Chapter 552: Displays of Power

Eiro let go of his aura for a few moments, since he was basically challenged to do so by this Goliath warrior. His aura exploded outward, as if a balloon had suddenly popped and all the water inside of it was spread all around in just an instant.

The moment that Eiro had let go of his aura, the warrior's skin became covered in goosebumps. Cold sweat started to form on his forehead, and his heartrate exploded as he flinched back. All the other champions, as well as the guards and guides from Baram that were currently here, immediately turned toward that small group and got ready to attack whatever creature had suddenly emerged out of nowhere. The birds from the forest that they were currently in flew away out of instinct, and the other beasts in the forest were running around wildly. Even Biril seemed startled and scared for a few moments.

With a soft smirk, Eiro took a few steps forward, standing in front of the Goliath. Eiro tilted his head upward and locked eyes with him, "Oh~? Are you perhaps... scared?"

With those words, the Goliath snapped back into it, and looked down at Eiro, "Am I- Hah! Good joke, small one! Why would I be scared of such a small man?!" He said, letting out a loud, deafening laugh.

Eiro slowly pulled his aura back into himself, as he slowly walked past the Goliath, with Lugo following right behind him. The Demon walked toward the rest of the group that had gathered further in the center of this large stone circle.

"I apologize for that just now. I hope it didn't cause any sort of inconvenience." Eiro told them, and one of them looked at Eiro confused, "Wh-What just was that?"

"Hm? My aura, of course. I stopped suppressing it for a few moments. A friend of mine is currently working on an item that will help naturally suppress it so that I don't always have to split off some of my attention, but it seems like it might take a bit longer until that's finished." The Demon quickly explained, "More importantly, since I'm apparently the last one here, we should be able to proceed, isn't that right?" He turned his head toward one of the guides that were standing near him, and they were slightly startled for some reason. Eiro had expected them to pay a bit more attention to what was going on around here.

"Yeah... Erm... It shouldn't take too long." One of them replied while looking at the sky, and Eiro slightly turned his head toward a part of the forest. A group of people were currently approaching, and amongst them was a small child.

"Hm..." Eiro slightly let out, as he turned toward the place where the group was currently coming from. It was a group of Baram warriors, each holding quite long, and surprisingly thick spears that they were barely able to wrap their hand around. On the shoulders of a particularly large warrior sat a young boy, maybe eight years old at most. His skin was the same color as that of the other Baram locals, a quite dark brown, but his skin was not yet covered in tattoos. Rather, instead, he had simple patterns drawn onto his face. Not in a permanent way, however, but in a sort of paint made from actual ash simply drawn on with fingers, it seemed.

Immediately, the guides kneeled down onto the ground, as the group of warriors approached them. That tall warrior quickly set the boy down onto the ground, before one of the other warriors stepped forward, "Let me introduce to you, the current Hero, Jabir Abadt." That warrior exclaimed, while the young boy stood there, crossing his arms with a broad, smug grin on his face. He was missing two of his teeth right next to each other, creating a rather large gap. Although it was kind of cute, considering that he was just a kid.

"Ain't that kid kinda small?" The goliath warrior from earlier asked with his head tilted slightly to the side, and Eiro turned his head toward him with a wry smile, "Goliaths grow at a different rate to other humans, you can't really compare that..."

"Huh, how'd you know how Goliaths grow, small one?"

"Ah, my son happens to be a Goliath." Eiro explained, and the warrior looked at Eiro somewhat confused. Even Biril wasn't sure who Eiro was talking about, although he soon had a guess, "Ah, do you mean Rudeus?" 

"Yep, that's him. He's been taller than me for a while now, and he doesn't show any signs that he's stopped growing yet. At this rate, he's probably going to end up taller than you as well." Eiro pointed out, looking at the Goliath standing next to him, who was grinning slightly, "Oh? Interestin'. He here on the island?"

"Yes, he's-" Eiro replied quickly, although he soon heard the coughing of one of the guides, trying to get the attention of that group of three.

"Ah, sorry, continue, please." The Demon said with a light smile, something that seemed to annoy the people of Baram quite a bit. But before any of them said anything, the young hero, Jabir, suddenly stood in front of Eiro.

"Why do you speak like that in my presence?" He asked loudly, his arms crossed with a deep, angry frown. Eiro chuckled slightly as he squatted down, "Sorry that we were being so rude, then. But it's nice to meet you, Jabir."

"Hmpf, it's 'Great Hero' for you lot!" Jabir exclaimed, and Eiro looked at him as his smile slightly disappeared, "It's not quite nice for you to be talking to us like that. We're here to help you out, you know?"

"Please do not speak to the Hero in that manner. Please behave yourself." One of the warriors said, standing inbetween Jabir and Eiro. The Demon fully stood up again, and pushed his hands into his jacket's pockets, "Sorry about that. Please, continue."

The warrior frowned slightly, and quickly turned around toward the other champions, "Today, we will be doing one main thing. We will figure out what you can teach to the young Hero. Of course, all of you have incredible worth, but it is necessary to know what your specialty lies in, and what the extent of your power currently is." The warrior explained, "That is what this area is for. This is the place where numerous warriors have displayed their power. For simplicity's sake, we will go in order of time of arrival."

Eiro watched as everyone started getting ready, kind of annoyed that he was the last. But at the very least, then he knew what he needed to do to trump everyone else that was gathered here and show off that he was at the top of the foodchain here.

"Everyone has a maximum of ten minutes to display the extent of their power. Before your turn, please discuss with us what it is you need to do so, we will provide anything needed, ranging from magic-based targets, or monsters of various grades and sizes." The warrior quickly explained, while the first people were already talking to their respective guide about what they were going to need. Eiro himself was already thinking about it as well, but he would only decide about halfway through the shows.

Each of the champions were quite impressive, as far as Eiro was concerned. They were amazing in their own specialized field. The magic that they showed, or the combat techniques, were more than just effective.

But what was even more amazing to Eiro in that moment was the fact that the Baram warriors had been able to capture some of these monsters that they were giving to the champions. Some were larger than the average house, others were surprisingly high grade. There were quite a few noble monsters amongst them.

And of course, since Eiro was able to understand their speech quite easily ever since he received the special skill 'Universal Monster Language Comprehension', the Demon could tell that some of them were actually quite intelligent. Some of them worth turning into his own servants, or bringing to the monster village.

That made the fact that all these monsters didn't survive for more than five seconds against most of the champions even more impressive than before. Whether their bodies were instantly frozen, dehydrated, cut apart, or even flattened, the monsters didn't stand the slightest chance.

"Ah, by the way... don't burn these corpses for now, alright?" Eiro told his own guide, since he wanted to use the monsters' corpses himself later.

But soon, it got to the point where Eiro wanted to pay some more attention. It was time for the first transmigrator. She seemed to be a magic archer, from her general getup. She had a number of magic stones on the belt at her hip, although this itself seemed to be an artifact and a gift from whatever deity summoned her, since the magic didn't seem to deplete in the slightest, since the magic stored inside was just ridiculous.

Of course, she also had a few normal arrows in her quiver, and the bow itself was shaped in a way that Eiro had never seen before. But it was interesting nonetheless. He should tell Armodeus about this structure later on, he would be quite interested in it.

She clearly had a similar issue to that other transmigrator – she wasn't able to control her strength. She used every aspect of the archery skill that she was given upon being summoned, to a ridiculous degree.

And the moment that she let go of the first arrow she wanted to shoot, a regular old arrow, not even enchanted in a special way, it seemed to cut through the air, shattering the large stone pillar that was prepared for her into pieces.

"Hm... interesting." Eiro muttered. He hoped that she wasn't going to be as troublesome as that kid summoned by the goddess of negativity, though. He didn't want to kill another person from the same world as Arc.