Kae
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Dungeon Diver CH826
🕑 Added 2025-04-02 23:00:07 +0000 UTCAs I look around I see the 10th ranked beast at [2,008 points], with the head of a lion and a massive muscular body covered in red fur, less than 1,000 kilometers away—just three biomes to my right.
To my left, the 1st Ranked Berserker Giant now holds [9,451 points], and the second-ranked black stone golem holds [7,971 points].
In between, filling my view, are the exact coordinates of the rest of the top 10.
The [Move On to Main Event] button is now fully lit up in my vision, as I’ve reached the 1,000 point threshold to do so.
However, the total time remaining in this Arena event is still over 30 minutes.
I recall the announcer saying something about how holding more points now will help us in the main event, and I’m quite curious how.
In addition to this, Ren still does not have 1,000 points, and I do not want to get separated right before I get my answers about what this elf really is, and their true purpose for crossing my path.
I send another message through our telepathy link while jumping up into the air and leaving this destroyed biome in a trail of fire through the sky.
“Yes, indeed we are in the Arena now. I just had another pleasant chat with your other half, and I don’t know if we’ve made more progress or if they will want to kill me even more the next time we meet. Though for now, read the rules of this tournament—there should still be an option to re-examine them in your avatar settings. I need to find a way to get you points, and meanwhile, I’m going to have to fend off a few more monsters like the one I just fought here.”
I let out a sigh while leaving the smoldering rocky wasteland behind and heading straight toward the mutant lion.
As our paths grow closer, the other top 10 point holders become occupied in their own battles as well…
Though, my next battle with the beast I’m hunting in the heart of a desert biome with red rocks and canyons does not last long either.
[Kill confirmed!]
[Points Awarded: 2,008]
[Total Points: 5,199]
These are the notifications I hear after I activate my greater form and charge my spiked mace to shatter the mutant lion’s avatar in a single swing.
“That mammoth was ten times the beast you were…” I murmur to myself, while touching down right where its white mist fades, expecting it to swirl around me like before, but it seems Ren does not need the nourishment now that they’re conscious again.
“You’re stronger than I thought. No wonder she didn't kill you… She couldn’t.” is what I hear back whispered in my ear.
I charge my eyes with ether and jump upward again, as I watch my live ranking push its way up to 4th place in a single battle. Though, my sight looks past the other red pillars and is far more focused on the straggling 2nd Class Lords around the less busy zones.
There are still thousands of Lords in this tournament. Many with single and double-digit points, fighting for a chance to get an avatar upgrade or something profitable, not daring to actually enter the main event.
“Yes, it’s quite strange. I can feel your true strength… It is actually lower than your other half’s. I don’t understand it, but I don’t have to in order to believe it… Though, I guess it doesn't matter either. You still need points, so get ready to fight.” I send through our link again while touching down in the middle of a jungle five more biomes away after a full minute of travel through the skies using my greater form.
I can see two red pillars coming in my direction, but we have time.
When we land, I loosen Ren’s hold on my back, and they face the group of unintelligent giant Toad Lords.
There are four of them, all 2nd Class, and all with a few dozen points. They have strange elemental auras coming off of them, but we’re less than two biomes from the outer wall of the dome. I presume they haven’t moved far at all, and the elf can handle this threat.
“Go on, fight them. I want to see what you can do,” I speak while motioning for them to fight the fat creatures with beady eyes that look in many directions.
A robotic nod is returned to me, and Ren lifts both hands to glow light white.
I cross my arms and watch, and the white-haired Lord jumps through the air, using very robotic and rational motions to strike the toads.
They resist, and even counterattack with their webbed feet and long tongues. One of them spits fire, another poison, and two of them water.
Yet, every hit Ren lands, small blotches of white ether are left on their avatars.
While the four toads’ raw strength is far greater than this frail elf, light magic illusions are used to make it seem like they’re in places they’re not, even disappearing before the toads’ eyes many times.
The long tongues and mindless attacks destroy a portion of the jungle around us, but within three minutes, all four 2nd Class monsters are eliminated, and the elf comes walking back toward me with an indifferent expression, like I’m staring at a robot.
My arms are crossed, but I nod approvingly, matching all of these movements and fighting styles to the many memories of Ren wandering and surviving alone in the wilderness of the Citadel.
“Good. Now it’s my turn…” I reply while turning around, watching two red pillars clash a few biomes away to my right, but to my left, another lone pillar approaching fast.
[Kill confirmed!]
[Points Awarded: 2,318]
[Total Points: 7,517]
Another single hit crushes the 9th place Emerald Lizard Lord, using half the borrowed stats I used to take out the mammoth.
My own placement moves up to third.
I turn away from the other red pillars fighting, then off far in the distance to the 1st and 2nd ranked still at it, further than I can see all the way on the other side of the arena.
“Come on, there’s plenty of stragglers on the way. You’ll get the points you need, and I’ll get the fight I want…”
I look up to the top of the dome and bare a thin smile, thinking, “And you’ll get your show.”
Then carry Ren onward, toward a pair of mutant bears with thick grey fur and long white teeth that roam a cold mountainous biome, mindlessly looking for their next prey. One has 16 points, the other 105.
––
As we touch down, and I stand back on the snowy mountain’s edge to watch this fight play out to satisfy my amusement, minutes pass.
I could easily intervene and make things easier, but I see no point.
I’m getting a live view of everything else interesting happening in the Arena through a spectate feed in my mind. I’m in no rush to fight until the strongest of a certain duel makes themselves known.
In the meantime, I’ll watch the stands fill up with more and more Lords as rumors of two humans with the potential to make it to the main event spread through the Citadel like wildfire.
The stands around the massive arena are over a third filled.
The Admin’s voice in my head confirms my suspicions, “Usually, they don’t begin to fill until an hour before the main event… Although this is a particularly unique preliminary round. Without your fight with that mammoth, half these Lords wouldn’t have showed up…”
I reply to the Admin, watching Ren defeat the smaller of the two mutant bears.
“That mammoth was tough, far stronger than a good amount of these other top tens. I bet it could have even fought that Berserker Giant for a few blows… Though, I did overhear some other entries state round 1 is for the weaker Lords… Are those kinds of beasts common in the Grand Citadel? They certainly aren’t back in Ellipsia.”
The live feed shows this Berserker in question slicing through the black golem again and again, and the shadowy menace does not give up, sending beams of black energy and heavy punches back, destroying over twenty full biomes now since their brawl began.
The Admin replies, “Common? No. Available to those that control the Upper Realm, yes. It was an average strength Mammoth, I’ve seen much stronger. There are many worlds closer to the Source that still grow strong races like them… Though, they’re the first to be targeted and controlled. Your kind doesn't know much about the demons because you’ve been too weak for them to bother oppressing you in any Realm low or high. They don’t fear you.”
There’s a silence between us for a few seconds, and I watch Ren kill the larger bear while in my mind the Berserker Giant glows with a bright white light, stabbing the golem through the head and exploding it into pieces.
They begin to come back together, but the monstrous greater form of this red-skinned battle maniac tears through the black stone creature, standing in its center while it tries to reform.
A loud screech from the monster’s jagged-toothed mouth echoes through the spectate feed—and also my ears—as the entire Arena feels its presence.
The dense dark green core within the golem is held in the Berserker’s grasp, then tossed in the air and caught in its mouth. A final crunch makes all of the black stone attempting to reform around this monstrous Berserker Giant fall to the biome floor, and the announcer goes wild, along with many cheers from the crowds that watch.
My eyes fall back on Ren, as they now hold enough points to move on. I nod, and turn my head back to the screech, sending a final message to the Admin watching from afar.
“Well then, I guess starting today, the Demons will have one more race to fear.”
Comments
Tim Scripter
Go get em Jay! TFTC Kae!
Eoghan Higgins
Tyftc
