Lost Origins: SS Ranked Awakening-Chapter 143: Rank 62

Once Ethan took his leave from the table, Liam sent a simple text to Sabrina.

<Ethan knows now. Found out from the family>

<Can you guess who it is?>

He closed the message interface and went back to his breakfast.

’This is good’

"It’s done, you just need to play your part now!"

Sabrina said to Asher who sat facing her.

"Alright! Let’s make sure we don’t screw this up!"

He walked away from her with a small smile on his face.

’I’m doing this for you lot!’

Asher’s mind flashed with the faces of his family; his mother, brother and the whole of the Black family.

They had been harboring hatred for the Aurora family, but no one had been tough enough to act on it. Just like Sabrina had said that night, those before him all accepted their fates without putting up a a fight.

He planned to change that soon, and whether or not they wanted it, they would be forced to join him when things finally came to light.

"This should narrow down the suspects!"

Sabrina muttered once Asher was gone, looking at a series of images in front of her. Several faces had been crossed out and there were only a couple left.

They were getting closer to singling out the active spies who reported directly to the family.

.....

BANG!

"What the hell?"

A group of guys questioned with dark faces as Ethan just spawned out of nowhere, throwing over their table and scattering their work space.

"You shouldn’t be asking that question, you know!"

Ethan said, picking up one of the seats he had knocked down so he could speak to them at eye level.

"You all should have seen this coming when you tried to take what wasn’t yours."

’As for the main guy, I’ll need to make some preparations before confronting him. These guys should do for now!’ 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

His curled as he flashed them his trademark smile.

"I’ve got a job to do, and you guys are key to my purpose, so we are going to have a very long and down to earth chat with each other!"

He said to those in front of him, his eyes flashing with mischievous and bad intents.

.....

"Hmm? What’s this??"

Kieran muttered with raised eyebrows at the message that had just been sent to him. It was an official message from the camp itself.

It had been a while since he had received anything of such nature.

Taking loose bites from his plate, he opened up the contents of the message only to wear a more suprised expression.

<Challenge Request from Dain Velkor, rank 62>

<Accept> <Decline>

A challenge request from someone he had never heard of.

’Shouldn’t this be impossible?’

Kieran wondered how a recruit with a higher rank managed to challenge him. What was in it for him if he won.

It was only becoming clearer by the day how messed up the camp was. Not everything was as they said and even all their talks about being impartial and fair was horseshit.

’Hmm? So that’s how it is!’

Kieran spotted something which explained why this challenge was possible.

It only said ’Challenge Request’ not ’Ranked Challenge Request’

This was more like the personal challenges the recruits used to settle disputes and misunderstandings between themselves. He didn’t know why someone like that would be sending him such a challenge though.

Kieran had long since come off the rankings after failing to participate in the monthly ten day fights.

He had gotten a bunch of challenges back then, but August made sure he couldn’t attend to them. Their training was far more important than staying on the list.

Naturally, the rules kicked in and Kieran was kicked off the list for not attending to the required number of fights needed to remain on the lost.

The only people excluded from that rule were the top 10. It was rare for them to see people bold enough to challenge them after all.

<Accept>

Kieran chose to accept the challenge. He had been looking for some spice in his recently boring life. This challenge was all he needed.

When he clicked on the Accept button, a couple of finer details popped out for him to read before he couldn’t back out any longer.

<Venue: Challenge Arena>

<Time: Your choice>

Kieran looked at the venue and the time given.

His opponent was even nice enough to let him choose whenever he felt was good enough for him.

’Let’s just do this now!’

Kieran thought, selecting the time to a few minutes away. The exact amount of time he needed to get there from here.

"Done!"

Kieran muttered, clicking the final button.

He rose from the table and made his way to the arena. Not before dropping a message for Danzo with the other chefs.

’This wasn’t what I was expecting!’

Kieran thought as he approached the arena. Even from that distance, he could hear the bustle that could only he made by a crowd, and just like he had guessed, he was met with a half filled arena.

At this point, Kieran was starting to doubt if they were all here for his match, but there were no signs of a recent battle on any of the stages.

He had also checked the arena’s waiting list, the place was free for today.

"He’s here!!"

A voice came from the audience and Kieran could feel several eyes lock onto him at the same time.

It seemed like they had been waiting for him after all, but why so many people he didn’t even know want to watch his fight? He just couldn’t wrap his head around it.

Obviously, the right person to ask that question would be his challenger, the very guy who was already perched up on the center of the stage, his back facing Kieran like the main character of the event.

’....’

"Well, this isn’t so personal anymore!"

Kieran was starting to feel skeptical about the whole fight. The personal challenges had gone from being ’personal’ to a full blown show.

To be able to get a crowd that filled half the arena? His opponent seemed more of an attention seeking diva than a warrior of the ranking list.

Kieran suppressed a chuckle and went up the stairs to meet up with his challenger. He hadn’t even done a background check on him like he would have. Was he that confident?

"Dain Velkor?"

"You’re late!"

Dain said, turning around to face Kieran fully.

’Late? Or you’re just too early!’

Kieran thought, looking at his watch. There were still a few minutes till the agreed time.

"So, let’s start!"

Kieran said, taking a few steps forward, but Dain raised his arm with a perplexed expression on his face.

Those words had caught him totally off guard.

"What do you mean? Don’t you want to know why I challenged you? Out of everyone in the camp, why you, why I went through the stress of spreading the word?"

Dain asked, feeling a little insulted that his efforts had gone unrecognized.

’Spread word?’

Kieran raised an eyebrow, taking a proper look at the recruit in front of him, clad in shiny and expensive looking pieces of amor....that was it.

The amour was the only notable thing about him, every other thing was average. Well, except from the way he carried himself—like the carrier of the Narcissistic personality disorder.

"I don’t. Let’s just fight and get this over with?"

Kieran dismissed all the questions. While he was slightly curious as to why he was being targeted, he didn’t care since he was also standing to gain from it.

"I see why you’re looked down upon. You don’t fit into out societal class. I’ll do everyone a favour of getting rid of you."

"It’s going to be nice wat—"

THUD!

The crowd went silent as Kieran disappeared from all their eyes, only for Dain to fall to the floor in a desperate attempt to dodge.

’Maybe the rank wasn’t bought or made up after all!’

"Save the speech till after?"

Kieran made his final proposal to the self obsessed opponent of his.

Dain unable to take such an embarrassment lightly had stopped talking, it seemed like he was going to have to go along with Kieran way and beat the shit out of him till he didn’t have the strength to do anything else but listen.

"Where’s your weapon? I heard you weild a scythe."

Dain said, pulling out a long staff.

"Didn’t bring it along!"

Kieran said, still standing casually.

"Are you kidding me? Don’t joke with your life?"

Dain threatened, feeling more insulted at how lightly Kieran took his presence.

But Kieran wasn’t joking, he didn’t bring his weapon. The scythe was nearing the end of its lifespan and Kieran just didn’t see this fight as something worth using a weapon over. His hands should be enough.

"Alright, then! I shouldn’t mind if you seek your death!"

Dain said, taking a stance and after sensing the agreement between both opponents, the system started a countdown above the stage.

<..3>

<2>

<1>

<Fight!>