Miles looked at the seven-fingered figure with surprise. He was too strong, way too strong. But that wasn’t the issue. He was too brutal. He too killed a man in the competition, but severing the opponent in eight pieces without even greeting was too brutal.

“Bastard, show yourself!” One of the Extol-Rank hunters shouted to the figure, but the figure ignored him. He returned back to the waiting area on the metallic squid and looked at others waiting. He raised his hand and seven fingers turned into claws once again. He was about to attack people while he was outside of the arena, but it wasn’t that easy.

The arena felt the killing intent and blocked the attack with a barrier. When the Extol-Rank fighter that was about to be attacked felt relieved, the barrier cracked with a loud boom, exploded.

“Attack him together!” A woman with a military uniform shouted with the top of her voice. Miles recognized the woman, it was his father’s aide Helez. She was a colonel in the army and was post commander of a stronghold in the E-Circle. When people around her heard, they cooled down and started to gather around her.

“Take the audience away, and Extol-Rank fighters break the barriers around the stage. Save the low-tier hunters from the arena while we deal with this monster!” Helez shouted once again. One by one, soldiers rose from their seats and helped people, who had now gone mental, leave organizedly. The cloaked figure looked at the Form and Grunt-Rank hunters stuck in the arena with scorn before turning his attention back to Extol-Rank hunters.

E-Rank fighters, who had come to watch the competition, started to attack the barrier separating the arena from the seats. Tens of Extols couldn’t break the barrier, which only showed how strong the seven-fingered figure was— he broke it by himself after all.

“Sir, you have to leave, now.” A soldier approached Miles and wanted him to leave. Miles projected his identity on his wristwatch and said coolly, “Help others first, I can take care of myself.”

“Yes, sir.” The soldier saluted and left to help others. Miles looked around the people and noticed Merlin, attacking the barrier with a variety of attacks, his eyes were bloodshot. In the meantime, Extol-Rank fighters were fighting with the seven-fingered figure and giant squid beneath him. The squid itself was stronger than most of the E-Rank fighters. It could bring people around into their knees with strong gravity.

For the first time ever, Miles saw an ultimate of a person in Extol-Rank appearing in the air. It was one of the Extols using it. A giant shield appeared in the air to block incoming tentacles of the squids. When half of the attacks collided with the shield, it stopped their advance.

The cloaked figure looked at the shield and raised his hand. Seven fingers turned into claws once again. All Extol-Rank participants basked in lights as ultimates appeared one after another. There was a giant axe, a bird of fire, a bear made of rocks, and a plant with poisonous liquid. Helez’s ultimate was a cape. Unlike others’ hers sat on her shoulders and when it did, Helez disappeared from where she was standing.

She appeared behind the monster and attacked with a dagger glazing green color. It was obviously poisoned. The monster could hardly avoid the attack, and if he couldn’t, a hole at the side of his stomach would appear. But unfortunately, he dodged and only scratched from his side.

He swung his trunk-like arms to sway away pestering humans to hit air only. Helez has long vanished again.

The axe, firebird, and plant also started to attack the figure, while a giant shield went to protect G and F-Rank participants. The seven-fingered figure fought while moving towards the participant who had died in the hands of the cloaked figure. He took the wristwatch from one of the eight pieces and brought it in front of his chest.

A beam of light shone from the necklace and covered the wristwatch. After a few minutes, a voice heard, “Language acquired. Interpretation started. Simultaneous translation activated.”

“You pitiful humans!” Voice came from the necklace again, but at the same time, in a foreign language, the figure was speaking too, almost drowning the voice coming from the necklace. “There is no fun in killing weaklings! I will not attack those pitiful trash humans! This is just a declaration of war and I, Quk, as the embassy of the Apollo race to let you know that your time is limited!

My race will invade your world soon. This is just a formal visit to declare our challenge. When you approached our mother planet, did you really think we failed to notice you? You wish! Clean your necks and wait for us. When my race descends you will kneel on the ground to greet our arrival, or we will kill every one of you. Now let me have a good death!

Stop protecting weaklings, and fight with me with everything you have!”

Miles walked Merlin and asked, “Is this one of the aliens your squad has seen in space?” He wasn’t just guessing. When Merlin was on a space expedition, he encountered aliens. Although they speak about it before, they haven’t shared too many details. Now that he saw the figure, the way the figure handled the orb and how he fought didn’t remind him of monsters but a sentient race.

“Yes. Seven fingers, giant figures. Fucking same aliens!” Merlin’s eyes were bloodshot. His hands were bloody from attacking the barrier, but the barrier still stood strong. Although this barrier was a lot stronger than one separating participants, it still showed how strong the seven-fingered figure was.

Miles looked at the fights going on. He was too weak to interfere. He couldn’t even make a dent on the barrier with his pitiful power, nor could he fight against the monster alien. So, he just watched with hatred. His hands were clenched, his nails stinging his hand. He hated being powerless, yet there he was, most useless among all people there.

His father’s aide, Helez had the Shadow Bind superpower, allowing her to bind people through their shadows. From what Miles could see, she had Heart Seed, and she was masterful at using the dark and shadow elements. She was vanishing and appearing all around the seven-fingered figure and attacked him with swords made of darkness and the poisonous dagger.

“Such a foul weapon! Not honorable at all! Why not fight like a real warrior, but resort to weak approaches?” Alien’s thundering voice was heard once again. Miles looked at him with surprise. He said he wanted a good death and despised poison. Acted like he wanted an honorable death.

The skin of the monster was still strong and the dark sword could barely perforate it. The green blood flowing over purple skin looked bizarre, but the monster didn’t seem to notice at all. He was fighting with Extol-Rank fighters and already killed another two. His claws were unstoppable and like beams of light, it cut through anything it went through.

At some point, the giant mechanical squid blasted in pieces, but the alien didn’t seem to notice at all. Normally humans would turn the orb back into its original form before it got destroyed since it would heal on its own in time, or if they were desperate, they would explode the orb. But the alien watched it get destroyed.

After attacking for more than ten minutes, E-Rank fighters finally broke the barrier, and Merlin with Miles jumped over the wall. Quinn and others were already waiting in terror and ran away as soon as the barrier broke. After F and G-Rank hunters were saved, Extols from the audience joined the participants and started to attack the figure altogether. Attacks of all forms and elements rained on the figure. At first, the figure could still cope with attacks, but after some time the cloak over his body tore into pieces and revealed his full form for the first time.

It was a three meters tall purple giant. Its head had two yellow eyes just like humans, and two ears. One nose, two lips, hairs. It looked as humanoid as he could. Except for the skin color and seven fingers, one could easily mix it with a human. The figure looked at the tens of hunters with murderous eyes with a smile of joy on his face. It grabbed one of the hunters wincing in pain on the ground and pulled out the arm from its joint.

“Fight! Fight! Fight! Let’s fight until death!” He roared with excitement.

After this little speech, Helez took control of the battlefield and charged at the enemy to finish him.

“Merlin, I need that necklace. Don’t let it fall in someone else’s hands.” Miles talked to Merlin quickly and started to dash towards the monster. It wouldn’t be long before it died, and he had to grab that necklace to learn whatever it was hiding. Only Coin was able to do it before it self-destructed. “Be careful so he wouldn’t self-explode the necklace!”