Chapter 91: Pandemonium

Chapter 91: Pandemonium

I groaned, struggling to move due to my broken bones and torn muscles. They were healing, of course. They always would, saving me from any mistakes I made. Had I become desensitized to situations like these?

I placed my focus back on the issue at hand. The ground was rumbling, and a crown had appeared around us, with the crater at the center. That meant that bugs were coming, which in turn meant a whole load of points were about to burrow out of the ground. Problem was: Arcellus was still here. Even worse: the crown would be visible for kilometers around. The other teams wouldnt pass up this opportunity, not even the ones that were farming their teammates like cattle.

The origin of the crown remained a mystery for now. All I knew was that this place would turn into a chaotic battlefield, with nearly 500 competitors all vying for points and territory while the bugs endeavored to kill us all.

Finally managing to lift myself above the rubble, I took stock of my surroundings.

Huh. Its bigger. I muttered to myself. Indeed, it was. The crown, which would normally already be quite large, had turned into a giant, broad enclosure. The boulders behind me, the shrubbery in the distance, all were included in the soon-to-be battlefield, leading me to believe that perhaps the creation of this crown hadnt been a coincidence after all. The organizers were trying to capitalize on the spectacle Arcellus and I had made, they were trying to escalate things even further. Whether this had been their plan from the start or whether they had improvised, I couldnt know.

I heard mutterings and footsteps behind me, so I turned to their source: Karon.

If youre going to be competing for this crown, the deals off, Karon. I greeted him stoically.

Karon shook his head and chuckled, the rest of his group falling in line behind him.

Youve done your part of the deal, Arthur. Consider our agreement completed. I hope youll forgive me for not letting you get the monopoly on the crown this time. This place is starting to look like the stage for the final battle, you see. he remarked with a fake smile.

I waved his concerns away, though.

Forget about it, Karon. I dont think I can keep anyone away from this place. Stay in your section of the place and I might not get in your way. Much.

Light groaning on the other side of the crater alerted me to the fact that Arcellus was waking up from his nap. Apparently, he hadn't been wounded enough to be teleported away. Shame. Though, I supposed his help would be appreciated in the coming minutes.

~scene break~

Several minutes later, more and more groups were arriving and entering the circle, while the bugs kept us all waiting. For some reason, they still hadnt bothered to actually show themselves, causing my competition to quickly increase in number. At least they weren't exactly fond of one another, either. Karons group was having a staredown with two other groups, who were snarling at him in anger. Meanwhile, Johns group, which had been the most recent group to arrive, was faced with Rictas and his band, who had all joined some kind of mega-alliance, composed of at least 50 people.Follow current novels at novelhall.com)

A few more groups, all of which had their own grudges and history, were acting similarly, causing the tension in the crown to rise. Eventually, I was starting to wonder which would happen first: the bugs burrowing out of the ground or two alliances losing their patience and starting the battle earlier.

Surprisingly, I didnt have to wait long.

One of the alliances I didnt know drew their weapons. Their opponents matched their actions. Then, it was only a matter of who swung first. The other alliances didnt bother keeping pretenses up anymore after that and rushed at their respective rivals.

The next ten minutes were a bloodbath. People were constantly being sent back to the arena, but the first of the casualties were already starting to return to their factions, reinforcing their numbers. It didnt help that more and more alliances were arriving, which included a few familiar faces. Cerion, for example, had become the leader of a small but powerful group that was tearing through contestants all willy-nilly, uncaring of their affiliation. The enigmatic mercenary X has struck out on his own and was acting similarly.

All kinds of skills and elements were flying haphazardly through the air. Flaming balls of oil caused burning patches of the stuff to trap people, while Cerions waves were tearing the weaker contestants a new asshole, so to speak.

Truthfully, the only people who werent bothering with the battle so far were Arcellus and me. No, we were focused on what was to come. Since we didnt have alliance mates, there werent any revenge points for us to farm anyway.

The battle between contestants quickly turned into one of man versus monster, all thoughts of points basically forgotten, buried under the adrenaline that we all felt, that even I felt. Still, I couldnt forget about the main objective of the round. I had to get points. That meant that slaughtering these tier 3s was paramount.

Remembering the tough armor of the centipedes, I decided to hunt the dragonflies instead. Launching myself into the sky with a blast, I redirected my flight at one of the speedy creatures and jumped onto its back while it was distracted by other prey. I wasted no time and cut it right in half with a sword arc that stretched the length of its entire body, before setting my sights on another one.

As the two halves of a body fell to the earth below, a rumble and the sight of a giant wave of fire notified me of Arcellus own hunt, which had charred a strange spider rapidly.

Meanwhile, Cerion had sent a cyclone of water at the flame-spouting bug, carving into its flesh in seconds and killing it.

Slowly, the other contestants seemed to remember that they were supposed to be the hunters, not the prey, and they gathered with their alliance to start taking down tier 3s of their own.

As I repeated my strategy with another dragonfly, taking advantage of its flimsy defenses, I heard the ground rumble again, more bugs burrowing out of the ground. There were dozens of the fuckers, and not nearly enough humans to deal with them.

Slowly, participants started dying off, unable to keep up with the influx of tier 3s. I didnt have time to see how they died, but no doubt it was a mix of monster and human action. Some bad eggs would still be betraying their mates, even in this situation.

Our numbers started to thin quickly, especially since stronger people like me werent exactly focussing on helping to protect the weaker ones. It was still every man for himself.

As the number of insects increased yet again, I started to realize what the event notification had really meant with gain points for staying in the crown longer than your competition. The swarm that was accosting us had grown to the point of being insurmountable. They were even starting to push back against me and Arcellus, as well as the other seeded participants.

Gaier and some light girl were doing well hunting the bigs at their own pace, but Karon and X were having difficulties. Xs weapons werent much use against the tough armor of certain bugs, and they didnt cut deeply enough on their own to kill the weaker ones. Meanwhile, Karon was having trouble actually putting the big lugs down permanently. Fire wasnt very effective against their exoskeleton, unless you counted Arcellus sun-based flames, and trapping giant monsters in oil wasnt easy either. It wouldnt be mana-efficient, at least.

And that brought me to the final issue, mana-efficiency.

As I jumped from bug to bug, cutting into their head and dodging the tougher bugs that were aiming for me, I was constantly regenerating mana, keeping me topped up. Others couldnt say the same, usually.

About ten minutes later, most of the other competitors had been defeated. Only the strongest were left, such as the seeded participants and exceptions like John and Rictas, which were still clashing and competing for kills. All in all, I would say that there were about thirty people left.

With the end in sight, I focused on defeating as many of the bugs as I could.

Then, something peculiar happened. A loud screech pierced through the air, its origin veyry obviously inhuman. The bugs stilled and burrowed underground, as if commanded to.

I tried to rush after them, but refused to follow them into their tunnels, which were quickly caving in. All of us who remained were breathing heavily, staring around in confusion, until the rumbling ground stopped.

A moment later, the sound returned, more uniform than before. Slowly, a giant green bulb pushed its way out of the ground. It didnt look like any bug I had ever seen before no, it looked like an egg?

We heard a thump, and the egg shook. Then another. Another shake. Slowly, I started to feel a creeping sensation. It took me a moment to realize mana sense had triggered, and was picking up on a presence. A single, familiar, presence. The presence that had coated all of the other bugs mana like a coat.

The hive mind.

Then, with no warning, the egg burst open.