These two were severely injured at the moment—thousands of cuts covered the brawny man's body, while the lean man's face and torso were battered with fist-shaped bruises.
Drayken took a deep breath, unable to ignore their miserable condition.
"So, how is it? Are you up to par?" Eleanor whispered in his ear.
He turned to her with an expressionless face.
"I can't beat either of them."
Even in their current state, they were already faster and stronger than him in raw physical ability, and on top of that, they each had two spells at their disposal.
With his arsenal limited to his dragon power and a single spell, there was no way he could match them: at least, not within the confines of his dragon heritage alone.
"So, what will you do?" she asked, her voice carrying an innocent, almost childlike curiosity.
Raising his chin with her index finger, forcing him to look straight at her.
Drayken twitched his brows. 'This woman really…'
He was annoyed—truly, he couldn't deny it. This woman had a knack for getting on his nerves, and the most frustrating thing was that he couldn't do anything about it!?
He was, after all, under her!
"What's wrong? Will you not reply to me?"
She squinted her pupils.
Drayken felt a chill. His battle instinct flared like crazy, as if replying wrong would mean death. He turned his head toward her with a calmness:
"I will win."
"Good, I just wanted that from you," she nodded and returned as if nothing had happened.
'Why are both this maid and the master crazy!?'
Drayken screamed in his heart. Luckily, his mental immunity allowed him to control his external emotions to a certain extent, so even if he was having a mental breakdown, he still appeared completely calm and expressionless.
He returned and sat on the chair calmly while watching the battle. Since he hadn't been called, he assumed it wasn't his turn yet.
With nothing to do, he felt a little bored and checked the system for a moment.
***
<
The more the Awakener trains, the closer he will gradually lean toward the perfect body.
<
Grants the Awakener the muscle memory of a pure battle maniac.
<
Hardens the Awakener's skin, making them invulnerable to swords and spears.
<
Allows the Awakener to move forward in quick succession without needing to apply any strength or use muscles.
***
"These are quite useful abilities."
Drayken thought while his pupils scanned them. This was what the main body had gained in the gate: it was quite the haul because even he hadn't expected that talent could be leveled up so easily in gates.
Maybe most Awakeners didn't even do anything in the other world and just stayed in hiding until they returned to their own world. Then, with the gate opening, they leveled up their talents and quickly became strong.
"It seems likely."
Drayken thought it was distant before he felt his sleeve being pulled.
"Hmm?" He looked at the cute face of Lilia with a raise of his brows.
"What is it?"
"Your name is being called."
Drayken stared ahead, where the old man was raising the sign with his name on it. There was a countdown in place—and it was at five seconds!
"What the hell?" He turned toward Eleanor, who had drooping eyes, seemingly not paying attention.
His mind instantly went through a whirlpool of thoughts. If he took the normal route, it would definitely take longer for him to reach there, even with all his strength combined.
'The only way is to choose… chaos.'
Drayken looked at the glass ahead of him, then shot forward in an instant.
Bang!
The glass window shattered almost instantly, and he appeared outside with the force of a truck.
Immediately, Drayken felt like he was drowning in voices, it was really too much noise!
But he didn't care. He looked straight ahead, and his figure flashed.
The next moment, he had covered a distance of ten meters and landed with a flip on the platform.
The platform trembled under the sheer power of his landing.
"That was refreshing," Drayken commented casually, then looked up at the gray-haired old woman who had gone silent.
"What's wrong? There's still a second left, right?"
"You…" The old man flared up before pausing, fixing his collar with a cough. "You are right. Your opponent is from the Void Clan. Hope you can stay alive until that moment."
"Void Clan?"
He tilted his head, then looked at the purple-haired man in front of him. The man had black horns, and though his wings weren't out, his nails were sharp and long like claws.
The old man coughed again. He extended his hand, and a booklet appeared in it. Opening it, he started flipping through the pages. His pupils froze for a moment before the book in his hand disappeared. He looked at Drayken, his body trembling.
"This here is Drayken from the Dragon of Winter Gale. Also," the old man paused, "he was once a human."
Silence!
The entire place became pin-drop silent—there was no noise.
"Ahh, this is comfortable." Drayken rubbed his ears with a casual expression.
Everyone seemed frozen in place, staring at Drayken before erupting into roars and shouts.
"This worm."
"I thought this was just a rumor, but the Dragon of Winter Gale really did make a worm out of one of us."
"This… this can't be tolerated. She is a sinner of our race!"
Dragons had always carried an arrogant attitude toward all races. To let a human inherit their bloodline was considered an utter disgrace.
Drayken stood still amidst the roars, his heart calm. He didn't care. If things really went dire, he could just take the clone back to his world, and nobody could do two shits about it!
Besides, since Eleanor had allowed his identity to be revealed so easily, she must have taken this into consideration as well, right?
Before he could speak, a terrifying pressure descended upon him!