As Michael and Alex stood at the edges of the battle stage, the cheers dulled down. The crowd was too excited to cheer. Michael calmly remained with his hands folded.

  He didn't unsheath his dual swords. On the other side, Alex stood with his long golden spear in his hand. The spear was nothing that would scream craftsmanship, rather it was plain-looking. The entire spear looked like it was made of gold, the long point looked extremely sharp and pointy.

  Despite its normal-looking, Michael could sense the overwhelming power the spear was radiating. Since the participants were not allowed to use Arch energy Michael wouldn't be able to use Responsive shield to protect himself from the spear. Luckily, Michael trained his sword mastery to 96% and Serpent maga to 93%. Both these skills enabled him to move nimbly and at an extreme speed even without using Arch energy.

  "Can we get this over with? I have a championship to win" Michael sounded bored to everyone.

  "Did you hear that guys? He's so sure" Ishihara commented,

  "There's a fine line between confidence and arrogance, we just need to wait and see which is which" James Hall answered Ishihara,

  Michael's words caused a commotion among the fans of Alex.

  "Beat him!"

  "Beat him!"

  "Beat him!"

  "Beat him!"

  "Beat him!"

  The MorningStar dispels and fans of Alex began to chant in unison while Michael remained calm despite their cheers.

  However, suddenly Michael's brows furrowed as he saw Alex remove the armor covering his chest. The spear remained still without falling down while Alex continued to remove his armor pieces one by one.

  Thud!

  Alex threw the armor pieces on the ground, each time a piece hit the stage, the heavy metal produced a thud sound.

  "You're kidding me?" Michael was confused,

  "What is Alex doing?"

  Michael was not the only one who was confused, even Ishira couldn't help asking the question.

  "He's throwing away his advantage over Ghost and leveling up the field" Although Darius's words made sense, many couldn't believe Alex.

  "After I kill you, I don't want people to say that I had an advantage" Alex coldly smiled.

  His words got amplified by the runes and sent a chill running through Ethan's spine. Diana clenched her fist while trying her best to control the killing intent from showing in her eyes.

  "Kill me?" Michael tilted his head, pretending to be shocked,

  "You're not gonna beg for mercy and surrender, are you?" as he snickered, Alex removed the last piece of armor that covered his abs. Throwing the armor onto the stage, he stood flexing his flawless smooth skin to the audience. Alex had a perfect upper body with six-pack abs, a chiseled chest, and perfectly placed muscles.

  "Oh my god!"

  "So sexy!"

  "Sister Celina is really a lucky girl"

  "Aww, look at his abs"

  "So smooth"

  With his silver hair fluttering in the wind and golden spear in one hand, Alex looked like a model for magazines. Many girls had sparkling eyes looking at Alex. Even men couldn't help feeling jealous of his body. Granted cultivators had good bodies but Alex had a magnificent body. It was obvious he was working out in addition to cultivating or he wouldn't have gotten such perfectly sculpted muscles.

  "Let's start this" Alex taunted Michael to step forward.

  "Fight!"

  "Fight!"

  "Fight!"

  "Fight!"

  The crowd erupted yet again seeing the both of them walking towards each other to fight. Unlike Alex, Michael still hadn't unsheathed his swords. Diana and Ethan moved to the edge of their seats as they didn't take their eyes away from Michael. Every single person in the arena including those who remained in the strategic hall came outside to see the battle.

  Alex made a mistake by removing his armor. He gave up the advantage he had over Ghost. That was the difference between Alex and Michael. Michael would have never let go of his advantage. Thus, Michael still had APD to inject him with the potions such as healing potions. Considering APD was made of junk metal and connected with the system, the runes didn't pick up the APD. As far as the committee and the coordinators were concerned, the APD was just a black bracelet Michael wore for style.

  When Michael and Alex got close, Alex stabbed the spear aiming at Michael's chest. His thrust was so fast that it almost hit its target. With a sway of his body, Michael evaded the spear yet Alex was quick enough to hit Michael with the staff. Following the staff attack, Alex roundhouse kicked Michael.

  Although Alex removed the armor above his waist, he still wore metal boots. Hence, when the kick landed on Michael's shoulder, Michael had pushed away a couple of meters while Michael felt his shoulder bones hurt.

  If the kick had a little more force and he didn't have APD, his shoulder would have been dislocated.

  Without giving a moment for Michael to breathe, Alex dashed at him with his spear pointing at Michael's throat. Everyone who saw Alex's move knew it was not his attention to make Ghost surrender but he wanted to kill him.

  Shaking his aching shoulder, Michael quickly evaded the spear's pointy end before hitting the spear on the shaft just below the blade using his other hand. Just when everyone thought Alex made a mistake by getting closer, Alex pulled back the spear and grabbed the spear in the middle.

  Chuk!

  Chuk!

  Chuk!

  Chuk!

  Chuk!

  Chuk!

  Alex started to attack Michael with a spear and his bare hand. Their clash produced continuous sounds as Michael felt like he was in a martial arts movie.

  "Ouch, that has to hurt" After seeing Ghost and Alex exchange more than forty blows in a minute, James Hall opened his mouth looking at the spear cut across Ghost's chest.

  Diana clenched her fist tiger as her nails started to sink in her palm. Blood spattered on the battle stage as Alex and Ghost continued to exchange blows. As time went by, more and more cuts appeared on Ghost's body.

  Still, they were at a stalemate that irritated Alex.

  "ARGH!" letting out a loud roar, Alex sent Ghost several meters back with a swift spartan kick to his chest.

  [He's good]

  Even the system flattered Alex after their exchange of blows. In two minutes, they exchanged at least a hundred kicks and punches. Both of them had sweat drops on their faces.

  Michael almost looked like a beggar with his long coat and turtleneck that had several cuts and holes.

  "Thinking about surrendering?"

  "YEEEEYYYYY!"

  "ALEX!"

  "ALEX!"

  "ALEX!"

  "ALEX!"

  "ALEX!"

  "ALEX!"

  The thunderous cheers of Alex's fans swept across the arena. The entire pavilion of Ghost's fans went silent looking at his state. Ethan was speechless as she stared at the bleeding cuts on Ghost with an aching heart.

  "Hahahahahahaha"

  Michael suddenly burst into laughter to everyone's surprise. His laughter reverberated in the arena silencing the cheers.

  "Guys I'm confused, why is he laughing?" Just like everyone else, Ishihara was also confused,

  "I don't know" James Hall shook his head,

  "Did you think I was fighting you seriously?" As he said, Michael flexed his shoulders as the long coat and sheathes that had his two swords fell off. The audience could now clearly see the definition of his muscles through the cut and torn black turtleneck.

  Diana saw Michael ripping off his already ripped and torn turtle neck, revealing his upper body. The moment she saw his body, she felt a chilling running through her spine. Unlike Alex's body which was smooth and fine, Ghost's body was riddled with scars. Compared to Michael's muscle definition, Alex was nowhere close to him. Each and every muscle in Michael's body looked created separately and glued together to form a perfect muscular body.

  In addition to muscle definition, every muscle in Michael's body was bigger than Alex's. Diana's heart ached to see the scars on his body. She couldn't even imagine what her son has to go through to get all those scars.

  Michael slowed down the healing potion injection through APD. He didn't want the coordinators to suspect him of using healing potions. If the cuts disappeared to the naked eyes, they would definitely suspect something amiss. Hence, Michael let the cuts hurt and bleed.

  The cuts weren't deep enough to mortally wound Michael yet they were deep enough to make him bleed. Coupled with the blood and the scars, his body attracted all the gazes like a super magnet.

  The girls who had sparkles in their eyes when they saw Alex's body had flames of passion and desire in their eyes looking at Michael. If Alex was hot like fire, Michael was hot like lava that melted the young girls' hearts.

  [Ding! Congratulations to the host for successfully being a badass. The reward is 4000 badass points]

  [Ding! Congratulations to the host for successfully being a badass. The reward is 3000 badass points]

  …


  The notification sound went crazy inside his head. After upgrading his spells and skill, he had 50,000 points remaining but at the moment, the points were flying past the mark of 150,000 and didn't seem to slow down.

  "I was just playing with a kid, a kid who has a spear"

  As Ghost spoke these words, Alex's smile froze on his face. The next moment, Diana saw Ghost stomp the stage beneath him as the stomp made the swords lying on the ground fly straight into his hand. It seemed like he was controlling the sword using an invincible force.

  Cling!

  Michael brushed his two swords together as they produced a stream of golden-red sparks. The broadcasting tunes focused on Michael's face to broadcast his smile in the giant mirrors.

  "Let's end this"

  *******************************

  Sorry, I broke the chapter releasing pattern, I thought you guys and gals would love to see the fight. Let me know you want to see the fight in the very next chapter or after two Gaya chapters.

  *******************************

  If you like this chapter,

  Please comment, send power stones.

  If you really really like this chapter and my novel,

  Consider sending me gifts as it would motivate me to put out more chapters.

  Any criticism,

  Feel free to bash me in the comments

  Discord link: https://discord.gg/yMCZbVNbpC