Autophagy

"He's a what?" Song Lei accidentally asked out loud. Fortunately, no one was near enough to hear him talk.

"Today is a special occasion!" The announcer shouted. He raised his finger towards what seemed to be a VIP lounge. "The holy one will be here for this one exhibition match!"

Suddenly, the crowd started roaring with excitement. It was easy to see that this 'Holy one' was someone important.

Song Lei looked at the lounge. After a bit of time, a small figure came out to the lounge, raising its hand to greet everyone.

'It's that child!' Song Lei shouted inside his mind. The person who just came out to the lounge was the child with no face. The one he had just met before fainting and coming here. Although it still had no face, no one seemed to care as the crowd kept cheering for the holy one.

Song Lei felt the holy one's piercing gaze on him. He felt that the holy one would grin if it had a mouth at the moment.

'I probably need to beat it to get out of here. To do that I need to get closer...' Song Lei thought. He lowered his gaze to the eastern man that was staring right back at him. 'The announcer said that the winner would get the chance to meet the holy one. I have to win this.'

"Anyway! Let's start this exhibition fight! There are no rules! Just kill your enemy!" The announcer finished talking. Some trumpet sounds were heard and Song Lei saw the eastern man raising his staff.

Song Lei, too, raised his shield and gladius. He had to be careful every single moment he was facing this person. According to the announcer's words, this man was a spell caster. At the moment, the most dangerous thing for Song Lei was a lack of knowledge. And the person he was facing now was the embodiment of mysteriousness. Song Lei had no idea what a spell caster's abilities would be.

'Does he throw fireballs or something?' Song Lei asked in his mind. He had no choice but to learn through experience.

Song Lei started slowly walking towards the man. After he took a few steps, the man pointed his staff towards him. Song Lei quickly rolled to the side in case the man had shot something invisible at him. This action of his was only met with ridicule.

"Haha! He is so scared that he started jumping around even before he was attacked!" A man from the crowd shouted. One of Song Lei's eyes twitched.

'What are these people? Are they placeholder characters that only shit talk from the sides during an arena fight and disappear after that? I thought those weren't real people...' Song Lei thought to himself.

"Young man! I know you must have a lot of ambitions in this life! But I'm sorry! I will have to cut those hopes in half right here! I must do it for my Lord! I'm Tao Hai! What's your name?!" The eastern spellcaster shouted at him.

Although Song Lei didn't want to leave the man hanging like this, he was scared that the man would have some kind of spell that could only be used when he gave his name. Back when Song Lei first talked with him, Damien had said that Song Lei should be more careful when giving his name to others. As some people had abilities that they could use to curse his name.

After seeing that Song Lei wasn't answering, the man's face got red as he shouted, "I see! You're rejecting me huh!? I'll not let you have a proper death then! I will torture you while you're still alive! You'll beg me to kill you, young man! You've made your last and biggest mistake!"

Tao Hai's voice resounded in the whole colosseum. After hearing his words, the crowd went crazy with cheers.

Song Lei kept walking towards the man without saying anything. He didn't have to think about answers against this man. He didn't know when Tao Hai would use a spell. He didn't know what the signs of such a spell be. He was basically clueless about this man's fighting style. The only thing he could do was relying on his superior body and hope that Tao Hai wasn't very good at CQC.

After Tao Hai understood that his taunts weren't working, he raised his staff to the sky and started chanting some words. As soon as Song Lei saw this, he used all of his body muscles at the same time to bolt forward, almost losing his balance. He was zigzagging left and right hoping to confuse Tao Hai's aim.

When Tao Hai saw Song Lei's actions, he smiled widely. This seemed to be a normal smile from the outside but Song Lei could understand that it was a different one.

'He's smiling out of nervousness!' He thought. This was something that Song Lei did a lot. Usually, when he was nervous or scared, he would smile widely. It was a habit that he had acquired with time.

As Song Lei kept getting closer at a very fast speed, Tao Hai stopped whatever spell he was casting and pointed his staff at Song Lei using both of his hands. He was ready to receive whatever blow Song Lei would send at him.

Song Lei came crushing down on Tao Hai. He had put all of his body weight behind this attack. If Tao Hai decided and managed to dodge him. Song Lei would probably stumble forward, leaving his back wide open for Tao Hai.

For some reason though, Tao Hai didn't dodge, he just raised his staff and stood there.

"I will never back off from a strength fight!" Tao Hai shouted while grinning widely. "Especially against a newbie like you!"

Hearing his words, Song Lei was filled with happiness. 'He's underestimating me!' He shouted inside his mind.

Song Lei finally managed to reach Tao Hai and swung his gladius down. Gladius wasn't a weapon made for two-handed heavy strikes like this but Song Lei didn't have the chance to complain.

When Song Lei's gladius hit Tao Hai's staff, Tao Hai spit out some blood. After managing to stop the attack of Song Lei, Tao Hai pushed him off and backed off as much as he could.

"So? How did you like my blow?" Song Lei asked with a smug smile on his face.

"What the fuck...?"