Swordsman.
There was a reason that combat specialty was used to describe a Praetorian Guard soldier.
The moment Swordsman approached, Qin Xa suddenly received a passive Prophecy.
Swordsman rushed before him and swung his sword six times in less than a second.
First, he cut the Achilles tendon, then the wrist. Every joint received a slash.
That was clearly not the speed or precision of a normal human. In the prophetic vision, Qin Xa determined that Swordsman had definitely used implants.
Those implants made Swordsman's movements astonishingly fast and precise. They could even analyze the weaknesses of the opponent he was fighting.
Just like Swordsman's Slave Catcher captain father. Though he had not reacted in time, he could still passively raise his hand and fire a tranquilizer dart that struck Qin Xa.
The Prophecy ended. Swordsman arrived before him.
Already aware of his opponent's movements, Qin Xa reached out and seized Swordsman by the throat. That move instantly shattered Swordsman's attack, making every action from the prophetic vision impossible to carry out.
After lifting Swordsman by the throat, Qin Xa reached out, tore off his right arm, and flung him ten meters away.
The spectators' cheers reached their peak.
The instant Swordsman hit the ground and kicked up dust, Qin Xa was already in front of him.
He grabbed the right arm with both hands, looped it around Swordsman's neck, and pulled hard...
Swordsman was strangled to death by his own arm.
Silver Vine shot toward Qin Xa, but he easily sidestepped it.
Swordsman's companions had witnessed his death. They came to their senses, but were also utterly shocked.
Swordsman would be killed by witchcraft, and depending on the witchcraft Qin Xa used, he would die in different ways...
The Praetorian Guard Soldiers who had come with him had imagined that possibility, but they had never expected that a warrior renowned throughout the Guard would die to a witch's bare-handed attack. His opponent had not even brought a weapon into the Arena.
"Don't worry. I won't use witchcraft." Qin Xa gripped one finger of Swordsman's right arm and swung the entire limb around like a windmill. "People like you deserve cruel executions. Sudden witchcraft would let you die too easily."
The Praetorian Guard immediately pulled away from the surviving Gladiators and prepared to face Qin Xa with everything they had.
But at some point, a violent gale suddenly swept through the Arena, rolling up Red Sand that filled the sky.
Qin Xa's entire figure was hidden by the sandstorm sweeping over him.
Even the sensors integrated into the Praetorian Guard's armor could not see Qin Xa.
Qin Xa had concealed himself with psychic power, rather than merely being hidden by the Red Sand by chance.
"Come out and help us!" one Gladiator shouted toward the place where Qin Xa had vanished.
While Qin Xa had grabbed Swordsman's throat, torn off his arm, and then strangled him with it, the Gladiators had been fighting several other members of the Praetorian Guard. Only four of them remained alive now.
Naturally, those four became the targets of the Praetorian Guard, who had lost their highest-priority target.
Silver Vine poured from one man's seven orifices.
Another was pierced through the body by a long spear formed from Silver Vine.
A third was wrapped in Silver Vine and crushed alive.
The last one had his neck pierced by a Praetorian Guard sword.
The ten Gladiators who had chosen not to obey the rule against killing were dead.
Those who had failed even the simplest screening would lie forever upon the Red Sand, with no chance whatsoever of killing the Gladiators Qin Xa cared about or considered at least capable of cooperation.
As the Praetorian Guard gathered together and warily watched their surroundings, the gale swept through again, dispersing the Red Sand and exposing Qin Xa before them.
Swordsman's right arm was still in Qin Xa's hand, still being swung around like a windmill.
"Together?" Qin Xa raised his chin.
The Praetorian Guard immediately unleashed Silver Vine.
Qin Xa weaved through Silver Vine, evading it. Within a single breath, he reached one of the Praetorian Guard and used Swordsman's armored right arm to smash through his head.
When Silver Vine swept at him from behind his neck, Qin Xa crouched to evade it. The instant the corpse fell, he turned and drove Swordsman's right arm through another Praetorian Guard's chest.
Fragments of armor sprayed in every direction.
Qin Xa pulled backward on the force he had applied to Swordsman's arm embedded in the man's chest.
At that instant, Qin Xa felt a cool breeze coming from behind him. He spun around and raised his hand, blocking the descending blade with his palm.
The Praetorian Guard who had swung the sword froze for a moment. Then he saw the fragment of breastplate between Qin Xa's palm and the blade... That was the last thing he saw before Qin Xa's hand pierced his skull.
After Qin Xa unleashed a flurry of punches and kicks, the only living being left on the field besides him was one Praetorian Guard soldier.
"Someone hired me to incite Swordsman to seek revenge!" the Praetorian Guard raised both hands. "Otherwise, I really didn't want to come!"
As Qin Xa was puzzled by those words, the Praetorian Guard's Silver Vine formed into a shield, and he sprinted toward the edge of the Arena.
Qin Xa remained unmoved as he watched the man flee, merely tossing the severed arm in his hand, which could no longer be used as a weapon, onto the ground.
Only after the survivor had run nearly a thousand meters did Qin Xa walk over to a stone on the ground.
His towering body took two steps back, then he rapidly charged forward and kicked the stone.
The stone traced a perfect arc through the air before finally smashing through the Praetorian Guard's helmet and embedding itself in his skull.
"This stone is really hard." Qin Xa muttered quietly. "No wonder Angron could kill people with Nucerian stones."
Even Maggot Eye, who had hurried over, did not hear Qin Xa's muttering. The spectators' wild roars drowned out every sound except their cheering.
Qin Xa turned and surveyed the entire Arena stands, before his gaze finally fell upon the nearby corpses of the Praetorian Guard.
When he was young, the White Scars had a company captain. Within the Chapter, company captains were called Khans.
Seeing that Qin Xa was too scrawny, that captain had decided to teach him some bare-handed martial arts.
The martial arts were not especially powerful, but combined with this body implanted with Grey Knights gene-seed and all manner of superhuman organs, killing opponents on the level of the Praetorian Guard bare-handed was truly far too easy.
"You might possess immense wealth and noble status, and have trained diligently and fought for the High-Riders for decades."
"But I can still kill you easily. Not to mention I'm not even sixteen yet, and it hasn't even been a week since I was 'reborn' after the augmentation surgery."
"Give the Nucerians a little Astartes shock."
Those two sentences surfaced in Qin Xa's mind.
No... How old was my soul supposed to be again...
Qin Xa began seriously considering that suddenly arisen question. He remembered discovering that after transmigrating into the Warhammer universe, his body had reverted to the state of a nine-year-old. So, counting all the years before arriving in this universe and transmigrating a second time to the present... he was probably under forty.
After reaching his answer, Qin Xa turned around. Amid the spectators' cheers and Maggot Eye's questions about his feelings after the battle, he made an extremely obvious gesture of covering his ears.
Though even that could not block out the cheering.
The spectators watched as Qin Xa refused to listen to their cheers and turned toward the gate leading into the cave.
As he passed a corner of the energy field separating him from the stands, Qin Xa saw a raggedly dressed woman and a boy standing beside her leg.
The woman's face held the pain of having spent all her savings on a ticket, along with a faint smile from fulfilling her son's birthday wish.
The child, meanwhile, raised his arm and cheered.
Qin Xa hesitated for a step. In the child's eyes, he saw admiration rather than the cruel gaze that enjoyed slaughter.
The child's mother immediately crouched down, took the child's hand, and waved it at Qin Xa with a smile.
Qin Xa smiled faintly, nodded, and left the combat area.
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