Lone got out of his chair and slowly walked towards the strange man. "Uh... Divine Bumblefuck? Really? Doesn't a, uh, council or whatever decide your Divine title?"

The man smiled as he stood there in a languid manner. "Not if you give them the finger and tell them to fuck off. You know a lot for a kid, by the way."

"I'm of a studious nature," Lone replied carefully.

He could definitely feel the Divine power rolling off of him, so he was trying his best to learn what he wanted to know before he even considered fighting the man.

'I was honestly hoping one of the Divine soul oracle brothers would accept my challenge, not this drunk... Oh well, beggars can hardly be choosers, plus, he seems to wield a halberd. That's a polearm like my optimal weapon is... Maybe I can learn a lot from him,' Lone thought optimistically.

Nodding before hiccuping, Divine Bumblefuck smiled. "A nerd, eh? Ain't nothin' wrong with readin' a book or two. 'The learned are the empowered' or some other mystical bullshit."

"... So... Uh, how do you want to fight? With your halberd, I assume, right?" Lone asked.

The man stared at Lone with narrowed eyes, then at his halberd, then back at Lone, then back at the halberd. "Huh. I didn't realise I had it with me. Good find, bud."

"What?" Lone was beyond confused. 'Is he fucking with me? He's a Divine, right? How the fuck would he not know that he's holding a fucking halberd?! Is he actually drunk? What kind of alcohol would he have needed to get so plastered as a Divine? Even if he was magic focused and had low Vitality, it'd take more than the full stock of several inns to get him even close to tipsy...'

Lone wasn't the only one arching his brow in perplexion. Most of the crowd were doing the very same.

Of course, a few people found Divine Bumblefuck's attitude amusing, both of those groups were mostly the weakest of the participants - the uneducated commoners, or the slummers who were just here to watch the show and maybe make a few pennies from betting.

As if to answer all questions, Divine Time - Headmaster Erion - spoke into everyone's ears softly. "Divine Bumblefuck is a very close friend of mine. Please do not mind his mannerisms. He has a very good reason to be intoxicated. I simply suggest you sit back and relax as we all watch him and my dear disciple battle. I am sure it will be a duel which will be spoken of for many ages to come."

'Seriously?' Lone thought. 'The headmaster seriously just said 'Divine Bumblefuck' without cracking up? How long has he known this guy to be so comfortable with such a funny and weird name?'

Burping lightly, Divine Bumblefuck pucker his lips, slightly sullying his otherwise handsome and rugged looks. "There you have it, bud. Wanna come at me first? Ain't no sense in me wiping the floor with ya in less than 2-seconds and all of that. Erion asked me to put on a show or whatever."

"Should I hold Saturn or are you happy if I let it do what I tell it? It's a sentient artefact with a newborn ego, after all," Lone asked.

Divine Bumblefuck shrugged. "Ego smehgo. Just attack me and stop stallin'. I'm fallin' asleep over here."

Lone nodded. He needed no further encouragement. "Saturn, the usual."

The Divine Soul Prison hummed in joy before it extended its Primal essence blades and hovered near Lone defensively.

Lone tightly gripped his lexicon and Eternal Mana Crystal before he used his most powerful magical skill, "Kindling of Mana."

Dense spirals of raw magical power gushed out of the very arena itself as it poured towards Lone's lexicon.

They gathered and gathered seemingly endlessly. Lone was a bit worried that his lexicon would break, in fact. That was how strong the force of his spell was.

'This can usually level an entire building on its own even if I use only a fraction of its normal power, but now it's all full blast and is being magnified by 3-times... It'll be 3-times faster too, though this spell has been my slowest attack ever since I created it. I wonder if he'll try to dodge?' Lone thought.

He quickly forced the ball of blue ethereal flames to move out of his lexicon as he designated the target to be Divine Bumblefuck's chest. 'It's slow, but I've never seen it miss when I've given it a target. Don't live to regret your words, Divine Bumblefuck.'

Lone and Saturn, as well as the entire crowd, watched in trepidation as the small but immensely powerful ball of fire crept its way across the arena to the still stationary and struggling to stand Divine Bumblefuck.

"Huh. That's some powerful fire, bud," Divine Bumblefuck commented as his eyes flickered before he snapped then open. "Ah, don't go fallin' asleep, ya dimwit."

He yawned lightly then shook his head. "Well, I've got a few options here, but I guess I should stop it with ol' Taint Shredder here."

'Taint Shredder?' Lone asked mentally. 'That powerful halberd is fuckin' called Taint Shredder? Credit where credit's due, he's got a hilarious sense of humour. That or he's batshit insane, but there's a pretty blurry line between the two.'

"Oh, no, no... Don't fall over... C'mon, legs. Work with me here, not against me. It wasn't that much Umbral Essence. Only, what, six bottles? Or was it sixty?" the Divine looked a bit distressed as he casually swept his halberd the moment the Kindling of Mana floated within the weapon's reach.

Unbelievably, without any energy fluctuations or skill incantations whatsoever, the flame was cut in half effortlessly and then it just... dissipated.

Divine Bumblefuck grinned as he steadied himself once more with the butt end of his halberd. "Got any faster moves? I wanna do my warm-up stretches before I get serious."

'... Did he legitimately just... Get rid of a Kindling of Mana like it was nothing? I'm confident that it could seriously injure if not kill even a triple-X-ranker... Hell, it even burnt Rachel before she gained mastery over it. Just how wide is the gap between the triple-X-rank and the Divine-rank?' Lone wondered.

Regardless, Lone put his lexicon into his Dimensional Storage since it was clearly going to be useless here.

Divine Bumblefuck had just nullified his most powerful spell, so the only option now was to go full melee.

Lone manipulated his bones to activate his sub-skill, Bone Armour. He then grabbed Saturn and lowered his stance. "I don't really have a proper technique for fighting with my swordspear just yet. If you saw my fight with Red Spear's leader, then you know my current skill level."

Divine Bumblefuck nodded in a relaxed manner. "Yeah, I know. You're two entire realms lower than me. Of course whatever you know is weak as turds, that freaky-deaky armour though... That's got potential. Really, all of your unique skills so far seem fun. Must be cool bein' a summoned hero. Never heard of someone with more than one unique-aroony though. You learn somthin' new every day."

"The world's a big place," Lone answered vaguely and with a shrug.

The Divine just nodded lazily. As the seconds ticked on by, he seemed to be getting more and more sober. He now only needed one hand to hold onto his halberd in order to not fall over.

"Well, bud, we ain't got all day. I'm growin' old over here. Wanna try smackin' me around for a bit before I lose my patience and wipe the floor with ya?" Divine Bumblefuck casually requested.

'Right, he's a Divine, I'm an SSS-ranker. This is how things should be, I suppose. Stop worrying, you idiot. You fought an Ancient once!... A severely weakened Ancient, but an Ancient all the same,' Lone thought. "Yeah, sorry for the delay."

Lone took a deep breath and a look of determination filled his expression. 'Both Ele'hunda and Lipsilk walked circles around me when I fought them. This guy's a whole rank stronger than them... Let's see if I can touch him without trying to kill him.'

Lone stormed across the field with godly speeds. Anyone under the rank of A couldn't even see his after image, that's simply how fast he was.

He quickly brought one of Saturn's blades down with the full assistance of his new battle technique.

Every ounce of his strength was put into the swing and Lone was confident that he could create a canyon with an attack this powerful.

Divine Bumblefuck sniffed his nose loudly as his lazy eyes glanced at the incoming strike. "Fast, but no aura. Thick Primal essence, mind you, but you're not controllin' it even though you're a Primal avatar, the orb is."

He raised up his free hand and flicked the glowing blade of the Immortal Slaying Swordspear lightly.

"What the-!" The pressure on Lone's arm was insane. He was lifted off his feet and sent rocketing into the side of the arena.

He slammed violently into the protective enchantments, threatening to shatter them with the force of his flight alone.

His bone armour splintered and cracked, but it didn't shatter completely, only the part covering the arm holding Saturn was turned to dust from the force of the finger flick, thankfully.

Saturn's blade, on the other hand, had fared far worse. It fragmented into raw Primal essence, free of a solid form, and thus dissipated and returned to Altros.

Lone's mind went fuzzy as he collapsed. Not a second later, he stumbled back up to his feet and saw that his arm was completely free of any bone armour whatsoever and it had twisted backwards.

Not only that, but the limb was covered in blood and the skin had cracked at every possible point.

The arm was trembling violently as a grotesque sound like no other issued out from the limb when Regeneration got to work and corrected all of the damage.

Congratulations! the host's unique subskill [Bone Armour] has levelled up! It is now Master Level 7. Congratulations! the host's unique skill [Regeneration] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 6. Congratulations! the host's passive skill [Physical Pain Resistance] has levelled up! It is now Master Level 4.

Divine Bumblefuck wore a surprised look on his face. "Wow. You actually lived. I didn't believe Erion at all when he said you could survive 10% of my strength, but tickle my bumhole and call me Sally, I was wrong."

His posture was a bit better than earlier and his face was wearing a slight frown, but it wasn't directed at Lone. "I'm shocked your armour didn't shatter entirely. I mean, people call me the ninth Ancient and everything! Must be one hell of a powerful skill."

'The ninth ancient? The fuck? Is he the strongest Divine then? Maybe the closest to becoming an Ancient?' Lone was confused, of course, but above all of that, he was excited.

'One attack and two of my master-rank skills levelled up! This is a golden chance to evolve them! Maybe get a few rank-ups for Regeneration too! That's a tough one to level from what I've seen thus far of it, so I can't let this chance pass me by,' Lone thought.

He glanced down at Saturn which was trying its best to regather the lost Primal essence.

Thankfully, the ego item with an unidentifiable rank was indestructible like the Eternal Mana Crystal was, otherwise, Lone was confident that Divine Bumblefuck's finger flick would have destroyed it with ease.

"You said I'm not controlling the Primal essence. Should I be?" Lone asked as he reformed the lost bone armour - it now being stronger than ever.

Divine Bumblefuck scratched his head. "Uh, yeah? Ego or not, that's a fuckin' item, bud. Thing doesn't know right from left without you telling it which way is which. Havin' intelligence ain't the same as being intelligent."

Lone was taken aback by those words. "I've never thought of that..."

Indeed, if he could control the Primal essence he could more pointedly direct it, move it to his will.

With Saturn, the essence was either on or it wasn't. There was no middle-ground.

Were Lone the one managing it, however, he could change the shape of the blades, the intensity of the Primal essence, maybe he could even use it for sneak attacks instead of having to be as forceful as he usually was.

'If I could control it back when I fought Ythmagobla, maybe I could have timed it to have more efficiently blocked his Darkness breath?' Ideas flooded his mind.

"Can you teach me how to do that?" Lone asked. "Manipulate Primal essence."

"Fuck no I can't. I'm here to fight you but not kill you. I ain't no teacher. Learn it on your own. You're a Primal avatar, ain't ya?" An annoyed look appeared on Divine Bumblefuck's face as some pain coursed through his body. "Ah, shit. I'm getting sober. Let's hurry up and do this, bud. I can't stay here for that much longer."