Chapter Sixty-Two: The Frenzy of Power

"Thank you, thank you." Yan Luo politely clasped his fists and saluted the audience in the stands, while the Spartan warriors stared at each other in bewilderment. Suddenly, someone shouted, "Surround him!" Instantly, the remaining twenty men took off running at full speed.

Thus, the chase began once more on the field. With the Spartan king dead, the priesthood was at a complete loss as to what to do, while the audience's emotions had been thoroughly ignited. In the midst of this fervor, thirteen Spartan warriors and seven Spartan athletes, approaching from various directions like hunters, blocked off Yan Luo's escape routes.

"Here they come!"

As Yan Luo sprinted at full speed, he saw a completely naked Spartan man with arms outstretched, lunging at him from the side in an attempt to tackle him. Quickly, Yan Luo summoned all his strength, pushing off the ground with such force that he seemed almost to take flight.

A wave of astonished cries swept through the stands like a tidal wave. In that instant, Yan Luo, at full sprint, leapt right over the Spartan athlete, soaring above the man's back! Although the long jump existed in this era, there was no high jump—this feat completely surpassed the audience's imagination!

Yan Luo's leap was not only high but also long. His body glided forward in the air, arms extended, black hair streaming behind him, sweat spraying from his body and glittering with youthful radiance in the sunlight.

"What a jump!"

A judge couldn't help but exclaim, "Long jump requires running, then leaping—the two actions must be perfectly coordinated. The faster you run, the greater the explosive power from both feet at takeoff, and the farther you leap. But timing the transition is difficult; usually, athletes rely on the sound of a flute to keep the rhythm. This foreigner runs as swiftly as a lion, yet leaps as nimbly as an antelope. I dare bet that not a single athlete in all of Greece could jump so high, so far, and with such grace!"

Beside him, another judge said excitedly, "A sculptor should immortalize that leap just now—it would be a masterpiece rivaling the Discobolus!"

While the judges discussed, the twenty Spartans continued to encircle Yan Luo. After about ten minutes, they finally cornered him against a section of the field's wall. In their efforts to catch him, all thirteen Spartan warriors had discarded their shields and red cloaks—and, eager to lighten their loads, even their undergarments.

Now, Yan Luo found himself trapped in a corner of the arena by twenty completely naked, brawny Spartans, with no way out, about to be pinned against the wall.

"Now you can't escape!"

The Spartan men, tongues lolling with exhaustion, looked more like hanged ghosts than dogs after this chase—no battle had ever tired them so, body and soul.

You feel a surge of emotion:

Anger +2, anger +2...

The puppet's emotions were once again at their limit.

With his back pressed against the ninety-degree angle of the field's wall, Yan Luo looked calmly at the twenty naked men before him. He was now utterly cornered, with no way to retreat or escape.

Previously, he had slain over a hundred Macedonian mercenaries thanks to his persona mask. Now, he still had a heroic spirit mask—Swordsman Immortal Li Bai—but this was a world of athletic competition, not fantasy. To unleash any "supernatural" event under so many watchful eyes would be unwise.

Moreover, Li Bai was his trump card.

The heroic spirit mask required accumulated fragments, and the persona mask relied on luck. If he had no mask left as a fallback, how could he choose more challenging inner worlds in the next world?

"Let me!"

From among the twenty naked Spartans, the strongest man stepped forward—his name was Praesinas, a renowned warrior of the city-state of Sparta! The mightiest strongman in all of Sparta, he would not have been chosen to represent Sparta at the Games otherwise.

Praesinas had registered for boxing, wrestling, and pankration!

In truth, these twenty men were either athletes or royal guards—all elite among the Spartans.

Praesinas grinned savagely. Standing about 1.85 meters tall, he was not as tall as that Macedonian mercenary Ghulam, but his physique was even more imposing! His chest bore more than a dozen scars, and his pectorals, abdominals, and biceps all bulged like iron ingots beneath his skin.

With each labored breath, his muscles rippled like little rodents beneath his skin. His build was so thick and powerful that anyone confronted with such a naked man would feel an overwhelming, suffocating force.

Yet Yan Luo still gazed at him calmly, his face expressionless.

The feeling of joy had vanished; the mask of emotions above his head had shifted from "Joy." In his consciousness, the puppet's system prompted him: Anger, one of the four basic emotions, corresponded to the peculiar mask of Joy, Anger, Sorrow, and Happiness.

Now, with one hundred points of anger accumulated, he could channel a portion (one hundred points) of anger into the mask, triggering an emotional frenzy and greatly enhancing the mask's attributes for a short time.

Simply put—

Attribute Frenzy!

The attribute tied to anger was:

Strength!

As Yan Luo poured a hundred points of anger into the mask above his head, the Spartan strongman Praesinas's thick arms reached for him. Yan Luo quickly raised his own arms to block, and in an instant, their limbs became entangled.

Against the backdrop of Praesinas's massive arms, Yan Luo's looked almost delicate.

Arm pressed against arm, iron-hard muscles against streamlined sinew—regardless of brown or fair skin, blue veins bulged like earthworms. Yan Luo was a being of elementary vitality; his opponent, a Spartan strongman.

"Boy..." Praesinas gritted his teeth, "Your strength... is beyond my expectations... but... I will not lose! Ohhhh..."

With a guttural roar, as if constipated, the Spartan warrior unleashed all his power. Muscles strained to the point of bursting, his entire body trembled slightly with the effort. Yet as the mask absorbed one hundred points of anger—

Strength: Frenzy!

Praesinas's sneering face went rigid; his eyes widened in disbelief. Though he was exerting all his might, not only did he fail to gain the upper hand, but felt an overwhelming, irresistible force surging from their entwined arms. To his astonishment, the young man before him—his fair skin flushed crimson—grew stronger.

Anger increases strength—an emotion that alters physical attributes at the physiological level: the body heats up, blood rushes faster.

Now, in attribute frenzy, Yan Luo reached the pinnacle of anger! His blood coursed at high speed, his heart thundered and pounded heavily like a water hammer, sending scorching blood throughout his body. With the roaring flow, a force of explosive destruction surged from within.

"Roar..."

Yan Luo too let out a roar, his exhaled breath carrying a scorching heat, like a desert windstorm! With an unmatched surge of strength, muscle against muscle, power against power, he forced the Spartan strongman Praesinas to his knees with a resounding "thud!"

"What a contest of strength!"

One of the judges couldn't help but shout, barely suppressing his excitement. "This foreigner, with overwhelming force, has actually forced the Spartan strongman Praesinas to his knees!"