novelA Natural Favorite 2
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Chapter 198: A Natural Favorite (2)
Three days quickly went by.
Su Chen's test finally came.
Today, Anubi came to the gladiator arena again. Su Chen made an unprecedented appearance next to him this time.
Anubi waved his hand and said, "Three days have passed. My young, intelligent subject, what amusing show are you going to put on for me."
Su Chen replied, "Please, Your Majesty. Pay close attention to the gladiator arena."
Anubi said, "Oh, is that so? It's as you expected, Kenwo."
The Ravager standing beside Anubi chuckled fiercely, "These lowly citizens from another tribe, what interesting things can they come up with? All they can do is use some cheap tricks related to what Your Majesty likes. If my guess isn't wrong, he probably chose a few rarer Demonic Beasts and arranged for them to fight in a more creative format. However, because these lowly citizens haven't seen many gladiator fights, I believe it is very likely that the tricks he will show us are things that we have discarded a long time ago."
"Hahahaha!" All of the Ravagers nearby began to howl with laughter.
Su Chen knew this Ravager whose name was Kenwo. He was Anubi's chief imperial officer and handled all of the internal affairs of the palace. He was in charge of all the servants, but his main task every day was to prepare all kinds of different amusements for Anubi.
At this moment, Anubi had a new Ravager female by his side. Unsurprisingly, Kenwo was the one who had prepared her for him.
To Kenwo, Su Chen's job was part of his responsibilities, so it was not unreasonable to interpret it as Su Chen taking away Kenwo's bowl of food. This was why Kenwo insisted on using such disrespectful language when referring to Su Chen.
He absolutely had to attack his competitor viciously and mercilessly.
Su Chen didn't mind. He calmly said, "If His Majesty doesn't like it, then I am willing to be punished for it."
"Then begin." Anubi waved his hand, and Su Chen sat down next to Anubi.
This was his first time sitting so close to Anubi, but if he didn't do a good job, then there would not be another chance in the future.
The first fight began.
Four warriors took the stage, but not in a two-on-two format, but a one-on-three.
Gladiator battles didn't necessarily need to be fair. In order to satisfy Anubi's audiovisual needs and his desire to see high-quality battles and unique ways of spilling blood. Stimulating His Majesty's preference for novelty was the most important. As for the actual warriors participating in the battle, who cared which ones won or lost or died or lived?
Of course, to make sure that the battle didn't end too quickly, the strengths still needed to be roughly equal.
Even though it was a one-on-three fight, the first warrior to emerge was Burkitt, who had a very high win rate on the gladiator arena.
Burkitt was a voluntary participant. He had entered for the sake of money and status. He possessed an incredibly vicious combat ability, and it could be said that he was unrivalled amongst his peers.
Even though he was facing three warriors at once, Burkitt did not show any fear.
Because in this battle, he was the one with the advantage!
"A battle without any suspense! Prepare your flowers and applause!" Burkitt howled loudly at the audience.
"Roar!" the audience responded with howls of excitement.
"Burkitt!"
"Burkitt!"
"Burkitt!"
Countless Ravagers yelled uncontrollably.
The fight began.
Burkitt savagely charged at his opponents. As everyone expected, he held an advantage over his opponents, who had the advantage in terms of numbers. Burkitt used his overbearing physicality and his powerful momentum to assault his opponents.
He used his shield to defend against the attacks of his opponents as the flail in his hand crashed downwards. After probing his opponents and exchanging blows a number of times, he finally managed to successfully hit one of them.
Taking advantage of the opportunity created by wounding one of his opponents, he charged forward mercilessly, slamming his shield on the head of another Ravager before firmly gripping the third, using his powerful arms to trap him. The muscles on his arms bulged as he forcefully crushed the Ravager to death.
The first Ravager that had been knocked flying crawled back to his feet and charged forwards again. Burkitt tossed the Ravager corpse aside and endured the blow, then pounced and grabbed his opponent, using his fist to beat him up.
"Help me!" that Ravager warrior cried.
The other Ravager warrior managed to get back at this moment.
Burkitt tossed the Ravager he was holding at the one charging at him, ruthlessly unloading a barrage on one of them and beating him to death.
The third Ravager had already stabbed a sharp blade into Burkitt's body. Burkitt seemed to be totally unaware. He tossed aside the second corpse and headbutted the opponent's nose, then bit down on the opponent's throat, severing both his airway and the arteries leading to his brain.
Blood spurted everywhere. Burkitt's opponent retreated a few steps, his hand covering his throat, before falling to the ground, sapped of his strength.
Burkitt raised his fist at the crowd, his face and mouth stained with fresh blood.
"Not a bad performance, but that has nothing to do with you, " Kenwo clapped as he spoke, not forgetting to take a dig at Su Chen.
Su Chen said with a slight smile, "Of course it has nothing to do with me. The battle I have arranged comes at the very end...... It's the best placement for the climax."
Kenwo harrumphed."That's quite the coincidence! It seems that I have also arranged for a battle, and the battle I have arranged will be the actual finale."
Su Chen frowned.
He knew that this was Kenwo targeting him, not wanting to give him the finale.
Obviously, he had been observing his own movements quite closely.
But it was fine. His plan had been arranged in secret, so Kenwo shouldn't know the contents, just the things at the surface.
But even so, Su Chen really detested this guy.
He harrumphed and didn't say anything.
The second duel consisted of Ravager females once again. This time, however, thirty people took the stage, fifteen people in each team.
Normally, the more people there was in a battle, the more intense and bloody it would be, meaning the entertainment value would go up.
As such, these duels were of quite high quality. The first involved a celebrity, and the second involved a large horde of women. Even so, all of these battles had nothing to do with Su Chen. Kenwo was obviously the one who had arranged all these battles.
All Su Chen could control was the battle he had arranged.
The reason Kenwo had raised the quality of these battles to this point was obviously to suppress him, using all kinds of high-quality "programs" to demonstrate the averageness of Su Chen's programs. This would cause his status to decrease in Anubi's eyes.
Even the simple and crude Ravagers competed and schemed against one another!
And the methods he had chosen were decent as well.
The slaughter of female Ravagers began. After seven or so died and more than half had been badly injured, the battle came to an end.
After the arena grounds were cleaned up slightly, the third battle commenced - this time between Demonic Beasts.
In order to satisfy Anubi and suppress his competitor, Kenwo had chosen two rare, powerful mid-tier Demonic Beasts to fight each other.
Mid-tier Demonic Beasts possessed rather powerful Origin Skills, and these ones in particular could use a unique Origin Skill that generated a lot of sound and dazzling light, making it far more interesting of a battle than that between Vicious Beasts. The barrier surrounding the arena flickered violently under their furious assault, and light scattered everywhere. The nobility couldn't help but cry out; only Anubi felt that the scene was merely average.
The fact that he had not yet yawned was the greatest praise he could provide.
There were normally four gladiator matches per day, so after the battle of the Demonic Beasts came Su Chen's competition.
Very quickly, a team of twenty or so gladiators charged onto the arena.
On the other end, a massive Terror Lizard was driven out onto the arena from the other side.
The Terror Lizard was just a low-tier Demonic Beast. Its strength was decent.
However, the twenty gladiators were obviously more powerful. Even though they weren't Temple Warriors, they all had high-tier Totemic Inscriptions bestowing on them powerful physiques. In addition, they were quite well-versed in team tactics, which was their trump card in this arena. If it wasn't for the fact that their target was a mere Terror Lizard, there was no way the owner of these gladiators would have allowed them to participate and potentially suffer tremendous losses in battle."
Under these kinds of circumstances, the Terror Lizard was almost certainly going to lose.
Even Anubi was slightly taken aback when he saw this. He stared intently at Su Chen and said, "This is the show you've prepared for me? A one-sided slaughter with no suspense?"
Su Chen said with a slight smile, "Your Majesty, do you enjoy betting?"
"Of course. You want to bet with me?"
"Yes, Your Majesty. I will bet on the Terror Lizard. If I win......"
"Then I will not kill you regardless of whether this amuses me or not. If you lose...... well, there won't really be much for you to lose anyways, " Anubi said.
Su Chen, however, replied, "If possible, I would prefer some other kind of reward."
Anubi stared at Su Chen with some shock."It seems like you are quite confident. What would you like?"
"As long as it is a favor from Your Majesty, anything will suffice."
Anubi nodded and said, "You really have a way with words. Let's hope that your arrangement is just as precise."
As they spoke, the battle commenced.
The twenty gladiators assembled into formation and charged at the Terror Lizard. They held their iron shields in a line, long spears poking out through the gaps as energy practically rolled off their bodies.
Even though these high-tier totem Ravagers didn't have the ability to control Origin Energy, their powerful physiques allowed them to charge forwards fearlessly. The Totemic Inscriptions on their bodies lit up with dazzling light.
The Terror Lizard, however, remained motionless. It lowered its head, which had a strangely long horn growing from it.
A white streak of light shot out from the horn, colliding with the shields.
This was the Terror Lizard's Innate Origin Skill. The powerful white light diffracted off of the shield as all of the warriors unleashed their strength simultaneously to resist the attack. At that moment, however, a tentacle-like object suddenly appeared behind the warriors' formation and pierced forward, stabbing a Ravager in the back.
Because all of their defenses were facing forwards, they never even saw the ambush from behind coming.
Pu!
The Ravager spat out a mouthful of blood as he was skewered. The massive tentacle-like object continued to advance through the wave of Ravagers.
Pu, pu, pu, pu! In but a single breath's time, the tentacle skewered a number of other Ravagers as well.
The gladiators only noticed the tentacle when three of them had been skewered and only began to react when two more of them were skewered, breaking apart their formation as they dodged to the side. The tentacle waved through the air, the five Ravagers skewered on it like candied fruits on a stick. Blood flowed from their mouths, indicating that they were not dead yet.
At the same time that they dodged, the Ravagers all put their shields behind them instead.
This was a fatal mistake.
Because just a short moment later, the Terror Lizard sprang into action.
It charged right at the team of Ravagers, its iron-like feet stomping on the ground and causing the arena to tremble. Given its size and speed, it tore through the ranks of the Ravagers with unstoppable momentum, knocking over six or seven more Ravager warriors.
They had once again been attacked from behind. The Terror Lizard inflicted grievous wounds upon the warriors.
When the Terror Lizard charged forwards, the tentacle floating in the air had also shot back into the ground, stripping off the corpses skewered on it as it continued to shrink until it returned to the Terror Lizard's body.
So that tentacle was actually its tail.
Anubi said with some shock, "I have never heard of the Terror Lizard possessing this kind of ability."
"I just made a small modification, Your Majesty, " Su Chen replied.
Anubi understood."So that's how it is. I must admit that you are surprising me. Even though I do not yet feel amused, you have indeed shown me some new things."
"I was not expecting you to be satisfied just with this."
"Oh? You mean......"
"This is only the beginning, Your Majesty."
An instant later, a cry of alarm sounded as the situation changed drastically.
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