“That ability is bullshit,” Jake said as he stared at Damien with an annoyed look, “It doesn’t matter all that matters is that I won and you lost. Now answer my question, Why are you so focused on me?”
Jake sighed before speaking. “I was inside the simulations at the organization, but not because they kidnapped me or anything. I willingly entered. The reason for this is that in exchange for allowing them to study my bloodline, they promised to keep my wife alive.”
A surprised expression crossed Damien's face as he listened to Jake's explanation. “Okay, but what does any of this have to do with me? Why did they send you?” Damien genuinely did not understand why they chose him and not someone else; it was clear that Jake had no loyalty to them whatsoever.
“They sent me because I am one of the most skilled people on Earth. After the system appeared, I was one of the first to reach level 20,” Jake replied, pausing as if deep in thought. “Anyway, the organization found me when I was in desperate need of help. As you can probably imagine, my wife was close to death. Unfortunately, not everything was perfect; she is unable to recover fully, and if the organization stops helping she will die pretty quickly.
As Damien listened to the man speak, he could hear the pain in his voice. The look on the man's face suggested he was recalling the events as if they were happening all over again. “So, if I had to guess, the organization wanted you to recapture me and, using my bloodline, somehow save her?” Damien was beginning to understand the situation, and to say he didn’t like it would be an understatement. The organization was exploiting the man’s emotions and his love for his wife to force him into action, all for their own benefit—and there was no guarantee that his bloodline could actually save her.
"Well, at least you're not dumb," Jake said jokingly. He continued, "I figured you'd be in the event, so I waited to get a feel for you. But I can already tell that I don't stand a chance against that broken ability of yours. Regardless, I want you to know that I'm going to do whatever it takes to save my wife." With that, Jake turned and started walking away.
“Jake,” Damien said aloud, prompting the man to glance over his shoulder. “You shouldn’t trust the organization so much. Those people only care about themselves and no one else, regardless of what they tell you.
Look into whether they can actually save your wife. With the world being the way it is now, and with new worlds, universes, and whatever else may exist, I assure you there is a way to save your wife without relying on people who can't and shouldn't be trusted.” finishing his words Damien watched as the man nodded his head before he walked out of the area he and Ela were in.
Once Jake was out of sight, Damien glanced over at Ela before walking in her direction. “System, how much time is left in the event?” he asked.
“Twenty minutes remaining, user,” the system responded.
Realizing how little time they had left, Damien quickly devised a plan with Ela. They needed to defeat the legendary contestant to secure a win, and since they currently had no idea who was in first place, it was better to play it safe.
Once Damien and Ela were ready, they took their respective positions. In his high-shade form, Damien rushed forward, attracting the chimera’s attention. With a loud roar, the beast lunged at him, attempting to bite down with its giant mouth.
While he was distracting the creature, Ela summoned her cloak around her body. Once her attack was ready she waited for the perfect moment and right as Damien and the beast clashed she shot out her attack at the chimera’s vitals. Sensing danger the chimera tried to turn around and defend but before it could do so Damien kept up his assault making the beast not have enough time to turn around.
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Upon making contact with the chimera the attack caused miniature booms to sound within its body while blood splattered everywhere, taking the chance while the beast was stunned by the attack Damien sprinted forward with his lightning-fast ability. Jumping up he slammed down with his katana onto the chimera’s head.
Right as the attack was about to make contact the chimera let out a roar and the lighting on its horns started to spread across its body making the beast look extremely menacing as the black snake-like bolts bounced between its horns and along its body.
Glaring at Damien, the beast attacked with its paws and stinger at the same time, as the attack was flying through the air, Damien could see that in front of the attack, the black lighting was also flying at him with insane speed. Putting his sword in front of him the lighting hit, sending him tumbling backward. The sheer force of the lighting made his hands shake but before he had a chance to recover, the chimera paws and stinger arrived in front of him.
Since the beast’s body was covered in lighting its attacks were able to hit Damien’s living shadow form and as the attacks connected, he was once again sent flying backward and dropping his sword.
As the beast was about to continue its attacks, Ela shot out another barrage of attacks making the beast turn to block her attacks. Coughing up blood, Damien wiped his mouth with his sleeve before weakly standing up seeing the beast distracted he hastily made his way over to his sword that he had dropped. Picking up the weapon, Damien activated lighting-fast once more launching himself at the beast.
Sense Ela was still shooting her attacks relentlessly at the chimera it could not turn around in time to block Damien’s assault, aiming for the beast's vitals Damien managed to hit the chimera’s right lung causing it to cry out in pain.
“ROARRRRR,” with its back still facing Damien the beast’s stinger shot out at him causing Damien to be surprised not expecting the stinger to attack him while the beast was facing away from him.
Blocking the attack Damien and Ela continued to assault the beast and eventually, it could no longer withstand the attacks prompting the chimera to fall over on its side, and after many attempts to stand it gave up before looking at Damien with indignance. Letting out its last whimper the beast finally died due to blood loss.
Once the beast was dead Ela and Damien were both met with a prompt
*DING* users have defeated “Chemira level 40” - Legendary
*DING* users have earned 10,000 points.
*DING* The user has leveled up.
After reading the notifications, Damien deactivated his shadowless form and let out a tired sigh as he sat on the floor of the maze. Looking at the time remaining in the event, he realized they wouldn't have enough time to search for a door. Their only hope was that defeating a legendary beast would be enough to secure first place.
Glancing over at Ela, Damien could see she was just as exhausted as he was. The main reason for their fatigue was that she had been continuously bombarding the chimera with spirit attacks during the fight, draining her mana and stamina to nearly empty.
“Ela, how about we just relax until the event is over? I’m completely drained right now. Besides, we don’t have enough time to find a door, and if we encounter anyone while searching, I’m not sure I can defeat them in my current state,” Damien suggested as he lay back on the ground and placed his hands behind his head.
Ela walked over and sat beside him, nodding in agreement. She didn’t feel the need to respond verbally and instead asked the system for the remaining time left in the event. When she saw only five minutes were remaining, she finally relaxed and closed her eyes.
Not long after they settled down, the system's voice boomed throughout the maze: “Event has now concluded. Calculating results.”
Immediately after those words, a prompt appeared in Damien’s vision.
“Would you like the system to display your real name or an alias?” After thinking it over and discussing it with Ela, they both decided to go with an alias.
“What would you like your alias to be? Say it out loud, and the system will register it as the name displayed for this event.”
After spending some time in thought, Damien realized he couldn't come up with anything. Finally, he chose something he hadn’t considered in a long time.
“115”