Chapter 571 - One hour remains

My mana reserves are much lower now; that is how much it took to survive the island ‘landing’, along with the explosions, especially the one caused by the black mana destabilizing.

Still, I'm grateful to the monster for showing me what I can survive, and I thank it for reminding me not to underestimate my opponents no matter how capable I believe I am. As the hydra has proven, everyone has a trick up their sleeve.

One of the heads bursts open under strain as the beast overclocks its processing. The earth beneath it bulges and launches a barrage of stone javelins.

I don't even attempt to block it; instead, I teleport, appearing closer. Another head bulges as the hydra attempts to use that skill to disrupt my teleports and hold me in place, but I come prepared.

The attempt washes over me and restrains me, but I expand my [Mana Domain] and shrink [Eclipse] to my skin, breaking through and teleporting again, this time right in front of the hydra.

Another head explodes, and it teleports again.

Three heads remain, but another one regenerates in the meantime.

I watch it; I estimate the regeneration speed and observe the order in which it happens. I also note that the Onyxscale Hydra, for some reason, does not want to let me get close. I follow it on the ground, using Wraith Dance multiple times as I weave between the trees, attendees, and the attacks raining down on me.

Lightning, stone spears, ice, and flames. All are massively destructive, ripping the forest apart and killing anyone who gets too close, but the hydra keeps moving further away. It sacrifices multiple heads as it reaches the rough sea and stands on the surface. Lightning from the storm cracks through the air nearby, and rain begins to fall, accompanied by hurricane-like winds.

I form armor around my body, this time normal sized. I deploy the stored structure and compress it, all while keeping my eyes on the hydra. I watch every move the beast makes with its mana.

As we face each other, the hydra teleports again, deeper into the storm, and I follow. Lightning strikes my armor, the wind tries to hurl me through the air, and water crashes over me.

I can barely see the hydra because dark clouds cover the sky and a torrential downpour of rain ensues. But finally prepared, I charge using Pulser Stance, doing small jumps and evading attacks.

The hydra harnesses the lightning above and directs it at me, then compresses the water into laser-like streams to cut me apart.

I move unpredictably between the attacks and extend toward the storm. Within the spherical space surrounding us, everything grows still. The wind halts, the air stands still, and the surface of the sea becomes as serene as on a windless day. It becomes quiet, and the hydra roars.

Two of its heads twist and break apart as it tries to hold me in place again. But this time I break through immediately, moving closer with quick steps that don't even ripple the water around us.

It tries to teleport, but I release a burst of kinetic energy I had been gathering from the storm's turbulence. This burst strikes the head which shows signs of being wounded, causing the teleportation to fail. I send two more bursts and explode the second head while the beast protects itself against one of the attacks.

[Redistribution] surrounds the beast, and I amplify it with black mana. This time, I am the one holding it back, freezing all its movements.

Three heads remain, and I already know which one to target. Before it can react, [Empyrean Lance] pierces through another head.

My armor expands to match the beast, and I release my grip on the storm. Rain starts falling again, and the wind howls as waves ripple across the sea when I crash into it.

I grab one of the two remaining heads, my heart racing as it turns mana into kinetic energy. I squeeze tightly, crushing the head until it bursts.

Then I grab the last head, but before I can do anything, it explodes on its own. Blood sprays over me, sizzling as it burns through my mana, even as the rain begins washing it away.

It reaches my body, searing my skin and disrupting my mana. My shoulder and back burn as the flesh melts away, exposing bone. It would have spread further, but I disrupt the mana within the blood and break down the structure of the skill. The blood turns normal, just hot, red liquid.

I sense movement behind me and strengthen my armor.

Taking advantage of my distraction, a jet-like stream of water slashes diagonally across my armor, barely stopped by the final layer before it could cut me apart.

The regenerated hydra head bites into me, sending constant bursts of lightning through my armor. The storm fuels it, with bolts striking the hydra, surging through its body, and pouring into me.

Locking eyes with that piercing blue gaze, I reinforce my armor. I keep knitting and weaving mana, using Ley Lines to form new layers that redirect the lightning. More kinetic energy builds within me.

At that moment, my mind is clear and calm, with nothing remaining but my focus on this fight and my abilities.

As the tail strikes toward the breastplate of my armor to pierce my body, another arm grows from my back and catches it, holding it in place. My other two hands reach for the hydra's head, gripping it from both sides as I begin to squeeze.

The lightning intensifies, surging from the hydra's mouth as it blasts against my armor and toward my head. Layers crack and shatter one after another until only the final one remains, barely holding.

I don't even blink.

The beast's red blood keeps spraying against my mana, eating into it and sizzling despite the fierce wind and heavy rain. The lightning intensifies in desperation, striking me again and again as I rebuild my defenses.

Control slips from the hydra, and lightning tears into its body. Desperate to escape, it tries to pull away, but I hold tight, squeezing even harder.

A skull cracks, and the feedback of kinetic vibrations it causes reaches me. One of its eyes bulges out and bursts open.

With one final push, I power up the armor and slam my hands together, the skull in my palms bursting open in an explosion of flesh, brain, and blood.

Even with its heavy demands on my concentration, I slightly lift the seal around the Ignition Heart, letting it beat a few times. Each heartbeat unleashes a surge of thermal energy, golden flames erupting around me. They fuel my healing passive, evaporate the rain, and boil the sea below before crashing against the hydra’s body. The flames scorch the stumps of its seven severed heads, clashing against onyx scales again and again before finally breaking through.

The fourth special-grade beast has been defeated. The remaining special-grade beast has sensed the death of four special-grade beasts. It will know who killed them and their location at all times.

I teleport away and then again. The storm hits the beach and continues onto the mainland. Even the islands floating in the sky move under the oppressive winds. I check the time and confirm how much time I have.

Then I do not hunt any other monster. Instead, I reach the top of one of the islands and, in a similar way as before, reach the place where one of these huge hearts is located. Near it, I anchor one of my Ley Lines, and once outside, I stretch it towards another island where I also reach a similar room.

The two Ley Lines connect, and I continue to stretch that line. I start teleporting between the two locations, setting up inscriptions made out of Ley Lines or threads of mana that I weave and knit if I need more flexibility. I even break apart parts of the room and melt the mana-conductive materials, using them to add to the web of inscriptions I'm assembling.

Every few minutes, I check the timer until Lissandra releases the last beast, and at the right time, I create two javelins made of black mana, each of which pierces one of the hearts, only to start absorbing the mana again.

My inscriptions temporarily prevent it from eating into the web I just made, and the black mana instead targets an easier source: the mana generated by the heart.

A bit over one hour remains, and inside one of these rooms, I sit down and examine the process: the way black mana absorbs other mana, the difference in how it affects me with the Mana Wavelength Tyrant passive on or off, and the way black mana reacts with the current [Ley Line].

I examine the inscriptions making up the room as well: the ones around the heart, those around the hand, and another set powering the hand to heal the heart. The two sorts of liquid pumped into the head—one pale blue and the other as red as blood—capture my attention.

There are plenty of materials I don't even know yet and pathways carved in ways I never imagined. It's something I'm sure I could spend days, even weeks, examining and experimenting with.

At some point, I sense a familiar presence approaching, so I stay where I am. It doesn't rush, taking its time to reach me.

It enters the runners, passes through them, and sometimes stops for a minute or two to curiously examine something new it finds. There is even a point where it gets distracted and follows the beasts that appear just to observe them.

After a while, it seems to get bored and turns to head right where I am. When it gets close, I switch to my normal sight and watch Myrra enter through the hole in the metal door I made.

"Hello, feral one!"

"Hello, Myrra."

"You don't seem to be having a good day."

"It could be worse. Are you here with a message or just to mess around?"

"Hehe, I would say the latter. Is it safe to come closer?" she gestures at the pillar with the heart and my spear piercing through it.

"If you stay near me."

"Got it," she says, moving quickly in nimble, long steps, and sits on the ground next to me.

For the next five minutes, she stares at the pillar, the black spear, and the huge head. Her yellow eyes are wide open, and her tail sways from side to side.

"You never asked me for my subclass, feral one."

"I heard from a good source that it's super rude to ask these kinds of things."

"But you are rude."

"... What is your subclass, Myrra?"

"It's greed. Maybe that's why she likes me if you could call it that. You don't have to tell me yours; I already know." she flashes me a smile in which she shows her fangs.

"Okay." I nod.

Her hand moves up, and with the tips of her fingers, she carefully touches the scar that runs horizontally across her nose and a small part of her face—something I'm sure she could have removed if she wanted to.

In the light down here, the surface of the scar glistens differently from the rest of her skin. The light makes it appear deeper and redder.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you about Tess."

"I understand."

To my surprise, it seems to annoy her, her mood betrayed by the movement of her tail.

"I hate it when you use that concentration skill." She stands up swiftly. "I will see you after the event, and, feral one... good luck."

After that, she forfeits the event and disappears to watch from the outside, possibly under Lissandra's instructions.

Her words feel off... as if I have missed something.

***

Three. Two. One.

One hour remains, and for the first time, a notification from the system pops up.

Congratulations! You have survived until the final hour of the event. One hour remains.

The following beasts have been defeated:

Onyxscale Hydra

Stormscale Basilisk

Emberhorn Behemoth

Nightshade Stalker

The special-grade beast Witherclaw managed to survive and will now rapidly grow in strength according to the setting!

Thirty minutes before the event ends, its strengthening will accelerate rapidly.

Ten minutes before the end of the event, it will attain the rank of Champion and beyond!

Current points rewarded for defeating the Witherclaw: 15,000.

Points will increase by 500 per minute until the 30-minute mark, then by 1,000 per minute.

At the 10-minute mark, they will increase by 5,000 per minute.

At the 1-minute mark, they will increase by 10,000 per second.

At the 30-second mark, the point value of Witherclaw will increase by 100,000 per second.

I reread it a few times before I look at the other notification.

It is now possible to see the top 10 rankings of the second event!

In the holographic window in front of me, these rankings start to appear, placement after placement.

10th - 5,401 points - Brainiac

9th - 6,120 points - Grumpy

8th - 6,580 points - Tacita

7th - 6,751 points - Renji Hayakawa

Five placements appear, including names I don't recognize. I know not all of the "Kings" are suited for hunting multiple opponents, but it's good to see a Beyonder in the rankings. It clearly means that the top dog of the round isn't fixed, as every round must have a few people competing for the top spot.

6th - 6,940 points - Maxim Sarov

That Russian boy with shadow creatures and void energy is interesting. I hadn’t expected his abilities to be effective against large numbers of opponents.

As more names appear, I find myself thinking of trivial things to distract myself.

5th - 7,050 points - Agni

Another new face.

4th - 7,888 points - CarrotCake

I expected him to be this high.

3rd - 16,300 points - Victoria

So it was probably 10,000 for the special-grade beast, and Victoria earned the rest from the normal beasts?

When the second place appears, and I feel myself calm down.

2nd - 19,700 points - Yama

Good.

The last name spot appears. And next to it is a single-word name.

But it's not mine.

1st - 37,600 points - Hadwin

And one more. My placement

26,576th - 0 points - Noname

***

Next Chapter

***
Author note: Hey! As I mentioned previously, I made some smaller changes to previous chapters to make this chapter work. The changes were done to chapter 566 and 567 - I mostly edited two notifications and expanded on reaction from Nat.
If you notice something I have missed and that could screw up with what have happened in this chappy, please let me know!