Gacha Sovereign

From one surprise to another, this was one of the battles that everyone had been waiting for. Even Elizabeth's eyes glued to the arena as she was ignorant that another exciting match would happen right after this.

Not only her, but Song Jiaoren and Eric had their own focus stuck to the person in front of them.

Song Jiaoren took out his sword and smiled. "Are you ready?"

Eric released his Spiritual Energy as his spear appeared in front of him. He grabbed the spear, and the blazing flame gushed out on its tip. Stomping the ground with his spear's butt, Eric announced. "Whenever you are ready."

This was a blatant challenge for Song Jiaoren, but he didn't buy it. He only pointed his sword toward Eric and smiled. "I am looking like I am bullying you. So, you can make the first move."

Eric didn't say anything more and disappeared from the area.

Everyone was looking for him left and right, only to find him a few meters behind Song Jiaoren.

"Undying Flame Spear."

He thrust his spear and shot out a red ball containing a huge amount of Spear Intent and Fire Element.

However, Song Jiaoren already noticed his movement and coated his sword with Sword Intent before slashing his sword backward without even looking.

"Myriad Sword Strike."

The sword split the ball into two without any resistance, passed Song Jiaoren from his sides and exploded as soon as it crashed into the wall.

"Boom!"

Song Jiaoren smiled and turned around, taunting Eric. "Are you using your strength?"

"I'm just afraid that you can't take on my strength." Eric snorted.

The two individuals released their Spiritual Energy to their surroundings before both of them disappeared.

"Myriad Sword Strike!" Song Jiaoren made the first move this time by waving his sword toward Eric's neck.

Eric shifted his spear and let his sword run through his spear's body before blowing it away. He then thrust his spear a few times.

Song Jiaoren didn't lose his sword, so he parried all these thrusts effortlessly.

They continued their clash and made it look like an epic battle. Alex somehow thought he could do it more quickly after entering the Potential Tower. He remembered where he was forced to end the battle as soon as possible when he fought the Space Monsters.

It would be troublesome if he were surrounded by four of them, so he finished the Centaur with all techniques in his repertoire. This battle would probably be the same had he entered the stage. Albeit, he couldn't do something like that in a big battle due to how big the consumption of his Spiritual Energy.

He decided to see what kind of trick Song Jiaoren had in his sleeve.

When he thought about it, Eric released a powerful Fire Energy from his body. Alex was curious because this type of energy was stronger than what he predicted. However, he soon found his answer after activating his Spirit Eyes. "To think he has a trump card like that…"

Song Jiaoren slashed his sword at his arm, planning to heavily injure his right hand.

*Clang!*

Suddenly, a clashing sound between metal resounded across the hall. It was a sound that shouldn't exist, considering the sword should cut the hand.

Noticing this hardness, Song Jiaoren glared at Eric and gritted his teeth. "To think you are hiding armor underneath your clothes…"

"Hmph! Everything is fair in war." Eric snorted as a red metallic armor was revealed.

Alex closed his eyes and shook his head. "An armor, huh… That must be the reason why he put on extra clothes. It's to hide that armor and use it at this moment."

Now that the armor was revealed, they realized that Eric was seriously going to take down Song Jiaoren in this battle. "Die!"

"Cross Dimensional Slash!" Song Jiaoren still managed to react and passed him again before Eric suddenly spat out gastric fluid from his stomach.

Despite the fact that he didn't actually take any damage, that force alone made his stomach uncomfortable as if he was punched in his stomach.

Song Jiaoren looked at him with a cold gaze. "You can use everything in your Space Ring, but none of them can defeat I, Song Jiaoren."

"Do you think so? Fire Dragon Armor, activate!" The armor initially covered most parts of his body, including his neck and limbs. However, the moment he activated the armor, it released energy that protected his entire body. In other words, Eric looked like he was wearing a full-body armor.

Eric gritted his teeth as he charged at Song Jiaoren again. The clashes between them continued yet again.

*Boom Boom Boom!*

In the meantime, Evelyn was studying the battle closely before she commented with a frown. "That Song Jiaoren is going to lose like this."

"Why do you think so?" Alex asked with a smile as he also predicted the same.

"It's clear that Eric still has another trump card. Despite his acting and such, it's clear that he is waiting for the right moment to reveal his trump card."

"Yeah. I don't know what his trump card is and who he prepared it for, but I can see that due to how calm the Fire God Clan's elders."

"Does big brother want to help Song Jiaoren? You can suppress him with your Pure Fire… Or you can even use it to halt the two elders for a few seconds and have the elders from the Blackwade Clan rescue Song Jiaoren. It won't be considered as you helping Song Jiaoren that way." Evelyn suggested.

Alex shook his head and smiled. "You little devil. It seems I have trained you to a scary level."

"Hehe… I am just thinking about all possibilities as a careful person. Big brother Alex has trained me this way."

"Don't say it like that. It looks like I was training you in a lewd way." Alex twitched his eyebrows.

Evelyn stuck out of her tongue.

"This girl…" Alex shook his head before saying, "Although Eric Hinga has stronger equipment, they still have one star difference, especially with one of them being a Martial Saint and the other was a Martial Monarch. This difference was big, so I think Song Jiaoren will have time to find a chance to strike back. Of course, this is only if his opponent doesn't use his trump card."

"If it's big brother, what will you do?" Evelyn asked.

"Me?" Alex smiled and pointed his hand toward the stage. "I will simply strike the weak spots a few times. If you are looking carefully, Eric's movement gets restricted when he uses that armor. And I will simply attack every spot where his armor couldn't reach. It's true that the energy is hard like the armor, but it's still energy.

"If I strike at the same spot a few times, the energy will become disarray. Eric will absolutely protect that area for a moment. That is the chance where I strike at the other spots or his body armor itself, creating an illusion that I attack him blindly. Eric won't know which area I am targeting.

"Then, as soon as he leaves the first spot unguarded, I will strike at it again." Alex smiled as if he was translating what in Song Jiaoren's mind.

Even Angela behind him was startled by his words. She could finally see why Alex had once taught Evelyn.

"I see." Evelyn nodded repeatedly.

In the arena, as Alex predicted, Song Jiaoren started suppressing Eric again after getting used to his movement.

*Slash!*

*Slash!*

Within a hundred rounds, Song Jiaoren somehow managed to injure him in a few areas after breaking through his Fire Dragon Armor. This was certainly surprising until Song Jiaoren finally managed to get the better of him and struck his sword.

"Myriad Sword Strike!"

Song Jiaoren thought he would be able to injure Eric at this point before continuing his attack to do some irreplaceable damage to his body, but all his plans crumbled when a shield appeared on Eric's hand.

*Clang!*

The lightning around his sword suddenly disappeared as if it was dispelled by something. Song Jiaoren realized what just happened and glanced at the shield.

This split-second confusion earned Eric a perfect chance to thrust his spear.

"!!!" Song Jiaoren immediately launched himself to the air and landed a few meters away from Eric. However, he was pushing the wound on the side of his stomach.

"Heh… I have predicted there might be some relationship between Blackwade Clan and Spirit Nest. That's why I am bringing this Lightning Suppressing Shield with me." Eric laughed. "Though I had indeed underestimated your relationship with Alexander Sirius. To think you would go so far earlier, albeit everything is working for me perfectly."

"You Bastard!" The two elders from Blackwade Clan quickly leaped toward the stage, only to find themselves stopped by the two elders that Eric brought.

On the other hand, Song Jiaoren gritted his teeth and thought. 'Lightning Suppressing Shield. As the name implies, it is a shield to repel my Lightning Element. It's one of the highest treasures in Fire God Clan, considering it was created using a lightning Dragon Scale as the material, like his Fire Dragon Armor.

'I can simply back away after this, but… I need to do an account with my family because I have smeared the family reputation, and I couldn't fulfill my promise to him.' Song Jiaoren glanced at Alex. 'What should I do? I still need to defeat him no matter what. I can handle his Rank 8 Spear and rank 8 Fire Dragon Armor, but that shield will be hindering me.'

As he formulated his plan in his mind, Eric attacked him again with his spear. Song Jiaoren was forced to fight him while thinking, resulting in several injuries.

Eric knew that Song Jiaoren was in his wits' end, so he was planning to end this as quickly as possible before he could come up with a strategy. Injuring him in different areas was also his strategy.

The people were dumbfounded when they found Song Jiaoren getting suppressed like this. Although it was due to the rank 8 Lightning Suppressing Shield, Eric was able to predict it nonetheless. In other words, Eric was smart enough to look ahead and prepare everything before coming to this banquet.

"Song Jiaoren is going to lose…"

Everyone was thinking the same thing, including Elizabeth. However, she felt the thing was not so simple and looked at Alex, making sure he didn't make a move in this match. Although she was curious about this person, she still needed to maintain her neutrality.

Yet, to her surprise, Alex looked at the match without any interest. Little did he know that Alex was actually trying to understand the Lightning Suppressing Shield with his Spirit Eyes before a smile appeared on his face.

"!!!" Elizabeth was startled when she saw this and stared at him intensely to make sure he didn't do something foolish.