Insect Tamer's Ascension Chapter 528. As a friend, I have to say this to you...

"Obliterated?" he asked and then looked at the serpent once before looking back at Osric.

"Sir Osric, your beast had the mantis struggling the whole time. If anything, that fight could have gone either way," Theo said out loud.

But beyond that, he just wanted to have a good fight till the end, not something that could be ended just by a forfeit.

Osric gave a slight dry laugh and finally got up from the ground fully.

When he dusted his uniform from the back, the serpent also started shrinking its body posture and moved back toward him.

"No, Theo. You only see the fight from your side," Osric spoke while stretching his neck one more time.

"My serpent had one answer for your mantis, and that answer was me having a plan against your mantis. I knew what it would do from prior battle observations. The serpent attacked your beast 2 times successfully but the repulsion didn’t work. That is it."

Theo looked at him without blinking.

Osric pointed toward the serpent with his chin.

"You got in 2 hits with such ridiculous spontaneous tricks too, the outcome was already in front of me," he spoke and then looked at the referee for a second.

"It’s simple, you adapted. I did not have another layer ready after that."

Theo looked at the serpent again and then at Osric’s face.

"You still had that water attack," Theo replied, wanting to give the guy something.

"And you still had that poison, that strange movement, that sword, and a beast that fights with free will," Osric shot back.

That made Theo quiet down for a moment.

The crowd was still too loud, but now he could hear a lot of discussions instead of just screaming.

Many were saying his name, while many were saying the mantis’s species name.

And some were saying Osric’s name with disappointment in their tone as if they were personally offended by his concession.

"You don’t care about your image in front of these people?" Theo asked with a knowing smile.

Osric looked toward the crowd with his usual smile back on his face, but Theo could now tell there was a slight bitterness in it.

"Not really. They can lose their money for all I care," he spoke. "But what I care about is my place in that prospective team."

Theo’s gaze sharpened.

So that was what was really bothering him.

"Then why make yourself look weak?" Theo asked bluntly.

He could feel Osric had more up his sleeve, but he didn’t show it for some reason.

Theo didn’t want to speculate any longer; he wanted answers directly.

Osric looked at him and the smile became a little more real.

"Because if I dragged the match and still lost after showing all my cards, then I would look much weaker," he spoke as if it were obvious.

Theo couldn’t help but let his eyebrows move up, there was some sense in it.

"We have different opinions then. I would have gone all out till the end and if I lost, then it only meant it was time to train harder," Theo spoke while shaking his head.

Osric shrugged his shoulders too, with his eyes closed.

"Theo, since I see you as a friend more than an enemy, I gotta tell this to you," he spoke and continued even before Theo could express his curiosity. "You have this annoying habit" he stated.

"What?" Theo asked.

"You make people feel like they are still hiding something from you even after they have already shown everything," Osric said while shaking his head again, as if a little frustrated.

"And I do not enjoy being on the wrong end of that feeling."

Theo wanted to deny that but he couldn’t.

His spatial sense, the bond, his observations, all of it together did make him approach fights in a way that felt invasive.

Before he could say anything, the referee stepped between them.

"If your conversation is over, leave the arena," he spoke in a flat tone as if he didn’t care.

Osric gave a light nod while Theo did the same and the two moved toward their respective sides.

But the moment Theo started walking back, the whole noise of the crowd fully crashed into him again.

It was different this time.

When he had won against others before, there was always shock, there was curiosity, and mostly always disbelief.

But this time, he looked at the crowd more than usual and found different emotions all over.

And he understood most of them.

In the front crowd, there were people with cold eyes staring at him.

Then there were people interested in him and lastly, the type of people Theo didn’t know what to do with currently, they had hungry eyes.

Theo’s gaze moved toward the front rows where the nobles were seated and for a second, he locked eyes with an old man whose robes looked simple until Theo saw the crest on the chest.

He didn’t recognize the house immediately, but that old man wasn’t looking at him like a child.

He was looking at him like an investment already even though they had never met before.

Theo didn’t like that one bit.

’I knew the exposure to all these high-end nobles would have some repercussions, but I didn’t have a clue there would be so many of them here,’ he thought, but then a smile crept over his face.

’Guess I helped the image of insects today, there will be a lot of interest over what a mantis is, just like I thought.’

Theo wanted to start running around in excitement, but this was not the place nor the time to do so.

When he got near the exit path, he was surprised to see Varelya standing there with her arms crossed.

Both Clara and Elias were at the back waiting for him.

Varelya’s red eyes were on him and just like always, there was no welcoming smile on them.

When Theo got inside the exit path, he looked back to see a person hiding in the corner, his spatial sense kicking in.