Rise of the Cosmic_Emperor

Despite the exclamation, Han Doe\'s instincts were not in any way dulled and he was quick to raise his halberd to protect himself when Hal struck down at him with his sword.

*clang*

The weapons gave off a ringing metallic sound when they made contact.

Hal smirked and began to overpower his opponent with strength while he attempted to wrench the halberd out of Han Doe\'s hands.

He successfully maneuvered the halberd out of Han Doe\'s hands and sent both his sword and Han Doe\'s halberd to fall behind them both.

Han Doe\'s eyes widened as he wondered why Hal had also gotten rid of his own sword, 

*Bam*

The answer came in the form of a punch coated with cosmic energy sinking into the side of his face.

"Ugh" Han Doe frowned and quickly put up his hands to protect his face but Hal simply targetted other parts of his body, namely the chest area and specifically the part of the golden bird drawn on it.

*Bam* *Bam* *Bam*

Han Doe took advantage of the force of Hal\'s punches to slide back as he quickly summoned his Halberd cosmic armament again to thrust it at Hal who was still within the halberd\'s reach.

The halberd strike had indeed been fast but not to Hal who easily leaned to the side and grabbed the stem of the halberd to use it to pull Han Doe closer.

The Golden crow sect genius\' eyes widened at how impossible it was for him to resist Hal\'s strength.

So he decided not to fight against the pull and to somehow take advantage of it to execute a maneuver where he would get to land a kick on Hal but the blue-eyed devil had other ideas.

With Han Doe taking to the air to execute his kick, it only made it easier for Hal to control him with the halberd which he used to smack the golden crow sect genius into the ground...

*Bam*

*Crack*

... With such force that he cracked a few of the brown-haired young man\'s ribs.

From the start, Hal had merely been playing to the gallery as there was really none of these so-called leaders that could challenge him. At the very least not when they were in the same realm as him.

He no longer had any intentions of taking it easy though as he bent low and began punching Han Doe... Repeatedly in different parts of his body.

Overwhelming his robe so much that the anti-stain runes stopped being active and the white robe became brown from Han Doe\'s roll in the dirt.

While also having blood stains from the bleeding of many of his injuries.

But Hal knew there was a limit to how much he could injure the Golden crow sect genius and had only been able to do this much because his intention had not been to \'maim or kill Han Doe\' but to \'Dirty his clothes\'.

As Han Doe\'s device got closer to red, now at orange with the Golden crow sect genius already sobbing in his mind at such helplessness (he had been trashed so badly that none of his trump cards came to mind) Hal\'s senses tingled and he leaned back only for a focused attack of cosmic energy, one that he was sure would have burned a hole through him had it hit, passed right in front of his eyes.

Right past where his head had been just a second before as he punched Han Doe.

Immediately, Hal leaped away from his victim and looked back at the new arrivals and the reason for the blast.

They were a group of eight but it was not the complete group that caught Hal\'s attention, it was the three leading the group whose presence could not be any more ominous with the uniform of black all three were wearing.

Hal frowned as he faced them.

"Damn it, I can\'t believe I missed" said the lady with short black hair who had been responsible for the blast of cosmic energy that Hal had only barely escaped.

"You\'ll get another chance" said the oldest-looking man who looked to be leading the inner circle of three.

He then brought out an Array scroll from within his Spatial ring which he charged with Cosmic energy to create a thick black Dome that surrounded Hal and his group, the wounded Han Doe and his group as well as the latest arriving group and cut off the broadcasting feed.

The feed had been due to devices made to float outside of the dome surrounding the rundown district and deliver feedback to the viewing runic slates at the coliseum.

They were not imbued with anything particularly special other than to monitor ongoings in the rundown district and could definitely not see through the Black Dome. Neither could they pick up any sounds.

They were completely blocked out.

"What do we do, Boss?" Asked a bright-eyed young man who was not wearing black and was clearly not part of the true inner circle.

He was a bit bothered by the black dome as it was the first time he had seen it in use since he had been in a group with this trio of experts.

However, after this trio had so powerfully aided them in defeating multiple groups and giving them a chance at actually passing the first stage of the exam, none of those in the group doubted them.

"Take care of the others. Make sure no one interrupts our private little moment with young master Hal here." Said the oldest-looking leader.

"Got it" said the bright-eyed young man with enthusiasm as he moved to interrupt the battle already going on between Hal\'s group and Han Doe\'s group.

A battle Hal\'s group already looked close to winning and Adeline was not happy about the interruption.

Melinda frowned as she watched the three glare at Hal while he glared right back at them.

"Assasins?" Hal asked with a frown.

The trio shared a look before the only female among them said, 

"You\'re sharp. They said you would be."

Hal smiled lightly and then pointed to the one that had been silent so far to say, 

"I\'m guessing you were the driver that tried to blow me up?" 

The man looked at him unsmiling and unanswering but the Leader answered in his place, 

"Tee doesn\'t talk much. But yes, he was the one who tried to blow you up. We wanted to see if it would be enough and it clearly wasn\'t"

Hal chuckled lightly,

"You don\'t seem very good at this" he said.

The leader smiled while the lady licked her lips, 

"Why, because you survived our first attempt? 

I\'m beginning to think you are not as sharp as previously portrayed.

Since we were paid to kill you, we did appropriate research and had long decided that the entrance exam would be the perfect location to attack you.

It wouldn\'t be expected.

We won\'t be disturbed... Especially not by brats in the cosmic Armament and Cosmic Aurora realms.

We have known exactly how the first stage exams would be for a month and have also known the preparation that has been taken to protect those within from external influence.

The Dome will not allow anyone to get inside and will also not allow anyone to get outside. The only way in or out is with the use of teleportation circles and other than the portable ones in the device, no other circle can be used within the Dome.

Only when the exam is officially over will this ban on teleportation be lifted and that is only because it is believed that everyone will be taken out of the district with the portable teleportation arrays within the devices and hence there is no need for protection.

Getting into the exam was far from easy.

We had to use our best concealment and camouflage..." 

"Don\'t forget seductive" The lady chimed in.

The leader continued, 

"... techniques. Coming up with fake bios and putting on fake faces all so we could have this \'private\' moment with you.

How ironic that the very measures taken to protect examinees have trapped you in here with us.

On the outside, you could still call for support but here, you are all alone. It\'s just you and us.

This is going to be great" 

"But you can\'t kill anyone. Those devices won\'t let you" Hal said with wide-eyed \'innocence\'.

The leader raised his hand, 

"Oh, you mean this trinket?"

As he spoke, he and the other three charged the devices on their wrists with cosmic energy that surpassed what those devices had been built to endure, thereby disabling them.

They had no use for it.

And the longer it remained on them, the more likely it was that they would get teleported out of the rundown district.

However, with the disabling of the three devices, the devices of everyone else in the group went red with the bright-eyed young man looking down at his device and saying, 

"This can\'t be right" before he was teleported out of the rundown district.

Almost at the same time, the lady of the trio dashed towards Hal with two long daggers in hand. Both daggers being pagoda rank artifacts.

However, before she could get to Hal, Melinda intercepted and struck out with her Sword cosmic Armament.

Then the lady let out the pressure of her Cosmic Pagoda realm cultivation to release an overwhelming blast of energy and Melinda decided to say,

"Screw it" and retaliate with a blast of the white flames of her flame Ordinance...

*Boom!!!*

.... Resulting in a spectacular explosion.