"What is the rush? Can't that wait until the challenge is over?" Liam muttered in a low voice, his head still hanging low.
The demon stopped in his tracks, surprised to see the person shivering in front of him talking back.
He looked back at Liam with his glowering eyes. However, this time he didn't bother putting him in place.
He simply grunted and continued to walk.
Liam followed him and the two of them walked to a huge arena at the center of the garrison tower.
"Do you need a weapon insect? That thing you are holding looks worse than my nose pick."
"Oh? Thank you, leader." Liam chuckled inwardly and replied.
"Kek. If you don't even have a decent weapon then this fight would be over before it even begins. Ke Ke ke." The demons started laughing in amusement.
Liam did not react and continued to remain silent. He didn't want to shatter his illusion.
He had already inquired Hiriyu about this garrison leader's weapon. This was the first thing he checked before deciding to go through with the challenge.
If the other party had a weapon more powerful than his to begin with, there was no point in starting this fight.
As the two of them walked forward, a big group gathered around the arena and they started chanting praises of the garrison leader.
The demon as well chuckled and stepped into the ring, stretching his limbs.
And when he sneered to look at his opponent, suddenly the insect that was drooping his shoulders and bleeding from the edge of his lips was standing firmly.
The demon raised his brows, but he didn't care about it too much.
A second later, the arena shone brilliantly and a dome-like layer appeared on the top, slowly covering the whole area.
[Ding. You have issued a challenge to the Garrison Leader of Thol city]
[Ding. The challenge battle now begins]
[Ding. Demonic Satyr, Level 151, Hongumbra vs Human Being, Level 44, Liam Chang]
A wave of glimmer swept across the two of them and then a loud gong resounded.
Liam could now feel that the demon's level was reduced to his own level. The overwhelming aura that exuded from him was no longer as pronounced.
However, it was partly still there. The rage and the killing intent in the demon's eyes were also as clear as day.
This was someone who had probably killed several hundred or even thousands with his own hands. Liam could never compare to him in this aspect, but he was able to bear with it.
As the demon grunted looking at him, Liam prepared himself by churning the mana reserves he had in his body.
This was not originally in his plan and he was only participating in this battle on a whim, so he wasn't 100% sure of how this was going to go.
But he absolutely had to take this risk. Liam trusted his gut feelings and clenched the sword in his hand tighter.
As soon as the gong sounded, the demon grunted and moved immediately. He showed no hesitation, no fear, and directly swung his war ax towards Liam.
"Hmph. This should be enough to finish off an insect like you."
However, Liam easily moved, dodging that attack in an instant, but he did not hit back just yet. He side-stepped the demon and landed at the other end of the area.
Hongumbra snorted and once again chased after him.
For others, it would look like all he was doing was running back and forth in the arena, fleeing his strong opponent.
However, Liam was gauging the physical strength of his opponent. He also attacked once with a simple slash to see how much damage he could do.
And just like thought, the physical defense of the demon was extremely high.
But… that was only for a normal weapon.
The weapon in Liam's hand flashed with a dull luster and it was dark purple in color. This was the same nose pick that the demon had ridiculed him about.
And the damage it did was twice that of a normal weapon.
However, Hongumbra still did not look too concerned about it because Liam only executed a light slash.
The demon crowd as well gasped in shock to see the 'insect' actually land an attack on their leader but since that attack did not even register a scratch, they breathed out in relief.
This was because Liam did not even put his weight into the attack as he did not want to alarm anyone just yet.
As long as the opponent underestimated him, he had the advantage. He did not want to lose this advantage just yet.
If he dared underestimate a Level 150 opponent, the outcome could only be disastrous. Liam was well aware of this.
He had a very short window and he needed to do maximum damage to take out this ridiculously strong opponent in this single burst attack, preferably before he started casting high-level spells.
He continued exchanging a few blows with the demon, narrowly missing or blocking every single time, and the crowd watching them also gasped and shouted accordingly.
Both the crowd and the actual opponent Hongumbra looked extremely irritated.
From the start to now, the fight had only been going on for a couple of seconds, but this in itself was an insult to the demon.
He felt like a fool chasing an insect back and forth in the arena. He wanted to completely overpower and dominate Liam in a single attack and show off its strength.
And this didn't look like it was going to happen by just swinging his war ax. So the demon finally stopped chasing Liam, rearing its hoofs into the ground.
He looked at him and then grunted loudly, raising his hands to the sky.
Instantly three huge black balls thrumming with strange energy appeared above his head and the demon started muttering some incantation.
Seeing his behavior, Liam could guess that this was going to be a powerful attack. This was his cue. He had no intention of letting this demon finish his casting.
"Now." Liam immediately dashed forward, and finally swung his dark purple sword at the demon, pushing forth with full momentum.
He used every ounce of mana he had and boosted his agility as best as he could.
He then continued slashing at the demon, his figure almost appearing and disappearing around the demon from multiple sides.
SLASH SLASH SLASH SLASH
Huge damage numbers floated above and in a second, the huge demon was covered from top to bottom in numerous sword gashes.
Each and every injury had drawn blood, along with a chunk of its health. In just a single attack, the demon's health had somehow fallen to a critical level.
Hongumbra stared dumbly not knowing what just happened. He looked at Liam who was already back at the other end of the arena.
What just happened? This insect was so strong? How could this be possible?
He continued staring at him dumbly as if someone had caught him with his pants down taking a shit.
The spell he was casting to show off his strength to everyone was also stopped midway, the black balls of energy quietly dissipating.
And it was not just Hongumbra, the crowd of demons gathered around also looked at the fight in complete and utter shock.
Meanwhile, Liam did not waste this opportunity. A huge ball of fire was already materializing in his hands.
And he dashed across the demon again, smacking this ball right in his face.
Hongumbra finally roared in agony. His eyes were deep dark red and his body shuddered in anger and fear.
"You INSECT! I AM GOING TO KILL YOU!"
He threw his war ax at Liam in fury, not caring whether it hits him or not.. He then started chanting something in an ancient language.