Chapter 42: First Victory

The outcome of the battle was exactly as Gune had anticipated.

The female fire elementalist, Aitu·Huolan, died.

She died miserably and quickly.

The battle ended just over ten seconds after it began.

The shadow user with Oklo·Bachler easily sliced to her side, broke through her flame shield, and pierced her head with a cursed dagger.

Her head was shattered, her soul core torn apart, and she died.

The battle was clean and decisive, a one-sided slaughter.

"Elisa, Traore, prepare to enter." The divine envoy said coldly.

Elisa was a female shadow user clad in black mechanical battle armor.

Traore was an unfortunate seventh-rank mid-stage spellcaster.

Under the slightly relieved and pitying gazes of the crowd.

Traore, with an extremely grim expression, chugged potions wildly as he flew into the arena.

This time, the seventh-rank mid-stage spellcaster named Traore was not weak and had many means of resistance.

But clearly, his opponent was stronger.

In about half a minute, Traore was killed.

Then came the third match.

It was also a battle without suspense.

The fourth match was the same.

By this time, the seventh-rank mid-stage transcendents had also noticed something amiss, and their expressions were grim.

"Gune·Lawrence, Edral, prepare to enter." The divine envoy said coldly.

"My turn."

Gune stood up, and with a thought, the silver-gray mechanical angel battle armor materialized, enveloping his entire body.

When Gune stood up, many eyes turned to him, some filled with pity.

Clearly, this guy named Gune·Lawrence was another poor soul about to be sacrificed.

At the same time, the shadow user named Edral also stood up.

Edral turned to look at Gune, grinning to reveal sharp white fangs. "Nice armor."

"Yours is nice too," Gune replied lightly.

"But soon, it'll be mine."

"That's exactly what I was going to say to you," Gune retorted without hesitation.

With a cold snort, Edral turned and flew toward the passage.

Gune followed him in, and at the same time, he downed a bottle of "Wind Potion."

This potion could increase speed by about 10% for roughly ten minutes.

A 10% speed boost was already quite good.

As a grandmaster-level apprentice arena, this arena was about a thousand meters in diameter, not small.

At the same time, powerful energy barriers isolated the entire arena from the spectator stands.

However, the stands that could hold tens of thousands of people now held only a sparse dozen or so—pitifully few.

Clearly, battles between apprentice gladiators like these were hard-pressed to attract the attention of transcendents.

At the very least, fights between one-star and two-star transcendents had some entertainment value.

Once they reached three-star or four-star, more transcendents would come to watch, and even remote arena broadcasts could be made.

After gaining popularity, there would be [Special Matches] between strong opponents.

At that time, the stands would be packed with people.

"Begin!" The divine envoy's voice rang out coldly.

The moment the words fell.

Whoosh!

Edral, whose source mechanical engines had already been activated, teleported across over three hundred meters and slashed down at Gune with a blade.

Gune, swift as the wind, quickly retreated while unleashing a ninth-rank Lesser Thunderflame Spell.

The Lesser Thunderflame Spell was most effective against mechanical angel armor.

Zzzt! Zzzt! Zzzt!

Three thick black thunderbolts struck Edral directly.

"Roar!"

Edral let out a furious roar and vanished completely.

A blood-red vertical pupil instantly bloomed on Gune's forehead—this was the Insight Eye formed by the Demon Curse Pupil.

In truth, the Demon Curse Pupil could barely detect Edral. Strictly speaking, it was essentially unable to track Edral's movements.

But the problem was that Gune didn't rely solely on the Demon Curse Pupil.

Whether it was his powerful spiritual perception domain, his profound world-essence perception, or his Eye of Fate, Edral's stealth techniques were completely exposed before Gune.

When a shadow user cannot hide from a spellcaster, they are no different from a warrior—just a bit faster.

Swish, swish, swish, swish!

Strange blades instantly appeared around Gune, completely enveloping him.

Even these bizarre blades formed an all-encompassing sealing force against each other. This sealing technique was an excellent means to deal with spellcasters.

Unfortunately for Gune, all sealing forces were likely of little effect in the face of the World's Essence.

At the same time as the numerous blades slashed down together.

Gune's entire body flashed with blood light, forcibly tearing apart the sealing force of the blades and darting out.

At the same time.

Zzzt! Zzzt! Zzzt!

Three more extremely swift small Thunder Flame Spells struck a corner in the air above.

Edral's body staggered and fell out from the air.

"Damn it, how did this guy find me? This is my spatial concealment technique."

"And why is his spell power so terrifying? Each strike not only deals significant damage to my physical body but also causes a certain degree of damage to my soul. The highly defensive Mechanical Angel Armor is of little use against this guy's Thunder Spell."

"Penetrating lightning spells are too effective against this mechanical armor."

"If this continues, I'm afraid..."

Gritting his teeth, Edral's unique energy within his body began to circulate strangely. As he shifted his position, he slashed his short sword fiercely through the air.

This scene made Gune's heart stir, but before he could dodge.

A blade edge directly grazed Gune's back and struck his body.

"Bang!"

Gune's Blood Sea Shield materialized directly, then shattered into numerous fragments and fell.

From over three hundred meters away, Edral's attack power had directly appeared behind Gune.

Gune had never seen such a bizarre and peculiar technique.

Moreover, its power was quite formidable.

Although the Blood Sea Shield was only a fifth-rank high-level spell, it was enhanced to some extent by the Blood Sea.

Yet the opponent could still cleave it open with one slash.

If this had landed directly on Gune, it would certainly have been very painful.

Having succeeded with one slash, Edral swiftly made another slash in the air.

This time, Gune was on guard. He swiftly shifted his position, narrowly avoiding the strike.

"Indeed, I must not underestimate those who come to the Divine Kingdom Arena to engage in life-and-death battles; they all have special techniques."

"Swish! Swish! Swish! Swish!"

Edralar continuously slashed rapidly toward Gune's position in midair.

Each strike landed precisely where Gune was positioned.

Fortunately, Gune's perception was strong enough.

He was able to evade most of these attacks.

However, some still landed on Gune.

Luckily, the opponent's attack frequency was not high, and they were all blocked by Gune's shield.

While blocking and evading, Gune gradually began to counterattack.

Small Thunder Flame Incantations blasted one after another toward Edralar's location.

At this moment, Gune did not use instantaneous conduction attacks.

The 'instantaneous conduction' spell, a means that inevitably hits the enemy, is quite a terrifying method.

After all, using instantaneous conduction, Gune could kill this Edralar in less than a second.

At this moment, Gune used ordinary spell conduction, combined with a bit of spell manipulation.

In this way, even long-range casting could accurately hit the enemy, while also preventing the enemy from learning more of Gune's methods.

Gune was capable of defending against the opponent's attacks.

But the opponent had few means to defend against Gune's spell bombardment.

After more than a dozen spell bombardments, Edral's attacks began to weaken, and his overall aura continuously declined.

Gune naturally did not let his guard down because of the opponent's weakening.

Sometimes enemies feign weakness to find an opportunity, and that can happen.

However, this Edral was clearly genuinely weakened from the attacks.

He had taken seven or eight of Gune's small Thunderflame Curses in a row without dodging in time, and even his evasive agility had greatly decreased.

Another dozen small Thunderflame Curses bombarded him.

Finally, Edralar plunged headfirst down from the sky.

As the opponent fell downward, Gune could already sense from the soul level that the other's soul was indeed severely injured—this was not feigned but a genuine heavy wound.

Gune, in one go, poured over twenty small Thunderflame Curses into the opponent's body.

When Gune was about to continue 'whipping the corpse,'

"Alright, the enemy is confirmed dead." The voice of the divine envoy host came coldly.

"Guné Lawrence, wins!"

Immediately, the voice of the divine envoy resounded throughout the entire arena, inside and out.

Guné flew over, stored that Edralar's mechanical angel into his system space, and then flew toward the passageway.