Book 5: Chapter 97: The Twentieth Competition

Book 5: Chapter 97: The Twentieth Competition

Scarlet

The final round of the team competitions will now begin, King Oberon declares as the audience fills once more in the morning of the next day. To begin, the competition will start with just the fae solving the puzzles, with the contractors only entering the combat arena half an hour into the competition.

As soon as the king says that, all of the fae amongst us vanish and reappear down in a massive cube. One separated into forty different sections, each meant for one fae a piece. And each filled with more puzzles than I can count.

Good luck Tar.

Thanks, he says as he immediately gets to work on the first puzzle. You too.

Meanwhile all of us contractors are left floating high above the cube as an arena begins to form all around the cube itself. One filled with dozens of different terrains with the terrains alternating repeatedly.

And then were all left watching the fae progress through the puzzles for a while.

At some point, I glance at the audience, noticing that theyre all a lot more enthusiastic today than they were when we left off last night. Which is probably for the best.

Guess taking that break over the night before the next competition was all they needed.

Of course, there are still quite a few people who are rather obviously upset and glaring at Oberon, who also still looks less motivated. But its a lot better now than last night still.

I let out a sigh before returning my attention to the fae again.

From the looks of it, Leonidass fae is in the lead by a decent margin. Then theres the second and third ranked fae, and so on. In fact, most of them are going almost by their position in the line for the throne. With only a few exceptions.

But the kings voice continues even as Im standing in a random taiga biome, When a contractor loses all of their lives, both they and their fae will be taken out of the competition, with their score locked in place where it is.

Mostly just stuff we learned in the rules yesterday, with some differences.

Now, beg- King Oberon starts to say, only for a loud crashing sound to echo through the entire arena making me and every other competitor look up to find Titania appearing again with an indifferent look in her eyes.

Eyes that quickly lock onto my own as she speaks, raising her voice to echo throughout the stadium, Wolf of the Blood Moon, you better not hold back in this round. I have set it so that the System will directly protect the realities of every competitor in this one round since its the final combat round. Her eyes narrow, completely ignoring the silence of the audience. Use the Red Plague as you wish. It will not permanently kill anyone this time.

I blink in surprise, not expecting that at all.

Not having to hold back

Now that I think about it, the reality of this arena looks a hell of a lot more Im not sure who to describe it, but it looks a lot more powerful and solid than before. And its not just the reality were in, but the people. I can sense a strange power coating them.

The question though is if I can trust her.

Also, what does she mean by the Wolf of the Blood Moon?

Out of nowhere, Titania appears in front of me and cuts me, taking my surprise as an opportunity to do it. Then she somehow pulls the blood through the air and splatters it on a random nearby contractor, making them scream in pain. But I can see that it didnt actually damage his reality at all. Almost like the reality damaging part of it was held back somehow.

My eyes narrow in on Titania as she stops to float right in front of me.

Scarlet, show everyone the power of the universes defender, Titania says, keeping her voice low despite how its reverberating throughout the entire stadium and arena. Show them the power of the Warden of the Red Plague. And of the Wolf of the Blood Moon.