174 Who is Ares

The match ends with George losing to Ranada, but Ranada too received physical injuries, but it doesn't matter as they already have a substitute and the nanoresucts.

The only drawback is nanoresucts can only restore your physical injuries but not the spiritual energy that is already spent.

Faust witnesses a pure fight of skill, techniques and raw strength. This is actually tougher than he anticipated, some of the captains are not to be taken lightly. A captain with martial arts techniques is already dangerous, but a captain who is well versed in martial arts and also possess tons of spiritual power is leagues above a captain like Faust.

"This gluttony is not to be taken lightly, they are second place in the first round with a young captain. And now this Ranada is like a veteran who is leagues above the young captain I beat. And that young captain felt stronger to me." Faust declares to his squad.

"Well, these are veterans Faust! While you and that young captains are beginners. We will be happy if you win at least one match! That will keep us in the home." Awarnach suggests, sensing the nervousness creeping up into Faust's heart.

It is true, the gluttony squad in the first round is tougher than any other branch Faust and his squad faced. He barely won over them by the help of Awarnach, Elton and Cameron and by using different strategies and by eliminating them.

It is different in this round! You have to make your opponent give up or knock him out to win this round. And there are no buildings or any covers in this Arena.

"The next matchup! The crowd favourite! From the–are you sure about this?" While announcing, the host faces a problem regarding the name of one of the branches.

A member from the management approaches Faust to confirm the name of their branch house and Faust nods his head in agreement.

Awarnach, Elton and Cameron including Tsumugi's mom is curious as to what bizarre name it is that the management itself came to confirm. Faust tells them to wait until the name is announced officially.

"From the house of Devils! Welcome, Faust! And the other side, from the house of Richard's! Let's welcome Barkha!" The host announces loudly and the crowd goes nuts hearing the name of the kid that created history in the first round of the purge.

But on the other side of the crowd in the nobles balcony.

"D-devil's house?"

"How did you even come up with the name Faust?"

"That's it, I'm leaving the house tomorrow, I'm gonna go pack my bags."

Cameron, Awarnach and Elton are surprised to hear the name. It is not a friendly name or anything special. The three expected a unique or cool name from a cool and powerful guy like Faust.

"What? That name is the coolest! The name of our house itself is the House of Asuras, which literally mean the house of demons so why not? You all are just jealous! I'm sure Grandma Aiko would love this name. Only she knows the true meaning of cool names." Faust implies to the name of the house they belong to, adding that Tsumugi's mother would find this name more befitting since her husband named the house as the House of Asuras.

"Good Lord! That is our name? I was wondering what fool came up with such a name. That name scared me, God's house would have been better ain't it?" Aiko replies back, shattering Faust's heart along with his hopes.

"Please, Faust from the Devil's branch!" The host invites Faust again who is lost in the debate about the name of their branch house.

"It's finally his time!" Daniel whispers under his breath, as he curiously sits straight on his throne to view Faust's every move.

Faust goes inside the arena, in between Ten thousand people, fighting in a city like structure in between no audience is no pressure but he takes a deep breath to calm his heart down in between ten thousand people.

"Yes, you better be scared! You even grew height of a couple of inches since the last time I saw you." Barkha, the older brother of the bully Ahito, who beat Faust in the past back in Mindoro says in an arrogant tone.

"Y-you bastard! What the hell are you doing?" Not being able to believe what he is seeing in front of him, Barkha shouts in desperation! He is in despair that Faust did not listen to anything that he said in a deep voice to scare Faust.

"Ohhh! Ahhh! Thank you!"

"Eyahhhh! Not really! It's not that big a deal."

"Eyahh eyahh, don't make me shy guys."

Meanwhile, Faust is holding his hands in front of him, his head lowered with cheeks turning red. His eyes are lowered too, ahy to look at the crowd around him.

And his butt is twitching and poking out, goofing around acting shy due to the compliments raining on him from the audience.

"Hey! It is our match you know! Bastard, pay attention to me."

"Start the match." The referee announces the match and Faust gets all serious.

"I will make you remember who I am." Barkha takes out knuckle dusters from his pocket and puts them on his knuckles.

"I'm sorry I didn't hear you, I just don't hear shit!" Faust says as he goes on to take out his sword from his portal.

He is goofing around till now but as soon as he hears that the match started. He wants to fight seriously by giving his all for the sake of his family.

"You sure learned how to talk, but in this adult world, I need to tea-" before Barkha finishes, Faust appeared right in front of him, he is holding his scabbard tightly in the middle with both of his hands and before Barkha could react.

A hard blow from the scabbard lands on his throat. And Faust pushed Barkha onto the ground with that and kept smacking his head with his scabbard. He didn't even draw the sword out. He knocked out Barkha by smacking his head with the scabbard.

After Barkha passed out, Faust stood near him with one of his feet on Barkha and waves to the audience and starts blowing flying kisses like a celebrity with a cute expression on his face.

It's a completely one-sided match, some did not even know that the match has started. Barkha lost his two upper jaw teeth and is not waking up no matter what.

Some are wondering how it is possible to knock the person out completely with jusf hitting them on the head with scabbards.

"Uh–and with that–Faust has wo–won his first match." The host announces while being confused. The match has just begun and already ended? Barkha is a captain class that we are talking about.

"It has ended already?" Daniel asks in surprise, he is still expecting Barkha to get up on his feet.

"It is Richard's house we are talking about." Moon Byul, another hunter among the three, takes an interest towards Faust and helps Daniel with clues.

Richard's house is the house with the lowest points till now in this purge. They have not won a single match in the entire purge.

"Are we sending them off this time?" Daniel asks for his son's opinion.

"Well, the lowest has to go."

"Good, and don't let this soldier be in any of our branches! Kick him out or send him off to farthest dimensions." Daniel expresses his disappointment with Barkha.

"Still, do you think he must have sensed the weak spiritual power of his opponent." I don't know if he sensed it but I cannot seem to sense it from him, I can't even sense when he jumped from one place to another like teleportation. I could not notice any power level.

"Did you hear tales about Ares?" Daniel asks in a serious voice.

"Yes!"

"It is said that Ares did not have spiritual power too when he first joined the house."

And with that Faust wins a match early on the second day. Faust's squad along with Tsumugi takes a deep breath, they are relieved and now sure that they will be staying in the house until another purge arrives.

"What are you saying?" Moon Byul asks knitting his eyebrows. "We were never told this!" He exclaims.

Elizabeth, the third hunter that is sitting with them, a female hunter who is listening to the conversation of Daniel and Moon Byul suddenly lowers her head as she hears the name of Ares. She holds her hands tightly as if she is trying not to feel guilty.

Meanwhile, the house of Carlos and the Outlanders family collides with each other and it is Carlos that comes out on top.

-

A couple of more matches get wrapped up with every branch winning one and losing one. Finally, it's only Faust and gluttony remain with one win for each of them, the house that wins this match will be the winner of this round.

And considering that gluttony is second place in the first round if they win against Faust in this round, gluttony and Faust's squad will be tied.

And the tiebreaker is the decision that the house which is in better rank before this purge is to be the winner. And everyone knows that gluttony always has a better ranking compared to Tsumugi's house, which is always at the last place of the leaderboards.

"Let us welcome Faust from the house of Devils! And on the other side, the well known, the one that is well known for his Godspeed, from the house of Gluttony, let's all welcome GARUDA!" The host announces, creating a lot of hype.

But the crowd responds with a buzz, everybody is whispering to each other appears to be confused with what they heard. Tsumugi runs up into the balcony of nobles.

"They cannot do this! He is a general class! This is not fair." Tsumugi yells in desperation at the nobles that are sitting and viewing the unfair game without any objections.

"I agree with lady Tsumugi! Isn't this a bit too far?" Awarnach adds his voice.

"Ahem!" The old minister clears his throat as he gets up from his seat, with a heavy sigh as to why he has to respond and reply to this.

"In front of my mighty Lord Daniel! I don't dare lie to anyone, as you all know, Garuda is still a captain class. He did not receive the general stars or have been declared officially. Hence he is still a captain class that my house possess."

"If the Lord thinks that I have done anything unfair! I will gladly pay for it with my life." The old serpent puts up a fantastic act in front of Daniel by bowing down his head and speaking with a helpless humble old man's voice. His words entered the ears of everyone like nectar, immediately making them pity the old man.

But all the nobles knew it is his cheap play by making a general class enter the purge. Garuda is next in line to become a one-star general. He will be officially declared a general in 20 days. But the old minister wants to use the fact that he is not officially declared, hence using this loophole to benefit himself.

But no noble wants to speak up, they dislike Elizabeth and Tsumugi, Carlos couldn't speak anything, if he does, people will think he is favouring his niece, meanwhile,Tsumugi's mom looks towards Elizabeth with concern.

"My lord!" Elizabeth turns her face around hesitatingly towards Daniel with her head lowered.

"Okay! You did nothing wrong! Have your seat and let the fight begin." Before Elizabeth say anything, Daniel quickly finishes the matter without having to listen to Elizabeth.

"I have been blessed by my lord." The old minister bows down to Daniel, but the corner of his mouth curves as an evil smile surfaces on his face. He goes on to settle himself in his chair without even looking at Tsumugi

"Faust! Forfeit the match! We won already, I don't want you to risk your life, I cannot face Neith if something happened to you.* Tsumugi understands that nothing can be done now to change the matchup, so with regretful eyes, she asks Faust to forfeit the match.

"It's okay Aunty! Everything will be okay! If something bad happens, I have an option to quit." Faust assures Tsumugi with a smile as he pats on her shoulder.

"No Faust!" Tsumugi holds his hand at his wrist! "I'm making you forfeit the match." She holds Faust tightly without letting him go.

"Aunty! Trust me" Faust lets go of her hand and walks forward.

"No Fau-" Tsumugi seems convinced but she realises that just trusting Faust won't work and before she goes to grab again to stop him, she is stopped by Elton who appears in front of her.

"Lady Tsumugi! Please let him do it, he is doing this for you." Elton says with conviction, each and every one of them wants to stop Faust from going head to head with a general class but all of them know that this has to be done for the sake of Tsumugi.

Both Faust and Garuda walks to the middle of the Arena. Garuda is six feet one-inch tall, muscular and slim with spiky hair and yellow eyes. He is wearing black shorts which are up to his thighs and a T-shirt which are enhancing the look of his muscular body even more with his thigh muscles, forming a V shape on his thighs.

"Looks like we shattered the dreams and hopes of your little house." Garuda says with a smirk.

Both of them stood 10 feet away facing each other. Faust assured Tsumugi with a confident smile, but he has no idea as to how to deal with a general class.

"Your house will survive the purge, and you will remain a captain! But that woman and your house won't last."

"You all came up with a good plan to make you a captain and getting equipment from other houses. But everything goes into water after this fight! Your house will perish and you all of you will be merged into another house." Faust found a way to bring back Tsumugi as the lead to their house and keep their house alive rather than merging into Carlos'. But that is only possible if his family comes out on top of the leaderboard. But Garuda mentions, that even after they survive the purge, the house without a noble leading it is bound to perish. Because Faust will lose to him in this fight.

Faust does not say a word back, he undoes his little ponytail at the back of his head, as his hair goes free, he takes out his purple sword from the portal.

People are still whispering about how unfair of a match this is to put a fourteen-year-old kid against a thirty-four-year-old.

"Begin the fight!" The referee announces and immediately, Garuda disappears. "Tsk!" Faust knew he made a blunder. He is slow compared to Garuda which now made left him in a vulnerable position. He doesn't know where Garuda is, he moves his eyes all around but does not get a glimpse of him anywhere. The next second, a knee digs into the abdomen of Faust.

The impact is so hard, Faust felt a cramp around his lower ribs, his breathing has been stopped completely, the pain is so sharp as if a knife is stuck in between his lower ribs.

Faust fell on his knees dropping his sword, he held his ribs and stomach in pain, he is not able to take breaths as the ribs give him a sharp pain every time he wants to take a deep breath.

"It might have broken a rib or two!" Awarnach mutters in a low voice. All of them are dumbstruck! They have never seen Faust in this position, he always excelled in everything. And they cannot forfeit now, once the contestant enters the Arena, only he can quit or get knocked out.

Garuda is not done yet, he comes in front of Faust wanting to kick the face of Faust with his foot. If a person receives an attack in that close the gap, from a man that possess immense strength it will break the neck or leave one brain dead.

As he swings his leg, Faust flips to his left, grabbing the left leg of Garuda that is in the air, he keeps his legs under his arm and lands a strong hit with his left elbow onto the left knee of Garuda from inside.

Garuda receives a hit on his inner knee immediately dealing a critical damaging. Faust while still being on his knees, turns towards the right knee of Garuda wanting to break the right knee as well. But Garuda quickly retreats.

"He is quick to read the situation." Daniel says about Faust. He knew that Garuda is fast and that half of his strength is lying in his legs. Which is why he intended to break both knees of Garuda.

Faust gets up on his feet while holding the left side of his ribs with his left hand and his eyes glaring at Garuda as wounded wild beast looking for revenge.

"I thought you would be dead with that first blow, and to think that your eyes still have life left in them." Garuda utters while struggling with his left knee.

Tsumugi, Awarnach and the audiences are surprised to see Faust landing a hit on a general class. It happened like a trade attack than a one-sided attack by Garuda.

*"Dammit! It hurts like hell, It broke a rib definitely. And he is fast!"* Faust suppresses his pain, making sure not make it visible in his face.

Faust stretches his right hand out in front of him as his palm is facing downside, his sword comes into his hand, he places the sword on the right side of his waist, holding it with his right hand.

Tsumugi is concerned with Faust, she is the first person among her family to witness what Faust can do in his fight with half-dead. Until now, Faust only held his sword on his left side with his left hand. But Garuda's hit must've really hurt his ribs that he cannot hold the sword with his left hand anymore.