Chapter 212: Repeated Loss

It has been several weeks since we let go of Zeta and Greta. I still hold anger and contempt against Zieglind. I know I shouldn't have these feelings since he gave us everything we wanted but... The way he threw out Zeta was something I heavily disagreed on.

The mood of my team is still sour since Zeta and Greta left. Well... it was a great loss. He's the one who made most of our plans with Zieglind. He's the one who protected us in a lot of situations and its just sad to see him go.

Everyone is trying to hide their face as their clench their teeth from his departure. Helga and Feran are just silent. But they understand our sorrow. They haven't spent a long time with Zeta but they know how great of a man he was.

But on to other news... Me and the others have been joining this trial for a long time now. We're all now at level 300 or more. For me I'm 347 and the others are leveling up faster than I thought. Zieglind and Zeta completed this at around... level 100 or something? So I still don't understand how we're losing right now.

The difficulty went up, but its more than we expected. But we finally got into the fourth trial.

"Rize? Are you ready now?" Precia asked me.

"Yep." I stood up and followed Precia as we call Feran and Helga on there rooms.

We then all headed to the trials and signed up as we always do. Right now, our morale might be low, but our resolve is stronger than ever.

The game starts out the same as usual. Thousands of hellhounds appeared. But they were all taken care by me.

"Rain of Arrows!" I then shot up a single arrow straight at the sky and once it hit a certain height, it began to clone and split into thousands of pieces.

"Flame Gate Open!" Feran opened up a giant portal in the sky horizontally. The moment those arrows passed through that gate, the arrows got imbued with fire magic and as it hits the ground, it spreads throughout the entire arena.

Hellhounds might be incredibly resistant to fire, but the arrows combined with Feran's fire magic, it made easy kill in the first round. All the contestants were unharmed so we moved on to stage two.

Stage two, the all out war between two factions. Hundreds of contestants halved and fighting with each other.

We made quick work of everything. Feran to open up several gates in the air, different elements. Even our allies get buffed with it.

The mages shoots magic projectiles into the enemies' side and once it passed through Feran's gates, it'll be imbued with magic. Even if it contradicts with each other. Ignoring the laws of magic.

Fire and ice combined freezes the enemies on their tracks and inside that ice, there's a small, spreading fire that surrounds them, burning them inside while they can't move from the ice's freeze.

Rock and water slows down enemies and randomly gets dragged to the middle of the puddle that this combination does.

Light and dark magic consecutively sucks them in the middle and then the light magic chains them so that they can't move.

Fire and Wind magic creates a tornado of fire that shoots out random small fireballs throughout.

And so much more Feran has to offer. I thought he'd be useless at first but his enchantments are incredibly helpful. If our capabilities are 100%, then Feran being here is about 500%. He contributes so much to the team without us even noticing it.

And these gates have so much complexity to them. If our allies, or even us, passes through this gate, our weapons will be imbued with magic too. Just like what he did before with those arrows. But if I go in the gate... and I did with the wind gate, enemies will be knocked away once they get near me. The fire gate sends out a pulse of fire every five seconds that burns enemies. The dark gate drags the enemy closer to the one imbued to it. And rock gate creates spikes behind us that retracts back to the ground once an ally is about to hit it. And there's so much more creativity in his skills that I don't even understand how.

Feran's powers is growing incredibly strong. To the point that we won't be able to keep up with him. And with his unrelenting support to us... we got through... immediately.

A short break and we were taken to a small place where we ate our food even when we don't need to since we defeated all those monsters and enemies within 30 minutes. And there's 50 people left.

They were all staring at us weirdly, some were amazed, some were annoyed, but we didn't mind. All we have in common now is a single goal everyone is waiting for. We're going to complete this trial once and for all.

We went out and faced the enemies that we had absolute trouble with. These basilisks...

"Mental Fortification, Negate Mind Control!" Helga casted on all of us. "Geez, do you really need me for this?" Two spells that counteract the basilisk's intense gaze. Precia achieved this when she got level 100 and level 200.

"Of course we do. Let's end this right now. I don't wanna see these ugly creatures again." Neco added.

Right now, Neco is the strongest part of our team. His damage combined with his speed makes him untraceable. He swoops in, appears in just a millisecond then disappears completely. And his enemies doesn't even notice that they were already killed.

He danced within the pack of basilisks heading towards us. It was like seeing a thick string line in the battlefield flowing through everywhere.

"Enhanced Senses, Third Eye, Speed's Eye, Wind's Guidance, Mana Search!" Feran casted five buffs on himself. "Berserker's Attack!"

A bright light appeared from the battlefield but no one was there. But a basilisk's body was suddenly sliced in half and its remains were blown away. Neco stopped from his tracks and looked at Neco. "Was that... you?"

All of us looked at Feran and couldn't believe it. "Yep." He followed Neco when we couldn't even see him. "Five sense enhancements and I can barely follow you. And this skill... Berserker's attack is a spell

"Hmph." Neco continued on with his rampage, like an invisible spirit in the battlefield. Heads and bodies were flying everywhere. Feran's enhancements combined with Neco's absolute fast speed were something to see. It was a work of art. Precise enhancements, fast movements, and the only thing we can see is the line that was on the battlefield. Like a ghost that comes and go.

The spectators, the commentator and even the contestants were all silent. They were looking at an art piece being created in front of them. And us too were amazed. We just hit level 300 and something inside us changed. We got stronger.

And following Zeta and Greta leaving... Our goals need to be stronger. Far... stronger than anything we've seen. We have to do this. For Zeta and for Greta. That's why we must fight and fight. Because after everything is over... We'll all reunite as we always did. But this time, its going to be all about peace.

No more heartbreaks, no more pain and no more battle to fight. We're only going to continue on living because that's life. And we'll end this. End everything. As the fight against Ouroboros comes closer and closer.

Neco and Feran's rampage stopped and after the silence, comes the applause. Everyone was pumped up. Excited to see if there'll be a new reigning champion. Everyone cheered and shouted.

The remaining contestants laughed, shrugged or got annoyed. But either way, they all left the arena and left us there. Well, they really didn't do anything. So even if they win, its all stolen glory and they all knew that.

So its just the four of us... facing this monstrosity again once more. Feran applied multiple layer of buffs on all of us. And we couldn't believe how much spells he can cast this time. Before he's only allowed to use at least twenty or less but this time... he's been casting mana without even worrying about it. So his mana pool must be amazing.

But enough of that, this is the time where we face these dragons again. We've been here twice and we've lost. So we won't let that happen again. We won't fail. We definitely won't!

"Rize!" Neco called out to me. Everyone then looked at to me too.

"Mhm." We then watched as the five dragons summoned up from the ground. Dark Elemental Dragon, Fire Elemental Dragon, Wind Elemental Dragon, Light Elemental Dragon and a Frost Elemental Dragon... And the most dangerous one of them all... "Law Breaker! Disable all fire spells!" The dragon who gave us the most trouble. "Now, let's do this again!"