The Emperor Has Returned

Chapter 14 – Repaint (2)

“A-Ahhhhhhhh!” the man who peed his pants screamed, throwing away his sword and shield while running to the back.

“Don’t do that!” Another one of the gladiators screamed, but the desert trolls didn’t lose sight of the target, who had already turned his back on them, rushing towards him.

The man who tried to escape banged on the iron bars while screaming, “Let me go! Something’s wrong...!”

Crack!

The man’s head was bitten off. Juan’s party scattered in all directions when they were hit by the desert trolls’ sudden charge.

Fortunately, no one else was killed in the process, as the desert trolls only went for the single weakest target that they had instinctively locked on. However, it was hard for Juan’s party to gather again, as everyone was scrambling to survive. It looked like a better option to stick with Rekto or Rampage as compared to Juan.

‘This worked out great.’

Juan thought it was for the better to have his party scattered out like this. At least, he was confident that he wouldn’t be caught by slow monsters like these desert trolls, since there were other targets weaker than he was. Knowing that he had to face other monsters besides the desert trolls, it was important for him to conserve his strength.

Juan smiled as he watched his fellow party members get caught by the desert trolls, then looked at Rampage and Rekto’s parties. Unlike earlier, Rekto had stopped provoking the desert trolls.

‘He must have arrived at a similar decision.’

The desert trolls slowed down, less inclined to fight as they were either exhausted from the hunt or full from devouring their prey. Dull monsters made the best prey. Other than the first victim, the desert trolls had also mercilessly torn apart two more victims.

The spectators went wild when the bloody scene occurred. The desert trolls started to focus on eating as they had plenty of time; the bodies from the previous group had been cleared away too quickly for them to get any time to eat. The desert trolls ate ravenously as they had been starved for weeks. As they ate, they started to feel a little full.

While they were busy eating, Juan began searching intently for something in his surroundings. In Juan’s memory, it was something that could only be discovered while standing in the field.

‘I’m sure it’s somewhere here.’

As soon as the desert trolls were done eating, the other parties started to make their moves; the trolls were easy targets now that they were full. Once they ate well, the desert trolls’ movements became dull so as to preserve the nutrients they had just gained. They would dig underground to sleep until new victims came in a few days’ time, which was why they were at their weakest during this time.

Rampage was the first to make a move. The desert trolls growled and put up their guard as Rampage and his party moved slowly and steadily towards them, as one cohesive whole. The trolls no longer wished to fight, as they were already full, but Rampage and his squad were hell-bent on killing them.

“Kill them,” Rampage ordered.

Three spears instantly popped out from the gaps between the shields. The spears only grew bigger in the desert troll’s eyes.

The spectators cheered wildly as the first troll roared when its eye got pierced and started thrashing around. The troll died soon after. Due to their metabolism slowing down, they had a slower regeneration rate than normal.

The remaining two desert trolls bellowed but did not charge at anyone. Instead, they picked up skulls or bone fragments and threw them at the gladiators’ shields. Rampage and his soldiers moved as one while they advanced and pressured the desert trolls.

One of the desert trolls howled as its head got split apart by Rekto while it was retreating.

“You fight like a bitch, Rampage!” Rekto sneered at Rampage.

“Crazy bastard,” Rampage exclaimed as he clicked his tongue and took a step back.

The desert trolls were taken down as Rekto and his party ambushed them from behind. While Rekto and his party stole the credit for killing the desert trolls, Rampage didn’t care, since he was looking at the bigger picture. After all, this wasn’t the only fight that would be taking place. They would be facing stronger and stronger monsters with five more matches to go. Leaving Rekto and his party to kill trivial mobs like the dull desert trolls was sufficient.

The spectators went wild again as Rekto spilled the desert troll’s blood all over the place; he even cut off the head of one of the desert trolls and pretended to drink its blood. Of course, Rekto didn’t really drink it, because he knew that the desert troll’s blood was poisonous. However, the spectators still loved his performance.

Daeron smirked at the act. If Daeron had an obsession with setting a stage for great and entertaining performances, then Rekto had a natural talent for acting. Perhaps that was why he was able to hold his title as a champion for a long time. While Rampage was an amazing warrior, he had no showmanship like Rekto.

‘Finally, the third actor.’?

This actor, whom no one was expecting, had yet to appear. Daeron had high expectations from the third actor and expected him to be the dark horse of the matches for this event. He searched the arena for Juan but couldn’t spot him, as the latter had hidden himself while waiting for the right time to strike.

Daeron didn’t think that Juan had been killed by the desert trolls, but started having some doubts when he couldn’t see the boy anywhere despite scanning the area repeatedly. He leaned out from his balcony with shock on his face.

‘The boy’s not here.’?

Juan was nowhere to be seen within the colosseum.

***

Juan had started to hide from the moment people were focused on the desert trolls; no one had paid any attention to him. The arena was an open area, so there was nowhere to hide, but the corpses, blood, and sand were enough for Juan’s small stature. He camouflaged himself by covering himself with blood and sand.

‘And now... Stealth.’?

Juan spread his mana around himself like a fog to hide his presence. It wasn’t really magic, but more of a trick that used delicate control of mana. Even though Juan lost most of his mana, his control over mana was as skillful as ever.

He was able to hide his body in the sand like a snake that was hunting its prey. Blood that was being spilled on the ground was permeating into the sand; there was blood everywhere. Meanwhile, he was able to monitor the whole colosseum and feel the movement of the blood in the sand. It felt as if there were thousands of snakes in the sand, as the strands of blood were being pulled somewhere by mana.

In the past, all Juan had to do was decapitate Talter in order to kill him. But now, his priority was to find Talter, who was hiding. Juan suspected that Talter was at the end of where the blood flowed to.

‘But... The amount of blood is too little.’?

The amount of blood was insufficient for Juan to find Talter; something else needed to be done in order for him to find who was drawing in all this blood. Juan glanced at where Daeron was seated. Daeron looked the most suspicious as of now, but Juan couldn’t feel any evil intent from him.

‘Looks like he needs some motivation.’?

While Juan was waiting, the arena had turned into a mess. After the desert trolls were all killed, both Rekto and Rampage’s parties began to provoke and growl at each other. While they swung their weapons at each other, almost injuring the opponent, they had yet to clash with each other.

This was a signal for the next monster to be brought in. Juan noticed the signal and observed the movements that occurred beyond the closed iron gates. Below the manager’s seat, a soldier pulled on a chain attached to a complex device, opening the northern gate.

‘It’s over there.’

Juan crouched and shot forward in an instant.

‘Blink.’

As Juan’s surroundings faded away, his body felt like it was pulled forward, and Juan arrived at the place that he was aiming at. When Juan passed by one of the slave gladiators, that person only felt as though a gust of wind had passed by him. Juan stood right beside the iron bars and saw two soldiers as he peeked inside. Using the short sword, Juan stabbed the neck of the soldier who was looking outside in an instant.

“K-Kugh...” The soldier groaned.

“Huh? What happened? Hey, what’s wrong?” the other soldier asked.

Juan squeezed through the iron bars; the bars were designed to stop full-grown humans or monsters, not a skinny child. The other soldier pulled out his sword as soon as he spotted Juan, but Juan beat him to it and stuck his sword into the soldier’s solar plexus. Juan didn’t feel sorry for them at all. He then swung the sword towards the ground to get rid of the blood that had dirtied his sword.

“It looks exactly the same,” Juan thought aloud as he looked at the device. Everything looked just like when he had beheaded Talter in the past. Talter’s believers at the time had created all sorts of devices in order to amuse Talter.

‘To think they’d celebrate their emperor using the same devices that had been used to entertain the god killed by the emperor.’

Juan raised his head and watched the gladiators who made strange groans as they swung their swords for money, as well as the crazed spectators that were throwing out money to witness the pathetic sight in the colosseum. He then looked at the ground that had soaked the blood of the crazy woman, the goat-horned man, and many others.

Juan suddenly felt better while gazing at the scene within the colosseum. It felt like a blindfold that he had been wearing for a long while was lifted.

‘Yeah, this is what the world is like. While someone tries to clean up the world, another dirties it intentionally. There was no need to be disappointed or upset at this fact. Getting back-stabbed was also nothing surprising.’

“They’re confident that they will never be taken down, huh?” Juan said to himself as he decided to remove their blindfolds in the same way his own blindfold had been removed.

“Let’s see how you enjoy these games yourself.”

***

A humongous snake crawled into the arena as soon as the northern gates opened. It was so big that it looked like it could wrap around the colosseum. The spectators cheered with shock in their voices, “WOAHHHH! What the hell is that?”

“A serpent? Is that a serpent? No, serpents live in the seas!” a spectator exclaimed.

“That doesn’t mean that a sea snake can’t move on land!” another spectator refuted.

“How on earth did they bring that here?” another spectator wondered aloud.

Rekto was taken aback by the size of the snake; there was still a while before the matches were done, but something this big had already appeared? It could easily be the boss monster of the match on any other day. Rekto looked up at Daeron only to see his face remain unchanged.

‘He’s not intending for us to die here, is he?’?While it was normal for champions to die, he didn’t want to die like this. He hoped to die while fighting another champion.

“Rekto! Let’s encircle it! We’ll attract its attention while you attack it!” Rampage shouted. Rampage was shocked by the size of the snake as well, but he hadn’t earned the title of centurion for no reason. Rampage struck his own shield to attract the snake’s attention.

The snake hissed and tried to swallow Rampage and his party in one shot, since they were in a line with their shields up. However, the snake failed and decided to wrap Rampage with its tail. Rekto used this chance and ran up to the snake. The snake trembled violently as Rekto’s scimitar pierced through its scales.

“How many pieces should I cut this humongous snake into...?!” Rekto stopped halfway as he realized that the western gate was already starting to open. He couldn’t believe that a new gate was opening before the current match was even over. Flustered, Rekto looked at Rampage and saw that he was flustered as well. However, Rampage wasn’t looking to the west, but toward another direction. The eastern gate was opening as well.

It didn’t stop there; monsters were starting to enter the colosseum from all directions.

“What the hell is going on?!” Rekto yelled. At least ten types of monsters, including desert trolls, slimes, mountain lions, and giant ants poured into the arena.

The spectators cheered at the overwhelming, unprecedented scene. But it didn’t take long for those cheers to turn into jeers when the gladiators in Rekto’s party were swept up into the waves. The spectators had expected them to fight like heroes, not suffer a one-sided slaughter.

“W-What do you think you’re doing...?!” Rekto hollered as he looked up at Daeron, but Daeron appeared stunned as well.

Dozens of orcs broke down Rampage and his squad’s defense formation as they isolated and surrounded them. Blood and pieces of flesh flew up from where their squad was.

Rekto’s survival instincts kicked in when he saw Rampage and his squad being overwhelmed by the monsters. Something had gone very wrong.

“Get lost, you monster bastards!” Rekto shouted. He tried to kill the approaching desert troll from underneath the snake, but his scimitar had gotten stuck in the snake’s body.

The snake started to flail violently as it was swarmed and attacked by monsters. Rekto grabbed onto its scales, desperately hanging on for dear life. He would be immediately killed if he fell.

“Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!” Rekto screamed.

The snake stiffened after it flailed for a while and eventually fell to the ground. As its head fell on the grandstand, a few of the spectators were instantly crushed. After a short period of shock-induced silence, a new wave of panic spread across the colosseum.

“Arghhhhh! Someone, save me!” a spectator screamed.

“What the hell do you think you are doing?! Don’t push me! Stop pushing...!” another spectator screamed.

“Where on earth is the security team?!” another spectator shrieked.

These people who had been enjoying themselves while watching others get slaughtered, were now crying and screaming in despair as they were the ones getting slaughtered instead.

Because all of them swarmed to the exit, no one could get through, and some of them died from either pressure or suffocation. But that wasn’t the end of it. The railings of the colosseum were bent inwards, and another pathway up was opened.

Monsters began to climb up the path or on the snake’s corpse, and they soon started to mercilessly slaughter the spectators who were stuck there. Blood flowed all over and seeped into the ground of the colosseum.

“My goodness...” Rekto, who was stuck below the snake, exclaimed as he witnessed the disaster. However, this was an opportunity for him. There were much fewer monsters in the arena as compared to just a few moments ago, as most had gone after the spectators. He managed to pull himself out from under the snake; it felt like he had a sprained ankle, but he was still able to move.

“I must survive. I’ll survive and...” Rekto trailed off as a large shadow covered him from above. Rekto looked up and saw a bright sun and a huge shadow. That was the last thing he ever saw.