After Luke overheard Leonan's request that the half-wolf remain in Stahurt, Luke pretended to be hesitant about the proposal.
"I don't know. Stahurt is a big city and the nobles won't accept a half-beast like me. In a few days, there will be dozens of people standing in front of this tavern wanting my head." Luke responded to Leonan's request with a wary face.
"If someone comes after you, we'll protect you!" Walley lifted his mug and spoke aloud.
"That's it!" Most of the men had roared with enthusiasm.
Luke's wolf ears twitched, and his eyes widened, which made people who didn't agree with Leonan's decision at least a little more uncertain.
Suddenly, a man stood up to Luke's right. This man was black, had a shiny bald head and had his chest exposed.
"I won't be able to agree to targeting my ass with the nobles until you prove that you really are as strong as you say!" This man exclaimed.
At that moment, Leonan stood up, outraged at the bald man's audacity. "Phiaro, what are you talking about? Can't you feel the tremendous strength emanating from him? Also, Luke brought the Lich's skull."
Phiaro, the black man who was standing, lowered his head a little in respect to the leader of the 'Scythe of the Forest'. "I know, Leon. But I don't understand monsters, I don't understand this aura thing. What I really understand is fists, so before he decides to stay in our town, he will have to fight me first!"
Immediately, Leonan turned back to see the half-wolf's reaction. Leonan's goal was to convince Luke to stay and help them protect the city, but Phiaro's challenge could upset Luke tremendously, making him not even consider staying in the city.
"I accept your challenge. Phiaro, isn't it? Fighting one of you will be a good measure of the level of adventurers here. If I'm going to stay, I want to have partners I can trust. However, I will only give my answer at the end of the fight." Luke replied, causing Leonan to be momentarily relieved.
Within minutes, the adventurers had already found a place for Phiaro's fight against Luke.
Stahurt was a huge city, full of adventurers, but whose dungeon was sealed, even so it was not uncommon to find arenas scattered around the city, because this was a type of investment that attracted a lot of money.
The chosen location was a private arena called 'Cradle of Legends'. A tacky name, certainly, but it also stuck easily in everyone's heads, so this was the most famous arena in all of Stahurt. The floor of the huge arena was stone fortified by iron crystals, and there was water all around the vast battlefield. The water was deep and inside the water were hundreds of hungry piranhas.
Luke didn't give a damn about all the details that night. As it was already dawn and Luke was tired from the long day, all he wanted was to finish all this to proceed with his plan.
The number of people gathered to watch the fight from the stands was somehow greater than the number of adventurers in the tavern. Stahurt was a very nocturnal city too, so many people were drawn to the sea of ??people who flocked to the 'Cradle of Legends'.
The half-wolf looked at his opponent with the eyes of a dead fish, while Phiaro looked at Luke with determination.
Phiaro repeatedly punched the air while jumping in place. Which made Luke think Phiaro was underestimating him, because Phiaro was wasting energy so uselessly.
"If both fighters agree, I'll be the judge, okay?" Leonan asked, approaching the center of the arena with a cigarette in his mouth.
Being the referee meant that Leonan would determine when the fight should stop and who would win in the end. Neither fighter had a problem with Leonan, so they both nodded.
"It's all right. The fight will start when my cigarette hits the ground." said Leonan, who took the cigarette with his fingertips and then flicked it in the air.
The cigarette twirled and twirled in the air, causing spectators to stand up to see in detail the start of the fight.
Luke looked at Phiaro and then at the cigarette, realizing that a thousandth of the cigarette hit the floor, Phiaro got ahead of the movement and lunged quickly.
Before this start, Luke promised himself that he wouldn't use any of Gene's Abilities, not out of respect for his opponent, but because he wanted to keep these things hidden, at least for a while.
Attentively, Luke dodged Phiaro's right punch and wasn't fooled by this first punch, which concealed a left punch. Phiaro's fists were incredibly fast, and it seemed that with each blow the speed increased each time.
The half-wolf dodged Phiaro's every strike with just his natural reflex, gradually getting used to his opponent's speed.
Seeing someone so weak have such an impressive punching technique bothered Luke a little.
The more Luke saw truly talented people like Phiaro, Norgold, and Everton, the more annoyed he became at the brainwashing about people not being able to use Gene Abilities to not turn into monsters in the future. Of course, in the past he himself suffered from this brainwashing and even his master Yoelona still hadn't rid herself of such a belief even after seeing up close how rotten the Melki Empire was.
However, the fact that adventurers from the Melki Empire didn't ingest Monster Cores was also what was keeping him confident enough to come up with plans like this one, in which he divulged his identity in public without fear of anything.
With all that was going on with Luke, the only question that didn't get out of his mind, even as he dodged Phiaro's punches, was what was the Scale doing to avoid talking to him for so long.
Phiaro's blows looked more like fast arrows flying towards Luke, which made him sweat a little to dodge. Even so, with each attempt to hit Phiaro, there were numerous openings in the posture of the body, which Luke could certainly take advantage of to defeat him easily.
However, Luke thought that just defeating Phiaro was not enough, because many people would still see him as suspicious and unfriendly, despite him having spent some time drinking and talking to the adventurers.
Somehow Luke had to show he was in Stahurt to help everyone. Gaining everyone's full trust was as important a step as generating revolt in creating a Revolutionary Army.
Watching closely, Luke noticed that with each punch Phiaro delivered, the bald man opened his guard a lot, exposing his chest and belly to blows. Definitely, if Phiaro fought a professional assassin, he would die within seconds of battle, but on the other hand, the pressure he applied with the blows, as well as his size were perfect for fighting large monsters.
'If I start warning him out loud about his faults, he's sure to hate me and feel humiliated. The best way to do this is to proceed with the battle normally, teaching him calmly.' Luke thought.
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