“You finished it faster than I did?” Boe has already stopped worrying about people looking at him and wanted to discuss this trial with his friend, but he then noticed an elf with pointy ears coming toward them.
“Boe Nas, hello. My name is Dale Leviit, I’m the thirteenth prince of The Dark Elf Kingdom.” Elf suddenly started a conversation with Boe.
“Greetings your highness, I’m Kamys Theodore of-” Kamys politely greeted Dale with a gentle smile on his face, but he was quickly interrupted.
“I’m not interested in you, Child of Fire. You can go take a walk somewhere else and let me talk with Boe Nas.” Dark elves of royal family always despised ordinary humans. They thought of themselves as entities of higher level than everyone else on the continent. Even other elves were nothing in their eyes. The only thing that could make someone decent in their eyes was strength. Even though they didn’t think highly of most of humans, demons or beasts, they acknowledged that there were always talents even among trash. And royal family has always tried to pull the most gifted people into their subordinates list. That was the reason Dale came to talk to Boe, he would consider to make Kamys his lackey too, but Kamys was already a very important person in The Shadow Kingdom.
“How do you know me and what do you want from me?” Boe’s voice became cold as he looked at Dale with eyes full of vigilance. He didn’t really mind the way Dale treated Kamys, he just knew that person as haughty as prince wouldn’t come seeking him just to befriend.
“I like those eyes of yours and your aura is cold and bloodthirsty. Why don’t you stop following this little fellow and join my camp? I’m the prince of the kingdom with unlimited power and wealth. And he is just a future patriarch of the guardian clan if he won’t get killed before that, of course.” Apparently, Dale didn’t think of Kamys’ future highly at all. Even if Kamys would become the patriarch of the guardian clan, his status would still be much lower than the prince of The Dark Elf Kingdom.
“I’m not his henchman and I will never obey anyone,” Boe coldly answered and turned around to leave the stage. Since he already finished the first trial, he would only need to appear at the second one tomorrow so he didn’t have to stay at the stage.
“What an interesting fellow…” Dale murmured as he left Kamys without even casting a glance at him.
“Have I become some kind of side character here?” Kamys frowned and ran to catch up with Boe.
“Your highness, we found no information on his past prior to the Black Scorpio school. We only know that he trains in some unique battle teaching, which allows him to quickly boost his strength and his aura becomes demonic while using it.” Three hours later, Dale’s subordinate came back with a report. He found all information about Boe’s time in school, including the fight with Han Ligu.
“Nothing on his past and demonic battle teaching… he might be a disciple of some hidden expert or a spy from demons. Keep an eye on him, I want to know about his every step.” Boe’s mysteriousness sparked even more interest in Dale. Dale himself was very talented in magic, but he was thirteenth child of the king so he had no chances of receiving the crown. He was probably the most gifted child of the king actually, but his senior brothers were much older than him and he had no hopes of competing with them. So he was spending his life on training and living a life full of adventures. Every time he found an interesting mystery, he would not stop before he could crack all secrets behind it. All he really wanted from his life was to have as much fun as he could, and Boe became his new target.
After Boe and Kamys left, the trial continued and a lot of people started getting fifteen or more points. When only three hundred people remained, young men and women from guardian clans were called. Each of the guardian clans were represented by twenty people and all other spots were taken by best schools of The Shadow Kingdom.
A hundred best elites from The Shadow Kingdom all stepped into their magic arrays at the same time. After only a few breathes of time, magic arrays started shining and only “18”, “19” and “20” scores appeared on them. Fifty-one people scored twenty, thirty-five scored nineteen and fourteen scored eighteen. That was the power of the first rate powerhouses of The Shadow Kingdom. They all wore arrogant smiles as they stepped out of the magic arrays and left the stage.
After them, a hundred elites from Church of Light entered magic arrays and their results were no worse than people of The Shadow Kingdom. But their appearance were much more gentle and noble than savage dark wizards.
And at last, a hundred most talented young men and women from The Dark Elf Kingdom walked into magic arrays with calm expressions on their faces. All magic arrays shined with a brilliant light and results astonished everyone present. Ninety-one magic arrays were showing “20”, Dale was standing on one of them. Eight displayed “19” and only one array had a “18” score. Elf with “18” looked like he disgraced himself and his whole family, even tears welled up on his eyes.
At the end of the day, out of almost ten thousand people participating in the first trial, only three thousand twenty were able to make it to the second one. More than half of them were elves.
Shi Ligu passed the trial with the score of seventeen points, Ivan Popov got eighteen and Richard Carter somehow got twenty points. A lot of people discussed that such a small and weak school as the Black Scorpio school managed to nurture three outstanding geniuses and everyone noted Richard, Boe and Kamys as dark horses of the competition.
On the next day, Boe and company went to the stadium once again. There was now much fewer people standing on the stage compared to yesterday. As soon as Boe stepped on it, he felt a lot of gazes focused on him. His previous performance attracted a lot of people and he felt uncomfortable because of it.
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“THE COMPETITION BEGINS IN TEN MINUTES. ANYONE WHO WON’T BE ON THE STAGE BY THAT TIME, WILL BE AUTOMATICALLY DISQUALIFIED,” The already-so familiar thunderous voice announced.
In these ten minutes, Ivan was constantly repeating that he would definitely defeat the silhouette faster if he would go all out, but he decided to only use his own power without relying on his spirit animal. Shi was meditating with his eyes closed, and Richard was just standing and looking around. The only one who has actually talked to Ivan was Kamys. They even almost started a fight because Kamys mentioned that he’s stronger than Ivan.
“WHEN YOUR NAME IS CALLED - COME OUT AND ENTER ONE OF HUNDRED MAGIC ARRAYS.” As soon as the voice resounded throughout the stadium, one hundred arrays appeared on the stage. These arrays were different from previous ones. They were exuding a lot more battle aura and more complex.
This time, people were called out by names and at first only people who scored fifteen points were coming out. After just a minute inside of an array, first person crumbled onto the ground with an expression of fear on his face, but without any visible injuries on his body. After him, all other people from the first hundred fell onto the ground. Shockingly, none of the hundred managed to pass the trial as they all had “0” on their magic arrays.
Elves reacted calmly to the outcome, but most of humans had ugly faces. While most of them were stronger than those who already failed the trial, they weren’t confident after what they saw. They didn’t know what kind of trial was awaiting them, but it was evidently hard to finish it. When all the people who got fifteen points on the first trial has already went inside of magic arrays, all of them came out with zero points as their score.
After this, even people with sixteen points were hesitant while entering arrays. The first one of them to finish the trial scored two points and everyone breathed sigh of relief. In the next two hours, all of them finished their trials, and a record between them was only six points.
Shi Ligu was one of the people who got seventeen points in the first trial. When the announcer called his name, he stood up from his meditation and slowly walked past Boe into the array. Before him, two hundred people with the same score on the first trial went in and the record was eleven points. Light shrouded Shi and his eyes became empty as if he was hypnotized. Seven minutes later, Shi trembled and he fell onto the ground. Magic array beneath him displayed “13”. When Shi stood up and saw that he didn’t even qualified to enter the third trial, he clenched his fists and took a glance at Boe with eyes full of hatred. When all young people with seventeen points from the first trial came out, maximum amount of points scored by them was fifteen.
Now was the time for eighteen points scored people to participate. Ivan was already pumped up and ready to win the competition. Surprisingly, Ivan was one of the last hundred participants to be called. Before him, the record was twenty-one points. When Ivan was finally named, he quickly ran toward array and jumped into it. Light surrounded Ivan’s body and his face went blank. Ten minutes later, all other ninety-nine people who entered together with him already fell onto the ground, but he persisted for three more minutes. When he finally coughed, his legs went limp, but he managed to get a hold of himself and stood straight up again. “28” was displayed beneath his feet and he left the array with an arrogant look on his face.
Next were people with nineteen points on the first trial, there were only four hundred of them so they finished quickly and most of them scored between twenty-one and twenty-eight points, which made Ivan’s score even more shocking than before. It seemed like he didn’t brag for no reason before.
And at last, only people with perfect score on the first trial were left, there were only two hundred of them. Boe and Richard were in the first hundred to enter the array.
Boe calmly walked toward the array while a lot of gazes focused on him, he was one of the most interesting people from the first hundred. When Boe walked into the array, he felt his head go dizzy and a bright light shone into his eyes.
When Boe finally felt dizziness go away, and the light disappear, he opened his eyes. What he saw next shocked him and, a cold shiver ran through his body. He was standing in a middle of a field, which was littered with dead bodies of humans and various strange creatures. Thick scent of blood attacked his nostrils, and Boe furrowed his eyebrows. When he looked around, he only saw countless corpses and weapons soaked in blood and guts.
*ROAR*
“There is another human! Kill him, brothers!” Boe heard a deafening roar and then saw a two-meter-tall creature with black fur all over its body running toward him.
“Werewolf?” When Boe was a kid, he saw pictures of legendary werewolves in books, and the creature in front of him resembled it a lot. The difference was in fact that the creature had a savage bloodthirsty aura and its fangs as well as talons were dripped in blood.
Boe activated his demonification form and took out his Claws of Enthriil as he faced the creature head-on. When the werewolf was a meter away, Boe vanished from his position and appeared behind it.
*SLASH*
With just a single attack, Boe beheaded his enemy. The werewolf’s head rolled down onto the ground as it joined countless other corpses.
*ROAR* *ROAR* *AWOOOO*
Boe heard few more werewolves behind him, as he understood, he had to fight limitless amount of enemies in this trial. The longer he could endure unstoppable attacks from enemies, the better his result would be. He now concentrated his mind and tried to communicate with the demon inside of him. He hoped that this kind of bloody battle would let him establish a connection with it, but the demon didn’t respond to any of his inquiries.
“I guess that goddamn demon is only interested in real battles, murders and blood; this illusion is completely useless for that purpose.” Boe guessed demon’s intentions and thoughts as he stopped thinking about it and focused his attention on incoming enemies.
Boe brandished his claws and with every swing would kill one of werewolves. His movements were sharp and decisive. He was already soaked in blood and even some guts stuck on his clothes. After he killed more than twenty werewolves, he thought that this trial was too easy since he didn’t get injured even once. But right after that thought appeared in Boe’s mind, he heard a strange growl from his right.
*SLASH*
Boe barely dodged an attack from an enemy he didn’t even see clearly. When he turned around to look at his new enemy, his jaw dropped. It was a small girl who looked to be six or seven years old. She wore a strange clothes made out of animal’s hide, her skin was extremely dirty, her nails were long and sharp, her hairs were covered in mud and she were walking on her legs and hands at the same time. Boe would think that she was just a pitiful victim of the war if she didn’t hold a curved short blade in her right hand, which was covered in blood.
*AWOOOO*
Girl howled and all werewolves gathered around her as if she was their leader. Then Boe saw a few more children like her appear around him, they were all definitely humans but their auras were murderous and savage.