Chapter 313 - 313 Good Times

"Run and eat his eyes before they melt. You don't have much time," Noah told the imp with healing habilities that was outside just a second ago, and for everyone outside, vanished into a magic circle with a burst of flames. It's claws quickly pulled the eyes through the visor of the armor, though burning them and its hands in the process. Yet, the imp was unphased by the pain. "I raised them well," Noah muttered, before staring forward, and dispelling the dome of fire.

All eyes turned towards the young man as the dome of fire vanished, expecting a seemingly obvious outcome that did not happen.

A loud siren broadcasted the end of the fight to the flabbergasted audience, and to the members of the audience still in the arena. Michael and the bearded warrior looked at each other in shock, seeing the imp stretch it tongue and swallow something while licking its claws. They had seen them do this many times already during this fight, and it never ceased to amaze them. But above all, they saw the fire seeping through the holes in the shield blessed's armor, and the sword Noah was resting on his shoulder.

This could only mean one thing, he'd wiped them out.

"N—Noah!" the healer sprung to her feet, breaking into a run towards him.

{What in the world has happened here, Toboco? Are you seeing what I'm seeing?}

{I am, Tixinha, I am. It seems the Khan Family has overcome everything thrown at it with flying colors. Just who in the world is that Blessed who managed to take on two of the best among the Nine Families and even come out almost unscathed?}

'Aren't those the voices of the guys from the Valorwatch contest? Just where did they come from?' Noah thought in confusion at the voices, different from the annoying host he remembered talking before he started fighting the Hyu Family leader, all while he saw the girl running towards him with teary eyes. 'I also need to deal with this girl behaving like this...' he looked at her with his usual poker face, lowering the sword from his shoulder so that she wouldn't hurt herself. The girl, on the other hand, saw that as a clear invitation, and proceeded to hug him dearly.

"Thank god you're okay... I was so worried when I saw that guy jump through the fire thing you had set up. How did you pull it off? He was stupid strong!" she said, hugging him even more strongly.

'Why the heck is this girl doing this?! And why are you letting her do it? Since when do you let females touch you like this?' Lilith voiced her complaint with annoyance, circling around his neck underneath the armor.

'And since when do you care about what other women do to me? Are you, perhaps, jealous, Lilith?' Noah retorted back in thought, teasing her.

'Humpf! As if! You can let her do whatever, it's not like I care.' Noah was surprised she even did the huffing sound in thought, but found it deeply amusing so he just laughed her jealousy off as funny. However, he too had a thought on the matter.

'Why is this girl doing it like this? I'm sure hugging me while in armor is very uncomfortable. Also... is she doing this on purpose so that everyone sees us?' he thought to himself as his eyes wandered around the arena, a shiver going down his spine as he looked at the screen, which broadcasted him being hugged as a main attraction for everyone to see. 'Good thing I wore a helmet to every battle... Though someone probably leaked my face by now,' he almost talked to himself aloud, but just barely avoided it, hoping his anonimity would last at least until he arrived at Carlos' home. While this happened, a couple messages popped into his view, making him smile broadly.

[Large fragment of divinity absorbed. Stamina +10, HP +5]

[Large fragment of divinity absorbed. Strength +10 Mana +5]

[The Skill [Impenetrable Selfless Bastion] was absorbed.]

"I was just lucky. You guys had made him tired enough I could handle him," Noah brushed her off, extremely curious about the new things he'd earned, putting one of his hands on her shoulder. "We should go with the rest now. If we don't leave now, they'll annoy us all night," he told her with his usual emotionsless tone. At the same time, he undid his summons, making the remaining imps disappear into small fire puffs. After she turned around, he accompanied her by walking by her side, his free hand on her shoulder further from him, only increasing the image of a pair of close friends, or so he thought.

"Noah, you crazy fucking bastard!" the bearded warrior yelled as the pair approached them, using his knees to prop himself up and greet him. "You actually pulled it off... I thought we'd have to find a new assassin," he told him while putting his hand out, calling for him to shake his hand.

"No, you guys are the amazing ones. He came to me almost powerless already," Noah said while holding his hand normally.

"Don't be this humble, I knw yo—ow—Thank you for acknowledging our feats." The bearded warrior quickly changed his mind about talking, backtracking in less than a full second.

Michael held himself from laughing as he saw the bearded warrior flinch from Noah's grip. Something he himself could only do by using his entire grip strength and even them, only if he caught him by surprise. "Oh well, we better get going. We need to see how the rest is doing," he told the entire group, making the rest of the group stand up in a hurry.

Under the gaze of everyone, including the survivors from the Hyu Family, the Khan Family warriors made them way out of the arena and into the waiting room, where three of their companions already waited for them.

"Congratulations, we fucking did it!" A female warrior welcomed them in, as they dropped themselves onto the seats, exhausted.

"Let's agree to never join this arena again, okay?" the scout dropped himself next to Noah and the healer, putting his head between his hands. "Holy shit I thought I was gonna die!" he said while throwing his head back, staring at th ceiling of the waiting room. "Yo, Michael, do we need to attend the social event after this? I really just wanna go home now..." he said, sharing everyone's opinion.

"Eh? What social event?" But Noah's, since he didn't even know there was going to be something going on next.

"Same thing as that meet-up before the finals, but to congratulate us on winning and whatever. We might as well just leave already. I'm almost dead too," Michael himself was completely laid back, is bow hanging from his shoulder while he stared at the ceiling. "Someone should show up soon to give us the prize for today's thing."

Almost as if to confirm what he was saying, the group heard a knock on the door of the waiting room. "I came to deliver the Essence," a muffled voice could be heard as a large back was thrown into the room. It was a larger bag than Noah had imagined, but obviously it had over a hundred Essences, so it was bound to be massive. As Michael stood up, and began distributing them around almost like shuffling, Noah furrowed his brows since nobody gave him a single Essence. He took of his helmet, putting it on his lap as he stared blankly at Michael as he distributed six units of Essence to each person of their group, suddenly stopping. Noah had alread figured something was slightly off, since he was not taking a single unit thus far, though Michael was taking care to give the healer by his side her share.

While he distributed the essence, the remaning members of the group came back, taking their places all around the room, and beeing handed their share of the essence so far by Michael as soon as they sat down. However, Noah only grew more anxious as time passed, and every time the healer stared at him with her shining eyes, his calmness went out the window inwardly.

"Stop looking at me like that, it's bad for my heart," he said when he catched her staring at him like before, looking at her with a b;ank expression. Though considering his perfect face was looking at her in the eyes from this close, his intention was clearly mistaken for something else.

"Call me by my name, It's Sha," she said, putting her hand on her chest.

"Sha, I see. Then, Sha, could you please stop looking at me like that?" he asked, making her heart skip a beat.

"Now, one thing we should address," Noah tensed up as he heard Michael start speaking, the two of them quickly going back to paying attention to him. He knew no good ever came from having leaders interrupt their tasks right in the middle of them, and this was probably not going to be an exeption. "Noah was the person who did the best out of all of us this fight, singlehandedly taking care of all three of the most important people from their side. Aside from his help on all previous battles, and the Imps who helped us massively, I feel he deserves a larger reward for all his efforts than we do. Especially after we convinced him to join this on our side. Anyone disagrees on giving the rest of the Essence to him?" Michael's proposal left him astounded, but also glad.. After all, aside from the fact there was still two Essences per person, there was also the Essence that would've belonged to those who died still in the bag.