As usual at the evening, Sidon’s arena was bustling. It still amazed Kaden how many people were interested in just watching and wasting their money there. Well, he wouldn’t be deceived by Sidon’s tricks.

Kaden wandered in casually. Soon he ran into Sidon who must have noticed him coming in.

“Hell, I thought you already changed your mind about coming back to fight”, Sidon told Kaden. “Haven’t seen you since I kicked you out.”

“You didn’t kick me out”, Kaden pointed out. “I walked away myself.”

“Whatever”, Sidon said and waved his hand at Kaden and concentrated back to the bet lists he always so intently kept eye on. “If you want to fight, get in line with an entrance fee. You are lucky people want to fight you, otherwise you would have to reserve your spot earlier.”

“Just give me someone competent to fight and not the usual losers”, Kaden told Sidon. “I want to test my strength.”

Sidon frowned. He had noticed Kaden grew too fast. Then again he knew Kaden had managed to acquire lots of money. Still, he already grew before that. What was up with him? Was it just the experiments? His single mindedness? Perhaps he was a genius? All of the options?

“You’ll get whoever is in line to fight”, Sidon said and left Kaden.

Kaden snorted and paid the entrance fee and sat down to wait. He looked at the fight list to see who was going to be his opponent. Apparently it was supposed to be some guy who specialized in defense.

“Loser”, Kaden thought. “You’ll juts get bounced around eventually, if you only defend.”

After confirming this matter Kaden ignored his upcoming opponent. He knew he had extremely high attack power for his level. Not to mention heavy defense would have less powerful attack and against Kaden, whose flesh was something a top tier dire beast, which was not defensive naturally like, say, a bear would have. What Kaden had really wanted to fight was someone with balanced skill set. High attack power and defense.

While waiting, Kaden pondered structures of formations he had been thinking and that new mana system. There was also that last plan he had got from Trohin’s lab, but it was not something he could accomplish right away. He had played around with that idea a few times, but it was out of his reach. He lacked the knowledge that was not included by Trohin. Maybe with some extra money it was possible to learn.

Then there was the annoucement that his turn had come.

“Haha, what a good fight that last one was!” Sidon announced on his platform. “Next we will have a fighter who some of you might have been missing! Shadow Wing!”

There was cheering at this point.

“Due to some unfortunate reasons, he is no longer fighter of the house so better get your bets in now!” Sidon continued his announcement. “Who knows how many times he will choose to fight! This might be your last chance!”

Sidon really did know how to rile up the audience… and to loosen their coin purses. Kaden ignored him as usual as he stepped on the arena.

Kaden stood out there in the arena, but his opponent was nowhere to be seen. He frowned. Something was wrong! He quickly looked towards Sidon, but from the expression he had, it was clear he was wondering what was going on. It wasn’t his doing.

“There seems to be some hickup!” Sidon annouced and waved his hands at his workers and quickly gave them orders.

Around at that time the doorway behind Kaden was barred. Some people he did not know were basically welding the metal doorway shut with magic.

“So thats how it is”, Kaden muttered. He already got the idea what was going on.

The doorway on the other side opened up and group of people with cultivations at Channel Opening rushed in. They weren’t even at the lower end. They were mostly at advanced Channel Opening.

At this time there were some shouts and crashing sounds around Sidon’s platform. Even the audience started to notice things were not going right. A dark clothed person appeared!

“Its about time to put things to an end”, said the person. Kaden knew of him. His name was Aldar. He was someone on the bounty list, but was above him. He was at Formation stage. “Shadow Wing. You have made too much mess. You’ll be made an example. You shouldn’t have tried to be a hero. Perhaps your death shall be a reminder for all the people here.”

Kaden snorted.

“A hero?” Kaden replied calmly. “Some dumbass decided to call me hero. I don’t give a shit. If you are offended for me causing problems, its your fault to keep valuable bounties among your people. Just kick them out. They are a liability. Someone like me will kill them off. As matter of fact, you should kick yourself out too.”

Aldar was silent for a moment. “Well, whatever the reason is, your death has been ordered.”

Kaden still calm, looked at the group of gangsters at the opposite side of the arena.

“Are you guys with him?” He asked and pointed at Aldar, ignoring him otherwise.

“What the? Is that even a question! Obviously! We are here to mess you up!” Shouted one of them.

Kaden’s face turned to delighted grin again. “I can kill you then!”

He released his core the the maximum of his ability and activated his hair plume, which was like a tongue of flame. With his core at its limit, he was already almost glowing power. Not just his hair, but all parts of his body were emanating strength.

There was no such thing as a fair fight. Being ganged up? So what? Would your opponents go away, if you said it was unfair. As far as Kaden cared, it was best to be on the offensive and kill as long as he could. Escape was not an option. That Aldar was probably expecting his minions to kill Kaden. He would interfere only, if it seemed to be not working. That was problem for the future.

Kaden let out almost inhuman screech and leaped at the shocked gangsters. He wasn’t sure, if he would survive this, but that was irrelevant. He would either live or die. No point worrying.

Kaden slammed his claws into a man trying to block his full power strike. He was already above any single one of them cultivation wise. His claw strike was blocked barely, but with his momentum Kaden crashed right onto the person and he instead tore of part of his opponents face with his teeth. He had tried to go for the throat, but it didn’t work out the way he planned due to quick head movement. Kaden spit out the bloodied piece of meat and screeched again. He slammed claw down again with fire mana infused in and this time he clawed out the offending neck.

The others were in shock of sudden brutal attack, but they didn’t have time to do much before Kaden grabbed the now gurgling and dying opponent and tossed the body the the rest. Then leaped after in bloody frenzy.

Aldar was surprised at the sight too. Kaden was surrounded, but he was not fazed even the least bit. Instead it was the opposite. Despite their large number, which should have been an overkill, Kaden’s brutality was keeping them in check. Aldar decided he would handle it himself, but then Sidon stepped in front of him.

“I know who you are”, Sidon said angrily and prepared to fight. “This is my arena. You want to deal with the kid, you do it elsewhere. Fuck off.”

“Sidon, the arena master”, Aldar said. “Just give up the kid and you will have favor of the Blood Hand. You should know how high we go.”

“And then be forced to pay protection money until I run out of busines”, Sidon replied. “I’m perfectly happy with my deals with law enforcement and officials.”

“Shame, I will have to kill you too then”, Ardan said calmly.

“Trust me, I’m not on good terms with the little lunatic”, Sidon continued. “But that doesn’t mean I’ll let you just swoop in and kill him on my arena.”

Ardan looked at the arena where Kaden was tearing his minions apart rather spectacularly. Blood and entrails were strewn across the arena and Kaden himself was covered in blood and was furiously attacking. His opponents had already started using their spells and techniques, but it was only holding back Kaden.

Its not like Kaden was killing his opponents effortlessly. They weren’t weaklings, but he had a really good start. Wounds were piling up, but this was driving Kaden further into frenzy.

“I’ll handle you first and then I’ll finish this”, Ardan said. “It would look bad, if he kills too many of my people. I … I didn’t quite expect this.”

“Thats Kaden for you”, Sidon said and prepared to defend. Soon after Ardan attacked and they started their own fight.

All this time quite a few of the audience were trying to run out, but apparently the doors were blocked. The entire place decended into chaos!

As for Kaden, he was noticing that he was slowing down. He knew he would have to devour, but he had no time to start consuming the bodies. He was being struck by various strange, but deadly spells, some of which he could block, but some he had to just soak and expect his body to resist.

“I must devour! Eat! I must restore myself!” Kaden screamed in his mind through the frenzy haze and pain he was feeling. He was still surrounded. With the moment of clarity he took a short breather. He thought of a way, but he had not ever tried that before. Not with the mana he used for Devour, but he did it often with fire. There was no time to doubt. Do or not do.

Gathering some power and redirecting it to slightly other place, Kaden’s claws started to glow red. His claws were now shrouded in the Devour spell. Kaden struck at a nearby enemy, tearing out chunk off from chest. The man screamed in pain, possibly fatally wounded. Part of the blood and flesh was disintegrated and disapeared into Kaden! It wasn’t even nearly as efficient, but it did work!

Kaden rejoiced and prepared to fight with new grown vigor! He charged at his enemies once again, who in turn were distraught by the sudden turn of events. They had not expected their opponent to be so strong. They should have overwhelmed him immediately! Instead Kaden had rushed in middle of them like a whirlwind of death.

They weren’t only ones who were unhappy of the way things were going. Ardan was shocked. Kaden was still alive! They were supposed to just come in, beat the kid, then eviscerate him in front of the audience. The number of people was to ensure things happened quickly and no one would even think of resisting. It was supposed to be a show of force! Not a show of failure as it was going now! He himself was being well held back by Sidon.

This was not how things were supposed to go! It was the crazed kid eviscerating them instead!

Ardan got angry! It would be bad for him to fail in such way! Even now he would suffer consequences, but far more if he failed! He decided to take risks! He he released a spell that unleashed large amount of force around him. This wasted lots of mana and wasn’t entirely safe for himself, but it did suppress Sidon giving Ardan time to act! He could just quickly enter the arena and finish Kaden!

Kaden was still furiously fighting in middle of his opponents, not giving them chance to do much. He could actually barely notice the attack coming just before a glowing fist struck his chest. He flew against the arena wall, with blood spewing out of his mouth.

“You damn idiots couldn’t kill even a single kid?” Ardan was shouting in rage at his minions. “How many corpses? Shit, I cant even count which parts belong to who. Gods curse you fools!”

“That kid aint normal!” Said one of the gangsters. “He just shrugs off attacks that should kill anyone else!”

“We’ll talk about this ...”, Ardan was saying as he suddenly turned his head.

Kaden was standing up and he was still in condition to fight! He had absorbed enough flesh that his wounds were still knitting together. Still, his chest hurt and his rib must have fractured, yet not crushed! Despite the pain Kaden was overjoyed. He just took a strike from Formation stage magic cultivator! A strike that was supposed to likely kill him. Still, that damage was going to take much longer to fix even with devour. Sidon had bounced him around without effort before, but now a true strike from someone else was not enough fatally wound him.

Ardan grimaced. “Just stay dead! Look like I have to separate your head from your shoulders!”

Kaden spit out some blood and did his best to breathe. It was time to see, if he could fight Ardan, if he concentrated completely to it. He had been able to see the strike coming. Perhaps there was a chance. Sidon was just getting up also. It was good that he was fighting too. Otherwise all would have been hopeless. Defense was what mattered now and then unleash as strong attack as possible once Ardan was tied with Sidon.

Kaden prepared to defend. He concentrated on keeping his upper body and head functional. He couldn’t allow Ardan to attack his chest again, it would likely be crushed and his organs along with it. No matter how much flesh he had devoured, he would not survive that!

Ardan charged forward! Kaden braced himself!

*CLANG!*

A beam of light struck in between Kaden and Ardan. It as an glowing polearm made from mana! Kaden looked outside of the arena. There were some guards and also a few people who he identified as soldiers! What were they doing here? Had they perhaps noticed the Blood Hand gansters making a move?!

Kaden turned to look at Ardan and sneered. “Hehe, things seem to have turned around. You are dead now, fool.”

Ardan was enraged, but decided to give up on Kaden as he ordered whatever remained of his minions to fight a way out.

Kaden only took steps backwards to observe. Things were going his way now!