The Fallen Angel Part 2

"Young lady, do you need a moment of rest before starting the final match?" The examiner looked at the female angel.

"No need" She replied coldly

"Very well, the final match in the recruit assessment will begin shortly" The examiner nodded.

Bruce's caretaker arrived at the audience lounge and informed him to get ready for the final match.

Bruce snapped out of his daydream and arrived at the arena. He saw the beautiful angel gracefully walk through the steps and arrived at the arena as well.

"Hello, what is your name?" Bruce smiled at the lady.

"…." The angel coldly looked at him and did not respond.

"Since you have no name, I guess I'll call you Lily" Bruce decided to make things more interesting.

The angel slightly changed her expression upon hearing the absurdity out of Bruce's mouth. It was obvious that she has a name and did not intend to give it to Bruce because he would die under her sword like all the others. The best option for him was to surrender.

A Peak Stage Divine King against a Mid Stage Divine King, it was not even a fair battle.

"Surrender or die" The angel coldly said

"Unfortunately, I can't afford to do that" Bruce shook his head and changed into a battle stance.

"The final match is now officially started!" The examiner declared.

Lily swung her swords gracefully and created endless sword intents. Like all the previous matches, she expected Bruce to be cut in half like the others.

Bruce held his ground when he saw the upcoming sword attacks.

"Tortoise Stance"

An image of a tortoise appeared behind Bruce's back creating a green barrier blocking all the attacks.

The angel was surprised to see Bruce able to survive her attacks. She flapped her jet-black wings and dashed right in front of Bruce.

Bruce saw her coming and greeted her sword with his gauntlet.

"Hello Lily, it's very nice to meet you" Bruce charmingly smiled as he stared into her beautiful green eyes.

The sword and the gauntlet collided creating an explosion in the middle of the arena.

The exchange caused Bruce's gauntlet to be cracked while the angel's clothing was slightly dusty.

Bruce felt his internal organs taking damage after the exchange and could only admire the lady in front of him even more. She had won the exchange even though he channeled all his energy into the gauntlet.

The angel was surprised that Bruce was still alive after taking the brunt of her direct attack. She also got slightly damaged internally. She couldn't believe that a Mid Stage Divine King managed to injure her.

Bruce no longer smiled her at as his expression turned serious. Her expression got colder as well and the sword in her hand disappeared.

"Sword Realm" She quietly muttered.

Countless swords appeared around Bruce giving him absolutely no escape.

"I'm not letting you do that!"

"Soul Seeker" Bruce sent out a powerful soul attack toward the angel. To his surprise, the angel was unfazed.

Bruce increased his speed to the absolute limit and switched to the dragon stance to prevent her from throwing all those swords at him.

"It's too late" She coldly looked at the charging Bruce before commanding all the swords to pierce his body.

Bruce summoned Heavenly Stars as he saw countless swords coming toward him.

"Stars Annihilation"

Bruce prayed for a Hail Mary and threw his strongest punch in her direction before the swords got to him.

The angel widened her eyes when she saw what Bruce planned to do. Sensing extreme danger from his fist, she gambled and continued to send the swords in his direction.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM

Bruce tried his best to stay conscious but the holes in his legs and shoulders prevented him.

'No, I can't die here. I need to grow stronger to find Lisa' Bruce thought to himself before the darkness took over his vision.

The angel coughed out massive amounts of blood after taking a partial Stars Annihilation due to dodging the attack at the very last moment. However, the result remained the same because Bruce's body was punctured with her swords.

"Young lady, you won the battle" The examiner announced the results.

He looked at Bruce for a while and couldn't help but be amazed. He originally thought that Bruce would immediately die to the angel's sword, but he put up more than a fight against her.

The angel looked at Bruce one last time before leaving the arena to recuperate her health. Even though she won the fight, she felt terrible. A Mid Stage Divine King managed to turn her into a miserable state.

"Take care of him" leader X commanded people to pick up Bruce who had holes across his entire body. It was a miracle that he was still alive.

"The new recruits this time are quite promising, don't you agree Kiri?"

"Yes, I believe that the two new recruits are some of the best that we have seen over this century" A man next to the leader replied.

"We need to groom them well if we want to enter the void smoothly" leader X smiled mysteriously.

"I will them get as strong as possible over the next years for you"

"Good"

The two men disappeared from the area while the audience excitedly discussed the battle that just occurred.

In the corner of the audience lounge, Bonta breathlessly looked at the monitor. He couldn't believe the person he recruited reached rank 2 in the assessment.

Soon later, a female in uniform arrived next to Bonta and delivered his reward.

"The leader has granted you twice the reward for finding the new talented recruit"

"Thank you very much madam" Bonta took the reward and thanked his good luck in finding Bruce a month ago.

"Is he still alive?" Bonta asked.

"Yes, otherwise you would not be getting the reward" The uniformed female walked away after answering his question.

The other people in the audience looked at him in envy because the recruits that they recommended all died in the assessment. Which meant that they will not be obtaining any reward from the Eastern Faction.

One week later, Bruce remained unconscious in the medical facility of the Eastern Faction. Deep within his mind, a figure with an irritated look berated him.

"I can't believe you lost to that woman" The monarch lazily sat on the throne as he bombarded Bruce with criticisms.

"But she was a Peak Divine King and an extremely powerful one at that" Bruce didn't appreciate all the nasty comments he had been getting from the Monarch.

"Think a little bit more when you fight next time"

"You've seen her skills and her powers. Yet, you didn't even manage to come up with a feasible plan to defeat her"

"How Pathetic" The monarch said in contempt.

"Okay then genius, how would I be able to defeat her?" Bruce frustratedly waved his hands around.

"Use your brain and don't rely on me" The Monarch snorted.

"Didn't you say you would guide me?"

"I will only guide you when necessary. You need to climb up the ladder by yourself" The Monarch waved his hand to gesture to Bruce to go away.

"What the fuck!" Bruce yelled. What was the point of coming into this realm if he wasn't getting trained by the strongest person in the universe?

"You idiot, I'm doing this for your own good. If you rely on me for all the answers, then you will never reach the peak" The Monarch summoned Bruce in front of him.

"Listen up kiddo, there is no shortcut to reaching the pinnacle. Rely on your own strengths to get there"

"If you lose, that's fine. Learn from your losses and get stronger."

"If you rely on external factors, then you'll forever be stuck at that stage like those other losers"

"What stage are you talking about?" Bruce thought for a moment and the reasoning from The Monarch made sense.

"You know the people who are called gods? They're nothing compared to me"

"Yet, they've been around much longer than I have" The Monarch proudly smiled.

"It's because all those losers rely on petty schemes and their already existing backgrounds to get there"

"In the end, they all perished when facing absolute power"

"If you want to protect your loved ones against anything, don't look for the easy way out" The Monarch ended the lecture.

"I still have some ques…." Before Bruce could finish his sentence, The Monarch interrupted him.

"Looks like your new girlfriend is here, wake up now" The Monarch tapped his finger lightly on the throne and the entire area disappeared.

Bruce slowly opened his eyes and saw the same beautiful figure looking at him with contempt.

"Since you're awake, I want you to be on my team" The angel coldly said.

"Lily, what are you talking about?" Bruce got up from the bed and checked his body. Surprisingly, his body was fully healed.

The angel gritted her teeth when she heard Bruce referring to her as Lily.

"My name is Ariel, don't ever call me Lily again!"

"Ariel, what a beautiful name…." Bruce complimented.

Ariel's mood got slightly better after hearing Bruce's compliment. However, her mood got fouled as soon as Bruce spoke his next sentence.

"Ariel, are you the angel that fell from heaven I've been hearing about?"