocked. “It seems like you are quite confident. What would you like?”

“As long as it is a favor from Your Majesty, anything will suffice.”

Anubi nodded and said, “You really have a way with words. Let’s hope that your arrangement is just as detailed.”

As they spoke, the battle commenced.

The twenty gladiators assembled into formation and charged at the Terror Lizard. They held their iron shields in a line, with long spears poking out through the gaps as a fierce energy practically rolled off their bodies.

Even though these high-tier totem Ravagers didn’t have the ability to control Origin Energy, their powerful physiques allowed them to charge forwards fearlessly. As they did so, their Totemic Inscriptions lit up with a dazzling light.

The Terror Lizard, however, remained motionless. It lowered its head, which had a strange, long horn growing from it.

A white streak of light shot out from the horn, colliding with the shields.

This was the Terror Lizard’s Innate Origin Skill. The powerful white light dispersed against the solid shieldwall as all of the warriors braced themselves simultaneously to resist the attack. At that moment, however, a tentacle-like object suddenly appeared behind the warriors’ formation and pierced forward, stabbing a Ravager in the back.

Because all of their attention and defenses were towards the front, they never even saw the ambush coming.

Pu!

The Ravager spat out a mouthful of blood as he was skewered. The massive tentacle-like object continued to advance, piercing through the wave of Ravagers.

Pu, pu, pu, pu! In but a single breath’s time, the tentacle had skewered a number of other Ravager gladiators as well.

The gladiators only noticed the tentacle after three of them had been skewered, and only began to react after two more of them had been skewered, breaking apart their formation as they dodged to the side. The tentacle waved through the air, the five Ravagers skewered on it like candied fruits on a stick. Blood trickled down from their mouths, indicating that they were not dead yet.

At the same time that they dodged, the Ravagers all put their shields behind them instead.

This was a fatal mistake.

Because just a short moment later, the Terror Lizard sprang into action.

It charged straight at the team of Ravagers, its iron-like feet stomping on the ground and causing the arena to tremble. Given its size and speed, it easily tore through the ranks of the remaining Ravagers with unstoppable momentum, knocking six or seven more warriors to the ground.

They had once again been attacked from behind. The Terror Lizard inflicted grievous wounds upon the warriors.

When the Terror Lizard had charged forwards, the tentacle floating in the air had also shot back into the ground, stripping off the corpses skewered on it as it continued to shrink until it returned to the Terror Lizard’s body.

So that tentacle had actually been its tail.

Anubi said with some shock, “I have never heard of a Terror Lizard possessing this kind of ability.”

“I just made a small modification to it, Your Majesty,” Su Chen replied.

Anubi understood. “So that’s how it is. I must admit that you have surprised me. Even though I am not yet amused, you have indeed shown me some new things.”

“I did not expect you to be satisfied with just this.”

“Oh? You mean......”

“This is only the beginning, Your Majesty.”

An instant later, a cry of alarm sounded as the situation changed drastically.