Lord of Rot

Once the contestants entered the arena, Leech understood what Baron Jin Fu had meant by ”different.”

If a Knight’s tournament was, at best, a gathering of idle nobles showing off their brilliant feathers before the ladies like roosters courting mates, then Baron Jin Fu’s deathmatch was a cockfight—with blades tied to the talons, where the only goal was to kill or be killed.

The first contestant to enter was a teenage boy. He was bare-chested, a sharp dagger in his hand.

His scrawny frame was so thin his ribs jutted out, making him look like a perpetually starving wolf cub.

The other contestant was an adult hyena, locked in a cage.

”Hehehehehe...” The hyena’s grotesque cackle sounded like mocking laughter.

It swiped its claws against the wooden cage, making the man who had carried it over flinch.

’They’re making a teenage boy fight an adult hyena with nothing but a short blade?’

The cage was opened.

The man who brought the cage fled quickly.

Only the boy and the beast remained in the arena.

”Kill! Kill! Kill!”

”ROAR! ROAR! ROAR!”

The surrounding crowd roared, seething with excitement.

The fierce shouts seemed to startle the hyena. It couldn’t understand what the surrounding people were doing. In its eyes, the crowd and the boy were all one group.

Its survival instincts told it that to attack a large, powerful group alone was suicide.

But it hadn’t eaten in a long time, and hunger was clouding its mind.

Even if it were a lion before it, it would still have to pounce.

It had roared at lions with its pack before, and even the lions had fled with their tails between their legs.

Finally, the hyena crept tentatively from its cage. Its nose twitched, confirming that the low wall was indeed holding back the boy’s ”packmates.”

The boy also tightened his grip on his dagger, watching cautiously.

The two slowly closed the distance, each looking for an opening for a killing blow. Though it was a boy and a beast, they looked like two predators locked in a standoff.

Seated on the high platform ”spectating,” Leech’s brow furrowed slightly. He saw not fear or helplessness in the boy’s eyes, but enjoyment and excitement.

”Hahaha!” Baron Jin Fu took a great swig of wine.

”Kill!” he roared. ”Kill! One of them has to die!”

That was the signal. As the lord of the territory, his command had to be obeyed.

The boy lunged at the hyena, as fierce as a wolf cub, his dagger flashing like a fang.

The hyena leaped high into the air. Its drool-slicked maw opened wide and clamped down viciously on the boy’s arm, dragging him to the ground.

”Ah!” the boy shrieked in pain.

The hyena shook its head violently, and the boy’s slender arm was ripped from its socket.

The taste of blood sent the hyena into a frenzy, its madness completely ignited.

”Hehehehehe...” It let out its signature cackle, gnawing on the severed arm as if mocking the boy’s helplessness.

But the boy, gritting his teeth against the searing pain, plunged his dagger straight into the hyena’s eye socket. Blood burst forth.

Enraged, the brain-stabbed hyena took several more furious bites, mauling the boy’s neck to a pulp and snapping his ribs before it, too, collapsed.

The first battle was over. It had lasted less than three minutes in total.

”Die! Die! Die!”

”ROAR! ROAR! ROAR!”

The crowd was in a frenzy, screaming and shouting. The bloodshed had ignited their inner madness, their once-numb expressions now twisted in ecstasy.

Watching the deafening roar of the crowd, Leech suddenly understood why the East Gorge People called them Barbarians.

’No, the East Gorge nobles have similar activities,’ Leech sighed inwardly.

’The East Gorge has underground deathmatch rings, too. The most infamous are the child fights, where groups of slaves under ten are made to kill each other like little animals. It’s expressly forbidden by the church and the law, but as long as it makes money and satisfies the morbid curiosity of the wealthy, the law is worthless.’

’But this was the first time I’ve seen someone like Baron Jin Fu put it all on display so brazenly.’

”So? What do you think?” Baron Jin Fu laughed, looking at Leech. ”I told you it was different, haha!”

”It certainly is different,” Leech nodded. Compared to this level of bloody slaughter, a Knight’s tournament, which stopped short of serious injury, was ”gentle” indeed.

Baron Jin Fu bellowed, ”Second match!”

He smiled at Leech. ”The warm-up is over. The main event is about to begin.”

No one came to clear away the bodies. The second match began.

This time, a Bonta Leopard entered. It was as large as a lion, and likely due to the surging Magic Tide, the magical beast bloodline within it had awakened. It exuded an oppressive aura that inspired instinctual fear.

Its opponents were three armored young men: two with shields, one with a spear. They appeared to be a seasoned combat team.

The moment they saw the Bonta Leopard, two of the men quickly raised their shields, forming the simplest of formations.

Two defending, one attacking. It was the best way to maximize their chances of survival.

”ROAR!”

The Bonta Leopard leaped eagerly from its cage. To its eyes, the three men clustered together looked like a difficult fight.

The scent of blood from the two corpses on the ground was more enticing. The Bonta Leopard abandoned the standoff with the three youths and pounced directly on the bodies to begin feeding.

An animal’s instinct is not to fight, but to survive.

Fangs and claws are merely tools to help a beast catch its prey.

With food readily available, there was no reason to fight to the death.

Baron Jin Fu frowned and waved his hand.

A Soldier raised his bow, drew it taut, and shot an arrow into the Bonta Leopard’s back.

”ROAR!!” the Bonta Leopard bellowed in pain.

Whipping its head around to glare at the Soldier who had shot it, the Bonta Leopard’s eyes burned with murderous rage. It abandoned the food beneath its maw and lunged toward the Soldier in the spectator stands.

This was not a predator’s behavior. Charging into the stands, toward what was clearly a ”pack” of dozens of people, was something no normal hunter would do.

The only explanation was that its magical beast bloodline had fundamentally changed its way of thinking.

For a Bonta Leopard that could scale walls with ease, the low earthen wall of the arena was no obstacle at all.

With a light leap, it cleared the wall and landed in the stands.

”Ah!”

”Help me!”

”Run!”

The spectator stands erupted into chaos.

The Bonta Leopard’s sudden attack turned the crowd’s excited shouts into shrieks of terror.

Its powerful, lion-like body crashed into the crowd. A single collision was enough to send a person flying through the air, coughing up blood. Before the beast, ordinary people were as fragile as stalks of wheat, snapping at the slightest touch.

”Hahahaha!” Baron Jin Fu, however, laughed with delight.

The deathmatch had no rules. It only required death.

Whether one person died, or a group? Of course, the more who died, the more excited the lord became!

This was the essence of the deathmatch tournament.

The Bonta Leopard pounced on the Soldier who had shot the arrow. In a few quick bites, it tore off his head. His iron helmet was smashed flat under its massive paw.

After killing its foe, the Bonta Leopard stood atop the corpse and watched the crowd scatter. A flicker of understanding seemed to dawn in its beastly eyes.

”ROAR!”

The hunt began!

After watching the Bonta Leopard kill several more people, with no one able to stop it, Baron Jin Fu finally gave the order: ”Kill it!”

A Crossbow Arrow shot out. The Bonta Leopard, leaping high into the air for another pounce, seemed to fly right into the bolt, which effortlessly pierced its head.

Its body hung in the air for a moment, then crashed heavily to the ground.

It twitched a couple of times and then fell completely still.

Before the weapons wielded by humans, even a powerful beast was just a moving target.

To prevent the beasts in the upcoming deathmatches from being affected, a group of people came out to clear away the corpses.

Large, scarlet bloodstains were left behind, a reminder of the bloody, cruel slaughter that had just taken place.

”Continue!” Baron Jin Fu shouted. He was just getting worked up; how could he possibly stop now?