Gun and his spirit bird came swan diving in. And on the back of his spirit bird, he carried his entire team. Felix leaped down with a gust of wind to disperse us, Reina and Naomi being tossed in different directions of the grove. Ash paired off, her clone rushing to the egg to claim it. Right now, Bram’s signature was on it, and Ash had five seconds to steal.

With only 20 seconds left on the clock, the typical 60 seconds for capture was shortened to whatever time was left for the round. So this steal was big for Team Seal. Unfortunately, Team Owl wasn’t going to make it easy on them.

“With the tank and her minion gone, we just have one team to worry about!” Gun smirked.

I realized that his health bar had grown since the last time we met, which meant that not only did he beat Mirkov or Elissa, but he also had a health potion that negated the need to respawn before using his new health bar cap:

Health Potion: Maxes out health bar to 100%. Bypasses respawn requirement for vitality increase.

He was at 300 HP now, the magic of sponsor items. But an item like that was only as good as your stamina reservoir.

Felix, clone Ash, and Gun wasted no time defending their point. They needed kills, and it looked like they were going to take them from us. Like Reina had said, Ash’s clones were straight evil. This was the most I’d seen her multiply, breaking off three clones, one to handle the egg, and the other two on us.

Naomi not only had to fight a cat girl clone, but she had to fight Felix as well. Reina also had her hands busy with the original Ash, and I had to fight Gun and an Ash clone.

“Sorry about this!” the clone said, grabbing me from behind so Gun could punch me right in the gut. I bent over like a tent, my stamina tapering off. That punch from his white polar bear… I could feel it through my armor, Gun leaving a fucking impression on me.

After he knocked the air out of my lungs, Ash slashed my back and brought me down on my knees. Gun followed up with a sharp kick against my face, ignoring the flame I was conjuring up for a counter.

Shit, how did he still have so much stam left?

Were we not fighting in the same arena against high-ranked hunters?

Then I thought about how they might have used up all the items they’d gathered thus far to help them with their reserve. Going all out—even if I had that many items in my pocket, I might not have been so frivolous with them. The consequence was as clear as day, Team Seal still struggling for top two. And as Team Hawk charged in from the horizon, Felix, Ash, and Gun might have still been screwed either way.

The irony—Reina and Naomi had 3rd partied Team Hawk and Team Seal. And now, Team Hawk was 3rd partying us…

Naomi and Reina were sent to the White Box before Team Hawk crashed in. Bram used his Ice Technique, which allowed him to turn any part of his body into ice. From there, he could do a variety of things, his technique giving him an edge in fighting multiple opponents at the same time. When he got into position, Felix and Ash stopped whalloping me and all eyes were on him. I braced myself, his ice extension proliferating up his fingertips.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

The ice lances came in quick, Bram turning the forest into a winter wonderland. Countering him was no easy trick, because the extensions from his finger-tips branched out, and those ice branches staggered even more. Before I knew it, he had the entire area locked with crisscrossing rods of ice, with nowhere to turn and nowhere to escape.

His eyes glowed a frosty blue, and the rods started to move. Bram caught me off guard and bolted my feet to the ground, and encased Ash and her clones in ice. I felt bad for Ash, who cried out to Gun to break her free as the ice continued to crawl up her neck. But Gun had his hands full, trying to resist the onslaught of Bram’s ice spears.

The more Gun fought, the more Bram packed on ice. No animal was too big for Bram, and Gun being so desperate to break free, he emptied out his stamina.

“Cold, isn’t it?” Bram taunted, showing no remorse. His gaze on me was unyielding even as Felix unleashed a battle cry and attacked him from the back with his halberd. My jaw dropped at the sight of how precise he could counter Felix’s wind blades against his back without even looking at him. “I warned you, didn’t I? Don’t get too upset when we steal this point and put your friends in their graves….”

“Nero, stop him!” Ash yelped as her face was being swallowed up by the rising ice. “Stop h—” Ash’s voice cut short, her body now entirely encased in ice.

I snapped my eyes at Bram, the crowd going wild.

“You’re enjoying this a little too much…” I curled my fists and locked my body tight. With the last bit of soul extension I had, I set my body ablaze.

My flame roared, burning brighter and hotter than anything I’d summoned before in the arena. A wall of heat radiated from me and challenged the biting frost. It flashed over Gun and Ash, smashing their ice cocoons, but my damage bottomed them out. From the other side of my growing meta, I heard the crowd fall silent, blown away by the light show. I gave it my all–we were at the home stretch, now. But Bram remained unfazed, his smirk dissolving into an amused chuckle.

“Fire against ice? You should know better, Nero,” he jeered over the sound of my flames, raising his hand to counter my attack.

Felix stepped in, risking it all in this mosh pit of fire and ice. I could feel my entire body turn into a conduit of raw energy, my extension on overdrive. The heat of my flames met the cold of his frost, creating a swirling vortex where they clashed. Ice shards flew through the air, refracting the light from my flames like starbursts. From face value, it almost looked like we were evenly matched, but I could only hold on for so long.

Felix realized that my power was dying off too, and he triggered his wind to wrap around my flame, using it to melt Bram’s ice more efficiently. But my flames were too much, and it was too late….

The buzzer went off, and the round was over. Drained, I dropped on my hands and knees, my vision dazed as I took in the scene in front of me—torn earth, Felix on the ground, Ash and her clones gone, Gun missing, and Bram standing there triumphantly.

He dropped his ice, the arena soggy and wet. When I looked over to my right to the golden egg and its nest, I saw Bram’s teammate, Yoleeha, had managed to secure the point for Team Hawk….

Magpie: What a round finisher, Flamingo! The chaos, the catastrophe, the clutch!

Flamingo: Team Hawk scores with no time wasted on the clock! Now that is how you hunt!

The crowd got animated again, but the final scores weren’t up on the board yet. Instead, they made us wait as judges tallied up the score. It was a three way tie between Team Hawk, Team Lynx, and Team Owl. Each of us had two dragon eggs, so it came down to how many kills our team collectively had.

And the wait was killing me….

Bram was mouthing off about how he had nothing to worry about. Yoleeha and his other teammate Sift took to his side, gloating among themselves. Felix got up on his feet, his eyes glued to the sky monitor as he patiently waited for the results. I felt bad inside, because he knew he lost, but I guess he wanted to see if me and my team advanced to the next round.

He looked more anxious than I did, and when the screen revealed the final placement, I swear my heart stopped….

1st Place: Team Hawk

2nd Place: Team Owl

3rd Place: Team Lynx

4th Place: Team Seal

Holy shit… we made it….