Undead Beast Master: Living Solely for My Desires

Roran's eyes landed on the opponent in front of him.

It was Grace.

He felt a bit weird fighting Zack's most likely future girlfriend, but he had discussed it with him beforehand, and the man didn't have any bad feelings.

As such, Roran would be able to fight to his heart's content…

Well, not really. He wasn't going to use his heavenly swords, as he wanted to keep them a secret for as long as possible. Because of that, he wasn't going to fight with everything he had.

Roran threw a quick glance at the emperor, who was sitting calmly in his seat.

Roran tried not to show his real emotions as he gazed at the man. There would be a time and place when he and Lily would take their revenge, but it wasn't here or now.

With a sigh, he commanded the dozens of normal swords he was carrying with him to begin levitating, their tips pointed toward Grace.

He tightened his grip on one of the sword he was going to keep in his hands.

Lowering his center of gravity, he got into a stance, ready for a sprint.

He wasn't going to underestimate Grace—he had to end the battle as soon as possible.

Her golden threads had the potential to counter his weapons perfectly, so he couldn't afford to take it easy.

His heart rate increased in anticipation, ready for battle.

Yet deep down, he knew he was going to lose. Not using his real powers gave him too much of a handicap.

But rather than feeling regret or any kind of shame, he felt sort of glad.

He hadn't entered the tournament with the intention of winning to begin with.

Nor had Lily truly wanted to win.

The reason they had entered was because they were going to be seen—by a lot of people.

Tens of thousands live, and if one counted the orbs that had been distributed all around the world, maybe even millions.

And yet no one recognized them.

Not a single one.

That just showed how powerful Lily's—no, that thing's—power was.

Roran couldn't say with certainty what exactly that thing was, but after living with Lily for so long, he had been able to make deductions, even if he wasn't able to retain his memories.

Roran and Lily weren't sure if her powers would be enough to get rid of the emperor…

But they didn't need to anymore. After knowing that Elysia was planning to take care of him, all they had to do was support her.

And considering that they had reached so far into the tournament and no one recognized them, it was safe to say that they had the power to do that.

As such, Roran wasn't really planning to win this fight—nor the tournament.

His goal had been achieved, and in his eyes, he had already won.

His thoughts were interrupted, however, as the emperor announced the start of the fight.

Roran gritted his teeth as he dashed forward as fast as he could, his weapons not far behind him.

Grace, in turn, straightened her arms to the side, and dozens… hundreds of golden threads appeared all around the grand arena.

Roran's weapons, which had been shot toward Grace, began to cut a few of them, but with each cut, their speed was slowing down.

Eventually, they would be stopped as their momentum ran out, and Grace would be able to trap the levitating weapons with her threads.

That was only if Roran let her do that, however.

Without concern for his well-being, he sprinted toward her with everything he had.

Seeing the impressive speed he was running with, Grace frowned as she took a few steps back.

Of course, she also commanded dozens of threads to appear in Roran's way.

But rather than trying to cut them with his sword, Roran only ran forward.

His body collided with the nearest thread and shot forward as he cut through them.

He didn't use the sword in his hand to cut them, as that would have slowed him down too much—it was faster to charge straight through them, even if it resulted in numerous injuries.

At this moment, he was glad for the training he had gone through, as thanks to it, he was able to move while completely ignoring pain.

His emotionless face didn't show any kind of reaction as he ran forward, unbothered by the pain.

Grace's frown only grew as she saw how unbothered Roran looked, yet she kept up her attacks nonetheless.

Eventually, Roran's weapons were caught by the threads, leaving him alone against her.

Because she was using a large part of her golden threads to keep the weapons immobile, Grace wasn't able to attack Roran with as many threads.

So all she could do was run around the arena as she bombarded him with attacks, and Roran ran behind her, slowly catching up.

Should he reach her, he would surely be able to dispatch her with a single strike.

But alas, the injuries became too much, and he had lost too much blood.

His running speed began to slow down, and now he was running at the same speed as Grace.

Eventually, he became even slower, and in the end, he collapsed onto the ground as exhaustion overwhelmed him.

As the emperor announced Grace's victory, Roran sighed in exhaustion.

"After this, I really need a drink."

*****

"After this, I really need a drink," Zaroth muttered, guessing what Roran was thinking now that his fight had ended.

The man had lost against Grace, and that meant Zaroth was the only one left on his side in the tournament.

But he didn't feel nervous in the slightest.

He stood up from his seat and began to head down—it was his time to fight, after all.

This time, he wouldn't feel guilt, even if he had to kill his opponent.

He had gone too far to let anyone stop him.

And not to mention, he really wanted to test his new weapon—the odachi—in the tournament.