Chapter 79: First actual challenge.

Chapter 79: First actual challenge.

Meanwhile, back in the arena

Aaaand theyre off! As you can see on your screens, the contestants have been scattered in a pine forest. Their first task will be to reunite with their respective teammates. The first team to do so receives a large number of points!

The announcer gestured wildly with his arms at each of his declarations, working the crows as best he could.

As the tall man spoke, the screens changed, showing an archer hiding in a tree, launching a purple bolt at another contestant, catching him off guard and knocking him out.

Would you look at this! First blood has been drawn! One of the contestants, a female archer, has decided to prioritize hunting the other contestants instead! Her target, a spearman, has been taken out of the round in one shot. Unless his teammate gains enough points on their own, his team will fail. Dont worry, contestants will be pulled out of the forest before they accrue any lethal wounds. Our experts are making sure everyone stays safe.

The next moment, the screen changed again, revealing three separate contestants sinking into a puddle of black goop. They were desperately trying to escape, but failing horribly. All the while, the perpetrator of this incident, a young man with black curls stands and laughs, amused by a spectacle of his own creation.

Another display of power! This young man is a seeded participant, named Karon, which is why you wont have seen him in the previous round. Using his versatile oil magic, he has caught three other contestants, knocking them out of the tournament.

Over the next few minutes, the screen kept showing highlights from different battles around the forest, some of which were actually close. Because the arena couldnt keep up with every battle, some powerful contestants had all their knock-outs shown off in a row.

A warrior used powerful torrents of water to defeat one opponent after the other, while another sent small, bright balls of fire at his opponents, which looked like small suns. Both turned out to be seeded participants, according to the announcer.

There were a few more notable cases, one of which caused controversy among the crowd.

At a certain point, the screen had shown off a classer wielding a large, two handed sword, as thick as a tree trunk. He was wearing expensive armor, and his attitude made the crowd think he would be defeating his opponent momentarily. He was faced with a young man with long black hair and a more balanced two handed sword.

Aha! Another battle, about to erupt between a wealthy knight and his opponent! Lets see who nove(l)bi(n.)com

Before the announcer could even finish his sentence, the black-haired man turned into smoke and disappeared. A split-second later he reappeared near the knight, knocking him out in one strike. For a moment, the turn of events stunned the crowd, before they started cheering again as usual.

To the announcers credit, he regained his composure very quickly.

What a turn of events! The black knight used a powerful movement skill and considerable strength to dominate his opponent! Now that I take a closer look, I can tell you that this knight is also one of the seeded participants!

A moment later, the screen started to show the knight knocking more people out. Various warriors and mages tried to get the upper hand, but they were all defeated quickly. On top of that, this black knight seemed to travel by leaving behind strange black explosions. Furthermore, each of the knights skills seemed to have a similar color.

Bit by bit, the crowd seemed to get curious about this mans class and affinity. It had to be a rare one, for it to share its color with the dark affinity.

Eventually, as the knight defeated opponent after opponent, curiosity turned into suspicion, before the crowd started to clamor for answers.

The announcer was left with no choice but to try and calm them down. He had his hand to his ear, so it was obvious he was receiving instructions from higher-ups.

Ladies and gentlemen, I know youre all dying to know our young stars affinity, and I am happy to announce that the higher-ups have provided an answer. The seeded participant in question, Arthur, possesses the dark affinity, as you might have guessed. However, in no wau is he insane, thanks to a system error during his awakening. Think about it, have you ever heard of a warrior with the dark affinity, rather than a mage?

At this declaration, the crowd erupted into murmurs. While the populace of Roa was used to hearing about strange classes and skills in legends, dark affinity holders had always been evil, exclusively. Then again, system errors werent unheard off, either.

A minute later, I found myself near a big boulder, where a light was just about to touch down. Three teams were fighting for ownership of the points, but I didnt bother putting up a show like last time and just charged at them without a word.

One of the teams, made up of two archers dual-wielding daggers for close range combat, must have seen my previous fights, because they ran away as soon as they saw me. The other two teams were surprised by their actions, but didnt follow suit. I barreled at them, starting my maelstrom as I flew. Before they knew what was happening they were cut apart and teleported away.

I waited for a while for the points to descend and touched the package when it landed.

Event notification: Package opened. 250 points awarded.

I grit my teeth. Only 250 points. Hopefully, I would have more luck with the next package.

Like that, I continued my routine for a few dozen minutes, gaining another 750 points total and wiping out three more teams, before I took a small break to check the leaderboard.

Leaderboard:

Team A3: 7900 points.

Team A2: 6700 points.

Team A9: 4650 points.

Team B5: 3400 points.

Team A7: 3200 points.

Team B2: 3050 points.

Team C9: 2850 points.

Team A1: 2600 points.

Team E3: 2350 points.

Team D5: 2100 points.

I noticed that the leaderboard had mostly stayed the same, with the exception that team E3 had taken C2s place at number nine and that A2 and A9 had switched spots. On top of that, the point difference between the two was quite large, while the difference between us and second place was smaller.

As I moved to leave in search of more points, I noticed a bright light appear in the treeline. Out of instinct, I used Aura step to launch myself away. Good thing I did so, too, because a moment later a bright light passed by my previous location and flew into a tree, exploding with a giant shockwave which forced me to back up a few steps. The blast left a pretty large scorched crater behind, so I could guess that getting hit by that would hurt me quite a bit, despite my stats.

At the lights point of origin, someone chuckled.

Oh, you dodged that? Looks like I found a strong one this time

Feeling like I had been put on the back foot, I frowned and drew my sword from its scabbard.