Chapter 554 - Day MMCXXXIII, Part II

It took Adam a while, to get out. I was unsure why, since he didn't change his clothes too much. He still had the white suit on, but also added a thick cloak, with a bit of fur in the part going around his shoulders. It was also white, to work with the rest of his attire.

He also had a walking stick with him. This time black, with a handle, made out of one big diamond, which was almost completely covered by his hand in a white, leather glove, but because of the sun, it was easy to spot, since the gemstone was shining brightly thanks to the rays of sunlight.

He picked a spot, rather in the back of the arena, and stopped there. Then he fixed his glasses on his nose, by slightly pushing them with his index finger, and just waited.

Soon the beginning of the tournament was announced, and after a couple of minutes, Adam's opponent entered the arena. It was a type of alien we have never seen before.

A long centipede-like creature with humanoidal torso. Also white, which was kinda ironic. The shell on its back seemed to be quite sturdy. It was moving with a part of its body risen above ground, with some of its multiple legs exposed, while the rest was fidgeting to move the whole body forward.

It was a strange view, and quite disgusting, but Adam's face remained without expression. I noticed he wasn't really paying much attention to the alien itself and was rather focused on the entrance on the opposite side of the arena.

When the creature finally stopped moving, I had an opportunity to have a better look. The humanoidal torso was very pale, and its eyes were completely white, without any pupils. There was a pair of antennae coming out of its forehead, that was in constant motion vibrating in different directions with quite fast frequency. It didn't really have a neck, but the head was connected straight to the torso, with both arms covered in a thick shell. I also noticed small legs all the way up to its stomach, but those didn't look much functional.

During my short observation, I got a strange feeling that whatever that thing was, it was blind and had different ways of detecting things around than its eyes.

The gong interrupted my analysis, and Adam didn't wait a single moment. He spread his arms like a magician performing a trick and trying to grab the attention of his audience. A wave of mana erupted from him forming bright orange magic circles in the air. Alien hissed at the same moment, baring sharp, needle-like teeth.

Whatever it was trying to do was too late, as thousands of firebolts flew through the air shot out from the glyphs, and bombarded the other half of the arena. The chained explosion rose a cloud of bright red fire, that for a moment covered everything, but it was just the beginning of what Adam prepared.

The circles expanded, and broke apart, to assemble into something completely different and way bigger. From this new symbol, he send multiple balls of swirling flames, that pierced through the cloud.

If I didn't notice before where he was really looking at, I would say he was just continuing his attack, targeting the alien, but I did, and I knew exactly where he was sending those. Stright to the entrance to the underground complex where the rest of Zor'xal's forces were supposed to be stationing.

They hit the target and consecutive explosions shook the whole complex, but Adam wasn't stopping. He jammed the cane in the sand in front of him and moved his hands around it wiggling with his fingers like he was moving some invisible threads. He was wavering a spell even more powerful than what he just showcased.

The magic circle in the air broke and reassembled once again, and then the diamond in the cane flashed with colorful light. The glyph in the air responded, and a blast of scorching white energy, blinding in its power, blasted through the arena. It was perfectly aimed to hit both the creature or at least pass by the space it was supposed to occupy and go straight to the entrance.

This time there was no explosion. Adam also made the circle disappear, as he grabbed his cane again, and with a move of his hand, he constructed a simple but quite sturdy looking barrier around himself and just waited. Waited for the flames and smoke to disappear. It took some time for us to finally see the fruits of his work.

- What a fucking beast - I heard from somewhere in the room, but I actually didn't look where.

I was too occupied with splitting my attention between angry Zor'xal and the arena.

Adam managed to turn the whole sand on the other half of the arena into an obsidian black glass, that shattered because of the explosions. Alien was burned completely and only a dark, charred corpse was left, tightly rolled up.

As for the entrance to the underground complex, a cloud of smoke was emerging from the melted hole where it was supposed to be. The bright orange metal, that just floated down due to the gravity, was covering the ground.

The fight obviously ended. The cheers celebrating Adam's victory filled the waiting area, but they didn't go for too long. The AI stopped them all as it appeared on the holoprojection.

- Due to the damage to the arena the rest of the tournament will be put on hold for the day and resumed tomorrow. Please prepare for relocation to a new waiting area - it informed us.

This made people go crazy, they started laughing, jumping, and cheering even louder than they did before.

I quickly glanced at the arena just to withes as pissed Zor'xal was leaving.. Adam also stepped out of the sand and vanished inside the entrance to our part of the underground complex.