With him having obtained the Atlantean soldier card.
His next step was to fight Devyn and defeat him, and fighting Devyn was already guaranteed to happen two days from now.
After analyzing the man and his weakness, he tried to predict how the fight would go.
When it came to an opponent's power, Zeras considered four factors that mattered most.
In fact, lacking most of them meant certain defeat for him.
They were strength, speed, motivation, and battle experience.
With that as a basis, he tried predicting the outcome of the fight with Devyn.
Firstly, Strength.
When it came to strength, Devyn was definitely powerful.
Zeras had witnessed him breaking his opponent's trident and sending him flying with a single slash of his trident.
So, no doubt, Devyn was strong.
But Zeras was also confident in his brute force, although he didn't focus much on pure strength.
With his Bio-morph ability, he could at least go toe-to-toe with Devyn when it came to strength.
Secondly, Speed.
Here, there was no doubt about the winner, and that was Devyn.
Zeras knew he was very slow here in the water.
He wasn't an Atlantean, so he didn't understand how they swam so easily and fast.
Compared to a man who was a true Atlantean and had been in the water his whole life, he was pretty sure he'd be the one beaten to a pulp if he dared compete with Devyn based on speed alone.
Thirdly, motivation.
Zeras had his reasons for believing this aspect.
When he fought Chris, that enabled him to win.
Chris looked down on him, or, to say, he looked down on Zera's will to live.
He never considered him a threat, and he lost because of that.
If Chris had taken the fight seriously from the beginning, he would have no doubt won.
That was why Zeras prioritized motivation.
Only with motivation could one keep going and truly give it their all, and while he wasn't aware of how strong Devyn's motivation to win was, he knew it was a life-and-death battle, and no one wanted to die.
The winner here would be the one with the greater urge to live.
Lastly, there was battle experience, and the sure winner was Devyn.
He was a warrior who had trained in the way of the trident long before Zeras and would no doubt have more experience with using the trident.
With that in mind, if he wanted to defeat Devyn, he at least needed to be twice as strong and twice as fast.
The only way that could be achieved was through training.
Even if there were only two days to the fight, he could still get something done.
With a clear idea of what he needed to improve, he turned to the map and located the training area.
Once he found it, he rose to his feet and moved toward the exit.
-- -- --
...Atlantean Soldier's Training Ground
The door creaked open, drawing the Soldiers' attention.
On sighting Zeras, they immediately looked away and continued what they were doing.
None of them tried to cause him trouble; they had watched his fight with Roder and knew he was a tough customer.
Zeras looked around, seeing the large ring at the far end of the grounds.
There were rows and rows of weapon racks, mostly consisting of tridents.
Strange pieces of equipment for training speed and testing strength, etc.
A haggard-looking old man with long hair and a broom in hands quietly cleaned the floor.
He moved closer to the battle stage and stood among other soldiers, watching a spar unfold.
He was mostly trying to observe how the opponents were moving and maneuvering in the fight, and little by little, he started to get the hang of their movements.
The two fighters suddenly collided with each other one more time, and one of them had one of his tridents blown away from his hand.
Seeing the fight end so quickly, disappointment crossed his eyes, but they narrowed in focus, noticing the direction the trident was flung to.
It was toward the old man who was sweeping the grounds.
Zeras's eyes widened as he had no doubt the trident would immediately pierce the old man's head, killing the poor soul.
The other soldiers weren't at all interested in the results, as if whether the old man died was none of their business.
Instead, they looked even more amused.
The trident moved quickly toward the cleaner, who noticed the rippling approach and turned, but could only stand there, frozen by the suddenness.
The trident was less than five centimeters away, and it seemed the result was final, until a figure flashed by and was sent flying into the wall in that split second.
Blood slipped out of Zera's mouth as he fell to his knees, looking at his stomach.
There, the trident could be seen, its three sharp prongs nailed to his stomach and emerging from behind him.
Blood oozed out, painting his clothes in a color of red.
He grabbed the trident and pulled it out of his stomach, clenching his teeth tightly due to the pain.
His eyesight was starting to darken, and he caught a glimpse of the other soldiers, who were looking at him with strange expressions.
It wasn't one of pity but of mockery.
'Why risk his life for an old fool?'
Zeras ignored them as he looked at the old man, who held a broom in his hands, looking at him in both confusion and shock.
The world slowly went dark, and his body fell to the ground with a thud, blood oozing out from his wounds, painting the floor red.