Suspicion

He gritted his teeth in frustration, he had never been this humiliated in his entire life, the fear that he had suddenly turned into anger and in turn, transformed into hatred.

"A kid who just got his adventurer's license looking down on me, I'm going to make you pay, you little bastard"

His obsidian-colored gauntlets glowed even brighter than ever, as he concentrated a large amount of mana while staring a hole at his most hated opponent.

He also activated the monkey tribe's special ability.

"It's the monkey tribe's special ability, Max is finally using it"

"The 5 Tribes of the Beastmen Race, all of them have their unique special abilities, looks like Max is finally taking this seriously"

The Beastmen race is one of the races that thrived even before the era of magic began.

Usually, in fantasy stories, a beast-man or woman is a humanoid character with traits reminiscent of an animal.

They might have claws, fangs, either heavy hair or actual fur, possibly horns or even scales, and their eyes will usually be structurally different.

But in the Fallen Star World, the definition of the beastmen race is a little different, sure the basic meaning is still there but species like, spider people, scorpion people, frog people, fish people, and many more are not included in the beastmen race.

The beastmen race is composed of 5 different tribes, the monkey tribe, the catpeople tribe, the wolf tribe, the bull tribe, and finally, the fox tribe.

It dates back to ancient times that these 5 tribes allied together to survive during that period when monsters ruled the world and named themselves as a single collective race, the beastmen race.

It has been that way for a long time that people no longer questioned why 5 different races classified themselves as a single race.

Each of the 5 tribes has their own special unique abilities, it's kind of like an actual superpower instead of a magic ability, for example.

"The monkey tribe's cloning ability"

Revlo squinted his eyes when Max suddenly multiplied, clones started appearing around him through a puff of smoke.

'I don't sense any abnormal movements of mana'

Revlo thought.

'This is no magic, it is similar to that demon's bloodline ability though'

'Too bad, his ability could not clone the magic weapon'

Revlo looked down from his seat and saw four other people that looked perfectly similar to Max standing side by side with each other.

The clones didn't even have the magic gauntlets on them only the original did.

"Oh will you look at that, more idiots showed up"

Jack made a mocking comment, he still seemed relaxed despite his opponent finally using his special ability.

"I heard of the Monkey tribe's excellent cloning ability, it is said to be one of the most versatile abilities out of the 5 beastmen tribes, I hope it won't disappoint me"

Max gnashed his teeth in anger.

"Bastard, there is a limit on how much you can look down on people, I have decided, I won't just let you off easily but I'll cripple you to the point that you'll no longer be able to stand"

Max threatened, but Jack, however, yawned at this and raised his left arm and hooked his fingers, like he was saying 'bring it on'.

Four of Max's clones launched themselves toward him as they left a trail of dust behind.

Jack grinned and raised his sword while performing some sort of sword stance.

One of the clones had already gone up in front of him as the latter tried to perform a punch.

Max leaned sideways to dodge as he swung his sword at the clone.

But something happened, the clone withdrew his punch at the last moment and grabbed Jack's sword with his bare hands.

'It was a feint but it was also a reckless move'

Jack thought.

Unlike the clones from a certain ninja show, the clones that came from the Monkey Tribe did not disappear upon impact, the clones obtained 90% of the original's strength, so the monkey clone managed to catch the blade of Jack's sword without getting his hands sliced off.

The clone gripped Jack's sword as hard as he could, the clone winced in pain as blood continued to spill out of his hands but his grip was still steady and firm, preventing Jack from utilizing his sword.

"Fuck, let go you son of a.."

Jack cursed as he tried to pull out his sword but was cut off when he sensed the other clones were already beside him while one of them attacked from the back.

Left with no choice, Jack had to let go of his sword as he lifted his arms to defend himself from the incoming attacks.

He caught both of the punches that were coming at him from the sides, he looked up only to see the last remaining clone just right above performing a spinning overhead kick towards his cranium.

He put his foot on his sword's handle and used it as footing to launch himself backward and in the process, his sword managed to pierce the stomach of the first clone and disappeared into a puff of smoke.

*crash

Dust flew everywhere as one of the clone's overhead kick missed its mark.

Jack managed to dodge in the nick of time.

A small crater appeared where the foot landed but the clones did not pause for a second and continued to run towards where Max was while one of the clones stayed behind for a bit to shatter Jack's sword by stomping on it with tremendous force.

Seeing this, Jack was unfazed despite losing his only weapon.

"I guess making me lose my sword by sacrificing one of the clones was a pretty good move"

Jack said but his smile didn't fade as he smirked even deeper.

"But that only applies if your opponent is a swordsman"

Jack breathed slowly and lowered his stance, mana gathered on his right legs.

"Wind Blade Kick"

He kicked the air as an arc of wind launched itself like a bullet towards the clones, it was fast and looked dangerous.

Two of the clones who were closer in distance couldn't dodge in time and got hit by the attack, only one of the clones who were a bit farther away jumped and managed to dodge on time.

The two clones didn't disappear immediately but were heavily injured as they spat out a mouthful of blood as one of their ribs punctured their lungs.

The remaining clone who saw this clicked his tongue in frustration.

"Black Vision"

Suddenly, danger signals rang inside the clone's head and his vision turned completely dark, a ball of shadow covered his head, and the clone tried to get rid of it but to no avail.

"Dark Claw"

Jack chanted as a black mass surrounded his right arm and formed a sinister-looking claw.

The fingertips were as sharp as knives, Jack smirked as he looked far in the distance.

Jack launched himself forward, retracted his arm, and made a motion that looked like he was about to attack with his dark claws.

The clone, who was under some blinding spell, sensed the incoming danger, with its instincts and senses, the clone could roughly figure out where Jack was and moved away to dodge his attack.

"An indomitable will, make my mind unshakeable, my eyes are as clear as water, my mind is solid as iron ..... Mental Guard"

Max chanted as he commanded his clones to attack his opponent as he bathed himself in a light green glow.

'With this, his peculiar illusion magic should no longer work on me'

Max looked ahead and saw that his clones were losing.

He frowned at this sight but his eyes suddenly bulged as Jack was headed his way.

Max had a dangerous feeling coming from the claws coming from Jack's arm as he instinctively dodged by jumping to the side.

*whoosh

The speed of Jack's claw attack was fast enough to make the air vibrate and produce a whooshing sound.

A thin red line appeared on Max's cheek as he managed to dodge Jack's attack by the smallest of margins.

"Seriously, the instincts of the beastmen race are amazing"

For the first time since Jack made an appearance, he finally said some form of praise to his opponent.

However...

"But that's about it.. your clones are decent but I guess it took away plenty of mental energy just to control them right?"

Max retreated backward as Jack was talking, he put his hands on his cheek and saw that his gauntlets were stained with his blood.

He wiped it off and stared at Jack.

The latter was staring back at him with a playful expression, it was obvious at a glance that Jack didn't take this duel seriously at all.

"You are one cocky fella huh, I wonder if you can keep up with that smug face of yours when I lay my hands on you"

Jack put his arms behind his head and whistled in a light-hearted manner.

"Man, you don't get it, do you? This fight had mostly been one-sided, what are you acting tough for?"

Jack smiled while looking at the original Max provocatively.

Max stayed silent, he couldn't refute Jack's words, he could only grind his teeth in frustration.

'This punk is even stronger than that expert rank that I fought'

Max thought.

While they were talking, Max's clones had already gotten back up and surrounded Jack in a square formation.

Jack was still unperturbed as usual.

Max's gauntlets glowed brightly once more as his clones charged forward at the same time.

Still smiling, Jack dodged an incoming punch that was headed his way as he counter-attacked and sent that clone flying.

One of the clones suddenly came up from behind him and hugged him tightly to restrict his movements.

"Keep your furry hands off me"

Jack said as he sent several elbow shots towards the clone behind him, the impact nearly made the clone dizzy but still managed to keep its hold.

The other clone was already in front of him and sent a flurry of punches.

Jack crossed his arms to defend himself and endured the onslaught until he saw an opening, he blocked one of the punches with one of his legs, mana gathered into his lower body and kicked the clone in front of him as hard as he could.

The clone that was holding him down noticed this, he gripped even tighter and gave Jack a german suplex, Jack's skull collided with the hard ground as spiderweb-like cracks formed beneath his head.

Blood finally escaped from his lips.

For the first time since the fight started, Jack finally bled.

"Not so cocky now huh?"

Max's voice reverberated throughout the stadium.

As Jack was attempting to get out of the clone's iron-like grip, he looked up only to see Max grinning at him, his gauntlets shone brightly.

Jack gripped the clone's arms, trying to pry it out, his black claws threatening to cut it off, blood leaked out like a faucet, and the sound of bones breaking could be heard.

The clone could no longer endure the pain and finally released him.

"Too late"

Max uttered as he sent a downward punch aiming at Jack's head.

*crash

The ground shook a little bit due to the force of Max's attack, and dust spread out in all directions, covering their bodies.

"Who won?"

"There is no way Jack could've escaped that"

"I think Max got the win"

"Goddamit, get this dust cloud out of here, I want to know what happened"

The crowd who was spectating this battle squinted their eyes, trying to see the results of this battle, did Jack escape or did Max manage to land that devastating punch?

However, their questions were soon answered as the dust smoke finally cleared up, and two silhouettes could be seen.

Gasps could be heard all around as they could see that Jack, clad in some sort of black energy and lifted the monkey man by the neck.

Due to their height difference, Max wasn't lifted off the ground but it was still true that he was getting choked, his eyes were red and his face was purple, it looks like he will pass out soon if Jack doesn't let go of him.

The guildmaster furrowed his brows for some reason like he sensed something was strange.

Revlo was the only one here who remained indifferent, his eyes were clear like water with no ripples could be seen as he stared at this spectacle.

Revlo turned his head to look at the guildmaster, who wore a frown on his face, his eyes showed a trace of suspicion.

'Looks like the guildmaster finally suspects something'