Chapter 116: Chapter 116: The Blood of the Runaway

[Author’s Note: The following Chapter contains scenes of extreme graphic violence and gore. Reader discretion is heavily advised.]

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Chapter 116: The Blood of the Runaway

An hour later, the Iron Colosseum was shaking.

The news of the challenge had spread through the capital like wildfire. Every single seat in the massive underground arena was packed.

The citizens of the Forge had abandoned their factories and workshops to witness this moment. They roared with absolute and deafening fury.

They knew the man standing in the ring had funded the cult that slaughtered their neighbors and attacked their city. They wanted blood.

I stood in the center of the sand, perfectly still. My crimson and gold Ironclad armor gleamed under the heavy arcane spotlights.

Valerius stood thirty paces away. He had removed his suit jacket, rolling up his sleeves.

His silver rapier glowed with a sickening purple light. He looked at the roaring crowd with absolute disgust.

"Look at these filthy animals," Valerius shouted over the noise, pointing his blade at me. "I will silence them all when I take your head!"

The starting bell rang.

Valerius vanished.

His speed was incredible. He crossed the arena in a fraction of a second, moving faster than the mortal eye could track.

He appeared directly beside my left flank, thrusting his rapier at the joint of my armor.

Sparks flew as the blade scraped against my plating.

He moved again, becoming a blur of purple light and silver steel. He unleashed a barrage of lightning-fast strikes.

He aimed for my neck, my knees, and the thin gaps in my heavy carapace.

I did not take a single step forward. I simply stood my ground.

I raised my brass Vanguard Arm, using precise minimal movements to deflect the fatal blows.

The rest of his strikes I simply allowed to hit my armor, taking the heavy impacts without flinching.

Valerius misunderstood my stillness. He saw my lack of movement as weakness. He thought his speed was completely overwhelming my senses.

"Is this the speed of a King?" Valerius laughed, his voice echoing from every direction as he circled me.

"You cannot even track my movements! You are nothing but a slow and pathetic beast trapped in a metal shell!"

I kept my eyes forward, watching his footwork. I was not overwhelmed. I was simply analyzing his attack patterns and gauging the flow of his mana. I was memorizing his rhythm.

My silence only fed his massive ego. Valerius grew bolder. His strikes became wilder and more arrogant. He stopped aiming for quick kills and started aiming to humiliate me.

"When I tear you out of that suit, I am going to take everything from you," Valerius taunted, thrusting his blade against my chest plate.

"I will take your precious pack. I will claim that beautiful Succubus and the Elven traitor."

His words dripped with venomous and sickening intent.

"I will break their minds," he sneered, laughing as he prepared for a massive leaping strike.

"I will turn them into my personal slaves. I will violate them until they forget your name and beg for mine!"

Valerius poured every ounce of his psychic mana into his rapier. The blade elongated, shining with a blinding and lethal aura.

He launched himself directly at my face, aiming to pierce straight through my glowing visor.

I finally moved.

My right hand snapped upward with terrifying and absolute precision.

CLANG.

I caught the tip of his glowing silver rapier with my bare brass-plated fingers. The momentum of his massive strike died instantly.

Valerius froze in mid-air, his eyes widening in pure and unadulterated shock. He pushed with all his C Grade strength, but the blade would not move a single millimeter.

A catastrophic wave of heat erupted from my core.

The Fire of Rage ignited, exploding from the seams of my armor in a blinding pillar of crimson and gold.

I squeezed my brass fingers. The indestructible silver rapier shattered into dozens of useless pieces.

"Now that is enough of your babbling," I growled, my voice vibrating with the absolute and terrifying weight of my Law.

"You are done for now, you son of a bitch!"

The shattered pieces of the silver rapier fell to the arena floor. They clattered against the stone like broken glass.

I did not look up. I kept my head bowed, the shadow of my Ironclad visor completely obscuring my eyes.

The blinding crimson and gold flames of my Law began to recede, pulling back into my body. The overwhelming and apocalyptic pressure I had projected a moment ago vanished.

The arena fell into a confused and breathless silence.

Valerius Thorne stumbled backward. He looked at his empty hand and then at my motionless and bowed figure.

His arrogant smirk slowly returned, completely misinterpreting the sudden drop in my aura.

"Is that it?" Valerius laughed, his voice echoing off the high stone walls of the colosseum.

"A single burst of parlor magic, and your primitive core is already burnt out? You are just a pathetic beast hiding in a tin can."

I remained completely still. My breathing was slow and measured.

"You should have stayed hidden in the mud," Valerius sneered, summoning a fresh blade of pure condensed purple psychic energy into his hand.

"Do you remember the night you ran from the Academy, Grik? Do you remember the Lich Malacor core?"

My armored fists tightened.

"You were on your knees," the Incubus Lord mocked, pacing like a predator.

"I broke your mind. I had the binding spell completely wrapped around your soul. You were seconds away from becoming my lifelong mindless slave. You were so desperate to escape my leash that you had to mutilate yourself. You had to abandon your comfortable life and run like a rat in the night."

Valerius lunged forward. His speed was absolute.

CLANG!

I brought my brass Vanguard Arm up, parrying the psychic blade at the last possible millisecond. The kinetic shockwave cracked the stone beneath our boots.

I still did not look up.

"I was a student," I whispered, my voice deep and hollow inside the helmet.

Valerius unleashed a flurry of strikes. Purple light rained down on my shoulders, my chest plate, and my arms. I did not retreat a single step.

I met every single strike with my heavy brass fists, trading pure and raw C Grade strength against his refined mind magic.

CLANG! BANG! CRACK!

"I wanted a quiet life," I continued, pushing forward and throwing a massive heavy hook.

Valerius ducked under my fist, slashing his blade across my ribs. The vibranium weave sparked, absorbing the lethal edge.

"You did not want a quiet life," Valerius spat, thrusting for my throat.

"You wanted power you did not deserve! And now I am going to put you back in your chains."

I swatted his blade away with the back of my hand.

"I had to sleep in the freezing mud," I said, my voice growing louder with every block.

"I had to watch my pack bleed. I had to become a monster just to survive the shadows you cast over us."

BOOM!

Our fists collided in the center of the ring. The raw shockwave blasted the sand away in a perfect circle.

I finally raised my head. My eyes were glowing with a terrifying and absolute red light beneath the visor. The black arcane circuits on my neck ignited once again.

"And now," I growled, "I am going to destroy every single person who put that pain into my life. And it starts with you."