Chapter 90: Before the Battle.
With Mr.Dealer at the front, everyone followed behind him as they moved through the enormous black market, all the way to the Underworld Arena entrance without hiding their presence.
Now that the dark guilds already knew who was going against them, he realized that there wasn't a need for them to lay low any longer, and instead, it would be better if they confronted them head-on.
His mind raced to find the most suitable solution for handling this situation.
The forces of the underworld had together come up with this decision of fighting off the low-level grunts of the dark guilds with their experts from the Arena, to prevent their people from building a strong reputation here.
And the duty of carrying this out was given to Mr.Dealer, as he was the best to deal with these kinds of problems with his eloquent tongue and manipulative thoughts.
While they had been walking from their base to here, Mr.Dealer ordered his subordinates to spread the news about the clash between the rising stars of the underworld and the notorious dark guilds that wanted to rule over them.
The people of the underworld were already happy with the rules and laws of this criminal turf, as it didn't entirely restrict them and also gave them protection against their many foes.
So, if they got to know that there was a certain force, especially the dark guilds that wanted to take over the Underworld, who could possibly change the many ways of their life, then they would not just keep quiet and do nothing.
His subordinates, all of whom wore gray robes flickered all over the underworld, sharing the information with everyone present in the crowd at a quick rate.
This ignited a wave of emotions throughout the population of the underworld where people of every crime gathered, resulting in loud exclamations and a slightly tense atmosphere in the whole place.
Now, as for whom they would support? Wasn't that obvious?
The fight was between their own people of the Underworld against those outsiders who wanted to control them. They didn't need more than a few seconds to find whom they should support in this battle.
With the sudden news of this matter, the whole underworld moved around with lots of forces coming out of their bases to seek their own benefits in this whole fiasco.
The people moving toward the Arena increased as time went by, as everyone rushed to watch how the epic battle that held the underworld's fate would turn out to be.
Standing outside the Arena entrance, Mr.Dealer handed the four of his fighters papers that contained their schedules for today's battle and said.
"It was decided that you all will be having battles simultaneously at different arenas to prevent the forces of the dark guilds from gathering."
"But don't worry, my subordinates and even myself will be silently guarding you at every moment. So you can rest assured that there won't be any hidden harm inflicted on you."
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The four of them received it and read through the three papers given by him.
Yesterday, they had been given only one piece of paper with only their opponent's name and the number of the arena where they would be battling.
But now, they were given three papers each for the four of them, that contained the detailed information of the opponents they were going to face today.
As they read through the papers, they couldn't help but feel a sense of excitement and thrill going through their minds, because, unlike their previous opponents who could be taken down easily, they could see that today's opponents were much harder to defeat.
And that didn't scare them, instead, they felt eager to test out their new power, because if they were scared of fighting against strong enemies, then they wouldn't have joined the underworld battles at all.
After they gave the papers a detailed glance, Mr.Dealer coughed and gathered their attention.
"Today, we'll be directly going against the dark guilds without hiding our presence. But that doesn't mean we have to cower and dread them."
Eyes shining with a powerful gleam, Mr.Dealer declared as his lips slowly raised.
"Remember, this is our turf. So, no matter what they try, don't hold back anymore. Show them what it means to go against the Underworld!"
His words brought about determined smiles on their faces, reminding them that the dark guilds had no power in this domain in which they had the upper hand.
Nodding at the four of them, Mr.Dealer gave them a last glance while gesturing them to enter the Arena.
Clenching their weapons, the four of them stepped forward into the Arena with their figures brimming with a powerful aura, as they were ready to face off against their adversaries.
*****
On the other side of the Underworld Arena, deep into a dark corner, a few figures could be seen huddled together while whispering to each other.
Suddenly, low and rhythmic footsteps echoed from the far away darkness which slowly neared until it stopped just before them.
The huddled figures turned to look at the person who had stood before them, and they quickly prostrated with their heads on the ground shivering at the sight of the man in the dark robe.
The pressure coming off from the hooded man made them unable to move their bodies, much less greet him.
They couldn't even take a deep breath, afraid of angering the devil that had haunted them with his evil reputation.
The man in the dark robe stared emotionlessly at the pawns he had gathered for today's mission, thinking whether they were fit to deal with the mission or if he should just kill them and look for someone better.
But doing that seemed tiresome, and he was also too lazy to waste any more time on this, so he decided to just use a useful yet deadly shortcut.
Swinging his hand, he made about a dozen vials with black liquid inside them appear on the ground.
After he did that, he didn't care about anything else and walked off before quickly disappearing into the darkness.
Seeing that the heavy and horrible pressure had gone, the huddled figures slowly raised their heads and looked around for the man before their eyes caught the sight of the shiny vials on the ground.
All of them took a gulp when they realized what he meant by leaving it with them.
Their bodies felt goosebumps pricking all over them when they remembered the consequences of drinking those vials but then they remembered the consequences of defying the man's orders.
With no other choice, they could only move forward and shakingly take a vial each.
One by one, they stood up and walked away, with a dark looks on their face as they knew that their fate had already been decided.
*****
Felix and the others separated and walked toward their respective arenas, which were in different locations.
'The Underworld Arena seems a lot different today...'
While on his way there, he could see that there were many people present in the Arena grounds today. Almost thrice the usual amount of people.
Everybody was talking with each other with excitement as they couldn't wait for the upcoming clash of the battles to start.
As for how they would be able to know which battles were going to be the ones against the dark guilds?
That was simple.
Because today, all the arena battles except for the ones that Felix and the rest were going to participate in were stopped.
With the involvement of the dark guilds, the forces of the underworld suspected that they would try to make trouble in the whole arena to get an advantage in their battles, so they directly ordered all the arena battles to be suspended temporarily.
Now, with the whole crowd in the underworld Arena focused on the main battles, the dark guilds wouldn't be able to do any dirty tricks.
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While on his way to the arena, Felix felt a person getting suspiciously close to him.
Turning toward the person's direction, he was on his guard and was ready to attack if necessary, but when he saw the bald and lanky guy, he relaxed.
"You're Dufus, right?"
"Yes, Sir Phantom. I'm Dufus.", Dufus said scratching his shiny head.
Felix nodded and asked.
"What do you want? If it's about the schedule paper of my opponents, then don't bother. You should've already heard the news, there won't be any battles except for me and my teammates, which means you'll know which battle you should bet on."
Hearing his words, Dufus sucked a deep breath while widening his eyes in disbelief.
He had of course heard the news, you could say that nobody in the whole underworld didn't knew of the fight that was about to take place.
Mr.Dealer had taken much consideration in this job and had ordered his subordinates to spread the news as much as possible, as doing that would put the dark guilds in a passive position.
"W-We knew it! We knew that you would be the one chosen to fight against the dark guilds."
Dufus and the others knew that Phantom was one of the strongest fighters in the underworld, and with that power, he must have been chosen in the clash against the dark guilds.
But knowing that, and finding out that it was the truth was different.
As the biggest supporters of Phantom and the ones who had known him since his first battle, they felt proud to be associated with him.
Felix didn't say anything and just gave a small smile at his excited reaction.
"Well, it's about time the battle began. I have to go be there."
Saying so, he nodded at Dufus and continued to walk forward.
"Good luck, Phantom! We know that you can do it!", Dufus cheered at him from behind and then walked away to his group to tell them about the exciting news.
On the other hand, Felix studied the first paper in his hand and arrived at the arena to start his first real battle against the dark guilds confidently and openly.
"Hmm, so my battle will be on Arena No. 3..."
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