In the first zone, we met up with every other participant. They weren't fighting each other, nor did it look like they planned to. Something else seemed to be more of a concern right now.

A giant, weird, purple worm was in the middle of everyone. They all looked concerned about it. Everyone I made note of before the test began was here, even the little girl and the sleepy emo girl.

The noble guy, who was with the whiip-scythe woman, noticed me and raised his eyebrows in surprise, giving a slight nod as if he was impressed.

It was weird; he didn't seem arrogant. Then he went back to examining everyone. I wasn't sure why he was doing it.

There was an individual I hadn't noticed before, donned in a hood. He looked at Tokushuna for a while before withdrawing his gaze.

Did she try to kill him or something?

Either way, I was trying to figure out why no one here tried to kill this worm. I guess it's much more powerful than it appears to be.

I asked Jasper, "Is this thing going to transform into a powerful monster?"

He furrowed his eyebrows. "Huh? Who knows. All we know is it's the apex of this rift, the most powerful of them. For some weird reason, they only make a move when all the weaker ones are killed or under similar conditions."

When I first woke up and saw the gorilla-spider creature pushed itself out of the rift, towering over all the weaker ones in size, could it have been the apex that only revealed itself after all the weaker ones were slaughtered? But some weaker ones were still alive. I guess another condition must have been met.

The zone flames then sped up and formed a barrier around us. They stopped moving, signaling that the last event was about to start.

Jasper mumbled, "At least this isn't a battle royale."

Tokushuna joked, "Who knows. It could turn into one."

"YUIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!" A deathly screech pierced through the air, causing everyone to cover their ears and shudder.

Then the worm began to shiver and squirm, increasing in mass with a bubbly generation of flesh, transforming into a titan version of itself. It split into four, each one growing abnormally shaped arms, and fangs sprouted from those arms.

Each one positioned themselves to the north, west, east, and south of the participants while remaining in the center.

The noble lean guy had a slight hint of nervousness reflected on his face before he declared, "Everyone! I am Franxx Gobleese. There are exactly 204 of us here. We should divide into groups of four to manage each monster with much more ease. As soon as we all do that, each group will be required to form offensive, defensive, and supportive subgroups. Whoever is best suited for those positions should organize themselves accordingly. A ratio of 25 offense, 15 defense, and 10 support should work well."

Everyone looked at each other and nodded in agreement.

"Well, his advice sounds good."

"Okay, I will be on the north."

Not a single person disagreed. It was a bit surprising, but it was probably because of the situation we were in. Each monster's level was 34, after all. They were more than 10 levels higher than me!

Jasper grabbed my arm. "What are you waiting for, dude? We're joining that guy's side."

"I'm coming too." Tokushuna walked forward without much concern.

Jasper walked up to him, and the guy extended his hand for a handshake.

"I'm sorry, but we have to skip the introductions. What role are you better at?" He got straight to the point.

"Offense," Jasper answered.

"Good to know. So is my sister." He pointed at the woman who had been with him the entire time. So I was correct about them being siblings, nice.

Her arms were crossed, but she extended her hand to shake Jasper's, then Tokushuna's, and finally mine.

"My name is Yuran Goblesse. I could have said that to each of you, but that sounds stupid."

So much for not having time for introductions.

"Sarielle Himarvi." I gave her my name.

I knew one thing for sure: I definitely had no place being in the offense and defense sub-group. I would only slow them down. So instead, I wandered over to the support group. I didn't think there was anyone in that group I thought was interesting.

Oh, the emo girl had come to our group. After talking to Franxx, she was positioned within the offense. The first thing she did was sit down on the dusty ground. Everyone looked at her, but she didn't care.

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The monster facing us eyes ignited a red glow. Its mouth widened as it let out a wail that consisted of cries of various animals mixed together. It sent shivers down my spine, and I could see that everyone around me felt the same.

Franxx snapped his fingers, using them to gesture the positions we should take. We were putting a lot of trust in a guy we didn't know anything about, too much trust for my liking.

Three members of the offensive subgroup moved to the front, with two defense members in the middle. If we used letters to represent the subgroup members, it would be O for offense, S for support, and D for defense.

Then the group was split into three, forming this formation:

D O D O D

S S S

The monster's skin cracked apart, emitting a red gloss.

It rushed towards us, jumping into the air before bolting down.

Franxx shouted, "Whiip shield!"

The defense team created a shield using their whiips, but unlike Tokushuna, who could weave her whiip into completely different structures, they lacked that skill. Instead, they made their whiips wide and overlapped each other.

I knew one thing for sure: it was going to hurt like hell when it crashed onto the whiip. Since I was part of the support group, I had to help as well. Everyone in the support group overlapped their extended whiips with theirs and braced themselves for the impact.

THUUUUUUD!

A shockwave traveled through the whiip, entering our bodies and roughing us up. My entire body shook, and blood droplets fell from my nose.

The offense group, including Jasper, Tokushuna, and Yuran, ran out from the shield and thrust thin whiips at the monster, aiming for its head. Noticing this, it roared and backflipped over them. As soon as it made contact with the ground, it propelled itself forward toward us.

Again, the same shield tactic was utilized in front of them.

Similar to before, the force caused absolute agony throughout our bodies. Tokushuna rushed at it, swiping at its head with an extra-long whiip. It arched its neck down to avoid it, but Jasper used that opportunity to ensnare its neck and keep it in position using his whiip.

Yuran sprinted into action, along with the other offensive members. She leaped up and transformed two whiips into scythes.

The level of control she had over her scythes was absolutely insane.

She then swiped down on its head. At the same time, the emo girl used her whiip in the same format as a spear, lunging at its chest.

"Griyuhhhh!" It released a screech in pain. Every attack had landed.

Franxx had taken the position of strategist as he didn't join the fight. "Support 1 and 2, switch to offense support. Support 3, assist in keeping it still," he instructed.

He had broken down the sub groups even more, and I was part of support 3, so I did just that.

The other support subgroups turned their whiips into thin shapes to stab into it. It was impaled from almost every corner of its body, but unfortunately, its defense was too high for their whiips to pierce through its entire body.

With a powerful roar, it started moving again. It thrashed around, sending many people who were restraining it with whiips flying. It grabbed many of them before completely swallowing them whole, not even eating them.

Oh boy...

Franxx backed up a bit and ordered, "Disable its legs instead of going straight for the kill."

Tokushuna and Jasper, who had been flung into the sky, adjusted their bodies in the air before attacking the monster using pulses and pressure waves.

With each strike, they knocked its head slightly down. Tokushuna was doing the most damage, and Franxx noticed this.

He called to his sister, Jasper, and the emo girl, "Function mainly as distractions for Tokushuna while keeping up the offense." He probably thought those designated to support were too slow to keep up with Tokushuna.

The three nodded.

Tokushuna landed on the ground and dashed forth at full speed, with Jasper running by her side. She looked at him and smiled a bit before increasing her pace, turning into a blur. With a smooth kick, she sent blood out of the monster's mouth before hitting it with a pressure wave, sending it towards Jasper.

Jasper formed two whiips and struck at its ankles. As soon as the attack followed through, he grabbed its leg via whiip and sent it into the sky before propelling it down.

THUMP!

However, Jasper didn't get off so easily. The monster ripped out one of its arms and swung it at Jasper, hitting him square in the face with so much force that his body was sent flying in the air.

Yuran kept her assault, aiming for its neck. It dashed at her, drawing its arms back. But behind it, Tokushuna and the emo girl swiped at its ankles, deepening the cuts, which caused it to stumble and be unable to attempt to punch a hole through Yuran.

Instead, Yuran followed through with her attack on its neck, forming a shallow cut.

It grabbed her whiip scythe and pulled her towards it, but as soon as it did, all the defense and support subgroups, including me, released a pressure wave at its torso, affecting its sense of balance to the point where it struggled to stand and couldn't focus on killing Yuran.

Everyone else aimed at its ankles with sharp whiips and succeeded in cutting off its feet. "GROUGHHHH!"

As Tokushuna was going to run after it, Franxx stopped her, "Don't move!"

"Huh? why?"

He pointed to the sky. As I went to look up, a shockwave caused me to shut my eyes!

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

I wiped my eyes as an I looked at the monster which was getting bombarded with purple flames in the shape of stars that rained down incessantly on it.

The flames were starting to reach us, so we backed up.

It screamed as the flames engulfed it.

Desperately, it tried to run away, but it lacked functional feet. So its only option was to crawl. Sadly for it, it soon lost its arms to the flames.

I looked up, and on a massive boulder was the older Hashiru girl, Urani. She then stopped her assault and took a deep breath, adjusting her aim to the other group's monsters.

They had already handled their own monster? Near the older Hashiru girl, Foxiri sat atop a completely skewered monster.

It seemed as though parts of the monster had been erased, leaving behind massive cone-shaped voids or nail-like protrusions.

As the explosions caused by Urani continued, she eventually dropped to her knees, gasping for air. It was evident that she had exerted herself to the maximum.

The surrounding people began to look around, their voices uniting in a chant of praise, "Urani Hashiru! Urani Hashiru!"

The atmosphere was filled with admiration and awe for her display of power. Even I was more than simply impressed. She really took out every single monster in such a short period of time.

Regardless, the celebration abruptly came to an end as the destroyed monsters transformed into a sticky goo, which latched onto as many people as possible. It expanded its mass, covering them completely.

The ensnared screamed and attempted to pull the goo off, but all their attempts led to failure. Some tried to help them, but they to fell victim to the goo. So instead, we watched them.

"Help me!"

"Please help!"

Many begged.

Then goo then exerted a magnetic force, pulling the affected individuals towards each other.