Cheers loud enough to shake heaven and earth.
There were people in every direction.
From one end of the layered spectator stands to the other, the scenery was packed tightly with people, like a bamboo forest.
All of them had their hands thrust high in the air as they let out frenzied shouts.
“Fight!”
“Kill! Kill! Kill!”
“Try winning once!”
Even the dry air trembled. His ears rang.
The sound of feet pounding the floor reached all the way to his ribs, making his heart tremble and pound.
“Hurry up and fight!”
“Don’t just stand there like idiots, you fools!”
Min-jun and the other two, struck dumb, simply looked around with their jaws hanging open.
A circular arena with spectator stands stretching all around a shallow sand-covered floor.
The way it sent sand dust flying whenever the wind stirred was like.
“The brave gladiators are frozen stiff! What disgrace is this before His Majesty Wigen Haieon, the great Thunder Emperor!”
“Waaaaaaa!”
“His Majesty Emperor Wigen Haieon!”
“Bow before His Majesty Wigen Haieon!”
The cheers turned toward the highest place, the seat of honor on the sixth floor.
The man seated there, leaning crookedly in a chair made by melting pure gold, merely made a small gesture with his hand, but the reaction was ecstatic.
“Wigen Haieon, the great warrior!”
“Hero of Rivelhardt!”
“He is the God of Thunder!”
Watching all of that, Min-jun moved his tongue, which had dried stiff, and swallowed.
The scenery so far, this structure, this method…… It was not completely the same, but there was something similar in European history too.
“It’s a Colosseum.”
“Colo……sseum?”
At Min-jun’s words, the man awkwardly got to his feet.
The woman had to be supported with difficulty, as if fear had made her legs give out.
The emperor watched that with bored eyes, then muttered quietly.
“Why are they trembling so? What truly pathetic fighters.”
“His Majesty says they are pathetic flea bastards!”
As the eunuch’s sharp voice rang out, boos instantly settled over the arena that had been full of cheers.
“Boooo!”
“Die!”
The woman beside Min-jun covered her ears and squeezed her eyes shut.
The experience of becoming entertainment for tens of thousands of people and being chewed up by them was not something ordinary mental strength could withstand.
From her shoulders to her feet, she trembled uncontrollably.
‘My life depends on this place?’
Even Min-jun could not hide that trembling.
That was what offended the emperor.
“Release him.”
The eunuch opened his eyes wide in surprise.
“H-Him, Your Majesty? Today, we were supposed to release the gray wolf of the Rodrid Mountains.”
“Do not make Us say it twice.”
“M-My deepest apologies!”
The emperor’s word was absolute.
The eunuch cleared his throat and stepped forward.
“His Majesty commands that the Orc Warrior of Rohan be released!”
As if answering the shout, drums sounded with thud, thud, and horns roared at the same time.
“It’s coming.”
Min-jun held his shield in front of him and looked back at the other two.
They still wore faces that said they did not understand the situation.
“What are you doing?!”
“Wh-What? What’s coming?”
“Get a grip! Pick up the weapons on the floor, quickly!”
Wiiiiing!
His body trembled low as it sensed a danger incomparable to anything so far.
Min-jun’s heart grew urgent.
“Stop standing there like clueless idiots and raise your weapons!”
“Fuck!”
“You too, miss. If you don’t want to die, pick up your weapon first, quickly!”
“O-Okay.”
Watching the two remain frozen, Min-jun’s throat dried up.
Rattle-rattle—!
The floor opened on the opposite side, and an elevator rose slowly, very slowly.
“Wooooaaaah!”
“Huuuuh!”
Cheers rang out.
Soon, when Min-jun saw the thing revealed there, he could not believe it.
Grrrrrrrgh!
Skin that had a black sheen from head to toe, and huge fangs.
White heat kept bursting from its mouth, huff, huff.
In its hand sat a large, glossy iron club.
Even with its back bent like a half-hunchback, its build seemed twice that of an adult man.
“It’s an Orc Warrior!”
“That huge thing is an orc?”
“It caught hundreds of people at the Rohan border. Those three are finished now.”
Its body was full of wounds, doubling its vicious appearance. Something like steam boiled up beyond its back, and whenever its limbs twitched, viper-like muscle fibers bulged and moved.
“A m-monster……!”
It was enough to make one’s knees go weak.
“Sniff……!”
The woman hiding behind him began hiccuping as tears welled in her eyes. She looked as if she might drop the wooden spear in her hand at any moment.
Grrrrrrgh……!
The thing was struggling.
Its limbs had been bound, and large wedge stakes had been driven into the ground to hold them in place.
Graaaaaagh!
Those vicious restraints had driven the thing’s rage all the way to the top of its head.
“……That bastard is very angry.”
Min-jun instinctively took one step backward.
The next moment.
BOOM—! BOOM—!
The iron chains binding its limbs were ripped out.
Its two eyes were clearly fixed on Min-jun.
‘Hah!’
The thing moved.
It began charging forward, stomping the ground.
It was a pressure like a giant hill rushing in.
“Oh, shi—!”
“Kyaaaaak!”
The two people behind him scattered to the left in an instant.
Min-jun’s choice was right…….
Wiiiiing!
‘No!’
The sense he had gained after becoming a Fanatic Assassin shouted. If he went there, he would die.
He saw a future where every bone in his body would be smashed apart by the club swung sideways.
Urrrrrgh!
The place Min-jun’s eyes turned toward was between the thing’s legs.
He rolled with all his strength through the wide gap.
“Damn it!”
THOOOM—!
The club brushed past Min-jun and struck the innocent ground.
Dust rose all at once in a radius of several meters.
A shockwave swept the area, powerful enough to send even the dust clinging to the third-floor wall of the arena rising thickly.
“If that hits…….”
The man who had dodged trembled while imagining something horrific.
‘It’ll be lucky if you aren’t crushed.’
He could guarantee that one would come to understand that the human body was nothing more than a protein balloon filled with water.
Grrrrraaaaah!
The orc’s roar.
The audience’s cheers.
“Uaaaaaagh!”
Min-jun turned his head at that sound.
It was a voice that had burst from the mouth of the man who had retreated far away.
Without thinking ahead or behind, he charged in with his wooden spear.
“What are you doing?!”
Even at Min-jun’s words, he did not stop.
As if fear had paralyzed his reason, he threw the wooden spear with all his strength.
Whoosh—!
The spear flew through the air, leaving only a slight wound before bouncing off meaninglessly.
“N-No…… way……!”
Before him, now dyed in despair, the orc leaped forward with a thud.
It closed a distance of around three meters with just one stomp.
“Dodge!”
When Min-jun shouted that.
BAAAM!
The club had already struck him.
He flew dozens of meters like a ball hit by a bat.
Only after bouncing off the ground, crashing into the wall, and falling away did he finally stop.
“This is…….”
Min-jun felt a chill run all the way down his spine. The man lay collapsed without moving.
No matter how sturdy the body of a “Hero Candidate” was, there was no way he could survive taking the Orc Warrior’s strength head-on.
“Waaaaaaa!”
“Ooooooh!”
“It got him!”
It was the moment the frenzied audience erupted in cheers.
“H-Hic……!”
Near the half-dead man, the woman was sitting on the ground. The orc’s eyes turned toward her.
“D-Don’t, don’t come, please…… please……!”
She only stretched out her spear pitifully and inched backward.
‘No!’
At this rate, both of them would be taken down.
In this absurd match, it would be hard for him alone.
He needed to keep even one more person alive to have even the tiniest chance of victory.
‘Not that woman, you crazy monster bastard!’
Min-jun ran forward with his spear held sideways.
He aimed at the orc’s hunched spine.
If it went in properly, surely even that thing could not endure it without pain.
That was what he thought.
‘Hup!’
A chill ran through his body.
He bent his waist back with all his strength.
A fierce wind passed over his upper body as it flopped down onto the ground. It was the orc’s club.
‘C-Crazy!’
It had noticed him going around behind and immediately changed targets to him.
As if it had eyes on its back.
And that was not the end.
The thing reached out to grab him while he was down.
“Urgh!”
He struck its hand away with his shield as hard as he could, but it was useless.
The moment he felt his leg being grabbed.
BOOM—!
“Kuh…… hak!”
A tremendous pain climbed up his back.
It was the shock from being lifted up and slammed into the ground.
“Ghhhh……!”
He could not breathe.
It made no sense.
‘Why…… does it…… hurt, damn it……!’
Dry coughs kept bursting out.
It was pain he had never felt in his life, pain he could not possibly describe with words.
He rolled across the ground while his body trembled.
‘Why is there…… pain……?’
This had not happened in the previous test.
Even when he was stabbed, there was only a cold sensation and no pain.
But here, it was different.
It hurt as if he were dying.
‘I can’t stay like this.’
He could feel it.
The Orc Warrior lifting its club to finish him off.
The audience shouting heatedly.
“Kill him! Kill him!”
“……!”
The moment the club was about to slam down, Min-jun’s eyes snapped open.
“Urrrrgh!”
He raised his waist as if bouncing up.
Between the club that barely missed him, he saw the thing’s defenseless leg.
Crunch—!
An ominous sound burst from his spine.
His head grew dizzy for an instant, but he could not stop here.
‘No matter how tough you are, this should hurt a little!’
Min-jun stabbed the wooden spear with all his strength toward the most sensitive place between the thing’s legs.
He felt the sensation of piercing through hard muscle travel up to his fingertips.
Grrrrraaaaaagh!
The thing struggled at the sudden pain.
Driven mad with rage, it began swinging its blunt weapon wildly and smashing the ground.
It had enough force to break everything nearby, but Min-jun had already retreated one step.
“Over here, you bastard.”
He raised his spear once more and aimed at the exact center of the thing’s spine.
Even if hard muscles blocked him, each repeated strike, once, twice, created a large wound.
Blue drops of blood burst from all over the thing’s body.
Grrrrrrk!
Amid the continued attacks, the enraged thing’s eyes flashed. Its palm swung wide, searching for Min-jun.
It was truly unfortunate that Min-jun’s armor got caught by that blind palm.
“Huh!”
He flailed as he felt weightlessness.
The club flew toward him as he floated in midair.
‘No!’
There was nowhere to dodge. Curling his body as much as possible and putting the shield forward was the best he could do.
CRAAASH—!
The shield shattered in one blow, becoming wooden splinters that scratched across his face.
His effort to deflect the club as much as possible did not mean much before overwhelming power.
“Urrrrgh!”
No sooner had Min-jun crashed to the ground than he rolled his body.
He had no feeling in his arms or legs, and blood poured from places all over his body, dyeing even his vision red. Even that was better than dying.
‘……I can’t die here.’
Min-jun staggered to his feet.
“Waaaaa!”
It was the first moment cheers erupted in support of him.
Even a strange light flashed in the eyes of the emperor watching from afar.
Min-jun gritted his teeth.
‘I absolutely can’t die like this.’
His life had only just begun to change.
He had struggled in pain, and only now had he finally begun to stand again.
The faces of his family appeared in his head one by one.
It felt as if he could hear his older sister’s voice in his ears, sobbing while pretending to be fine.
All of that was the reason Min-jun had to survive without dying.
‘I can’t die here!’
He ran with his spear.
To dodge the incoming club, throwing his body to the side once was enough.
The thing still had not escaped the pain between its legs.
‘Now, while the pain lasts, is my last chance.’
A chance that would never come twice.
His first and final chance at victory.
Min-jun avoided the thing’s forearm and thrust his spear toward its abdomen.
“Die……!”
Squelch—!
The spear pierced halfway into the thing’s abdomen.
Graaaaaagh!
He needed more strength to pierce through the hard muscles.
He put his entire body weight into stabbing the spear.
Grrrrraaaah!
The problem was the Orc Warrior’s temper, which had no intention of leaving him alone.
THUD—!
It pressed down on him with its hands. This, he could not dodge.
“Ugh!”
The thing grabbed both his shoulders with both hands and pressed down.
“Ghhhh……!”
Sparks flew before his eyes. It was a grip that seemed like it would crush his entire body.
Strength drained from the hand gripping the spear, and he could no longer make any counterattack.
Grrrrrgh!
“Ur…… gh…….”
Min-jun felt bones all over his body breaking.
Just before his body collapsed into mush, he squeezed out his voice one last time.
“Do something, please……!”
He forced out his suppressed voice as much as he could.
“Don’t just stand there, do…… something!”
“I, I…….”
In one corner of his vision, the woman, covered in tears, was only trembling.
“Even now…… get up and fight. I’m next, and then it’s you…… Aaaaagh!”
The sensation of blood surging from his mouth.
The moment he felt he could not endure any longer.
“Hic!”
The woman stood with her spear in hand.
Seeing that, Min-jun put strength back into the hand gripping his spear.
He met the orc’s eyes with a gaze that looked ready to kill, filled with vicious bloodlust.
“If you turn your head to the side…… I’ll kill you……!”
The woman began running forward, gathering courage one step at a time.
She must have known that if not now, there would be no chance.
The cheers grew louder and louder.
“Stab its neck!”
Min-jun’s shout.
“Hurry!”
The moment he felt he could not hold on any longer, a thin wooden spear stabbed into the orc’s carotid artery with a squelch.
After hesitating for a long while, the woman had made her decision and driven her spear into the orc’s neck.
Swaaaash—!
Blue blood poured over his face.
The force crushing Min-jun loosened.
Grrrrgh…….
The thing staggered backward, then collapsed to the ground and slowly crumbled.
-You have defeated the Elite Orc Warrior.
-Hero Agency’s Hero Channel praises your martial valor.
-A special reward has arrived.
Min-jun wore a difficult smile on his lips.
‘This is like giving me the disease and the medicine.’