Villain Retirement

The audience of the Grandarena City were in for a treat, they have been ever since Riley entered the tower. And right now, the people of the 51st floor were currently watching a scenery they would really only be able to watch on the higher floors.

Being an audience and Grandarena city actually has a price — anything, really. After all, even gods want to have some sort of order and currency; if not, then everyone in the Domain of the Gods would just do whatever they wanted, when they wanted it. They were not fools, they knew they were surrounded by people who could do the same — they knew enough not to overstep their boundaries; if not, then something drastic would happen.

In Grandarena city, the floors below 50 were considered cheap; some even paid for a thread of their hair. But 50 and above is where things start to get truly expensive. Some gods even offer their most prized possession from back when they were still in their own universe just to get a seat on the topmost floors; most, however, were unwilling to do so, and that is why they just watch whatever they could afford wisely.

And perhaps today was the luckiest day of their life.

At first, they were confused as to why there were only two combatants. Most of them even complained that they paid too much just to witness only two gods trying to push each other out of the platform.

But they were wrong, they were incredibly wrong. There was a reason why these two combatants were the only ones left from the previous floor — what they were witnessing was on par with the 1 vs. 1 matches that were only exclusive to the topmost floors.

But of course, the most excited out of everyone on this floor was the one who had the best seat in the house — Riley Ross.

"Do you truly not wish to talk, Raging Yellow God?" Riley had his hands behind his back, while the raging yellow god was rushing toward him like a bull chucked up in cosmic steroids. If Riley was right, then the force being emitted by this raging yellow god was enough to actually mow down the lands of Theran,

"You would truly fit Theran. They could have used you to have better farms, maybe their planet wouldn't have been destined to be destroyed because they would just leave the planet voluntarily to avoid your smell."

"Grrakh!" The raging yellow god just let out a roar as he continued to rush toward Riley; agilely maneuvering each time Riley just manages to avoid his attack by a hair's breadth. Well, no — Riley was not actually dodging anything at all, as even the wind blasting from the raging yellow god's body was enough to burn and melt his flesh off just from the sheer scalding force coming from the raging god's body.

Although almost similar in strength, the biology between the raging god and Esme seemed to be completely different. Themarian biology was weird in a way that their body by itself was capable of exerting godly amounts of strength due to the nature of their internal physiology — their organs themselves were the hardest parts of their body, causing the rest to follow suit; their energy, just staying inside them and allowing them to control the energy and exert it outward in the form of energy beams.

The raging god rushing at Riley was different, his internals were not as strong — all of his energy, just exerting outside in the form of a scalding heat that increases with even the slightest move of his muscles as they tightened.

"Could you at least tell me your name, Raging Yellow God?" Riley leaped into the air to dodge the raging god, "I always talk to opponents that seem inte—"

And before he could finish his words, the raging god suddenly followed him in the air; the god's arms were crossed to make sure he would not accidentally use them to grab or push Riley. And so, instead, the large god just curled his entire body… which almost seemed like he swallowed half of Riley's body whole as he trapped him inside.

"This is truly perhaps the weirdest moment of my short life, Raging Yellow God," Riley said as he looked around the curled god that currently had him trapped like a newborn bird wanting to get out of its shell. And as they landed back on the platform, the raging god's curled-up body just started rotating and spinning toward the edge of the platform, taking the trapped Riley with him.

"Hm," Riley tried his best to focus on the edge of the platform as his view was spinning and rotating due to the literal ball of clumped celestial muscle dragging him. He could not really do anything else, as his hands were literally and figuratively tied, "I feel like one of those spinning-top toys, Raging Yellow God."

And as they reached the edge of the platform, it became evident to everyone there that the raging god did not have any interest in winning at all as he still did not let Riley go — perhaps he just wanted them both to be eliminated so the two of them would be thrown outside, where he could use all of his abilities to completely break Riley into pieces.

Riley would actually like to face the raging god in different circumstances. But sadly for the raging god, Riley still wanted to meet stronger gods on the upper floor.

Everyone was already expecting the two to be eliminated, some even getting ready to leave the tower so they would be able to witness the battle outside. But contrary to their expectations, even as the raging god finally rolled to the edge of the platform — the two did not fall at all.

Instead, the raging god was slowly being lifted up right at the edge — and there, everyone saw Riley biting the very edge of the platform, lifting him and the raging god up. And with a smile forming on his already stretched mouth, he moved his neck… before slamming the curled-up raging god on the outside edge of the platform.

The sudden move confused the raging god, allowing Riley to squirm his way out; crawling his way back to the center of the platform since his lower body was completely mangled. As for the raging god, everyone could really only watch as he started to fall down over the edge.

"Hm," Riley casually nodded his head as his lower body recovered; standing up and quickly patting all the dirt that managed to stick onto him. But even after several seconds of doing this, Riley did not find himself advancing to the next floor — and so, the only thing he could really do was turn to look in the direction where the raging god should have fallen…

…only for the raging god to leap up from the opposite direction; his body, spinning like a circular saw in the air that was making its way to Riley.

And make its way to Riley it did, violently throwing himself toward Riley, who he already expected to be able to dodge. So, this time, the raging god extended his knee — making sure to hit at least a single part of Riley, anything.

But alas, Riley also anticipated that the raging god would do something different. After all, although the raging god might seem dumb, the truth was anything but. The fact that all this time, he still followed the rules of the floor meant that he still had some semblance of intelligence in him.

Once again, Riley placed his hand behind his back; stepping to the side as the scalding force coming from the raging god's body carved his flesh, repeating what he had been doing from the start.

The raging god, however, seemed to have a different approach as he finally stopped moving altogether; calming down as he very slowly stood straight up, completely towering over Riley — not for long, however, as his body started shrinking back to how it was before in the previous floor.

There was still a hint of rage in him, a lot. But his eyes were now much more focused as his breaths caused Riley's hair to sway.

"My name is Yulk."

And finally, the raging god, Yulk, spoke to introduce himself; his arms which were still as thick as Riley's waist, throbbing without pause as they still truly wanted to destroy Riley.

"My name is Riley Ross," Riley bowed his head. But as soon as he did so, Yulk rushed toward him; his shoulders, already threatening to blow his head off.

Riley, however, only smiled as he also rushed to meet Yulk head-on… his bones, however, were crushed as he was easily pushed back by Yulk. But before they could reach the edge of the platform, Riley suddenly ducked down; hitting Yulk's chin with his head, slightly shaking his brain and making him disoriented.

Yulk was about to fall down the platform, but Riley did not allow him to as he slammed his body on him to push him back to the platform. Yulk did not have time to be confused, however, as Riley once again rushed toward him.

Riley started to move differently; his hands were still tied behind his back, but he was weaving and bobbing his head as he made his way to Yulk.

Yulk did not heed this any mind, however, as he once again rushed toward Riley to meet him head-on.

But as soon as he did so, Riley suddenly rolled on the ground, tripping him. And as he started to fall violently, Riley quickly rotated on the floor so that his head would be positioned right on Yulk's throat… violently ramming his head through it.

"Kh…" Yulk could really only groan and let out a quiet shriek as he clasped his caved throat.

"I apologize, Yulk," Riley smiled as he very slowly walked toward the slightly confused Yulk, "But I am curious if all the armless martial arts that Father taught me would be useful against someone like you…

…so, I suppose it's my turn to go on the offensive?"