System's POV
chapter-105

The Duel Arena was as rowdy as usual.

But this time, Thirteen wasn't the one who was going to fight. Instead, he was one of the spectators that were about to watch the battle.

As a safety precaution, Raldo had given Thirteen a black robe with a hood to wear, as well as a mask to keep his face hidden.

Although it would be easy for the other Barbarians to recognize him because Jubei, Cristopher, and Rianna were with him, they wouldn't take the initiative to cause trouble as long as they couldn't see his face.

The Duel Arena was under the City Lord's authority, so anyone who caused trouble would not only be kicked out of the arena, but the city as well.

Even though they still carried a grudge against Thirteen, they would not cause trouble in fear of being blacklisted in the city, or worse thrown to prison.

A few minutes later, Percival, aka Taiga, showed up in the arena. The Barbarians cheered because they liked to see the Tigerkins fight in battle.

For a brief moment, Percival's and Thirteen's gazes met.

The Tigerkin had a calm expression on his face, but deep inside he was laughing because he saw that the brat had placed a bet on him for 1,000 Silver Coins.

'Prepare to lose your money, fool,' Percival sneered in his heart. 'I'll suck you dry until you become bankrupt!'

A moment later, the Tigerkin's opponent appeared in the arena.

Percival's expression became serious when he sensed that the Ogre was a rank stronger than him.

The Tigerkin was still young, and was similar to Cristopher's age. He was a Rank 1 Tigerkin, and his opponent was a Rank 2 Ogre.

Neither of them were wielding any weapons, but in a contest of strength, the Ogre would beat him hands down.

But, Percival had something that the Ogre didn't and that was speed.

All Tigerkins were blessed with speed, dexterity, and strength, so he was confident that he could outrun and outmaneuver his foe.

"Killing is not allowed," the Referee shouted. "Everything else is allowed. If you fall from the arena, lose consciousness, or surrender, you lose.

"If you purposely kill your opponent, you will also be executed. If you kill them by accident, the jury will decide your fate. Now fight!"

As soon as the signal was given, the Ogre roared and charged at the Tigerkin with its fists raised high.

Percival knew that if he took that blow head-on, even if he didn't die, he would get seriously injured or, worse, end up crippled.

Because of this, he had no choice but to evade, and look for a better opportunity to execute his plan.

The Tigerkin also charged at the Ogre, instead of evading.

When the two were only a few meters apart, Percival lowered his body and slid between the Ogre's feet, catching it by surprise.

The Tigerkin then hurriedly stood up before unleashing a kick on the Ogre's balls, making it grunt in pain.

However, as a creature that specialized in strength, and with skin that was as hard as a rock, Percival's attack wasn't enough to cripple it completely.

The only thing he succeeded in doing was making the Ogre angry!

"Come, you overgrown Baboon!" Percival shouted, making all the Barbarians laugh.

They really liked entertaining battles like this because it makes their blood boil, as if they were the ones fighting.

The Ogre kept on attacking Percival, but the Tigerkin was as slippery as an eel. Even so, the Brute Monster wasn't as dumb as it looked.

Just when Percival thought that he had managed to dodge successfully, the Ogre made a backhand strike, which he barely managed to block with his arms.

The strength of the backhand blow was enough to send Percival flying outside of the arena, which made the Ogre raise his hand in triumph.

The Barbarians also cheered because it was a very exciting fight.

Percival slowly propped himself up from the ground, while doing his best to hide the smile on his face.

This was all part of his plan, making it look as if the Ogre had managed to land a critical blow on his body.

From start to finish, he was observing the Ogre's fighting prowess, and gaining an understanding of how strong his blows were. Since the backhand blow was done out of instinct, the strength behind it wasn't that strong.

The reason why Percival was sent flying was due to the fact that he timed his jump backwards to be at the same time that the Ogre's hand touched his body. This made it look like he was hit, but in truth, he was mostly unharmed!

'Hahaha! You should have ordered me to win,' Percival laughed as he glanced at the boy in the spectator's seat.

Due to Thirteen wearing a mask, he was unable to tell what his reaction was. However, he believed that the boy was gnashing his teeth in anger because he lost his money.

After the Ogre was declared as the Winner, Percival was escorted out of the arena.

"Let's go," Thirteen said as he also stood up.

Cristopher, Rianna, Jubei, as well as three teenage boys, whom they brought along to the arena to watch the duels followed behind him.

The reason why they brought the three boys was to let them watch the battle because they, too, would be fighting very soon.

This was to show them what kind of opponents they would be facing, which made their faces turn grim.

As a System who had witnessed many Warriors in his lifetime, Thirteen knew that the three boys had received proper training.

Two of them were even stronger than Rianna.

Because of this, Thirteen planned to bring their arrogance down a peg by letting them fight in the arena.

Of course, since Rianna would be betting for them to win, he would make sure to choose opponents that were evenly matched with them.

When they arrived at Raldo's office, Percival was already there.

The moment the Tigerkin saw his Master a sneer appeared on his face because he wanted to taunt Thirteen.

But, the boy ignored him.

Instead, he went straight to Raldo and reached out his hand.

Raldo then handed him one red coin, which made Percival's eyes widen in shock.

A red coin was worth 50,000 Silver Coins, which meant that instead of losing money, his Master gained more money due to his defeat!

"Hehehe, silly Taiga," Thirteen said as he removed the mask on his face.

He gave the dumbfounded Tigerkin a look of ridicule as he flipped the red coin in his hand.

"Thank you for making me money," Thirteen said in a teasing tone. "Good job, Little Doggy."

"Y-You!" Percival almost lunged at Thirteen in anger because he didn't know that the boy had not only betted on him, but had placed a bet on his opponent as well.

And seeing how much he won, he was confident that he placed an even bigger bet on his enemy winning.

Percival was right.

Thirteen had bet a thousand Silver Coins for his win.

However, this was just a trick to make Percival think that the boy was spending a lot of money on him.

The TIgerkin didn't know that, after he was taken to the arena, Thirteen had placed a 10,000 Silver Coin bet on his opponent.

"Hahaha!" Thirteen laughed like a Second-Rate Villain, which grated on Percival's ears.

Cristopher and Rianna thought that the boy was just laughing in order to taunt his slave. However, they weren't aware that Thirteen was laughing from the heart.

If there was a Ranking for the people that Thirteen hated, the one who would be sitting at the very top would not be his Father, the System God.

No.

The one he hated the most was Fate.

The second one was Heroes.

His Old Man only took third place in his heart.

And now, seeing one of the people he hated looking at him with bitterness and anger tickled Thirteen's heart, who had been suffering for thousands of years.

"Since you weren't injured during your battle, you are going to fight again," Thirteen said after he finished laughing. "Well then, little Taiga. Earn me more money, okay? I am looking forward to your performance."

Raldo, who was looking at this scene, felt his liver itch.

He had a feeling that within a week or two, the Duel Arena might suffer major losses at the hands of the seven-year-old boy, who was milking them dry of their money.

(A/N: Been traveling the whole day with two connecting flights. I'm just so dead. arrived at the hotel at 8:20pm I'm gonna go sleep, and wish I wake up tomorrow.

Regular updates for all novels will resume when I wake up.)