Chapter 34 Battle-Royale
Labeled as the most dangerous race in this Universe, whose greed knew no bounds, the humans were hunted by almost every race out there.
It was a war that raged on across Worlds. Both sides suffered heavy losses as they lost most of their powerhouses. Eventually, the leaders of each race, desperate as they were, organized a last-ditch effort.
Sacrificing their lives in the process along with those of their race, they charged onwards with a suicidal attack at the [Last Bastion] of the Humans which was, funny enough also named Athanasia. They knew that given the extremely high reproduction rate of the Human race, it wouldn't take long for them to start to recover.
Following that, each and every single being ranked [SSS] and above from those hostile races charged at Athanasia. The unity among races was much closer than what Humans had for their own.
The result was devastating. Almost every creature that went to war against the Humans ended up dead. Those that managed to survive didn't come out unscathed either, suffering injuries that would stay with them for the rest of their lives.
Thus an end was brought to the strongest [Primordial race], known across this Universe as the [Warlocks], one which relied on its numbers and the ability to get stronger the fastest, Humans. Complete Extinction from the Universe.
That was the case until.. a new world was discovered which seemed just to have released the seal on its Mana Core. A world where that cursed race reappeared yet once again, threatening the stability of the now peaceful Universe.
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"Yeah, we can't let these Humans remain alive any longer or it's going to be us taking a trip to the [Underworld]", exclaimed the leader from the Gnome race.
"But, I've heard that they've been having conflicts with the Demon race recently. Both these races have been a pain in the a** for us, so we could try to make them go all out against each other. Once they're at their lowest, we could swoop in for an easy kill", he further added.
"DO you think we don't know that? Everyone here is much smarter than your stupid Gnome race. Nevertheless, those Humans are extremely cunning. Manipulating them won't be that easy as they're the ones usually doing that, thus having much more experience than us."
The Drow race's King sneered at the Gnome race's Leader. These races never had the best relations and it was only under the guise of having to deal with the Humans, that they were cooperating- or at least were trying to do so.
(Author: Drow's are Dark Elves with White hair. They're also considered evil.)
At this moment, they heard a nearly inaudible murmur that one wouldn't have heard if they weren't high leveled awakened which, luckily everyone in this room was.
"We could each try to ally with one of those two races and subtly push them into a war against the other. Then at the critical moment, we could backstab them. Moreover, allying with them could help us infiltrate their race easier."
As the Ruler of the Changeling race let his thoughts out, the leaders of all other races slowly fell into contemplation, weighing out the potential advantages and losses. The Changeling race was one of the most dangerous races out there which had no particular enemies, thus making their opinion an unbiased one.
(Author: Changelings are a humanoid race that can shapeshift into others)
After taking some time to think it all out, the Lycanthrope Alpha once again spoke in his raspy tone, "I think this plan sounds pretty good and we could enact upon it. However, we can't inform our races about it either as there's a chance for the information to get leaked. Other than that, the only thing we've left to decide is about who's going to ally with Humans, and who's going to with Demons.
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[Group 16: Ava Lee, Asher Gradivus, Noah Cooper, Olivia Brown, Mason Clark]
Sadly.. or luckily, none of my team members were the main cast. This meant that it'd be much easier for me to ditch them and act on my own during the course of the Battle Royale.
In the novel, this could be said to be the first event where Alex indeed faced a loss, that is to say, if we don't consider Alex getting bullied right on the first day.
'Though, Mason Clark, hmmm. Wasn't he the spy the Demons sent to infiltrate the Humans and find out the identity of the person who contracted the [Soverign of Light and Darkness]? Should I just kill him or should I let him beat up Alex first before killing him.. for the plot of course. I was not a Sadist. Definitely.'
This battle royale was held in a mental-type Domain of a [S] rank Awakened essentially meaning that our consciousness would be teleported inside a domain where any damage we take won't have any effect on our physical bodies.
'This is troublesome indeed. Snatching our consciousness and sending it into a Domain would be considered a mental attack which doesn't work on me. Now how the hell am I even supposed to take part in the test?'
I sighed while thinking of ways to bypass it.
'Wait.. why don't I just split a small part away from my soul and remotely control it instead. I have several unique skills which would prevent them from knowing about it and I'll be able to participate in the battle royale easily.'
By gaining the [Divine Weapon], I had also been granted the ability to interact with my soul, something that mostly Soulrenders would do.
Eventually, time passed on as the Principal slowly explained to us the rules and the rewards.
After listening to the rules, from what I understood, almost everything was allowed. Other than cross-teaming with other groups, things such as laying traps, ambushes and assassinations, tricks, and feints, anything was allowed.
There was no way to cheat in this exam given the fact that it was taking place in the Domain of a [S] rank. This was something far beyond that of these ordinary people, heck even the main cast themselves.
(Author: I've mentioned "Mental Domains" in this chapter. So you see, the Domains in this novel are quite different from the ones you'd find elsewhere and it's more like a unique concept that will be explained later on, don't worry much about it.)
The rewards were to get access to the [Void Chambers] for 3 hours.
The [Void Chambers] were a new invention built by the collaboration of [Soulrenders] and mages with the [Space] and [Time] affinity. This was a special place built exclusively to train your skills in the terrain which was a recreation of the [Void] with some changes in it.
The purpose of these Chambers was to provide an environment to the users where they'll exist without any thoughts, but only their purpose. Normally, one isn't able to utilize 100% of their brain capacity while training. Rather, a talented Awakened might only be able to bring out 10-15 of it. In such a case, the [Void Chambers] let the users train at [300%] for an hour, after which staying in there could cause permanent damages.
Overall, this technology was something that wasn't available even to the top guilds of this Athanasia. If it were, they wouldn't send their Heirs to an Academy.
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Cross-checking my teammates' names with their profiles, I found out about their Physical appearance after which I gradually started to approach one of them.
Soon, almost all of the people had found their groups and gathered together to discuss strategies regarding the incoming Battle Royale. We were all given 30 minutes to plan, coordinate and get to know each other.
Each of the teams was given a hologram map of the test which was divided into several biomes. Each team could choose which Biome they wanted to spawn in at the start of the test, though the exact location in the Biome itself would be random.
"Let's go to the Rocky biome. I'm Rank: 52 and quite adept at using the Earth element. So I could efficiently make use of the terrain in there."
While some people might find what I just said to be filled with arrogance, if one looked at it from a rational perspective, it was all correct. The correct course of action would be to stay in a biome that gave an advantage to the strongest person in your team. The teams were divided in a way such that no two people on the same team would have similar affinities meaning there was no such biome that would be beneficial for two of our team members at the same time.
I might be strong but I wasn't strong enough to beat everybody else, even with the help of the [Destruction] element, much less now when I only had the [Earth] element to use.
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