Chapter 86: Author is dying

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*Crack!*

"Aaaaargh!!"

"Don't be such a cry baby, I just dislocated your limbs"

"Motherfucker... Aaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!"

*Cracking sounds!*

"And there goes the spine... Sorry about that"

The prisoner wanted to ask for forgiveness, but the pain he was feeling did not even allow him to talk. It was such a brutal method of torturing someone that he was really considering the option of dying just to free himself from Aspen's torture.

"Alright, that should be enough, I don't want to take things too far"

*Splat* 

Aspen smashed the prisoner's head with his foot and turned to look around him while carrying a rather satisfied expression on his face.

Twenty bodies lied there murdered by many different types of brutal methods. Be it decapitation, dismemberment, stabbing, or even body-crushing. The crowd was just looking at this sight with shocked eyes, after all, although they expected a bloody sight, they did not expect a prisoner to take things so far. Some even covered their children's eyes, because this view was really too much, even for the adults present.

The King had a grim expression on his face as he looked at Aspen with narrowed eyes. In the beginning, he thought that this man was just another fool who fell by his own means, but now it was something else. Not only did this incredibly dangerous man was captured by normally trained knights, but he was also brought here without any type of problem during the way... It was really too suspicious.

"Did he entered the [Clean-Up] on purpose?" Muttered the king as he looked at the savage scene in front of his eyes rather calmly. Yuuki, on the other hand, looked a bit sick, but still endured it and decided to continue observing what could happen with such a dangerous man.

"... Well, I am completely astonished at what my eyes have just seen... I think we will have to place an age restriction the next year..." The Presenter tried cheering up the public, and although some did laugh slightly, it did not work that much apparently.

"V-very well, Against everyone's expectation, this year survivor of the [Clean-Up] is the recently added participant, Aspen!!"

The crowd cheered at the end of the event, though not as lively as before. And it was then, the eyes of the presenter changed as he turned to look at Aspen with a rather grim expression on his face.

"Now, dear public, what do you say? Did this prisoner earn his freedom? Or does he deserve death anyway?"

The King looked at the crowd for some seconds, before he shook his head with a wry smile on his face. Princess Yuuki, who noticed her father's gesture, tilted her head in confusion and asked him the reason for his grim expression.

"Did something happen father?"

"They fear him, Yuuki. They don't want a man like him to walk outside freely without any kind of restriction. I don't think he will be allowed to live..."

"So he fought for nothing?"

"I could say so in a normal case... But something tells me he has a chance for survival... And if that happens, I think it might be a good idea to employ him as a knight. After all, now we know that the reason why he doesn't have any scars is not that he is inexperienced, but probably because no one had managed to hurt him in the past"

Yuuki nodded her head and looked at Aspen, who was eating another jerky with a bored expression, which was completely different from the one he had when killing those men.

The crowd started whispering among themselves, they knew that Aspen had won his freedom rightfully. But they were simply too scared of him to just let him be released just like that. Aspen was a stranger to them, they did not know his past, nor what kinds of other treacherous things had this man done before being captured because of banditry. If they released him from his chains, who knows what kind of horrible acts could this man do once finally free.

The man had handled completely alone twenty harshly trained men, without even suffering one injury. Thus, they all knew he was not something that could be handled easily if he did not act correctly even after being released.

A bandit with an unknown past, and horribly advanced assassination techniques. That was the first impression of Aspen that all the people present in the coliseum had. And first impressions are not something easily changed once they have happened, even more so if they are bad.

Soon, the public moved their hands to the front and showed their verdict. Although there were some people lifting their thumbs in a positive response to Aspen's freedom, they were a minority. More than 80% of the people at the coliseum had their thumbs pointing down, signaling that Aspen had to die.

Seeing this, Aspen just shook his head and sighed in disappointment. But he did not really move from the spot and waited for them to do something, he was after all, in no real danger here.

 The presenter was fast to act, as he left the arena right away and moved to the upper part of the coliseum.

"Very well, for the public's almost one-sided decision, Participant Aspen will not receive his right for freedom and will be executed on the spot! Prepare yourselves for the final struggle of this year's final survivor... Free the monsters!!"

*Criiiiiiiiiiieeeeee!*

The Iron gates stationed around the Coliseum opened, and soon strange screeching sounds started coming out from behind them.

Aspen who was looking calm until now turned to look at the opened gates with a curious expression on his face, but ended up widening his eyes when he saw what was coming his way.

A screen popped up in front of him, and he narrowed his eyes slightly seeing this different type of enemy for the first time in his whole life, or at least "This" life that is.

Three of these oversized ants started coming out after the Iron gates were opened. And Aspen, although not as relaxed as before, was still just looking at them calmly.

After all, these guys were not a problem anymore for the current him. True, they were able to easily rip apart one of his limbs if they caught them by using their ant-like mandibles. However, their most powerful attack against any other human could be easily countered by Aspen with ease, and without it, these ants were pretty defenseless before his attacks, more so when it was in a state of hunger like now.

The King, who saw Aspen situation from the Vip zone, just shook his head lightly before he started paying attention to Aspen's expression, but after noticing Aspen's impassive expression, even while facing the dangerous monsters that could take at least a whole squadron of soldiers to take down, he widened his eyes and looked with curiosity and anticipation to Aspen's next actions.

*Screeech...*

The Antlions started coming out while observing their surroundings carefully, they had not seen the light of day in many weeks, and now that they were being freed they were a bit dizzy because of the amount of light.

However, as they finally managed to see Aspen, all of them charged towards him with bloodshot eyes.

*Screeeeeeeeeech!!!*

Their speed started increasing at an extremely rapid pace, this was of course the special attack from these monsters. As its name said, they charged against their prey, and due to their special body, they could reach extreme speed while charging towards their enemies. Which in most cases could be severed in half whichever living being received the attack.

However, right when one of them was about to hit Aspen, his feet started glowing red and he smiled slightly seeing the incoming Antlion.

*Bam!!!*

Suddenly, Aspen disappeared from his previous position and appeared right in front of one of the Antlions. An aura similar to a shield appeared around him, and created an enormous shockwave after crashing against the Antlion's charge attack.

However, it did not budge an inch, and even made the Antlion retreat a little bit after receiving the hit, slightly crushing like that the hard golden exoskeleton that protected the Antlion's insides.

Seeing that, all of the people at the coliseum exclaimed in shock, and grew wide eyed at the sudden counter-attack of Aspen.

The King, who had been watching attentively every move Aspen did, opened his mouth widely in amazement, and leaned forward expecting to watch more closely the spectacle after seeing the strange technique that Aspen did.

"He... Blocked an Antlion's charge?!"

Jarron7

Please let me live... I am suffering...

Just joking, but this is too much. My own readers are making me overwork to death.

Incredible...