Chapter 74: Infighting
While Moon was wracking his brain, Nola held Lexie’s hand firmly.
"Sir Savior seems hurt badly." Even though he had been getting beat, he wasn’t stopping, and that gave her some assurance, but when she saw him cleaning his face, the amount of blood that turned out to be his—
Followed by what everyone saw, the failing step... her face was drained of color.
Lexie was scratching her head. "Fighting against fifty or so alone, that much should establish his might." She paused before pointing at the scavengers. "But are these guys stupid?"
"Why do you say that?" Boa asked.
Lexie pouted for a moment. "They are here without a master, and also provoking someone from the first floor who is by far stronger than they ever could."
Talia nodded in agreement. "The rules of the facility are favorable to him, who isn’t familiar with echo."
Lexie pointed. "Exactly." She rubbed her palms together. "If things go wrong for him before this round ends... I guess the dorms will be turning into a battlefield soon." Lexie’s excitement returned with a HOHOHOHO laugh slipping out.
Though it wasn’t just her who had that thought in mind, Moon was also trying to memorize these faces. Even when he was searching for a way.
He was just making sure that if he happened to lose, he would pay every one of them a private visit, collecting teeth maybe.
He licked his lips. ’It isn’t too bad either way.’
But the problem was delaying the deal with Ed, this was the most problematic.
’I still have Colten’s sword anyway, losing the knife isn’t the problem right now.’
Or so he thought for a split second, before pursing his lips.
’Dammit,’ he cursed inwardly. ’Did I have to bet everything?’ he lamented.
Amidst his calculations, he was hit by a sense of familiarity, as if he had once been in a similar situation. It wasn’t his first time getting partially crippled during battle.
Maybe he could figure something out from it, and thus, he started once again trying to play it inside his head.
On the other hand, the new contestants were already looking at one another, waiting for the first victim who was bound to get beat as soon as he stepped foot inside.
"Hey, shouldn’t we enter now?"
"Go first then."
"Why don’t you go first instead?"
"Because I’m not stupid?"
"How about I teach you some manners?"
Murmurs rose, and a fight started to brew outside the ring, giving Moon more time to think of his approach, but it wasn’t long before someone stepped in.
His beige-colored hair was short and well-trimmed. He looked at his fellow "scavengers" and gave them a slight—
Tsk Tsk
"Hey, brothers, you shouldn’t be fighting now." He spoke with confidence, and a slight smirk on his scarred lips.
"Zera, stay out of this." One of them was dead set on starting a fight.
Zera shook his head. "What are you doing?" He pointed at Moon. "Look at how injured he is," he shouted at them.
"You should be racing to see who finishes him first before he catches his breath." He lowered his hand. "Can’t you see? His legs have already given out, failed him."
The fighting died down. A few nodded in agreement. "You are not wrong," one voiced.
But then, "Why don’t you rush in first then?" someone taunted.
The taunts started duplicating. "Are you all talk?"
Zera didn’t answer. Instead, he ignored everyone, stepping forward alone under the surprised gaze of everyone.
He didn’t just step forward, he started sprinting at Moon at full speed, startling everyone else.
"He wasn’t bluffing."
"After him."
"Don’t let him get ahead."
Everyone started sprinting after him, trying to reach Moon first and land the final hit, but they also got greedy.
The chaos started when one realized he wouldn’t be able to reach him first, so instead, he directly attacked Zera, who was still ahead of him.
Zera turned around, blocking the fist. "What’s the meaning of this?" he asked.
"I’ll be the one to land the last hit. You can get eliminated now," the assailant, who looked tall and big, replied.
Though that wasn’t the end of it, more started running and trying to get past them, so instead, Zera joined the bulky guy who was just attacking him.
"Dara, I’ll settle this with you later," he gritted his teeth.
The fight started with Zera and Dara joining hands to fight in an attempt to protect their spoils, and it was brutal.
They were both unable to use most of their strength. The echo and weapons they spent their entire lives using were now useless.
On the spectators’ side, Ed started laughing loudly. "These guys are so much fun. See what greed can lead someone into."
Samuel wasn’t impressed. "Did you forget the kid started this entire mess on his own?"
"So what?" Ed retorted. "He thought he was so strong, but he wasn’t as strong as he imagined himself to be."
"That doesn’t change a thing."
"Look here, he did a one-time event of one versus fifty that we may never see again," Ed justified.
Samuel averted his gaze from the ring, finally looking at his excited old friend. "Edmond, you need to stop."
"Stop what? What are you talking about?" Ed’s face dimmed, looking back at Samuel.
"Stop getting attached to him," Samuel replied instantly without a second thought.
He didn’t stop there. "You understand this better than anyone else. He might never live to see the third floor, and even if he did, how far can he make it alone?" Samuel raised his voice.
Ed, on the other hand, started laughing. "I didn’t know you could still move that face of yours. Has it been three hundred years?"
Samuel returned to his usual stoic self. He looked back at the ring, ignoring Ed.
"I don’t know how long he will make it, but if he caught our eyes, we might as well take our time to know him better," Ed tried to reason. "I also said he’s not bad. He’s still far from being awesome."
Samuel didn’t answer, nor did he react, but his eyes seemed to have so much to process.
Further away, both Lexie and Nola rejoiced at the current shift. The circumstances were changing rapidly in Moon’s favor, whom they trusted could beat them all without an issue.
"Isn’t Zera a high-floor born?" Boa asked.
Talia nodded. "I think so. I’ve seen him once."
Boa nodded. "I think I’ve seen him too, but I wasn’t sure," before adding, "I also can’t remember which clan he belonged to. Though if he’s the one I’ve seen before, he was an attendant, not a fighter."
"He does seem to have received formal training," Talia agreed.
The words caught Lexie’s attention. "Wait, is he strong?" she asked.
"He seemed to be," Talia answered.
"Stronger than Dorbish?" Lexie asked again. "I mean, he could get beat badly and lose along with everyone else." She was still rooting for Moon.
Who, below in the middle of the ring, was watching the scene unfolding, feeling his anger rising.
"These bitches... these fucking pieces of rot meat think that I am a pushover."