Cyrus walked towards them with an air of certainty matching his arrogance, that of a blessed noble son lording over the peasantry. The scion of Atreus was draped in more silk than leather as though prioritizing appearance over purpose.
[Human Slayer (legendary) - Greater Lord]
“What, you’re giving me the silent treatment still? Even though I’m first?” He walked right up to Kamala, his slightly whispering tone at the end taunting her. Kamala returned nothing but a stoic cold gaze but that did not dissuade him. “You can run around with the lessers all you want. But this trials shit won’t last forever. We’ll find you eventually.”
A colorless world fell upon Cyrus, alone in a gray void of nothing. Before he could react, his eyes were drawn to left. An ominous mass of black swirls in human form looked back. Cyrus stood paralyzed, unable to even think. The being swelled in red and black. Vile antlers bloomed atop its head endlessly. The king of a thousand horns. And it reached.
Cyrus fell back on the floor with a pathetic whelp, his arrogance wholly replaced with fear, and then creeping confusion as he found himself back in the safe room, and a hollowed eyed boy in the place of that terrible thing, calmly smiling.
“I’ll find you first.” Some among the party understood what had just happened from Shin’s words, mocking smiles and a laugh followed.
“Embarrassing.” Yen held her hand up to her face with disdainful eyes and proud demeanor, every bit the regal display she relished in.
The humiliated Atreus’ first instinct was to respond to such an insult but just as quickly as that urge came it was suppressed but the fear lingering within him. He grit his teeth and slunk back into the crowd of his kin, pushing some aside.
“Thank you.” Kamala’s expression remained unchanged, but Shin felt a subtle hint of gratification and he smiled back.
With the altercation ended, the Kamo party walked passed over to the resident party of similarly masked members. “Tokihira has died.” One of the men reported to a woman.
“I see. I will take lead then.” There was no grief in her acknowledgement nor opposition to her assertation. The members of her party silently surrounded the young scion as guards without any orders.
Shin himself walked off over to the Igarashi section and the rest of his party followed. Titon led the Saba to remnants of his clan while Lu Kang led his party to a corner of the room unconcerned. Wumei’s held a grim expression as she found none of her own, following the Lu’s example after a passing moment.
Renzo and Yugo stood at the center of the Igarashi, now joined by Mai. Kanda also among them though the composition of his party had changed since their meeting in the bazaar.
[Human King (legendary) - Greater Lord]
[Human Gladiator (legendary) - Greater Lord]
[Human Poison Master (legendary) - Greater Lord]
[Human Shinobi (legendary) - Greater Lord]
Others in the clan had reached legendary though most still remained at epic tier. Though barely a passing thought in Shin’s mind as he walked through the other members, as they reluctantly allowed him through. Or rather, avoided interaction with him, and by extension the rest of the party.
“Why are you staying here?” Shin asked his siblings directly.
“Cause we got no choice.” Yugo snapped at him.
Shin glanced at a man clearly not a member of the clan with the epic tier Warder class and a nervous demeanor, then back to his siblings with a questioning gaze.
“You think we’re fucking stupid?!” Yugo lashed out at the implication.
“Too many snakes.” Mai added, looking to the Atreus.
“Ah, they’d rather sabotage everyone else than improve with them.” Most realized the meaning of Mai’s words, though Yen spoke it out loud.
“Just run further away?” Shin couldn’t understand why they were stuck by this.
“They send the horde after us.” Renzo spoke where his brother refused to.
“Are they the ones behind the mindless?” Yen asked.
Renzo looked at her for a moment before answering. “No, but they can herd them. Magically. Once we settle, they break the ward and force us to deal with the controlled.”
“Just kill them.” Shin said.
“They bring more.”
“The Atreus.” Shin elaborated.
Yugo slammed his fist into the wall, his temper at a boiling point. “You think we’re fucking clowns?!”
“Calm down.” Renzo ordered, though it had no effect.
“We don’t need advice from a freak who never finished the training!”
“Yugo.” The heir to the clan spoke more sternly, enough that this time the hotheaded gladiator obeyed, with muttered curses. Renzo turned back to Shin. “Do you have any ideas?”
Shin didn’t respond but instead looked to Kamala.
“...it is an issue. They outnumber us, and the old man is certainly the type to trade time in the festival for the lives of standouts of the other clans from the safety of the room.” She turned to Renzo. “Since you have not simply fled past where his caution would allow, I assume they have a clairvoyant among them.”
“Yes.”
“Does no one else have poison?”
“We did.” Mai answered, as the topic of the question was more for her. “A few died, but they have healers. Epic tier poison isn’t a huge issue for them.”
“...What’s their power?” Attention turned to the bored expression of the puppeteer.
“Invulnerability, to physical, mental or soul attacks. Resistances and immunities as well. Which each of them has varies. Most have Indestructible.”
“So unfair~ How are you supposed to beat that?” Ashley asked with limited attention as she wrapped around Jean.
“Suffocation.” Attention returned to Shin who misinterpreted. “Starvation. Aging.”
“We’re aware.” Mai seemed to lose interest in the conversation.
“...weaknesses aside,” Jean did his best to ignore the toying assassin. “You just need to deal with the clairvoyant.”
A certain weight was felt even with his dispassionate tone and indirect choice of words.
“Do you know who it is?”
“The girl in the center.” Renzo answered and the party looked over, four of them recognizing a beautiful golden haired young woman.
“That fake damsel…” Yen muttered.
“No one can take damage of any kind in these rooms and no skills work without their consent. They can be physically moved but no one can be forced to leave the room.” Renzo added, clearly placing a small degree of expectation in the party.
Jean thought for a moment.
“You have an idea?” Yen asked.
“Yeah…”
“Really-”
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
“Get lost, brat!”
The whole safe room turned to the source of the irate yell, a golden eyed mustached man, staring down the lazy eyed young scion of the Kamo clan before him. The boy weaved mana and spell at the middle aged Atreus man as a younger child lacking fully formed empathy and recognition of others would, all to no other effect than annoying his target. The scion continued what almost seemed to be experiments undeterred until the man could bare it no longer.
“Inferior!”
The Atreus swung his arm with tremendous might. Though it may not do damage, it would knock the pest away and relief him of some of his frustration. But to the onlookers’ surprise, the sneering man had done nothing but swing at open air. And the scion continued to weave.
“Stand down.” The old Charlemagne ordered with his ever present somberly expression. Another member of the house cast a spell on the mustached man which seemed to snap his sense back in order as he looked to where the scion truly was. “Return.” The man stared down the brat for a moment before obeying his patriarch’s orders, Charlemagne’s grim eyes focused on the boy.
“The old man seems afraid of the kid.” Yen half asked.
“Not a kid.” Shin nonchalantly commented.
“What?”
Again, the conversation was interrupted, this time by growing murmurs of those near the doorways looking outside. Shin hopped over, followed by the party again, along with Renzo and other notables in the room. Before them was a sight recognized by the former five party alliance. A bloody and fruitless battle waged by the mindless as a plague of corruption consumed them. In the place of the dazed mindless, now stood the wicked smiles of the cursed.
“Shit…” Yen’s persona slipped as the situation worsened.
“Can your plan still work now?” Donny asked Jean.
“No.”
“How wonderful.” The new leader of the Kamo party walked past.
[Human Shrine Maiden (legendary) - Greater Lord]
Without any hesitation, she passed through the doorway. The three eyed corrupted players lunged and a gong pervaded through the halls from the image of a golden bell above her. Immediately, the corrupted ceased in their tracks, wailing in pain.
The shrine maiden raised her hand and the nearest to her spasmed, screeched in pain as wisping ominous energy leaked up from its body and dissolved in the air. Flesh surged from the third eye as a center and with its wail reaching piercing heights, the third eye turned to ash. As though a chain reaction, the cursed eyes of the other corrupted burned away to ash in moments. The players slumped to the ground and gradually, started to rise one by one, no longer mindless nor cursed.
The Kamo woman lowered her hand and a sword cut through her neck, sending her veiled head rolling across the ground and her body falling limp. “Don’t.” Otsuya spoke as though nothing was wrong.
The would be assassin froze in place, a giant shadowy wolf’s head of many eyes and demonic bearing stopped its maw just short from snapping the man in two. Fleshy tendrils shot out from the shrine maiden’s severed ends, reconnecting her head and body in moments. The wolf’s head more obviously originating from her shadow now.
“I must ensure the master’s will.” At her smiling words, the man’s body spasmed with cursed mana. “So I will have you die three days from now.”
The wolf retreated into her shadow and the man leapt desperately back into the safe room, bounding towards the Atreus. Renzo rushed out of the safe room followed by the rest of the clan, and Shin led the party right behind. A fair distance they rushed, just to the sure, but soon they stopped and made their conscripted warder cast his barrier around them.
Renzo wasted no time, first directing the warder to let in the Kamo and Saba outside requesting entry, then appointed one of the Igarashi members standing guard to make the call of letting in others and entered a challenge.
“Half an hour.” Donny said as his mind disappeared into a challenge. The rest of the party needed no further words as they took on challenges of their own, now with the intention of ranking as highly as possible.
Shin looked around, making sure nothing was off, then raced into a challenge. He found himself in a rolling meadow and a ogre spawned with a roar. The moment he could move, he put an arrow in its eye. Two more ogres took its place and Inari beheaded them just as quickly. The others had told Shin about the ogre wave challenge. He had to save as much mana and aura for the last waves, and speed was everything.
---
Inari darted through the air, reaping an ogre’s head with every swing as Shin sped around her sinking arrows through their brains almost as fast. The last of the 9th wave fell, and 512 brutish ogres appeared, charging towards them. Inari felt Shin’s instruction and ran straight up into the air as high as he could go.
Shin leap from ground, purple tipped brown feathers covering his body. Overshadow empowered his body further as he concentrated High Pitch as much as he could, and unleashed it. A deafening shrill ring echoed through the massive crowd of ogres who stopped in place from the pain. A ring of foxfire encircled and pulled them in closer to the sound. The ogres roared in pain and burst like sacks of blood, drenching the green meadows red.
A moment passed and Shin found himself back in the hallway. He burst off to the next challenge without checking the result and entered. An Elder Redcap with winged boots appeared before him. In an instant, both flashed with lightning speed, half of Shin’s neck split open in white fox form and the epic tier redcap fell in two severed parts.
Shin dashed to the next console and found himself in a dense swamp forest. His eyes glowed prismatic as he sped off again in kitsune form. A black webbed paw at the end of a long smooth tail like appendage shot by him as he slipped and decapitated the Atzol Prowler. A large panther like monster with rubbery black fur. He sped off without hesitation, walking on wind to avoid the treacherous bog below as he hunted the stealthy creatures meant to be hunters of this stage.
He killed the last and entered the next challenge. A decrepit old woman in simple robes with a face a shade too deformed to be human met him. The Hag channelled an intense ball of mana as Shin concentrated a ward around him. The hag’s greater manabolt rocketed forth with a surge of power, exploding on the greater ward with immense force. The dust and mana settled, revealing a cracked but standing ward.
Shin invoked the white form of a kitsune warrior and concentrated a mystic shield before him and Mara appeared at his side. A second giant bolt of mana shattered the shield and stopped short on her shield. The duo weathered three more until a sixth broke through, leaving Shin with mortal wound, but he still stood, facing the seventh attack that ended the challenge.
The next challenge was quite a bit different from the others. Before Shin was a setup similar to the strongman test of carnivals, but there was no mallet and instead of the striking base stood a clown faced ogre with the symbol of a target painted on its large stomach. Besides it danced a jester like creature, miming and egging Shin on.
Shin hopped towards the ogre, kitsune form taking hold, and took a stance. The destructive vibrations of Quake thundered further in his hands as he channeled it as far as it could go with all the mana he had available. Overshadow strengthened his limbs alongside the overstraining passed his limits and the Greater Swiftness enveloping him in speed. With all his might, he invoked Kong’s Haymaker and struck. A cataclysmic pressure burst from the impact.
The target ogre’s stomach rippled and the jester held onto its cap for dear life, miming as though the impact would send it flying away. Soon the force subsided and a puck shot up the tower behind not even halfway before falling back. A three figure number flickered on the modern display at the top, finishing at 361.
The jester waved farewell to Shin as he returned outside. This time he spared a moment to glance at the leaderboard for the game.
1. Chandra Pandavas - 498
2. Leon Moore - 476
3. ….
Most of the ones after were from the Pendragon house, though Shin saw nothing of note besides the first two. With that, he jumped over to arguably the main event among the challenges. Shin found himself standing on the hard compact sand of a massive colosseum, facing a large orc in spiked roman armor.
[High Orc Arena Champion (epic) - Greater Lord]
A boss type monster, the only one of its kind among the challenges, an existence equal to the Prismatic Dragon of the second stage. A crowd of strange monsters roared around them like humans and a orc in classical toga raised its hands.
“Begin!”
Shin leapt to the side as the high orc’s slash split the ground in two, its speed rivalling Shin at his best. The form of a white fox draped his body and Quake concentrated on his foot as Mara appeared to his side and shot Screech after Screech at champion. Kong blinked behind and clawed at its eyes.
A stomp sent Kong crashing away into the wall of the arena and the wounds healed in an instant but the distraction was all the time Shin needed. At his greatest speed, he flickered above the high orc and kicked off the air, his cleaving foot crashing down on the monster’s skull. The violent pulse of quake exploded the the insides of the high orc’s head, blood bursting from every orifice as it stumbled and fell dead.
[Grand Martial Combat has upgraded to legendary tier Supreme Martial Combat.]
The crowd erupted in celebration and faded away as Shin left the challenge, glancing once again at the rankings.
1. Leon Moore - 0.01 seconds
2. Chandra Pandavas - 0.02 seconds
3. Lu Kang - 0.03 seconds
4. Attila Atreus - 0.05 seconds
5. Karla - 0.05 seconds
6. Genjiro Igarashi - 0.05 seconds
7. Titon Saba - 0.06 seconds
8. Bando Koga - 0.07 seconds
9. Sereth Narmer - 0.08 seconds
10. Xerxes - 0.08 seconds
11. Rhun Prince - 0.09 seconds.
12. Shin - 0.09 seconds.
There was hardly any time left now, but his best challenges were done. Now there was only the pursuit of more tokens.
---
The giant’s club sent Shin’s orc crashing away. Broken bones and ruptured organs made it slow to rise to its feet, and Shin’s Heal wasn’t fast enough to aid its recovery fully. The giant charged towards the orc, ignoring Shin completely. The nature of this challenge was to support the orc against a foe that outmatched him, but Shin had no buffs he could cast on others. The most he could do was prolong the orc’s inevitably short survival. The orc raised its axe with a roar and the club splattered it to mush, bringing an end to the challenge.
Shin returned to the hallway, mere seconds remaining for the festival. He had attempted all the challenges to the best of his current abilities, and so now chose to keep watch over the others in these final moments, although it didn’t seem necessary by the state of the group gathered within the ward. None seemed to be seeking enemies, and most players were waiting for the timer to run out like Shin.
Countless players awaited the countdown and once it reached zero, Shin found himself transported to a luxurious booth room along with Yen, Donny, Kamala, and Karla. Stage lights turned on the platform beyond the window, surrounded by rows and floors of similar booths with an enormous crowd standing before the stage.
“Congratulations to all who matter~ Did you do well in the games? Did you rob and scheme as much as possible?” The red curtains of the stage slowly rose as the overseer’s voice swept through the theater. “I hope you did, because it’s time to put those tokens to use!”
A green haired boy dressed in ringleader’s garb gestured out as the curtain revealed him. He appeared to be no more than 12 or 13 but only fools thought that truly the case. An excited, cunning smile adorned his face.
“Welcome to the main event! The Festival Auction!”