The attention quickly shifted from Xin to Apollo, a giant of a figure that stood out like a sore thumb, even with all the people crowding around him, Gary could see the top of his head. There were still some people here and there trying tog et shots of Xin, but at least they were able to move now.
‘What is it with me and running into giants everywhere recently?’ Gary thought as he imagined an AFC match between Austin, Ice, and Apollo—certainly one to watch. He was already imagining it with all their variations of powers.
Although it wouldn’t sell a lot of tickets, considering no one knew who Austin or Ice really were.
‘Apollo, huh? It’s been a while since I saw him. The last time was at the AFA; we were both the top-ranking students, and he was quite strong. I remember him going up against Jayden that time, but the two of us never fought each other.’
Gary was quite thankful for that—the big guys tended to be more resilient compared to others. His fight with Ice had been a long one, but the toughest fight was with the Unicorn Mythical-Type Altered, the warden of the prison.
‘From what I remember, after the AFA, Apollo had his debut match as well, and he quickly rose several ranks. He even reached the top fifty before Xin did, even though she had her debut match before him.’
‘He was known for just taking fight after fight, even if there wasn’t a lot of money involved. To get others to fight him, he would even give up his purse to the other contestant—all for the sake of fighting and climbing the ranks.’
‘It’s no wonder he’s gotten so popular with everything he’s done. It’s rare to see someone who’s in it for the fighting rather than everything else that comes along with being in the AFC.’
Regardless, what Gary was thankful for was that there was now a chance for him to escape and get out of the situation.
“Come on, let’s break out of here,” Gary said as he dragged Xin along.
Breaking away, they finally reached the large open square where a statue stood in the middle, with the Bloodspire Arena behind it.
The square was extremely busy with people trying to get into the arena, and at the same time, several stalls were lined up, selling food, drinks, and various other items.
Taking this chance, Gary went up to one of the stalls, swiped his card, and handed a black hoodie over to Xin.
“Here, take this. It will cover you up for now. Otherwise, we’re going to get stopped at every single street corner.”
Xin looked nervous, unsure whether or not to take the hoodie.
“Don’t you think this is just going to draw more attention to me?”
“Nah, trust me, it’s fine,” Gary said.
As he finished his sentence, Xin noticed a large shadow looming over Gary’s back. She and the shopkeeper took a step back for a moment.
“It’s… Apollo!” the shopkeeper said, his finger pointed out and one hand over his chest as if he was going to fall any second.
“It’s nice to see you both here at the event. I assume it’s to watch the match today, right?” Apollo said.
Gary slowly turned around, expecting a large crowd of people, but instead, there were several security guards who had pushed people back, not allowing them to come any closer to Apollo.
No one was getting through the security team, even as people attempted to sneak peeks at what was going on.
“So much for not getting any attention. Did you come here to say hi to Xin?” Gary asked.
From a distance, the crowd of people certainly thought it looked like that, as they could still see Xin and Apollo, and what they guessed was Xin’s boyfriend or guest.
“This is exciting, right? Do you think Apollo is going to challenge Xin to a fight? They’ve never gone against each other after all.”
“That’s not possible anymore though, right? Didn’t you hear the rumors?”
“What rumors?”
“That Xin had quit the AFC. It’s why they haven’t announced her next fight. There hasn’t been an official announcement, but people think it’s just so it doesn’t get overshadowed by Harvor’s next big fight.”
“Still, there might be a chance it happens, or a fight breaks out here.”
“It’s been a while since I saw you, Apollo,” Xin said, now pushing Gary to the back and to the side. “We’re here to see the fight. I’m guessing it’s the same for you.”
As Xin talked to Apollo, she noticed his eyes were wavering. He wasn’t looking at her; instead, he was looking at...
“Gary...” Apollo whispered. “That’s you, right? I thought it was.”
“What!” Gary replied. “How can you tell it’s me? My hair—it’s a different color.”
“Yeah, but your face is exactly the same,” Apollo said. “For those who have seen you in person before, it’s easy to tell, but it works on people who have never seen you and will second-guess themselves.”
Gary didn’t really know what to say. It had been years since he had seen Apollo, and even while in the academy, it wasn’t as if the two were buddy-buddy friends.
“I’ve been following you, Gary. You’ve done a lot. It’s as expected—you were onto bigger things than the AFC. But I wonder why you’re turning up like this. Do you two just have standard tickets?” Apollo asked.
Gary checked his phone, along with the ticket code, and it was indeed standard tickets. It was even in the outer ring.
No VIP box, no ground floor cage seats. If it wasn’t for their superior eyesight, it would be hard for both of them.
“I have a VIP booth. Why don’t you two come and join me? That way, it will be more comfortable for Xin as well,” Apollo suggested.