Mike was sure now. Someone else had to somehow lend his gift to the challenger! While he could amount to the decreased weight to some kind of gift, there was no way that it could also allow such a rapid regeneration to recover the tendons right after they were cut!

Xyenna jumped away a few paces to gain the distance. Gritting her teeth, she pushed her shoulder back in place. Her face grimaced in pain, but she kept her eyes open to watch for her enemy attack. With her hand pressed against her arm, she waited for the enemy response.

Marcus on the other side didn"t hurry at all. He stretched himself with a delighted smile barely visible from behind his helmet. As he moved forward, there were no hints of trouble with his walk! His leg was definitely fine!

Looking at the events on the arena, Mike tightened his hands into fists. Looking at the girl"s expression, even from so far away he could spot the small wrinkles appearing around her eyes, indicating how infuriating the situation was for her. Sooner than later, she would give in to her bloodl.u.s.t and enter her berserk mode! There was no way he could allow that!

Struggling to stop observing the duel, Mike managed to turn his head to the Damash. His frozen face proved that he had the same line of thought as the merchant. They had to do something; Otherwise, the duel would be just a compet.i.tion on whose blessing was stronger. Xyenna"s sword mastery or all of the gifts poured over the Marcus!

There wasn"t much time. Not only they had to locate the culprit, but he also had to be stopped and brought away. Otherwise, unbeknownst to them, all of their efforts might just go to waste if he escaped.

From what Mike saw, a lot of people around them were moving around as if their lives depended on it, trying to spot some unusual act of a random stranger. Considering the enormous crowd gathered for the duel, this task was comparable to looking for a needle in the haystack!

When Mike pupils were dilating more and more, he finally saw one of the guards jumping up and down. This unusual action was enough to attract his sight, as it was for Damash. When the guard realised that he was looked at, he raised his head and pointed at a certain group on the other side of the arena.

"Did they really think that the distance could stop me?" Mike thought as his face darkened. Lowering his posture, he ignored the ongoing duel. The only way he could try to figure out the events on the stage was by the variety of metallic sounds and pained moans reaching his ears.

He ignored the Damash and his underlings. Using all of his experience gained through the formation years back in Latavia, Mike moved through the crowd. Instead of trying to force his way against the spectators, he did something opposite. By allowing himself to float on top of the small movements of the entire ma.s.s of people, he was squeezing through them delicately, using every gap that appeared. While Damash forces were just smashing the people out of their way, he appeared to just move along with the waves circulating through the entire field!

"I will kill those b.a.s.t.a.r.ds" With every step taken, the usual, light glitter in his eyes was replaced by a fark flame, slowly climbing up his eyeb.a.l.l.s. The closer he got to his target, the feebler his body appeared to be. Lowered head, bent knees, hands gently hanging along his sides. The normal merchant-like appearance disappeared completely, turning him into yet another observer already bored by the fight.

"She is still holding on." Allowing himself only a short looks at the fight, he noticed that Xyenna, while barely, was still able to fend of Marcus attacks. Already bleeding from several cuts on her body, it was a matter of minutes before she would lose!

"Wait, what?" Comprehending one fact made Mike stop in his tracks and focus on the fight for a moment. All the usual signs indicating a person going into the rage of their gift disappeared from the girl"s face! Hazy expression was replaced by one of focus, fluid movements turned stiff. She wasn"t able to enter her fighting stance!

On the other hand, Marcus was in his best form! Swinging his axe right and left, there was no sign of him bothering about the defence anymore!
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"I can"t!"

Mike disciplined himself. There was no point standing in place and lamenting over the changes in the arena! If he wanted to help, he had to move!

Feeling the hotness slowly spreading through his body, Mike ignored all the noise surrounding him. With every step, he got just a bit closer to the interfering party!

When he judged that the distance was finally short enough, he raised his head to take a look at the group before acting. Unleashing his wrath wasn"t necessarily the best course of action here. Those people had to be defended by a huge number of guards hidden among the crowd. He had to figure out a way to interrupt them without….

Just as he was trying to find a way to finish the matter peacefully, he saw Ritzy watching the duel with a wide smile plastered on his face. But that kid wasn"t the one to draw his attention. It was a hooded man standing next to him. Despite the hood he was wearing, Mike could make out the contour of his face. With familiar, slight movements of his hand raised to his mouth, merchant instantly realized who he was!

His mind went blank.

While Mike was keeping his composture before, he completely lost it now!

Turning to the duel, he kept his head low and continued to move sideways. Pretending to watch the fight, Mike crept closer and closer to his target. Shouting loudly when others did so, gasping for air when the crowd was stunned by a showy attack. Moving in this manner brought him to the arm"s reach of his desired target.

Making sure that he was squeezed in between random people that surrounded the group, Mike pulled one of his daggers and kept it tugged to his abdomen. When the opportune moment came and people cheered yet again, merchant reached with his knife under the arm of the person in front of him and stabbed some random guy in the back. Retracing his knife as swiftly as he attacked, he started moving backwards.

When the loud cheering finally subsidised, scattered guards noticed the pained screams and commotion created by them! With the duel slowly coming to an end, something was bound to happen!

With them desperately rushing to control the situation before it gets out of the hand, Mike used one of the pa.s.sages created by guards forcing the people out of their way. Reaching the border of the open s.p.a.ce, he judged the distance and threw his dagger!

Thanks to its special construction, it didn"t make any sound while flying through the air. Not even an expert would be able to guard against it, not to speak a monk focusing all of his attention on his task!

Not bothering to observe the effects of his actions, Mike sank into the crowd and started circulating the targeted group. He couldn"t say for sure than Nemarien was the only one responsible for Xyenna trouble, hence he kept moving until he was again close enough to strike a hit.

Observing the people around was the very basic of hiding in it. Only by acting similarly, one would be able to fool the eyes looking for suspects. Even if he wanted to repeat his previous action, it was already impossible. Nearby people already got distracted by both the stabbed man and the a.s.sa.s.sination, so they didn"t watch the duel anymore. But that didn"t mean there wasn"t any opportunity there!

Reaching the open spot where his targets resided, Mike pulled another dagger, brought it to his neck and jumped forward, instantly falling face down to the ground!

Startled by yet another unexpected event, guards - this time gathered around the people they were supposed to protect - rushed to the crowd, trying to catch the murderer!

As expected, they mistook Mike for yet another victim of the a.s.sa.s.sin!

Feeling the minuscule vibration of the ground as the armed people pa.s.sed him, Mike waited a short while. Hearing the sounds of people complaining and falling moving, he rushed forward.

Pushing himself with his left hand, he kicked the ground and threw himself forward. There was no need to distinguish any person from another. Everyone in the group took part in this scheme. They all could just die!

Opening his eyes as wide as he was able to, Mike spotted his first target. Old, dressed in expensive robes. Two more men behind him still watching the duel. One man and a woman on his left, turning their heads to him. Nemarien lying on the side with Ritzy holding his hand. Perfect.

Approaching from the right side of the old man, he reverted his right-hand grip on the knife. Still on the fly, he slashed old man"s throat and pushed him away with his free hand. After the first attack, those people were bound to react. Be it running or defending themselves, throwing a dying body on them would for sure hinder their action.

With the momentum on both of his arms, Mike didn"t even bother to stabilise his footing. As he was already tilted forward, he allowed himself to slip, managing to reach the woman"s heart with his knife thanks to that. Pulling his left leg as high as he could, he turned sideways and kicked on the once beautiful corpse to launch himself at the young man, slashing both of his eyes.

With one, fluid movement, three of his targets were either dead, handicapped or living their last seconds. Now, nothing obstructed his way towards Nemarien!

With the bloodl.u.s.t igniting his blood, Mike could feel all of his senses sharpening. Not sure if his previous throw ended this despicable man"s life, he has fallen on the monk"s body. When Ritzy tried to raise his head to check the sudden commotion out, Mike already grabbed the dagger with his left hand and slashed it upwards, aiming at young guy throat.

While this move ruptured half of Nemarien"s chest open, Xantia"s stupid manager just experienced his most fortunate moment. By a stroke of luck, he slipped on his knees falling down on the corpse and avoiding the lethal hit!

There was no time to waste. Mike rolled sideways in the crowd"s direction. Making sure to turn its back on the people to hide the bloodstains on his robes, he shouted while dropping the knife in his left hand.

"MURDERER!"

Pointing with the now free palm at the Ritzy, Mike backed out and merged with the confused crowd. Whether the ma.s.ses would kill the fortunate kid or not, it didn"t matter. While the whole action took just a few seconds, the guards were already on their way back and the remaining two men readied themselves for the fight. With that, even if they were capable of interfering with the duel before, they lost that chance.

As he moved to the denser parts of the crowd, Mike noticed approaching Damash"s party. Yet again using the gaps and the people"s own movement, merchant squeezed through the people to the friendly n.o.ble.

"You don"t need to bother yourself with them anymore. It"s better to leave now."

Despite numerous and well-armed warriors following the n.o.ble, there wasn"t any point in engaging those people. Not bothered to either explain the situation to his colleague in the scheme, the merchant turned around and looked at the illusion in the air.

With the cheating party now cut out of the picture, the situation on the ring changed as well.

Instead of flailing his axe around, Marcus just stood on the spot, with confusion written all over his head. Apparently, during the duel, he took his helmet down to provoke Xyenna into attacking him!

On the other side, swordmistress stood stunned in a similar way. She brought her hand up to look at them as if looking if something happened to them. After a short moment though, she lowered them and showed her opponent a wide smile.

Instantly, the tables have turned! The girl that mostly tried to dodge enemy attacks and simply run away to tire him down, started attacking!

Holding to both her elegant sword and st.u.r.dy knife, she approached Marcus and turned the fight into a close distance one. As the man tried to mount an attack, she simply blocked the axe by countering locking her knife between the blade the man"s weapon handle.

With the enemy weapon blocked, she was free to attack him however she wanted with her sword! Daring not to attack his head outright, she just stabbed right into his armpit! Disengaging him as soon as the blade reached satisfactory depth, Xyenna paced back and waited for the man"s reaction.

As expected, this time Marcus showed a proper expression of pain! Stumbling hardly on one knee, he brought his hand to the wound. Seeing that he held his weapon only with his left hand, Xyenna didn"t hesitate for long. Taking just a few steps to gain some speed, she made a perfect fencing stance before slashing with her weapon diagonally.

The stunned audience was so silent at that moment that the slight "thump" when Marcu"s head has fallen to the ground seemed to reverberate through the whole arena. As the blood fountained from the neck freed from its previous burden, the man"s body felt forward with a characteristic, metallic clang.

Not bothering to dodge the blood spewing from the body, Xyenna"s body instantly became bloodied. Only then, the crowd woke up from their stupor and erupted in cheers!