Ray continued to stand there unmoving. The others were confused, as he was standing in front of the beast, yet he was doing nothing. They were happy to see him, but if he didn't move soon or he underestimated the beast, then he would be in serious trouble. They knew the strength of the beast.

  And it was as they thought. The beast wasn't just going to let someone stand there in front of it and do nothing. With two of its bladed limbs, the beast made a cross shape, hitting Ray with all its strength.

  Raising his arms he had attempted to block the attack, but the strength of the beast was mighty, moving him across the floor all the way to the other side. When he finally had stopped, he stumbled slightly, falling onto one knee and had one of his hands on the floor.

  "Ray, are you okay?" Slyvia asked.

  Then they could see it, they all could see blood dripping onto the ground.

  Both Harry and Kyle were worried. Just like with them, the beast was able to break through Ray's gauntlets. However, as they looked at him, the gauntlets were fine. He had king tier gauntlets on him whose main speciality was how sturdy they were. There wasn't even a scratch on them.

  "Why is he bleeding then?" Harry thought.

  On a closer inspection, they could see multiple puncture wounds. Something was able to go through his advanced level chest piece and they weren't just small wounds. He must have lost quite a bit of blood, and he was starting to wonder how long Ray had been like this for. What exactly had happened to him?

  "He's coming!" Roy shouted, launching fireballs. But he had used most of his mana in the attack before. This time the beast didn't even flinch as it ran forward. The shadow surrounding its body covered every area, blocking the attacks.

  "The fireball is too slow." Ray said as he managed to pick himself up from the ground.

  "Ray, you're too hurt, let's leave this place." Martha said.

  Ray then held out his hand, requesting something. Martha was a bit confused, and then suddenly she remembered something. She quickly gave him the bow to use.

  [Please select the elemental ability you would like to use.]

  Touching the king tier bow, it had given Ray the option to infuse any one of his elemental abilities, and he knew the right one to use. Infusing his magic, soon a blue arrow made of lightning started to appear.

  It wasn't pure and would continue to move about widely, even shoving Ray back in the process. However, his gauntlets managed to absorb most of the pain and Ray could only feel a few tingles here and there.

  Firing outward, three bolts of lightning quickly shot out from the arrow and hit the beast before the shadows could move. It had worked and the power of the king tier added to this, but it appeared to not do much damage at all.

  Ray only had 5 points put into lightning due to how rare it was to find a lightning user. It was why he hardly used the skill in the first place.

  He would have liked to create some clones of himself and fight alongside them, but he had used up a lot of Ki during his fight with the kingdom warriors from before. Because of all of this, there was only one thing he could do.

  The beast was now close.

  [Fire energy skill activated]

  [Half of mana points have been consumed]

  [Fire elemental attribute has been doubled: 200 ]

  [Dragon's roar skill activated]

  [All stats have been boosted]

  A strange energy of those around him was felt in their bodies and there was a new found strength. His skills seemed to be working now, but he was low on mana. Which meant he would have to end this fight fast.

  However, there was one other option. He could use the mana steel. The skill would allow him to consume mana of all those that were contacted.

  "No, I will never use that skill again!" Ray shouted, now rushing forward.

  [Activated Gauntlet skill]

  Two red disk shapes came out from the top of Ray's gauntlets, and he had jumped in the air, hurling two fireballs towards the beast. Now they were at close range, the attacks would hit far quicker than before.

  Still, the shadow was able to block the attack. The beast used its limbs as it attempted to slice at Ray. Using the red shields on his gauntlets, he hit them away to the side, burning them in the process.

  There wasn't enough shadow to cover the large beast's entire body, like a true infected, and this was its weakness. While it was blocking the fireballs from above, Ray had a chance to injure it.

  "Activate Fire blast."

  A stream of fire moved Ray into a different position while mid-air, now moving him toward the back of the beast. He then used it again to propel him forward, throwing out a large fist hitting the beast.

  The beast screamed in pain. As the fire gauntlets seared its body, at the same time Ray added a bit of Ki to injure its internal organs. The beast spun around and Ray had already moved away, avoiding any type of attack, but once again he stumbled to the floor as his body was still bleeding. Moving like this wasn't allowing his wounds to heal like they normally would.

  Then finally, his transformation skill was starting to give in. His hair was turning from black to red, while his facial structure was returning to normal. He looked at Sylvia, she looked frightened as this was happening.

  'I won't let you see that monstrous form again.' He thought. Whatever it took, he kept up the transformation skill on his arms, covering up his dragon like features.

  "Magic, all sorts of magic but specializes in fire, and he knows a transformation skill. Without a doubt, it's him. He is the one from the academy!" Roy thought. But then he started to think, what was his origin hiding here, why was he at Roland in disguise?

  A certain conversation started to fill his head. When the girls were talking about a certain man coming to help them. Was this the man they were talking about?

  "Come on, we have to help him!" Kyle shouted. Picking up parts of his broken chain. The rest agreed and followed. Harry charged in with part of his broken sword. There was no handle so he gripped the sword by the blade even though it dug into his hands.

  Martha continued to shoot her arrows and Slyvia stood at the back, but she wasn't going to do nothing.

  "Kyle, Harry. Go in from the sides. Martha, aim for the top of the head." Slyvia shouted. She was commanding them, just like she used to when they went out on their beast hunts.

  "Roy! Roy!" Sylvia shouted. "When the other two back away, Fire your fireballs. You hear me."

  Roy clenched his fist. Now wasn't the time to think about what had happened in the past. Right now, he needed to help, and he did as he was asked.

  At the same time in the arena. Roki was faced with the emperor tier beast. He was covered in blood. His left arm was broken. He had a cut above his forehead and was hurt all over. However, the Emperor tier beast wasn't faring too well either.

  It was a plant-like creature that looked like a giant sunflower, but instead of seeds in the centre, there were a thousand eyes, and instead of petals, there were razor sharp teeth.

  Many of the eyes of the beast were shut, destroyed or plucked out and fallen on the floor. At the same time, its roots had been chopped off, but they seemed to be regrowing.

  "I'm so close, I'm not going to give up!" Roki thought.

  Ray was down on the floor, and his vision was going in and out. It was blurring. He couldn't remember the last time he was in this much pain, but he could hear it. The sound of the others still fighting against the beast.

  He looked up, and they were all there. Doing everything they could. Even though they were hurt.

  "I'm not going to give up!" Ray thought.

  Ray charged in.

  Roki charged in.

  Running straight into the pit of the fire, Ray jumped up high using his strength. The last bit of his mana and Ki were placed into his gauntlets. He then wrapped his legs around the beast's head and he wasn't going to let go, no matter what.

  The others were distracting the arms and the shadow while Ray, using everything he had, continually started to pound on the beast's head. He punched with all his might while flames covered his fists.

  The beast got wilder and wilder, but Ray held on, gripping on to the beast's neck.

  And finally, the beast started to sway. Its legs had given in first. Ray continued to punch. At what, he didn't know. Then, it fell to the floor and Ray fell with it.

  At the same time, Roki too had fallen to the floor, too soon for him to hear the cheers.

  "For the first time in arena history, someone has managed to defeat the emperor tier beast!" The announcer shouted.

  "You can rest now, Ray." Slyvia said, holding his head. "The beast is dead."

  *****

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