Chapter 48 - Twenty-Fifth Floor (4)

After killing Regina, Aleksai was easily able to win the round by shooting down three Observers. The color for the next round was chosen, and it was blue again.

The man with the white suit was visibly annoyed that his team had lost five rounds in a row. He looked towards the rest of his teammates, and for the first time since the start of the Test, he spoke.

"I was expecting more of you." He said with a high pitched voice, sounding like a prepubescent girl. There was a reason why he didn't like speaking.

"They are stronger than what we expected, Pinto," Steve replied, relieved that he had faced probably the weakest member of that team. Everyone else that fought after that could have killed him, even if he used his Shinsoo techniques.

Laure had better Shinsoo control than him, and he didn't think he could destroy his barriers. Hatsu could have killed him without even using his Ignition Weapon. Steve couldn't even follow Vespa's movements and didn't have an Armor Inventory to block her attacks. Aleksai's purple bubbling liquid scared him, as he knew how strong Regina is, yet it had melted her down.

"Or you are all just useless and weak," Pinto said with his high pitched voice and looked threateningly at Steve. "I will show you how it's done."

Pinto walked up on stage with confidence in his steps. He was the strongest of Yama's Three Mad Dogs and didn't fear any E-Rank Regulars, no matter how strong they were.

Androssi seeing Pinto enter the stage, turned towards Lumen. "It seems they are sending their strongest member. It's only fitting that we sent our strongest member as well."

She crossed her arms under her brėȧsts, and confidently stated. "And that would be me!"

Lumen shook his head and made a shooing motion with his hand. He was aware of her antics, so he had learned to ignore almost everything she says.

Androssi proudly smiled and marched towards the arena. "Yep, that's me. The strongest member of MY TEAM." She made sure to emphasize it's her team.

"I never got the chance to kill a Princess of Zahard before. Thank you for giving me this opportunity." Pinto threatened in his squeaky voice, to which Androssi responded by laughing.

"Oh, man! With a girly voice like yours, I would be surprised if anyone takes you seriously." Laughingly she replied.

"What did you say to me?" Pinto squeaked in anger, and that the last part of his sentence was nothing but a high pitched sound. He despised anyone that made fun of his voice and had killed everyone that had dared to do so.

Androssi couldn't resist laughing when she heard him, tears from laughter started pouring out of her eyes. "Please stop talking, I can't stop laughing at your voice."

"I will kill you!" Pinto screamed out in his squeaky voice and madly dashed towards Androssi, who was hugging her stomach from laughing at this point.

Pinto focused a massive amount of Shinsoo in his hand and punched with all his might. Androssi while still laughing, caught his fist without any effort.

Her body strength was through the roof. Even some Rankers might have a weaker body than hers. Not only did she have the blood of Zahard, but she had also trained with increased gravity, and had been shown the Ha Family's Shinsoo strengthening technique by Yuri. The technique was a Ha Family secret and wasn't supposed to be taught to outsiders, but Yuri never really cared about rules.

"Not only do you speak like a little girl, but you punch like one as well." Androssi mocked him while laughing.

"Since you are going down that route, let me show you how a woman punches." Dark red Shinsoo gathered on her free hand, and she punched Pinto with it. "Woman Punch!"

The muscular man stood up and looked at her with hatred. His suit was shredded, and he was dripping blood from his ċhėst.

"You will pay for this!" Pinto screamed at her, but that only made her laugh harder. She couldn't stop herself from doing so. Just hearing such a high pitched voice from a muscular man was making her laugh uncontrollably, which angered Pinto even more.

"Aaaahh!" Pinto screamed out, as his white and black Shinsoo gathered around his right hand. His suit was shredded to pieces as his right arm transformed into a massive white claw with black dots on it. "Stage 1 Partial Transformation: Dalmatine Claws."

Pinto was a Canine person and had managed to unlock their special ability, Canine Transformation. It allows Canine people to transform part of their bodies to that of beasts. It makes the user more powerful, and some transformations even grant additional special abilities.

Usually, the powers awaken purely by chance, and very few Canine people had ever managed to unlock it as Low-Rank Regulars. That was why Pinto was regarded as the strongest of the Three Mad Dogs since he was the only one to awaken his Canine Transformation.

Massive amounts of Shinsoo gathered around his claw as he madly rushed towards the laughing Androssi. Pinto slammed his claw and caused a large explosion with his attack.

In a moment, the dust cleared and Androssi was still laughing as she held his claw with one hand. Pinto was astonished that his attack was blocked just like that. Even a D-Rank Regular would be unable to stop it, how was she able to so easily block it?

Androssi still holding on to his claw, flipped him over, and slammed him on the ground. She gathered dark red Shinsoo within her hands and sent a massive blast at the downed Pinto. "Chiffon Sword."

Her attack caused a massive explosion in the arena. After the dust settled, Pinto was nowhere to be seen. The Shinsoo technique she used was something that Yuri had taught her, she had just renamed it.

"I will kill you!" Androssi imitated Pinto's high pitched voice and continued laughing at him. After she calmed down a bit, she shot down three blue Observers and exited the arena.

With this, Lumen's team had secured the victory since they won six rounds, but the Test would be over only when all rounds are finished.

"You will pay for this!" Once she returned, she imitated his voice again and dropped down laughing while holding her stomach.

The color for the next round was selected, and both teams had to choose their participants.

"Verdi, it's your turn." Lumen told the grey-haired girl that was holding onto his shirt. Verdi nodded to him and entered the stage.

FUG's team was visibly scared after five of their members died, and started arguing between themselves.

"Steve, why don't you go again?" One of them asked. He had long black hair and a feminine face.

"Why should I go? I already fought once. You go, Maka." Steve argued back.

"But you lost, you have to redeem yourself!" Countered back the feminine looking man.

"Not a chance. You go." Steve adamantly refused. There was no way he is going out there again. He got lucky that his opponent was the weakest, so he didn't plan on testing his luck again.

Before the Test had begun, he was confident that his team would dominate them, but now, he didn't want to face a single one of those freaks. Steve couldn't understand how are they all so strong. Most of his teammates had delayed their climb and stayed as E-Rank Regulars for a long time, but everyone except him had died facing those monsters.

"I will go." A man that had too much facial hair declared. The only visible thing on his face was his two beady black eyes. Everything else was covered by brown hair. Once he had seen Verdi on stage, he had made his mind to go.

"See. Fabio wants to go this round. There is no need for me to go out." Maka stated.

Once on stage, Verdi looked at him in annoyance. She could hear his dirty thoughts and that annoyed her to no end. To make matters worse, he was extremely ugly and would make for an awful doll.

The moment the fight started, Fabio took a step forward to dash towards the grey-haired girl but was stopped in his tracks. With a blank look on his face, he weakly fell on the ground while his limbs lightly fidgeted.

Verdi had sent a Telepathic attack combined with her Shinsoo and turned Fabio into a vegetative state. The scariest part of her attack is that it's completely invisible. The hairy man didn't even stand a chance against her.

Verdi summoned her pink octopus and he grabbed Fabio with one of his tentacles. He squashed the hairy man, so he is easier to consume and threw him in his mouth. It then caught the three correctly colored Observers with his tentacles and destroyed them.

She proudly returned back to her group and Lumen ruffled her hair.

"Good job." He praised her, and Verdi giggled as she leaned in closer to him.

After the color for the next round was chosen, Lumen turned towards Tiana, and she nodded to him without him saying anything.

"You go, you gay bitch," Steve yelled at Maka.

"What did you call me?" The feminine man asked with wide eyes, as his hair started floating behind me.

"I said, go and fight, you pathetic excuse for a man!" Steve shouted at him.

"I will show you how much of a man I am!" Maka's hair immediately turned sharp and flew towards Steve, who had already created sand around him with his Shinsoo.

The two began fighting each other, and in a few minutes, Steve was panting while Maka was lying on the ground, bleeding from wounds all over his body.

"That's what you get you, gay bitch!" Steve yelled and spat at the now-dead Maka, but then realized that with the feminine man gone, he would most likely have to participate.

They had three more members left, and there were three more rounds left as well. Unless the next person survives the next round, all of them would have to fight.

"Oh shit." He uttered as that dawned on him. He looked towards the other two on his team, Marco, a short dude with black hair, and Dustin, a tall guy with black hair. Both of them were threateningly looking at Steve, and he didn't need to be a genius to understand them.

"Come on, guys. We can talk it out." Steve said but instantly shot down by Marco. The short guy pointed his hand towards the stage and said. "Go."

The two of them were brothers, so it was a two against one situation, and he didn't have a choice.

Steve hesitantly walked up on stage and looked towards the beautiful purple-haired woman that was staring at him expressionlessly. He was desperately hoping that Tiana was as weak as Leesso. Otherwise, he wouldn't have a nice end.

"Hey, gorgeous." He called out to her.

"Look, we don't need to fight. We can just..." Steve didn't finish what he was about to say as he summoned his sand tornado, to try and sneak attack her. Unfortunately for Steve, both he and his tornado were frozen in place.

Lumen had said that he wants all of them dead, and Tiana wasn't planning on sparing her opponent. Not only was she prepared to kill him as soon as possible, but she was also able to sense him discreetly manipulating the Shinsoo. Her Shinsoo control was much better than his, so she was able to freeze him and his technique together with Reverse-Flow Control.

Steve's eyes widened in fear, as a green laser pierced him between his eyebrows.

'How are they all so strong?' Were his last thoughts before dying. He couldn't understand how E-Rank Regulars had obtained so much power. It didn't make sense to him.

Steve had spent hundreds of years to reach his level, so why was he weaker than them? What did they do to deserve their strength? Why was the world so unfair?

Another larger green laser followed up and obliterated Steve's body. With the grey-haired man gone, Tiana easily took down the three Observers.

Seeing that, Dustin and Marco shared a look between themselves. Both of them understood that their survival chance was low.

Dustin let out a sigh and walked towards the stage. It wouldn't matter if he goes now, or later. The end result would be the same.

"I'll see you in hell, brother." He called out to Marco as he entered the arena.

Before Lumen could say who to go, Merrie spoke up. "I would like to try fighting him."

Merrie had already accepted that Lumen was the being from the prophesy, so she wanted to prove to him that she is not a piece of pretty baggage.

He nodded to her, and the red-haired woman entered the arena.

The moment the fight started, Dustin had materialized metal claws of Shinsoo around his hands. With a mighty leap, he dashed towards Merrie, who had taken out four red Lighthouses.

Dustin swiped with his right claw, but Merrie had created a barrier of Shinsoo with two of her Lighthouses.

Merrie wasn't as skilled at manipulation Shinsoo, like Tiana and Laure who could create barriers of Shinsoo with a snap of their fingers. Those two were extremely gifted in that regard. However, with the ȧssistance of the two Lighthouses, she was able to erect the barrier almost as fast as them.

A metal claw materialized behind Merrie, but it was blocked by another barrier. Dustin jumped backward to distance himself from her, but his path was blocked by yet another barrier. Before he could realize it, he was surrounded by barriers on all sides. "Lighthouse Prison."

Dustin tried attacking the barriers but he was only able to cause light ripples to them. The barriers slowly started closing in on him, and his free space was getting smaller bit by bit.

Try as he might, Dustin wasn't able to destroy even one of them. In a matter of moments, he was squashed by the surrounding barriers. Merrie was then easily able to shoot down the three Observers.

Marco had a sad look on his face as he watched his brother get killed. Dejectedly, he walked up on stage for the final round as he whispered his brother's final words. "I'll see you in hell, brother."

Anak entered the arena without Lumen saying a word or even looking at her. She knew that he already had the strength to fight Ranker, so it was pointless for him to fight here. Regulars like Marco should be dealt with by her and the rest of the group, while he focuses on more important and threatening enemies.

Marco looked at Anak with lifeless eyes. The aura she was emitting was even scarier than Pinto's when he was using his Partial Transformation. She was a monster that he couldn't take on, and he knew that.

The moment the fight started, Anak had already appeared in front of him in a burst of speed. Marco didn't even try to block the punch that was coming towards his head. Anak's attack hit him and his head exploded in a shower of gore.

With this, FUG's strongest Low-Ranked Regulars had all been killed. They were planning to have Bam join that team and climb the Tower with them, but Lumen's team had annihilated them all. FUG had suffered yet another loss to Lumen.

Since they successfully passed the Test, Lumen's team advanced to the 26th Floor.