Chapter 422 - 422: Woe is me
"This is a joke right?"
A square shouldered man with a Spanish accent accent reminiscent of a boot wearing cat stared at his opponent with utter disdain in his eyes. His long black hair was pulled back into a pony tail, so not a single strand could possibly obscure his beautiful face, while his lips were seemingly permanently pouting like he was some kind of model.
He gestured to the young teen standing across from him, shaking his head and clicking his tongue in annoyance.
"This has to be a joke... I mean they cannot possibly expect me to fight a child. I mean... Look at me!"
He gestured to his body, which was wrapped in a rather tight dancers outfit. One that was extremely low cut, to show off his chest hair and even his abs, as well hugged his crotch so tight it couldn't be comfortable.
He held his hand up in front of his face as his palm caught fire. The flame danced atop of his palm. He smiled softly, gazing into the flame as if it was the most beautiful thing in the world, other than himself of course.
"I am the master of the flame, I am hot in every single way. I could burn him to cinders with a wave of my hand, but they expect me to spar him? This is nothing but a waste of my ti-"
A glass vial struck him in the face mid monologue, shattering on impact and releasing the thick cloud of green gas stored within. Since he held it so close to his handsome face, the gas barely had to drift a few inches through the air before the tip of its cloud touched the flame.
As soon as the two made contact, the pit arena shuddered as the gas erupted into a fiery explosion.
The barrier flashed, projecting the observers not only from the force of the blast but from the heat it produced. After a moment of flames, the arena was quickly filled with a thick, impenetrable cloud of black smoke.
More symbols flashed on the walls of the arena as a portion of the barrier dissolved and the smoke was quickly sucked out, before the barrier was restored again and the condition of the two fighters was finally visible once more.
Woe was slowly clambering to his feet, having curled up into a ball to mitigate the damage from the explosion to his body. It was his first time using the gas grenade his brothers friend had prepared.
They were common amongst certain hunters, especially those with abilities that weren't as offensive. A few varieties were offered, but this one was the obvious type. Highly flammable.
The flaming Spaniard let out a low groan as he pushed himself off of the ground. He had been thrown across the arena and slammed into the wall, but just that explosion alone wasn't enough to take him out.
Clambering to his feet with his back to Woe, he let out a soft whimper as he lifted a trembling hand to his face. The Spaniard touched his beautiful face tenderly, letting out a few more whimpers.
But when he pulled his hand away to find it coated completely crimson with blood, his whimpers turned into a bloodcurdling scream that even a banshee would find horrifying.
He quickly whirled around, his eyes ablaze with fury and literally ablaze with rage. Blood trickled from different parts of his face, dozens of miniature crimson rivers, all of which started from shards of glass that were embedded in his skin.
"WHAT.... WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO MY FACE!?"
The Spaniards arms erupted into flames as he let out another rage filled scream, which mixed with the chuckles and soft laughter of the audience. However the Spanish leader was not laughing.
Instead his face had turned white as a sheet as he leapt out of his chair and launched himself towards the arena's edge. He would have leapt into the arena itself, had the barrier not stopped him.
He pressed himself against it, slamming his fist a few times in a desperate attempt to get his companions attention.
"Stop! STOP! CALM DOWN YOU IDIOT!"
The Spanish leader shouted at the top of his lungs, slamming his fists against the barrier as if his life depended on it. Because in his mind, it did. Yet his hot headed companion didn't hear a single word.
Instead his flames only burned hotter as he thrust both hands forwards and let loose a blazing inferno. The stream of flames quickly engulfed Woe, who barely even had a second to react, never mind dodge.
Beads of sweat formed on the Spanish leaders brow as panic completely took over him. His eyes snapped to Corvus as his heart palpitated in his chest, the speech he made before all of this was still clear in the Spanish Leader's mind. More than that, he could still feel the absolutely horrifying aura the man projected at the time.
When he first felt it, it had taken every part of him not to wet his pants and completely embarrass himself. Yet now, embarrassment would be the best option above the dreadful and painful death he was promised for this idiots mistake.
He scrambled across the seats desperately, his palpitating heart syncing itself with the maniacal laughter of that absolute idiot, as he threw himself at the feet of the faceless lord.
Was it respectable for a man in his position to do such a thing? No. Did it completely humiliate him not just in front of his other subordinate, but all of these other leaders? Absolutely.
But did either of those points matter to him more than his own life, and the life of his people? Not in the slightest.
He slammed his head against the ground at Corvus' feet and immediately beg to plead, beg and reason with the man he saw as a Tyrant of Death.
"Lord Corvus, I assure you that I will take care of this myself. Please allow me to discipline him instead. I will flay him, beat him, crucify him, dice him into little pieces and feed him to the dogs.
Any punishment you deem enough to make up for this horrible transgression. Just please allow me to do this for you and remove this idiot from your sight so that you might spare my people from the fate thrust upon them by one hot headed idiot."
He slammed his head against the ground again, uncaring of the absolute humiliation and public degradation he was going through. He could feel countless eyes on him. Some casting distasteful glances at the miserable sod.
But the majority looked at him with pity and sympathy. They knew exactly what was going through his mind, because it was the exact same thing they would be thinking in his shoes.
They had all been in the room when he had released that dreadful aura. A single man simply releasing his power felt like absolute death to all of them. Despite all the monsters and nightmarish creatures they had faced off against, all the life and death battles they had struggled through.
It was one man they felt the most dread from. Before that, the term Celestial had just been another term that had been dangled in front of them. It meant nothing.
Now? It meant Death. To the people in that room, they felt... no, they knew that even if all of them ganged up together that a Celestial would be able to kill them with ease. They had seen it after all, at the hands of a mere maid.
It was like a country without nukes bowing before one with them, except now the nuke was a literal walking and talking disaster.
"I'm curious...", The Disaster said in a chillingly calm tone, causing the Spanish leader to shudder in fear, "... as to why you think I should do that."
The Spanish Leader winced as if he had been stabbed in the heart, clenching his eyes closed as he waited for his death sentence to come. However instead, he heard an amused chuckle from the walking disaster.
"I mean, as idiotic as your man is - which is something we can agree on - He hasn't done anything wrong. Well... Nothing that would justify such brutality at least."
Huh? Hasn't done anything wrong? Wasn't this the man who threatened to tear people apart if they even accidentally killed his subordinate?
The Spanish leader lifted his head and looked up at Corvus in utter bafflement, and he wasn't the only one. Those who had been feeling sympathy before were all completely lost in confusion as they stared at the hooded Lord, who lounged casually in his chair.
Corvus chuckled again, gesturing to the pit arena. Heads turned in complete sync to look down into the pit, while the Spanish leader had to crawl along the ground and pull himself up at the edge to peer over. His confusion still left him ready to grovel at a moments notice, unable to process the fact it was unnecessary.
Even when they all looked down and saw the innocent and harmless seeming young Woe standing in the middle of the arena, completely unharmed. Not even the edge of his clothes were singed.
As for the hot headed Spaniard, he lay across the arena. Slumped against the wall with blood trickling from the cuts on his face and pooling beneath him. His mouth hung open, showing the missing teeth which were currently swimming in the pool of blood underneath him, and his nose was completely crushed and twisted.