blogombal Chapter 339: The Slaughter
Chapter 339: The Slaughter
[Arena.]
Davy’s voice, cut through the tense silence. He gestured grandly toward the glowing geometric patterns carved into the center stage, signaling the beginning of the brutal, shifting alliances of the fourth round.
"All of you, stepped into the center of the Arena, and you will be teleported into your separate battlegrounds... You will pass this round if you can survive for thirty minutes, or kill every single monster inside. You can start." Davy announced.
Carl adjusted his collar, stepping forward. Ethan, exuding the haughty arrogance, walked alongside him, flanked by eight other fiercely loyal Sword Academy students. They stepped onto their designated stage, and with a blinding flash of spatial displacement, they all vanished.
___
[Battle Ground.]
Carl and the group appeared in a pristine, white Arena. It was an instanced pocket dimension, completely isolated from the main world’s energy flow. The smooth, unbreakable walls stretched high into the sky. They immediately moved their gazes on the heavy, iron-wrought surrounding cages that lined the perimeter.
CLICK!!
The massive locks disengaged simultaneously.
BOOOOM!!
They all summoned their weapons in a flurry of flashing light and materialized spirit energy, while Carl smoothly summoned his dual Epic-class daggers, the blades glinting with a lethal edge, staring intently as the cages opened wide, the heavy doors falling heavily to the ground.
GRAAAA!
BAM!
Ten massive, two-meters-tall lions, walked out from the five cages before them; their predatory, glowing eyes fixed entirely on the humans.
"You know what to do." Ethan commanded, his voice cold and devoid of any camaraderie.
BOOOOM!!
".....?!"
Carl froze. He tried to pivot into a combat stance, but failed. He lowered his gaze to his feet, seeing it was completely frozen to the white stone ground by thick, unyielding layers of reinforced ice magic.
"What is this?!" He yelled at them, his eyes darting to the side, staring at the four Sword Academy mages who were actively channeling their spiritual energy cores, holding him down with high class control spells.
"Young Master, Ethan! This guy is Lv400!! It’s a big difficult to hold him down." A lady yelled, her teeth gritted as her energy burned under the immense pressure of suppressing a fighter with superior stats.
"We can’t kill him, If we do that, Mirabella will surely kill all of us here." A guy muttered, fear flashing in his eyes. The terrifying image of Mirabella annihilating entire city blocks was fresh in their minds.
Ethan glared at him, a cruel, calculating smirk playing on his lips: "Of course, was won’t be the one to kill him, but the monsters." He said, gesturing casually to the approaching Lions. By letting the Lions do the dirty work, the system wouldn’t log it as a PvP team-kill, keeping them perfectly safe from Mirabella’s wrath.
GRAAAAA!!
The ten lions let out deafening roars, and shot violently towards them, their heavy paws cracking the stone.
"All those lions are Lv200 Bosses... I wonder where the Competition captured such monsters." A lady muttered, nervously holding a long sword in hand.
"Don’t fight! All of you, move back... Let the lions tear him to pieces!!" Ethan said, calmly walking past Carl, leaving him as the primary target for the beast.
"Surrender now, and save yourself." He added, offering a humiliating exit that would completely strip Carl of his points and dignity.
Carl stood perfectly still, watching as the group stood safely twenty meters from him, watching him with a collective, mocking smirk. He slowly turned his gaze back to the rapidly approaching lions, then down at the magical energy currently holding him down. He had faced the apocalyptic ruins of Earth; this petty academy betrayal felt like a children’s game.
GRAAAA!!!
The Lions increased their speeds, their jaws snapping shut, heading directly towards the trapped human.
"Seems I will have to kill all of you." He said, his voice dropping into a deadly, calm register.
Suddenly, his piercing blue eyes instantly turned a brilliant, divine golden. It wasn’t a spell; it was an absolute authority over monsters. Instantly, all the Lions increased their speed dramatically, as a thick, empowering golden energy surrounded their massive bodies, augmenting their base stats exponentially.
"Hahaha! He is so dead!!" A guy yelled, laughing out loud, pointing his finger at Carl, entirely misreading the golden aura as a berserk ability of the Lions.
"Of course, Teaming with us, what did he expect." One of the mages said, both his hands stretched forward at Carl, desperately holding him down, sweating from the exertion.
"He has thick skin, he doesn’t want to Surrender, if he dies, it isn’t our fault." Ethan said, his gaze cold, waiting for the blood to spill.
GRAAAAAA!!!
The lions yelled, and in front of the Nine, the impossible happened. The lions passed Carl like he was completely invisible, passing him entirely, heading aggressively towards them with pure, unadulterated rage.
"This?"
They were all completely dumbfounded, their smug expressions shattering as they quickly drew their weapons in sheer panic.
"Why didn’t these monsters attack him?!!" Ethan asked in deep shock, violently leaping backward, as a massive Lion’s paw smashed heavily on his previous spot, obliterating the stone.
"Help me!!"
"No!!!"
Ethan landed roughly on the ground, watching in absolute horror as the Lions pounced directly on the fragile mages in the backline, instantly tearing them into bloody pieces before they could even cast a defensive barrier.
"What is happening?" He asked in shock, his mind failing to process the scene before him.
With the mages dead, the crowd control spell shattered. Carl casually moved his leg again, stepping out of the broken ice: "You didn’t expect this right? Any monster below a world Boss can be controlled by me... The moment you all turned against me, you signed your death warrant."
GRAAAAA!!
The lions yelled as their strength increased again, feeding off Carl’s passive buffs, and they shot aggressively towards Ethan and his absolutely horrified group.
"What the?! He can also power up the monsters?! What sort of ability is this?" Ethan asked himself in a frantic panic, slashing his heavy broadsword at the lunging lion before him.
BAM!!!
The immense force sent both him and the lion flying backward: "Something isn’t right! All their levels?" He stabilized his footing and turned to Carl in sheer, mind-numbing shock:
"You pushed their levels to Lv300?!!!" He yelled in disbelief. Jumping a monster’s base level by an entire hundred violated every known rule of standard beast taming.
"Don’t be shocked." Carl said, a cold, predatory smirked appearing on his face, mirroring the ruthlessness his Captain had drilled into him.
Ethan’s pride snapped entirely. The humiliation of being cornered by a weak member of the Dragon Academy pushed him over the edge of sanity.
"I won’t lose to a loser like you!!" Ethan yelled.
Suddenly, a foul, corrosive demonic energy burst violently out from him, entirely overriding his pure sword aura and shooting high into the sky, corrupting the pristine white instance:
"It’s a good thing those from the Arena can’t see what’s happening here!! I won’t hold back!!"
Ethan yelled, abandoning his humanity. His teammates had all been brutally killed, and only two cowards had instantly Surrendered on him, vanishing from the arena. There were no witnesses left to report his taboo power.
"Die!!!" He yelled, leaping into the air, dropping his corrupted sword down on the Lions with catastrophic force.
BOOOOM!!!!