Chapter 91: A Succession of Challenges

"Muria, you have a challenge request."

"Is it from Heloise?" Muria, who was practicing spear techniques in the courtyard, asked with a hint of anticipation upon hearing Cassiel's words.

"No, it's from Gerald."

"He's challenging me!" Muria raised an eyebrow and huffed lightly, "Accept it. I'm a bit frustrated and need to vent."

...

"Hey! Muria, I just got the news that your special training ended, so I immediately issued a challenge." Gerald, already waiting in the arena, grinned somewhat smugly as he saw Muria emerge from the teleportation array. "I'm the first to challenge you, right?"

Seeing Gerald excitedly holding his spear, Muria nodded, "You're the first. What? Besides you, are there other Titans challenging me?"

"If it wasn't for Heloise blocking them, there would have been others challenging you already."

"Is that so!"

"Muria, you've trained under Heloise for so long, how's your martial prowess?"

"Why don't you find out?" Muria twisted his arm, creating a gust of wind, and charged at Gerald, who was eager and rubbing his hands together.

"Muria!" Seeing the punch wrapped in wind and thunder coming towards him, Gerald planted his spear into the ground, shouting Muria's name, and raised his own fist wrapped in thunder to meet it, just like the first time they met.

"Boom!" The two thirty-meter tall Titans clashed fist against fist, and the explosive shockwave swept across the empty arena, with shattered arcs of electricity and fine blades of wind scattering around.

"Step!" "Step!"... In this clash of power, Gerald involuntarily took several steps back, each step sinking into the ground, shattering it underfoot.

"Your strength?" Gerald looked incredulously at the footprints he left on the ground, then at Muria, who was in his Titan form, "It's still increasing? How long has it been?"

"My strength has increased!" Muria himself was somewhat unsure as he looked at his hands. Being constantly suppressed by Heloise in sparring, he hadn't noticed his own strength growth.

But judging by how he just repelled Gerald with one punch—when they had first met, they were evenly matched—it was clear that his strength had indeed increased.

"Still want to fight?" Muria clenched his fist, and even the air popped lightly as he made the gesture.

"Of course." Gerald's face lit up with even more excitement. The Titan youth charged forward, fists raised, eagerly engaging Muria again.

Time passed... "Thump!" Muria kicked out unrelentingly, his foot landing on Gerald's arms, shattering the swirling barrier of thunder he had conjured.

Under the terrifying brute force amplified by his martial skills, Gerald's robust form staggered backward, his feet carving long trenches in the ground.

Seeing Gerald withstand so many of his heavy blows yet still standing, Muria advanced with large strides, "Gerald, you can't handle it. Pick up your spear."

"Muria, don't underestimate me," Gerald grinned stubbornly as he pulled his legs out of the ground, "Unless you use a weapon too, I absolutely will not."

"Sigh." Muria, through the faint connection in his soul, began summoning his spirit, "Cassiel, send over that spear I was practicing with just now."

"Understood."

"Buzz!" A small teleportation array just a few sizes thicker than Muria's wrist appeared next to his hand, and shortly, a section of a silvery-grey alloy spear shaft made from several special metals slowly emerged.

"Clang!" Muria grabbed the spear shaft and drew the spear, flourishing it elegantly, the spearpoint directly aiming at Gerald, "Now, pick up your weapon."

"Heloise taught you weapon combat?" Gerald pulled his spear from the ground and asked Muria.

"No." Muria narrowed his eyes as he responded. Heloise had only taught him hand-to-hand combat and not how to fight with weapons.

"Then wait to be thrashed. Fighting with long weapons is completely different from hand-to-hand combat."

"Beat me first then say that." As they spoke, Muria gripped the traditional-looking spear in his hand and thrust it at Gerald, who had become more menacing with his spear in hand.

"Clang! Clang! Clang!..." The sound of metal weapons clashing lasted only a moment because, after dozens of exchanges, Gerald flicked Muria's spear out of his hands with a single spear thrust.

"Muria, I told you, fighting with long weapons isn't the same as melee combat." Gerald, somewhat triumphant, pointed his spear at Muria's throat, "You lost."

"I lost?" As Muria spoke, dragon scales emerged across his body, six sinuous horns sprouted from his forehead like a crown, and behind him, broad dragon wings spread out, his dragon tail with a lance-shaped tip lashing through the air with a whooshing sound.

"Can your spear pierce my dragon armor, Gerald?" Muria's voice changed, resonating with a deep timbre from behind the bone mask covering his face.

"Muria, you said no using the golden dragon bloodline armor," Gerald challenged as soon as Muria's dragon armor appeared, thrusting his spear which only sparked against Muria's golden bone chestplate.

"I already fought you in my Titan form and bare-handed." Muria chuckled, raising his hand and clashing it with his palm, producing a dull metallic sound, "Let's go again."

"This form, I just can't fight it." Gerald, frustrated, stowed his spear as a teleportation array appeared beneath his feet, "I concede. Next time, I'll compete with you again."

"Sure." Muria pointed at Gerald's spear, "Remember to bring your weapon when you challenge me. I want to practice with long weapons; I don't want any weaknesses."

Muria had honed all his weapon skills in the Abyssal training ground by slaying demons. While fighting "weak" demons with weapons revealed no issues, facing his peer Titans immediately exposed his deficiencies.

"Got it, just don't reject my challenges," Gerald said as he left the arena amid the white teleportation light.

"Cassiel," Muria called out to his spirit, preparing to leave the arena.

"Muria, you have received eleven challenge requests. Do you accept?" Cassiel's voice echoed through the empty arena.

"Eleven?" Muria was stunned, "That many?"

"Yes."

"Display the information on the Titans challenging me."

"Beep!" A screen materialized in front of Muria showing the details of six golden Titans, "Why only six Titans? Didn't you say eleven?"

"The other five challengers are not Titans; they are legendary creatures that live in Titan territory."

"Display all of them!"

Immediately, several familiar figures appeared on the screen in front of Muria.

"White Tiger Troilus!" Muria smiled as he saw the majestic white big cat on the screen, a creature he was particularly fond of. Then he looked at the other mythical beasts, three silver wolves, and a black-scaled giant snake he hadn't seen before: "Cassiel, what legendary creature is this?"

"Star-devouring Python."

"Then that's the

 one." Muria pointed at the menacing-looking giant snake, choosing his next opponent.

...

"Hisss!" A massive teleportation array appeared in the arena, and a six-winged black-scaled snake burst forth, rapidly coiling into a snake formation in the air.

"Are you Muria?" The thorn-covered serpent, its eyes as bright as morning stars, looked uncertainly at the golden dragon before it.

"It's me." Muria, in dragon form, squinted his golden dragon eyes as he observed the coiled winged snake in the air, a creature nearly as large as him, estimated to be over seventy meters long—a colossal being impossible in his previous life.

"I heard Muria was a hybrid of Titan and dragon, but I didn't hear he was a dragon."

"This is just one of my forms." Muria explained, his mouth full of sharp white teeth sparking with golden embers. Muria's very presence was like a giant furnace, the air around him filled with a searing heat.

"So you can also turn into a Titan?" The black-scaled snake curiously inspected Muria, its tone mild and completely at odds with its fierce appearance, "Can I see it?"

"Let's have a fight first!" Muria raised his majestic dragon head and roared, a pale golden aura spreading from his body over the entire arena—his dragon's majesty.

The golden dragon spread his feather-like scaled wings and soared towards the sky, charging directly at the six-winged black python...

As night enveloped the land of the Titans, Muria, returned to his Titan form, soaked in a light green pool with a face of tiredness yet satisfaction. His body was covered in claw marks, rapidly healing under the potent effects of his robust constitution and the pool water mixed with the sap of the Tree of Life.

"Muria, you overdid it, taking on three Silver Moon Wolves at once." Cassiel floated above the pool, looking at Muria's battered body.

"Ha ha, Cassiel, you can't blame me. Those guys couldn't beat me one-on-one; they all ended up flat on their backs." Muria relaxed in the pool, occasionally letting out a soft groan. The stinging wounds, rapidly healing in the pool water, provided him an odd sense of comfort.