[Northern region of the dinsional zone.]
[One hour later.]
The air in the Northern Dinsional Zone crackled with raw, untad energy. It had been a long hour of slaughter.
Death-flas, his face an unreadable mask beneath the illusion he wore, kept his gaze locked on the hulking, Sky Stage Chira-Lion prowling a mile away.
"Master… are we truly going to engage that thing?" Death-flas asked, his voice a low gravelly murmur. The Chira-Lion was a known quantity—fast, powerful, and demanding a significant expenditure of power to defeat quickly.
Darkness paused, the deep shadows of the forest floor seeming to intensify around her. She ran the tip of her tongue over her lips, a smile forming:
"It's only a Sky Stage Beast, Death-flas. A high-value target, nothing more."
Eagle-Eye stepped forward, her tone urgent. "Master, please! We can't afford to expose your core strength. There are thousands of eyes on the Arena. If they deduce our dentities, this competition—"
"Silence!"
Darkness's snap was imdiate and absolute, a whip-crack that froze the air. Eagle-Eye flinched, taking a hasty step back. She exhaled a long, asured breath, the brief lapse in her control dissipating. Darkness turned to look at Shadow, then the rest of her six-person unit.
"We already possess five thousand points, a tally that will easily secure our spot among the Top Sixteen Finalists," she stated, her eyes like chips of obsidian. She suddenly paused, her head snapping to the south, sensing six distinct life-force signatures, aggressive and closing fast. A rival team.
A man in cheap, gaudy silver armor led the newcors, a cocky smirk plastered across his face. "Well, well! What do we have here? A team of three fine gents and three… absolutely delectable ladies. We six would just love to chat and play, but we've got points to farm!" He carelessly rested his cheap sword on his shoulder, his eyes lingering on Darkness with blatant, vulgar lust.
Darkness's eyes narrowed to slits. She was accustod to her beauty, but the lustful hunger in the n's gazes made her stomach churn with disgust—a deep-seated hatred for anyone who dared to look at her as an object, that was one of the reasons she hid her gender.
"Kill them," she commanded, the dismissal in her hand gesture more insulting than any curse.
WHOOSH!
Red-Flas and Eagle-Eye shot forward, their specialized weapons—materializing from their storage rings.
"Such arrogance! We five here are all Master-Level Awakeners! You two, deal with these charging ants!" the silver-armored leader bellowed, jabbing his sword at the approaching figures.
WHOOSH!
Two of his teammates rushed to intercept. They raised their blades to et Death-flas and Eagle-Eye, preparing for a protracted exchange. But this was no standard clash.
WHOOSH!
Death-flas and Eagle-Eye simultaneously sidestepped the attacks with impossible grace, appearing behind their targets in a breath. The only sound was the soft shing of tal being returned to a sheath.
They stood still for a mont, and the two enemy fighters crumpled, a thin, crimson line across their throats. Their bodies dissolved into shimring light particles, instantly teleporting them out of the Dinsional Zone.
"What the—?! How did you eliminate two Master-Level combatants with a single strike?! Who the hell are you people?!" The leader was utterly stunned, his bravado instantly draining away.
"You aren't worthy of an answer," Eagle-Eye stated flatly, his rapier spinning once before she lunged, Death-flas a deadly shadow right behind her.
"Don't underestimate the Silver Blades!!!" The man scread, a dense wave of his Life-Force Energy exploding outward. He shot forward alongside his three remaining teammates.
"So annoying," Darkness muttered, a flicker of genuine irritation crossing her features. She snapped her fingers.
CRACK.
Instantly, the Silver Blades leader and his group froze, mid-stride, trapped in a field of raw, oppressive temporal stasis.
"What?! Why can't I move?!" The leader shrieked, his eyes wide with a terror that only mounted as he saw the two figures standing directly in front of his face.
WHOOSH!
[ 3,780 Points]
Darkness smiled, a cold, satisfied expression that didn't reach her eyes. "Our target is the First Place Grand Prize. I don't care about the risks, or the public perception. We must win."
"Yes, Master!" Her five followers chorused, their own lust for power reignited as the bodies of their unfortunate opponents shattered into light.
---
A sudden, deafening system notification echoed throughout the Zone and across every viewing screen in the Arena.
[DING: Current Champion: Golden Dragon, with 50,070 Points.]
Darkness, her team, and every other competitor in the vast Dinsional Zone froze in stunned disbelief.
"Fifty thousand?!" Red-Flas gaped, the point total dwarfing their own by a factor of ten.
Bianca's voice, its purpose to raise the stakes, imdiately followed:
"A worldwide announcent will be made when a team reaches 50,000 points! That team's location will now be broadcast to all remaining teams and monsters within the Dinsional Zone."
BOOOOM!!
Darkness snapped her head toward the east. A pillar of brilliant, pulsating Golden Light shot into the sky hundreds of miles away, an undeniable beacon marking the champions' precise location.
"Should we—" one of her n started.
"—No." She cut him off with chilling finality.
"The 'Golden Dragon' is Christopher's team. That boy's power is erratic and far beyond what we can safely engage without drawing fatal attention. If we attack them, we will not only lose but risk exposure that compromises our main objective. We will keep as much distance as possible."
BAM! BAM!! BAM! BAM! BAM!
Suddenly, the ground trembled beneath them. To the west, countless monsters—from scurrying Shadow Hounds to lumbering Stone Golems—were erupting from the terrain, a relentless tide charging toward the pillar of light.
"Good," Darkness whispered, her predatory smile returning.
"A massive migration. We'll use the opportunity to farm uncontested." She summoned her signature weapon, the Soul Scythe. Its crimson blade pulsed with an eerie, hungry light.
"Let's kill every single monster before us!"
WHOOSH!
She shot forward, a blurring crimson streak, instantly cleaving five Sky Stage Beasts in two before continuing her charge without breaking stride. Her team exchanged grim nods and followed their terrifying Master into the fray.
__
[On the.]
The audience was in an uproar.
"Wow!! It looks like the Dark Soul teams are now vying for a definitive second position! They've already topped eight thousand points!" Bianca shouted into the mic, her smile dazzling and her excitent palpable.
"But who can possibly defeat the reigning champions! The Golden Dragons' score is still climbing! It's now nearing fifty-five thousand!"
"Hahaha! The victory is already sealed!" Howard, the Dean of the Elite Vitality Academy, roared with pride. "Those are my students!"
"Indeed. I can't believe I'm celebrating the sure defeat of my own academy's contender," Maxim, the esteed Dean of the Guardian Academy, said with a wry smile: "But with Tony on the Dragon team, it's inevitable."
"Tony is just a brilliant teammate," Howard countered, still beaming. "But the real spectacle is the team's leader."
Maxim nodded, his expression growing serious. "I am still worried. With the simultaneous broadcast of their location to every monster and every team in the whole Dinsional Zone, they will be overwheld. The sheer volu of incoming forces..."
"Just watch the show, Maxim," Howard replied, a dangerous confidence in his eyes. "You have no idea what you're watching."
__
A wave of charging enemies interrupted the serene contemplation of the Golden Dragon team.
"Hey!! There they are! The golden beacon! Let's get them!"
Christopher slowly tilted his head. He was mounted atop Death.
"Advika," he murmured, his voice flat and devoid of effort.
"On it," Advika, the team's powerhouse, responded instantly. She stepped forward, the only sound the slow, deliberate hiss of her drawing her Fire-Forged Katana from its sheath.
"Flaming Judgnt," she whispered.
The air around the sword warped, and it beca instantly enveloped in intensely focused Purple-Black Flas. With a single, deceptively slow horizontal slash, she unleashed a colossal, crescent-shaped blade of fire toward the charging team of five.
"This is no ordinary attack! Defense Skill NOW!!" the enemy leader scread, his dash slowing to a panicked stop.
Two of his mbers frantically deployed their most powerful defensive skills, a bulky Terra-Shield Barrier erupting before them. They bravely kept moving, trusting their defense would break the attack's montum.
BOOOOM!!
The purple flas struck. The Terra-Shield shattered like glass, and the five individuals were instantly engulfed in a vortex of scorching heat.
[ 1,367 Points]
Christopher's teammates were montarily stunned, staring at the charred, dissolving bodies.
"You cannot defend against my flas," Advika stated simply, sheathing her sword with a definitive clack. Her eyes, however, were directed upward.
BAM!! BAM!! BAM!!
WHOOSH!!
The sky darkened. Countless Flying Aerie Beasts descended in a feathered swarm, while below, a devastating wave of terrestrial monsters surged forward, a primal stampede aid solely at the source of the golden light.
"Incoming! Prepare for a coordinated defense!" Tony yelled, adjusting his grip on his sword.
Mariana and Mitchell readied themselves to summon their respective beasts—but Christopher had still not given the order.
Christopher slowly raised a single finger. The bored expression on his face never changed. With a casual flick of his wrist, tens of thousands of miniature, glowing Flashaft Arrows appeared on the ground around them.
"Go."
WHOOSH!!!!
The arrows launched forward with deadly precision. They did not pierce; they erased. Each shaft struck a monster, burning its soul and life force away in a fraction of a second.
".....???"
"What the fuck?!!"
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