The young Demon Hunter could sense the trio's hostility before they even started to head towards him. The Blind Fighter Specialization enabled Ye Qi to tell how far they were from him even though his eyes were closed. When the leader asked the question in such a rude manner, it merely confirmed his suspicion.
The young Demon Hunter slowly opened his eyes to scan the new arrivals. The leader had quite an ugly mug framed by a halo of blonde hair. Ye Qi turned his lips down as a response to the leader's demanding question.
Perhaps the derision on Ye Qi's face was too obvious, the leader roared immediately, "Ye Qi! How dare you look down on me, you who have stomped on Dirk Family's name!"
Dirk Family? So that is what this is about.
The shout answered the question in the young Demon Hunter's mind instantly. Ye Qi closed his eyes again—Dirk family definitely still had its influence since they continued to churn out new Apostles. They must have been greatly annoyed at Ye Qi because the young Demon Hunter had killed Tarn. However, they couldn't ostentatiously come after him due to his Apostle identity. This was obviously an attempt by the Dirk family to pull him into an altercation. It was definitely unwise for Ye Qi to get into an open conflict with a whole Demon Hunter family before he gained enough power.
Therefore, the best solution was to ignore the provocation! However, if the other party chose to attack first, Ye Qi, who would then be on the defensive, wouldn't mind giving him a lesson he wouldn't forget. After all, based on the other party's attitude, an altercation was inevitable. If this could be resolved before it snowballed out of hand, the young Demon Hunter wouldn't mind it either! Furthermore, based on Ye Qi's prediction, these people from huge Demon Hunter family couldn't stand being ignored the most. If they were angered into making the first move, then they would fall into the young Demon Hunter's trap…
"I Carlos Dirk demand a bout for life with Demon Hunter, Ye Qi!"
The plan went even more smoothly than Ye Qi expected. The leader volunteered to have a bout of life facing the young Demon Hunter's cold shoulder! This was quite a surprise to Ye Qi—as explained before, a bout for life was a brawl without rules. For Ye Qi who was still too weak to take on a whole Demon Hunter family, a bout for life was practically the best solution! At that moment, Ye Qi was thanking this person by the name of Carlos internally. Even though rules were more often a hindrance, Ye Qi was glad they occasionally still had their uses.
Aiming to kill me in a bout for life to take revenge for Tarn? The young Demon Hunter who saw through their ploy easily opened his eyes with a cold and lazy smile.
"You coward! You heard me! Come on, get to the stage or you're too afraid to fight me?"
Noticing Ye Qi who still hadn't uttered a word, Carlos pointed at Ye Qi and started cackling arrogantly so much so that he missed Ye Qi's reply.
"I accept!"
"What? What did you say?"
"I said. I ACCEPT!"
Ye Qi repeated himself loudly and walked straight to the space vacated in the hall by the other Apostles. As Ye Qi took his place, the system audio appeared in his mind.
"D+ Quest: Carlos' Provocation. Defeat Carlos at the bout for life."
Even though Ye Qi already predicted this, he still smiled when he noticed the difficulty level of the quest. If he had received this D+ quest before his job change, Ye Qi would be overjoyed, but for the young Demon Hunter who had reached level 7, this quest was peanuts. Ye Qi expected the opponent would pose a challenge of at least a C- or C level quest but obviously he had overestimated his opponent. Then again, there was no reason not to accept the meat that had practically landed itself on his plate, was there?
"You think you have a chance to win me? I'm not as weak as that loser, Tarn!" Carlos took the spot across from Ye Qi. With a twist of his fingers, a jade green leaf appeared in his palm. Noticing the crowd's uncertain gaze on the leaf, Carlos smirked arrogantly, "You think I will fight you without a trump card? Take a gander at this! This is a Star Level Hallowed Artefact, Jade Leaf! And don't be too shocked because my power—is also fire control!"
After that, a flash of fire burst in Carlos' other empty palm with a whoosh.
"Yes, we might have the same power but I have a Hallowed Artefact and you don't! So I am naturally the winner of this match!"
Carlos claimed insolently. As if providing support to his hypothesis, the green leaf in his left hand and the ball of fire in his right glowed brightly in different colours. When the glow disappeared, an orange-red whip with flickering fire appeared on his right hand and a green barbed whip appeared on his left. Both of them lashed out at Ye Qi who was more interested in the artefact than its weilder.
"Twin Fangs!"
The two differently coloured whips came at Ye Qi from both sides, aiming at his head and abdomen.
Ye Qi took a step back and easily evaded Carlos' attack that seemed powerful only on paper. Anyone with enough agility would have just jumped out of the way like Ye Qi did. Then, the young Demon Hunter raised his left hand and threw the fireball that he had been chanting for a long time.
Carlos attacked the fireball coming at him with the whips. Creating fireballs was one of the easiest spell available to Apostles who had awakened the power of fire control. Therefore, Carlos who was also a fire Apostle didn't think it was too much of a threat.
However, Ye Qi's fireball was more than a mere fireball! Even though both might look similar in appearance, there was a fatal difference. The basis of a fire Apostle's fireball was flames but the basis for Ye Qi's fireball was explosive magma. Therefore, the result of the match was already written on the wall when Carlos made the fatal mistake of underestimating Ye Qi's fireball.
The whole hall shook several times following a deafening explosion. A heatwave about 2 metres tall radiated outwards. The area of effect for Ye Qi's spell was 40 feet, therefore practically all of the gathered Apostles were caught in the heatwave. Even if the nearby Apostles had the intention to run, they couldn't outrun the sweeping heatwaves. Everyone was too busy trying to save their lives to care about Carlos who was standing in the middle of the explosion. Then again, the man probably didn't even have a body left behind for healers to attend to.
"Completion of D+ Quest: Carlos' Provocation. Reward: 900 experience…"
"What the hell is going on! Do you not know what this place is? Who dares raise a ruckus here?!"
The shout and the system audio began at the same time.