Chapter 746 - Stampede

The location of the first event is huge. It is entirely flat land covered with ruins, stretching as far as I can see from the screen. These ruins are not the remains of buildings, but of some sort of gigantic structures. Some resemble pillars, others are broken arches, or, most strangely, an enormous cube broken apart.

Both the Earthlings and our opponents are spread all over. They are not separated, the humans are mixed with the tall, blue, multi-armed thylarin from a planet I have learned is called Nythis.

There are multiple smaller fights, and as a result, a few people reappear back in the common area, but they are the exception. Most of the participants simply try to separate and move to join their respective race.

I notice a group of thylarin elites, clearly from the Hell difficulty. A few of them have six arms instead of four, and they behave confidently as they organize their forces, though they do not seem to care about people from their lower difficulties.

Earth is a bit different. Although plenty of people from Easy difficulty and some from Normal have already cleared their 13th floor, there are still plenty of them present. As before, it is Samuel and his people who try to organize them, and I would swear I saw an amused expression on Christoph’s face when he glanced at it happening.

Christoph then turns away and, with a long leap, lands near Victoria in the distance to tell her something. My sister listens for a while before nodding and gesturing at Gloria, with whom Christoph starts talking while Victoria moves over the area to find Tess. They talk for a while before they split again.

It is very likely that there is a short time for preparation until the Stampede, and I am correct. The event starts only properly about thirty minutes later, once both sides are organized. Everyone inside seems to sense it, and many thousands of heads turn in the same direction, tensing up.

A swirl of air appears, kicking up a dense cloud of dust that blurs the environment. At its center, a pale blue color emerges and rapidly expands, growing into what seems like a two-dimensional shape, a perfect circle suspended in the air. Its edges sweep outwards, touching the gigantic structures nearby and cutting cleanly through them, causing some to immediately collapse.

The edges of the one mile wide circle snap shut, sending a ripple through. That circle fills with what looks like liquid mercury that explodes forward like a geyser before pulling back, leaving the surface eerily calm and almost reflective.

The surface breaks a moment later as a head pushes through it and falls toward the ground with a screech, because of the portal being high in the air. That beast, monster, lands with a thump before it erratically jumps onto its legs and starts looking around. When it detects the tens of thousands of people in the distance, it lets out a deep, loud noise in that direction.

It looks like a massive mutated bull the size of a car with a body that hangs low between six thick legs. The front legs are the largest, which makes the whole thing lean forward as if it is always about to charge. Its head is broad and flat with a long, cracked horn growing straight from the forehead. On the back, it has a row of uneven bone plates that look smashed and regrown many times.

For a while, it is amusing to watch the panicking reactions of people who are Easy or Normal difficulty. Though I still think they could easily take it down if a few of them worked together.

The beast then dies, its head is pierced by an arrow shot from a bow that is likely twice as tall as me, held by one of the six-armed thylarin. He raises that bow high into the air and screams while one of his arms moves, with deep yellow mana shining at the tip of his finger as he draws lines across his face.

I find Christoph, who so far only sits to the side and observes, not seeming to want to participate that early.

Two more ripples are sent through the mercury-like portal high in the air, and two more of the same-looking beasts fall to the ground, where they stand up and roar. These ones start quickly sprinting in the direction of the groups of people.

As they run, the ground cracks under their feet, and some weird vibrations spread through the air around them, combining and bouncing from each other.

They get killed, and more of them continue to fall from the portal.

***

Like that, it goes on for an hour until the gradual dropping turns into a constant waterfall of beasts. Where at the start, Easy and Normal difficulty dealt with the beasts with some help from Hard, now Hard difficulty has to step in more.

Many of the non-fighting people use this period for their preparation, and on the edge of the screen, I notice Christoph talking to Min-Jae, who laughs at some sort of joke the man likely said.

It takes five more hours until the sixth hour begins, and Hell difficulty starts stepping in. The monsters are still of similar strength to the first one, but now number in the thousands.

Once in a while, a similar beast, but twice as big as the other beasts, appears, causing them to follow it. The effect of their stampede is now more noticeable, it causes a weaker mana disruption. The more of them that run together, the more vibrations they create. These vibrations bounce and feed off each other, forming a field in front of them and around them. This field deflects some weaker attacks and weakens mana-based attacks.

***

Two hours later, Normal and Easy difficulty do no damage at all. The beasts are stronger now, with twice as big ones appearing very often, and sometimes building-sized ones as well, who take over the role of a leader. The beasts continue to run suicidally towards any group of people, not stopping under the barrage of attacks at all.

So, Easy and Normal difficulty people just move around awkwardly, throwing in projectiles that do nothing, and watching Hard and Hell difficulty, who have now gone into full throttle.

There is around a four to five mile distance between most of the people and the portal, so it is almost pretty to see all these bombardment attacks and projectiles shooting here. This event seems to be really fitting for people with such capabilities. Min-Jae, for example, does a good job, able to kill even the building-sized beasts with accurate, bigger projectiles and killing weaker ones in the dozens with his metal orb. Meanwhile, I don't think Tacita will gain that much here.

However, without me participating, I'm just unable to make myself excited enough to pay it too much attention. Sure, I watch the people fight, there are some fun things going on and information to gather. Tacita goes into subterfuge and kills a few thylarin instead, something the twins decide to do as well. Savant does whatever Savant does, Jean charges the monsters, swinging his arms, and each punch obliterates huge groups in an explosion of pure strength.

Then there is Tess killing some more powerful beasts even while they just fall out of the portal, or Maya forming a huge armor around her and swinging a massive claymore. I spot huge Noodle with flames around his body, Izzy's small figure shooting dangerous flames, or thousands of monsters just turning around and charging at their own.

Sophie is also noticeable, taking over hundreds of beasts and making them turn against the waves coming through the portal.

For a few hours, it is a massacre, and there are too many people to watch them all. But gradually, the frontline gets stomped, all the attacks become weaker against the stronger and stronger stampede, and an infinite waterfall of monsters continues to pour from the portal in the sky.

People from Hell difficulty start dying, at first the tanks in the frontlines, and then the people behind them. Building-sized beasts are now common and much more durable.

Flying skills fail under the influence of the stampede, and people fall down from the sky where they tried to escape. Camouflage skills flicker and deactivate, and huge explosions now cause barely any damage to the beasts.

In the final hour, only Christoph stays alive, and he finally starts acting. The transparent red torso floating behind him grows in size. In one of its hands, it holds a huge staff with which it draws in the air. Inscriptions stay there, expanding into circles that cover the area. From them, attacks rain down.

Finger-thin streams of compressed mana that cut even through the most powerful monsters, huge palms of a hand slamming towards the ground and smashing entire groups of monsters, or weird projectiles shaped as rings that head down slowly, where they explode and expand in size with an audible thump and cut through everything in their way.

Monsters do not even get close to Christoph, who obliterates them in thousands with his constant attacks.

He does the same when the Champion-grade beast appears five minutes before the end of the 12th hour. This fight takes longer, causing the "camera" to zoom out miles and miles into the air to show the sheer scale of the clash.

Massive circles are drawn by the now much bigger and darker red figure, while the six-legged bull-like monster causes volcano-like explosions with each step, attacking with flames from these eruptions surrounding it as a mantle.

At some point, the scale becomes so ridiculous that I decide to turn my attention to Lily and watch her reactions as she stares with wide-open eyes, and only let a part of me watch the fight to gather the information.

I am sure Adrian is just playing around and is more than capable of facing a Champion grade monster. I also think it is possible he will wait a bit longer and face an Absolute grade one. Though I'm not sure how much he will choose to show off or whether he is even capable of that right now. I'm also not sure if doing so would make people from Earth more suspicious, which seems like something he does not want.

But I think that if he “only” defeats the Champion grade monster, the tournament will still end with him as the winner, even if he decides not to take part in the rest of the events. What he mainly wants is to leave an impression, to erase whatever people believed about who was the strongest in Earth's tutorial, and to secure his position on Earth.

Seeing the expressions of fear and sheer awe on the people in the common area, I have no doubt he will succeed in that.

Out of boredom, and for some silly reason and love for lame humor, I whisper while looking at Lily, "Meow."

Her head snaps toward me that very moment with such speed I worry she might have broken her neck, "What did you say?"

"Nothing," I answer simply. "There is something I want to try. Do you think you can heal my body for the next 12 hours while I work on it? My attention might be slipping a little, and more damage will accumulate."

"Maybe. But you will have to make the twins stop calling me 'Ruler of Lust Candidate'."

"If I do that, they will just start calling you something more annoying to get revenge. But I can tell you a few very interesting things they have been talking about, so you can blackmail them."

"Deal."

I nod and gesture at her to come closer. Even if I can't get first, there is no way I'm not getting second place in this tournament. And maybe I can use that fraudulent alien to get something else as well.

***

POV - Angar Fidomar the Second

There are only minutes remaining before the second event starts, and flying in the air, I stare toward that second island where the planet Earth is. That monstrous man is nowhere to be seen, but I know he is there somewhere. What is he even? He can't be from the tutorial, no matter what he says. Did a Handler sneak in here? If so, I hope they will be punished by death.

Two of my arms move, and I fix my upper arcane bow on my back. Oh, how much I wish he weren't here. How much I want to notch an arrow and shoot it at that despicable, two-armed, pathetic race. The first of my arrows would find that blonde woman with the lightning crown who keeps watching me in a way that tells me she has great sight, just like me.

How dare she think she amounts to anything? If that man wasn't here...

I look away from her and toward that barrier they hold in the middle, inside of which constant waves of mana and golden flames move. There, these two utterly unhinged maniacal specimens sit. For some reason, their bodies keep getting damaged and healed while they talk. I look further and try to read words from the man's lips, but barely anything I catch makes sense.

Instead, I land back in the common area, and Easy and Normal difficulty trash run out of my way as I make it toward my group, where we wait for the event to start.

The notifications appear in the air, and I press "Yes" as the event before.

Thousands of thylarin appear all around me on the edge of the white stone cliff, whose bottom even I cannot see with my eyes. From the bottom, spikes of green lashes of energy keep shooting out, cutting through anything over it. There is just a single place that seems to be unaffected by them, a bridge connecting us and the Earth, just as the previous system message said.

The humans are on a similar cliff to ours, just far in the distance. There is nothing else connecting us and them other than a bridge that is barely wide enough for 50 thylarin to walk side-by-side. It connects both sides without any structure, just a perfectly straight line of white material that endures these dangerous green lashes.

Before I get to shout at the others to prepare, I look toward the bridge from where I sense an incredible burst of mana.

"Get ready!" I shout and notch one of my arrows, only to shoot it toward the figure.

I miss as he takes a step and moves in a way only a kinetic energy user can, and my arrow bends and trails him, only for it to blink out and disappear, void of any mana.

Now, through the mist covering the bridge, I clearly see that man. The same unhinged lunatic who was sitting inside that barrier. Something floats over his head, a pale blue ring. Just as our attacks reach him, that ring turns black, causing most of the attacks to disappear. Only primordial energies stay, exploding all around him but not damaging the bridge in the slightest.

I notch another arrow when I see a thin line of mana stretch into the air, invisible to many others, but visible to my eyes. I reach to snap it, but it endures my attempt, and out of a teleport, that man appears next to me, even through my group's attempts at disruption. He doesn't even attack me, only to teleport again and appear far in the middle of our group, where people start attacking him despite his elusive movement and mana disruption.

Barely any attack hits him, but he already seems like he is about to fall apart, bleeding and breaking all over the place. Another ten of my arrows disappear, pulled by that spinning black ring over his head, and I watch the mana itself from people around get pulled into it.

"Trash," I mutter, and, annoyed, I reach deeper into my reserves and let the tattoos of my trait cover my body.

Then, that pathetic human starts channeling mana in preparation for a powerful attack.

It almost makes me laugh. This was amusing so far, but... in half a second, he channels an amount of mana that makes me stare in shock.

What?

Many others notice it and scream in panic. Now, much more powerful attacks rain on him, ignoring the lives of thylarin in the area. Multiple Hell difficulty melee attackers rush him, but it all feels like it’s too late. My most powerful arrow shoots at him, but it blinks out and just pierces through his chest, void of any mana.

I magnify my view, watching his face, now fully reading from his lips.

"Fuck this fucking fuck body fucking upgrade, fuck this event, fuck that pompous fraud fuck, fuck the system...fuck me too…fuck."

The black ring over his head dissolves, all the mana it has trapped seeping into the area for him to grab and channel as well.

I feel an urge to vomit at the sheer amount of it. So much, so quickly.

Instead of trying to stop it, I run toward the bridge to put distance between us as a cube appears over his palm, light blue, dark blue, purple, white, and golden colors bouncing inside, and the air wavering around him.

The explosion catches me anyway, and it throws me against the ground. It sends me rolling, and as I turn in the air, I see it heading my way. It pushes me even as I fight back, it disrupts some of the mana I am trying to use, and throws me off the cliff, where one of the green lashes cuts through me.

You have been flagged as dead, healed, and removed from the event.

Good luck next time!

I appear in the common area, surrounded by hundreds of thylarin, and as I stand here, hundreds, thousands more start appearing all over the place.