The tournament had come to an end. The powerful magic barrier was gone. When I knocked out the last person inside, people continued to applaud. They were impressed that I had won, even though I was a wanted man.

I liked the attention, but I had to leave as soon as possible and get to the others without getting caught. It seemed calm compared to the tournament area. I didn't see many soldiers and suspected something was wrong.

Before I realized what was happening, my friends came to me with great excitement and pride. They hugged me, apparently scared that I was in danger. But I was happy to see them in a good mood.

I could see Babu and Lezlie, but there was no sign of the others. Curious, I asked, "Where is the prince and the others?"

Lezlie responded with a sudden huff as if she was angry about something. "Forget the prince for now. I'll tell you what happened later."

"Okay, but what about the others?" I asked.

Babu joined the conversation and answered my question. "We don't know. No one has been around since we arrived."

Lezlie added, "What about you? Did you convince the Paladin?"

I hadn't forgotten about Rose for a second, but the war had distracted me. "Paladin,ı mean Rose is in trouble," I said. "Miron somehow knew we were here. He took her prisoner and sent me here. I have to go up there again."

Lezlie tried to convince me not to go. "Ryuu, it's too dangerous," she said. "It's crawling with paladins. More importantly, you said it yourself: Miron is there. And tell me, how are you going to fight in this state? You're pretty wounded."

"Rose got caught because of me," I said.

"It's not your fault," Lezlie replied.

"I have to go anyway," I insisted.

"Ryuu, wait," Lezlie said.

Just then, a big shaking shook everyone in the tournament, including us. It wasn't an earthquake; something big was coming. I could feel it. In a place like a tournament, everyone could be in danger from what was coming. I shouted to warn people: "Y'all get out of here!"

The ground suddenly began to crack. The cracks grew larger and were pulled inward. The shaking grew stronger and I realized that something was approaching. I quickly pulled Babu and Lezlie towards a corner and moved away from the cracks.

As we moved away, a monster head of a size I had never seen before emerged from the ground. It was many times larger than the Kraken we had fought and could only remove its head in the tournament area due to its size.

But we couldn't just leave the people here in need. We needed time. I quickly turned to Babu and Lezlie. "People need us, so we have to help," I said.

Babu replied with a nonplussed expression. "As we always do."

"Babu, you and I will distract the creature while Lezlie helps the humans get out of here," I said.

"How do we distract the creature?" Babu asked.

"We'll worry about that on the way. Let's go," I replied.

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As Lezlie headed towards the people, Babu and I ran towards the big monster. The closer we got, the more the creature showed itself. It had eyes but no pupils; they were empty like nothingness. I couldn't feel any fear or see any emotion in them. It was as if the creature was only here to destroy.

It had short lengths of what looked like horns on its head and something glowing in the center. Its teeth were very interesting: it had almost eight long teeth and a strong jaw. I could see how thick its skin was without even touching it.

I knew that this creature was indestructible. Even if we found its weakness, it would take more than an army to counter it. Babu called out to me through my pessimistic thoughts. "Ryuu, tell me what to do," he said.

After a brief glance around, I had an idea. I didn't know how well it would work, but we had no choice but to try. "Follow me, Babu," I said.

The damage from the beast had spread far and wide. It had created a heavy crack in the inner wall of the tournament, causing it to shake unsteadily. We could use the instability of the wall to bring it down on the beast. Even if it didn't do any damage, it would buy time for us and the others.

I motioned with my head to Babu where we were going. "Babu, keep running. We need to get up there," I said.

Jumping over broken pieces of the wall, we went to the audience area and continued to run from there, trying to get closer to the wall. There were obstacles in front of us, but I was sure we could handle them together.

"Jump," I said, grabbing one end of Babu's stick and throwing him with all my strength. He hit the shaky wall pieces in a balanced manner as if he was aiming in the air. With his hit, my path was cleared.

Jumping over falling stones, we got closer and closer to our destination. With a little distance left to pass the last wall obstacles in front of us, Babu raised his stick in the air. This time it was my turn to jump.

I reached the top of the hill and cleared a path for Babu. Now all we had to do was run to our destination.

"Nice stick, or is it new?" I asked.

"It is," Babu replied.

I could feel an improvement in Babu. He seemed faster than before, or maybe I had slowed down due to fatigue. We finally reached our destination. The crack between us was narrower than I thought, but we could still get through it and push the wall over the monster.

I gestured to Babu with my head. "Let's push that wall before the monster gets out of there," I said.

"You don't really think that's going to stop him, do you?" Babu asked.

"It won't stop it, but it might buy us and the humans some time. So let's go," I replied.

We stretched ourselves and went between the two narrow walls in front of us. We kept going until we reached the middle of the wall. It was very dark and there was no air.

I turned my head to Babu. "Okay, on the count of three, we'll push together," I said.

"Wait a minute," Babu said. "By three, do you mean one-two-three or one-two-push?"

"Just push," I replied.

Babu and I started pushing with all our strength at the same time. The wall was solid, but we had no intention of giving up. Seconds passed and the wall didn't move, but I wanted to show Babu that we believed.

"Come on, Babu. Push," I said.

With our belief, the wall moved slightly. Taking advantage of this, we started to push with our legs and the wall had no chance. The shaking grew stronger.

With one last deep breath, we kept pushing. The wall started to collapse just as we wanted. "Let's get out of here," I said.

But strangely, the monster didn't try to escape. Instead, the glowing thing on its head started to shine more and more. Suddenly, a powerful blue flame from the monster's mouth shattered the big piece of wall coming towards it.

Not only that, but the blue flame somehow passed through the clouds. What kind of power was this? It was like pure power. Even the plasma of the creature I fought in the tournament couldn't come close to this.

Babu nudged me anxiously. "Ryuu, watch your head," he said.

At first, I didn't understand what Babu was saying. But then I saw rocks falling from the sky like meteorites. They had a blue fire behind them, just like the fire of the beast. Could it be possible? Could the beast rain meteorites with its flame? The day was getting harder and harder, but there was no time to think.

We started to dodge the incoming meteorites with all our speed. There were almost hundreds of them coming towards us, one after the other. We dodged most of them, but the last one almost killed us. The collapsed area in front of us prevented us from going any further. There was no way to go down or go back.

We could only get out of here by jumping, but it was quite high and unsafe. The meteorite would hit us in seconds. With a sudden movement, I pushed Babu out of the tournament. The meteorite hit the area we were in and I fell back into the tournament with the impact. My eyes were barely open anymore and I tried to crawl away from the ground.

The last thing I saw was a vague face approaching me.