''It's over?'' Alaric slowly stood up, watching ahead since he didn't hear anything anymore.
But he instantly startled when a deafening, painful scream tore through the air. It lasted a while before finally fading away.
From the source of the scream, he couldn't guess who had won—but it didn't matter. Just wait.
After a couple of minutes, he began to make out the winner's figure through the swirling dust in the distance.
''So bad.'' The slave frowned as Morris's shadow gradually emerged. He was dragging Curry's upper half. It seemed Morris had crushed Curry's body with some unknown power—but judging by the flat, clean cuts, the slave guessed Morris had used a sword or something sharp to slice Curry in half.
''Poor guy.''
The slave let out a sigh and lightly shook his head, glancing at Curry's organs scattered along the path where Morris was dragging the body.
When Morris reached the edge of the cliff and tossed the corpse into the abyss, the slave finally got a clear view of him. The muscular young man had taken terrible wounds as well. His entire back was pinned with a dozen stone arrows, like a layer of porcupine quills.
But the slave couldn't see any bleeding. Oh—Morris's back and most of his body were reinforced with dragon scales. The slave sighed. He had hoped his enemy would be badly hurt; that would've given him an advantage in the next challenge, at least. But, alas.
''What a monster.''
He glanced behind Morris. He blinked a couple of times before finally noticing Morris's summon: a red dragon. It was still young, only slightly bigger than Morris. At evolution stage 1, this was probably its current form.
From its snout, he could see it was chewing something with way too much enjoyment. And when it spat out a boot covered in blood and drool, he knew exactly what it was. Yeah—the red dragon was eating Curry's lower body.
For some reason, the red dragon shifted its attention toward the slave, and in just a blink, it lunged at him with ridiculous speed.
A sudden ambush. It wanted to kill him right now.
''No surprise.''
The slave's face twisted—not from fear or shock, just pure annoyance because his prediction had been right from the start. Obviously, killing him before the next challenge even began was a smart move.
Without hesitation, he summoned his massive stone egg to block the red dragon's charging momentum. But damn—his summon didn't even survive a single hit. The red dragon simply swung its claws, slicing the massive stone egg cleanly in half.
''Curse you!''
He gritted his teeth, desperately trying to think—how to defeat the red dragon, or at least dodge its next attack… but he had no time.
Behind the falling chunks of stone, the red dragon's mocking face appeared. It inhaled deeply, preparing to unleash a flame right at him.
It happened too quickly for the slave to even react in time. A fireball had just started to form in the dragon's long snout… and then extinguished right away.
To the slave's surprise, his eyes widened as the red dragon's head suddenly dropped—its body falling right after.
He stared into the dragon's hollow eyes; despite that, it still wore an arrogant expression after the death, and he swallowed hard.
"Tsk. You shouldn't mess with the rules of the challenge. That's no fun at all."
The demon chuckled, using its crimson mana to wipe the blood from its longsword. Clicking his tongue, he stepped toward the center of the rocky platform, preparing for the final challenge.
Meanwhile, the slave let out a deep breath of relief, glancing at the red dragon as it dissipated. Then his eyes gradually sharpened as he shot Morris a cold look.
Morris ignored him and walked toward the center of the rocky platform, but he couldn't hide the discomfort gnawing at him—his summon had been killed, and now he couldn't use it in the final challenge.
Still, it wasn't a big deal. He could handle the slave easily even without a summon.
Half a minute later,The demon finally spoke again.
"The rules of the challenge are simple. You just have to defeat me in a one-on-one duel. Each of you will fight me. If you win, you get the reward and leave this place."
The slave frowned, unsure whether he should feel sad or relieved. Even if he didn't have to fight Curry, fighting a demon wasn't much different.
"It's just impossible for me… I have not even a chance to face that bastard," he muttered.
While the slave was nonstop calculating ways to defeat the demon, Morris suddenly screamed, his voice filled with fury and grief. His face twisted with countless negative emotions.
The slave just frowned in bewilderment as looking at Morris's expression. He completely had no idea about Morris's weird actions….Perhaps, Morris was losing his mind for some reason.
After a few seconds Morris finally forced himself to calm down, speaking in a hollow tone, but it could not hide his murderous intention to the demon.
"You mean… there's no match between me and that scum slave?"
The demon chuckled.
"Yeah, that's right… Maybe you're feeling guilty? Since you killed your close friend only to find out how simple the rules are. Tsk, tsk. You guys should've killed the slave from the start instead of overthinking."
''There could've been a scene where the two of you—best friends—won the final challenge and walked out of the god's gate together..but it's a pity.''
The demon tried to hide his perverted expression and said.
"But tell me—did you really think you could beat me? Either way, even if the slave died, both you and your friend would've died by my hands too."
Silence.
Morris barely wanted to understand the demon's words. He clenched his fists as tears streaked down his face.
"I'll definitely win… I'll avenge my friend."
He pointed at the demon and roared,
"Start it. I'll challenge you first!"
Meanwhile, the slave's face kept shifting several times—he had absolutely no idea what was going on in Morris's mind. At this moment, he couldn't consider Morris a normal person anymore. Not because of his power, but because of such a level of lunacy and twistedness of personality traits and thoughts he carried.
"Killing your best friend with your own hands, brutally, without a hint of humanity… and then calling it revenge for your friend with some trash excuse?"
Over time, his face grew cold as he moved his attention to the two bastards in front of him. He could not suffer those bastards any seconds anymore. They made the slave sick.
His mind held only one thing: "Find a way to kill those scums."