The Dark Demon Lord - Chapter 97

A smirk appeared on Arnin’s face as he stood up from his rock. The sound of moving wind approached him. He took a few steps forward as he saw a small group of people appear in front of him.

There were four people in this group, with the leader being a tall man with white hair. His eyes were dark brown, and his clothes were completely red. The contrast between his clothes and hair made him look a little weird, however the strength he exuded prevented anyone from commenting on it. The man was in Essence Manifest – Hell.

The people behind him were in the same realm, however in comparison to the strength of the leader, their auras were like small lakes in front of the ocean.

A small smile appeared on the white haired man’s face as he approached Arnin amicably. “Little kid, you should really control your mouth since it could lead to large problems for you. You see what happened after speaking so much? Others are coming for your head.” The white haired man shook his head, however the smile never disappeared from his face. “Luckily for you, I am here to give you a hand with the matter.”

When Arnin heard his words, he couldn’t help but smirk. “Oh? You want to help me? Please, do tell me how you will do so.”

Seeing that Arnin was only speaking to taunt him, the white haired man couldn’t help but laugh a little. “If you continue with that attitude, it will be difficult for me to help you.”

Although his words sounded nice, in reality, they were filled with deep threats. What he really meant was ‘If you keep talking like that to me, I don’t mind watching you die.’ Everyone knew that Arnin had challenged the top ten and called everyone else trash. If no one helped him, then the only ending for him would be death.

“I’m sorry, do you find it hard to help me? That’s alright, most trash can’t help other people, but it’s ok, you don’t have to worry about that. You can watch from the side with the other trash.” A wicked smile stayed on Arnin’s face as he taunted the white haired man.

Hearing the words Arnin spouted, the white haired man frowned slightly, however it quickly turned into a smile. “Since you have this under control, then I shall just watch from the side. Please do tell me if you are in need of my assistance, I am willing to support you if you just ask.”

Ignoring the thick skinned man, Arnin continued to wait for more people to arrive. His expectations were risen to a higher level because of the white haired man. ‘If this retard is so strong, how powerful might the top ten be?’

To him, people who were able to jump levels and fight were the real opponents. The white haired man seemed like this type of opponent, however Arnin wasn’t going to take the initiative until everyone gathered. He didn’t want to be attacked in the middle of his fight by someone who didn’t mind resorting to such tricks.

A few hours passed by quickly and many people began to gather. Canae and Sinfallel had already returned to his side. He even saw a few other familiar faces, such as Relshe and Srida, and even the couple Adilis and Clareena. He wasn’t too surprised to see them.

In the large group, other than the white haired man, there were a few people who he sensed danger from. One of them was even in Essence Manifest – Sky, just a small realm higher then him. Although this surprised him slightly, he didn’t find it unbelievable. If he could jump many realms and over power people much stronger than him, then who was to say that others couldn’t.

“Canae, name anyone that is in the top twenty. Ignore everyone else.” Although Arnin did call people other than the top ten trash, he knew that it was not the case. Adilis was a very resilient opponent who was able to fight him when he was aggressively attacking. Plus he was only at he back of the twenty, there were nineteen more who were much stronger then.

Canae nodded her head and began to point out the big shots. She pointed towards the white haired man first. “That person is ranked number twelve.” She then pointed at a ten year old boy who had the cultivation at Essence Manifest – Sky realm. “He is ranked eleven.” She went on and named all of the people ranked behind the top ten.

“Is there no one from the top ten in this crowd?” Arnin found it weird that none of them were here yet. If anything, they should have been here first.

“I don’t see any of the top ten here.” She placed her hand on her chin as she spoke hesitantly. “Maybe they are here, but not in this crowd?” When she said this, Arnin’s eyes glinted coldly.

“That is most likely the case. They must want to see if I am even worthy of their presence. Such pretentious cowards!” Arnin shook his head, but then nodded with satisfaction towards Canae. “You are just as sharp as I want you to be. Now then, you shall face some people here to increase your strength as well.”

If Canae was going to be his future commander, she would need more battle experience. Although she was able to kill two people in a higher cultivation realm than her, that was only through trickery and surprise attacks. This time, he wanted her to fight them in a more fair battle.

In the past, Canae would have hesitated to go up, or even cursed Arnin for being such a ruthless person, but this time she gladly walked forward. ‘Since I am determined to follow him until I can achieve my goals, then I must do as he says and increase my strength.’

As Canae walked forward, Arnin looked at all the people who were gathered. “Other than a few of you, the rest are just trash, so before facing me, you must go against my slave. Every person that can beat her, will be able to fight me with a partner of their choice.” Arnin didn’t contain any of his insults.

“This kid is too much! Face that little girl? She’s too weak!” Someone couldn’t help but speak with some discontent.

Arnin looked at this person and found that his realm was at Essence Manifest – Sky. “You seem pretty confident, however do you really want to face a little girl at Orb Birth – Heaven with your ‘great’ strength?” Arnin spoke with a voice filled with derision.

The man just snorted and didn’t walk forward. Although he talked big, he knew that Arnin was not someone he could actually beat. There were rumours that his strength had already reached the level of the top twenty, and maybe even the top ten.

“For the first few rounds, let’s do a battle for cultivators at Orb Birth – Heaven. If any of you can beat her, then I don’t mind fighting against a group.” He spoke out again. Even though he wanted Canae to fight against higher realmed people, he knew that setting her up with Essence Manifest cultivators right away would only be suicidal. She had neither the strength nor the experience for that.

“Who the hell do you think you are to decide the rules? I say we all should just attack him and get this over with. What do you guys say?” A young man with a heroic spirit walked out from the crowd showing his strength, which was at Essence Manifest – Earth just like Arnin. This man also had a decent rank and a relatively well known name in the battlefield. Rank twenty two, Sword Hero.

He had heard that Arnin challenged the top ten and called the top twenty trash, so what did that make him? Less than trash? With his personality, how could he take such insults?

“Come, then.” Arnin looked at the young man with dull eyes. To him, anyone in the same realm as him was no different from an ant.

Arnin lifted his hand as a grey flame appeared on his palm. The Flames of Neutrality. The power of these flames was extremely terrifying. The heat exuded by them couldn’t even be felt; it was at such a high temperature that everything would turn into nothingness against it.

Striking forward, the flames snaked towards the young man who tried to block it with his sword. Almost instantly, the flames began to disintegrate the sword into thin air as if it was paper.

A horrified expression appeared on Sword Hero’s face. He quickly released the sword and jumped back, distancing himself from the flames, however the Flames of Neutrality didn’t stop.

Ignoring the vanishing sword, the flames continued to chase after the fleeing Sword Hero. Realizing that escaping would be useless, the terrified Sword Hero calmed his nerves slightly. He unsheathed his last sword from his back. This sword was a little different from his last as it released a bit of elemental energy.

With a low roar, he charged towards Arnin, dodging the flames with a sidestep, however little did he know that the flames could split themselves. The fire had no definite form, allowing it to bend and twist in different manners.

Seeing the flame aim for his head, he gritted his teeth as he ducked down. With a swing of his arm, the large elemental blade slashed against the flame that approached from below, parrying it with some difficulty.

A bit of the flame caught on his blade, trying to erase its existence as well, however he waved his sword in the air, extinguishing the small flame. Unlike normal swords, the elemental blade was able to defend against many different types of attacks.

“Oh, that blade is pretty good.” Arnin smiled as he thought about how the battle might be a bit more interesting than he originally thought. ‘If only I could use my saber as a physical weapon, then maybe I could directly add the flames into it, amplifying them greatly.’ He shook his head as he stopped releasing flames.

He lifted one of his hands and slit his wrist, allowing his blood to pour out. “Lets see if you can fight against my blood blade.” He was able to change the form of blood in the past, and now he was able to magnify that property due to the Seed of Blood.

When the blood sword formed, it didn’t release any aura, making it seem nonexistent. However, this feeling startled the Sword Hero. Not only did the sword not release an ounce of essence, even Arnin’s aura became harder to detect.

“You are making a mistake, Demonic Joker. There is a reason I am called Sword Hero, I am second to none when it comes to the use of swords.” His eyes sharpened when he noticed Arnin’s new tactic, but he felt more relief than worry. In a battle of blades, he was confident he would come out on top.

“We will see whether you’re second to none or second to me.” With a faint laugh, Arnin dashed towards him. His blood blade was on his right and when he approached the Sword Hero, he gracefully cleaved towards the latter’s neck. The swordsman quickly parried the blow with a thrust, successfully protecting himself.

He didn’t stop there though. After deflecting Arnin’s blood sword, his leg rose in the air towards Arnin’s stomach.

Seeing this move, a wicked grin appeared on Arnin’s face. His blood sword, which wasn’t blocked by the other sword anymore aimed towards the young man’s neck. “You’re crazy!” Normally, a person would either jump back to dodge the kick or attack the leg itself to prevent oneself from being hurt, however Arnin didn’t do any of that. The blood sword aimed directly for his neck and with no time to avoid the hit, the young man cursed Arnin for his ruthlessness.

*BLEURG*

Being kicked so hard, even Arnin couldn’t help but spew out a mouthful of blood. His body may have been tough, but it wasn’t invincible.

*SKSHH*

As Arnin got kicked, the Sword Hero also lost his head. Arnin only fought the way he did was to show others that he wasn’t just strong with essence, but instead his abilities were well rounded. He could kill anyone with anything.

This effect worked as planned and others couldn’t help but take in a breath of cold air. The Sword Hero wasn’t exaggerating in his claim that he was second to none with the sword. In a normal duel, not even the top ten could match him in swordsmanship.

“Now then, since none of you have any complai–” Another person suddenly walked out from the group.

“I would like to fight you as well.” The person who walked out was someone ranked in the top twenty. He had scarlet hair resembling fire, and his bronze skin looked extremely beautiful, however his arms were completely burnt. This person was none other then rank fourteen, Soothing Ash.

His specialty was fire, and his signature trait was burning someone to ashes, letting them become one with the earth and wind. However, his flames were very special as they were a part of the Hell flame rankings. These flames were exceedingly rare. When Arnin first heard that a person had Hell flames, even he was greatly shocked. There were only a hundred Hell flames in Afloria so someone having one either meant that they were extremely fortunate, or they had a major backing.

‘He probably had great fortune to get those flames. Why would he come to Thorn Academy if his backing was much more magnificent.’ Arnin had learned some things from Canae and also made his own guesses on how big Lepidoptera and Thorn Academy were when compared to the whole Human continent. They were almost ant-like powers.

These schools were barely able to get Sky level flames so it was close to impossible to get Hell level ones. This allowed Arnin to further understand that only major powers could have top notch flames.

The particular flame that Soothing Ash had was known as the Soothing Flame. It was able to burn someone without causing them any sort of pain. It was a very peaceful death, however that made it even more scary. It could be used for sneak attacks and one wouldn’t even know that they were burning.

“I would like to test my flames against yours. Let’s see whose flames are stronger.” Just like his flames, Soothing Ash had a very calm and quiet personality.

Arnin nodded his head. “Alright, allow me to decimate your flames.” He smiled slightly as the grey Flames of Neutrality appeared once again.

Soothing Ash didn’t mind Arnin’s words and released his own blue fire. With a thrust of his palm, it shot towards Arnin. The latter also quickly threw out his flames to counter the other.

*BOOM*

There was a loud explosion as the two flames collided, causing a smoke screen to form. A smile appeared on Soothing Ash’s face. “Seems our flames are similar in strength, and mine might be slightly stronger.”

When Arnin heard his words, he shook his head, but then his face scrunched into a frown. From the smoke screen, a large blue flame continued to fly towards him. ‘Seems like my flames are not actually as strong as I thought they were.’ A bitter look appeared on his face as he sent multiple bursts of grey flames towards the incoming blue flame. After a few dozen of his attacks landed on it, the blue flame was finally gone.

“I wonder whose flames decimated the other’s?” Soothing Ash spoke with a calm voice, his voice as ethereal as his flames.