Chapter 24: The King of the Hill

“I. Am. The. King.” I pull the trigger on my [Magnum] upon saying this, spilling first blood within 15 seconds since this event started. The bullet accurately pierces my target’s head, and he falls immediately, dying on the spot.

This action immediately forced the rest of the participants out of shock, and began climbing pyramid at a rapid pace. They were all showing such willpower, trying to go ascend despite feeling my [Aura of the Heartless], but they were all still affected by it. Even though they didn’t have to worry about death, what they feared was the pain of death, because most of them felt it already in this tournament. Still, they continue to ascend the pyramid, determined to take me down.

The area at the top of the [Hill] was about 20 by 20 meters large, a size that I assume is supposed to hold at least 10 people at once for a chaotic battle at the top of this pyramid. There are stairs in all four of the cardinal directions, so I had to keep an eye on every side. I stand at the top, ready to defend my title for the entire 10 minutes, prepared to crush anyone who tries to take it away from me.

I aim my [Magnum] down the east stairs and rapidly fire down at the crowd of people trying to force their way up, some even pushing others back down the pyramid so they can reach the top faster. I don’t want to use my [Gun Magic] now, because I want to see how long I can hide it for. If possible, I want to keep it as a trump card against Zellaroth, Pyrion or Thoth in the [1 v 1] tournaments.

Eventually, 15 seconds after the first person began climbing, someone finally gets near the top of the pyramid in the south side. Unfortunately for him, I noticed him right away, and I sprint to where he’s about to be, punching his chin with all my strength. I can feel his jaw shattering from the force of the punch, so I assume that’s another kill for me. Another student was actually able to get on the square arena from the north side, and he runs up to me with a mace in hand, trying to bludgeon me from behind.

I unsheathe my dagger from my belt, and swing it at his weapon. My strength was far greater than his, so the recoil from my deflection causes his weapon to swing back up. I use this chance to thrust my knife at an extremely high speed into his left shin, pulling back as he falls onto his knees. I kicked his chest and force him to fall down the pyramid, his body rolling down the stairs and crashing into other participants. This causes a chain reaction to make several of the other students fall back down, forcing them to restart their ascent.

I continue on with this manner, punting off people who arrive at the top, and kicking down others who make it to the top. It seems like no other students here were anywhere near my level, as I stand my ground at the top of the [Hill]. Surprisingly, I haven’t seen a certain ‘someone’ climb up here yet. I had no idea where she was exactly.

“This is unbelievable! No one can actually force this girl off the [Hill]! There are not been more than three people total standing at the hill at one point! She’s been at this for a whole 2 minutes, yet, she shows no sign of exhaustion! Is she some sort of machine!?” I ignore the annoying man’s voice, and continuing on with this manner.

Suddenly, several fireballs fly by me, narrowly missing me. They came from the bottom of the hill, and it seems like they’re trying to take me down from a ranged location. I aim the [Magnum] at their directions, and used [Enhanced Detection] in order to see them. I didn’t fire the gun, though, because they were too far out of range for the bullet to actually hit. So now I need to defend my position as [King] with random spells coming from all directions.

Finally, more than two people made it to the top of the hill using this small distraction. Four people total got on their feet, and they all surrounded me, before attacking me separately. It seems like two of these four were allies, because they coordinated their attacks at me accurately. One of them slashed his sword at my upper body, while someone else tried a sweep kick at the back of my knees. 

I lay low, dodging the sword slash, and slam my dagger into the knee of the leg coming at me. I twist the knife, and spun my body, pulling the poor victim’s leg and swinging her around me. Using her as a human weapon, I slam her body into the swordsman, throwing the both of them off the [Hill].

I feel the wind behind me shifting greatly, and quickly dodge to the left, a blade of wind flying by where I was just standing. I land on my feet, but one of the remaining two participants swings his war hammer horizontally at me from the left. I throw my dagger up into the air, holster the [Magnum] and catch the hammer with my left hand. I forcefully pull it away from him, and with my right hand, I push him away as hard as I can, causing him to fly off the [Hill] and fall to his death. I catch the dagger I threw into the sky earlier, and now I was holding two melee weapons in each hand. A large war hammer in my left, a small dagger in my right.

The final girl leaped at me from behind, using two shortswords for an overhead slash onto me. I turn my body at a speed she didn’t expect, swinging the hammer in a wide arc. Before she could react, the sharp end of the head crashing into her side. The force of the attack sends her body down the pyramid, flying like a ragdoll. I drop the hammer after this, and pull out the [BLC-90] again.

I spent too much time on these four, though, because even more people were now on the [Hill]. This time, it was 7 people total, all who seemed stronger than the average adventurer. The siege of magic was still coming as well, their accuracy getting better each time they cast a spell. I can either start using magic, or fight to the very limit of my abilities. This time, I’m going to go with choice two.

This time, I make the first move, going on the offensive. I raise my [Magnum] and fire three shots at three different targets. Two of them were able to dodge my bullets, while the third one just let his armor absorb the shot. It looks like the same one Thoth used during our expedition into the [Kazaric Ravines]. After firing those three shots, I dash forward and close the distance between myself and the group. They try to stop my advance by all attacking at once, but I was able to dodge all of them with my high speed. They didn’t have any coordination with their attacks as well, so I was able to redirect the directions of some of their weapons to attack the other assailants.

I make use of this advantage and force myself into the center of this group, and grab one of the people around me. I thrust the barrel of my gun at the left side of her chest, and fire it at point blank range. Her body becomes limp, and I holster both of my weapons before grabbing the corpse by the waist. I spin it around me and use it as a meat shield to block attacks from the warriors around me, the blood spraying all over me. A large fireball approaches from outside the pyramid, and I use the mangled body in my arms to block it, setting the corpse on fire. No, I don’t feel bad at all using her body like this after death.

Holding the flaming body by the legs, I swing it downward onto one of the other six adventurers. He tried to dodge it, but he was unable to move because the other adventurers were clusters near him. The burning corpse lands right on top of him, the weight causing him to fall on the ground with the body. He tries to push the body off of him, but I pull out my [Magnum] and fire at his arms. He screams out in pain, but I ignore him as I focus on my next attacker.

The attacker dives right at me, hitting me in the chest, trying to knock me down with his weight. Unfortunately for him, I was strong enough to carry him. I catch him as his body crashes into mine, and I lift him above me. I throw him face first onto the ground, the force of the smash actually cracked the [Demon Glass], at the cost of the man’s skull.

The remaining four fighters all attacked me at once, but I dodge and deflect every single one of their strikes. Some of them try to use combat techniques to create feints and illusions, even increasing their speed and strength, but all for naught. One of the assailants make an over head swing with his sword at me, and instead of dodging it this time, I swing my [Magnum] right at it. 

[Magic Guns] are a very durable weapon. They’re built to endure the powerful recoil from firing their projectiles, and to withstand the powerful [Gun Magic] that amplifies these projectiles even further. Considering that the weapon I had in hand was the [BLC-90], one of the more powerful [Magnums], this means that this weapon was extremely strong, and no normal weapon could cut or break it. This is why I swung my gun towards his sword.

My gun completely shatters his weapon as it makes contact with it, and I place the nozzle right on his forehead, firing it. Before his body hit the ground, I turn to the next target and make a round house kick to his jaw, breaking it. His body goes flying across the ground and falls off the [Hill]. One of the two remaining people standing up here uses a combat technique, and his body blurs before he suddenly disappears. I aim the [Magnum] over my shoulder and I fire it twice, warm liquid splattering onto my hair. Not like it wasn’t soaked with blood earlier.

I turn to face the last two combatants, who were now completely scared of me. One of them screams and raises his palm open at me, firing a heavy bolt of wind to try and blow me off the [Hill]. The blast of wind hits me, but it doesn’t send me airborne at all. I raise my [Magnum], and fire at the panicking man, killing him. The last girl just looks at me, shaking in place.

“…monster.” She whispers, as I walk up to her and make a front kick right at her chest, sending her flying off the [Hill]. She showed no signs of resistance at the end, which kind of disappointed me. I look around the [Hill], and see several students now standing at the top, looking at my blood covered body. They were all too scared to approach, so instead, I went to them. Diving straight into the middle of the group, I immediately massacre the cluster of participants who now begins to panic.

They all begin to strike at me without any proper stance, technique, or tactic, they just wanted to make their nightmare gone. I easily dodged their attacks and countered them, slowly dwindling the numbers surrounding me. Revolving back and forth with using my dagger and [Magnum], I’m simply just killing a pack of sheep around me as the wolf. Some of them were able to retain their calm, but instead of attacking, they refused to get any closer to me, knowing that approaching me will only mean their death.

Dodge a slash, avoid a ball of fire, counter a punch, stab the neck, break the leg, use the corpse as a meat shield, redirect the spear into someone else, throw the guy into another fire ball that was aimed at me, fire my [Magnum] at the clustered group. I did all of that, and much more, continuously until there was literally a pile of bodies now on the [Hill]. I stood atop of the pile, blood completely covering me at this point. It’s splattered all over my face, my t-shirt is soaked with it, my hair looks like it’s been dyed red. It was all over me. There was no one left alive on the [Hill] except me, and no one else tried to climb the pyramid. Even the mages stopped casting magic at this point, giving up completely or having exhausted their mana pool.

“What an event this is! This event was created to have an intense battle for the title of [King] at the top of the [Hill], but this girl alone has held it for the past seven minutes! It’s a one sided massacre from the [King]’s side! What a shame that Zellaroth wasn’t here, I would have loved to see how a battle between these two would play out!” As the announcer makes his comments, the crowd around the arena booms in excitement, their cheers louder than ever.

“Aria~” A playful voice comes from behind me, and the temperature at the top of the pyramid falls to freezing point. Another aura fills the arena other than mine, and I recognize it. The aura I gave out is a warning of death if you dare try to fight me. This aura, on the other hand, is the aura of destruction for everything around it. The [Aura of the Annihilation], something only one person in history should be able to emit. I holster my weapon, and slowly turn around.

Behind me, I see a young girl, shorter than me, but of the same age. She stood there with a cold look in her eyes, despite the playful tone she just used earlier. Extreme bloodlust emerged from her body, along with her dangerous aura. There was a black armlet on her right arm, and mana is leaking out of it. It was the person I was waiting for the entire time, and it looks like her secret weapon was a magic item.

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“Wow, there are so many dead bodies on this [Hill]. There’s like, more than 50 of them! Even at the bottom of the pyramid, there’s bodies lying everywhere. Really, you can’t just litter like that, you know? Clean up after your trash.” She says while stepping on them, walking toward me at a casual pace. Every body she steps on becomes engulfed in some sort of black fire, burning the body away completely without leaving any ashes behind.

“Looks like you’re still holding back, though. No magic? That’s no good, Aria. You ridicule your enemies that way, you know. It’s like saying they’re not worth it.” She stops right in front of me, and looks up at my face with a smile on her face. 

“So, [Hero], you ready for round 2?” The former [Demon Lord] asks me in a voice that only me could hear.

A second later, she thrusts something towards my stomach, but I was able to catch it with my bare hands. Catching it was a mistake, though, because I feel an extreme cold running through my hands, and I look down to see the cause. The object between my palms was a black blade, but it was colder than the ice of the [Frozen Viper]. I let go of it immediately and leap back, casting [Fire Magic] to try and remove the cold from my hands. There was no way I’d be able to keep the ‘No Magic Restriction’ up against Thoth.

I’m forced to stay within the [Hill], so I couldn’t exactly run away from Thoth. I unsheathe the [BLC-90] and the [White Edge], raising the gun to aim it at Thoth. As soon as I do so, she suddenly dashes up to me in zig zags at an extremely high speed, before I could even pull the trigger. She pulls her right arm back, and opens her palm. A pole of black ice forms in her hands, and she swings it down at at me.

I swing my magnum at it, both weapons crashing into each other, but neither of them shatter. This black ice was stronger than what the [Frozen Viper] was made of. With that, Thoth’s strength was somehow equal to mine, and I couldn’t push her back. Suddenly, the force from her attack disappears, causing me to use too much strength and fall forward. With insane speed, she pulls back the pole of ice, and swings it into my left side, sending me rolling across the arena.

I try to regain my balance and get back on my feet, but as soon as I do so, she’s already in front of me, thrusting her pole right at my neck. I raise the [White Edge] as fast as I can, and hit the pole before it reaches my neck, redirecting it last second. As the pole scrapes by me, the force of the thrust causes Thoth to step forward, and I try to stab her as she’s forced towards me. Unfortunately, I forgot about a certain skill she had, and I regret the move I make immediately.

Her movements stop immediately, and she spins her body at a faster than my eyes can actually follow. Her pole makes another wide swing as it comes straight at my head. Before I know it, I’m lying on the ground, my vision turning blurry. I try to stand up, and I hear the wind whistling around me. Even though I can’t see her, I know she’s in front of me right now. I count to two in my head, before teleporting 5 meters ahead of me.

I rotate my body immediately, and raise my [Magnum], aiming at where I was just standing. Although my vision was still blurry, I was able to make out her figure, and I fire the gun right at her. I didn’t just fire a normal bullet, though. I used [Gun Magic], and shot an [Inferno Bullet] right at her. I see her turn around and hit the projectile head on with the spear, the small bullet exploding in a 3 meter radius. I was barely out of range for it, but I can definitely feel the heat.

“I won’t fall for your teleporting trick twice, you know?” A voice suddenly comes from behind me.

I wasn’t given the chance to even turn around, before I feel something hard hit the side of my head.

I’m sent flying, spinning in the air as I do so. The weapons in my hands slip out, as I feel my conscious fading in and out. Strangely, an urge to just stop thinking and completely destroy suddenly emerges from within me. This happened before, too, during the fight against the [Frozen Viper], and I lost control for a bit, tearing the snake about at the end with raw strength and stomping on it. I can’t risk falling under something like that now. It seems like I can’t keep holding one percent against Thoth.

While my body was airborne, I put a single point of mana onto the tattoo on my back. A sudden rush of energy surges through my body, and the world suddenly feels like it’s slowed down around me. I manage to control my movements while in mid air, flipping back and landing on my feet when I touch the ground. I land right at the edge of the [Hill], on the verge of falling off. In front of me, I see Thoth watching me with her cold eyes, before lunging towards at me with her pole of ice.

This time, I was able to see her movements much more clearly. She doesn’t know this yet, and approaches me at high speed, intending to knock me off. When she gets in range, she thrusts the spear towards my upper body, and at the last second, I side step it with the least amount of movement possible, the pole barely missing my body, scraping against my shirt. Her eyes widen in shock, but before she was able to react even further, I slam my hand right into her face. With my new strength and speed, I grab it with an iron grip, and leap up into the air.

As we land back onto the center of the [Hill], I slam her head right into the ground, and I was actually able to shatter the [Demon Glass] with the force of the smash. I let go and jump away to grab the weapons I dropped earlier. Behind me, I hear Thoth already getting back up, so I turn to face her after picking up my [Magnum] and [White Edge]. Blood runs down her face, and several pieces of the [Demon Glass] is piercing her back and arms.

“Well then, it looks like I got you to unseal another mark.” She says with a smile on her face. “So without further ado, let’s just end it, shall we?” 

She transforms the pole of ice in her hands into a spear, spinning it around her body before taking a stance. I holster the both of my weapons, and raise my fists up, prepared for her attack. Just like before, I was using my hands, and she was using a spear. Except this time, I was the one with the higher stats.

We lunge at each other, and she makes an overhead swing again. I sidestep the attack, and just like always, it stops suddenly. A massive increase of speed is made in her movements as she rotates her body and swings it at an extreme speed. I was able to see this movement though, and I grab the spear by the handle. My hand becomes numb, but I crush the handle with my strength, before throwing a left hook into Thoth’s stomach.

She’s sent flying into the air, but manages to land within the [Hill], and on her feet. This time, she looked like she’s barely holding on. Most likely, her next move will be her final.

“There’s about 15 seconds left, so I’ll make this quick!” She yells out, and dashes right at me.

As soon as she reaches me, she leaps above me, pulling her spear back, ready to thrust. I still have my fists raised, ready to grab her spear and break it this time, no matter what the ice does to me. Before she lands, though, she’s suddenly propelled sideways, an illusion of fire left behind where she previously was. I turn to the direction she dashed to, but she was gone. Then, I realized how she dodged my [Inferno Bullet] earlier.

I instantly step to the side while rotating my body. Thoth’s spear flies right through the area I was just standing in, as I predicted. She used her [Spectral Daggers] earlier to teleport behind me. Unfortunately, I saw through her trick this time, and she couldn’t teleport where her shadows didn’t reach. I raise my leg high above her head, and bring it down on her. The axe kick smashes into her head, and I force it all the way into the [Demon Glass] floor, shattering the glass yet again, with the force of my strike.

“…good fight.” I said to the corpse under my foot.

The bell rings upon her death, marking the end of the [King of the Hill] event. Honestly, it feels like she still hasn't used her full strength against me. I didn't see [Mode: Devil] or [Dark Lance], so there may be skills that she's still unable to use, or just held back. The [System]’s voice enters my head, stating the points I gained in this event.

“2240 points have been obtained. You are now ranked 1 in the leaderboard.” Based on what I remember, Zellaroth had a total score of 1460. I nearly have an 800 point lead from a single event, obtaining over 100 kills and kept the title [King] for the entire time.

“As unbelievable as it sounds, Aria Brynhildr has completely dominated this event, holding the title of [King] for a total of 9 minutes and 55 seconds!” The announcer states, and the crowd goes completely wild. Unexpectedly, the people of this era are excited to see these kinds of scenes. In my previous life, a bloody scene like this usually has everyone fear me afterwards.

Using [Enhanced Detection], I search through the crowds and find my parents at the upper seats of the colosseum. There were tears in my mother's eyes while my father was clapping his hands. Also, for some reason, the Student Council was sitting near their location, and they were all cheering out for me as well. Even Raina was waving her hand at me, and I wave back. For some reason, this causes that area of the crowd to become even louder and more excited. I don’t think much of it, and decide to just leave the arena grounds.

Covered in blood from head to toe, I descend the pyramid known as the [Hill] for the first time in 10 minutes. The corpses that were made during the duel evaporates into some sort of dust, as the arena grounds shift back to normal while I walk away. From this day on, I just displayed that I am a monster that no one here is capable of defeating, even if they all come at once. This was an entertaining experience, but I’m still looking forward to two more things. 

I want to fight the man who learnt [Titan Strength], Zellaroth Orium. There’s no doubt that his power is that of an [S-Ranked], maybe even a [D-Ranked] one in the [Immortal Tier]. Along with that, I want to test the strength of this Pyrion Genada. If the leaderboards are true, which I hope they are, those two must be stronger than the current Thoth. I do have doubts about them, but I’ll be patient and wait for them to show me what they’re capable of.

Tomorrow are the [Individual Events], so the [1 v 1]’s will take place along with the [Free For All]. I leak mana by accident, excited to participate in these events. I’m going to reign over every single one of these events, and no one will stop me.

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Bonus (bad) Skit that doesn’t actually happen in the story with weak personality Aria:

Spoiler :

Aria: “I. Am. The. Ki–”

*Aria bites her tongue*

Aria: “Uu…”

*Aria’s eyes tear up*

*Everyone in the arena dies.*

Announcer: "...Victory, to Aria Brynhildr with a record of 133 kills within 5 seconds!"

Bonus aftermath that doesn’t occur in the story, with weak personality Aria:

Spoiler :

As Aria walks down the stairs of the pyramid, she trips over her feet and tumbles down the pyramid. After rolling all the way down, she lands face first into the ground. Her eyes tears up from this, and everyone still in the arena suddenly dies from the sight.

Author’s Note: Okay guys, the demon has finally come to claim my soul. The demon known as… school. So yeah, school’s about to start for me, meaning I’ll have less time to work on the chapters. I’ll try to keep the one chapter a day pace, with the occasional two, but forgive me if I miss a day. Don’t forgive me if I miss two days in a row. :)

Also, I feel like I've tried too hard on the chapter, so it might just be a wall of text full of scenes that I tried to explain from what I see in my head.