Chapter 553 - 6th Round

POV Nathaniel

I deflect the attacks shooting toward me and expand [Eclipse], which continues to drain the colors from the area.

One of the people in the throne room dodges my projectiles and continues to compress mana for an attack. I reach through [Eclipse], taking over that skill. My eyes feed me all the information I need—I read the movement of the mana—and I don’t need to understand it fully.

I just interrupt the process, take over partially, and feed the skill with so much mana until the guy loses control and it explodes in his hands.

Noname (Beyond, King) ⟶ Chump (Hell) +20 pts

What a name.

I teleport again and then move once more through another [Ley Line].

Their [King] continues to attempt to suppress my [Eclipse] and picks up a spear next to him. His mana fills the weapon, and a sick yellow light surrounds the blade.

The winner of the 6th round´s tournament is a man in his thirties—fit, cleanly shaved, with long black hair that flows freely. He is missing one of his eyes; instead, there is an eye-like crystal imbued there, entirely covered in a web of inscriptions.

After pointing the tip of his spear toward me, he disappears. The air around him ripples until he turns invisible.

Just before the last flicker is gone, I stand where he is using Wraith Step. Ducking under the spear tip coated in yellowish light, I release a blast of kinetic energy and send him stumbling just a little bit as he defends against it.

He regains his composure quickly, and his spear shrinks and then extends as he swings it at me, making me dodge again. He puts some distance between us and tries to turn invisible again, but this time I read him quicker, and [Eclipse] disrupts the skill.

An arrow from one of the remaining guys shoots toward my head, and I grab it with my hand even as the lightning coating it burns my skin and flesh.

Not taking my eyes off the King, I release a burst of mana in the direction where the arrow came from.

Noname (Beyond, King) ⟶ Oliver Newt (Hell) +20 pts

I form a sword made of mana in my hand and use kinetic energy to charge at the [King]. As expected, he matches my speed using his stats and mana-based reinforcement and swings his spear to block my sword.

I let the sword dissipate and instead absorb my inertia, change direction, speed up my movement, and my palm hits his shoulder and sends him stumbling.

Grabbing his arm holding the spear, I release a burst of kinetic energy, and the guy is sent flying, crashing against one of the pillars made of white stone. Defending against the attacks of the remaining people here, I finish them with projectiles and bursts of kinetic energy and then grab the spear to throw it at the guy.

Meanwhile, he rises to his feet, his normal eye and crystal eye fixed on me. A flesh wound on his arm sizzles with the same yellowish light as his spear, and his arm rapidly regenerates. Before I can react, the spear vanishes from my grip and reappears in his hand.

“It won't be that easy,” he says while with his bloodied hand, he brushes the hair from his face.

A web of intricate tattoos begins to glow across his body, thin lines pulsing with pale blue light. The pressure radiating from him is immense, just a step below Jean's level. The yellow light surrounding his blade and spear is anything but reassuring, likely some kind of poison, maybe even something that hinders healing.

“You won't be able to hold it here for one hour. My guys should already be on their way here, and I just need to hold you up for a while,” he says while pointing his spear at me.

“I see,” I nod and start walking toward him, “but you are wrong on one thing.”

He takes steps toward me as well, ramping up pressure around his body.

“I don't give a shit about the throne room. Once I'm done with you, I will wipe out the rest of your round.”

Hearing me, he raises his mana even further—the tattoos even damaging his skin and muscles—and he charges me at incredible speed. He throws the spear, and I barely dodge it; it reappears in his hand, and he throws it again, and I dodge it once more.

We crash into each other, and [Eclipse] shrinks and covers only a small area around us. In a moment, the light of his tattoos weaken and almost disappear.

Shock flashes across his face, but he pushes through it as the tattoos reignite, resisting my [Eclipse]. Even that brief moment of slowed movement is enough. I tap his chest, releasing the compressed kinetic energy, blasting him backward with his chest torn and damaged.

Despite the pain he must be feeling, he twists in the air as his body rapidly regenerates, evading my projectiles and deflecting blasts of kinetic energy. With incredible precision, his spear shoots past me like a bullet. I dodge, but the blade, coated in yellow light, grazes my leg.

The effects of the poison hit instantly—a mix of mana disruption and searing pain that pushes through my [Focus].

I nearly stumble as I step to evade his next attack, the pain threatening to break my balance. Keeping my eyes locked on him, I release a wave of thermal energy through my body, forcing it into my leg, scorching my own flesh to fight the poison.

For a moment, the yellow light resists my golden thermal energy until I push harder, increasing the output and compressing it further. The poison burns away, along with a portion of my leg. Even then, the pain lingers, fading only gradually.

All this from just a scratch.

My mana spins in the crown and reaching a critical point it stops, releasing a disrupting wave I combine with [Eclipse] and reach him using Wraith Step, each step I take sending pain through my body from where the scratch was.

I feint an attack, shift again, halt my inertia, redirect it, boost myself forward, then teleport through [Ley Line]. I appear at his side and unleash a concentrated burst of kinetic energy.

As two pieces fall to the ground, I watch the skill trying to activate—the same sizzling flesh and yellow light trying to heal him. I even lower the effects of [Eclipse] to watch it happen, activating Mana Wavelength Iris to further observe the process and his tattoos.

The man heals in an instant. His tattoos begin to glow, trying to reactivate, but I've seen enough. The fight is over.

Letting my brain process the information from my eyes, I adjust the frequency of [Eclipse] and shut it down before it can take effect.

He takes a deep breath, coughs out blood, and hurries to get on his feet.

My kinetic energy blows apart his leg, and he collapses to the ground. His skill immediately starts healing him again, even as he keeps his spear pointed at me from an awkward position.

I slowly walk closer to him, “I used to have so much trouble with people disrupting my mana. As you can see, it's a really shitty feeling. You can have really strong skills, but what will you do if they are mana-based and taken from you?”

“You... you fucker, this shouldn't be possible at our level.”

I send another pulse, and the hand holding the spear disintegrates into pink mist, preventing the activation of some skill.

“Unfortunately for you, I'm quite proficient at dealing with mana. And it seems like I spend more effort making sure it cannot be taken away from me.”

He's trying to activate many skills at once. A stronger version of healing, the invisibility he used before, something linking him to the spear, and a domain of his own. He also skillfully modifies his frequencies, showing clear familiarity with this kind of clash.

But all to no avail.

“Thank you. I think I have learned something from you.”

“I will—”

I don't let him finish and increase the output of my Kinetic Mana Heart, blasting away the rest of his body and sending all the debris in the room flying.

Noname (Beyond, King) ⟶ Hector Valdez (Beyond, King) +5,000 pts

Congratulations, you have defeated the King.

You are in the throne room.

Time remaining to capture: 58 minutes 21 seconds

I fly up through the hole in the ceiling at the place where I broke the barrier and high into the air.

In the distance, the orange light of [Dawn] surrounds the area. That ever-so-familiar mana radiation stands between me and blocking the way that enemy people might use to return.

Landing near Savant within his domain, I walk and stop by his side. On the edge of the domain, corpses of people pile up—all fallen during [Dawn]. Well, not all; I also see flashes of Tacita hunting down those who try to move around the domain.

“They are quite disorganized,” Savant notes as I stop by him. “They had a decent plan at the start and, according to Soph, even some interesting arrays used to combine the mana of bigger groups into a single powerful bombardment.”

“But?” I ask.

He shrugs, “They panicked after you broke their barrier that was supposed to be unbreakable and from where their [King] was supposed to snipe us and poison our defenses.”

After saying that, [Dawn] flickers and disappears, and Savant turns away, walking toward the base of the 6th round. I don’t spend time thinking about what he wants to do there; he must have an idea that capturing the throne room isn’t needed.

Turning away, I fly again, and mid-flight I stop using kinetic energy—the flight turning into a big leap, and inertia carrying me into the middle of the enemy backline. There are multiple barriers and defenses layered, but I see through them all, resonate with them, and pass through easily, landing in the midst of them.

A scream sounds from all around after a moment of surprise, and many skills and people turn to attack me.

[Eclipse] reactivates and expands over a huge area, draining the colors out of it, and all these weaker, out-of-body skills flicker and deactivate. My mind splits into multiple parts as I identify the stronger ones, and my eyes observe the moment of their mana, adapting parts of [Eclipse] to strengthen the area around these people.

Hard difficulty or Hell difficulty—none resist. Their skills explode, filled with my mana. They hit different areas, then change and turn on their casters.

And my heart beats, turning mana into kinetic energy as I charge them all, each of my punches killing someone. Wraith Dance carries me over the battlefield, Breaker Style destroys the stronger ones, and Pulser Stance confuses everyone trying to face me. I show no hesitation at all, and my mind slowly empties until there is only me and my opponents.

I jump back, and the earth implodes in front of me. I locate the Gravitational Primordial energy user, and [Empyrean Lance] breaks through the barriers of the people protecting him and kills the guy.

A notification.

A punch hits my side. My unique epic passive turns the impact into mana, and my body barely fills with it. Using some of that energy, I strengthen my movement, and my punch explodes his head like a watermelon.

Sending a collection of mana nearby, I redirect more of my mind there—I take over the array, and a few Ley Lines reach out, expanding on the array and modifying it.

I lift the barrier in front of me, and the array bursts into a fiery explosion instead of a flame ball sent at me.

A dozen notifications ring.

Step to the side. Punch.

Notification.

Wraith Dance. An arm is torn and thrown away; a javelin is used to finish the guy.

I teleport through [Ley Line] and deliver a stomp that destroys the attacks from below me. Three javelins break the barrier. A tricolored orb is thrown there.

Another Wraith Dance follows as explosions and screams sound behind me and pieces of dirt and bodies start falling from the air.

All of a sudden, the movement halts, and I expand my field and start absorbing all the kinetic energy. It traps everyone from Easy, Normal, and Hard—only a few people from Hell push through.

A few hundred people are held by my skill.

I release all the energy against the man charging me, and he is thrown away—an iron crown over his head and pitch-black armor around his body.

I see Lily tearing through the ranks, tracking the very same man who starts running away from her, only for Tacita to appear nearby and stab his leg—piercing through the black armor. Lily catches up to him. She grabs his arm, and even with her petite frame, she wields his entire body and slams him against the ground.

The man with [Mana Crown] floats in the air and pushes against my [Eclipse] with his domain. Our eyes meet, and he lifts the staff in his hand as the tricolored, dark blue, light blue, and purple light collects in it, strengthening his domain.

At the same time, he lifts the barrier and deflects projectiles shot by Min-Jae from far away and Sophie's attempts.

That moment of distraction is enough for me to reach him.

As his eyes turn back to me, he teleports.

I resonate with that teleport—I take over and follow him through. As I reappear, I see him smiling, standing right in front of me. His staff is pointed at me, and projectiles swirl around him as well.

The remnants of his teleport around me twist, change, and attack me in a great effort to disrupt my mana, stop my teleport, and halt me—all at once. An incredible construct.

My [Mana Domain] expands further, not just defending my body and mixes with [Eclipse]. All the mana around me freezes, halts its movement, and then turns against that man. I [Focus] fully on the difficult task and succeed. Instead, his mana is disrupted and turned into sparking blue particles. [Redistribution] then easily halts the guy, whose physical stats are not that great.

I take a step toward him and bury my hand into his chest, pulling it out while holding his still-beating Mana Heart. Before the guy disappears, I observe the heart as much as I can.

I have sensed it, but it's different from mine, and even if I hadn't modified mine to generate kinetic energy, it would still be different. It's likely a pure Mana Heart strengthened by a trait.

After a second, the man disappears along with his heart. People are already surrounding me. I lift off, breaking through defensive arrays and raising a barrier to block the incoming attacks.

Floating there, I start bombarding the rest of the 6th-round attendees. They try to resist, but it doesn’t matter. Their formations collapse, their defenses break, and one by one, they fall.

It takes only a few minutes. Soon, they are almost all cleaned out by my and the other´s efforts.

One remains—far away, barely visible. Realizing he’s alone for some reason he continues to run.

I watch as a huge boulder flies through the air, nearly the size of a motorcycle, gaining speed with every second. The running man notices it at the last moment, hastily raising a barrier and reinforcing his body. But it doesn’t matter, the boulder doesn’t slow at all. With an audible thump, it slams into him, crushing him instantly.

The notification about winning the first part of the event rings.

Only then do I weaken the hold [Focus] has on my emotions and let the system teleport me outside.

***

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