Building An Empire Starting From The Labor Camp In Exile-Chapter 245: Troublesome

Tiber did not react to any of their taunts. He closed his ears to them. Why should he care about what they say when they are not the ones down there fighting?

The only words he could care about were if Atrox said something from up there or Slya. But for the rest?

He simply stood there, hands folded in front of his chest and the sun shining on him, watching the door at the other end to open.

After a few seconds, it opened.

The crowd’s reaction was instant. They began to shout and call out his name.

Cross! Cross! Cross!

Only a very few of them scowled and booed, and that was not even directly at Tiber. He was not the person they initially bet on, after all, but now they had no choice but to hope for a miracle that would allow Tiber to win.

Cross was a fighter with proven records. He did not fight often, but anytime he did, he completely overwhelmed his opponent. They had never seen him go all out.

Cross covered the distance between them quickly, all the while waving and smiling. He was even taller than Tiber, but he did not have the bulk. His hair was golden brown and his eyes a sharp black.

A voice came from the VIP seat. The voice was not loud, but it was heard by everyone in the arena. "Today is a bit different. I, Chief Eamon, have personally placed a bet on the outcome of this battle that Cross is going to defeat his opponent... Tiber, who is representing the Soryu Clan Leader."

There was a slight pause as the audience tried to process the information. They did not care who the Clan Leader was. They only cared that their Chief was betting against the Clan Leader, and that was all as they began to shout.

Those who bet against Tiber now looked even sadder and more anxious.

Slowly, the symbols that had been etched into the walls of the arena flickered to life and filtered away the voices of the crowd.

Tiber was glad for that as he cracked his neck. "Finally, we have the place to ourselves."

Cross looked at him curiously. "You’re the first fighter I’ve met here without dressing the part."

"I didn’t come here to fight, not initially, but I’m here as a guard."

That made Cross’s brows shoot up even farther. "You must be the shifting-into-monster type. Or the internal amplification type. Something that relies on pure strength?"

Now that Tiber was looking closely, he did not see any weapons on Cross either, but the man wore light armor that guarded important places.

But that was not all. Cross was not trying to hide his essence pressure, and if not for the fact that Tiber had been exposed to higher pressure, he might have found it a little intimidating. But right then, the only thing he could conclude was that Cross was indeed strong.

Tiber smiled at him. "Why don’t you find out yourself?"

Cross locked eyes with him. "Oh, you are strong, but from what I can tell already, you are n-not st-stronger..."

Tiber’s eyes had darkened. The darkness swirled like a pool and drank the light greedily. Then he began to walk forward, still keeping his eyes on Cross.

Their two eyes were connected, but one of them was almost closed. Cross was drowsy, his eyes nearly shut, and he swayed. It seemed as if he would fall over at any moment.

The crowd was stunned by the sudden change in events. What was happening? Why was Cross just standing there while Tiber kept getting closer to him?

Tiber smiled. He could feel Cross fighting himself internally to wake up, but it was near impossible. Tiber was not focusing on a lot of people at once. The only person his attention was on was Cross, and he was using all his power to hold the man.

Cross clenched his hands, his nails digging into his palm as he tried to get away from the spell holding him. Blood dripped down his fingers and into the sand. The blood got absorbed by the sand quickly and then... a small red vine grew out of the sand. It wrapped around his hand.

The vine shuddered, and then thorns grew out of it, ripping upward and into Cross’s flesh, shredding it. That jarred him out of the spell he was in, and his face cleared. In that instant of clarity, he whispered a few words.

Tiber stopped moving immediately. He felt power crack in the air. The ground shuddered slightly as if something big was passing underneath.

All around them, green light began to condense, flowing out of the ground and bursting into the air, turning into trees of light that filled more than half of the arena.

Tiber’s mouth opened in shock. "What the..." 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

All around him, the trees—the forest in front of him—bloomed, made entirely of light, condensed into a forest. Tiber took several steps backward.

Cross was leaning against one of the trees, his face shaped in anger. He brought his bleeding hand to his mouth and licked it. "So this is why you think you can fight me? Because you can make me sleep? Pathetic."

Tiber grasped at the thread he had left, trying to force him to sleep, but it had been cut off as if it never existed. He understood then. What Cross just did was similar to creating a domain, and inside it, there was little that could touch him in the form of mental attacks.

A hint of green light appeared in Cross’s eyes. He stretched out his hand, and the tree beside him sloped down, the branches molding together to form a sword.

The sword was long, made of green light that mimicked wood.

And then, as if he was taking a walk in the woods, he began to walk forward casually. Each step made the forest around him warp and twist, inching forward as well.

Tiber scratched his head. "What a troublesome fellow."

Tiber’s method for fighting was usually simple. If they were large in numbers and weak, then he would make them fall asleep so he could plant his commands in their minds and simply let them fight each other.

The other was to make people fall asleep and kill them before they could break away from his spell. But he was not worried as he watched the forest move closer to him. In fact, he was feeling a little excited.