147 'The Previous'
“Are you afraid to die, ‘Half-wolf’? Because today you will.”
‘The Previous’s’ speech startled everyone present. First, because no one expected him to say anything. Second, because his voice was rough and violent. Unlike the entire audience, who reacted negatively to the man’s question, Luke smiled.
“So, you aren’t a mentally ill person with an inability to speak. That’s good news for me, because I’ll be able to sink your skull without remorse.” The half-wolf answered him, looking into his eyes.
The man didn’t smile, and his only reaction was a direct attack. “<Leech>.” He muttered to himself, but his voice could be heard by everyone.
Next, he lowered his hood, and something began to come out of his back, something gooey. This thing jumped out of the man’s clothes, and during this action, it doubled in size.
Now, in the middle of the battlefield was a huge worm almost two meters long.
‘Is that thing a summoning? No… he muttered the name, and The Champion didn’t do this when he summoned the Golem God. Does that mean that that thing is…’
From the way the giant worm crawled across the sand, moving quickly towards him, Luke concluded that that thing was still an ability and that it was not a good idea to let himself be hit by that thing.
Suddenly, ‘The Previous’ started running alongside the worm.
‘He probably wants to see me dodge that thing, and then take the opportunity to hit me. All right… if that’s what he wants, I’ll give it to him.’
The half-wolf rushed to close to the area of the rocks. Soon, Luke stopped running to defend himself against the worm and of his opponent. Since he put his Claymore in the <Normal Inventory> in the middle of the run, he now had his hands bare. The man with the animal skull smiled as he saw that Luke did precisely what he wanted.
When it got close, the worm jumped towards the half-beast, and since he was anticipating an additional effect from his opponent’s ability, he didn’t even let it get too close and threw it back towards ‘The Previous’ with a simple <Vind> sign.
At the time, ‘The Previous’ was dumbfounded by the counterattack because although he had seen Luke use wind two voices, he had never considered the possibility that such a versatile skill didn’t have a long cooldown.
The worm exploded as it approached its own launcher, and luckily Luke was able to pull away by casting two <Vind> in a row to propel himself backwards. The <Leech> skill explosion was red, smelly, and disgusting.
Since Luke didn’t know if it was safe to approach or if his opponent was okay, he kept his distance. ‘The Previous’ was covered in blood, and slowly his neck veins began to swell; at the same time, his eyes bulged. He held on for moments like this until he fell to the ground and extended an arm to Luke.
The thought of giving a healing potion to help the man crossed Luke’s mind, but it soon went away. The half-wolf didn’t hate the man; he just didn’t care enough to spend one of his healing potions on someone who would possibly soon be killed for killing important people in the Playoffs.
However, an idea flashed through Luke’s mind suddenly. As he approached ‘The Previous’ again, the enemy weakly tried to grab the half-wolf’s boots and muttered inaudible things. His throat was twice the normal size.
The half-wolf looked at him inexpressively, grabbed him by the collar and took off the buffalo skull he was wearing as a mask, and as Luke revealed the man’s identity to those thousands of people, it was the same as having killed him.
The revealed face of ‘The Previous’ was a handsome, young-looking face with delicate traces, but his skin was dirty like he didn’t know what a bath was.
Luke took one of the man’s hands, put a red vial in it, and then threw him off the battlefield as hard as he could.
The third consecutive victory for the ‘Half-Wolf’ had people giving him a standing ovation, and this reaction was mainly for defeating ‘The Previous’. Before announcing Luke’s victory, Mikaela Åkerman teleported ‘The Previous’ to the infirmary and the half-wolf back to his seat.
“This was certainly a shocking match and once again ‘Half-Wolf’ did very well and quickly beat his opponent! Thanks to that, he is also the first of the four lucky ones to secure himself a semi-final spot!”
In the end, Luke didn’t even care about the announcement of his victory, because when he returned to the stands, he was immediately called to see how Shiro was doing, since he didn’t get a chance to see him during the break.
The half-beast and Nathalia went down some stairs, as they listened to the people’s euphoria with the beginning of the next fight, and the two were left in front of a wooden door by a guard, who stood outside.
They entered in the room and saw Shiro sitting on a bed with thick mattresses. He was not wearing his grandiose armor, and Luke always found it strange when he saw him without it these days.
Nathalia was startled when she saw that the big man had a few stripes down his arm, which were a bit stained with blood.
“How are you doing? Have you taken a healing potion? If not, I have one left.” Luke spoke worriedly, as he opened his inventory.
Shiro stretched his right-hand forward and looked appreciatively at the two of them. “That’s not necessary. Thank you very much for your concern. They have already given me an advanced potion.”
“So, why are you in this condition?”
The man smiled wryly and nodded continuously. “They said that the Nebezial blows will take a few more hours to heal. The nurses don’t know if that was because of a silent Gene Skill or if it was the martial art he practices.”
When Shiro realized that it made his companions thoughtful, he quickly tried to change the subject.
“Ah, dude… you have to admit that it wasn’t fair for me to have to fight a guy who has participated in all of this before. I hadn’t even warmed up yet.”
“Come on, I beat Hanemiya Sallow and ‘The Previous’…”
“And I defeated Adven. You said in the carriage that they already participated, right?”
Shiro was surprised and proud that his friends were doing well.
“All right… all right… you can tease me for now, but pay close attention from now on. There’s no one left in that stand who isn’t a Hellhound, so I advise you to maintain the same caution as you would if you were fighting a Dungeon Boss.”