"Ho Ho..." she continued to laugh as she collected the bets made.

"I bet his skull will be crushed from one swing of Hammer's head's hammer."

"Lady, I bet he will loose an arm."

"He will be split right in the middle!"

"His blood will flow enough to fill a bucket!"

The bets were getting more outrageous, as they all waved pouches of spirit stones in Ku Jian's face.

"Ho ho... anyone for gouged eyes?" she said, collecting money from here and there with just a wave of her hand.

"Here, here! Gouged eyes!" someone betted.

The commotion in the audience angered the usual betting bosses, causing them to pry their way through the crowd till they got to Ku Jian.

"Girl. How dare you start a betting stand without our permission?" a large man bellowed, saliva splas.h.i.+ng every where.

"Ho ho? You wish to hold the bets yourself?" Ku Jian covered her mouth with her long sleeves as she laughed animatedly. Nti Anem sighed inwardly at the situation. One look and anyone could tell this Ho ho laugh of hers was a comical act. Who was she pretending to be right now?

"This is our territory!" the large man spat.

"Then you can have it. This is such an obvious match, you obviously have the money to handle the consequences, right?" she asked and the boss paled. She was right. It was obvious the newcomer would loose. With all these bets, it was sure that many will win big. Can he pay all the price money?

"Lady, please continue." he turned and left. Seeing him leave, many more came forward to bet. It was clear the lady knew the consequences and still held a betting ring. To them, this meant she did not quite like the newcomer, to be willing to spend so much on his humiliation. None of them even considered the fact that she may be on his side and was sure he would win. If so, wouldn't all their large investments go to her?

"This is a fight to the death. We all agree, then." Ephiom said and the rest nodded. Of course, they did not think that with how much they were competing to be the first to beat him, that Ed would survive. So it was best to state that this was a fight to the death.

"Begin!" the referee said, ignoring the commotion in the audience.

At the sound of his voice, the wild girl dashed at Ed with all her might. One could tell she wanted to kill him with one swing of her whip. If she does this, they all loose. They were not going to let it happen. Hammer head and another fighter drew their weapons and threw in one full and powerful swing. An archer among the fighters had released his arrow. Many had attacked at once. It was clear, whoever made the killing blow would win. It was all up to fate.

But they underestimated Ed a little too much. Did they think he was going to stand there and receive their attacks? They were not sure how it happened, but he suddenly vanished.

"Such speed!" someone in the audience exclaimed.

As Ed was no more standing there, these weapons were still aiming for their target. Except, their target was now, whoever was unluckily on the other side of the attack. Seeing the change, many swayed out of the way. Only two of them got scratched from being too slow.

Only few still had their minds on Ed as they swayed away. They saw him move again, his shadow left behind as he appeared before Hammer head swaying from an arrow and slapped him back in the trajectory of the arrow.

Hammer head felt a weight like that of ten paG.o.das. .h.i.t his side, causing him to spit blood, pus.h.i.+ng him back towards the coming arrow. He felt as though his organs melted under the split second touch of that weight. But before he could process what happened, the arrow had pierced through his heart to the other side.

Ed had not stopped, as he caught the whip flying through the air and swung, the wild girl suddenly found herself thrown across the table.

Only few could catch the way Ed moved. Still, it was only a shadow in their eyes. Nevertheless, this was enough. Two of them revealed their martial skill. Ephiom threw a doll into the air and it grew twenty feet and landed before him, just in time to block Ed's incoming figure. The doll opened it's mouth and released a clear gas towards Ed. Ephiom then jumped into the air as he rotated the energy in his core to keep up with Ed's speed and slapped the twenty feet, fifty pound hay doll and bellowed, "Mud fire!"