The Crimson Nation

"Hey! Over here!"

The discussions were already heated by the time Ye Qing arrived. However, he didn't bother with them and instead scoured the crowd near the railings, searching for Luke and the rest.

Luke was already watching the entrance when Ye Qing arrived, and thus, the former called out almost immediately. The latter looked over and found Luke and the rest in a crowded corner gazing down on the combat stadium arena.

Anna and Quinton also looked over, the former smiling and waving her hand. "Hey! Look who finally decided to leave his room— Ah!"

Anna's high-pitched shriek drew everyone's attention. They looked over, watching as she covered her rear with both hands and whirled around, her face flushed red in shame and humiliation even as her beautiful, moist eyes bore into the face of a native talent, who just happened to have a silly grin on his face.

Everyone around was stunned, as this scene was very familiar with what happened early. However, the roles were now switched between the native talents and the players.

Then, Anna's eyes widened as she cried out, "QUINTON—..."

Click! Bang!

The native talent was just reveling in the supple feeling on his palm when a metallic muzzle poked the side of his head, followed by a muffled gunshot. Blood blasted out and soaked Luke's pristine white robes, the latter even felt something squishy enter his gaped mouth.

Swish! Swish! Swish! Swish!

The native's body was flying through the air when a faint, humming noise drummed into everyone's ears. Then, the body was slashed into pieces even as it descended, revealing a young man with billowing crimson hair touched with a sliver of pure violet. People had yet to react to Quinton's sudden execution when two swords danced about, dicing the native talent into bits that clattered on the ground.

Ye Qing stood at the entrance, dumbfounded.

For a moment, everyone was silently watching Quinton, Anna, and that mysterious young man with two, bloodied swords. Anna's face was pale white as she crouched down and began to retch out the delicacies she had enjoyed thus far.

"So that's how you wanna play it?"

Everyone looked over at the source of the voice.

It was the woman in a black leather-fit combat suit. Her eyes were cold, she lifted her foot high and smashed down with her heel.

"NO—... AHHH!!!" a miserable wail suffused the hall as the woman's heels smashed down, blasting the player's crotch into a bloody paste. His eyes rolled to the back of his head as he fainted, foam bubbling from his open mouth. With another step, the woman stomped her heel directly into his chest, a blast of blood gushing from the unconscious player's mouth after his heart literally exploded within the confines of his rib cage.

At first, the players were merely watching the molester get humiliated. It was good enough that they didn't intervene on his behalf as they saw his punishment well deserved. However, no one had anticipated that even after the perpetrator was punished, a native would go about committing the same vile act to Anna.

Quinton ignored the woman and the bloody scene below, his entire focus was on comforting Anna who was sprawled on the ground, face pale. He gently tapped her shoulders, but he wasn't a man of many words and thus, he simply sat there by her side.

Only now did Luke wake up from his stunned state.

"Well, fuck! Are you guys mad?!" shouted Luke, sounding hysterical. From a distance, Ye Qing's eyes flashed coldly as he reached into his inventory and summoned two fireball talismans, clutching them tightly in his hands; one each.

"What's going on here?!"

A voice, albeit somewhat static, buzzed into the stadium's hall from the pulsing runic inscriptions on the walls. As the voice sounded, a pair of vicious eyes in the crowd dimmed, no longer focused on Luke as their owner turned their back and retreated silently.

Taking notice of that, Ye Qing relaxed his grip on the talismans. However, just as he was about to put them away, they burned automatically due to a lapse in his spirit and energy maintenance, and due to the lack of a locked-on target, two fireballs manifested in Ye Qing's hands out of nowhere.

Ye Qing was stunned.

A furious wave of heat blasted from his position, and those close by cried out in shock and alarm, the heat too unbearable for them. Ye Qing had no idea what to do with these two fireballs now… How should he dispel them?

When everyone suddenly went silent, and two fireballs spawned in your hands out of nowhere, you'd immediately draw everyone's attention.

Someone from the natives reacted; a mage. He could feel that although that fireball seemed radiant and powerful, it was actually pretty weak. Assuming it was some newbie undying mage, he shouted, "The undying trash is still planning on fighting!"

As he spoke, he waved a tall, wooden staff, condensing a few ice spikes that blasted their way toward the confused Ye Qing. Subconsciously, the latter brought both hands to cover his face, dumfounding the other mage.

What?

Just as the mage was flabbergasted, the ice made contact with the fireballs.

Boom!

An explosion went off, blasting Ye Qing off the railings and into the space of the arena below. Even as his body darted through the air, no one had the time to react until Ye Qing's back slammed into the high walls surrounding the combat arenas.

Rumble!

The railings shook, and Ye Qing coughed up blood before sliding weakly to the floor of the arena. The woman who just killed a player looked over, eyes flashing with cold killing intent.

She lifted her foot to rush at Ye Qing when another bang sounded, a bullet blasted the floor by her feet, causing the woman to recoil back the instant she sensed danger.

"Is that what you undying trash amount to? Two against one, a woman at that?" Her voice was cold and mocking, her beautiful eyes staring daggers at Quinton.

Cough! Cough!

Ye Qing breathed heavily, feeling dizzy and sore. However, when his vision cleared up much like his mind, he spoke up, "See… My father is such an asshole; he doesn't have any qualms about beating up women."

As Ye Qing spoke and settled the roiling energy inside his body, he climbed back to his feet and dusted off his clothes. "Don't force me to become the embodiment of what I loathe most in this world— that's not a pretty picture."

The woman looked over. "Oh, you're not gonna cry from pain? Pretty sure you've got a few broken bones over there, little duckling, you poor excuse of a mage."

"Yeah, what's with a little bit of blood… Right?" The woman's pupils constricted. However, before she could respond, a cold blade's edge stabbed through her back and protruded from her chest, the once silver sheen now dyed deep, crimson red. She looked down at her chest and reached out with her jade hands to grasp the sword, even as blood trickled down from her lips.

The voice behind her whispered, "Oh no, here I thought the blood and bones of aristocratic would at least smell a little different from mere peasants such as myself… Don't you agree with me, little miss?"

Ye Qing was stunned, forgetting to wipe the blood from his mouth.

Bang!

The side doors to the stadium were finally kicked open as instructors and stationed guards rushed filed into the hall. When they saw the situation, their hearts sank, especially at the sight of what transpired in the center of the arena.

"Young Lady Polaris!"

"Let go of the young lady this instant!"

The guards went frantic— they didn't even bother with the destruction all around them nor did they care about the minor skirmishes that already erupted in the crowd. Their eyes were red, staring daggers at the man with an ordinary face and ordinary clothes as he held onto Lady Polaris' neck with one hand, the other twisting the sword about through her spine and lungs.

Even as bones creaked and blood flowed in rivulets, the man with an ordinary face burst into laughter as he said, "These are the lowly scum of talents you plan to groom? Do you really think they can stand against my Crimson Nation?! Haha! You're sending these people to their deaths, and I'm here to collect some deposit fees!"

As the man spoke, his hand clenched tightly— squeezing Lady Polaris' head off her shoulders in the most gruesome way possible. As her head rolled off to the side, with a crazy laughter, the man swung his foot and kicked the head, hard.

Thud!

It shot forward like mad, yet Ye Qing was still in a daze to react, not even when the pale face plastered into the wall directly above his shoulders. Like that, the head exploded into mush, drenching Ye Qing's face red.

"Let the party… Start!"

As the man shouted with laughter, ordinary natives located sporadically among the crowd suddenly brandished their weapons and attacked those by their side.

The entire stadium descended into chaos.