Primordial Sage: Plight of Immortality

Almost every single ‘spectator’ wearing robes jumped down with their weapons charging at the lonely man.

Although everyone could see his mood was terrible, there still wasn’t any kind of panic in his eyes.

Instead, he grabbed the closest member of their group by the collar and threw him at the fastest warrior charging at him.

“Ah? Wha-?!” He couldn’t even yell in pain before he was bisected by a green streak of light as the warrior moved in between the two body parts like a ghost.

“Aura Master!”

Ezekiel seemed surprised as he stared at the middle-aged man in full armor that attacked him before he deflected his sword thrust.

“You must be Caleb, right?” A dangerous glint appeared in Ezekiel’s eyes. There was a certain grudge he felt towards this man. So, he didn’t waste more words as he slashed out with his two short swords.

Soon, his swords were being dyed black as if black tar was tainting them while he exchanged several moves with Caleb.

“Heh…” Caleb also didn’t waste his saliva as the moment Ezekiel attacked, he focused on defense.

He knew how strong this man was and didn’t wish to lose his life yet.

The light green light was covering both his body and sword as he retreated with his footwork.

The light was similar to a flame, but it was kind of unstable and didn’t seem nearly as dangerous as the dark matter covering Ezekiel’s swords.

However, he knew that he couldn’t beat the man since the beginning and wasn’t the main force of this operation either.

Soon, his reinforcement came in the form of the bone spears that attacked Ezekiel from several directions.

However, he didn’t panic as he dodged it all with minimal movement or deflected it with his swords as he lunged at Caleb.

This time, Caleb felt the danger to his life as he finally panicked.

This all happened in the span of a few seconds that even Illyan didn’t have time to process.

During that time, the other warriors finally reached Ezekiel as they attacked. Unfortunately, they were not nearly skilled or equipped to face him as with simple attacks he ended their lives.

However, Ezekiel recoiled in horror when one guy who he disemboweled before jumped at him with his claws instead of a weapon and injured him. When he looked under the robe at the face of the man he realized the problem.

“Damn it…” Ezekiel couldn’t keep his attention on Caleb at all as he attacked the man whose intestines were dragged on the floor.

The warrior didn’t defend at all and was bisected with his sword.

But even then he didn’t stop moving as his upper body started to crawl towards Ezekiel.

“I hate necromancers… Really wasting the potential there.” Ezekiel frowned as he stomped on the head of the undead.

He knew that Aziro would use his undead toys but he didn’t expect that he would use his strongest ones that could injure even him.

Since everyone wore robes and their rotting smell was disguised with the smell of flowers he couldn’t recognize who was undead until it was too late, so he mumbled an incantation under his nose as his eyes shined with green.

Soon, he could see the life force of the people around him and jumped away from those who not only didn’t have any but instead were tainted with strong Corpse Energy.

What he didn’t expect, though, were two strong life forces outshining everyone else.

He knew about the troll who he came here to slay but who or what was the second that was almost comparable to the troll?

He and Aziro were still just warming up, so he wasn’t worried, but once their fight got heated this variable could cause problems.

While he danced around between the blades of his enemies, he turned his eyes to the aura he felt and his eyes narrowed.

‘It’s this guy?’

When he saw the scarred man with the hammer, he realized that the strong person was next to him the entire time.

‘I was too careless. But it doesn’t matter-What the hell is he doing?’

He stared wide-eyed at the man before he shouted.

“Aziro! Stop that man! He is gonna kill us!”

……..

Meanwhile, Illyan was trying to dodge all enemies as he tried not to stand out.

The warriors seemed to attack the old man, but their blades were also turned at the gladiators in their group as they were quickly put down as if they were being silenced.

When he looked up, he saw that several gray-robed men were staring down at Ezekiel, prepared to strike down the moment he would decide to climb up.

‘They prepared thoroughly for him. But isn’t that too much? He seems to be struggling already.’

He saw that Ezekiel was injured by the man.

At first, he felt slight admiration for the man who attacked despite his organs spilling out, but then he realized the man didn’t have any aura and finally realized what bugged him the entire time.

‘They are dead!’ When he saw that dozens of the warriors didn’t have any aura, he felt goosebumps.

Moreover, there were more of them as new ones were coming from the gate. The arena would soon be completely filled up.

The only variable to the fight in the eyes of those two sides would be the troll.

When he turned his eyes to the monster that was still lying on its back like a helpless turtle, he noticed one of the robed men surrounded with some weird fluctuations making him hard to see sneaking up on it with some kind of pouch.

How could he not recognize something like that when he grew up in the care of a herbalist?

It was a pouch for some kind of medicine. And if his suspicion was right then this would be some kind of sedative that would calm it.

“As if. Since you got under my arms, you can forget about leaving.”

With a sprint, Illyan rushed at the man.

The man who was close to the throat of the troll felt the disturbance as he looked around. He was at first surprised that he was discovered but then he sneered.

“Miserly peasants…” When he saw that one of the men who fought for their lives like dogs just for a few coins, he felt repulsed as he just waved his hand and mumbled something under his nose.

Illyan, who heard him, was confused as what he was saying didn’t feel like normal language at all.

Suddenly, a small drop of liquid the size of a fist was flying at him from the hand of the robed man.

Illyan didn’t understand what kind of sorcery he did but planned to rush through it.

Fortunately, before he did, his instincts felt the danger as he copied the move Ezekiel did and quickly grabbed one of the warriors close to him, putting him in front of his body.

Sizzle

The sizzling noise resounded as the liquid sprayed on the man’s body.

A miserly cry, which was soon drowned out in the heat of the battle, resounded from the mouth of the man before he fell into eternal darkness as his flesh literally melted.

The robed man was surprised when he saw Illyan doing that but sneered as he lifted his hand again.

Unfortunately for him, a glint of light appeared in front of his eyes as he noticed the steel weapon flying his way. Before he could do anything, his head split open by the axe Illyan threw.

While disappointed he couldn’t catch this man alive, Illyan knew that he didn’t have time for this as he ran towards the troll.

Then, with his full force, he attacked it. Or rather, he attacked its chains that were constricting it.

“Aziro! Stop that man! He is gonna kill us!”

Suddenly, a voice so strong that it managed to drown out the battle cries of the men resounded in the arena.

Illyan knew that the man noticed him and hurried.

With one resolute strike, he took down one chain before the red streak flew at tremendous speed at his head.

Without hesitation, he flicked his leg at the chain that he just broke to kick it in the direction of the bone spear that flew his way.

Now that he knew that even the weaker robed men could cause such damage, he didn’t have confidence in his regeneration at all.

Normally, he would take enemies’ attacks head-on and then retaliate, but now he realized how flawed his strategy was. If he continued, he would find an opponent who would end him for real.

And so, he used the delay caused by the chains to jump behind the troll’s thigh legs.

The chain burst out as its pieces flew like projectiles all around, even killing a few people.

The one who took the most brunt, though, was the troll, being closest to the explosion.

“Guah?!” Angry, it finally stood up as it turned around and with a sweep of its arms, it pummeled several people.

Unfortunately, its legs were still tangled in other chains so Illyan lifted his hammer intending to free the troll.

He noticed that Ezekiel was already close as he ran at full speed but he wouldn’t get to him in time.

Ezekiel, knowing that, didn’t hold back in the slightest as he put all his mana into the swords and slashed out as the dark mana parted from the blade.

It was similar to the aura Caleb displayed but on a much higher level.

Two black streaks at high speed at Illyan, but he didn’t hesitate as he hammered down the shackles with his mighty swing and then threw the hammer at the sword slashes hoping to destroy them.

With a boom, one of them dissipated together with the hammer while the other got redirected and unintentionally cut off the right arm of the troll.

“AAaaaaaarraghggh!” The troll, who was already angry, started to rage as it attacked everyone.

It was complete chaos.

But that wasn’t enough for Illyan yet.

‘Finally, I can test it out.’

There was something he theorized about for a long time but never tried it.

He took a vial with red content and aimed it right in the middle of the arena where Ezekiel was.

As the vial was thrown, it quickly flew through the air. But it was struck down before it could land as Ezekiel felt the huge amount of life force and thought someone attacked him.

“Huh?” When the extremely heavy scent of blood permeated the arena, he felt something was off when he looked at the content spilled on his clothes.

‘Is this blood? But why is the smell so strong?’

“Rooooooaaaaarr!” The injured troll roared in excitement as its snout started to move.

When Ezekiel saw what was happening, he felt furious.

He quickly realized from which angle the vial was thrown and knew it was Illyan.

He wanted to retaliate, but the troll that was now freed started to run at high speed. It took it only three steps before he was in reach as it smashed its hand down. Everything in its path was demolished or squashed to death.

The only exception was Caleb in his armor. However, even then he fell unconscious just from one slap of the raging monster.

Its stump, now fully healed hand, attacked Ezekiel who was dodging or deflecting the meaty hands.

In the end, the inferior swords from the arena snapped as he was barehanded.

He felt upset but there was nothing he could do. He wondered if he should go all-in, but if he did that Aziro would ambush him.

‘Aziro!’ His eyes turned into crescents as he stared at the man who was just watching up there not caring that his men were dying.

He was a necromancer and was used to letting his subordinates fight for him. Only when the enemy was injured would he join the fight.

‘Hmph, I was thinking about slaying this thing only, but since you are here, I will let you suffer a bit. And that bastard…’

Then he turned around to look at Illyan but was confused when he noticed he was gone.

But he didn’t waste his time in finding him as he ran at full speed and ran on the wall towards Aziro.

The robed men immediately hurled several spells at him but he didn’t retreat at all.

“Since you started this fight then finish it.” Aziro said calmly as he blocked Ezekiel’s path with bone spears.

However, Ezekiel focused as his ribs suddenly burst apart!

A pair of mantis-like arms showed up as they bisected the spears and spells without any problem.

Aziro’s pale face showed surprise.

“This power of Biomancer is really wonderful. Completely wasted on a cowardly dark elf like you.”

Green flame appeared on his arm as he sent a wave of heat towards Ezekiel. His other hand held his head as if he was uncomfortable but he didn’t stop as a wall of flames gushed out of his hand.

“And you think you are worthy for what reason?” Ezekiel, who avoided the flames, said as his mantis blades pierced through the robed men who were close to Aziro.

“You! Sir, what do we do?” Other robed men started to panic as they saw Ezekiel. He was too fast and would easily kill them at such proximity.

“You filthy..!” Aziro felt the fury as he stared at the men who were killed by him. He already saw that one of them was killed by Illyan, but now there were two more.

While they weren’t that precious, this was considered peaceful land. If there were that many deaths of his subordinates, the higher-ups beyond the kingdom would ask questions.

“What?” Ezekiel didn’t waste his mana on disguise anymore as his face started to wriggle. Anyone who saw this would feel extreme discomfort.

Soon, his rosy complexion turned white-gray while his eyes turned red. His ears started to elongate while his gray hair turned into silver color.

The old man turned out to be a completely different species from humans.

Dark Elf.

“I will-” Aziro was furious, but then he felt horror engulf him as he realized it was a trap and jumped aside.

Crack

The troll, who ran after Ezekiel, didn’t see the wall as an obstacle at all as it started to climb it. However, its weight was too much and the wall crumbled together with people standing on it.

Seeing that so many of his subordinates died today and others being in danger, Aziro knew that they would need to put out the beast even if his heart bled because of it. Even he could catch one troll alive only when the opportunity arose.

Now he would need to kill it which wouldn’t bring him any benefits.

As such, he felt the fury towards Ezekiel who brought the beast up to the audience seats.

But mainly, he felt anger towards the man who freed the troll.

If he didn’t do it, his plan to take down Ezekiel wouldn’t fail in such a spectacular way.

He turned to look down at the man but didn’t see him anywhere.

Thinking that he already fled, he yelled out.

“Caleb! Catch the one who fled alive immediately!”

While he didn’t care before about the gladiators the moment he thought that Ezekiel could be amongst them he observed them all. So it was no wonder he remembered that ugly scarred face. Because of that, he was also sure that he hadn't met the man before either.

He wouldn’t forget someone with such a face.

That’s why he was confused about his objectives. But he could just wait for him to be caught since the power he showed was around the level of an Aura Master. If Caleb used his subordinates there should be no problem catching him.

However, Caleb didn’t respond.

“Caleb?” Confused and upset, Aziro looked down to find the man he was talking to.

But he was nowhere to be seen.

It was as if he evaporated…