Chapter 371 (2/2)

But the matches continued, as an individual with Earth Mastery healed the wound he had left. The semi-finals would be Alana versus Paolo, and Kayle versus Tina.

”I'll see you in the finals,” Paolo said, with an exaggerated bow.

Kayle snorted. ”Perhaps I'll be in the finals, but you...”

The two of them glanced at Alana, who was beginning to glow a warm gold color, the energy from the sun filling her, driving her forward. Both of them winced.

The matches started without much fanfare, the attention of even the losers, aside from Tykes, focused on this battle. Alana and Paolo's fight turned into a grind, where both were just slowly landing hits on the other, dealing damage, and pulling back to recover quickly, before skirmishing again. This continued for almost 10 minutes, before Alana started to rely more heavily on her Skills, which were superior, even to an untrained eye. She simply started to overwhelm Paolo, pushing him slowly back, until he conceded.

In Donny's eyes, it was an honorable loss, although a tragic one. In the wake of it, Donny couldn't help but wonder how his own Skills compared to Alana's. She was a monster, birthed from common origins, but Blessed by the Ghosthound, and she had quickly overtaken basically everyone to become the most feared fighter in Donnyton. Even Lucifer had turned down her request for a duel, although his attention had truly been focused mostly on clearing out Raid Bosses of late.

To everyone's surprise, as Paolo sat on the sidelines, a towel over his head, a man in a cloak and bare feet, the only such man in the entirety of Donnyton, stepped out of the crowd and walked over towards the bench on which the depressed man sat. He sat down next to him.

”Where's your pride?” When the Ghosthound had walked out, everyone had fell silent. Which made his insult echo strangely in the arena. And afterwards... well, no one could come up with an answer to THAT.

Paolo looked up, the expression on his face hidden by the towel. The Ghosthound continued. ”Your Class is the Grappler, yes? Yet you do not embrace the core tenant... pride in the ring. When she is there, she is doomed to be suppressed, for that is your area. While she would be more comfortable on the battlefield... you should show her how stifling the dueling arena can be. Can you see it?”

As he spoke, a strange aura spread slowly out from the Ghosthound. A suffocation. A pressure that couldn't be understood with the typical human mind, a primal, animalistic thing, where the very breath caught in your chest, escaping understanding, avoiding it.

Even Donny, as he opened his mouth, felt that nothing could happen but stillness. He was... completely suppressed.

Then the moment passed, and the entire crowd breathed out a sigh of relief.

”Do you understand?” The crowd shivered then, because that cloaked figure was now ominous, his power to suppress most everyone here made clear. That strength was not a fluke. It was the spine of Donnyton, that kept them all almost invulnerable in the face of the threats arrayed against them. It was the Ghosthound, spreading his wings.

”Huhuhu... to think it was as easy as this. Thank you, Mr. Ghosthound.” Paolo said standing, whipping the towel off of his face. And from his body, a different aura exploded, a strange energy, that seemed to spread outward in a wave, hitting the blood of everyone in the vicinity, and setting that blood buzzing. It was a resonance, a beautiful call and response, a power that no one could ignore. And the more their blood resonated... the straight Paolo seemed to stand, the heavier his shadow was, as if it became more real with every audience member.