I Was Exiled to Die, Now I’m the God of Sickness and Salvation

"I GOT YOU NOW!"

Both of Ben's hands were raised.

He still didn't have a shred of idea about how the heck Dust had somehow appeared behind him.

But it didn't matter now.

The vines constricting were disintegrated, and his enemy was right in front of him.

There's nothing that could stop him from shooting the wind blades towards Dust now.

"Being cut cleanly with wind blades is too good for you, take this!"

Ben changed his mind at the last second, deciding to hurt Dust as much as he could.

Sparks of fire crackled from his palms and began condensing into fireballs.

"Good luck living with a burnt scar on your face! Hope your mama still recognizes you after thi-"

Ben's words were cut off. The words stuck in the middle of his throat.

Prickling on his palms caught his whole attention.

It was a sensation he had never felt before.

Something that shouldn't have happened when casting his spells.

He was tempted to cancel the half formed fireballs to see what had happened to his hands, but he held strong.

This was his chance to end the fight. He couldn't afford to get caught off guard by more unexplainable things Dust did.

However, that was his biggest mistake so far.

A prick first.

Then an acute burning sensation next.

It wasn't even gradual.

The next second after he felt the prick, bursts of pain overloaded his brain.

His two hands felt as if they were melting in a vat of acid.

In fact, that was kind of what had happened.

Ash nodded his head in satisfaction as he felt the mana converging in Ben's hands dissipated as the acid started eating through them.

He would be just fine even with a fireball to the face, but Ash himself was itching to shut the man's mouth.

Even though he understood that Ben's unreasonable hate and unbelievably arrogant words for him were most likely just a stage act, it was working too well for Ash.

The urge to slap the back of Ben's head and shove his boots into his mouth was getting higher and higher the more he heard the man run his mouth.

Although Ash failed to achieve those, his acid thorn did give him a little bit of satisfaction.

Seeing the thorns explode, exploding several handfuls of acid straight onto Ben's palms, almost broke his mask of calmness and indifference.

It really was rewarding to shut up a trash talker.

Though Ben didn't exactly shut up.

A wail that reverberated throughout the whole arena erupted from Ben's mouth.

Screams of suffering that everyone in the audience could hear and feel at the same time.

If the people were confused at first as to why Ben was screaming his heart out, the four large monitors hanging on the ceiling soon explained the reason.

All 4 monitors showed the same image.

A zoomed in shot of Ben's hands being melted away by viscous, bright green liquid.

And it also wasn't a slow, gradual process.

The audience couldn't even see Ben's skin anymore as the acid had melted away the skin and muscle.

Now they were already halfway toward eating his bones.

All of this was broadcast by the 4 monitors.

Some of them gritted their teeth when they heard Ben's wail.

A few of them clapped and cheered as the image of acid eating through Ben's flesh was broadcast.

But most of them shivered.

They lost their ability to speak.

Their whole body shivered from both the screams ringing in their ears and the image plastered onto their minds.

Even if you enjoyed watching people punching and kicking each other, an image of an exposed bone wasn't something that the majority of people would enjoy seeing.

Ash would have felt bad for Ben if not for the fact that the damage wouldn't be permanent.

Despite the screaming and rolling on the ground Ben did, Ash walked up to him calmly.

"Why don't you just give up? You don't have to suffer, you know?

In fact, I can even fix your melted han-"

Ash's eyebrows shot up as his feet kicked against the ground.

Jumping away from Ben as fast as he could.

In the next second, lightning burst out of Ben's body.

Different from the flame that quickly dissipated after exploding, the lightning continued flying forward.

Most of them flew and hit the walls of the colosseum.

Some others flew towards the sitting area, aiming directly towards the audience.

But just before the lightning hit them, an invisible force field stopped the lightning from advancing further.

Saving the audience from turning into burnt toast.

However, a few of them shot straight towards Ash.

And of course, the attacks were lightning. Despite being a magically created one, it still has the properties of real lightning.

It flashed, then it arrived in the blink of an eye.

Even Ash was powerless against lightning moving from only a couple of meters away from his face.

It might be a slim chance that he could avoid it if he used his berserk skills beforehand and twitchstep at the right timing.

But that wasn't the case now.

The only thing that he was able to do before the lightning hit him was to sweep his titanroot cape to protect his body.

The lightning hit the cape and exploded.

Sending Ash backward and leaving a tiny, burnt part on the cape.

The crackle and the boom woke the people from their stupor.

The 4 screens switched from showing Ben's nonexistent fingers that had been eaten by the acid to Ash being hit by the lightning and blown away.

Dust cloud flew from the ground, blocking the audience's view from seeing what had happened to Ash.

The last thing he saw from his was his body flying away like a broken kite.

'Is he dead?' This question popped up in most of the heads of the audience.

Even Ben had thought that he had gotten Dust good. The lightning would at least incapacitate him if not straight up fry his brain.

But a few of the audience, including the Grey Leash members, thought differently.

The scene of Ash growing the steelbark shield to protect himself from the flame tornado was still freshly ingrained in their minds.

They knew Ash's defense was strong.

When the dust cloud began settling down, Ben had stood back on his feet.

Burning the stumps that used to be his hands to cauterize the wounds and stop himself from bleeding to death.

It was possible to regrow limbs with the magic of people awakening healing abilities, but it would cost him an arm and a leg.

Ben would need to get himself into serious debt to repair his lost hands.

Something that he must do since they were his money maker. He wouldn't be able to continue fighting in the underground arena without them.

But when the dust cloud disappeared and finally revealed Dust's state, everyone who thought he was dead, and even Ben himself was left speechless.

While the people who believed in Dust's strong defense also remained silent, but for a different reason.

They were silenced by the awe they felt overwhelming their bodies.

Dust was standing still. His feet stood strong and his back held straight.

His face was flawless, not a single wound could be seen.

His cape was also untouched except for visible burnt marks on one side of the cape.

Burnt marks that Ash himself had artificially created to make it seem like the cape was somewhat damaged from the lightning hitting him.

What broke the silence inside the colosseum was none other than Ben's laugh.

"AHAHAHAHAHA!

NOT ONLY DID YOU GET IN HERE BY CHEATING, BUT YOU ARE ALSO GIFTED CHEAT LIKE EQUIPMENTS THAT COULD EVEN DEFEND AGAINST TIER 3 AWAKENERS!

AMAZING! IT'S AMAZING HOW UNFAIR IT IS!"

By now, even Ash had started to think that Ben's hatred for him was not only for show.

He might have a genuine reason to hate Ash so much, even though it was their first time seeing each other's faces.

'Is there something wrong with his brain?' He thought.

It was the only possible reason that Ben hated him this much.

'I should end this soon. I don't think I can deal with a mentally ill person properly while still maintaining my disguise in this scenario…'

Ash prepared to charge once more and used his illusion skill again to trick Ben for the second time.

Making him see an illusion of Ash walking around the arena while the real him would beeline straight towards him.

But it looked like Ben's mind was even more broken than Ash had thought.

"BUT YOU ARE NOT THE ONLY ONE WHO HAD CHEAT LIKE MAGIC ITEMS WITH YOU!"

Ben pulled out three pearls from his pocket.

Each of them had a different color.

One was green, another one was red, and the last one was light blue.

He crushed all three in his palms at the same time.

When the pearls crumbled, a surge of mana, much higher than before when Ben cast his minute long spell, filled the arena.

The elemental mana even manifested their characteristics as a strong gust of wind blew.

Clouds of flames faintly manifested around Ben.

And crackles of lightning shot every now and then above Ben's head.

They were the exact same elements that Ben was able to control.

The same elements that were present before when Ben cast his strongest spell.