Chapter 186 Stepping up
The touch on his wrist, Raze could see it, he could feel the claws on his hands rubbing against his skin. It was being held onto tightly, as if someone was trying to pull him, to not let him go, and to go against his wishes, to go against what Raze wanted to do.
'I don't want to do it... I don't want to do it!' Raze repeated in his head several times. 'Let go of me, don't touch me, don't touch me!' These words were being repeated in Raze's head over and over.
However, he subconsciously still knew in his mind that he wasn't to act here in front of all of these people. There were even those that were behind him; there were too many witnesses to the whole thing.
Still, his mind was switching between his conscious thought and the sensation of his skin being touched by another again. When looking at his face as well, the man's face, it was smiling.
All of this mix of emotions and thoughts had caused something to react in Raze. It was a subconscious feeling, and although he didn't know what was happening, the man on the other end certainly could feel it.
"Ahh, what is this, what are you doing?" The man's facial expression had changed; he could see the veins on his arms bulging. To him, it felt almost as if all of his blood that was in his body was rushing to his fingertips right where he was touching the other person.
"What are you doing to me?!" The man shouted and tried to pull away, but as he did, Raze quickly grabbed onto his hand.
"You... still need to pay," Raze said, his head down, his voice a little quiet. The meaning of the word "pay," it was hard to tell what was meant by that. "You touched me... so pay."
The strange flow of power was still coming out of the bald-headed man, and he wasn't sure if he was imagining it or not, but it almost felt like his muscles were shrinking. He tried pulling away one more time; it wasn't working until a hand came swinging down between the two.
It touched both of them, and as it did, like a force, it pushed their hands away without damaging either of them. It was a force of Qi, and with it, Raze had somewhat snapped out of what he was doing.
He looked at his own hand for a few seconds before turning to the situation in front of him. The man who had interrupted their fight, he had long hair and quite a small frame. Not only that, but there were streaks of the color green in it.
What stood out most was perhaps his pale complexion with pigments of darkened black. For one, his fingertips were completely black, and so were a few darkened areas of skin under his eyes.
It was quite the strange look for a human, but his clothing was like that of a Pagna warrior, colored in dark green.
"Come on, Clave, you know what you were trying to do; all of us regulars here know what you were trying to do. You kinda deserved what you got, so let's just leave this one, okay?" The man asked.
It was clear that the bald-headed auctioneer wanted to say more, but he was still far more concerned with what had happened to his body.
"As for you, strange hooded man, sorry for getting involved; that was rude of me," the man stated with a smile. "If you wish to head into the auction house, you can always come with me since it was my mistake."
Raze looked at the man, and he couldn't sense any hint of dishonesty from him. He also had a bright smile despite the bags under his eyes. It just felt weird to Raze. Could it be possible that there was a man who was willing to do that just from interrupting their little scuffle?
In Raze's head, he was screaming that this was a scam.
Behind the smile, Raze was somewhat right; the man was thinking something because he had noticed what Raze had done.
'What he used, it was the extraction technique of the Demonic Faction, and he had used it at an incredible rate. If he had held onto that man for a minute or so, would he have been dead? This person is clearly quite skilled; just who is he?' The man thought.
The bald-headed man continued to walk away, feeling a little weak in his footsteps.
'What happened to me, I still don't understand. At least Reno came and saved me in time. I guess I should thank the Crimson Crane at some point.'
Meanwhile, in the city, Liam had been loosening up his shoulders, ready for his chance at winning an entire Silver coin. He had paid his fee and was swinging his arm like a windmill.
The other students couldn't help but laugh as they saw him.
"Alright, let's do this!" Liam had loosened his hand and was swinging it low slightly; he was letting it sway like an elephant's trunk. The others had seen this before because it was the skill he had used at the event.
Dashing forward, he placed the Qi in his fist, swung it around, and straightened it out, crashing right into the middle. The power was strongly concentrated, and the number was starting to rise.
"Oh, that kid, he's a lot better than I thought, maybe things will start to get interesting," Alba smiled.
The number had finally stopped, and on the pillar, the number 92 had appeared.
"Whoa, look at that, look who's paying for your dinner!" Liam jumped in joy, as if he had already won.
There was murmuring among the crowd because they too thought he had already won. His score was even better than the other Pagna warrior gentlemen who had tried before, and he had already lost, so the result seemed plain as day.
However, there was a concerned look on Rod's and Mantis' faces now.
'Crap, I never expected a kid our age to get such a high score; otherwise, I would have picked a few others. If Mantis loses this one now, then we will lose another entire Silver coin, leaving us only one silver coin profit between us.'
In the first place, the students were doing this as a way to make money, so it was clear that Mantis couldn't lose this.
"You look the same age as me, but I don't recognize you from the academy?" Mantis said as he walked past and positioned himself in front of the pillar.
"Ah yeah, I just look older; I'm going to the academy next year," Liam lied.
"I see, so I'm your senior then, well, I guess as a senior, I should show you something then," Mantis claimed. "Before, the man had just placed Qi in his fist, so I decided to do the same when competing against him. I want to be fair, you see. I saw you used some type of technique, so then, I shall do the same."
Mantis started to crouch down slightly, lowering his back, his chest getting closer to the floor; then he put both of his hands to the side. The Qi activated in him, and in an instant, his feet shifted across the ground.
Visual Qi was activated, showing a line of black aura in his tracks, twisting his fist, Mantis slammed it right into the center of the pillar. The force expanded outward, wide with a few sparks before it started to condense in.
Finally, the number had appeared on the pillar, showing 150.
"Whoa... I guess he really is the star student at the Pagna academy!" The crowd started to say in amazement.
They also felt like there was a clear explanation he had given in order to make the contest fair. So the people weren't so put off about still trying, and even more so, some wanted to just brag if they managed to beat him.
"That kid is really strong," Cronker said. "Those basic measuring pillars only go up to 150, so there's a chance that his attack is even stronger than before. I guess he is skillful enough to win and choose when to lose his battles."
Alba was nodding her head up and down and could see Liam falling down on his knees. She didn't know why, but she was kind of rooting for the eye-patch kid.
"If we invited someone like him into the Crimson Crane, I'm sure he would be valuable to us in the future," Cronker added.
"You're right, maybe he would be valuable to us, but that's in the future, and right now, we need to grow. Otherwise, the clans will soon surpass us. Day by day, there are also more dangerous portals opening up."
"Our group is getting asked to close a few of them just because of how dangerous they are, and the last thing I would want is to lose one of you guys. He can try joining when he's ready, but I'm looking for something else," Alba said.
In defeat, Liam had to drag his feet walking back to the others. Usually, Simyon would have said something, but he couldn't due to how saddened Liam even looked.
"I'm sorry, guys, I really thought that I could win. I guess I just looked like an idiot." Liam pulled his hair, trying to cover up his one eye, but they both could see a tear falling down it.
When he tried to move further forward, Safa blocked his path and she held out her hand.
Liam looked at it for a second, confused, then she shoved her hand again. Eventually, she almost reached down into his pants since it seemed like he wasn't getting the message.
"Ah, alright, I understand... you want the money, right?" Liam said as he pulled out his last ten copper coins and handed them over.
Safa then walked straight past Liam and onto the field.
"Wait... Safa, you aren't... you are!" Simyon shouted as he saw her standing in front of Mantis.
This content is taken from fr(e)ewebn(o)vel.𝓬𝓸𝓶