Thrym's entire body appeared to be a single, massive block of metal, beneath whose surface molten steel pulsed through his veins instead of blood.

  “Hahaha! I’m curious to see if you can even hurt me with all your strength!” Laughed the halfgiant and began to repeatedly pummel his opponent with his fists.

  Some blows were parried, others skillfully dodged, but more and more struck the arrogant orc's flesh, which was soon turning blue and purple.

  “Just you wait!” roared the already colorfully beaten warrior, throwing away his sword.

  Energy flowed into his body from all sides, and his skin began to release a foul-smelling, poisonous green fluid.

  “Poison-Qi?” Asked the metal colossus, raising his eyebrows, and without much hesitation struck his opponent again, “Is that supposed to impress me?”

  A corrosive liquid, like a sticky, stinky armor, formed around the defending Qi-Gatherer, and the poison corroded the shimmering fingers of the halfgiant, but Thrym simply ignored the pain and continued to pummel the orc.

  Time passed, and countless blows later, the Poison-Qi-Master finally collapsed lifelessly and transformed into a stinking puddle that etched a hole in the arena floor.

  The halfgiant tore off some of his clothing and cleaned his sore, now blister-covered hands from the remaining poison.

  “I’m curious to see if you can break through my defenses, little brother!” He said, while looking at Kilian, and added with a laugh, “But we’ll see in the semi-finals! Hahaha!”

  “Winner: Thrym!” Deidre’s emotionless voice rang out as usual, and after the announcement of the next battle, a necromancer prepared to face an orc.

  “Here, take this ointment.” Edana said to the halfgiant, taking out a small glass jar, “This should help your wounds heal faster.”

  “Thank you, but it’s not necessary!” He replied calmly, showing his almost healed knuckles, “Such a weak poison can’t do much damage to my iron skin! Save it for yourself! Hahaha!”

  “You’ve become strong!” Kilian grinned broadly at his older brother and added in a conspiratorial tone, “But are you strong enough to win against me?”

  “We will see when we encounter real opponents! These two side characters were hardly worth our time!” Replied the halfgiant, and the two sat down again and closed their eyes.

  The little blacksmith reminisced about how the Qi flowed through Thrym's skin and compared it to the training manual he had received from Grandpa Yu.

  “Thrym trains with pure Metal-Qi; the points where energy flows through his skin are completely different and significantly more numerous than on my path training with Yin-Qi. Metal-Qi is very sharp and can cut through thick layers of skin! The icy Yin-Qi of the Moon, on the other hand, with which I want to strengthen my body, must be guided slowly and through specific passages with less skin resistance. Furthermore, without special objects containing pure Yin-Qi, I can only train at night under the moonlight if I don't want to live in a tomb like the necromancers! My body might even start to corrode if I absorbed too much Corpse-Qi. " He compared the two techniques, weighing the pros and cons, "Therefore, my path is considerably slower, but I should be able to compensate for this difference by strengthening my body from within with Yang-Qi! I'm curious to see what happens once the two energies meet within me and I release them together! In a clutch, I still have my enchantments and the energy in my dantian as an ace up my sleeve!"

  During these considerations, the battle in the arena came to an end, and the necromancer emerged victorious.

  “The next fight will be Brenton against Vuk!” Said the Guardian after the two previous opponents had disappeared from the stage, and soon after, a silver-haired young man found himself facing a wolfman with jet-black fur.

  “So we meet again!” Brenton smiled at his opponent, “Have your wounds from our last encounter healed yet?”

  “Hahaha! As if you were any less injured!” Replied Vuk, grinning wickedly, “It’s time to prove that the next generation of the Lupus Clan is stronger than that of the Arian family! Let's end this rivalry of ours today, because only one of us shall survive this fight!”

  “My grandfather will send yours a letter of condolence!” Brenton barked back as vast amounts of Qi flooded his body and his pupils constricted reptilianly, “I will show you the legacy of one of my ancestors!”

  “Then this is a battle between the old and the new generation!” Cried Vuk, his fur bristling as he activated his newfound powers, “The Lupus Clan will soon rule over Terrapin!”

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  “You are merely a slave of the Enclave!” Laughed the silver-haired warrior, and black-rimmed scales vaguely formed beneath his skin, “Even if the Enclave were ever to win, the members of the Lupus Clan would only be lapdogs at their masters’ side!”

  With a flash of his magical artifact, a gleaming longsword appeared in his hand, and his body shot towards the wolfman who was already waiting for him.

  Sparkling steel crashed against the beast's long claws, and the pressure wave of the collision knocked down the weaker observers of the battle who were standing too close to the action.

  Even Kilian opened his eyes wide and ended his meditation in surprise, so as not to miss a thing.

  “Two more legacies of old Qi-Lords?” Deidre wondered, her brain racing with the memories of the two different soul fragments trapped within her, analyzing the situation, “The founder of the Lupus Clan shared his knowledge with Vuk, but whose teachings lie dormant in Brenton?”

  She found no answer to her question, but continued to watch the exciting battle, in which one deadly attack after another collided.

  However, the skillful movements of the heir of the Arian family parried every cunning blow coming from the wolfman, while his blade, with every strike, moved ever closer to his opponent's vital organs and blood vessels.

  He narrowly missed the carotid artery, his stab pierced the wolf's chest just millimeters from the heart, and a deep cut on the inside of the right thigh finally paralyzed Vuk's movements.

  “No matter how far you wolfmen climb the ladder, you are and always will be a bunch of mangy mutts!” Brenton laughed, bathing in the blood of the Lupus Clan, “Take your place at the side of your masters, don’t expect anything more, and be grateful for every crumb you get! Because that’s the only way you dumb dogs can survive in this world!”

  Parrying the wolfman's last desperate blow, Brenton's foot kicked with tremendous force against his enemy's chest, throwing him out of the arena.

  “It seems you’ll be allowed to keep your unworthy life! Hahaha!” Brenton laughed again, casting an icy glare at Vuk, “But I can take it away from you at any time! Never forget that!”

  Lying in his own blood, the wolfman crouched on the ground with his tail between his legs, not even daring to meet Brenton's gaze, until Duncan approached him with an unreadable expression and spoke, “Take this potion! The necromancers still need you. Once you fully understand your legacy, you will grow even stronger and take your place by my side!”

  “Are you sure you need such a weak servant?” Asked the royal grandson, amused, “Is the young master of the necromancers just as useless as the one from the Lupus Clan?”

  “Winner: Brenton!” The emotionless voice of the Guardian rang out again as she announced the winner, and after Brenton stepped down from the arena, she continued, “Fao versus Gildas will be the next round!”

  “Though only the blood of a lindworm may flow through my veins, my body burns with rage as soon as I smell the putrid stench of you necromancers! You make me want to throw up!” Said the scaly lizardman as he entered the arena, “For countless years this hatred has been dormant in my blood and motivates me to get stronger!”

  “An overgrown snake that thinks it’s a dragon will never understand the intricacies of our dark arts!” Laughed the black figure facing Fao, and two half-rotten dolls appeared before him, “I will gladly make a new toy out of your body and parade your scaly face in front of the whole world!”

  Provoked, the lizardman began to roar, and two bluish burning wings grew from his scapula.

  With a flap of his wings, mountains of flames piled up and swept away the two resurrected corpses.

  Soon, the smell of burnt, rotten meat spread throughout the hall, and the two puppets, not yet destroyed despite the heat, charged towards Fao, ready to attack.

  “Hahaha! My toys won’t break so easily!” Gildas laughed and prepared a powerful attack while the blows from his corpse puppets captured the lizardman’s attention.

  A dark sword appeared between his fingers, which seemed to absorb all energy around it.

  “My legacy is the Blade of Eternity! I have been chosen to wield this powerful weapon and will offer it your life force as its first sacrifice! Hahaha!” The necromancer rejoiced, already celebrating his victory, and with the weapon in hand, he shot unhindered through the sea of flames, “Only I am strong enough to possess this weapon and will lead the necromancers to victory with it!”

  “Something’s not right here…” Murmured Kilian, who was watching the fight with interest, “The lindworm is a descendant of the dragons! Even if it can’t use Yang-Qi, it’s still a specialist in Fire-Qi and shouldn't be easily toyed with! But this dark blade worries me…it devours everything around it and possesses a sinister aura…”

  “I will not lose to our archenemy in the hall of my ancestors!” Cried the beastman, in whose veins flowed the blood of a lindworm, awakening his hidden power.

  A blue crystal began to shine brightly on his forehead, turning his previously green scales deep blue, and a few sparks of Yang-Qi appeared as if out of nowhere.

  They immediately set fire to the two corpse puppets, and an ominous screech escaped the two lifeless bodies as they were cleansed of the putrid Corpse-Qi.

  “My two babies have already served their purpose!” Gildan’s hoarse voice rang out from behind the lizardman, while his appearance now also closely resembled that of a corpse, and a powerful blow struck the blue scales. Instantly, they lost their luster, and ruby-red drops of blood flowed over the dark blade, which greedily devoured them.

  “The Blade of Eternity devours everything it comes into contact with…even its wielder!” Deidre murmured as she gazed at the now nearly mummified form of the once young Qi-Gatherer, “If your will is not strong enough and you cannot control it, you are doomed!”

  Gildan raised his almost withered hand again, oblivious to the changes to his body in his euphoria, and crumbled into a pile of sand even before his blade struck his opponent, who was already lying on the ground, almost defeated.

  Instead of Fao, the Blade of Eternity took its master as its first sacrifice!

  “Winner Fao!” The Guardian’s voice rang out again, her gaze enigmatic as it lay on the cursed blade, gleaming in a small pile of dust, while the injured lizardman crouched beside it, breathing deeply.

  The next moment, the sword flashed brightly and disappeared without a trace before the eyes of everyone present.

  All eyes looked around, and waves of Qi searched for the whereabouts of the cursed blade, but it remained missing.

  “Was it all just a dream?” The injured lizardman wondered, but every painful movement of his body forced him to acknowledge reality, “If someone masters this blade, all of Terrapin will be in danger!”

  Fao was still dazed, lost in his thoughts, while Deidre already announced the next fight between Han Kong and a member of the Lupus Clan.