A powerful explosion rocked the battlefield. It carried the force of a Heavenrender life formâs all-out blow, enough to catch Faidoâs attention. He checked the broadcast and rewound what had happened.
It was Dark Locust. He had dove straight into seven Earthsunder life forms and had detonated himself. The powerful blast killed two Earthsunder life forms and grievously injured the other five.
Faido felt a sharp pang in his chest when he realized he lost two Earthsunder life forms, a grim admiration followed. Whoever had nurtured such an extreme unit was a true maniac. To raise a single life form to the Earthsunder rank solely for the sake of one self-detonation defied all reason.
Only a lunatic would do something like that. Thankfully, the life form is now dead, and there wonât be further surprises from it.
That thought had just crossed Faidoâs mind when he suddenly noticed Dark Locustâs flesh slowly gathering at a single point. He had never expected that a life form capable of self-detonating could also revive itself, even if the revival speed was quite slow.
âQuick, seal it before it detonates itself again!â Faido shouted, issuing his first command of the death match.
The five injured Earthsunder life forms heard him and struggled to stand up. They burned their own life force to squeeze out the last of their strength to seal Dark Locust.
At the same moment, Han Wu gave a silent order. âUse the battle tactics of the undead!â
Six of Jing Jingâs Earthsunder skeletons received the command. They burst from their hiding spots and charged at their enemies. The five injured Earthsunder life forms failed to completely seal Dark Locust before numerous bone spikes pierced them.
Clinging to their final scraps of strength, they fell one after another and became lifeless corpses. However, the six undead didnât stop there. They surrounded the seven corpses and summoned their skeletons as allies.
The effect was very prominent since the seven undead were Earthsunder life forms. The skeletons slowly peeled away from their previous fleshy coffins and rose upright. Four retained their Earthsunder powers, while the remaining three had fallen to the Sage rank.
Their tactic stunned Faido. He had lost seven Earthsunder life forms, while Han Wu had gained four! A quick calculation made the imbalance clear. He now had one fewer Earthsunder life form than Han Wu.
Itâs blatant trickery!
Faido hated underhanded tactics like this.
He was about to stop the match when Han Wu interjected, âMy apologies, Lord Faido. My undead have turned yours into undead as well. I doubt this is something you would get angry over, right? I recall that you were the one who said no one may surrender in a death match until one side is completely eradicated. I wonder if you are a man of your word, Lord Faido.â
Faido grumbled and swallowed his retort. Han Wu was right. For the sake of his honor, Faido had to remain silent and continue watching the match.
With the addition of four new Earthsunder skeletons, the Blood Coliseumâs faction became stronger. The ten Earthsunder skeletons stood together and emanated a dense miasma of death. Others could smell it before they even saw them. Any opponent who hesitated while fleeing would be dragged by the skeletons and killed on the spot.
With the aid of the God King of Deathâs sixteen Death Knights and the God King of Darknessâ Dark Skelegon, the undead proved exceptionally powerful in this death match. All forty-two undead banded together and slaughtered every opponent they encountered.
None of the Asura Earthsunder life forms could withstand their onslaught. Worse still, after each kill, the undead turned their fallen enemies into skeletons.
The undead army grew as time passed.
Faidoâs fighters werenât as proficient in dealing with the undead as those from the Divine Civilization. Against such enemies, the only method they knew for permanent destruction relied on brute force that reduced bones to dust.
However, there were too many undead life forms. Most fighters found themselves facing the entire undead legion alone. Most of the time, no one even knew whose skeletons they were destroying.
It made no difference. If their bones broke, it only meant that the skeletons werenât strong enough. Those remains would serve a better purpose as nutrients for the other undead.
Some of the undead even attacked solely for the sake of bone dust, behaving as if they were about to snort a line!
The Asura Earthsunder life forms couldnât defeat the undead and chose to flee, but there was no escape. As time passed, more and more were hunted down until every last one of them was turned into an undead. That was how the Blood Coliseum won the second match.
The two sides quickly calculated their losses. The Asura Coliseum had lost 108 Earthsunder life forms, while the Blood Coliseum had gained sixty-nine Earthsunder undead and twenty-four Sage undead. Han Wu hadnât lost a single unit and even expanded his forces.
Nobody couldâve foreseen this outcome. Han Wu then made a grand announcement. Those who had loaned him their Earthsunder life forms would not only get them back but would also gain an Earthsunder undead.
Those who had withdrawn their units before the second match now regretted their decision. Even though they had suffered no losses, they felt that they had missed a chance to earn a fortune.
On the other hand, those who had loaned their units knew that they had struck rich. A single Earthsunder skeleton was a rare asset, capable of generating enormous profit with nothing more than tossing it into a mine. Even if their divine realms were unsuitable for raising undead life forms, they could simply sell them. The price of a powerful Earthsunder skeleton was unquestionably high.
The second death match ended amid laughter and mourning.
With the Blood Coliseumâs victory, the two sides now stood on equal footing. The third match would be decisive, determining whether the Asura Coliseum would succeed in their challenge.
Before the start of the third match, Faido invoked his authority to add a new condition. In this round, the undead would be forbidden from raising more undead from corpses.
Han Wu answered with a condition of his own: none of the life forms could recover the wounds they sustained.
Faido's eyes narrowed as he glared at him.
How does he know my secret?
Those familiar with the Asura Coliseum knew that Faido and his underlings shared a defining trait: powerful regenerative properties. Their recovery speed was five to ten times faster than that of others.
This rapid regeneration allowed them to endure heavier injuries during battle and exploit those moments to seek out their enemiesâ weaknesses, turning apparent defeat into victory. If Han Wu sealed their regeneration, the Asura combatants would find their battle prowess sharply reduced, as if their limbs were shackled.
Still, to prevent the tragedy of the second death match, Faido agreed.