The last three squadrons stared at Danilo in fear.
The roar of the crowd, filled with enthusiasm, was anything but pleasant to them. Thousands of people were witnessing a historic moment. They were part of it as well, but on the wrong side. The sad and cruel reality was that everyone was waiting for their incredible and spectacular deaths to improve their entertainment.
After witnessing the end of the other squadrons, they adopted a new strategy. Five gorillas moved to the front and used the Earthquake skill. Danilo had no choice but to jump once again. While he was in midair, a massive object was hurled toward him. He barely had time to dodge and transformed the Sky Slayer into a large shield, but the impact still reached him, knocking him out of the air.
The object thrown was a wolf.
It seemed they preferred a different approach—fighting from long range.
Before he could stand up and regain his balance, large stones, bigger than an adult's head, were thrown at him. Once again, he could only rely on the shield to protect himself. Thus began the long-range game, and for quite some time, Danilo was truly cornered.
The stones slammed against the shield, and he felt each impact. They were thrown with such force and precision that they shattered upon collision. Then Danilo felt pain in his legs—a stone had struck them. His legs were unprotected due to the shield's limited size.
Seeing the effectiveness of this approach, the attacks intensified, many of them deliberately targeting his legs.
To change the situation, Danilo decided to advance in a zigzag pattern instead of a straight line. The closer he got, the more intense the barrage became. Then he realized that the number of gorillas throwing stones had increased, reaching the hundreds.
The volume was almost equivalent to a rainstorm—or a machine gun made of stone. As he ran, dozens, then hundreds of stones were hurled toward him. When he drew closer, he felt an enormous stone pass over him from above. He looked up and saw dozens of gorillas being carried by eagles. Each gorilla was carried by three eagles as they hurled stones downward. As for the other eagles, they picked up stones from the ground to resupply the aerial throwers.
Danilo's body hair stood on end. Witnessing such a coordinated attack, he couldn't help but praise it. This was truly worthy of intelligent monsters.
He realized that the closer he got, the easier of a target he became. He needed to find a solution quickly, he thought as he ran.
Then a massive stone struck him from behind on the head. He fell and was immediately bombarded by a rain of stones.
As he tried to push forward toward the group, he hadn't noticed that another squad had completed a full encirclement.
While some attacked from the ground, another group attacked from the air. What he didn't know was that he had been completely surrounded by both ground and aerial assaults. At that moment, he regretted his lack of long-range attack abilities.
The rain of stones was excruciating. If not for his exaggerated attributes combined with infinite regeneration, he would have certainly died already.
While being pelted, he noticed that he was beside a crater formed by the Earthquake skill. Despite the pain, he forced himself to fall into it—and he did.
The Hero Arena, which until then had been boiling with screams and excitement, fell silent.
The miracle everyone believed they would witness that day failed to materialize. From the very beginning, it had always been seen as impossible, yet as time passed, hope had been born.
Today's battle was far more than a man versus beasts.
Today's battle represented faith in the human race.
For centuries, humanity had been oppressed by beasts, practically since the beginning of the Celestial Dominion.
Although all races were given a chance to evolve, humans were unfortunately far too ordinary. Other races, on the other hand, possessed peculiar traits that became extremely powerful through evolution—especially the insect race.
Once insignificant, beings easily crushed, their former minor nuisances—such as mosquito and bee stingers, ant carapaces, or even their abnormal strength—when combined with intelligence comparable to humans and constant evolution, had transformed them into terrifying predators. Worse still was the deep hatred they harbored toward humanity.
All races hated humans.
The exact reason was unknown, but the most plausible explanation was the crown humanity had carried for ages—its intelligence. Once all races began to evolve, the struggle for that crown began. And the first task was always the same: dethrone the king who wore it.
Today's battle reignited a flame that had long been extinguished in the hearts of those who witnessed it. Today's battle proved that, yes, it was possible to stand against the foreign races.
High above the Hero Arena, a group of beings was gathered. There were approximately twenty of them, all watching the battle below. This group consisted of all the kings of the City of Chaos.
In the world of the Soba, the highest classification was that of Emperor.
Evolution occurred—and had always occurred—through the Path of Ascension, the beautiful Golden Gate that stood before the ancient Bronze Gate leading to the other floors of the Celestial Tower.
To evolve to a new classification, one had to challenge a being of the same rank.
There were many theories stating that the higher the classification, the greater the attribute points gained when leveling up. That was why the best time to ascend was at level one, when attributes were still at their base values for that rank. But in truth, everything was difficult.
Within that group, the majority were smiling, clearly entertained now that Danilo had been "controlled."
A minority, however, showed frustration.
Most of those present belonged to foreign races.
This was the true ruling group of the City of Chaos.
They had been there since the first minutes of Danilo's battle and had witnessed almost everything.
Information about Nivaldo Gourgel had already been investigated by them. At the same time, all of them had sent their confidants toward his family—some to protect, others to destroy. And the majority wanted destruction.
The king of the human race was furious. The idea of the long-range attack had come from one of the kings of the mosquito race. He was the one who passed the strategy to the monsters, explaining step by step: use eagles for aerial attacks and form a siege. The result had been truly effective.
— Finally, this bunch of idiots did something intelligent — said the mosquito race king.
He stood about one meter tall. His stinger was violet in color and possessed a Grade A talent: Bone-Melting Venom. Extremely cruel, it made him, to many, more terrifying than numerous Grade S talents.
— Well, they're still young, and young ones sometimes need a bit of guidance when they stray from the right path — replied a female voice.
The figure had a human-like structure but was covered in a black cloak. If not for the cat tail swaying behind the long robe, everyone would have thought she was human.
— What can I do? Teaching the young is a burden that I, as someone from the older generation, am willing to carry.
The mosquito laughed loudly as he spoke.
The kings of the human race remained silent. After hearing that, they knew that no matter what they said, nothing would change. It would only increase the ridicule and serve as entertainment for the others.
They watched as Danilo entered the crater and remained there for some time. Many had already begun making plans based on the corpses scattered across the field.
Danilo's weapon—a shape-shifting weapon—was something never before seen. What was even stranger was that, of all the battles that had taken place in the arena, this was the only one where it was impossible to see attribute data, not even the level.
But based on their experience, Danilo's level did not exceed fifty. Therefore, he could be easily crushed. That was how the enemies thought.
The crowd lost hope. Some began to stand up and leave, unable to endure the sadness, filled with regret.
Today, they had almost witnessed the birth and rise of a legend.
Seeing him fall at the end was truly lamentable.
Then, from within the crater, a spear was launched at extremely high speed and struck the eye of one of the gorillas being carried by the eagles.
Before it had time to roar, they saw the protagonist—with his armor once again shattered that very day—teleport directly to the wounded gorilla.