Chapter 69 - To The Throne

Aaris showed his card to everyone and they were left in awe, 

"What the-, how did you?" Crius was stuttering, 

"Hehe… well as Melvi told you about those two guys, I realized I never got any points after defeating them, so I landed a few finishing blows, threw them on the beach, and voila!" Aaris smirked proudly, 

"Aren't you ruthless…" Melvi was dejected at him, 

"Don't blame me! They were tough-" Aaris looked over Niran and noticed him, 

Niran was lost in thoughts with a dejected face.

"Oye Niran, what happened? Aren't you happy, we are going to be in the first place! Also, I can finally jump into the top 10!" Happy tears came out of Aaris' eyes.

"Top 10? Why do you want to be in the top 10?" Niran, put a smile back on, 

"Well, you see, it was just my wish to finish in the Top 10! No, no Top 5!" Aaris faked a laugh, he can't share the secret of his bet with Tara with them, 

"That's great, everybody has an aim, they look up to." The smile on Niran's face slowly faded away, he recalled the promise he made with his elder brother.

After a few hours of walking, they reached the Blue Ring river, Melvi used some Ice Talismans and made a bridge to cross the river, crossing the bridge they finally reached, 

The Thorne!

*ping!*

All of their cards buzzed!

_____

| Second Trial -› Kings Domain Game |

| Time Elapsed -› 16 Hours 26 minutes |

| Total - Points -› 220 Points |

| Team -› Team First North | 

| Status -› King | 

E

—» Team First North has entered the Throne «—

—» Move to the desirable land and command Claim to create Domain «—

—» The area of the domain will be equal to 3 times of the total team points «—

—» Warning « —

1. Only the King can claim the land in Throne.

2. After entering the Throne, no player can leave the land of the Throne, once left before the end of the game, they shall be eliminated by default. 

3. Kings defeated in the Throne by Cold Promotion will have no record points, but Teams defeated by other Teams will still have their record points and they have to start from their respective regions again.

_____

The half-moon was hidden completely behind the cold clouds and while darkness was diluting little by little, the hazy sunlight was slowly scattering in the forest.

"Now the real game will begin from here, let's exchange points and get some land and lay underground." Niran suddenly got serious.

"It's around 3 am currently, either some of the teams are wide awake to hunt down the other teams or exhausted and asleep, so it's better to believe on the first possibility and be cautious," Aaris spoke coldly.

"I agree, Rise, let's move close to some other region, our is already emptied so it's to obtain some land and be prepared early." Niran pulled out his card and others too.

They sprinted to the east where dawn was breaking.

"Let's do it!" Melvi was in high spirits and was confident in their win.

"By the way, I was thinking what are record points?" Aaris recalled the third warning in the card, 

"Record points are those, on which a player was eliminated, say the two hunters you defeated earlier still have their points but are unfortunately out of the game," Melvi smirked at Aaris with menace in his eyes.

"Scary! Then in the whole game, it was the king who was at the most disadvantage!" Aaris drooped his shoulders.

"Let's waste any more time, the 1/3rd time limit has already elapsed." Since Aaris revealed his points Niran's tone was completely changed, now it was way too colder than before.

"Ye...yeah." Aaris took a deep breath, and raised his card close to his face, 

"Claim!"

*ping!*

_____

—» Team First North confirmation to claim land «—

—» Total Team Points - 311 points «—

—» Total area will be claimed - 933 m² «—

—» say "Yes" to proceed or "No" to decline «—

_______

Aaris looked at everyone and they all nodded in agreement.

"Yes!" Aaris giddied up.

*ping!*

_____

—» Congratulations! «—

—» Team First North has claimed their Domain! «— 

—» Domain's King - Rise Kier «—

—» Domain ranking - 2nd «—

—» Domain status - 3 Pawns : 0 Intruders. «—

———

-- Aaris - PoV --

'What's this Domain ranking?' No one said anything about this!

"It means somebody has already claimed bigger land than us! We have to find them and take them down as soon as we can!" Suddenly Niran ticked off,  "All of you stay here, I'll handle them!"

Why is Niran so eager and anxious?

'Wait! We just claimed our domain and still don't know who and how many we are facing. How can I let you charge at them recklessly!'

I grabbed Niran's shoulder to stop him, why is he in such a hurry!

Since we came to the Throne, not even before that when I saved Malvi, he started acting strangely.

"It doesn't matter who and how many they are, I can take them down on me, why are they stopping me? This is for our team and for your sake! This is a chance for you Rise, so let me go!" Niran shook his shoulder and dashed into the forest.

'Niran Wait! Melvi and Crius both of you stay here! I am going behind him!'

***

Aaris dashed in the same direction Niran went, while both Melvi and Crius stayed behind.

Leaping over branches rapidly, Niran was in turmoil.

-- Niran - PoV --

I never thought of this! First Rise points and then this unknown domain! 

I can't take any chances, this is a good chance, we can move forward to the next trial as a whole team,  if I defeat the team of the first ranked domain, they definitely have more points than us, with that I could be in the lead again,

without fighting Rise.

I moved further deep in the forest, then I felt an odd presence.

I realized 4 candidates has surrounded me, the boy who has the King mark on his hand, roared,

"Look what we have here! His Majesty himself! Forgive us our majesty but kindly handover-"

'You are in my way!' 

[ ROAR OF THE GOLDEN FLAME ]

I knocked them out and they fell to the ground. I stopped for a while to check over them but they teleported in a few minutes on the spot.

Guess, they are sent to their region to start again.

I don't have time to waste around, I need to find them!

The area is vast, perhaps I can use that!

I climbed over the tallest tree I found, 

[ DRAGON'S HUNT ]

With this, I could sense the presence of every being in a radius of 10 kilometers, the one with the strongest presence will be the ones!

In a minute I felt every human presence in the range. There are currently three teams nearby, the one in the east is mine, the second one is far off in the south and has a quite weak presence to acquire a domain bigger than us, but there is one guy in the north, his presence is strong.

But something is wrong, his mana presence is flickering, I need to check it out.

[ GOLDEN FLAME 7 SEAL ]

[ FIRST RELEASE ]

***

Niran already has laid his eyes on his target and has set out to hunt them.

His shoulders, arms, and legs got covered in golden hue flames and the flames coming out of his shoulder shaped itself as Dragon wings.

Meanwhile, Aaris was still chasing Niran, in the direction he went.

"Damn it! Where did that go?" 

While leaping branch to branch, Aaris noticed bright yellow lights piercing through the woods.

"What? It's already morning but it still should be around 4 am, guess the sun here-" 

But the light flew over his head and the forest went dark again.

"What the fuck was that? Niran?! His body was on fire! Guess he found the domain, he fast. I can't catch up to him like this. I guess I shouldn't play around also." Aaris took a deep breath and released his mana, but this time only on his legs and eyes.

[ ROUGE RUN ]

He dashed in the direction of Niran, 

"Even though I am using my mana, he is still fast!" Aaris was still struggling to catch up to him, but the difference between their speed was not too large.

When Niran was soaring above the sky, everyone who saw him was stunned, few realized who he was but few were scared, thinking of him as a strong spell.

After flying a few kilometers, Niran slowly receded,

"The presence came around from here." Niran came down, dispelled his flames, and cautiously went forward chasing the flickering presence.

The more he got close, the more the presence flickered, also the mana nature of the candidate came apparent to him.

"This presence?! Why does it have to be her?" Niran clenched his teeth and halted.

That must mean, they are around here too-, 

A large bronze Scorpion came out of the ground and tried to sting Niran but he evaded the attack.

"Guess I don't have any other options but take her down, 

Forgive me, Ruth."