The arena suddenly went dark for the next fight.
The lights shut off, and the sound of the gate creaked open. Meanwhile, in Cane's hand dropped a long, thin estoc. He weighed it in his hands, although it wouldn't be of much use.
After all, since the arena was dark, Cane's vision would be hindered. In such a scenario, having a blade which could slash would be extremely helpful. Unfortunately, the estoc had no edge - it could only be used for thrusts.
At least, that was probably what the host was saying. But Cane had a secret. A very interesting secret.
Hidden Strength.
While it might be thought of as a physique buffing skill, the main idea behind it was that you could get stronger as long as the target couldn't see you. With a range of 150 metres, Hidden Strength could sense every living being within that radius - thus, Cane could still locate his opponent. Of course, it couldn't give off the best shape, but it was more accurate than Divine Treasure Eyes.
Cane silently chose the creature in his range as his second target. Once he did so, he instantly felt himself gaining double the strength. With that, he had a pretty good idea of what he was facing up against.
You see, if the creature needed a dark space, that could only mean one thing. It either had insane vision, an insane nose, or insane hearing. Cane could instantly cross off the nose, since if the creature could really smell him, it'd have attacked by now.
Cane had been standing there silently for quite a while, after all. As for the vision, if Hidden Strength activated, that could only mean it didn't have good vision. Thus, as long as Cane kept silent, his enemy would most likely be unable to locate him.
This kind of difficulty is a bit much for a rank 2 monster. That can only mean it has some drastic weaknesses. If I can discover these weaknesses, then I can kill it without any issues. Cane pondered to himself for a moment, before reaching down and fumbling around.
Finally, he got his hands on a rock, which he promptly flung far away from himself. Cane wanted to see how the creature attacked people.
Clang!
The rock hit the metal walls of the arena, and instantly a hissing sound could be heard. From there, the sounds of flapping ensued, before a final, loud clang!
The audience most likely thought Cane wouldn't know what had happened, but Cane knew. He could see, using Hidden Strength, that the creature could fly. It also was quite fast, and that clang had been from the creature hitting the wall by accident.
Cane began to silently walk to the nearest wall, going carefully - careful enough to make no noise as he touched the wall. He then began to walk with his hand on the wall, circling the arena.
...
"Now, this one's gonna be interesting. He's facing up against Owl-Rat. Owl-Rats are night creatures, and they face a severe disadvantage. In fact, the disadvantage is so great that some experts suspect that they're a mistake of nature. Their info can be found in The Record of Unusual Creatures."
The event host began to excitedly explain the abilities of the Owl-Rat while Cane circled the arena.
"Owl-Rats have terrible vision, which makes things difficult for them to hunt. Furthermore, as a type of avian bird, they have zero sense of smell." The host paused for dramatic effect. "However! They have some of the most sensitive hearing in any monster, even better than most rank 3 monsters!"
The Chief nodded, looking at Cane from above. "Owl-Rats attack using their tail, which is the only powerful part of their body. It's quite hard and tough, enough to pierce and kill it's opponents. This comes at a cost - the rest of its body is fragile, barely as strong as a rank 1."
How is Cane going to go about it this time?
...
Clang!
Another rock hit the wall opposite to Cane. He then stared, watching as the target drew near the wall. The moment it went clang! again, he knew that whatever the creature was using to attack, it was long and powerful.
For the next few minutes, Cane would continuously circle the arena while periodically throwing rocks at the wall in the opposite direction. After a while, he knew the general range of attack which this rank 2 monster had.
And the range?
It was only about two thirds of the estoc blade's length. Therefore, as long as Cane positioned his estoc correctly using Divine Treasure Eyes and killed the creature on the spot, he should be able to take it out before it could hurt him. Theoretically.
However, that wasn't enough. After all, the audience and the Chief Cleanser were both watching. Cane didn't have any good explanation for his ability to see his opponent, and he knew it'd be suspicious if he "luckily" killed his enemy before it could kill him. The Chief Cleanser was especially dangerous.
He was a Master rank awakened. If Cane was questioned by such a person, his secrets might be revealed.
Whatever he was facing, it was definitely intelligent, just like the Shadow-Raven from before. After a few throws, the creature had already been conditioned to realise that the enemy wasn't where the rock clangs would sound.
Thus, Cane was about to change that.
He picked up a rock, took a deep but quiet breath, and threw it at the wall he was standing next to. As expected, the enemy didn't move. Then, Cane let out a series of coughs before silently leaping into the air and away from his previous location.
Fwoosh! Clang!
The enemy had charged at Cane's previous location. Unlike before, Cane was now revealing his location whenever the rock clanged against the wall. The monster knew this too - but there were still no results. Cane was simply too fast. After all, his current strength, with two Hidden Strength markers activated, was at the Warrior rank.
Each time, the creature would return back to the middle of the arena. As Cane alternated between revealing his location and staying quiet, the creature became confused and began to stay in the middle, regardless of whether he was actually making noise or not.
Now it's time for a performance.
...
Cane had made a show of counting on his hands, seemingly counting the time that the creature flew for. No one - not the audience, nor the event host, nor the Chief - knew how he was calculating it, but they realised that the counting must've had something to do with location revealing.
Because, Cane suddenly turned and pointed at the middle of the arena, directly where the Owl-Rat was located. This quietened the speculative chatter which had previously been going on in the audience. Of course, Cane didn't know since he couldn't hear the audience.
Cane began to slowly creep towards the Owl-Rat. The suspense was really getting to Gabriel and Susie, who both cringed from behind their screen in fear. And then, their greatest fear came true.
Cane's foot caught on an uneven part of the terrain - in fact, it was the hole which had been made from Cane's spear in the previous round. As Cane began to fall, he threw another rock at the wall as hard as he could.
CLANG!!
This noise was the loudest - with his full strength, it even dented the wall slightly, much to the Chief's amazement.
"Either this kid has a physique buffing skill, or he does crazy amounts of exercise..." The Chief muttered under his breath with a glint in his eyes.
The Owl-Rat was naturally startled, but ignored the noise. It also failed to hear the sound of Cane hitting the ground, as the other noise masked it out. He was safe again, making Susie and Gabriel deflate like balloons, feeling relieved.
Finally, Cane managed to reach the Owl-Rat. His eyes grew fierce, and in one ruthless thrust, the estoc lunged forward! The Owl-Rat felt the shift in the air currents and heard something coming whistling towards it.
The two monsters faced off, each of their pointed weapons aimed at the head!
Squelch!
The estoc went through the front of the Owl-Rat's head, instantly killing the creature! As for the Owl-Rat's tail, it ended up a mere 10 centimetres away from Cane's head. A close call.
The entire audience sighed with relief, and the Chief Cleanser also smiled with great happiness. The lights flickered back on, letting Cane see the creature. It was an owl-ish looking creature, with a snout and a tail.
"All in all, a perfect display of tactics and information gathering by Cane Hunter!" The event host began to break down the moves. "First, we can see that Cane had already measured the range of attack which the Owl-Rat had when he was throwing those rocks! They also served the purpose of making the monster let its guard down! Next..."
...
The event host continued to talk, but down below, Cane didn't care. Well, he couldn't even hear the man's voice, but even if he could, he would've laughed. After all, everything he'd done in the match was nothing but a performance. If Cane really wanted to, he could've ended it right there at the start.
Cane's estoc was taken away, and he sat down on the ground to rest. Naturally, his power went back down from Warrior to Apprentice Warrior, since the Owl-Rat had been killed. Hidden Strength once again had an empty slot which could be used.
Yeah, I made a good decision keeping this slot empty. I should always leave one empty in the future. Cane was already planning his future, as well as what plans he should take for his skills.
Alright, 2 down, 3 to go.
And then I can fight that rank 3.