"And three!"
The syllable had barely left Octavia’s lips before Luger detonated into motion with a-
-BOOM-!
The sand beneath his boots exploded as he launched himself into a sprint while the crimson flames on his greatsword roared to life as he raised the blade for a cleave.
To the crowd, he was a blur of impending red violence.
But to Nico, he was two seconds late.
And just as Luger crossed half the distance -
-THARD-!
The roar of the Divine Browning A5 tore through the enclosed arena like a thunderclap with a cone of VM-infused lead pellets that smashed into Luger’s chest with the force of an angry god’s fist.
The tempered steel of his armor instantly collapsed straight into his ribcage with a sickening, wet crunch.
The absolute kinetic dump wrenched his torso to a halt, whipping his legs violently upward and lifting his entire body horizontal to the ground for a split second.
Luger folded around the impact point like a wet towel before gravity reclaimed him and-
-Thud-!
He slammed flat onto his back with enough force to send a tremor through the floor.
A single stray pellet had torn a nasty trench across his cheek from which red-hot blood drenched his face.
Even the greatsword had wrenched from his grip by the whiplash as it spun end-over-end through the air before stabbing point-first a few feet in front of Nico.
And what followed was absolute, suffocating silence that strangled the arena.
Every eye stared at the groaning and gargling heap of wreckage on the ground in disbelief, and a primal dread slowly curling out its roots in the darkest pits of everyone’s heart.
Luger lay there curled, clutching his concave chest, trembling through the sheer agony ravaging his chest with eyes rolling back into his skull while he desperately tried to suck air in through gritted teeth into lungs that had just been flattened.
While Nico slowly lowered the shotgun, a wisp of grey smoke curling lazily from the barrel that still glowed white.
[Damn... that was... overkill...] Nico thought as he stared at the curled Luger limply thrashing his legs on the ground.
But on the outside, his expression remained perfectly bored.
He turned his head slightly toward the corner of the arena where Luger’s party was currently trying to merge with the stone wall.
"Nom..." he called out calmly, jerking his chin toward the Lizard-kin. "Would you be so kind as to retrieve my blade from the gentleman over there?"
And the moment Nom-Nom’s violet eyes fell on Laro, the lizard jolted as if electrocuted.
Before she could even take her first step, Laro began frantically unbuckling the belt that held the harness of the blade in a blur of panicked motion.
Nom-Nom didn’t even reach halfway to him before he ripped the entire assembly free and threw it... sheath, belt, and all, toward her as though he were throwing holy artefacts at the devil himself.
She caught the bundle out of the air with a confused blink before shrugging and nonchalantly walking back to her spot beside the exit.
While under the stunned gazes of the crowd, Nico walked toward Luger’s greatsword, which was plunged into the sand only a few feet away.
Slinging the shotgun back onto his shoulder, he gripped the leather-wrapped handle with both hands before pulling the massive blade free and swinging the weapon up, resting the flat of the blade against his shoulder, only for his brow to twitch slightly as the sheer weight the weapon dug into his collarbone.
[Heavy...]
Subtly channeling his mana, he activated Ice Reinforcement, feeling the frost fuse into his muscles beneath the sleeves of his Samue.
And the burden instantly vanished as his strength surged, making the massive slab of metal feel... manageable.
With his posture now perfectly relaxed, he casually began walking toward the exit.
But just as he walked past the curled and trembling form of Luger, Octavia’s smooth voice cut through the silence.
"I didn’t declare the match to be over yet."
Nico stopped dead in his tracks before turning to her with a slow tilt of his head.
"Okay then... as you wish," Nico replied with a chuckle before turning back to Luger.
Plunging the greatsword back into the ground, he reached over his shoulder and slid the shotgun off.
And the moment he did, Luger’s eyes widened until they almost popped out of their sockets.
"No wait! I surrender! I-ACK!"
The scream tore out from his throat in a cracked, teenage falsetto before cutting off abruptly as he choked on his own spit, frantically waving a hand in the air to beg for mercy.
Nico paused with his finger hovering over the trigger guard before looking back at Octavia
And with a sassy chuckle, he said, "And now you don’t have to..."
Without waiting for her reply, he re-slung the shotgun before gripping the hilt of the greatsword buried in the sand, and pulled the blade free before resting it casually on his shoulder once again, and turned his back on Octavia, resuming his walk toward the exit.
He made it barely halfway across the sand when a desperate shout rang out from the left.
"Wait!"
Laro the Lizard-kin stepped forward with a courage no one thought he possessed as his eyes shone with a sudden, desperate realization.
"His adventurer’s license still hasn’t been issued yet!" Laro screamed, pointing a trembling finger at Nico. "He isn’t a registered adventurer! The Laws of Settlement don’t apply to him!"
And the next moment, the stunned silence shattered instantly.
The realization swept through the stands like a wildfire before the collective roar of the adventurers exploded into the arena with renewed vigor as the mob scented blood in the water once more.
Even Octavia’s professional mask slipped for a fraction of a second with a small, amused smile as she watched the situation spiral.
Nico once more stopped dead in his tracks but this time with a violent twitch developing in his left eye as he groaned -
[I swear to god...]