The Author's POV

Upper echelon area.

"Hahahahaha!"

A boisterous laugh resounded across the platform as Gervis slapped the side of the chair and helplessly held onto his stomach, trying his best to contain his laughter.

However, as he recalled Ren's actions, his laugh only became louder.

It took a couple of minutes for him to finally calm down, and when he did, wiping the side of his eyes, he commented.

"This is great!"

Even though Ren's words were extremely arrogant and offensive, Gervis didn't take them to heart. He was all too familiar with him and knew he probably had his reasons for whatever he did.

Also, dwarves weren't particularly known for their combat prowess so he wasn't offended at all.

Calming himself down, Gervis stroked his beard and turned to look at Brutus who was wordlessly sitting on his seat.

"You saw that right?"

"...Yes."

Brutus unperturbedly replied.

"His words aren't wrong."

"Oh?"

Gervis showed a look of surprise. He didn't expect such an answer from him.

"You really think that there isn't anyone else worth fighting?"

"Khrr...khrr...correct."

With a deep and unfathomable look on his face, Brutus calmly nodded his head.

"After he defeated Kimor...khrr...khrr...the victor of the tournament had already been decided. What is said is true. There isn't anyone that is worth fighting."

Gervis's eyes squinted when he heard Brutus's words, but he decided to stay silent.

There was no point in him saying anything else as he too somewhat agreed with what he said.

As the two were conversing, the elven queen had a weird look on her face. Even though she wasn't particularly offended by what Ren did, she was not entirely pleased. After all, he had humiliated Vaalyun in front of the whole world.

He was supposed to be the best prodigy that the elves could offer. At an age that was similar to that of Ren in human years, he had already broken through to rank. He was supposed to be a generational talent that was rarely seen, yet he had been completely overshadowed and even turned into the butt of the jokes for those that were watching.

"Sigh."

Still, it wasn't like she could do anything about it. Given her status, if she did something, it would look bad on the whole race. Not that she was planning on doing anything in the first place.

To her, this was a good opportunity to humble Vaalyun a notch. He had become a little bit too arrogant for his own good. If this humiliation served to calm him down a bit, then the queen could turn a blind eye to what happened.

Furthermore, Amanda had already told her about the Xurin fruit. Even though she was still unclear about whether it was real or not, if that was truly the Xurin fruit that could cure Natasha, Amanda's mother, then she owed him a big favor.

Whatever was happening to Vaalyun, the queen could only pretend to have noticed.

"..."

The only one of the four that didn't show any reaction to Ren's victory was Octavious who quietly gazed toward the arena with an indifferent look on his face.

There was no visible change in his expression as he looked at the arena, however, if one looked closely, they might be able to see a more resolute look on his face.

He had finally made up his mind.

***

After Ren left, the excitement over the next few matches died down a little.

for this, one, the matches were not as tense as Ren's and Kevin's matches, and two, they were all still riled up at Ren's words, making it hard for

was still the round of sixteen and so the top contenders had not fought yet, but in their hearts, everyone already knew that the purpose of the tournament had faded.

there was only one thing that everyone was focusing on at the moment, it was Kevin's potential match with Vaalyun, who was now synonymously

become the butt of the jokes to all humans as they all

Click—!

off the

*Puff*

words during

is he trying to piss all

massive headache coming his way. Not only had Ren's last words provoked the other races, but he had done it in a way that pretty much maximized the hate directed at

wouldn't come back and bite him in the ass. However, knowing Ren's personality, Smallsnake already knew that this was

*Puff*

"Ugh."

Massaging his forehead with his hand, Smallsnake lamented over his luck. "Just why

*Puff*

"Can you stop?"

towards his right. There, with his legs on the table and holding onto a massive cigar, Smallsnake watched as Leopold repeatedly took

*Puff*

Issanor, there was not a single moment when Leopold didn't stop smoking. At

Leopold smoked was simply too

*Puff*

the cigar,

the time

smoke back in Issanor, Leopold's

"You—"

Smallsnake could say anything else, the door of the warehouse opened and Ava, Hein,

that they all

Clank—!

"...Hey."

"Hey Smallsnake."

"mhh..."

up with you

strange look on his face. Halting her footsteps a couple of meters away from Smallsnake, Ava sat down on

"Family, that's what happened."

Hein and Ryan similarly sat down next to

face with her hand, Ava

back, no matter how much

look at

participated in the tournament! The moment I came back, all I did

"Same for me."

said with a sympathetic look on

wish I

felt a little bit of pity for them. Turning his head to look at Ryan, he didn't even need to ask to understand why he looked the way he did. Given how doting and protective his mother was, he could

him though. Ryan deserved what he had coming to

his chair, Smallsnake

have all

had returned to the human

such hardships back in Henlour, this was a well-deserved rest that

Ren, who was probably the most famous human at the moment, then Smallsnake could already guess

***

the mask of Dolos, I quickly changed my face and

soon spotted a familiar figure and sat down next

"When is your match?"

me a cold look before proceeding to ignore

why she ignored him,

"Ah, it's me."

used my

at my words. She then proceeded to stand up and proceeded to leave. Not even sparing me a

this, I grabbed onto her hand

"Hold up, it's me!"

"Let go."

said. An icy hue began to sprout out of

twitched when I