The Berserker’s Second Playthrough Novel - Chapter 97

Chapter 97
## Chapter: 97

### Chapter Title: Arena King (4)

—

Yubik made his introduction, offering a stream of sycophantic praise regarding the reputation of the “Demon Slayer.” He relentlessly courted Kadim, promising that the man possessed the inherent qualities of a legendary combatant.

Kadim, however, rejected the proposal without hesitation.

“I have no interest. I don’t perform as a jester for the colosseum.”

“…….”

Yubik remained undeterred. A slight color touched his cheeks, but his grin didn’t falter as he continued his pitch.

“Hahaha, a jester! To be encircled by the masses, putting on a performance for their entertainment—perhaps there is truth in that. But consider this. Even the deities in the firmament beyond those mists are perpetually observing us. In the grand design, are we not all mere jesters for the world at large?”

“…….”

“Furthermore, few jesters possess the dignity, wealth, and acclaim of a gladiator! Once you secure the title of victor, the riches and prestige you will collect will astound you. Between us, that renowned Agon’s Furious Horn? You could say I molded him into what he is today…….”

In that moment, he didn’t resemble a powerful tycoon of the pits. He looked like an old-school talent scout, wagging his tongue desperately to secure a rare talent that radiated like a gemstone.

Adonis was floored. He had never witnessed this ill-tempered mogul groveling with such humility. Granted, the Demon Slayer was a significant target, proving Yubik had sharp instincts… but for Adonis, who had escorted him here expecting a swift execution, the situation was utterly bizarre.

Kadim, meanwhile, stayed completely indifferent. His purpose was to slay a fraudulent hero and take back his prized steel. He had no intention of squandering his days pretending to be a gladiator.

The tedious attempt at coercion stretched on without end.

Eventually, as the denials mounted and the sales talk persisted, Kadim’s tolerance finally snapped.

“I told you I’m not interested. Has the grease in your head finally blocked your hearing?”

“…….”

“You claim you mentored Agon’s Furious Horn? Then give me his location and shut your filthy mouth.”

A freezing stillness took hold of the room.

Adonis felt a wave of nausea. This sellsword had just insulted a man of immense power in the most egregious manner possible.

Yubik felt the heat of fury rise to his face. Had he been thinking rationally, he might have responded with more tact or guile. But in this heartbeat, he could not suppress the overwhelming emotion.

The haze of his earlier drinking evaporated instantly.

Bang! – !

“You… clearly fail to realize who you are addressing.”

His tone transformed in a heartbeat—becoming haughty and freezing. His yellowed eyes fixed a glare on the massive mercenary.

“Kuhuhu, it’s that ignorance that allows you to be so bold… It seems the uncivilized always start to overstep when they are treated with kindness… Much like some delusional champion who loses his sense of place and fails to recognize his patron…….”

“…….”

“You seek ‘Agon’s Furious Horn,’ do you…? Very well, I shall provide a lead myself… though there is no promise you will actually come face-to-face…….”

Yubik hauled his massive frame to its feet and waddled out of the reception hall. Kadim followed with a stoic expression. Adonis trailed behind them in a panic, a heavy sense of dread settling in his stomach regarding their destination.

The Arena King guided them toward the expansive training grounds located in the estate’s rear gardens.

“Hup!”

“Hah, hup!”

The space was vast enough to accommodate a small battalion. Scores of mercenaries were drenched in sweat under the harsh sun, engaged in violent practice. Upon seeing their heavy-set employer arrive, they ceased their actions in perfect synchronization and offered a salute.

“Attention! Salute the Grand Master!”

““Loyalty! Honor to the winner, demise to the defeated!””

“Loyalty! Honor to the winner, demise to the defeated! Training proceeds without incident, Grand Master!”

The discipline mirrored a military unit. Yubik pushed out his prominent stomach with pride as he walked through the ranks of sellswords.

At the heart of the grounds stood sun-darkened Atalans with ink carved into their flesh—combatants of the Indomitable Legion, the elite gladiators funded by Yubik.

The fighters lowered their scimitars and bucklers the moment he appeared. Rather than a formal salute, they struck their chests in the traditional Atalan greeting. Yubik gave an impatient wave and shouted in a frustrated growl.

“Hey, this fellow is searching for Agon’s Furious Horn. You people should give him some assistance.”

“……That presents a difficulty, Grand Master. Did we not inform you? The Great Warrior is refusing visitors currently. The last contact was a week ago…….”

“No, this takes precedence over my concerns. He claims he intends to slay Agon’s Furious Horn.”

Yubik gestured with a stubby finger. At the end of that gesture stood a towering man of intimidating proportions.

The group of warriors narrowed their eyes, staring at Kadim as one.

Initially, they recoiled slightly at his massive frame and grim expression. But that intimidation passed quickly. Battles weren’t decided by height alone, and they believed no lone fighter, regardless of skill, could best them all.

Scorn and resentment bubbled up moments later.

“A kinsman we haven’t encountered before… Have you come to join the ranks of the arena?”

One fighter stepped forward, masking his hostility with a fake smile. However, the pulse in his temple throbbed, and his hands were balled into tight knots.

“Hahaha… Don’t be so tense. I see your ambition. Every fighter here has harbored the dream of challenging the ‘Great Warrior’ at least once. But you understand, don’t you? He is the savior who thwarted the demon host and preserved the pact. He isn’t someone a common mercenary can simply demand to fight.”

“…….”

“The Father of the Wilderness commands us to be courageous, but not suicidal. Here, test yourself against us first. You will quickly come to understand your true standing…….”

As he reached out to grip Kadim’s shoulder to show dominance, Kadim caught his wrist first and wrenched it. The fighter’s heavy body was hoisted up, rotated in the air, and slammed violently into the ground.

Bang! – !

“……Huh?”

His wrist was twisted into an unnatural shape, the palm facing where the knuckles should be. The fighter stared at his limb, paralyzed by shock.

“Curse him!”

“Ready your steel!”

The others moved with more urgency. Detecting the scent of blood, they gripped their scimitars and shields. But before they could coordinate their line, Kadim launched his heavy axe with the force of a thunderclap.

Clattercrash, boom! – !

“Gahk!”

The man with the shield was thrown back as if hit by a falling tree. His metal protection buckled like thin foil, his forearm snapping into fragments. Even then, Kadim was restraining his full power.

The rest swarmed forward with blades high.

“Atala!!”

“Atala!!”

Kadim intercepted the incoming steel with a horizontal sweep of Blood Ghost. The collision produced a high-pitched scream of metal as the scimitars shattered into pieces.

Shriiing! – !!

He slammed a boot into the one stumbling from the impact. Those in the rear fell over like a collapsing row of tiles. Before they could scramble up, he crushed their skulls with the heavy pommel of his weapon. Bone gave way; three fighters rolled their eyes back and lost consciousness in seconds.

“Watch out! He’s no common thug!”

“Surround him! Use the javelins to pin him down, strike from the flanks… Gurk!”

It was a brutal display of dominance. The resistance was pointless.

If any of them had been part of the hunt on the Golden Highway… or if Yubik had simply whispered the name “Demon Slayer”… they might have made a different choice. But he had remained silent, so the fighters continued to charge blindly, unaware of the predator they were facing, only to be broken.

Kadim didn’t lose sight of his goal. The instigator who was cheering this on. These men were merely tools. To stop this, he had to take out the source.

He violently cleared the remaining nuisances around him, then pivoted and lunged like a hawk. A javelin whistled past his spine, but he evaded it with grace and reached the obese man in a heartbeat, seizing his collar and lifting him off the ground.

“Gek! Kek, guh!”

The massive, pig-like man hung weightlessly in the air.

“N-No, this is impossible…….”

“Unbelievable…….”

A display of strength that ignored the laws of nature. Every sellsword present froze in disbelief, failing to defend their employer.

Kadim wrinkled his nose in disgust and spoke through clenched teeth.

“Some lead you are. You can’t even secure an audience yourself—what were you planning, sending me to find them?”

“Kek, keh, guh… hek…….”

Yubik’s complexion turned a dark shade of violet. His cheeks trembled, and his protruding stomach shook violently. Normally, a man like him would descend into a state of panic and pleading. But the Arena King was made of different stuff.

Only then did Kadim catch on. Curse it, he used those idiots as bait to gauge my prowess. I walked straight into his trap.

But he wouldn’t allow himself to be manipulated further.

Thud! – !

“Guhk!”

“Grand Master!”

He dropped the man like trash and leveled Blood Ghost at his windpipe. Yubik barely avoided the shimmering crimson edge by a fraction of an inch.

Kadim issued a frigid warning, the steel grazing the skin.

“You have seen enough of what I can do. The next time we speak, bring a legitimate contact. You have twenty-four hours.”

“Cough, hek, haa…….”

“Fail in that, and I will use my blade to strip every ounce of fat from your bones.”

Having said his piece, Kadim sheathed his blade and walked away across the training grounds.

Stunned silence hung over the yard. No one had the courage to follow him immediately. There were only vacant stares and the groans of the fallen left in the wake of the beast.

“Ugh, uuuugh…….”

“……C-Chase after him!!”

“No, tend to the Grand Master first!”

The mercenaries finally snapped out of their trance. Half went after Kadim; the others swarmed around Yubik. Adonis, who had been observing from the sidelines, joined the crowd.

“Grand Master, are you unharmed?!”

“Are you injured anywhere…….”

The panicked medics and guards fell silent as they reached him, stopping in their tracks.

They had anticipated screams, fury, a violent outburst—something. Even while coated in the dust of his public shaming…

The Arena King simply beamed with the manic joy of a prospector who had just found the motherlode.

Adonis, the medic representing the Agon faction, was in a state of deep anxiety.

How had the situation decayed so rapidly?

Yubik wasn’t merely a benefactor. Given his volatile temper, he could bankrupt the faction’s treasury on a whim. The physicians always performed with extreme caution, ensuring not a single mistake occurred during his appointments.

All that caution had been for nothing. Adonis felt a deep pang of regret. Why had he ever brought that human-shaped demon to meet Yubik?

He’d had a plan. The Arena King had personally mentored Agon’s Furious Horn. If told the man was a hazard, he would have removed him instantly. Instead, he had looked upon the mercenary with avarice, creating this disaster.

There was no changing it now. As Adonis prepared himself to suggest a trap and subsequent execution…

“Find a way to persuade the Demon Slayer to step into the arena.”

“……I beg your pardon?”

“He will be more inclined to listen to you than to me. You have developed a history with him.”

…came another completely shocking instruction.

Yubik took a long swig directly from a jug of pungent liquor. Adonis knit his brows in sheer confusion.

“Grand Master, did you not see? He is not a man so much as an unbridled animal. And, if I may speak frankly… the word is that he has already slaughtered many in the Galentana criminal world and is the prime suspect in the murder of a prominent university faction medic…….”

“That university medic—was he not your competitor? And the criminals are in league with those people, I’ve heard. If anything, perhaps one of your own kind has already utilized him.”

“B-But Grand Master, he stated clearly that he intends to kill Agon’s Furious Horn…….”

“Personal vendettas are separate from commerce. Consider this: collaborating once does not mean you are bound to the same camp forever, correct?”

The more he consumed, the sharper his flushed expression became. His voice turned to a needle of cold irony. It was a warped perspective, but one difficult to dispute.

Yubik tilted his head back with an arrogant air and growled.

“He neutralized ten men single-handedly. Ten. And not amateurs, but the gladiators of the Indomitable Legion—in the blink of an eye!”

“…….”

“I used to believe Agon’s Furious Horn was the crowning achievement of my career. But now… a treasure that might eclipse him has surfaced. For that opportunity, I would tolerate any shame, any danger. Being hauled up by my collar? That is a small price.”

“…….”

“And the idea that you cannot direct the Demon Slayer? You simply haven’t identified the correct chain. I will take care of that. Your job is merely to lead him to the stadium gates. Surely a physician of the council can manage a simple task like that?”

Adonis paused, shifting his gaze. Yubik noticed the hesitation and barked sharply.

“Oh, and you are aware of how much I detest others tampering with my chosen prizes…?”

“…….”

“Toxins, physical harm, shadow-work… Go ahead, plot with your peers and put so much as a nick on the Demon Slayer. I promise you that your funding certificates for the next quarter will be nothing but ‘zeros.'”

Those jaundiced eyes peered through Adonis’s internal monologue. It was the look of a man who had spent a lifetime wading through the blood-stained gold of the pits.

The young medic didn’t realize he was witnessing a plan to overthrow a champion. But one thing was crystal clear.

The ‘Arena King’ would force demons to tear each other apart if there was a profit to be made.

In the manor’s reception hall, cooled by stagnant breezes, the fair-haired medic shuddered in fear, while the bloated mogul’s eyes glittered with pure avarice.