CHAIN

Leonel's spear tore through the head of the Snowy Star Owl before Patriarch Khafra could even react. The latter had been biding his time, having already adjusted his strength to be marginally superior to the Emberheart Lady's. He had watched every second of that battle, so he knew exactly how much he needed to defeat them all.

But when Leonel suddenly erupted with strength that was far beyond his calculations, he realized that something had gone awry.

Although he could just quickly raise his strength and kill this Snowy Star Owl before him in the blink of an eye, if he did so what would those watching think? It was best if he pretended to be caught off guard and shocked, and only then would he raise his strength to deal a blow. At least at that point, it would seem more natural.

However, when he was looking over to see the situation and get a more accurate gauge of Leonel's strength, he found a sneering young man looking back at him, almost as though Leonel could see through his thoughts and was begging him to take action.

Leonel flicked his wrist and the body of the Snowy Star Owl shattered.

He sauntered over to the middle of his flat mountain peak and picked up the orb that was his reward for victory before vanishing.

When he appeared once more, Eamon and Goggles.

"See what I mean? There's nothing big or scary about these people," Leonel gave Eamon a pat on the back.

Eamon exhaled a breath, feeling more confident as well. It wasn't because he felt that he was as good as Leonel, but because he felt that Leonel wasn't lying when he said that he was good enough to win on his own.

He had watched the last battle and he knew that the reason Leonel lost was because of a technicality and points total, not to mention penalties.

But now he had actual teammates, and it was because of that it would be unlikely for such a thing to happen again.

Losing didn't mean you gathered zero points. It was all dependent on performance. So, even if he lost, so long as he did well enough, Leonel should be able to pick up the slack. In that sort of situation, what did he have to fear?

Above them, a beam of two lights appeared horizontally, one representing the Vast Dream Pavilion and the other representing the Khafra Dream Pavilion.

"They don't give us the actual point total?" Eamon asked out of curiosity.

Leonel chuckled. "The higher ups made the rules overly complicated because it thinks it makes them look more clever than they really are. If you want the real point total, you have to analyze the entire battle and factor in dozens of variables. Otherwise, you can only look at those beams. Whoever feels the beam first wins."

"Oh..." Eamon was a bit disappointed. He had seen some of those formulas, he couldn't divert the effort to calculate at all, or else he would end up suffering in the end due to depleted Dream Force.

Leonel looked up and met Patriarch Khafra's gaze with a smile. All things considered, he may have gotten a small bonus for winning, but because the Khafra Patriarch hadn't taken much longer than him, the scores were still quite close.

But Leonel didn't care much. He just needed to win to reassure Eamon. If he was too in his own head, he would perform poorly and end up suffering.

Like this, there would be balance.

Gregwyn's fists quaked, clenching high in the air. In the real world, this would have almost certainly caused some sort of phenomena. But this space was far too sturdy, bolstered by all 9999 Dream Pavilions. He stood no chance. © 2024.

At that moment, another set of three challenges appeared and it was up to the Khafra Patriarch to choose again. Once again, they were an array of balanced options. However, this time, the Patriarch chose a three on three battle very similar to the earlier maze challenge. However, this one was far more complex, not in terms of the rules, but rather in terms of what it required for the two Dream Pavilion Heads.

The challenge was known as a chain type challenge. This was because it required a series of orders to go down a chain of command, whereupon the situation could change at any time.

Leonel would be controlling one of his subordinates, while the latter would be controlling the other, forming a chain.

In this situation, Leonel would be relaying orders to Eamon. Eamon would be in front of an ever-changing Force Art that would decide Goggles' situation. The real catch, though, was that Leonel could only be able to see one situation at a time, whether that was Goggles or Eamon, but never both at the same time. While Goggles and Eamon would only be able to see their own situations.

As soon as the Challenge was chosen, Goggles and Eamon disappeared, along with Little Fox and Gregwyn. This led the two Pavilion Heads.

Leonel had already stopped paying attention to the Patriarch as a screen appeared before him.

First, he checked on Eamon.

Eamon was in a control-center type region as well, but it was on a path of sorts, moving forward. This path diverted into many further along, some of which were filled with danger, some of which weren't. Eamon had control of a Force Art within his control center that could decide the paths he followed, but while he could see the Force Art, he couldn't see the situation outside.

Then, he checked on Goggles.

Goggles was in a maze, however he was immobile, stuck in a rolling ball. It reminded Leonel of a game he had played back on Earth. He had to tilt the maze to help Goggles roll out of the dungeon. Or, more accurately, Eamon had to change the Force Art before him, and Goggles had to react appropriately.