Chapter 223: The Clown

’This one is dangerous’ Fafnir squinted sharply at the staff clown.

He marked two people as the most dangerous until now. The first was Adrian, and the second was that clown.

He had been observing Adrian the whole time. He wanted to kill him so badly, but he wasn’t ready to take the risk. He could feel that something was wrong about Adrian.

Adrian had tried to kill Dante with the help of his wife and spirit only to fail. So now, he was either blinded by wrath and couldn’t think properly… or he truly had a way to kill Dante by himself.

Thus, he decided to only observe Adrian for now and try to find what was special about him now.

As for the clown…

“Why are you just standing there? Charge at me like the bull you are.” The clown taunted Fafnir with a wide smile, jumping repeatedly in front of the hole.

Falling into the hole probably didn’t mean death, but rather failing in the first stage of the competition.

And the clown took advantage of that.

How? The clown basically could fly!

Several people tried to take him with them into the hole, and he simply stood in the air!

’What is that aspect? Is it wind? Force? Something else?’ Fafnir tried to recall the possible aspects to find a counter.

There was a flaming timer in the sky, and according to it, Fafnir had only around 1 minute left.

He couldn’t kill the clown from afar. The clown had an invisible barrier that protected him, and his colourful clown costume was glowing brightly, weakening the shadow attacks and preventing any use of Shadowstep.

He had to react, and as quickly as possible!

’If I can’t avoid the hole, I’ll just jump over it.’

Arcs of black lightning sparkled and danced across Fafnir’s body. They travelled toward his legs and overcharged them with more than a normal human could handle. The next second, the ground beneath his legs cracked as he leaped toward the clown like a bolt of lightning.

Suddenly, an invisible force gripped Fafnir and tried to slow him down and deflect his path, but it failed against Fafnir’s force and speed.

“Dammit, you are pretty serious.” The clown smiled nervously then rapidly flew above the hole before hitting himself with the invisible force to push himself away from Fafnir’s path.

Swish!

Fafnir passed behind the clown, yet he only reached the other side rather than falling into the hole.

The clown pointed his staff toward Fafnir without hesitation, but as he was about to land an attack—

“Ugh!”

—a storm of black, silent lightning struck the clown’s back, almost forcing him to fall into the hole.

“When did that bird come here?”

The clown looked at the source of the lightning strike and saw a shadow three-headed owl with lightning coiling around its wings.

Fafnir had summoned it right above the clown when he passed!

“Oh, not bad.” The clown was left in awe at Fafnir’s perfect control. It wasn’t easy to achieve such a thing while travelling with the speed of lightning.

The owl charged toward the clown, intending to take him down. The clown’s eyes sharpened as he pointed his staff at the owl.

“Bam.”

BAM!

Following his words, the owl’s heads exploded like fireworks, illuminating the arena with colorful lights for all the observers to see.

“Beautiful…”

“What class or aspect does that clown have?”

“Maybe his class is Clown?”

“Are you trying to convince me that a clown is better than all those fighting classes out there?”

“Wait, it isn’t over!”

After killing the owl, the clown tried to focus and regain his balance… but then it happened.

Slash!

Taking advantage of the clown’s distraction, Fafnir charged toward the clown again, cutting him in half before reaching the other side.

“NOOO!”

“YESSS!!”

The observers either grieved at the loss of their favourite champion or cheered for Fafnir’s win.

Fafnir landed forcefully on the ground without cracking it again, sliding for a few moments before stopping himself by force.

His eyes immediately scanned all the nearby competitors, who flinched and stepped backward upon noticing him.

For most of them, that wasn’t something they could even imagine fighting!

“Ouch, that hurts a little.”

A familiar voice echoed through the arena, coming from above the hole and leaving everyone in shock.

“Ah! A ghost!”

“Is he an undead?!”

“Glory to the immortal clown!”

Fafnir turned around and saw the clown floating in the air while holding his lower half, casually wiping the bloody edges with a colorful towel.

“Don’t mind me, just cleaning the mess.”

After wiping the blood off the edges, the clown casually placed his lower half in its place and rotated it like a bottle cap.

Once he finished that, his body was returned as new as before without even leaving a scar or a scratch… including the clown’s outfit!

The outfit itself was attached alongside the body!

’What the hell have I just witnessed?’

the same question echoed through everyone’s mind as the clown smiled widely at Fafnir and pointed at his own head.

“My friend, maybe you should aim for the brain next time. I heard that most people can’t live without it… but maybe you don’t have one to understand that simple fact.”

’I hate that clown already.’ Fafnir sighed and sat on the ground, resting his head on his hand.

There was no time to kill the clown. He could only use most of his remaining mana to jinx that bastard!

He was a bit mad at the clown’s unfunny joke. Maybe the clown himself didn’t know, but… Fafnir truly didn’t have a brain.

He was 100% made of shadows!

Even if his head was severed, he’d easily regenerate it without a problem. He’d die only if a big part of him was lost or damaged.

The clown stood straight in the air and bowed toward the duchess and the observers, taking off his clown hat: “Ladies and gentlemen, thanks to everyone who cheered for me! I promise never to disappoint you all. See you in the next stage!”

TING! TING! TING!

Following his speech, dozens of bells rang simultaneously, stopping everyone from fighting. Those who were already busy in a fight were forcefully stopped by blue barriers.

The narrator finally came out of his daze and spoke: “The first stage has officially ended, and only 24 champions qualified for the next stage! That’s a good number, if you ask me.”

“A banquet will be held tomorrow for the champions and some chosen nobles. The duchess herself will free herself to attend it! Oh, how lucky you are.”

“The next stage will be after two days. May you be blessed until then.”

The gates opened following his words, finally allowing the competitors to leave.

BAM!

At the same time, the clown exploded into a dozen colourful… ribbons?

“Huh?”

“Where is he?”

“Did he die?”

The observers and even some competitors searched for him everywhere, but none of them found him or even a trace of his existence… except for Fafnir.

By PURE coincidence, one of the cores that Fafnir had left disappeared at the same time as the clown.

Fafnir used Shadowstep and appeared behind the cores of those he killed.

“…”

There were two drawings carved behind the cores.

One was a smiling face.

And the second was a fist with a raised middle finger.

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