The Author's POV

"Haa.."

Letting out a long breath, my eyes stayed fixed on the scenery presented outside of the window glass.

The scenery outside was dotted with beautiful green grass, great mountains, and ancient trees that further added to the vibrancy of the place. It gave me a sense of tranquility that I desperately needed.

Especially after going through such a big fight.

"…"

The silence continued to persist as I slowly lost myself to the scenery outside. Alone, silently gazing in the distance with no one to bother me. It felt soothing.

After asking Octavious about the choice he was going to make, he just simply left. Vanished out of thin air.

I took that as a sign of confirmation.

He may have not explicitly said yes, but had the answer been no, I would've surely been able to tell.

Either way, I cared more about actions rather than verbal agreements. He could tell me yes right now, but that solved nothing. Only through handing over Aaron would I truly know the answer to his decision.

Lifting my head to gaze at the fluffy white clouds roaming in the sky, I pressed my hand against the window before mumbling softly.

"...If Octavious truly does agree, I'll finally be able to go back home, huh?"

Those words.

They felt quite weird.

After who knew how long, finally, I was soon going to be able to return home.

Not as 876, nor anyone else, but as myself, Ren Dover.

The sense of relief when I realized this was immeasurable as my shoulders finally relaxed and the anxiety within me subsided.

I was finally going to come back home.

Clank—!

Snapping me out of my thoughts, I suddenly heard the sound of the door opening. Glancing in that direction, my brow raised in surprise.

"Oh my, you're actually coming to visit me?"

"..."

Unfortunately for me, the person who I spoke to didn't answer back as she just calmly entered the room. The person who had just entered was none other than Angelica who curiously looked around the place.

Seeing her like that, my brows furrowed.

"...You not going to say anything?"

'Did she just come here to sightsee?'

From the looks of it, it really did look like that. Raising her head, Angelica softly said.

"...I was bored."

"Eh?"

Her words were so unexpected that I had no idea how to reply to her.

In fact, I really didn't know how to reply.

"You're bored?"

"You can't hear, human?"

"No, I can...but what does that have to do with anything?"

"B—"

"You know what, never mind."

Before she could say anything else, I quickly cut her off.

I just recalled the fact that the others had left the human domain, and that she was trapped in a room for a major part of the week. Since she wasn't adept with technology, the only thing she could do during those weeks was training, and well, that was boring.

I only realized now just how bored she must've been. Once my thoughts paused there, I felt a little bit guilty as I took out my tablet from my dimensional space and pressed on the screen.

A holographic image soon appeared.

Then, pointing towards the seat where Octavious previously sat, I nudged with my head.

"Since you've got nothing to do, come watch the matches with me. It might help relieve your boredom."

"...Okay."

Angelica nodded her head after a bit of hesitation.

From the struggle in her eyes, I could tell that she wasn't too keen on watching since her strength was far above theirs, but in the end, she still decided to watch.

Guess she was that bored.

***

Only ten minutes had passed since the previous match where Ren defeated Kimor, and the crowd was still excitedly discussing the events of what happened before.

The previous match was so thrilling that all other matches seemed a lot more lackluster. That was until the current match started.

SHIIIIING!

A cold blade cut through the air as Jin's figure suddenly appeared behind a towering figure. An extremely intense energy ripple suddenly erupted from his body.

Clank!

Just as Jin's blade was about to slice through the neck of his opponent, a thin veil suddenly materialized around the figure, blocking his attack as a loud metallic sound reverberated through the air.

'Not enough?'

Upon seeing his attack missing, Jin knit his brows for a moment. He suddenly twisted his body in midair before quietly landing on the surface of the arena.

Upon landing on the ground, Jin raised his head and stared at his opponent who was similarly staring back at him.

Artian.

That was the name of Jin's opponent. According to the information Ren had given him, he was Kimor's right-hand man, and although he was quite a bit weaker, he was still an extremely powerful individual.

A raging fire burned inside of Jin's eyes as he looked at his opponent. Artian may have been weaker than Kimor, but he was still a strong opponent. From what he heard, the way he fought was similar to Kimor.

Jin may have been able to see the difference between himself and Ren, but only through a real fight would he be able to feel the true difference between them. And that was why he was particularly excited about his match.

"Huuuuuarg!"

With a loud shout, a majestic green glow made out of aura erupted from Artian's body as his muscles bulged outwardly.

He was clearly trying to gather aura around his body to unleash a powerful strike.

Not that Jin would let him.

Pressing his right foot onto the ground, black threads suddenly started to materialize around Jin as his figure disappeared and reappeared a short distance in front of Artian.

"Hmph!"

Spotting Jin, Artian let out a short snort. After which, he curled his fingers into a fist and punched out. What followed his punch was a sonic boom that tore the air apart and headed in Jin's direction like an unstoppable train.

Facing such a terrifying attack, Jin remained unfazed. Suddenly, to the shock of all viewers present, he closed his eyes.

A small black pool suddenly formed beneath his feet as black threads shot out from the ground before wrapping around his body like a cacoon. It wasn't long before his figure was completely enveloped by the black threads.

All of this happened within a short second, and the moment the attack was about to land on him, opening his eyes, revealing his emerald green eyes, Jin's figure suddenly disappeared from the spot, avoiding Artian's attack by a hairbreadth.

Booooom—!

Despite Jin's absence, Artian's attack continued to pass through the platform before reaching the edge of the arena, releasing a thunderous sound.

Watching his attack miss, Artian's expression turned extremely solemn. With his eyes darting all over the arena, he focused all of his attention on his senses as he tried to pick up any clue regarding Jin's whereabouts.

Bang—!

Sensing something, raising his foot, Artian suddenly stomped his foot on the ground. With a loud 'bang' the ground beneath him cracked apart and a shadow jumped out. The moment the shadow appeared, Artian's sharp gaze locked onto it and he punched in that direction, but...

SHIIIIING

Artian suddenly felt a cold chill run down his back as another shadow materialized behind him. It was at that moment he realized that he had been tricked. The previous attack was a decoy!

"Haaaa!"

Crying out loud, Artian channeled all the aura inside of his body. A soft glow enveloped his whole body as the muscles of his body expanded even more. Forcefully twisting his body, his eyes became bloodshot and he changed the direction of his fist towards where the shadow came from.

As he changed the course of his attack, he could feel his muscles scream in agony. But he still persisted and punched out.

Boooom—!

His fist tore through the air resulting in a powerful blast to resound throughout the platform. But just as he thought he had managed to counter his opponent, he realized that his attack had missed.

SHIIIIING!

Yet again, Artian suddenly felt a dangerous feeling rising from behind him. Gritting his teeth, his face twisted savagely as he shouted.

"Stop hiding you rat!"

His voice was so powerful that even the audience below could hear it. However, none of them paid attention to Artian as everyone's eyes were locked on a figure standing on the opposite end of the arena.

With his right hand raised, and half of his hand covered in black, everyone watched as black threads encircled Jin's arm.

His cold eyes were currently locked onto Artian who was currently madly throwing punches around. Failing to realize that beneath him was a small black pool that would shoot black threads left and right whenever Jin's hand twitched.

Slowly but surely, more and more black threads formed from beneath the pool, wrapping around Artian's legs.

Because he was so distracted by the attacks, Artian was unable to take note of the black threads and before long about half of his lower body was covered in black threads.

"Huh?!"

Finally, after realizing that something was wrong with the situation, Artian lowered his head and took notice of the black threads. Out of pure instinct, the first thing he did was lower his arm and grab onto the threads.

But as he pulled, he found that they were stuck onto him like rubber. He could still move properly, but something about the situation wasn't right.

It was then that he raised his head and finally noticed Jin staring at him from the distance. Anger suddenly rose from deep within Artian as he pressed his foot on the ground, preparing to lunge in his direction.

But just as he was about to move, Jin suddenly clenched his fist and the black threads around his tightened up considerably, halting his movement.

"Huargh!"

Clenching his teeth, a green glow sprung out from Artian's body as he forcefully tried to move his body.

Snap. Snap. Snap.

His efforts weren't in vain as soft snapping sounds rang out as some of the threads snapped off, allowing him to recover some of his mobility, but by the time he was able to take a step forward, it was too late.

SHIIIIIIING—!

Appearing right in front of him was Jin. With his body twisted, and his dagger near his right cheek, Artian eyes opened wide. Before he could react, Jin slashed down and a feeling of death suddenly washed over Artian's body.

Even then, as a proud orc, he kept his eyes open and continued to glare at the dagger. He knew from the moment that his body had been trapped that he had lost the match, but he still persisted.

Unfortunately, his stare wasn't enough, and Jin's dagger enlarged in front of him. Just as the dagger was about to take his life away, it came to a sudden halt.

Thud.

With a low thud, Jin landed on the ground and brushed his hair up.

A deathly silence enveloped the arena grounds as all the spectators gazed in Jin's direction.

However, the silence was soon broken by the referee's voice as it boomed throughout the whole venue.

"Winner of this round, Jin Horton, he will pass to the round of sixteen."

Following the referee's words, the whole stadium erupted into cheers.

***

Once Jin's match ended, it was Amanda's turn to compete.

Standing on the opposite end of the arena, Amanda held onto her bow with her left hand whilst simultaneously taunting the string back with her left hand.

A blue translucent arrow materialized on her bow as she gazed at her opponent.

Standing opposite her was a young dwarven girl with both of her hair tied in ponytails. With both of her hands forward, grasping a metal bar, Amanda's face twitched slightly as she looked at the artifact the dwarven girl was holding.

A sub-machine gun? ...Amanda really couldn't quite get a grasp on her opponent's weapon, however, she could tell from a single glance that it was no ordinary weapon.

Materializing in the middle of the arena was the referee who looked at both of them before asking.

"Are the both of you ready?"

Upon hearing the referee's words, Amanda and her opponent simultaneously nodded their heads.

Without wasting any time, the referee officiated the match.

"Begin!"