The Master of Uradan

Silence prevailed in the crowd. The other fighters on the side stopped by themselves. Everyone starred with different emotions engraved on their faces. Among those expressions, one predominated the most people, warriors and ordinary nomads alike: fear.

The last exchange between those two warriors stupefied all the onlookers. Tarag and his perfect slash with all its might simply tore open their views. How many among the rank 4 Beginner Warriors would have survived such a blow?

Even Garrold muttered to himself that if he was the target of this attack, he would be split in two before he could even react. They both had the same level before he lost his arm, but he felt that even with one, he wouldn't be able to defend.

But what destroyed all common sense, was the move this young warrior had shown them all. It was a single step as if he had eyes on his back. Along with his face devoid of any reactions, they all supposed that this young man was controlling the fight since the first clash of their swords.

For every single person there, this Rohan perfectly calculated all his moves before taking any action. And his last stab scared all warriors to the core.

It was a vicious hit, one that was supposed to be done at the worst enemy. In a single gesture, so smooth that the spectators could believe Tarag and Rohan had repeated this fight before, the tip of the blade had entered the taboo area.

They all saw what had occurred. They all knew it was Tarag who had dropped against the sword. It could naturally be depicted as a lack of luck from the warrior falling on the raised sword. But no one was foolish enough to believe a single second that it was an accident.

After the sword pierced through the mana core of Tarag, Rohan lowered his sword with a perfect amount of strength, accompanying the body landing on the ground, thus preventing his sword from killing this man.

With a clean flash of his sword, he then retrieved his sword and sheathed it in a single and same gesture. Rohan didn't wait there, and since he won this fight, he went down to the stone arena.

His expression was the same all along. It was as if he couldn't hear the screams of the previously rank 4 Beginner Warrior, as he convulsed where he lied. Every muscle of his body spasmed under the terrible pain he felt.

His mana. The one that should belong to no one but him. The one that should be resting on his mana core. It was now rushing inside his whole body. The pain was excruciating and made him scream again and again.

He had already used four skills in a row, thus actively saving his life, as only a small bit of mana was still inside the mana core the moment the sword had completely shattered it. In a single movement, Rohan had completely destroyed what was making this man a warrior.

If it was only a hole, the warrior simply would have to will his mana to consolidate it. His mana core would maybe be fragile because of this, but at least it would have been still there. Now, because of the action from Rohan, he was as good as an ordinary nomad like everyone else.

He had fallen from his pedestal in a single duel, and this made all the spectators shudder under the sight of this powerful man, leader of the Whitetiger clan screaming and crying.

Not a sound could be heard in the whole arena, and only the burst of voices from the three other stages filled the area. Then, breaking this strange atmosphere, a group of people among the nomads yelled with all their might.

Darias rubbed his eyes. He felt that he was in a dream. He wanted so much to charge and spit on this bastard. To trample him and poke his eyes while he suffered all he could endure. He could only restrain himself.

Besides his father, Deidros watched with complicated emotions. A smirk finally appeared, as his frail hand clenched in a fist. Rohan could indeed show his wicked side sometimes. It was apparent that the warrior had performed such an action because of him, and Deidros thanked him from the bottom of his heart.

Even Daina had a big smile on her face. It was because of this jerk her brother was now forced to live with a broken mana core. At least now, he would understand the pain that such a core could provide.

She didn't know that Rohan had been harsher than she thought. He didn't simply break the mana core, he completely shattered it. The meridians were even crumbling one after another without a core sustaining them. The pain Tarag currently undergoes exceeded all pain Deidros could have felt, even when he moved his little mana.

Deidros felt a weight fading away. His eyes fell on this young warrior, met only a few months ago.

He was standing there, watching as the other fights had taken back their course. His expression was still the same as always. He always had a calm expression, but it was still strangely easy to guess his thoughts.

He still didn't know what he searched for coming all the way here. He didn't believe it was only to sightsee or watch the mountain or whatever this young man had declared back then, but he didn't care.

After the chilly fight against those two warriors, the duels finished one after another, and after some time, it was time for another batch. This one, Rohan was also against a warrior, but this one made the same choice as everyone else and gave up just after the fight began.

This time, since there was an impaired number of fighters, one of them was easily accepted by luck as he didn't have an opponent. Such a case occasionally happened, and no one really cared. Because of this luck, he would maybe have more magical water for his clan than the other, but it was simply luck, and no one could do anything in front of this.

Plus, no one was foolish enough to attract the anger of the great clan by spitting on their way to handle the ranking.

The duels continued one after another, and with fewer participants each time, it became faster and faster. The sun was still high in the sky when the fight in the third arena had ended. There were eleven fighters allowed to continue, and among them was Rohan. He was lucky enough to not meet the Intermediate Warrior.

But either way, Rohan decided he will only fight this warrior a bit before giving up. He had already attracted too much attention, it wouldn't be a good idea to showcase his wizard spell.

Among those eleven participants, only Rohan and a rank 2 Beginner Warrior were representing a clan of the external ring, all the others were from the internal one. Apart from the stronger warrior, there was only one rank 5 Beginner Warrior other than Rohan. It was an old man. Extremely old.

Along with this arena, the three others had also finished their battle, and it was time to rank the stronger warriors of the whole Barren Lands.