Chapter 96: Something of Mine

BAAAAANG!

BAAAAAANG!

BAAAAAANG!

BAAAAAANG!

It became an endless cycle of Aren smashing his opponent’s head into the ground.

Again, and again and again.

The crater beneath them widened with every impact, while more and more blood began filling the potholes.

After smashing Arlo’s head against the ground for dozens of time, Aren finally grew bored.

He rose to his feet, wrapped one hand around Arlo’s neck, and lifted him into the air.

"I expected more from you. I thought that with you being stronger than each one of us individually, you would prove to be quite the difficult opponent to handle.

"But I guess I was wrong..."

He raised his right hand and clenched it into a fist, powerful dark mana covering his knuckles.

Then he punched directly toward Arlo’s face.

BAAAAAANG!

Arlo’s body crashed into the ground, creating another gigantic crater.

"Mmmmhhh, guess you really do have a lot of golden cards, and a fancy sword too, huh?"

Aren said, his eyes flashing with greed as he stared at Arlo’s spatial ring.

Even the cards they had managed to amass over nearly three days weren’t even half the number Arlo had gathered.

’If he’s such a weakling, then how did he manage to amass such a huge number of cards?’ Aren couldn’t help but wonder.

Still, he simply shrugged and slid the ring onto his finger, preparing to leave.

Only to suddenly feel something wrapped around his leg.

Before he could react, the force violently dragged him back down toward the ground.

Turning to look behind him, Aren saw his defeated opponent standing there, looking more miserable than ever.

His body was crouched slightly, his head lowered, and his eyes cast downward.

"You have something that should have belonged only to me."

His voice rang out through the surroundings, causing Aren’s eyes to narrow as he unconsciously took two steps backward.

The voice.

It was nothing like anything he had ever heard from his opponent before.

It was thick, brutal, and harsh to the ears, like two pieces of metal scraping violently against each other.

Yet what frightened him the most was the deep, dark tone behind it, almost like a devil speaking directly from the depths of hell.

"Something of yours? Oh, this?" Aren replied sarcastically, pointing toward the ring in his hand.

"Oh yeah, sure, you can have it back. That is, if you can take it back, piece of trash..." he roared, forcing down his fear as he threw a powerful punch toward Arlo’s face.

Yet the fist halted only a few centimeters away from Arlo’s face, caught by a simple pair of hands brimming with flaming dark mana.

The powerful punch had done nothing more than cause Arlo’s hair to flutter behind his head.

But it had also revealed something abysmally dangerous.

Aren could now see it for himself.

This was no longer Arlo.

Before him was still Arlo, but half of his face had changed.

One of his eyes was pitch black, oozing mana like a Vorath being, while the other side of his face was completely different.

His pupil was crimson, the color of blood, and beneath that eye, on his cheek, a small dark face could be seen.

A face that was currently smiling sinisterly at him.

"Who the... Who the hell are you!!!" Aren roared in horror as he struggled to pull his hand away.

It didn’t move.

His hand remained completely unflinching within Arlo’s grasp.

Immediately, Aren reacted frantically, swinging his right hand toward Arlo.

BAAAAAAANG!

The fist connected perfectly with Arlo’s face, yet his head didn’t move even an inch.

Aren didn’t dare to stop, unleashing an endless barrage of punches.

BOOOOOM!

BOOOOOM!

BOOOOOM!

BOOOOOM!

Blood sprayed through the air as Aren violently smashed his fists against his opponent, raining down blow after blow until his own right arm eventually went numb from the relentless assault.

He finally stopped, staring at his opponent, who was still gripping his right arm.

Blood dripped from every inch of Arlo’s body.

Cuts and bruises covered his face and body from the endless punches, soaking his clothes in deep crimson.

Yet he was still staring down at Aren with that same strange, wanting gaze.

"You have something that belongs... only to me."

The voice reached Aren’s ears once more.

Only now did he understand that the voice wasn’t coming from Arlo’s mouth.

It was coming from the tiny face on the left side of Arlo’s face.

’I delivered countless blows to him from such close range, and he didn’t even dodge.

He didn’t even flinch and his grip on my hand didn’t loosen even once.

’He is not a Vorath. No Vorath has a transformation like this. It’s like... it’s like he’s been taken over.’

’Could he be... could he be one of those people...?’

BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANG!!!!

BLLLLLLEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!

Suddenly, an overwhelming wave of pain flooded through Aren’s entire body.

Its source was his stomach, where a fist had been brutally driven into his abdomen.

In the next instant, he coughed out a massive amount of blood, the crimson liquid splashing across Arlo’s body and bathing him completely.

BAAAANG!

BAAAAAAANG!

BAAAAAAAAAANG!

Nothing could stop his backward momentum as Arlo repeatedly smashed him through various desolate wooden structures before finally driving him into the ground.

BLLLEEERRRRGGHHHH!

Aren immediately stopped on his knees, another wave of blood spilling from his lips.

BAAAANG!

Suddenly, the ground beneath his face crumbled apart.

Through his blurred vision, he saw the leg of a figure standing before him and slowly, he raised his head.

"You... have... something... meant only for... me," it said once more.

Aren immediately removed Arlo’s ring from his finger and placed it at his feet.

Yet before the ring could even touch the ground, everything went black.

A leg violently smashed against his face, sending him crashing away from the scene.

STEPPPP!

Arlo stepped forward and placed his foot directly on the ring lying at his feet, not even sparing it a glance before shooting toward Aren once more.

"SCREW WHAT CULT YOU JOIN!!! DIIIEEEE!!!!" Aren roared furiously as he forcefully smashed his feet against the ground.

In his fury, two gigantic balls made entirely of mana formed around his hands, which he immediately flung toward the rapidly approaching Arlo.

Arlo’s right hand jerked backward.

His hand rapidly turned white as his claws grew longer and longer.

Then he slashed outward with immense force toward the two balls of mana.

"EXPLODE!"

The roar came from behind the mana balls.

Arlo’s claws slashed across one of them, ripping five clear lines through its surface.

And the moment he did...

BOOOOOOOOOOOM!

It exploded directly against] his face, sending him reeling backward with tremendous force.

"DIIIIIIIIIEEEEE!!!!" Aren roared as he tore through the explosion of mana and appeared directly before Arlo.

His tentacles immediately lashed outward, wrapping around Arlo’s leg and dragging him closer.

Then both of his hands jerked backward.

"I am anything but weak!!!"

Aren roared as a powerful wave of mana suddenly formed a strange gauntlet around his fists.

Immediately, the fist fight began.

He rained down punches with every ounce of power he possessed, but Arlo was never even a single second behind him.

He immediately pulled both arms backward and responded.

BAAAAANG!

BAAAAAAAANG!

BAAAAAAAANG!

BAAAAAAAAAANG!

The entire ground crumbled into nothingness as powerful waves of air and destruction rippled outward in every direction, while a mushroom cloud of dark mana rose into the sky.

Aren went completely all out, intending to brutalize the figure that had frightened him so deeply.

He wanted nothing more than to destroy him and watch the great fear inside his heart be pummeled into the ground beneath his fists.

Yet even after going all out, he ]was matched completely by his opponent.

Their fists collided again and again, and with every collision, Aren felt as though countless pins were digging into his hands.

As their brutal exchange continued, the pain only grew more intense until eventually, all he could see and feel was pain.

Yet like muscle memory, his hands never stopped punching furiously.

And at the corner of his vision, he could see that dark face’s sinister smile widening.

"STRUGGLE! LET ME SEE YOU STRUGGLEEE!!!!"

"DIIII... BLEEEERRRRGHHH!"

PUUUUCHHHHII!

The sound of something sharp suddenly digging into flesh resounded as blood splashed from Aren’s body.

His eyes widened in shock, noticing a total of four arms had pierced into his stomach.

And his opponent now possessed six arms.

SQUUUUIIIIIRRRRMMMM!

The sound of intestines being violently crushed resounded as the four claws dug deeper and deeper into Aren’s stomach, blood pouring from the wound in massive amounts.

"You have something... of mine," it said once more.

Slowly, the light began fading from Aren’s eyes.

He had already suffered a fatal blow to his stomach, and now, with the claws embedded deep inside him and his intestinal organs being slowly torn apart, his end was drawing near.

’I... am... dying. He’s really trying... to kill... me...’

He whispered internally with shock and unwillingness as he stared at Arlo’s face and that terrible smile.

Only now did he truly understand what kind of monster he had been dealing with.

"Perhaps... perhaps I should have accepted your truce."

"You have something that should only belong to me..."

Those were the last words he heard before,

RIIIIIIIIIIP!

Suddenly, a spatial portal tore open behind him, causing Arlo’s eyes to narrow, but only for a moment.

In the next, he tapped his leg against the ground, retreating backwards.

His hands embedded in Aren’s body tore free as he hurriedly retreated, yet it seemed he was still too slow.