IDOLIZING CHAOS

Two sides of a mirror

“Sigh. The System said exactly 1 hour from now."

“Great! That would give us less than 20 minutes to fight for the Soul Points. Hehe! Looks like it won't be a battle against the five of us, but for who would first kill the Guy and take the soul points.”

This wasn't a bad deal to them at all. With the short amount of time remaining, they won't be able to fight to the death for Soul Points.

And if a person would kill Aeries off, then he or she would only have to fend off the attacks of the others till the said time elapses.

All along, they did not put Aeries in their eyes. A no-name with only two Player Kills[1] wasn't one they would worry about.

“7-chains! Am not the only one wondering about something here, the rest are the same too, and since none of them wants to bring it up, I just have to. Why haven't you finished her off yet?” Prince K faced 7 Chains with a deadpan expression.

Right.

Apart from the Top Five here; Prince K, Black Widow, Ghost Beggar, Blood Taoist, 7 chains—

Two others stood at the far side—

There was the weary and already ladened Hamman, as well as a girl with glossy eyes and drool dripping from her frosty mouth.

It took one look to tell that Fox Spirit was suffering for more than one reason but 7 chains still had his hand wrapped tightly on her neck.

“Huh? What the f**k is your business. Mind your mouth, Prince, or I'll pull it off your face... all wonder how you'll put out that self-absorbing smirk you use at others.”

“No matter. It doesn't change the fact that it's disgusting. She's disgusting"

With those words, the glossy-eyed Fox Spirit seemed to jerk a bit and regained a hint of clarification in her look... But that was just for an instance. Her eyes became dazed again, but a line of tears slowly made its way down past her nose.

“Now look what you've done Prince. You made my doll cry. Don't you think you've done enough? You're scum”

“Pui! Says the monster with a sense of oddity. You disgust me”

“Ehm, P-please everyone... Can I, can I leave now?” Hamman croaked all of a sudden.

“Huh!? What foolish ramble are you spitting now? Have you turned dumb? Speak out!” Blood Taoist put his hand ever so slowly on his sword handle.

“Why are you going? You should stay... And serve your purpose.” Ghost Beggar appeared at his side and took few sniffs of his hair.

‘You people are like hungry tigers! Am like food to you. The only reason why am still alive is that you're debating who among you would get to eat me!’

Of course, Hamman would never say that out loud. His head was bent down in dejection as his ‘bullies' Blood Taoist and Old Ghost stamped him.

“Let him go. He has no hand in this operation again" Prince K cut in.

“Really!?” It wasn't only Hamman that looked at the Prince in surprise. Blood Taoist was the same as well. He put on a thoughtful face as he tried to understand the Prince's reason but ultimately failed.

“Are you sure? Prince K” Old Ghost gave up a menacing grin.

“He followed us by his own will. So if he wants to leave then there's nobody that should stop him”

“Hai! I see. You can leave, Lollipop” Ghost Beggar Smacked Hamman's arse with even force to jolt the pitiful boy to a sprint.

‘Thank the gods I made it out!’ Hamman cried.

———

“Don't misunderstand me. He won't make it out.” Prince K glowered.

“What have our Pious Prince set for that Pitiful Peter?” 7 Chains smirked.

“Weren't you competing for the one that gets to kill him? If I can help it, I rather not fight. Instead, how about a more friendly competition? Like rabbit hunting?”

Ghost beggar, who was bordering on jumping at Prince K before was grinning from ear to ear now.

“Ai my Prince. Your eloquence and loft are something normal beggars won't understand. But why liken him to a rabbit? Is it because he would surely hide himself the instant he gets far enough from us?”

“That, Ghost Beggar, hit the volley. You can all rest assured, that I always put the well-being of the team in front.”

Everyone else, “Scum”

——————————————

Because of the absence of night and day, —In fact, only a blue hue light, like that of a sunless sky hung up in the dome— Aeries could not ascertain how long he had stayed in the Soul Arena training his skills to tears and blood.

Literally, he had been beaten down to pulp more often than he could count, as all his opponents had been at the level of the Minotaur, and even stronger at the Peak of the Demon Beast Level.

Same as how cultivators were ranked, Beasts were rank too.

Since normal beasts were just like animals and couldn't be classified as ‘beast’ they weren't classified.

Starting from Demon Beast that was graded from Rank 1 to Rank 10, in increasing level of their prowess; To Spirit Beast, that the weakest tiers were as tough as Cultivators at the Martial Flying Lord Realm, to the holy beast that was at the same level as the famed and reclusive Martial Soul Emperor Realm — beings said to be closer to being gods than men.

The Minotaur was at the Peak of Rank 9 Demon Beast. And above that, another demon beast would be at rank 10 before breaking through to the Spirit Monster realm. Which was 10x harder than normal cultivators.

“Finally, my time here is almost up. Although I've lost more fights than I could count, I believe that after every battle, the ones I've fought before tend to be below me. Not worthy to waste a sweat to defeat again. Now, what are my gains...”

After all this hard extensive training, one of the things he had gained was the comprehension and insights into his techniques, along with expertise with his new weapon, his Baseless Rod.

But if there was something he was delighted about, it was the extension of his Mountains as Mountains Form.

Before he could only use the second form for about 20 seconds. But after grueling and reforming his body thousands of times, he could now utilize this same technique for more than 50 seconds, and the First form for minutes.

This was more than twice what it was before.

Secondly, his way of Finesse also received the breakthrough he had always wanted after reaching the bottleneck before.

“En. If I estimate my strength, I can confidently put up with any Cultivator at the first tank of the Martial Flying Lord Realm. Am already one step into the Martial Great General Realm. If I can't succeed in obtaining a good position at the end of the contest, at least I would be able to break through before three months.”

In fact, he had already tested this. His last opponent was well above the peak of the Demon Beast level... already reaching the Spirit Monster Realm. Just a few years short of having the seasoned experience like real Spirit Monsters.

And although it had been a hard near-death fight to Aeries. He still won a fight several Flying Lords would dread.

“Very well, It's time to end this. No more holding back, no more running away”

And as if to further articulate his point, the Baseless Rod swung in great circles around him, creating huge bellows as it encountered air resistance.