Endless Horde: Through the Eyes of a Godking

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[Promotion match; won.]

[Congratulations. You have been promoted to 'Cosmic (Bronze)' rank. Please continue working hard to climb the ranking ladder!]

As expected, it didn't took a long a time for him to leave the Grand Solar Bracket at all. Cedric won all of his promotion matches cleanly and easily, making this promotion very easy too.

The fights weren't that exciting yet. If anything, he did feel like he's bullying those kids since he's truly way beyond their league. So, to compensate them a bit, he didn't defeat them right away.

He lowered his strength output to their level and earnestly sparred with them, essentially allowing himself to be their sharpening stone. He won't end the battle until his opponent at least learned something in the match. This is what he did to clear his conscience a bit.

Now that he's at the Cosmic Bracket. Cedric can afford to relax more of his self-imposed limitations. Obviously, he won't go all out yet. He will continue adjusting his strength with his opponent to truly enjoy the match and learn everything he could.

Even though he just got promoted, Cedric saw no reason to stop. It's still pretty early and there are a lot of people queuing for the match, so he could continue fighting.

As soon as he queued for a match, he met an opponent instantly.

After a brief countdown, Cedric's virtual avatar was teleported to a new space. He appeared in a wide space inside a domed collesium. The seat was filled with virtual audience, none of which were real people, though. But they sure were loud.

In front of him was his opponent.

It was a middle-aged man wearing a light-padded armor. He had a cloak and a mask that obscured his features. Cedric saw two daggers sheathed on his lower back while his hand were hidden beneath his cloak.

Cedric could feel the other party's killing intent. It was hidden very well, but Cedric was no ordinary guy. This wasn't his first rodeo with assassins of all shapes and sizes.

There were no conversations to be made, no pleasantries, showing off, or provocations either. The moment that countdown ends, they will fight and the better warrior will win, it's just that, plain and simple.

As soon as the countdown for the match ended, the assassin immediately went into stealth. He disappeared like he was never there to begin with.

But Cedric knew the truth.

In a split second, that guy retreated and slipped into the cracks of space, leaving behind a mirage that also dissipated into an invisible air that charged the atmosphere with hallucinating agents.

The speed and finesse at which his opponent did these were impressive. Had it been any other person, they'd probably fall for it. Alas, this doesn't work on him.

But beside impressive display of stealth, Cedric will admit that his opponent was indeed agile. The way he swam within the space cracks was smooth. His movement didn't cause any visible spatial disturbances, making him hard to sense.

Yet again, it is very unfortunate that he was matched against Cedric who already understood the Space Laws at the Great Law stage too, so everything his opponent did was clear to his sense.

Cedric reacted the moment he felt the sharp spike in his opponent's killing intent. That's usually a sign that they were about to make a decisive move.

He reacted just late enough for his opponent to commit to the attack. Since he's fighting against an assassin, he has to be ready for any 'dirty' tactics. Cedric knew that if he reacted a second too early, the opponent will switch into a feint and attack him at a different angle.

The daggers that were aimed to his neck were repulsed by straight steel carrying enough force to send its wielders back to the shadows.

Cedric could clearly feel the shock and pain on his opponents heart after their steel clashed.

The guy probably wasn't expecting to be repulsed that hard. But he adjusted right away, he swam and circled Cedric looking for another angle to exploit.

Cedric stood still, holding on to his sword which he stabbed on the ground in front of him as if he's making a stand.

His stance unnerved his opponent. It was filled with flaws which could be exploited, yet every single one of these flaws screamed a trap for the assassin. It's as if Cedric was deliberately provoking him to come and attack. The confidence he exuded was either blind or deliberate.

The assassin tend to think of the latter, after all, Cedric repulsed his initial attack, and he didn't do that by chance. It wasn't luck. That already indicates that Cedric could indeed sense his location.

But the assassin was an experienced hunter. And hunters are patient.

Just because his opponent could sense his location, it doesn't mean that he could see everything. There are some things that are meant to be invisible, and it just so happens that this assassin had a good grasp in using these invisible things.

As he swam, he adjusted his mask slightly, opening a small flap open which allowed the corner of his lips to be visible.

Through this small gap, he release an invisible poison which scattered in the air, and he propagated it by moving around the arena, making sure that the entire space was filled with this poison, making sure that his opponent couldn't run anywhere and won't have any choice but to be afflicted.

He did all of this under the expectation that the other party could sense his movement. His actions were natural and deceptive enough. He moved as if he's still looking for another angle to assassinate Cedric when it turn, he's dousing the entire collesium with poison.

But oh, how truly unfortunate of him to be matched with that one person who could literally see everything he does.

'Oh, so this is Poison Laws at a Great Law level! Cool!' Cedric praised inwardly.

In his eyes, the trails of poison that's being scattered in the air were like tiny maggots polluting the surroundings. They didn't gnaw at everything, they just tainted the pure and multiplied at a very alarming rate.

Although they appear like maggots, if he looked closely, they're actually a bunch of lines - concept diagrams which made to appear that way. And by observing them, Cedric's own understanding of Poison Laws were increasing.

As for this affecting him? Well that's just impossible.

It's not like an attempt wasn't made. It's just that the poison itself was afraid of him, and it's mostly because it sensed the raging fire and prickling sharpness within him, those made it afraid to touch him.

Cedric could almost hear his opponent's thoughts, and he was tempted to laugh for a moment.

Taking advantage of the invisible? With these eyes of his that could stare at the concept laws at any given moment without any backlash? What kind of invisibily was he talking about? Surely it's not the poison since Cedric could see them as plain as day.

Clang!

Still unaware that all of his actions were quite literally visible to Cedric's eyes, the assassin deliberately attacked him, fully expecting to be repulsed again. This was to lower Cedric's suspicion; making him think that the assassin was still searching for another angle to exploit when it truth, he's discharging poison everywhere.

Cedric didn't say anything. He played along and allowed his opponent to think that his plan was going smoothly.

Time passed just like this. Yet the longer the match went on, the more uneasy the assassin got.

He already confirmed that the entire arena was charged with Poison Laws, not even a single milimeter was spared. Yet for some reason, his opponent still stood tall and relaxed, completely unaffected by it.

There's not even hint of infection on him, and that made it difficult for the assassin to comprehend because he'd never been in a position where he failed to infect his enemies with poison.

Deciding that is farce had lasted long enough, Cedric sighed and raised a hand.

He snapped his fingers, and as if the poison was gas and his snap was the spark, a blaze exploded all over the arena, much to the assassin's horror.

The impact was strong enough to cause a spatial distortion, and force penetrated and hit the shocked assassin hiding within, causing him to come crashing to a wall.

Two of his left ribs were fractured, the impact of the blaze caused internal bleeding as well. His vision spun and he felt dizzy. Yet his training as a hired knife taught him to swallow his sounds and recover from surprise quickly.

But before he could even make a move, or recover at all from the impact, the feeling of certain death was already upon him, freezing his movements.

"Next time, don't supercharge the air with poison against a fire expert. That's just courting death."

That's all Cedric said to his opponent before he swung his sword down and bisected him mercilessly.

As the opponent's avatar faded, the message of his victory appeared and his avatar reappeared in his personal dimension.

Shaking his head, Cedric queued up for another match since the previous one left him a bit unsatisfied.