We fight our way through a bloodline group, and this time it’s much more enjoyable as we don't have to wait for their minute of invulnerability.
After that, the second fight is about to happen, this time not in hallways but in a huge cubic room as the Glass House shifts and opens. Before that fight even starts, glass walls appear in front of us and Melek starts hyping it up. He introduces the combatants and mentions some impressive things they did, which makes me think it is mainly because of Prince Kip and not me and Vic.
From what I have seen, I think this vyssari who likes to use Superman-like laser eyes that are so powerful they burn his eyeballs, is one of the strongest participants. So far, I think it is him, that shadowy guy Euris, Xixi, the bear man with [Telekinesis], and a female thylarin with six arms who is an array specialist.
Every time any of them seem to enter a slightly more difficult fight, Melek starts annoying everyone, and the Glass House starts shifting impossibly.
"You have the last opportunity to donate! As the countdown will start in just a few seconds. Maybe the fate of your favorite lies on your shoulders!" Melek shouts.
It all makes me start taking note of our opponents. There are six of them, but it is difficult to say if they are dangerous, as only sight is able to pierce the walls, and I have no way of observing their presence. Not even my eyes help here.
So for now, I stand here and wonder what Melek would do if we just turned around and left after all this hyping up.
[Selective Adaptation - lvl 17 > Selective Adaptation - lvl 18]
Meanwhile, my new skill continues to level up nicely. It has already gained almost ten levels in just a few days. Maybe it isn't a bad idea to fuck my body up more to get an easy level up for the trouble. The question remains if that is even possible.
Strangely, I think Victoria knows what she is doing by telling me to limit my effort to thirty percent. There is a faint memory of someone else saying something similar, but their opinion doesn't matter as much as my sister's.
In the past few days, I have begun to feel almost rested, and it is becoming easier to keep my mind together. My ongoing trait strengthening and evolution are also simpler to deal with, and my constant work on my constructs continues, but since this time, I'm not strengthening them, only fixing them, it is much simpler.
I know it will be just a bit longer before I can stretch my metaphorical wings and test these changes with proper oomph.
[Weave - lvl 28 > Weave - lvl 29]
Yes, just a bit longer.
"The countdown starts!" Melek shouts and begins, "Ten!"
He counts down as if there are people counting down together with him, an audience that we can't hear. With each number, he becomes louder and louder. At about three, Vic grabs my hand and presses something into it. I don't even have to look down to know what it is.
The wall drops down, and Prince Kip squints his eyes as two white lasers shoot out of them, sweeping around.
Even though our opponents were building their defenses the entire time, the lasers cut through them as if they were nothing.
I see one participant get cut in half, another loses his leg, and a third gets cut in the neck before Prince Kip's eyes are entirely burned out. He closes them as he waits to heal. Even then, he doesn't stop and nimbly jumps in, using other senses to locate his opponents while he flies around in the same unnerving way that kinetic energy allows me. He changes direction with a thump to clash against one of the guys he wounded.
My sister is also already gone, and I watch her body explode into a pile of blood and flesh that drops to the glass floor, with some dirtying the wall, but through the air she regrows from one of the fingers. Her overclocked duplicate punches against the restored barrier and explodes, though the impact cracks it.
Three more Victorias appear, each charging the same spot. In quick succession, all three of them, one after another, hit that spot and explode into piles of flesh and blood, until the fourth breaks through and stabs her pressed-together fingers through the chest of a female human mage with a staff.
I boost myself down to the bottom of the huge cubic space we are in and twist to dodge two projectiles. I let my eyes see through the last one, and it breaks into particles of mana that twist around me. I gather them over the palm of my hand and form them into a dagger.
The air behind me shifts, and an invisible seventh opponent moves to attack me. Using my kinetic senses only, I locate him, and at the last possible moment, I reinforce my body and move. I use a short, sudden burst of high speed and a slash with the dagger that cuts into his body.
Another rain of projectiles shoots towards me before I can finish him. These projectiles twist in the air and track me, gathering more and more speed while also constantly adapting and changing.
The invisible opponent disappears too, picking up on the way I sensed them and countering it. There isn't even a heat signature I could follow, so while dodging the projectiles and disrupting the effort of that man to cast some large-scale attack, I close one of my Preeminence eyes.
For a moment, my sub-minds combine, and I look through the wavelengths surrounding me, sliding into that cold state when I was surrounded by hundreds of dolls, not knowing which one would launch an attack on me.
And then there it is. Something I almost can't even explain, but my hand moves ahead, and I grab the neck of the invisible guy and disrupt the field, revealing a human man. His dagger moves to stab my heart, but I concentrate my defensive layer there, and it bounces off. Then a pulse of my mana disrupts the projectiles I had already seen through.
I quickly let go of the human assassin as he swings to cut off my arm, and I fly back. He is about to slide back into invisibility when he notices an inscription I drew with my blood on the back of his neck while holding him, as I was unable to cause him more damage with just my physical stats.
But before he can do anything, the inscription sizzles, fueled by the hyper-condensed mana in my blood, and explodes.
The blast is much bigger than expected.
The shockwave and the pulse fill the cube, bouncing off the walls and almost throwing me away, even as I raise a barrier around myself. That barrier also stops multiple projectiles, but opening both of my eyes, I lock my gaze on the selari man who has been shooting them at me the entire time. Next to him, one of his projectiles halts, then turns around and stabs into him.
Before he can do more, Prince Kip's laser cuts him in half.
I see a vyssari thrown by Vic fly through the air, missing one arm and holding his belly to stop his guts from falling out. I shoot my lance at him, but it freezes just when it is about to hit him.
"Ozrantisixelevkeks's one-time life-save gift that an audience member bought has been used!" Melek shouts.
So I shoot another projectile, but the vyssari avoids it, and his body regenerates quickly just as Victoria crashes against him. And even as he shows incredible strength and his single punch pierces a hole through her body, she grabs his shoulders and almost tears him into two pieces before his bracelet activates.
Only one opponent remains, a feylith man who has spent the entire battle focusing mental attacks on Prince Kip. But the prince resists them all, pinning the man in place with both hands clamped on the sides of his head. Trapped in the grip, the feylith can only continue to unleash desperate, frantic mental attacks at the vyssari.
And then Prince Kip's eyes glow as two lasers shoot ahead, melting off the feylith's eyes and face, before his bracelet activates as well.
No one likes mind mages.
"And just like that, we have our victors!" Melek bellows. "Congratulations to everyone who placed their bets on Prince Kip and the Royal Bloodline! But the real question is... how will they handle their next opponent?"
A specific hallway lights up, drawing your eyes and forcing your attention toward a shadowy figure walking through it. Just a few more steps and one final turn, and he will be upon us. Having seen a few of his fights, I know the next match will be much harder.
Euris takes his final steps, keeping his eyes locked on us, as Prince Kip’s eyes begin to glow.
Then the wall shuts, cutting off the man from the path towards us.
"No, no, we can't have all the best fights happen just yet!" Melek laughs. "But don't be disappointed. Follow me, and see what..."
Another hallway lights up somewhere in the distance where Melek leads the spectators, but I don't take my eyes off the man in shadow, intently staring our way. The glow of his red dagger intensifies, and with incredible speed, he stabs it into the wall, causing even Melek in the distance to shut up.
A crack spreads through the wall separating us, the one that had remained completely undamaged throughout the fights, but in the end, it holds, and Euris begins to walk away.
As he takes a few steps, two white lasers strike the exact spot of the crack, widening it, and Euris halts. But even then, the wall endures, and the shadow shrouded man heads to hunt another opponent.
Thirty percent. Thirty percent. Thirty percent.
Maybe thirty-one?
No, no, thirty percent.
Thirty percent.
Thirty percent.
Thirty percent.
I keep repeating this mantra as I watch it all, and then both me and Prince Kip follow Victoria. A few minutes later, we pass through the first door into the inner area of the cube, heading toward the black room at the center.
Our Bloodline’s bond was unbreakable. Me, the vyssari with laser eyes, my sister, and later some random guys we picked up along the way just to get the door open for us. We had spared them, we brought them in, clothed them, and fed them.
And how did they repay us?
Obviously, by secretly working with another group and attempting to sneakily take out Prince Kip. After all, he is the strongest one here. The other two are just tutorial attendees.
Everyone knows of the advantages the tutorial and Beyond offer. Just how much they can supercharge and speed up your growth. Everyone knows that only the best your planet offers are selected. There isn't a participant who didn't meet a person from the First Generation, someone who went through Hell difficulty or Beyond as well. These people are often still Champions, and likely their Absolute is one of them. Many decades after the tutorial, they are now settled, being powerful family heads, leaders, warriors, and such.
But me and Vic don’t even have 4 years under our belt. Out of everyone here, we spent the shortest time in the system. No one expects much. So what if Melek introduces me as the head of the Primordial Knights, which even people outside the tutorial know as one of the recurring top guilds of Beyond. So what if Victoria was declared an Absolute candidate by an imitation of The Ancient Monster, Eladore’s Shadow.
I think you can't get to where any of us are if you aren't a bit cocky and confident in yourself. Of course, we are looked down upon to the point that even Melek mentions my disappointing performance a few times.
But Vic continues to prove herself to be scary. During all these fights, and ever since the start of the Games. Now, she saves Prince Kip from a concerted effort to kill him. She creates duplicate after duplicate to the point that even Melek excitedly shouts it has been a long time since he saw such an impressive mind.
And even the biggest assholes have to acknowledge she is truly something else as she stands there surrounded by piles of flesh and blood, most of which are her own. The crowd goes wild, a deafening sound, Melek finally allows us participants to hear. Many millions, maybe billions of people on thousands of planets watching the Game, and the cheers of live spectators present on this planet as they chant Victoria’s name.
For me, it might seem like they had only a few days to build up to the Game, but on the outside, weeks and months had passed. Most of the participants already had previous interviews and entire episodes dedicated to them, giving a glimpse into the lives of the crowd's favorites. Sad stories were told, goals revealed, and charming personalities were carefully brought to light by Melek for the galaxy to see.
Me and Vic are intruders into all of it. We are new, with almost no info available on us. Barely a novelty.
Not much is expected from us, as the last tutorial victor was Adrian, and he won almost a thousand years ago. A talented Absolute that is nowadays nowhere to be seen, so they couldn't even interview him. Lost in history between so many powerful ones appearing each year.
For the audience, it is difficult to like either of us, as we just appeared out of nowhere and either personally or indirectly caused the elimination and some deaths of some smaller, popular, underdog participants.
Yet, they can’t help but roar for my sister, who stands there as nonchalant as death. An unkillable goddess with a mind forged in iron.
But I know they would cheer the same if someone unexpected took us all out.
People are fickle just like that.