Chapter 54: Start and the End of the First Match

James had only activated a small part of his aura when he gripped the sword tightly in his hand. His gaze shifted slightly as he realised that the person standing in front of him was not too frightened:

"Of course, it wouldn't be only those who made it up to the 10th floor who would be fighting here, there are also those from higher floors, aren't there?" he said to himself.

After these words, he took a step forward activated his dark step ability and disappeared from where he was.

While his opponent Rico was trying to understand what was going on, he suddenly felt a coldness coming from his right side and put the sword in his hand into position to protect himself.

"CHING!!!"

The sound of a loud metal clash echoed throughout the arena and the sparks from the collision scattered and disappeared.

Rico dropped to one knee and tried to realise what was happening. Not only him, but the referee and all the spectators had the same question on their minds:

"How could someone who had just stepped onto the 10th floor be so strong?"

Rico stood up, and then his shadow started to move, James took a few steps back when he realised that his opponent's shadow was coming towards him, and then he noticed that the shadows on the ground started to take human shape.

"What the heck is this?" he questioned, there were shadow clones in front of him, clones attached to their owners.

While he was busy being surprised by this, all the clones suddenly attacked and swooped down on James. James took Selene's Knife out of his inventory and threw it at a clone, but the blade went right through the clone.

It was clear that the clones were not targeting his vital areas, Rico just seemed to want to win.

James didn't know what to attack the clone with, but oddly enough he wasn't afraid of them.

When Rico saw James' face, he felt his soul tremble from the bottom of his soul...James was laughing.

"HAVE YOU GONE MAD?!!! WHY ARE YOU LAUGHING?!" Rico suddenly shouted, and each second the clones' attacks got faster and faster.

James was dodging all the attacks when suddenly his whole body was covered in aura and he lunged at Rico, if he couldn't catch the clones he would have to defeat the owner of the clones.

With his swift movements, he raised the sword in his hand to his inventory and then threw Rico, whom he had grabbed by the arms, out of the arena, he did not need to kill an opponent who only wanted a gain against him and did not wish for his death.

Rico, having been thrown out of the arena instead of dying, looked up and looked at James, seeing his smiling face again he shook his head, he had not expected to be defeated so quickly.

"Why am I smiling? It's the first time I've been able to duel someone else since I entered the tower and the person I'm duelling is of a strong calibre, how can I not enjoy myself?"

At James' words, Rico and everyone else shut up. They couldn't remember the last time they had seen a match won without being killed in this arena known as the arena of death.

It was at that moment that the sound of the crowd erupted into an explosion of cheers, one after the other, filling the ears to overflowing.

At that moment, James crouched down, looked at Rico and calmly uttered the following words:

"This clone ability of yours, can it be improved?"

When Rico heard these words, he nodded his head in the affirmative and James smiled and said, "Go to the 5th floor and visit the Church of Night, tell them that I sent you and take this as proof, they will help you." Then he took out a pen and paper from his inventory and wrote a small note with his signature on it, handed it to Rico and then prepared to leave.

At that moment Rico's voice was heard:

"I don't understand, you're sparing my life and helping me...why?"

James smiled when he heard this question and then uttered the following words, which reassured everyone:

"Well you are not half-bad you know? Also, we all trying to be gods and goddesses here, not like we need to kill each other right? If you were trying to kill me it would be different of course but now there is no need, just grow up and fight me again."

The smile on James's face was not one of contempt, it was like a ray of sunshine that all the blood that had been spilt in this arena over the years needed to see. It was as if all the spirits in the arena were having fun with this.

"Hahaha....what an honour it is to meet you, Umbra of Chaos." Rico said and with that, he stood up, bowed his head and then left the arena.

James turned to the referee to a chorus of cheers and then asked, "I can fight until I'm beaten or until I want to use my timeout, right?"

The referee shook his head and James, hearing this, took his seat again and said "Then please put the next opponent forward".

The tournament was huge, almost a month-long tournament, with almost 10,000 people fighting every day, and more than half of them dying in it.

That meant that if James rested for even a second, it would be to his detriment. After all, there were millions of different people in the tower, and fighting against them would make James stronger, and hone his skills. seaʀᴄh thё nôvelFire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

He couldn't just throw away this opportunity. Once he did, he would have no honour to say he would reach Chaos, no reality to hope he could surpass even Nyx's power.

All he wanted to do was take one more step forward every second until the time came when he couldn't.

James was lost in such thoughts when the referee's voice suddenly sounded:

"Umbra of Chaos and Kres of Aria to the arena!"

Match 2 was about to begin.