For a moment, the entire Colosseum was silent, as if processing what had just happened.

Alex’s words and his sudden appearance had caused their minds to slow down a bit.

Then, an explosion of noises happened.

“HE OVERSLEPT?! THAT’S WHY HE WAS LATE?!”

“THAT’S TOO DOMINEERING! This guy really treats the tournament like a side errand!”

“Seriously… how much confidence do you need to have for that?”

Laughter, cheers, and incredulous shouts filled the arena, and the curiosity about Alex’s sudden appearance in the arena was dissolved.

They didn’t know that Alex had just arrived, and in order to make up for being late, he had put on that domineering act.

‘My bad, blud. But you are going to be my scapegoat,’ Alex mentally apologized to Leon, knowing that Leon’s image was going to go down the drain after this match.

The audience, on the other hand, was still talking about Alex’s attitude.

It wasn’t just arrogance—Alex’s casual demeanor, his complete lack of concern, made it clear. To him, this match wasn’t something worth stressing over.

Leon, still standing in the arena, also felt the same, and he clenched his fists as the words of the spectators echoed around him. His jaw tightened, his fury rising with each comment.

“Is he saying… I wasn’t even worth waking up for?”

His breathing grew heavier. His once-fair skin reddened as veins bulged across his arms and neck.

He had always thought that Alex would be more honorable because he had seen the guy stand up for his friend even though that friend was declared a criminal.

Leon, for some time, started looking up at Alex, wanting to be just like him, but that image slowly shattered as he kept hearing how people were thinking of him as a joke now.

Finally, he couldn’t take it anymore.

“Alex Drakathor!!” Leon’s roar shook the arena, his voice thick with rage. He pointed a trembling finger at Alex. “I’ve been looking forward to this fight for months! I thought you were worth my time! But this—this is just you trying to humiliate me!”

The pressure around Leon intensified. A crimson aura flared around him, distorting the air. The ground beneath his feet cracked. Dust swirled in response to the energy rolling off his body, his rage manifesting into raw power.

The audience gasped.

“Wait… he’s actually furious. This might be bad.”

“He’s activating his Berserker physique. That’s berserkers’ unique trait—when they get angrier, they get stronger!”

“Does Alex… not realize who he’s taunting?”

Everyone in the audience could feel the pressure from afar even with the barrier put in place to prevent the audience from getting harmed.

But Alex?

He just tilted his head.

This is what Alex had wanted after all. The stronger and more dangerous Leon looked, the better for Alex. He hoped to make this match look the best one today, and for that, this much was needed, so…

“Are you done powering up?” He asked, completely unimpressed. “I have things to do, so let’s end this quickly.”

The audience collectively sucked in a breath.

“HE’S TAUNTING HIM MORE?!?!”

Leon’s aura surged. The cracked floor beneath him splintered even further as his fury reached a breaking point. He no longer cared about waiting for the referee’s signal.

With a guttural roar, he lunged forward.

“DIE!!!” He yelled, and as he moved, everything blurred.

Leon, fueled by rage and raw power, closed the distance instantly. His fist, now engulfed in a searing red glow, shot forward, aiming straight for Alex’s face.

But just as he was about to land the first strike—

CRACK!

The sound of an impact echoed across the Colosseum.

And in the next moment—

Leon was gone.

Or rather, he was airborne.

The audience’s eyes followed his trajectory as his body spun through the air before crashing into the ground at the exact spot he had started.

A deep crater formed where he landed, dust rising around him.

Silence.

Pure, stunned silence.

All eyes snapped back to Alex, who stood exactly where he had been—his stance unchanged, his hand lazily falling back to his side.

The realization hit like a tidal wave.

“He… He slapped him?!”

“What the heck?!”

“That must have… hurt…”

A SLAP—that’s what it was.

Not a punch. Not a kick. A casual, almost dismissive slap had sent Leon, the Berserker Club’s Vice President, flying back into the dirt.

It was utterly humiliating to be slapped, but things didn’t end there as Alex’s voice rang out again, calm and indifferent.

“A participant is supposed to wait until the referee signals the start,” he said.

The arena burst.

“HE’S INSANE!”

“HOW DID HE SLAP HIM THAT HARD?!”

“He just treated Leon like a misbehaving child!”

Leon, still embedded in the cracked arena floor, just lay there, staring at the sky. His palm slowly touched his stinging cheek, his mind blank.

Did that really just happen?

Did he really just get sent flying… from a slap?

Alex turned to the referee, who had been standing frozen in shock.

“You gonna start the match?” Alex asked, raising an eyebrow.

The referee jolted, snapping out of his trance. Hastily, he raised his hand.

“The… the match officially begins!”

Alex stretched his arms, rolling his shoulders. “Alright. Now, how long are you going to keep lying down?”

“Wait—!” But just then, as if realizing something, his eyes widened. “Don’t tell… are you taking revenge for me oversleeping by napping on the ground?”

Pausing a bit, Alex added, “I get that you are angry… but please don’t sleep on the dirty ground.”

Leon’s blood boiled.

His fingers dug into the cracked floor as he pushed himself up, his teeth clenched so tightly they might break. The audience’s words only made it worse.

“He was beaten before the fight even started.”

“Leon’s strong, but… that difference in power is just too much.”

“Alex is… ruthless.”

“He ate Leon, man.”

Alex didn’t know that this event was going to give him a new title made by the audience.

He would be called ‘Maneater’.

Leon, on the other hand, exhaled sharply, his eyes burning with determination.

He was angry—furious even—but maybe because of the stinging pain in his cheek or the audience’s comments about how helpless he was against Alex, Leon knew he was at a disadvantage.

He, as a berserker, was ashamed to accept it, but he was losing to someone else even with his stats boosted so much.

‘This is different from what I expected,’ he admitted inwardly. ‘He’s on another level…’

But he wasn’t done yet. He still didn’t think he would lose—no, he couldn’t lose. He had made a promise to the club president. He had promised to return victorious.

If he couldn’t do that, then he would never be able to show his face to the president ever again.

Gritting his teeth, Leon steadied his stance.

“If I want to stand a chance…”

His body tensed.

“I have to use it—my strongest technique.”

With that thought, Leon prepared to go all out, seven illusionary stars swirling on his chest, indicating that he was one of those few who had reached the peak of star formation even though he was a third-year student.

The real fight was starting now—at least for Leon…

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep