Chapter 505: Start
Ibeiya’s expression changed. She whispered into Xiao Lin’s ear, “This method of deciding a leader through a tournament was set forth by the Rosa Kingdom’s founding king, and was decided in exchange for protecting us.”
“What is he planning on doing?” Xiao Lin looked at the outwardly calm Valen, who could not hide the fervor in his eyes. The young man wants to go against tradition. Even if it was just a small insignificant matter, it was still enough to display his wild ambition.
“Valen! Are you afraid of compet.i.tion?” someone mocked. The Argos clan might be the most powerful, but not every clan was afraid of them.
“It’s fine if you’re scared, you just need to give us your right to rule. We won’t have any objections. Oh, I almost forgot, the one with the right to rule is the last clan leader of Argos, not you,” someone followed, their tone full of mockery.
“Oh? Scared?” Valen was not angry, instead looking very surprised before he started laughing softly, the volume increasing until it drowned out everyone’s voices.
After a long while, everyone quieted down and Valen finally said in a cold tone, “I was going to follow up with the rules of this tournament. It will be much simpler, and as the last leader, I will be the one challenged. Those that are here, anyone at all, can challenge me directly if they wish to. There will be no limit to the number of challengers, nor the time! How about it?”
After a moment of silence, a wave of shock and excitement resounded. It was basically a group a.s.sault, everyone against Valen alone. It was straightforward and saved a lot of time.
“If you lose, how will we continue?” someone asked.
“That would be your own problem. If I died, I would be unable to interfere anyway.” Valen’s words shot through everyone’s hearts.
“How arrogant!” Xiao Lin furrowed his eyebrows. Valen either wanted to die or did not think he could lose.
“What is Valen’s skill level like?” Xiao Lin looked back, asking the old man behind Ibeiya.
The old man said, “His skills should be around Bronze in rank, or maybe lower. He is the youngest of the Argoses, so he can’t be that strong.”
In truth, the old man had already said it before, Argos was a young necromancer. His current abilities would only allow him to control low-leveled undead or spells at most. Necromancy was something that took time to master.
The rest of them were suspicious as well, but they did not care about Valen’s life. Anything said during the banquet could not be taken back, or he would be shunned by everyone, and he could not hope for anyone to listen to him.
That was why the moment Valen’s words ended, it signaled the start of the tournament. At least ten of them rushed forward. It was not only those who spoke up against Valen earlier; there were many more who rushed forward just to try. In the face of power and ambition, everything was secondary.
The fight started without any foreshadowing.
Xiao Lin did not go forward immediately, and many were the same as him, wanting to check out Valen’s skill first, but holding back caused many of their hearts to almost pop out of their chests.
Facing the dozen or so people rushing at him, Valen’s smile did not change. He raised his hand and threw out a green ball of light–the Soul Disintegration spell!
Xiao Lin immediately recognized it, but he was not sure if Valen was the one in the prison who had kidnapped them.
The rest of them knew the strength of the Argos clan’s Soul Disintegration spell, and they had already come prepared for it. They either shot out spells to counter it or had their own defensive spells, while the more nimble ones chose to dodge. Other than two of them who got hit due to their lack of skill, the group dispersed, surrounding Valen and cutting off all his escapes.
“Valen! You’re dead!”
A dozen weapons, all with their own glows of energy pierced into Valen. After that, Valen slowly fell, his smile still remaining on his face. They thought the guy was up to something, but he had been slain so easily.
Everyone else looked at each other, and one of them turned around, coughing dryly as he said, “Since Valen is dead, then are we just supposed to simply fight each other next...”
“Ah! Careful!”
Someone shouted out. It seemed like they were from the same clan as the person who spoke earlier. However, his words were a bit too slow, and the man was stunned to find a large hole on his chest, clearly the result of Soul Disintegration.
“Really! I just gave all of you some appetizers. Did you need to be so excited?” Valen had stood up from the ground again, stretching his neck. His wounds seemed to have disappeared.
There was a sudden silence, and the fighting had stopped because of that. Valen’s strange body was writhing. Other than the Soul Disintegration, his hands had turned into sharp weapons, easily piercing through everyone’s hearts.
In just a few minutes, half of those on the stage had collapsed in a puddle of blood. The rest of them quickly retreated, but had more or less sustained injuries. The tables had been turned in a flash.
“Impossible!” everyone shouted out in shock.
Those that attacked had all done so with the intent to kill, and had seen several holes pierced through Valen. Seeing him stand up as if nothing had happened was something that no one knew how to deal with.
“Is Valen a vampire?” Xiao Lin suddenly asked.
“No. Even if he had the const.i.tution of a vampire, he could never stand up after something like that.” The old man replied. He knew what Xiao Lin wanted to ask, and added, “Not every vampire possesses regenerative abilities as strong as Her Highness.”
Ibeiya’s regenerative abilities were indeed capable of being called rising from the dead, but Xiao Lin knew that, no matter what, the girl had ancient blood in her veins. No matter how much the clan had fallen, her blood remained, so her regeneration had an explanation.
However, who was Valen? Necromancers usually had horrible const.i.tutions, and younger necromancers were all humans, so there was no way they had regeneration, let alone something like resurrection.
Xiao Lin’s face was very serious. He had remembered something, but did not dare be certain, so he decided to quietly look on.
The battle was still going on. Even if the sudden resurrection had shocked everyone, there were quickly more challengers who surged forward. Even if he stood back up, Valen’s skills did not seem like much, and the ones who were killed were just unprepared.