At the woman's words and the encouraging screams of the prisoners, the slim man standing opposite Henry ran at him, holding his fist high.
"Argh!"
From the way he ran, swinging his fist awkwardly, it was obvious to anyone that this man had no proper training in combat.
"Lucky you, Henry. Looks like that guy has no training in body strength or fighting fields. If you can land a punch to his face, that's a win," said Auran, lying on the ground beside the circle.
Henry gazed steadily at the approaching man. When he got close, Henry easily deflected the man's punch and struck straight back at his face with skilled precision.
For a moment, the crowd roared even louder.
"Oh, look at that! Our newbie here actually has some skill in him," the woman exclaimed.
Those who were veterans of the battlefield could easily recognize someone trained in combat after seeing just a few moves.
After watching Henry's punch, Auran fell into thought—and the answer he had been suspecting finally clicked into place.
"Ah, that's right. Similar to me, he also studied the numaorus path before choosing the Curse path. However, unlike me, who only has knowledge in the field, he seems to have practical training in battle arts as well."
After this observation, Auran had no doubt—Henry would win this duel.
After the first punch, Henry pushed the slim man away, and the man forcefully flew a few feet back from the impact.
However, he wasn't down yet and showed resilience by continuing to fight.
"Yeah, punch him, slave! Punch him!"
"Show us more moves!"
The crowd cheered, and encouraged by those words, the slave kept charging forward, throwing punches at Henry.
Henry kept deflecting them and landing punches of his own. However, the punches delivered by Henry weren't dangerous—just enough to push the slim man back.
In this way, the battle went on for some time. Auran started to feel something was odd. But after seeing Henry glance at him from time to time during the fight, he quickly realized the reason.
"Henry… this guy, he's intentionally letting the battle continue so I can get more time to recover."
Realizing this, Auran stretched his body on the ground and slowly stood up.
"Although my stomach still hurts, this battle is not something I can avoid. And from the condition I'm in, it'll be much harder for me to win unless I get proper meditation time until this pain goes away."
"These bastards… I really feel like they punched me just to turn me into a slave."
He gritted his teeth as he located the man who punched him earlier—standing among a group of prisoners, cheering for the fight.
Looking at Henry, who was also glancing his way, Auran nodded, showing he was ready.
After a few more minutes, the duel between Henry and the slim man came to an end. Henry landed a clean strike to the slim man's face strong enough to knock him out of the circle.
"Guys, we have a winner!"
The woman came forward and lifted Henry's hand. The crowd around them cheered and screamed.
"Good job, new guy. You can have a little rest over there. Now let's see if your friend's got the same moves as you," she said, leading Henry out of the circle and bringing Auran in.
At the same time, from the opposite side, a man stepped into the circle—or more accurately, was pushed in by the man who had punched Auran in the stomach earlier.
"Oh! Even before I announced, we have a challenger, people! And it's our slave with a Master brother," the woman said as she looked at the man who had pushed someone into the circle.
"Kahla, you seem to have confidence your little brother can win this battle," her words carried a hidden meaning, but Kahla laughed loudly along with his friends surrounding him.
"Of course! Who's brother is he after all?" he said proudly.
Then he looked at Auran with a smirk.
"You, new guy—don't be discouraged even if you fail. Being a slave is only temporary," he said, as if the man he had pushed into the ring had already won.
Auran stood with an emotionless face, staring at the man who had stepped into the circle. The man gave a mocking smile while subtly glancing at Auran's stomach.
"Tch… look at this guy. Staring directly at my weak spot. I was right—it was intentional that I got punched. And this man… he seems much stronger than the one who got clobbered by Henry."
"Shit… even if I wasn't in pain, I don't think I could win against this guy with just my body."
While Auran was deep in thought, the woman's voice echoed loudly again:
"Then, ladies and gentlemen, let's get this thing started!"
At her words, the crowd cheered once more, just like before, and the man standing opposite Auran rushed at him.
He reached Auran in just a few steps, while Auran awkwardly stepped back, his hands tucked inside his clothes as if trying to protect his stomach. With a smug smile on his face, the man threw a punch directly at Auran's face—but it missed by an inch as Auran stepped back at the last second.
"Tch, lucky," the man grumbled.
"What are you doing, little brother?! Get that little shit quickly and end this!" Kahla's shout echoed loudly, clearly heard by Auran and the man in front of him.
"Alright, brother," the man muttered and prepared to punch Auran again.
But Auran calmly spoke in response:
"What you said is right—luck plays a part, but it's not everything. There's also calculation. Actually, what I really needed was for you to get just close enough—within a distance that my hand could reach… and give me enough time to generate force."
"What are you mumbling?" the man muttered, laughing lightly while lifting his hand. But at that moment, he saw Auran pulling his hand out from under his clothes—and in his hand was a rock.
Without delay, Auran slapped the man across the face with the rock, drawing blood and forcing him down to his knees.
"Argh!"
The man held his bloody face and screamed. Intense pain assaulted him as he looked at Auran with an enraged expression—but what greeted him next was Auran's hand, still holding the rock, swinging right back at his face.