"If you're waiting on the challenges, you can count yourself lucky. I will challenge you right now, with the Elders' permission." A booming voice from behind them announced.
The Elder that felt like Divine Power shrugged. "I don't see why not. Let the Karl fight you first, he's not a duel specialist, so it should be a faster learning experience."
Karl examined the challenger, who didn't have a na tag with the System Interface, so he was not a System user. But by his best guess, this should be a fully Spirit Rank Immortal Clan mber, as he had asked permission to challenge and didn't just start a fight.
"In that case, I, Abraham of the New Ho rchant Clan, challenge you, Karl, initiate of the Clan, to a ranking duel." He shouted in his best formal tone.
In the distance, Karl heard others cheering, and in his head, he heard Cara and Rae cheering.
There really wasn't anyone against this fight, except Thor, who had been looking forward to a good nap with Tessa, not spectating a fight.
But it would be a learning experience for him, as he had just advanced to Mythic Rank, and he hadn't been part of the Immortal Rank fights in the past.
"Where will we be doing the challenge? If we're going to go all out, it's going to need so space." Karl asked.
Abraham smiled. "I like your optimism, but you're not going to last long enough for it to matter."
Karl smiled and patted him on the shoulder. "I wouldn't count on that. It's best to treat every challenge as if it was an actual challenge. Besides, when I'm getting ready to fight, I'm significantly larger than I am right now."
The people that they passed all gave him curious looks, wondering what Karl turned into when he wanted to fight. If he was a berserker, it could be all sorts of fun stuff.
But his System wasn't compatible with most of theirs, and they couldn't see his details, so it was up to their best guess as to what sort of fighting style he was going to employ.
Nyan rushed ahead of them cheering and shouting. "Get your bets in, get your bets in. Abraham versus the new guy Karl! Who will win, how long will the fight last? Will the Karl's wife leave in tears or over Abraham's body?"
Abraham growled at her, and Nyan made a mocking swipe at him with her hand curled into a paw.
The Elders led them to a massive courtyard, and Karl realized that they had used actual spatial magic to expand it, not an Illusionary Domain, the way that he built things like the Trial Grounds.
He was going to have to study that later. Opal would love it.
The two of them stepped to the centre of the ring, and Abraham shifted, revealing a black winged demonic form that Karl knew was a skill related to his class, not related to any sort of actual demonic bloodline.
Karl shifted with [Warbeast] into an armoured World Dragon, then waited a mont and used [Behemoth] to increase his size, so that everyone could see that it was a separate skill.
Abraham laughed at the spectacle, amused that the new Immortal thought that strength and size were related.
Many new Immortals made that mistake, but he would teach his overgrown Dragon a thing or two about cultivation today.
Or so he thought.
[Blade Explosion] sent a hundred attacks at Karl at the sa ti, which caused [Eternal Lightning] to flare with power as Karl poured mana into it.
But the barrier did not fall, and a casual swipe of Karl's claw sent five [Chaos Blasts] at the Immortal.
The arena went dark as the explosions absorbed the light, and then impossibly bright as the explosion detonated in impossible colours that should not exist in reality.
Abraham was flung backward across the arena, looking stunned as his sword shattered in his hands, destroyed by the blasts as he parried.
"What the hell was that?" Soone in the crowd shouted, an then a fresh round of betting began.
Karl smiled, and called out the [Bodyguards], his trusty pair of Lamia, to assist him.
"Ooh, a summoning specialist. Abe is fucked now." Nyan laughed as she
continued to accept bets.
"In your dreams cat." Abe snarled as he layered defensive skills on himself and activated a series of items.
Karl smiled, and in his mind Cara began to laugh.
[Yes, do it! Show off now, and they won't bully our Dana Mage later.] Tian
cheered.
[Are you not supposed to be on my team?]
[Her ears are cuter.]
Karl's laughter as he activated [Nullify] on all ten of his claws terrified the spectators a little.
The new Immortal was insane, cheerfully fighting soone a full advancent ahead of him. They could all tell that he hadn't even started to build his Immortal Spirit yet, but he was simply overpowered.
It had to be related to that transformation skill, or the fact that he was a World Dragon Avatar. But it was still ridiculous.
Karl smashed both paws down on the demonic challenger, pinning him to the ground for a mont before Abraham threw Karl's claws backward, and
scrambled clear with a movent skill.
Again [Chaos Blast] exploded against him, but this ti, he didn't have any defences up, thanks to [Nullify].
His robes shredded, and one of his arms morphed into a tentacle, which began to attack his own face, while large portions of his flesh were disintegrated. "Halt the battle. Crippling damage has been done to Abraham, the winner by technical knockout is Karl." The Elder declared, his voice booming through the
arena.
Abraham didn't even try to contest the decision. He was too busy trying to stop his own arm from attacking him.
Karl transforms back to human shape, and bowed to the crowd.
"I believe that there is a custom for newcors that we are challenged until we
have a ranking within the Clan's Acolytes. If the next challenger is ready, I have already recovered the mana and stamina that I used during the fight." Karl
called.
The other Acolytes frowned, then turned to each other.
The newbie was still too arrogant. They were going to have to teach him a proper lesson, before he started to look down on them.
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