Chapter 174: The Games (VI): Conspiracy

The match didn't carry on for too long after Rezar had walked off the pitch, the strong quickly got their points and those close to strength followed behind them as quickly as they could. After Rezar's display of power barely anyone was willing to fight or even kill an enemy in a bout. Because no matter how they looked at it they had just seen quite a few dozen people go through the true death. No matter how limited, everyone here remembered their past life, not exactly vivid, but have enough details from it to know what sort of mark they had left behind, and they also knew there would be another life to come and another and another.

But here in lies the a very obvious truth in the fact that there was a man, or rather a young man really who could make sure such an established rule of nature, of Elysium was completely thrown over it's head. Rezar limped towards his retinue looking worse for wear and quite pale, which on his dark skin was saying something. He shook his head to prevent any questions from being asked as he turned for face and wait for the game to get concluded. He was healing, but it was a lot harder than normal, and seemed to be taking longer, nevertheless he didn't say anything about it as his mind was filled with a couple of thoughts.

"And so we have come to the end of the ball game, with that I pronounce the first trial complete with 184 competitors managing to gather a 100 points. There's no rest for those that seek power, whether it's to gain if or to keep it. Now we shall head on to the second trial, you all have to bring a life into this world, braving danger of death to see it through. For a king is not known for just his ability to bring death to his enemies, but how he brings life to his people."

Rezar squinted his eyes, he was not so stupid that he wouldn't notice a barb aimed at him even if it was coated in an extremely eloquent speech. And from the looks thrown his way by almost everyone is guessed quite a few people noticed the less that subtle antagonizing of the orc that was now in charge of the second trial. Said orc was actually female with a shaggy brown hair that was as wild as it was dirty, from here Rezar could smell her, and she smelled wild. Like monsters and blood and ferocity in more ways than one, it was like looking at Direwolf.

"Ever since the formation of this mega horde eight months ago, we have built the largest pens and nesting grounds for direwolves in all of Elysium. And frankly speaking new pups are born every second that passes, but childbirth for direwolves is not as simple or as normal as it sounds. Direwolves are creatures of war and blood, all their lives they're constantly fighting, but this fight starts from the moment they're born. Few Direwolf mother's survive childbirth as their children are born with sharp claws and fierce fangs that would start tearing their mothers apart from the inside before she gets the chance to release them out into the world.

So your trial this time requires you to help as many direwolves give birth to the next generations of warriors within the time frame of two hours. Every Direwolf safely delivered would be given to you, training direwolves is actually a noble orc occupation and the amount you have speaks volumes of your prestige and wealth. The gifting of the direwolves should be an added incentive, after all, direwolves are highly sought after in Elysium, so do your best.

But above all just like the previous trial there is a certain amount of danger involved. For those of you who are females, I don't need to tell you about the amount of pain involved with childbirth, sure some of you might have never brought a life into this world, but you have heard the rumors, you have seen vestiges of it during the cramps of your monthly flow. That pain is much worse for direwolves, and that pain makes them extremely dangerous, so for lack of a better word I would call them cornered animals. And a cornered Direwolf is a one way ticket to the afterlife, now come along!"

She was fearsome, and her words made quite a few people take stock in what they were about to face. Rezar wasn't shaken, but Priests seemed to be as the older clergyman walked besides his king in silence. It was obvious he wanted to say something, but with Rezar giving out a veritable gag order, he couldn't do much but keep looking at his king, at the very least until Rezar got annoyed and turned to him.

"If you have something to say Priest, then please for all that is holy and undead say it!"

"My apologies your Majesty, but you have to be careful. Direwolves are void beasts, and by that I mean they're creatures caught between being ordinary animals and full blown animals. And as such their attacks and abilities are twice as effective on anyone, regardless of your resistances or abilities. They see weaknesses and their attacks and abilities would always give you as much pain it not death as possible. What I'm trying to say is that just like those ninjas with Katanas, they can kill you."

Rezar paused for a second and turned to look at Priest an all too surprised look on his face, he really didn't expect something like this. Honestly he had happily been enjoying being practically invisible and having nothing capable of killing him. Then he met the Kitsunes and now two ninjas with demonic solve blades that were literally made to fuck with the insides of a vampire. He refused to believe that it was a simple coincidence that they were here, he was sure they came hunting for him, but it was weird because his arrival here was completely by chance, so how in the hell did they find out this quickly and arrive here.

Before he went for the gauntlet, there had already been a few earlier tests and quite a few people had already qualified before his batch, perhaps those ninjas had come from there, but it still did not change the fact that they specifically went after him. There were too many inconsistencies for this to be a coincidence, and by this point in his life, Rezar was way beyond believing in chance or some other bullshit like coincidences, not when there were things like diviners in play...wait a minute!

But that can't be true, Diviners couldn't see the future, at the very least Gynaika had told him they could predict a few things, but they couldn't see the future. He didn't think such a thing was possible, but then again this was a virtual world. There was a process and calculation to this universe that could be easily quantified and processed by a ridiculous number of variables and equations just as long as the person trying to find something had a tool or let's say a class that could allow him or her have access to the source code of Elysium, or two into various programs. Or better yet just write up and entirely new code or skill that you can use to predict the future, and with the amount of processing power Elysium had, it wouldn't be too farfetched to say it was a super computer that could tell the future.

Or In the end this could all just be paranoia and be was just worried about a lot of things for nothing. He shifted his attention back to the orc in front of him and the crowd that had happily given him a wide berth. He turned to Priest and gave him a stiff nod, asking him to go back and using telepathy to tell the clergyman to not worry about healing him. Rezar caught Durga's eyes and gave the orc a sweet smile, Rezar was sure Durga was severely underestimating him after their exchange, but he also knew until their exchange he was also underestimating the power of Orc, now he had a pretty good idea what he was dealing.

Eventually they came to a stop in front of the largest tent in all of the horde, it was easily almost the size of a stadium if not more so. The body of the tent was covered in colorful paintings, and the middle of it was opened up to let in sunlight and ventilation. Nobody moved an inch once they came to a stop in front of the tent, maybe it was the growls and bowls, but to someone as severely perceptive as Rezar, he could feel an aura from within that made the hairs on his body stand. And it was not as if he was scared, but the aura was individual, coming from different sources to form one massive entity, one that Rezar could not see, but he could sense…..this aura was shaped like a wolf, but it had horns and wings and claws that seemed even more powerful that what could be considered normal.

"Well what are you guys waiting for? Go on in!"