Outside the digital pocket of the battle royale, the grand arena was a thunderous sea of noise. Thousands of spectators leaned forward, their eyes glued to the massive holographic displays. The atmosphere was electric, but in the VIP section, the mood had shifted from excitement to stunned silence.
Luka Cinandra sat frozen. His eyes were locked on the playback of Oliver dismantling the bat demon—a feat that defied every law of the Tier system.
"Ooh... this boy never ceases to surprise me," a smooth, melodic voice whispered.
Sherach appeared as if from the shadows themselves, sliding into a reserved seat near Wenta with a pleased, cat-like smile. Luka didn't even acknowledge him. His knuckles were white as he gripped the armrests.
'A Shidan technique? Impossible!' Luka screamed internally. 'That level of mana compression... where did an E-rank learn that? Was his Tier measurement a total fabrication? I'll have to tear his personal records apart the moment I lay eyes on him again.'
Luka's gaze drifted toward Suki. He expected to see her usual cold indifference, but instead, she was wearing a faint, genuine smile. For a moment, Luka's ego flared—he thought she was happy to be near him. But as he followed her line of sight to the screen showing Oliver protecting the azure-haired girl, his expression darkened.
The armrest of his chair cracked under his grip. 'Oliver Veyron,' he muttered inwardly, his face contorting into a dark, murderous grin. 'I think you've finally made yourself worth killing.'
"Ohh, Oliver is such the gentleman," Wenta remarked, watching the screen with a playful glint in her eyes. "Giving a helping hand to my dear sister... how romantic. Perhaps a union is in order?"
"Don't lay claims like that, Wenta," Suki snapped, her voice cutting like a shard of ice. "He hasn't fallen for your sister. He's simply... efficient."
"Isn't it obvious? Or don't tell me..." Wenta trailed off, her voice dying in her throat as Suki leveled a stare at her that promised a very painful death.
Sherach chuckled, watching the drama unfold like a high-stakes play. Suki suddenly let a smile and continued watching the scenes on the holographic screen.
-----
Back in the raid zone, I was a blur of black and white, my boots barely touching the grass as I sprinted toward the final zone. I was maintaining a steady pace to conserve my core energy, but the air ahead of me suddenly grew heavy with the presence of multiple mana signatures.
I skidded to a halt.
Emerging from the treeline were nearly two hundred contestants. They had arrived from different sectors, drawn together by the narrowing map. At the center of the group stood Marcus Cinandra, his face twisting into a jagged, dark grin the moment he spotted me.
"Oliver Veyron! Ha-ha-ha-ha!" He laughed, the sound echoing off the ancient stone ruins nearby. "Thank goodness we met. I was starting to worry you'd been disqualified by some lowly beast before I could get my hands on you."
I looked past him, scanning the crowd. "Where are your friends, Marcus? I don't see your elite squad."
"My 'friends'?" Marcus sneered. "They were body shields, you idiot. They served their purpose. Why would you care, anyway? You're about to be disqualified and sent back to the gutter where you belong."
I closed my eyes and let out a long, tired sigh. "What kind of leader uses his subordinates as sacrificial pawns? Doing that doesn't make you superior, Marcus. It makes you a weakling. You're the real nobody here. I'm surprised you haven't used your own brother as a shield yet."
The words hit like a physical blow. Marcus's face turned a deep, humiliated red. Caleb, standing beside him with his chin tilted high, flinched as if he'd been slapped.
"What did you just say to me, trash?!" Marcus roared. He looked at the gathered Tier-Two to Tier-Seven contestants, his eyes gleaming with a sudden, malicious idea. He ran a hand through his hair and addressed the crowd.
"Listen up! You all see this guy? He's been acting arrogant despite being the lowest-tier among us. I have it on good authority that he's using ancient, forbidden relics—cheats—to oppress higher-ranking students. He's a fraud! If we take him down together, we reclaim our honor and split the massive point bounty on his head!"
The seed of greed sprouted instantly.
"He is a cheat! I knew an E-rank couldn't move like that!" a random contestant barked.
"Yeah! Let's show him what real Tiers look like!"
"He bullied my squad two months ago! Payback time!"
A Tier-Seven student, his eyes glazed with a psychopathic hunger and saliva dripping from his lips, licked the edge of his serrated blade. "The one who gets the finishing blow gets the points... move over, he's mine!"
I stood there, watching Marcus's handiwork. It was a smart strategy—using the collective insecurity of the "elites" to turn them into a lynch mob.
"Now, what are you going to do?" Marcus mocked, stepping back into the safety of the crowd.
"Run for your life, dog!" Caleb jeered.
Inside my chest, the Monster Veins didn't just thrum—they roared. The cold, predatory energy flooded my nervous system, reacting to the sheer disrespect of the flies buzzing around me. My face was cast in shadow, my eyes hidden beneath my bangs.
Before the first group could even finish their war cry, they lunged.
Some attacked from the air, others swept low. I didn't move—not until the very last millisecond. In a flash of movement so fast it left afterimages, the first wave of attackers was simply... gone. Their bracelets shattered, and they were forcibly warped out of the arena as blue light particles.
The crowd gasped, stumbling backward. "What... what just happened?"
"Why are you cowards stopping?!" a brave Tier-Six shouted, swinging a heavy claymore. "He's just one man! Go for the kill!"
I threw my head back and let out a dark, haunting laugh that chilled the air. "Hahahaha! Fine. Come at me, all of you. I will honor your courage with a quick end!"
The battle—which should have been a tactical raid against magic beasts—turned into a one-man slaughterhouse. I became a whirlwind of Zero-Point strikes. I moved into the gaps of their formations, delivering lethal, concentrated blows to their vital points.
A kick caught me from the blind spot—a Tier-Six trying to sneak a hit. I sensed the displacement of air, and blocked the strike with my forearm, but the momentum sent me skidding back.
"Hehe, concentrate on me, you fool! I am your oppo—"
I didn't let him finish. I lunged forward, my fist connecting with his jaw. The sound of the impact was like a controlled detonation.
BOOM.
The shockwave sent him spiraling through the air, his body bouncing off the ground like a skipped stone before slamming into a distant tree and dissolving into particles.
"Lez, Diagris!" A Tier-Seven student shrieked, his hands glowing as he finished a Shidan incantation. A red energy beam spiraled toward me.
I didn't dodge. I raised my hand and parried the beam with the back of my palm, deflecting the raw energy into the ground behind me.
KABOOM.
A massive, glowing crater opened up where the beam landed. The student stared at his hands in horror. "Impossible... how did he parry a Shidan strike?"
I blurred, appearing inches from his face. My amber eyes were glowing with a terrifying, predatory light.
"A Shidan technique with an incantation?" I whispered. "Is it supposed to look like this?"
Red energy—denser and darker than his—materialized in my palm instantly. I didn't need words. I didn't need a chant. I slammed my palm into his gut.
SKRIIIIIIIIII—!
The beam tore through him and the three people standing directly behind him. They didn't even have time to scream before they were erased from the battlefield.
The remaining students froze. The lynch mob had turned into a group of terrified children.
"He's a monster..."
"No... he's a demon. Who let this thing into the exam?"
I stared at them, a dark grin stretching across my face. "What's wrong? Why aren't you attacking anymore? If you won't come at me, I'm coming for you!"
I became a predator. I started with the psychopath with the daggers. He tried to move into a weird, evasive stance, but I used his own center of gravity against him. I struck his daggers, driving the hilts into his own guard and shattering his composure before a single strike to the temple disqualified him.
I sped through the ranks, one-shotting Tier-Sixes and Sevens with terrifying efficiency. One student, a brawler with a massive, ripped build, managed to actually track my movement and raise a block. I backflipped away, eyeing him with a shred of respect.
"Impressive," I said. I lunged again, this time concentrating my mana into a Standing Wave. I swung a vertical kick, slamming my heel down on his guard.
The moment our limbs connected, the weight of the standing wave hit him. His arm bones fractured instantly. The pressure was so immense his body couldn't even process the pain before the system registered the fatal damage and warped him out.
I turned my cold, amber gaze toward the few remaining survivors. They were trembling, their weapons clattering to the floor.
"Shit... he's a monster. I'd rather kill myself than let him touch me," one girl whispered. She reached for her own disqualification trigger, and several others followed suit, committing system suicide to escape the nightmare.
I stood in the center of a clearing that was now empty of life, save for two figures standing in the distance, paralyzed by shock.
I pointed a finger at Marcus and Caleb.
"You're next."