From Human to Skeleton: Revived with Infinite System Crystals

Ty realized in an instant what was going on, memories of the guard's warnings at the prison surfacing rapidly. The motive behind the prison attack puzzled him, but it seemed inconsequential at that moment.

Just as the sand made contact with the blood, it lost its form and fell to the ground. Lord Herald, not wasting a second, tried to slip past and slam his fist into the man.

Suddenly, he stopped in his tracks, struggling to move. "What the hell is going on?" he muttered in confusion and panic. The assailant's blood, relentless, pierced through Herald's shoulder and advanced towards his face. At that critical moment, a cloud of black flames surged up, enveloping and then dispersing the blood.

Ty sprang into action, his fist alight with black flames streaked with silver. He delivered a fierce punch to the man's chin, sending him flying back and crashing into the wall with a resounding thud.

The man's eyes, devoid of life, flickered weakly as he coughed up blood and muttered, "I was sure I hit everyone with my blood? How."

"I don't know who you are, but you got to get in line if you want to kill all these people!"

Just as Ty raised his voice, the door slammed open. Guards rushed in, and Rusuf slid through the entrance, taking in the chaos.

"Ty, what happened here!"

"It was the man from the prison; he showed up somehow!" Ty explained, the words barely leaving his lips when a cold chill raced up his spine.

Ducking instinctively, Ty narrowly avoided a blade slicing through the air. Looking up, he saw a woman in a thin outfit. One eye was purple, the other golden, and she wielded a long, needle-like blade, slashing at Ty, aiming to take him down.

"How the hell did you manage to dodge that?!" she muttered in disbelief. As she spoke, Lord Herald, coughing up blood, slammed his open hand into her side, yelling, "Don't think I'm dead or anything!"

From behind, Ty noticed four other figures emerging. A large man, matching Herald in height, raised a massive hammer, poised to strike Herald down.

"Watch out!" Ty shouted, raising his hand towards Herald. Black flames summoned above Herald's head intercepted the hammer as it came crashing down.

Confusion spread among the contestants; many were unable to use their abilities, and a few lay dead. A lanky man, seizing the moment of chaos, declared, "This is as much damage as we can do, grab Zero and let's get out of here."

As they moved to retreat, Rusuf darted forward, attempting to slice at the man who had spoken. However, he was too late; the group disappeared in the blink of an eye, leaving behind only a small wooden doll.

"What the hell, everyone stay on your toes; we don't know if they are still here," Rusuf yelled out, scanning the area for any sign of the attackers.

Ty watched intently as Lord Herald, regaining some of his composure, declared, "No, they are gone for sure. This was the work of the Black Bull Sect. They've been running rampant around the world for a few years now. The fact they would pull something like this... The problem is that damn woman who can teleport as long as she has dolls in her stock on people."

"They have retreated and could be hundreds of miles away..." Herald grunted in frustration. "Ugh, damn it! Please check to see who has died and we will adjust accordingly."

Ty's thoughts wandered to Fernando, recalling the brutal moment he was impaled.

Lord Herald interrupted Ty's reverie. "It was smart of you to read the situation so quickly and not get a drop of blood on you. I, myself, who knows who he is... I should have been smarter than that. But I don't recall it ever getting into my system, just on my skin and mixed with sand a bit. He couldn't have awakened his third skill?"

"Well, I heard about his attack at the prison and acted accordingly. I didn't expect to hit him that hard though," Ty confessed. "But those other people, were his allies? Why did he show up by himself?"
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As medical troops arrived, they immediately started applying healing ointments to Lord Herald's wounds. Between grimaces of pain, Herald managed to speak, "I believe I know why... Rusuf, report on the Burning Suns side of things?"

Rusuf nodded. "Yes, they lost seven people in the attack before. They must have noticed Heriean was struggling on his own... that's his name, right?"

Herald nodded in confirmation, then asked, "How about ourselves?"

A medic rushed up to Rusuf, while Ty and everyone else tried to rub the blood out of their purple-garbed uniforms. "We have five confirmed deaths," the medic reported.

"So, it looks like we will be going into this first arena with less than a hundred, I guess..."

"We need to get this reported up to General Omhina and the King right away, so we get this spun right," Herald added, coughing slightly.

Ty, deep in thought, spoke up. "With what just happened, how do we know it won't happen again once the arena starts?"

"The surprise of this first arena is what is going to prevent that possibility from happening," Herald explained. "Once you are in, there is no getting out and no getting in. But we will discuss that further once we get this situated. I guess I should be giving you thanks. I'm not sure how I would have taken that blow, but I have survived worse.

But regardless, thank you, Demon Brat, for not letting me get killed."

"Well, don't mention it; I just did something because I could do something, though I will go ahead and say you owe me a favor in the future; how does that sound?"

Lord Herald scuffed, "Sure, if you somehow manage to survive the Arena, I will give you one favor."

Ty smirked. "That sounds good to me. How is Fernando doing? It won't be good if our King in the Arena is dead before the Arena starts."