Just because something happened in one place didn't mean nothing else happened in other places. In fact, a lot of battles were taking place but what interested the contestants the most were the champions that weren't battling. Why? Because they were those who were closest to the goal at the moment.

Fights of this level would never pique the interest of those at the pinnacle. They might have arguments or joke about them, finding them funny or intriguing. But they weren't going to be mesmerized by them. The display of might from the champions was nothing to them. It was the same as watching two ants battling it out. It had no meaning.

There was only one thing that mattered at this moment of the trial: to be fast enough to be one of those who crossed a bridge. What was the meaning of displaying your strength only to die because you ended up too slow? Obviously, none. So, to the pinnacle experts watching, only the champions in the lead mattered.

And there were two in particular who were ahead of everyone. They both belonged to the same contestant as well. He was grinning happily at the moment. Those two champions were dragons. Not metaphorical dragons but real dragons. They were sentient beasts from the dragon race. They were of the greatest spiritual beast bloodline. One of them was a red dragon while the other was a blue dragon. They both had evident natural elemental dispositions towards two elements from the five origins. Respectively, they were fire and water.

And both of them had focused on moving forward. With their incredible physical abilities added to their incredible manipulation of spiritual energy, their impressive manipulation of spiritual energy and their magnificent elemental techniques, they had moved ahead of everyone else. They had at least twenty minutes on the next ones.

And they happened to reach the end of the forest and enter the next territory.

It was divided in three landscapes surrounding the mountain like three squares making a circle around it. On one side, a sandy desert with raging tornadoes. On another, a tundra with savage blizzard. And lastly, a zone filled with magma who erupted randomly and filled its surroundings with extreme heat. Every champion would have to cross one of those areas in order to go up.

Some might decide to move sideways until they reached a zone they could easily move through while others would just rush explosively forward regardless of the dangers. In any case, those areas were many times more dangerous than the forest. And it was because the elements were raging in them. If one wanted to climb higher, he would have to brave the dense accumulation of one of the five origins here first. And it was no easy feat to accomplish. Especially after having consumed energy to speed up and protect oneself through the forest...

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The blue dragon was first to exit the forest and found himself in the desert area. He was slightly unhappy about it. He would have been able to speed up even further had he been in the tundra. That being said, it wouldn't be too much of a problem either. He coated himself with a layer of spiritual energy mixed with ice elements and, through a technique, created a thin and malleable armor of extreme cold ice. Then, he rushed forward into the giant tempest of sands.

The grains of sand pelted fiercely on his armor and the wind pushed him down, trying to stop from advancing forward, pushing him back towards the forest. But it wasn't working that well. He was far from his previous top speed yet he was still running forward on the sand.

The sand was hitting him continuously but it didn't do anything to his armor. As for the wind pushing him, it proved to be detrimental but only in reducing his speed. He exerted the same amount of strength and energy as in the forest and could still move relatively fast. It became obvious that he would manage to reach the bridge as part of the 32.

At a different area and only seconds later, a red dragon humanoid escaped the grasp of the forest. Rather, the forest had been escaping from him. His presence itself was akin to the fire element and the forest dared not approach him. He ran through the first obstacle without difficulty. Even the mist was useless against him. He was burning the elements inside of it as he moved just by activating his Domain.

And now, he left the forest only to enter into the magma range. He was so pleased that he laughed madly. The heavens were smiling down upon him this time. He would definitely be able to cross over the bridge before that shithead blue dragon. He would show him that he, a red dragon, was the superior one.

He didn't hesitate to transform to his original beast appearance this time. In beast form, his natural elemental affinity would shine even further and, in this environment, it would be perfect. He became a ten meters long dragon with dozens of feet ending in sharp claws. And he began to run forward at a speed far greater than before. Most of the experts spectating could only sigh. These two dragons were too fierce, they didn't give a chance to others... They would claim 2 bridges without a doubt.

But they weren't the only ones who were close to exiting the forest.

Ten minutes later, others began to exit the forest little by little and with their own methods began to ascend through their areas. None of them tried to move to a different area first. What's more, they all displayed methods that should enable them to go through the obstacle safely and speedily. Everyone had come prepared for it.

Of course, the only danger wasn't the element. The real danger, since the very start, were the competitors. And as the total space would reduce, more and more champions would meet...