Rising Talents, The New Ranker!

Nero and Avollo soon made their way over to Arena B, here many other persons stood idly by the side awaiting their turn. A few of them noticed Avollo and Nero, but no one paid them too much attention as for one, Avollo always fought with his battle's hidden, and Nero was just a new face.

At this moment, the familiar green-haired youth and his sister were somewhere nearby in the crowds. They looked over and saw Nero before speaking amongst themselves as on another corner was Weizer, along with his companions.

"So he did come here, after all, I truly must have underestimated that pretty face boy, humph!" Weizer said in a serious tone.

The lackeys made an awkward smile as they shook their heads, while on the other side, Poison Boy glared at Nero before removing his eyes.

Avollo looked at the arena and saw that it was still shrouded by mist, he spoke, "Ho... I wonder who's fighting right now; they even went as far as to use to a private function."

Nero also looked up at the stage with a curious look on his face as he spoke, "Hmm? Do you mean that this mist is a result of the options you choose for battle?"

"Yeah, whenever you initiate a match in the Battle Ring. You will typically be given the right to choose your preference of battle; one will be regular battle were spectators can view your fight, and the other will be a private match, which is what you see before you. Naturally, you will also have the right to use your real name or your Title," Avollo replied while looking at the arena.

'Well now, this is quite interesting,' Nero thought to himself while looking at it similarly.

While both Nero and Avollo had their own thoughts, the mist had begun to clear up as a few persons shouted in relief.

"Finally, that darn girl has been in there for so long. You'd think she was putting on makeup!" One person said with a sigh; it seemed he had been waiting for quite a while.

"Hahaha!" A few guys laughed at the person's outburst, while the girls in the area glared at him with dark looks on their faces.

However, as if the person who left the ring heard, with a swoosh a nimble and blurry figure jumped from the arena and landed a kick on the individual's back.

Crack! The sounds of bone snapping resounded along with the pitiful yell of the man, who flew into a nearby wall and passed out.

Once this happened, everyone looked at the petite female with chestnut brown hair in shock as she turned around and spoke with her slender fist raised, "Hmph! I don't care who you are, but next time you should think about the consequences when you try to shame me again!"

The crowd was in shock by her violent manner, as a few of them started a commotion.

"So, it was her, I didn't know that the Emperor Zone's Balkras Family's rumored Graceful Tyrant would have already awakened. Huhu... Miss Thunder, looks like you've got some competition other than that Fox," A bulky looking youth said with strange markings over his body, garbed in fine armor. He had spikey white hair, a bandana around his forehead, and a blade on his back. He looked human at first glance, but it was apparent that he was of an entirely different breed from the vague scales on his flesh and sharp shark teeth.

"Crazy Blade, you are right, it's quite the astounding news, hehe, these humans are quite talented, to think the little devil of the family has finally arrived to make a mess. I must say, those informants aren't doing their job..." A strange-looking blue-skinned beauty said, dressed in scanty armor with her hair flowing above hair head, flashing with bright thunder lights.

"Hmph! It's best not to rely on those useless ones, hmm... this should have been her first attempt, I wonder, how far did she get on the Ranking List?" Crazy Blade asked curiously.

"No idea, but it should come out anytime now," Thunder's Daughter said with a smile.

Weizer looked at Elly with a firm look as he gritted his teeth while speaking, "I will grow better than all of them, only I am the true prodigy..."

Poison Boy and his sister, however, merely smiled as he showed a look of self-confidence. Nero who saw Elly's appearance was a bit amazed, he gripped his fists while cursing in his mind, 'Everywhere I go, she is there, darn!'

Adult Nero chuckled and spoke, "Don't fight it, it's fate..."

Avollo noticed Nero's expression; he couldn't help but tease, "Hmm? What's wrong are you getting second thoughts about our match?"

Nero hearing this temporarily flushed down his thoughts about Elly as he glared at Avollo and spoke, "Hmph! As if, I'm ready when you are!

Avollo smirked at this but as he spoke, "So am I, but we'll have to wait until the next batch finishes,"

When Avollo spoke, he hinted towards the ring once more, causing Nero to look as he saw a few persons from before were now preparing the fight.

"Che! Not good, if it's like this, then she's certainly..." Nero was muttering something, but as if Elly had heard him, she suddenly appeared by his side, drawing the eyes of many spectators as she spoke out loud.

"So you're here, Silver Boy!" Elly said with a smile on her face as she looked at Nero.

Nero frowned at this, he really didn't like the name, but before he could even reject it, everyone looked at him in surprise.

"Eh? He's that Silver Boy? How handsome!" A young girl said with starry eyes.

A few other women had similar looks, causing the faces of the males in the area to turn bad. Nero didn't like those looks, his attempt at temporarily staying low key was destroyed yet again.

"Hmph! I say he's only good for his looks, so what if he's handsome and have made it here, it could have been that fellow by his side protecting him," A guy said in a meaningful manner as he pointed at Avollo, who was looking at Nero in surprise.

A few others shared the same opinion, but only a few persons keenly focused on Nero. Poison Boy, Weizer, and oddly enough, the two nonhuman Rankers Thunder's Daughter and Crazy Blade.

'Hmm, he was brought here by that fellow, he must be someone special,' Crazy Blade said as he looked at Nero and Avollo.

"Maybe, I'll try to get more details on his background," Thunder's Daughter said with flickering lightning bolts in her eyes.

Not caring about the commotion around them, Nero, Avollo, and Elly were now focused on each other.

Nero had an ugly look on his face when he stared at Elly and spoke, "Classmate Elly, I have told you before that my name is Nero, do not call me by that silly name!"

Elly giggled and replied, "Why should I? It is such a cute name and unless you can convince me of a reason not to, I will call you like such forever!"

Nero hearing this and seeing her look knew nothing would change, he sighed and turned his head as he spoke, "Well fine since you're going to be like that, I won't care anymore!"

Avollo looked at them in surprise as he spoke, "Eh? Wait for a second; you said, classmate? Are you two classmates?"

Both Elly and Nero replied at the same time, "That's right!"

Avollo chuckled when he saw this; he was about to ask something about the school, but there was a notification right then.

Ding!

[Congratulations for Novice Digitizer Graceful Tyrant, and her successful entry in the Rising Talent List!]

"Eh? Graceful Tyrant?" Nero asked with puzzlement.

Elly's face turned ugly at those words, as Avollo tilted his head to the side before he smirked.

"Haha, so that's how it is, it truly is a fitting name," Nero said with a laugh when he saw Elly's appearance, he knew he had something to use as leverage now.

"You---!" Elly glared at Nero before turning away in embarrassment.

Nero felt it funny, but when he looked at her position in the Ranking List, his eyes widened in shock as he spoke, "This... so high!"

[Tenth Place - Title: Graceful Tyrant | Level: 6 | Battle Rank:5]

Avollo had already inspected the list; he spoke with a hint of praise in his voice, "As expected of a Balkras, you've only been here for such a short time, and yet you have already pushed Red Rain down from the Tenth Rank. Ha, I have to say your talent is uncommon. Maybe if you had arrived the same day I did, we might have been at a similar rank."

Elly, though prideful, looked at Avollo with a hint of fear as she spoke, "You overpraise me, even if I did, it's highly unlikely, who doesn't know who you truly are?"

When Nero heard her words, he had already pushed the shock from her ranking position down in his mind. Instead, a different look came over his face, he turned dark as he saw Avollo made a warm smile and gesture towards the battle area, "Haha, my fame is nothing special, come now, Nero, it's our turn..."

When Avollo said this, the arena once more grew quiet as the previous battles had ended, now all eyes were on Avollo as he walked towards the stage with steady steps.

Nero swallowed the dark mood as he followed behind, but as if she didn't want him to have an easy fight, Elly looked at him with mock as she spoke, "You truly must have a death wish but don't worry, I'll do my best to root for you Silver Boy. Good luck..."

The air grew cold, as it beckoned the start of a battle Nero will never forget in his life.