Chapter 54: Request [1/3]
All across the world, the previously silent and solemn streets were now filled with cheerful noise as each household celebrated the flawless victory of a single person who had appeared and stolen their hearts with not just battle prowess but also his confidence.
The name "Marlon Ashleigh" was chanted by everyone. The children saw him as their new cool and badass mentor, and the adults could not help themselves from shedding tears of joy.
Online, the name Marlon Ashleigh became the trending search — all blogs, websites, and channels dropped every other headline and focused only on the young man who had single-handedly risen and washed away their worries.
The peerless genius.
The golden child.
The Revenger.
And as with every other hunter who had committed open acts of heroism, a nickname was granted, and Marlon was no different. In just a few minutes, he had gotten several nicknames, and even some popular female celebrities had started tweeting that they would love to meet him.
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But the Lunaris found the situation too difficult to accept.
The one thousand-plus soldiers sitting in the spectators’ area had risen from their seats with clenched fists and eyes burning with anger as they watched Marlon defeat yet another of their representatives.
The generals were just as fierce, their oppressive auras spread across the arena, causing the young and weaker hunters to find it difficult to breathe.
CRACK!
One of the nobles sitting in the VIP area gripped the armrest of his seat until it broke.
He stood up abruptly and shot a glare at Norian, fuming as he began to speak out of spite. "How dare you set us up? You placed an anomaly in the competition without informing us beforehand!"
He said, blaming Norian for their loss.
"Anomaly?" Norian stood up and glared back. The area around them turned cold with tension as both powerhouses released their oppressive auras. If any ordinary human were in their midst at this moment, they would most likely suffocate.
"Did we not present you the opportunity to test all our representatives before the battle began?" Norian continued, his voice dripping with coldness.
"I even heard you snickering, calling all our representatives inferior to yours. You were also the one who agreed to let him face off against all your representatives because you believed he was powerless. Isn’t it shameful for you to retract your words now that they are losing?"
When Norian finished speaking, the noble who had stood up went through a series of facial expressions in one go, unable to decide which expression to wear.
He became speechless as he realized the brazenness of his complaint. Only his gritted teeth served as his reply.
The hunters sitting nearby were filled with joy, seeing how worked up the Lunaris were. They felt pride and satisfaction—something they had not expected to feel that day—and it was all because of that brazen young man standing in the middle of the arena, currently dangling the unconscious body of his fifth opponent, who, like the others before him, had been defeated in a matter of minutes.
"You guys are awfully weak," Marlon scoffed as he tossed the body toward the remaining five Lunaris representatives, who were shivering with emotions ranging from fear to anger.
One of them stood out the most in his observation; he was the tallest and most muscular, adorned in neat and comfortable black steel armor that gave him a somewhat imposing appearance. His entire eyes, including his eyeballs and irises, were pure black, but they currently reflected only malice and hatred.
Ever since Marlon had started fighting, this particular Lunaris had been the one selecting who would challenge him, and none of the others dared to disagree.
’He is their leader,’ he concluded.
Marlon flashed a knowing smile at him.
"You’re the one supervising them, aren’t you?"
The young Lunaris snorted but did not respond.
"You can see none of your selected fighters stood a chance against me, and honestly, I’m getting super bored. I need a real fight."
As he spoke, the Lunaris youth could feel the thick superiority and pride in his voice, and it irritated them deeply. They were the ones who should feel that way toward humans, not the other way around, they thought.
But Marlon was not done.
He had stepped out today not only to win for his world but also to humiliate these alien bastards. He would stop at nothing until the Lunaris lost their pride. He would make sure no kid would ever have to fear them again after seeing how easily he had defeated and embarrassed them.
So he turned to Gigaman, who watched from above with a proud smile—the same smile worn by every human in the world at that moment.
"Senior Gigaman, how about increasing the difficulty of this competition by a notch? This would be an advantage to the Lunaris, as I’m sure they are not satisfied with the current results."
This time, unlike before, Gigaman did not reject his suggestion outright. With the same smile on his face, he asked, "What are you suggesting, Marlon?"
"I have two suggestions..." Marlon said, turning toward the remaining five opponents, who were still shivering with malice.
"My first suggestion is the same as my last request: I want to take on two of them at once to notch up the difficulty of my fight. It’s getting pretty boring for me to hold back every fight, and honestly, I don’t think I can hold back any longer. I might end up crippling or worse, killing one of them."
His voice was laced with pride, spreading across the silent arena as everyone listened attentively to what he had to say.
"But I respect my opponents and their people. I know they would feel extremely embarrassed and downgraded, which is why I have another suggestion."
He paused, letting his words settle.
"Please, let us hear it. We will give your opponent the opportunity to choose," Gigaman responded, his words echoing the thoughts of the other high-ranking hunters.
"Great..." Marlon grinned, his eyes shining with the greed of an ancient merchant, as he let out his second suggestion—completely shocking everyone.