Infinite Paths: The Raging Phoenix

While Rain was busy, Van had the idea of telling the red striped tigerman to move away the weights a bit closer of the arena and while he didn't like to receive orders, he did that… much to his surprise… he barely could lift a single one.

The other guards looked confused and tried the same, but soon they realized what was going on. Van snorted, but Isa just shrugged.

"You should do that as well," Isa said.

"... Why?" Van frowned.

"Just try it," Isa said.

Van knew that something was up, but he already knew how heavy it was. He was surprised to see that just one of them was as heavy as two weights that Rain had before… his strength increased that much thanks to the fight agaisnt the dragons.

After he recovered from the shock, Van looked at Isa who was watching Rain and when he saw him, Rain had a fighting stance and some blasts of air were coming from his body… it felt like he was attacking something, but no one could see his arms moving or any magic being used.

"Hey, isn't that…" Van furrowed his eyebrows.

"This will be better than I thought," Isa said and then grinned from ear to ear.

After two hours, the arena was bursting with people, with not a single empty seat in sight. The spectators had filled every available space, and their collective excitement was so palpable that it seemed to make the entire arena tremble with energy.

Cheers and applause echoed throughout the space, reaching a fever pitch that made it feel like the structure itself might collapse under the sheer enthusiasm of the crowd.

While there were some who voiced their displeasure and sent disapproving looks towards Rain, their disapproval barely made a dent in his determination. It would take a level of bloodlust and intimidation that only a dragon could muster to truly affect his unyielding resolve.

The guards promptly exited the area as soon as they were informed of the challengers' arrival, leaving Rain, Van, and Isa as the sole representatives of their group in the arena. Surprisingly, neither Van nor Isa appeared concerned about the potential damage to their reputation that this fight could cause.

It was as if they didn't hold the priority to keeping their image clear in that situation when they were close to the unknown foreigner.

In any case, Rain soon forgot about that when he saw the first warrior arriving. Surprisingly enough, he was a guy that has sea folk blood… he would do better fighting in the ocean, but maybe that was just Rain misconception.

Isa provided Rain with an explanation of the arena's unique rules and proceedings. In the arena, there were no formal judges to regulate the matches. Instead, the combatants themselves had the authority to establish the rules of the fight following their respective bets. As the visitor, Rain was granted the privilege to choose one rule first, and his opponent would then select another.

If Rain decided to end the rule selection process, he could simply refrain from choosing another rule, and the match would proceed accordingly. These rules allowed for flexibility and adaptability in the fights, with each participant having a say in how the contest would unfold.

"I am Dravik, son of Toren and Elysia, coming from the noble lineage of the sons of the sea." The warrior looked directly at Rain and declared, "I challenge you to a duel, Rain, to prove my honor and valor. I wager a pair of amulets that have been cherished heirlooms in my family for five centuries. Let our strength and skill be the judge."

"I, Rainendall, son of Roan and Leiah, accept your challenge, and I bet these weapons," Rain said in a monotone voice since such a thing made him cringe a bit. "The rule that I want is that the loser will decide when one of us falls from the arena."

"I accept your rule, my rule is that we can only use water magic," The warrior said.

That was interesting… Rain looked at Isa, since she didn't say that they could do things like that, but she just shrugged. She wanted him to learn that in combat. In the end, it was fine.

"I don't have more rules to add," Rain said after nodding.

The warrior seemed a bit surprised since he thought that Rain would try to make things a bit more fair, but someone with half a brain would know that the opponent would just keep adding rules that would benefit him.

In any case, the warrior soon took a trident from his back and then assumed a fighting stance. When Rain did the same, the start of the battle had been decided and the opponent charged at him.

When he was five meters away, the opponent suddenly stopped and then stepped to the side… actually, he just changed the direction of his feet and then began to move from one side to the other insanely fast.

"Very neat," Rain thought.

The warrior was using water magic under his feet to move like that, he was pretty good at that, almost at Rain's level when it comes to control of water magic, but not on the same level in terms of power.

All of a sudden, Rain condensed the moisture in the air and then fired a blast of water that enveloped the warrior, pushing him away from the area and then making him collide and fall unconscious on the side of the arena.

"I guess these are mine," Rain said after grabbing the red and blue amulets that were on the ground.

The amulets red two magic gems on them… and they seemed similar to the types that Josar used, but they also seemed better since Rain felt a bit more powerful while holding them. It didn't take long for him to realize that the blue amulet doubled his mana regeneration… the red should do the same for his health. Enjoy new adventures from My Virtual Library Empire