"Oh? Using a magic tool to ensure your life, eh?" Silas looked at his companion and his bloody arms. "Well, I can't say I blame you."
The big man knew the captain was considering and sneered, patting his large chest. "I want to do it, then." He said, "I'll make it as bloody as possible.
"They have to know they're just puny ants not even worth negotiating with!" He said, looking at the seal. "We don't even have to kill them to show that."
The woman and the old man didn't have any reactions and just watched from the side. However, if one looked closer at their eyes and their lips tilting up, one could see they were quite interested in the upcoming 'show'.
The thin man—one of the more gregarious members of the group— outright whistled. "Yo, Sin! Beat him up quickly! I can't wait to do some exercise~!"
"Sure sure," Sin yelled back, grinning, as he stepped forward and stared down at Garan, who also took a step forward.
Sin punched down several trees in his path and kicking their trunks out of the way, leaving them with some clear space for movements.
Everyone stepped back and left them around a hundred square meters of fighting space.
In the middle of the new 'clearing', the two stared each other down, and the man arrogantly gestured for Garan to attack.
Garan darted to his direction, appearing in front of the other in an instant, surprising the larger man. Garan raised his feet and Sin immediately raised his hand to take on his kick.
Although it didn't do any damage to him, it still tingled a bit, showing the strength of the attack.
Sin's eyes narrowed as Garan shifted his body.
Abruptly, Garan placed the force on his other leg, hitting the man's stomach, a relatively weaker part of the body.
"You!" Sin gritted his teeth. He raised his arm to wallop him, but Garan quickly avoided it. The punch was so strong that it created a wind that destabilized him a bit, but he managed to catch himself.
Garan saw the hole in the ground made by the missed punch, and quickly had a rough estimate of this man's force value.
Garan manifested ice with his secondary element—metal—and he quickly charged.
On the side, Silas' eyes narrowed as he watched. His frown deepened a bit as his eyes followed Garan's movements.
At this time, Garan had already slashed against Sin with his two swords in expert movements. He did this continuously and with amazing speed, eventually landing shallow wounds on the other man's body, enraging him.
"GRRR!!!" The man yelled, attacking continuously. Although he was physically stronger, Garan was much more nimble and agile and he avoided most of his attacks.
It was just that Sin created a few craters in his attacks and Garan unfortunately landed on one. The millisecond of imbalance it caused was enough for Sin's jab to finally connect.
Fortunately, Garan managed to block himself with metal, softening the blow. He spat out blood as the force hit his internal organs. He ignored the yells of his teammates, azure eyes focused on the enemy in front of him.
Heaving a deep breath, Garan returned to a defensive position, still relatively stable in his footing.
Sin frowned seeing him still moving smoothly. Even with that block, most people's bodies wouldn't have been able to handle that impact—especially not at his level.
He had even fought Orcs hand to hand before!
The fight went on for several more minutes, both landing shots on each other, dripping a lot of blood on the makeshift field.
Garan heaved a sigh as he looked at his near-empty life, spirit, and mana, barely supporting his body weight against a tree. He knew that there should still be half in the other man's stats.
Although the low-level magic tool could only be effective for one formal agreement—which was the no-killing agreement—they still agreed that they wouldn't be allowed to use any tool, potion, or equipment in the duration of the fight.
Garan knew very well that the other team probably had superior resources, and he didn't want to widen the strength gap.
And because of this, he couldn't drink any healing potions either.
Anyway, Garan knew this could not continue. Although the enemy team would not kill them, if they left them disabled in the forest then they would be as good as dead.
He couldn't lose. He closed his eyes to gather himself for one second. When he opened his eyes there was a renewed light and even Sin taking advantage of his weakness and lunging at him did not make him flinch.
His body was now pumping with adrenaline, filled with strength, and mind calculating to the max.
He immediately jumped back and instantaneously created ice picks as large as an arm. These icepicks floated around them, immediately congregating around the man.
But instead of attacking directly, Garan used a tree to vault himself up, using a lot of mana to form large spears of ice and metal. He targeted the man's body at an angle, targeting standard human weaknesses at the same time.
Bang! A piece connected and hit his arm.
"Ah!" And Garan quickly maneuvered himself to kick it deeper into his skin, using his own weight to do so.
Garan quickly manifested more ice and metal with much of the remaining mana, intent on hurting him more.
He was not planning on killing him, which was obvious, but to debilitate him enough.
However, before it could hit the enemy again, Garan's body moved and used the spear to block a side attack instead.
The unexpected fire hit him and his weapon, creating such a force that he was thrown to the other side, hitting a tree.
Garan coughed out blood and heard oncoming steps, he struggled to lift himself up to face him, only to be kicked back down.
He looked up to see the other Team's captain, eyes dark with killing intent. "I don't like it when my men are hurt." He said, smiling evilly.
"As payment, we will do the same to yours."