The duel didn't last. After hearing his 4003 participant number, the enemy just lasted two minutes. Similar to his first duel, this enemy was easy to defeat; the only difference is that this one tried to use bombs against Roberion.
Compared to Percival's explosives, it was seriously lacking. The power was the same, but the bomb didn't have any effect. The opposite couldn't be more wrong. As Percival threw two corrosive bombs on the null enemy, after a dozen seconds, the only thing that remained was a sludge on the floor.
"That is seriously it? My final duel? If he was a Touched, why didn't he use a spell? He is too weak too; Percival's bombs are mundane; that is weird", Roberion asked the Cerulean Baroness hologram.
"You aren't the only one surprised. In theory, this competition would be a good way of selecting candidates; it is one widely used by Farmungus, the insect species, to select their honor guard for their matriarchs. I tried to see if it worked for a more humanoid selection. It seems like a failure", the baroness answered pensatively.
"So you just made us wage our lives in a botched experiment?! You must be joking", Roberion tried to simmer down his frustation. He felt a weird feeling in his stomach, but he couldn't find the reason for it, so he just dismissed it.
"It's not botched; it only needs to be changed a little. I have countermeasures in place; this selection will be concluded in a satisfying fashion, and I will make sure of it. Don't look at me like that! I have already asked the other participants, do you want to continue the selection or wish to leave? The next match needs to be changed", the hologram flickered momentanly.
Roberion thought a little and reached the conclusion without problems, "It's obvious that I will continue; I'm almost killed during these whole bullshit physical trials; I won't stop now, especially knowing that you will probably kill me using some sort of loophole; I look like a fool, but I only act foolish sometimes."
The Cerulean Baroness answered with a smile, "The ones that survived could only choose to continue if they wished to live. You will be part of the experiment in some way; alive or dead, choice is a lie."
"You are pretty forward now, aren't you?", Roberion asked suspiciously.
"Because you all are already ready for the next match, the final one. I just need to start—", the Cerulean Baroness was cut off by Roberion.
"Wait, what do you mean? I didn't even move from here; would it be something like the physical test?"
"I think it will be easier to show you, as where you are would be proof enough of what I mean", As the Cerulean Baroness said, windows started to be created from within the wall. Showing the outside, Roberion didn't wait much before going to take a look.
What the null saw was something he wouldn't believe; it was like a small city had been spawned in the middle of the research station; there were buildings and houses, crisscrossed by streets. All of it was engraved with purple runes of the more varied formats. In the distance, he could see in the center a big dome sealing part of the center. All around it seemed to have a gray dome isolating this place from the rest of the research station; from this distance, it seemed familiar to the gray material from the old temple.
"What is in the center?", Roberion asked curiously. Turning around to look at his room, he was lost for words. The place was transformed; a bunch of chairs, desks, and cabinets spawned from nowhere. It seemed fake, but similar to the office he passed during his travels inside the research station.
"Let it be my last answer before ending the selection; if you are lucky and apt enough to be the one selected, I will grant you another piece of information. Anyway, that is the location where the power will be gifted to the winner, and only them; for all others, it will be sealed off, because they all will need to be eliminated."
Roberion was still aghast by the silent change in the room, but he had other priorities. "And how do we know when there is only one?"
"I will say it, obviously. So let's get started. All 497 of you will fight in this location, and the last one to survive will be the winner. During the battle, there will be obstacles within the city, as there will be places of safety, at least momentarily. No, there won't be items and weapons for you to use, but anything you find, be it some random object or loot from a corpse, you can use. If you can, you could even throw an entire building at your enemies", the Cerulean Baroness spoke with excitement.
Can someone really do that? These walls seemed very strong. Maybe she will change their composition or something. But that doesn't matter right now. Roberion looked at the other construction and buildings around his place; some nearby had windows that he could see inside; there were offices, bedrooms, and even some showing their kitchen, but most of them were grayed out, like something was obfuscating what was inside.
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Did she say 497? Three stupid participants must have chosen to leave; bad luck, I guess. Anyway, getting back to the matter at hand, what should I do?
Would it be a better idea to camp out or to go find people to fight with? Roberion took a look around the spacious room; he could see some interesting ways of hiding here, like being inside one of the cabinets while Percival would be nearby, attacking if needed. He could shoot at the window using the [Hellish Plasma Cannon] to kill his enemies. I would have to keep Percival, though, because I will take a hit at my dexterity if the die activates and Jubilant Choir shows up, and I think that letting the weapon go is a bad idea. But the time I hit someone and enter the combat, the die would activate anyway, right? This is so confusing, I didn't even test the weapon. Maybe it's easy to aim, or they can have a strong pushback when shot.
I will camp out and get a feel for the place. Maybe send Percival for some reconnaissance. Almost five hundred people fighting to the death will be a mess. I could die from some random attack from nowhere. This place is high; there are only two doors that exit from this place and the windows at the front.
The hologram got near him and spoke with urgency, "The battle will start in 60 seconds. Take positions, prepare your spells and weapons. The last battle will begin."
Roberion needed to activate the die three times before Percival showed up.
"Hello, si—", Roberion didn't wait for Percival to say his greetings, speaking with urgency, "We will fight against 497 of the remaining participants; help me to close off one of the exits of this place. On the other end, we will employ our roothorn buddy; he will block the other door, and if danger shows up, I will call him back to the bangle. Now go!"
"Which one, sir?"
"The left one, it seems we are in the rightmost region; there will be more people from there; obviously some people can try to use this place to go to the center, going through the right door, but we don't have many choices anyway. If all things go to hell, let's just crush the window and jump."
As they prepared their barricade, the hologram vanished shortly after. It took only a few seconds for him to hear distant explosions and screams, but he didn't focus on that. Summoning Shining Crown and asking him to block the right door with his body. The roothorn didn't object, going calm and standing guard near the door. Roberion didn't ask for it, but Shining Crown took a defensive position, already ready for an attack.
A few minutes later, most of the furniture from the place was placed against the left door; even if it was easy to destroy, it would be a hassle to get through. Percival was pretty reliable on the arrangement of the thing, giving Roberion tips on how to make a barricade with the objects in hand and showing his expertise.
"Nice job, Percival. Now go take a look at the windows. Be cautious; we don't know if there will be a sniper or something there. The noises lessened a little, but that doesn't mean we are safe. We will only be safe when all the other participants are dead", Roberion told Percival quietly.
"Understood, sir", Percival crawled slowly and put the shield on his face, only lowering a little so his eyes could see forward. Reaching the windows, he kept his guard up, keeping an eye on things.
Roberion got near the knight capybara, still looking back at the doors of the room, waiting for someone to break in. Taking a sip of the restorative potion, he still felt tender from all the constant wounds, especially the sword thrown.
"Honestly, I thought people would start screaming and explosions would shake the place until all participants but one died. But since the first few minutes, the place seems like a cemetery", Roberion said quietly to Percival.
"Indeed sir. Nonetheless, looking at this area, it seems really spacious, but it's smaller than the fiznault village, being the size of three to four districts. Five hundred people in a room is a lot, but their presence in this place is really sparse; the battle could take a long time", Percival said contemplatively.
"Almost five hundred, and probably some already died too. So you think that we should be waiting things out, or that other people will do just that and we need to go to the offensive?"
"I think it is a defensive position, sir. Most people will choose to do so; the place is alien for us and all the poor participants; the wise choice would be to wait things out, just hoping that they wouldn't be prey of stronger people too eager to find new marks", Percival answered, still taking a look at the window and finding nothing.
"That doesn't make much sense, though. The Ceruelean Baroness seemed to want more brutal combat, not for us to wait things out. She even said something about obstacles, obviously, we would only cross such obstacles if we had a reason too."
"Sir, I understand. But that would be what most people would think; only the strongest of those, or those who think they are, would try to find people to kill, and even that would be a bad strategy. If I were that royal ghost, I would try to change that, so people would want to move more than to wait in place", Percival looked at the window with interest but was dismissed after not seeing anything worthwhile.
"Alright. Changing topics, what do you think Shade is doing? Do you think the giant is alive? I haven't heard from them since the whole vent ordeal. I tried to contact them sometimes while I waited for the next duels, but with no luck. I kind of wish to keep the earbuds on now, but it would probably be a distraction."
"Being truthful, I don't know, sir. For as much as I hate those devil machines, the security given by that giant metallic being was wonderful, as brief as it was. Nonetheless, we need to focus on what we can do, we can't depend on others, especially—wait, sir. I found something wrong; it seems like an armored individual", Percival said with agitation.
"What type of armor?"
"It is dark and gold; it seems to be a mix of leather and metal, really robust."
"The way you say it, it seems like guard armor. But what did you find weird?", Roberion tried to focus on the guard.
"They are walking lazily, like they are in some type of infirmity. Its walking like an undead, but I don't remember seeing undead guards."
Roberion got curious and dared to take a quick look. Feeling a little feverish, he said with fear, "You are kidding me. That baroness!"