When almost everyone around that platform was watching Lothur with surprise on their faces, this young man rose from his seat, having finished his poison.
He looked at Rudolf momentarily, with a calm expression on his face, without any trace to indicate that substance had contaminated him.
Lothur then said to his opponent before throwing that powder in a vial in his hand at his opponent. "You brought it on yourself. So don't complain later!"
In that instant, the doubts of the people in that area were cleared up, with the experts present having realized that Lothur had indeed decided to use such a substance after Rudolf did the same.
In this case, some 2-star poison masters there soon noticed Lothur's talent for identifying poisons, becoming more impressed with him despite his exceptional resistance.
'That boy is truly good!'
'I wonder who taught him? Is he still free to become a disciple of one of us?'
Some of those individuals thought similar things, while Rudolf stood in shock at his previous position.
He still could not believe how Lothur resisted his poison, and more, he was confident that he could handle something like the One Hundred and One Ulcer Poison. After all, he had the antidote for such a thing, as he had produced this substance several times in the past.
As such, he did not try to run away or give up the match to escape the opponent's attack.
Because of this, he could not avoid but be hit by the relentless poisonous substance produced by Lothur.
Gulp!
The match referee swallowed his saliva as he watched this, curious to see what the potential of the poison prepared by Lothur would be, something a little different from the formula used by Rudolf.
'How effective will it be?' He wondered as that was the last piece of information needed to declare Lothur the match winner.
The moment everyone had been waiting for finally came as Rudolf suddenly convulsed, slowly lowering himself to the ground as he began to emit sounds of agony.
As he did so, feeling the potent effect of Lothur's poison, he tried to drink the antidote he already had in his spatial ring, feeling a little worse than he should.
'What's happening? Why is it hurting so much?' He wondered, full of doubt as he cried out in pain.
"Ahhhhhhhh!"
"Ahhhh! Help me! Ahhhhhh! It's killing me!"
Within seconds he was desperately screaming, crying out for help from the people in that place, while his whole body was burning, internally and externally.
At the same time, wounds were beginning to appear all over his face, as if acid was eating away at his flesh from inside his body.
People in the surrounding area saw this with wide-open mouths and eyes, noticing the shocking action of Lothur's poison that was even worse than a simple Iron-grade poison.
The effects had come on very quickly, while their intensity and resistance to the antidote used by Rodulf showed that it was not simple.
And with that, everyone there noted Lothur's superiority in this battle, with the match referee quickly ending this round to allow that young man to receive help.
"Lothur Ritter, representing the Frost family, wins his first round!" The referee shouted as two poison masters from the Sitz family walked up the battle platform to do something about Rudolf.
"Ahhhhhh!"
"Please! Help me! Ahhhhhhhhhh!"
"Young Rudolf, stay calm. We are here!" One of them said as he and his companion were already analyzing the situation of the body of this fellow, one of the favorite poison masters of this family in such a competition.
But seeing the situation of Rudolf's body, which at the moment already had wounds spread over more than half of his skin and reaching his internal organs, the two men turned pale.
"That's not the One Hundred and One Ulcer Poison! It's something different!" One of them exclaimed, feeling helpless about something different from what he had studied.
As his companion tried to give something to Rudolf, he shouted in the direction of Lothur, who was already leaving that combat platform. "Hey, give us the antidote, or our participant will die!"
The silence continued in that area while many people had their hands in their mouths, noting Rudolf's deplorable state.
Lothur then stopped beside the stairs of that circular platform and looked back at where those three individuals stood. He ignored his opponent's cries of pain and casually commented. "That was the first time I made that poison, so I don't have an antidote."
"What? The first time?"
"How can that be? Did he risk that much?"
Several experts voiced their thoughts, finding it incredible that Lothur dared to do something like that in a competition.
Producing a poison for the first time, even following the formula, was not something trivial. On the contrary, it took a lot of training and preparation to produce something like this without making mistakes that would affect the quality of the final product or even the safety of the poison master.
As such, the people there were surprised by Lothur's response and immediately considered him even more formidable because of it.
"He's testing new ideas while competing? Haha, he's slapping all the competitors in this tournament in the face!"
"The kid is arrogant, but he's outstanding!"
While the people there were talking, the two members of the Sitz family trying to help Rudolf turned even paler upon hearing that from Lothur.
"Don't lie to..." Then, as one of them was about to refute Lothur's words, that young man turned to the platform's stairs, giving his back to such a person. "Don't bother. Even if I had the antidote, I wouldn't give it to you!"
The moment he said this, one of the two poison masters shook with anger and struck out in Lothur's direction a black ball containing his deadly poison.
When she saw this, Rebecca frowned and ran to Lothur's side.
Before the referee of the match even had a chance to move to stop a competitor from being killed out of combat, something the imperial family forbade, this green-haired woman received that attack in full.
Lothur watched it happen near him with his eyebrows fully knitted together, surprised by Rebecca's quick reaction.
The man who had attacked him was someone at level 11, so he was a little afraid of being attacked. But he was not the type to stand still when attacked and was already preparing to defend himself and at least try to avoid the worst.
However, when Rebecca received the full attack from his opponent, he was surprised that this level 10 woman did not suffer a bit from such a move!
That man's black ball of poison barely touched her body when suddenly, several runes appeared on this woman's white skin.
When this happened, as many looked on and recognized Rebecca, the black ball disappeared like a drop of water touching a scorching steel plate.
"What?" The man who threw such a thing screamed in shock as he realized what had happened to his most lethal weapon.
...