Theodore gripped the armrest, fascinated by what he was seeing. Detonating his own body part and somehow linking himself to Julius so that the same happened to his body to bypass the repelling field was insane.

  Darius took a step forward with his arm already half-regenerated, looking like a skinned piece of meat rapidly growing skin, and gathered mana in his chest that glowed with an explosive light. He intended to detonate his torso, relying on his regeneration to survive a heart-bursting explosion while betting that Julius would perish from the mirrored trauma.

  "Show me what you've got," Darius growled, "or I will stomp you to the ground."

  Julius stared at his ruined arm until the surprise faded to be replaced by a cold fury.

  What a skill Darius had.

  Julius's repelling field could stop a physical attack, but could it stop a conceptual attack?

  Darius kept talking. He really seemed to love the sound of his own voice, calling Julius a cheap copy again. He said he was no good.

  Julius's arm grew back. It just knitted itself together in seconds, though Darius didn't seem to care. He probably expected it. He triggered the mana he had gathered in his chest instantly. It was a suicide move, practically. His torso detonated in a massive explosion of red. He blew himself up to blow Julius up, relying on his own regeneration to survive while betting Julius couldn't take a hole in the chest.

  Unfortunately for him, Julius's torso remained perfectly intact.

  Instead, the arm he had just regenerated exploded into red mist.

  It was confusing for a second. Regenerating, the meat of his ribs snapped back into place, but Darius looked confused. He looked at Julius's chest, then at the missing arm.

  Did he just… transfer the blow to another part of his body? Theodore wondered. That was an interesting thought. What an interesting skill Darius had, not to mention Julius's wound transfer skill, much less everything else.

  "You took me by surprise more than anything." Julius sounded rather flat.

  Darius grew a bit serious when he realized what Julius had done, though hearing what Julius had to say about it morphed Darius's shock into a sneer. "Oh well, look how you copied my skill too. You even have something like wound transfer on your own body? I am jealous, I wish I had that. It would make things so much more convenient."

  He stepped forward, blood dripping from his mending chest.

  "Now what, will you use it on me?" Darius asked, spreading his arms. "Do you have enough determination to blow yourself up to deal damage to—Akh!"

  Julius bit his own tongue off and spat it onto the sand. Darius choked. He grabbed at his throat, eyes bulging, gagging as he choked on his own tongue, blood pouring from his mouth.

  The room went quiet as Theodore leaned back. Glancing around the room, the others' reaction seemed normal, though Garrett looked rather sour. Had he thought himself the only one strong enough to win? Curious. It was almost like the man thought he had the win in the bag but now he was questioning that self-confidence.

  Theodore wasn't concerned, there was nothing to be concerned about. That much damage was nothing. Worst case he would use his partial slime form and then just wouldn't have to worry about damage in the slightest.

  Physical trauma didn't mean anything to a slime. There were no organs to rupture, no tongues to bite off.

  He was curious, however:

  He's copying skills, huh?

  That was the real problem because as far as he knew the mechanism behind it was unknown.

  Down in the arena, Julius wiped his mouth, his mouth healing rapidly. "I'll fight you without any tricks because you managed to surprise me. It'll be an interesting few minutes. Be proud."

  It wasn't a fight so much as a mutual mutilation, honestly. Julius said he would fight without tricks. He lied, or maybe he didn't count self-mutilation as a trick. Darius didn't seem to care about the semantics. He just wanted blood. He probably felt humiliated about the tongue incident. He roared and charged.

  He was fast, closing the gap in an instant.

  When Darius rushed in for a strike, Julius didn't bother dodging but instead detonated the bones in his own right foot the moment Darius planted his weight onto his, shattering the man's ankle through the link and sending him stumbling face-first into a punch that blew his jaw clean off.

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  Julius's face twitched as if hit by the same punch, his jaw shattering and hanging loose for a split second before he displaced the damage to a patch of skin on his thigh just as he brought his head back smashing it into Darius's head.

  Darius scrambled backward while clutching his ruined face and the flesh knit itself back together as he roared, launching himself back into the fray with mana-wreathed fists. Julius met him in the center and they traded blows that shook the ground, but every time Darius landed a hit Julius just took it and the damage to any critical places he slid it across his body to his back or legs which regenerated weirdly fast.

  Was he using something extra in those places only? To help with the wound-transfering? Because there was a pattern to it all which made Theodore think he trained with specific parts of his body in mind.

  Regardless, Julius slipped past a guard and buried a fist in Darius's stomach, folding him in half, and then followed up with an uppercut that snapped Darius's head back and cracked his teeth.

  Darius spat blood and tried to overwhelm him, throwing kicks and punches that tore up the sand, but Julius dodged quite easily and landed a heavy elbow to the temple that sent Darius staggering sideways.

  Darius looked wild and desperate, and as Julius grabbed the limp arm and used it as leverage to slam Darius into the ground and stomped on his chest, mana rippled as the force behind the attack flipped backwards, hitting Julius and sending him hurling back.

  Though he seemed to have blocked most of the kinetic attack with his arm, as Julius looked at his arm and then at Darius with a look of utter boredom, shaking his head in disappointment.

  "I thought we had an understanding. You just took out all the fun from the fight."

  Darius tried to get up but suddenly froze in place, his muscles locking up tight as if held by invisible chains. Theodore activated [Arcane Sight] to peel back the layers and saw the mana constricting Darius's veins, looking at first like telekinesis but carrying the distinct signature of Garrett's [Blood Manipulation].

  Theodore glanced over at the Brennan heir and saw him grinding his teeth, his jaw working furiously as he stared down at the arena, giving away enough for Theodore to make a few guesses. Julius must have copied Garrett's skill as well, raising the question of whether Garrett used his skills on Julius before the fight or if there was some other requirement for the copying process.

  Regardless, Julius calmly walked over to the frozen man and stomped on his head. Darius immediately caught the kinetic energy behind the attack, multiplying the force tenfold before shooting it straight back up the limb. Julius's leg turned into pink mist.

  The kinetic blast tore upward, but he tilted his head to the side just as the invisible cannonball whistled past his ear, and in the same heartbeat the mist coalesced back and the leg knitted back together, his left arm simply vanished in a spray of blood to pay the cost.

  Ignoring the missing limb he slammed his newly reformed heel down and Darius tried to reflect the energy back, but Julius caught the rebounding force with a copy of the same skill and reflected it back. Darius's head simply ceased to exist, vanishing along with a massive chunk of the arena floor as a crater bloomed beneath them.

  Just like that, Julius won.

  Wilhelm let out a low whistle. The others sat like stone, hiding their real reactions behind carefully schooled expressions. Though Fredrick seemed to be looking on gravely, as he probably thought others wouldn't even look at him. Even Theodore felt the urge to shift his gaze but he held focus.

  It was a cheap mind magic trick that might work on those with weaker willpower but felt like a gnat buzzing against his mental defenses. He doubted the others in the room were as affected as they were probably leading Fredrick to believe.

  Julius and Darius didn't materialize back into this VIP room. Darius probably just was back in the real world, while Julius was most likely sent to another VIP room meant for those making it to the next round.

  He was just enjoying his calm when Garrett had cornered Jason near the refreshments.

  It was a known fact that the Brennans were destroying the Kormack family. They were sabotaging their business, tangling with their contracts and bleeding them dry. The reason for the hostility was as far as Theodore knew quite petty.

  The Brennans had invited Jason to join their faction. Jason had denied them. Specifically, he had denied Garrett. Garrett was the one who extended the invite. Now Garrett was destroying everything Jason had so that he would have nothing left but to crawl back to him.

  "I heard the shipments were delayed again," Garrett said lightly. "Rotting in the heat, aren't they? Shame about the spoilage, need my help with that?"

  Theodore wished he had some popcorn. It seemed as though things were about to get heated. Though he paused, thinking for a moment. Since when did he start enjoying stuff like this? Had Freya been rubbing off him that much? Sure, he'd found it rather funny when Freya started to mellow down after meeting him, but given how much he was changing he didn't find it that funny anymore.

  Though then again he didn't really mind.

  Anyway, Jason stared at Garrett expressionlessly, just standing there bearing it silently. He didn't want to cause more problems for his family, it seemed, which made Garrett step closer,

  "And the permit for the new mine? Denied this morning, I believe. Improper paperwork. Your brother really is losing his touch, isn't he? It's sad to watch a house crumble in real time."

  Jason breathed slowly, keeping his hands unclenched at his sides. He knew better than to react it seemed. Garrett didn't like that. He stepped closer, invading Jason's personal space, leaning in to say:

  "You could have stopped it. All you had to do was say yes when I asked. But you're too proud. And now your family pays for your pride."

  "That's enough," Theodore said, walking over, "Yo, Jason, wanted to talk to you about that contract. Pretty sure it'll be beneficial for both of us."

  He lied, but Garrett didn't know that.

  Garrett paused, turning around slowly. The look on his face was pure fury. He was angry for reasons Theodore didn't know and didn't care to know. It was amusing, actually, seeing him worked up over some words.

  Garrett scoffed, straightening his jacket. He looked from Theodore to Jason.

  "Commoners like him should stay in their place," Garrett said. "On the ground."

  He turned and walked away.

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