Damned Healer-Chapter 626: Novices From Experts

"The armor isn't that bad, but you can't bring out its full potential," Darian commented. "At best, it can help you withstand part of the pressure of the martial stage. Other than that, it won't be much help. The main reason is that, to you, this armor is something external, not part of your own strength."

Hearing Darian speak so calmly, the spectators were stunned. It was obvious he still hadn't used all of his power.

Niara, inside the arena, gave a slight nod, looking at that idiot in armor with disdain. She had already seen Amara and the people of Earth fight using similar armor and equipment. But for them, armor was their very life, an inseparable part of themselves, built with their own hands or, at the very least, envisioned down to every detail.

That idiot, on the other hand, was just using it as a cheap trick to cheat.

"You're a frog at the bottom of a well. You think you can look down on the Bloodsky Armor?" Caoming sneered, staring at Darian.

"I'm not looking down on the armor. Whoever made it had some talent. I'm looking down on you," Darian replied, without the slightest emotion.

*BOOM!*

At that instant, Caoming's power erupted, and the sea of blood in his manifestation began to boil.

"Damn, his aura is still growing!"

The spectators watched Caoming's aura continue to rise. Yet no matter how powerful it became, Darian remained like an immovable rock.

Caoming was like a wooden nail trying to pierce a boulder. No matter what he did, he simply couldn't move Darian.

"No rush. Feel free to use all your potential. I'll wait," Darian said calmly.

A cold gleam appeared in Caoming's eyes. "Very well, then I'll do exactly that!"

Hearing this, the spectators swallowed hard.

Saelil nervously said to Niara, "The Bloodline power of the Ancestral Scarlet Wolf inside Caoming is extremely strong. That's why it takes time for him to fully release it. The best way to defeat him is to crush him before that power completely awakens. Once it does, even the clan masters would have great difficulty dealing with him."

"Oh? No wonder Dan is being so patient this time," Niara remarked.

"What do you mean by that?" Ailik asked curiously.

Niara replied calmly, "Dan isn't the type to bully the weak. When he finds someone who deserves to die, he kills them like a fly, without wasting time. But now… he wants the full show."

Niara noticed that Darian's eyes looked a bit distant at that moment. He had probably activated the power of the Sacred Treasure inside his inventory and was searching through that universe's past memories about the Scarlet Wolf.

"Is Sir Darian not afraid of losing?" Maeyu asked in disbelief. She had never seen someone so bold in her entire life.

"Losing? Impossible. Even if the Ancestral Scarlet Wolf itself were alive and standing before him at full power, it would still be crushed to death."

Feeling Niara's confidence and her clear disdain for everything else, Ailik, Herta, and Hart focused their gazes on Darian, filled with radiant admiration.

"If the leader of the Wood Spirits weren't here, would you still act so boldly?" Maeyu asked.

Niara replied flatly, without even turning around, "Would we? Dan and I always do whatever we want, and there's nothing we wouldn't dare to do. After all, courage is the foundation of our power. None of us uses connections to intimidate others; we rely only on our own strength."

It was obvious that Maeyu lacked emotional intelligence. Saelil shot her a sharp look, finding the question extremely rude—almost an accusation.

Niara didn't get angry because she realized the girl was just foolish, not malicious. So she thought for a moment and answered without being aggressive. The first part of her reply addressed the question directly, while the second was a clear sign of disdain. It implied that she and Darian were different from people like Maeyu, who relied on their backgrounds to get what they wanted.

"I'm sorry, my little sister didn't mean any harm."

Saelil apologized quickly. Niara merely waved her hand, not caring, which made Saelil let out a deep sigh. Her younger sister really was silly.

Meanwhile, Caoming's aura continued to grow, doubling its previous intensity. Blood-colored flames surged into the sky, nearly surpassing the height of the arena.

*ROAR!*

Suddenly, the hidden figure within Caoming's manifestation roared. The shadow of a gigantic head, resembling that of a wolf, emerged from the sea of blood, opening its mouth wide.

All of a sudden, Darian stared at that enormous, gaping head in shock. His expression was one of complete disbelief.

Caoming stepped back, creating distance between them. Flames wrapped around his entire body as the sea of blood churned, his raging power acting like a second suit of battle armor.

"Hahaha, now you know what fear is?" Caoming raised his head and laughed when he saw Darian's expression.

Raising a finger, Darian pointed at the beastly head and asked, "You call that the Ancestral Scarlet Wolf?"

Caoming laughed. "That's right. This is the legendary existence of my clan, the one that managed to defeat the evil Divinity of the Nether Beasts! Thank you for allowing me to reach my strongest state. To repay you, I'll personally tear you apart, hahaha—!"

"You motherfucker, did you trick me?!"

Suddenly, Darian seemed to teleport. Everyone's eyes went wide at his speed. In less than the blink of an eye, he appeared right in front of Caoming.

*BANG!!*

A thunderous, violent punch slammed straight into his opponent's face.

Countless cries of shock erupted from the stands. Caoming's laughter was cut off brutally and mercilessly. A cloud of blood exploded from his face, followed by his body spinning through the air.

"H-He… the helmet…"

People murmured nervously. Everything had happened so suddenly that they could barely accept it as reality.

Even wearing full armor, the impact was so great that it caused severe damage. If he hadn't been wearing the helmet, his head would have exploded like a balloon.

Caoming sprang back to his feet, spitting out a mouthful of teeth and blood through the hole in his helmet.

"I'll kill you!" he roared, charging at Darian like a blind bull.

"Your mother must've spent her whole pregnancy eating shit to give birth to an abortion as stubborn as you!" Darian cursed, throwing a front kick that looked like it carried the weight of a mountain.

*BOOM!*

Before countless shocked gazes, Caoming was struck so hard in the chest that he slammed into the barrier of the martial stage, crashing to the ground and tumbling several times before finally stopping.

Caoming crawled forward and got up in a ridiculous way. Then he violently spat blood until smoke started coming out. A bloody demonic beast aura rose from that blood, shaking the souls of everyone present.

"Motherfucker, you wasted my emotions. I can't believe I was this patient with an idiot. Does your clan really think this worm is the Ancestral Scarlet Wolf, for fuck's sake?!" Darian angrily pointed at the gigantic 'wolf head' of the manifestation.

Caoming looked stunned and intimidated by Darian's fury, but shot back, "If this isn't the ancestor, then what is it? Are you blind? Can't you see the ancestral bloodlines in its teeth? Can't you feel the power of a Heaven Saint in its blood?!"

Darian roared, "Idiot, do you even know that the Scarlet Wolf is a very close descendant of the primitive race of Demonic Beasts, the Aberrants? Because they're so close, its teeth should contain primitive runes with traces of multiple Beast species, its aura should show mismatched fluctuations, and its physique—"

Darian listed more than a dozen traits that the Aberrants possessed. Darian himself, along with Awel, Eleri, and Tir, had seen the primitive races up close in that array world, including the Aberrants themselves. As such, they knew their characteristics very well.

From that universe's memories, Darian knew that the Scarlet Wolf was only five generations removed from the Aberrants. Therefore, it should possess at least more than half of those traits. But… that so-called 'scarlet wolf' in the manifestation didn't have a single one of them.

"I waited so long for you, and you dare show me this piece of crap? The beast you absorbed is a fucking Suck-Hyena!" Darian finished, pointing at the manifestation.

The crowd in the stands widened their eyes. Everyone knew the name of that ridiculous beast.

The Suck-Hyena had gone extinct ages ago, infamous for a cultivation method that was as effective as it was humiliating: they grew strong by sucking blood, but never by fighting. They were the ultimate opportunists—too cowardly to hunt, yet fast enough to find a corpse and drain it like a vulture.

During the Great War of the past, these creatures lived through their so-called "golden age." While legendary figures slaughtered each other on the battlefield, the Suck-Hyenas slithered through the ruins, feasting on the blood of the strong and reaching absurd levels of power through pure parasitism.

As a result, even those that reached the Heaven Saint Realm this way were so pathetic in direct combat that they could be killed by a single solid slap from warriors of lower realms.

In the end, the race achieved the impossible: despite being on the winning side of the war, it went extinct simply because it couldn't fight for itself or grow stronger once things calmed down.

Darian had seen these ridiculous beasts in images from the universe's past and was certain of what he was saying.

The more experienced people in the stands took a closer look at the manifestation and sensed the Bloodline…

Their expressions changed. They noticed the lack of malice and killing intent. It was exactly the aura of an opportunist that didn't truly fight or kill its enemies.

Caoming cursed furiously. "You're talking bullshit! You're just jealous of me, so you're making things up! If I believed that, I'd be the idiot! Go fuck yourself!"

He suddenly stood up, and the 'wolf' in his manifestation opened its mouth.

A blood-colored sword shot out from its mouth, striking straight at Darian.

*BOOM!*

With an explosive sound, Darian caught it with his bare hands, making everyone jump.

"What the hell… that's a tongue!" someone yelled from the stands, caught between disgust and disbelief.

What looked like a mystical sword was actually a long, rigid, muscular appendage. The tip didn't have the edge of a blade, but the cruel geometry of a needle, made solely to pierce hide and drain blood as fast as possible.

When they saw that mosquito-like structure installed in the throat of a predator, silence fell over the stadium. Darian was right: that wasn't an Ancestral Scarlet Wolf, but the infamous Suck-Hyena! A creature that abandoned the honor of the bite to live by sucking blood from already-dead bodies.

"Fuck this!"

When Darian clenched his fists, power surged out and blew that tongue apart.

"AHH!" Caoming screamed shrilly. Crushing the tongue of his manifestation was like crushing his own; the pain was overwhelming.

The spectators were stunned by the sudden turn of events. They had expected a spectacular battle, but what they were witnessing was anticlimactic and dull.

"Start fighting!"

"If you're not going to fight, I want my money back!"

"Why isn't Caoming fighting back?"

Loud shouts of dissatisfaction echoed through the stands. After all, the spectators had spent a fortune to watch this fight, hoping to learn and understand something from it. Instead, they were getting nothing.

"You bastard!!!!" Caoming roared and attacked again, this time in a controlled, focused manner. He knew the honor of his clan—and his life—depended on it.

Darian smiled maliciously. He could sense people's karma even within the barrier. Since the start of the fight, he had been focused on Caofeng in the stands, and now he noticed Caofeng's karma shifting.

Darian wasn't the type to waste time fooling around, but his goal in this city was to obtain the Sacred Treasure quickly. He didn't want to simply steal it from the City Lord; instead, he revealed himself as the heir of that destroyed clan and was now causing chaos inside the city.

This idiot and his clan were proving quite useful.

"Come on. I'll give you exactly five minutes. After that, it's the end for you."

Caoming roared and attacked Darian with a red sword. Darian, in turn, faced him using only his bare hands.

At first, everyone was full of expectations for the battle. However…

…with every second the two exchanged blows, everyone in the arena saw things more clearly. Caoming was nothing but a flashy shell, with no real substance.

Every ten seconds, Caoming was sent flying and smashed into the barrier.

After a dozen times… Darian calmly walked toward him. With every step, the aura of death around him intensified; his footsteps were like an omen of death.

Caoming got back up, still completely shaken. Not even the battle armor had spared him from serious injuries.

Jason's expression also changed. At that moment, he was no longer interested in mocking Caofeng and instead felt uneasy.

The leaders of the other two clans were also shocked. Their surprise didn't come only from Darian's power, but from the fact that he still hadn't revealed even a hint of his true strength.

After all, they were nothing like Caoming. They had lived long lives and gone through countless battles. To reach their positions, they had crossed mountains of corpses and seas of blood.

What shocked them most was the naturalness of Darian's every movement. Not even they could find openings in his actions. In contrast, Caoming was full of vulnerabilities; despite wearing battle armor, he was incapable of fully using its defensive capabilities.

Most terrifying of all was Darian's incredible ability to exploit his opponent's gaps. When Caoming attacked, and the armor instinctively contracted to the front, Darian seized the moment and threw a punch straight into the blind spot. It was as if Darian predicted those reactions, perfectly calculating the timing of his attacks.

Darian's precise control was also evident in how he exploited the battle armor's defensive mechanisms. When he kicked Caoming, his foot struck exactly where the armor had the hardest time absorbing impact.

After the defensive mechanisms activated to protect him, the armor's energies retracted toward the core. Then Darian attacked more vulnerable areas, as if he could feel every inch of that armor's power.

This level of mastery was what separated novices from experts. Most cultivators in the arena, even the older ones, didn't understand what had just happened. Only the clan masters and vice-masters, or a handful of extremely experienced figures, had figured out Darian's methods—though they had no idea how he was doing it. 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

Because of that, Caoming grew more tense with every passing second. Such precise control was beyond even the capability of an elder of his clan, someone who had lived for countless years.

Until…

"Five minutes," Darian said calmly. "Your time is up. If you've got nothing else, I'll end this now."