“God damn...” Zane looked around the forest in amazement. “This is all made from magic?” He rubbed the leaves, amazed at how realistic it was to the touch.
“The environment was copied from a real area, while the monsters are mere golems,” Averin spoke up.
A roar echoed in the distance just as a red a dragon flew over Zane. “Even that?” the dragon proceeded to unleash a powerful breath of flames in the distance.
“The breath was nothing more than fire magic, not a real dragon’s breath. You will have no issue during this trial.”
Zane rolled his eyes at Averin. “If you say so.”
Zane began wandering the forest. He wasn’t exactly sure what the goal was since the explanation was very lacking. The announcer didn’t mention anything about what they were supposed to do.
Survive?
Kill monsters?
Hunt other participants?
“I’m really questioning the management,” Zane grumbled.
A moment later, he sensed the presence of a group. Seven women and two men revealed themselves, their weapons drawn.
“As far as I can remember, this tournament was individual participation,” Zane commented.
“There’s nothing in the rules about teaming up to reduce the competition,” an amazonian responded as she held up her axe. “We’ll make this quick.”
Zane raised an arm to manifest a dragon.
“Don’t use Dragon manifestation.”
“It’s nine against one,” Zane complained. “What kind of lesson is this?”
“A valuable lesson.”
Zane grumbled under his breath as mana surrounded his body. The amazonian charged at him, Zane charged as well. She swung her axe, making Zane duck under it. His hand transformed as he dashed past her.
Four large slashes were left on the Amazonian’s side, causing her to start bleeding out. “Help her!” one of her teammates yelled.
A woman holding two daggers and a man with a great sword charged at Zane, while an elf woman with a staff began casting healing magic. Zane avoided a slash from the man and grabbed one of the dagger woman’s arms as she tried to stab him. Zane slammed her into the man before landing a punch to her gut that sent both of them crashing through a tree.
“How the hell is that strength of a stage 2?!” A woman with a bow yelled as she began firing arrows infused with mana.
Zane rushed the elf mage while avoiding the arrows. The remaining four people in the group stood in front of the elf, holding their weapons up.
“RAAAHHHH!!” Zane yelled as he uprooted two trees.
“You’ve got to be kidding me!” one of them yelled as Zane threw one of the trees.
They all dove out of the way, making the tree crash into another tree. The leaves began raining down on them as they were getting back up, blocking their vision, which resulted in them not reacting fast enough to the second tree being thrown at them. The tree crushed the elf mage, taking her out of the tournament.
“Fucking monster!” the other man in the group yelled.
“I’ll take that as a compliment.”
------
“Who do you think we’ll win this year?” Silvester asked as multiple holographic screens surrounded them, each of them showing the competitors.
“Hard to say. I noticed a lot of interesting people from the applications,” Kayde replied. “I also noticed the Karama family added an expected variable.”
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
Kayde enlarged a screen showing two women. One of them was a short woman with black hair styled in a pixie cut. She had sharp eyes and runic tattoos on her face. She also had a large rifle on her back. The other woman was tall and had long blonde hair. She carried a giant staff with a red orb on it.
“If I recall correctly, these two are the gun and rose mercenaries that are at the peak of stage 2,” Kayde stated.
Silvester rubbed his chin in thought before nodding in agreement. “I believe so, but is there a problem with them joining?”
Kayde scoffed. “Don’t play dumb. They don’t need to join this tournament since they’re part of the Karama family’s partnered mercenaries.”
“What are you implying?” Silvester raised an eyebrow.
“The higher ups don’t want someone to win,” Kayde stated.
“That’s quite the accusation.”
Kayde turned away. “We’ll find out soon,” Kayde pointed at the screen. “They seem to be on the hunt for their target.”
------
Zane watched the bodies of his opponents turn to particles of light before completely vanishing. “That would have ended quicker if I used manifestation,” Zane muttered.
“You did well. This proves that among your stage, your far superior,” Averin praised.
“Not much I can do against higher stages though,” Zane replied as he began to feel an abundance of mana being absorbed into his body. “What’s going on?”
“Since you used a lot of mana, you’re absorbing more than usual to recover,” Averin answered. “It’s included in the mana control I thought you.”
“Neat,” Zane muttered as he arrived at an opening where a brown dragon was slumbering. “Should I go around it?”
“Golems have cores filled with mana. Don’t waste this opportunity,” Averin stated.
“How am I supposed to beat that?”
“A mere imitation can’t defeat a true dragon.”
Zane smirked. “Are you saying...”
“Use it.”
Zane raised an arm towards the fake dragon.
“State the dragon’s title.”
Zane’s eyes turned into slits as his entire arm got covered in black scales. “Come on out. Dark Revel Dragon!”
The black dragon roared as it materialized. The slumbering fake dragon woke up but was still helpless as the black dragon crushed its head with its dragon energy infused claws.
As the black dragon vanished, the fake dragon turned into the same particles of light Zane saw earlier and left a white orb on the ground.
“Is this the core?”
“Absorb the mana within it.”
As Zane did as he was told, a thought came to his head. “Hey Averin, is it a common ability to absorb mana?”
“It is not,” Averin answered. “It is an ability of the mana control you use.”
“So... not everyone can do it unless they learn the mana control you thought me,” Zane figured.
“Exactly. People would start wars to obtain your mana control.”
“Damn...” Zane muttered as the orb in his hands shattered after he absorbed all the mana within it. “What now?”
“Deal with your new enemies?”
“What?” Zane raised an eyebrow before he instinctively leaned out of the way as a bullet passed by his head. “The fuck?”
Zane couldn’t feel anyone’s presence, which meant the attacker was either very skilled at hiding or was too far away.
Suddenly, the ground beneath his feet collapsed as tree roots shot out and tried to impale him. “Holy shit!” Zane yelled as he avoided the roots.
Dozens more roots shot out, all of them aiming to end him. Zane avoided with great effort, but that caused him to react to slow as a bullet shot through his leg, severing the limb.
“Motherfucker!” Zane yelled as he fell to the ground.
The leg turned to particles of light, reminding Zane that this wasn’t the real world. He fought through the pain and lunged away as roots continued to attack him. Another bullet grazed by him, but this time, Zane got the direction it came from.
“Take this!”
The black dragon manifested once again and unleashed a powerful breath of dark energy at the direction of the bullets.
“Use draconic transformation on your missing leg. Pour a large amount of energy, that should grow another leg.”
Zane was skeptical but this as he was told, this wasn’t the real world after all and didn’t post a big risk. “Gah!” he yelled in pain as a draconic-humanoid leg suddenly grew from his missing leg. “That felt... weird.”
Zane examined the new leg, not expecting the process to be so quick. Zane turned to the direction where the corrupted energy breath tore through. Everything was completely destroyed, leaving a path of scorched earth.
“They better be dead,” Zane grumbled.
------
“What the hell?!” Silvester slammed his hands on the desk after watching the scene. “Draconic manifestation should only be possible at the peak of stage 3!”
Silvester wasn’t the one that got shocked. In the arena, every single spectator had access to one screen where they could watch the competitors, while giant holographic screens floated in the middle of the arena to show the highlights.
The giant screen showed Zane using draconic manifestation to defeat a dragon. Then he used an ability to grow a new leg after using another draconic manifestation.
“Zane huh,” Kayde grinned.
“What kind of monster is he...” Silvester muttered.