A deafening silence suppressed the whole arena for a few seconds after Ivan’s sudden forfeit, not even the wind dared to make a sound.

Ten seconds…

Twenty seconds…

Thirty seconds later…

“What!!!! What the hell!”

“What do you mean surrender? You already won!”

“Is this some classic joke? Was he planning to surrender on his third fight? Why didn’t I challenge him instead? First place would have been mine just like that!”

“Don’t beat your luck, I’m sure he would have smacked you unconscious”

” Is this what they mean by hugging a golden thigh? That dude got first place just for being his friend?”

” They clearly aren’t on the same level, why surrender?”

” Ugh, my heart!”

” Help, help! He’s not breathing!”

The spectators were thrown into chaos after 30 seconds of silence as they shouted like little children, some people even passed out from shock and were carried away by their friends.

It couldn’t be helped, Ivan’s sudden surrender had been too much of a shock for the trainees to handle. Those who were even more affected were the repeaters who longed for resources of the first place, they were prepared to battle hard for it but Ivan was giving it away just like that?

Miko gritted her teeth to an almost shattering point while her fingers almost dug into her palm in a tight grip as she forcefully controlled herself and resisted the urge to go down there to beat Ivan to death; that was if she could.

While the trainees kept making a ruckus, the referee, who had woken up from his shock, looked at Ivan with a speechless expression.

“Are you sure you want to surrender? Your spot as the first place will be transferred to your opponent, and you will fall down in the ranking; you will also lose all your privilege as the first place,” he stated in an attempt to make Ivan understand that surrendering was as simple as just saying it.

But it was obvious that Ivan was already aware of this and had prepared to surrender a long time ago because his face didn’t change expression even after the referee’s warning, he only nodded to confirm that he was indeed surrendering the match.

The referee, unable to understand why Ivan would do such a thing, turned his gaze to Ralph.

From every perspective one would look at it, Ralph was in no condition to fight anymore and he didn’t even stand a chance considering their current gap in rank.

‘Was it simply because of their friendship?’ The referee thought to himself. He had seen how Ivan dealt with all of his opponents and had to admit that Ralph had been treated far better than the previous two.

Shaking his head to clear away those thoughts, the referee sighed while saying.

“This is your choice, don’t blame me in the future”

“I won’t” Ivan responded seriously.

Referee “…”

“Ahem. Trainee number one has decided to surrender the match, the winner of this match is trainee number eight!”

The referee announced, causing the spectators to go into another wave of chattering.

“You may now leave the stage,” The referee said to the two after making the announcement.

Both boys nodded and turned to leave, Ivan continued to support Ralph as they walked out of the barrier.

“Although I feel this isn’t right, it is for our own good…thank you” Ralph mumbled.

“No worries, ” Ivan replied.

They met Glen outside after leaving the stage, the boy immediately ran towards them.

” Ralph! Are you alright?” He asked worriedly while helping Ivan to support Ralph.

Not waiting for Ralph to answer, Glen immediately turned on Ivan.

” You rascal! You’re already so strong but still out, Ralph, in this state. Don’t you know that damaging a summon too much will affect the summoner? And you’ll say I’m the dumb one!” Glen scolded Ivan who looked back at him with blank eyes.

Indeed, he had not been to the arena before and wasn’t aware of this information. He would not have attacked the undead General too much if he knew otherwise.

” Stop it, it’s not his fault. I forced him to fight seriously ” Ralph said in Ivan’s defense. Glen only grunted and didn’t say anything else; after all, Ralph wasn’t hurt and was just exhausted; getting enough rest would fix everything.

“Let’s take him to his room,” Glen said to Ivan, but Ivan suddenly passed Ralph to him completely.

“What are you doing?” Glen asked. Was he angry that I scolded him and now wants to ignore me?

“I can’t; I still have one more match,” Ivan said when he saw the expression on Glen’s face.

“Oh, so it’s that. No problem, you can go back. I’ll take him to his room myself” Glen said, secretly relieved that Ivan wasn’t angry at him.

“Come, let’s go back,” Glen said to Ralph.

Ivan watched the two of them leave the arena before returning to the spectators section, he had to wait for his turn since others were currently on the stage and about to fight.

Ivan found a place to sit, ignoring the fierce and questioning glares of the trainees.

Miss Elora looked at Ivan from above for a few seconds before leaving the arena.

On the stage after the place had been repaired, three people could be seen standing inside the barrier. These three were the referee and two young women in purple tracksuits.

One of the women had a tall figure with a rather explosive chest that bulged her tracksuit despite the zippers reaching her neck, long legs, short red hair that barely touched her ears, and sharp yellow eyes that gazed at her opponent with all seriousness.

Her opponent was a girl with average height, a plain shape, and blue hair that stood out easily. Both parties stood a few tens of meters away from each other with the referee standing in between them.

After confirming that they were ready, the referee flew up into the air before giving the command for both parties to start their fight.

Immediately after hearing the command, both sides began their assaults.

It turned out that they were both Nexulytes with elemental talents; the tall woman had the water element while her opponent had the earth element.

They began hurling water slashes and chunks of concrete at each other while running across the stage.

Their fight was rather boring compared to Ivan’s battles but was nonetheless entertaining for the other trainees and they cheered for the two.

Ivan silently watched with an indifferent expression; he was not in the slightest interested in the fight between these two as, in his eyes, they were just playing.

It couldn’t be helped; these two were not even at the Mortal King rank yet!

The fight between the two women went on for a few minutes more before finally coming to an end with the tall woman emerging as the victor.

Both sides had ended up expanding their Nexus sea and had resorted to hand combat which ended up in favor of the tall woman due to her size advantage.

The referee came down and announced the results before asking both parties to clear the stage, after which he placed his hand on the barrier and repaired the stage again before the next fight could take place.

Ivan had to wait another three fights before it was finally his turn again to fight, Miko was already standing on the stage when Ivan arrived.

“Begin!”

The referee shouted as he watched with anticipation, the whole arena was quiet as well as the trainees were paying great attention to Ivan’s fight.

After receiving the command to start, Miko immediately summoned Nexus energy before condensing it into a long katana with an extremely sharp blade; one could tell just how sharp the blade was by the chilling silver glint that it emitted.

Miko’s expression was cold, and her eyes were as sharp as her blade; she was well aware of Ivan’s strength now and knew that she had to give it her all if she wanted to have a chance at winning.

Swoosh!!

Not waiting for Ivan to take out a card, she immediately bent her body before disappearing and appearing in the air right above Ivan with her katana slashing down toward his head.

Gasp!

Her speed was so shocking that she had already appeared in front of Ivan before most of the trainees even realized that she had moved!

But the same was not so for Ivan, who was already a True king Nexulyte; he had seen her movements clearly; although he had to admit that her speed had caught him by surprise, it wasn’t to the point that he could not follow her movements.

Huaa!

Ivan swiftly leaped backward and left the range of Miko’s katana slash and, at the same time, took out a card before throwing it at Miko.

The card scattered into light particles in midair and formed a sword that stabbed at the girl.

Miko’s expression didn’t change, she did a twist midair and met Ivan’s sword with her katana.

Swooop!!!

A clean cut as two halves of a blade were sent flying!

‘Impossible!’

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep