Outside, in the coliseum, the crowd at first reacted with a mix of indignation and disapproval. To many, Glenn looked like a coward for striking from behind, interrupting a duel that wasn't his.
The first boos echoed, and comments sparked through the stands: "That's not fair," "He's just taking advantage of the distraction." In the eyes of the audience, there was no honor in stepping in like that only opportunism from a newly awakened warrior desperate for attention.
But that perception shifted the moment Glenn, instead of retreating, provoked the two champions and demanded they face him both at once. The insane courage of taking on not one, but two seasoned warriors, changed the tone of the voices. Those who had mocked him seconds earlier felt a chill of admiration.
Theoretically, it was impossible not to acknowledge the audacity of a young man who, without even reaching Champion rank, openly challenged two competitors ranked above him.
Disbelief, however, came just as quickly.
In mere moments, both champions were crushed — one by the violence of electricity, the other by his own weapon, hurled back at him through a spatial rift. The audience could not decide whether they had witnessed genius, brutality, or sheer luck.
Murmurs rippled like waves: "Is this real strength?" "Or did he just catch them off guard?" Doubt lingered until it was swallowed by a collective roar. The arena shook with screams, the crowd going wild at the spectacle, thrilled by the unpredictability of the fight.
And though Glenn had stolen the spotlight, two battles just as fierce were unfolding elsewhere in the forest, leaving everyone in suspense. No one knew whether, at the end of the day, the name now being shouted in unison would still echo as that of a victor, or merely the herald of a flame about to be snuffed out.
**
Two sky-blue orbs spun softly above the palm of my hand, like tiny suns on the verge of fading. "Two down... eight to go," I murmured to myself, letting the sound vanish into the wind. A micro spatial rift opened just beneath my hand, and the orbs slipped away into it.
Far away, in the hidden lair where the incubator rested inside the silent cavern, a twin rift opened, dropping them into the tray of translucent liquid.
The reflection shimmered as though space itself had been wounded. The basin pulsed in response, and one of the orbs, now submerged in the liquid, began to unravel, releasing bursts of cosmic energy in shades of blue. Above it, the suspended prism absorbed each fragment of light, channeling them into the beast egg. Its once-opaque shell now glowed with a pale, unstable gold, as if breathing for the first time.
Wasting no time, I left the site and projected myself to the top of a colossal tree. There were two reasons for this: first, to gain a broad view of the region; second, to scout for any competitor who might have been drawn by the commotion of my last battle.
The wind at that height carried a bitter freshness, mixed with the scent of charred wood and resin. I used the moment to regulate my breathing and gradually replenish my prana.
But when my eyes swept across the horizon, the shock I felt cut deeper than any spell. The forest stretched as far as the eye could see, a green ocean split by glittering rivers, waterfalls cascading like crystal veils, and mountain chains rising like natural fortresses. I couldn't hold it back. "This... this is insane. This isn't a battlefield, it's an entire world inside this artifact."
The second part of my search brought a strange relief: no competitor had drawn near. No traces, no signs. That could mean two things: either they were too busy searching for incubators before making a move, or no one was eager to attack so soon.
After about half an hour, when boredom was already gnawing at me, I felt a distant ripple. A subtle disturbance in the forest's flow, followed by a reverberation almost physical. "Finally..." I whispered, leaning forward. Lightning coursed across my skin, charging every fiber of muscle. In the blink of an eye, I shot toward the source of the commotion.
As I closed in, the sounds grew clearer: arrows slicing the air in rapid volleys, winds howling in cutting spirals, and men's voices crying out cries that didn't last long enough to become pleas.
When I reached the clearing, what I found was far from pretty: it was a massacre. The ground was drenched in fresh blood, roots and leaves bathed in red. Thick trees had been cleaved in half, as if monstrous blades had swept through.
And right before me, four women had already dispatched two competitors. One lay on the ground, his throat split in a cut too clean to be human, before vanishing without leaving a trace of the forest. The other, still on his knees, was skewered by a black arrow larger than his own torso — the tip jutting out through his back in a burst of blood before he, too, disappeared into the void.
The four were no ordinary fighters.
One floated inside a whirlwind, her cloak and hair whipping wildly in the gale a wind-element mage, without doubt.
Another, bow still in hand, wielded a colossal weapon shaped like a giant X; on her back rested a quiver of arrows, each nearly a meter and a half long. The black limbs radiated a feral aura, a whisper of inevitable death.
The third was a demon with short, pitch-black hair, clad in light black armor. Her twin short swords, little more than sixty centimeters each, still dripped fresh blood. Her eyes reflected only coldness, as though killing was mere routine.
Last, there was a warrior clad in heavy armor, a zweihander resting casually on her shoulder, as if this were nothing more than another day's hunt.
'How did such a large group manage to form so quickly?' I thought, still analyzing their formation.
But I didn't have much time. The black-haired swordswoman turned her head and spotted me immediately. Her lips curved into a cruel half-smile.
"There's another one... Get ready."
Instantly, the group reorganized. The wind mage and the archer retreated at high speed, seeking out distant trees for strategic cover. The warrior in heavy armor stepped forward and raised her zweihander into a defensive stance, clearly taking the front line. Right behind her, the dual-blade fighter moved with calculated precision, keeping close, like a shadow ready to strike at the first opening.
'A group of four female demons... well-coordinated. This isn't coincidence—they must have known each other beforehand, and it looks like they've trained together too.'
The dual-blade warrior spoke again, her voice dripping with arrogance and cruelty:
"Luck is smiling on us today. Not only did we manage to gather… but with each passing minute, more rats walk right into our trap."
The warrior on the front line, the one with the zweihander, cast a sidelong glance and arched a brow.
"Don't you feel like we've seen that one before?"
Her partner chuckled, the muffled sound echoing inside her helm.
"Doesn't matter who he is. We'll crush him and get out before the beasts catch the scent of blood and come hunting us again."
Everything exploded without warning. The air vibrated as a black arrow bent space itself, tearing through the distance between me and the archer who couldn't even see me. The pressure of that thing was impossible to ignore, as though the world itself bent around its trail. At the same time, the armored warrior surged forward with crushing momentum, red prana flaring like burning coals from the joints of her armor—shoulders, legs, neck. Each step made the ground quake. From the flank, the dual-blade fighter came in a stormy blur, fast as lightning ripping through the night.
Three fronts. A devastating arrow from the front, the living wall of the zweihander from the left, and the storm blade from the right. My mind spun in tenths of a second. Electricity surged across my body, thick blue currents wrapping around me like living armor, and I made the riskiest decision: I condensed two electric blades, each over four feet long, and charged even faster than the storm rushing at me. I aimed straight for the black-haired swordswoman.
The clash was brutal. Our blades locked in an "X," sparks slicing the air like a fiery rain. But she seemed to forget my weapons weren't steel they were pure electricity. The current ran through her body, scorching her skin and wrenching a strangled cry from her lips. For an instant, I thought of finishing her off, but instinct forced me to duck as the massive zweihander swept above my head, cleaving whole trees in its path.
I lowered my gravity to the bare minimum, twisted at impossible speed, and kicked off the ground.
The gravitational explosion blasted the three of us apart, buying only a few seconds of space. But the breath was short-lived.
A new arrow appeared inches from my face, so fast I barely had time to react. A dimensional rift opened in front of me at the last instant, swallowing the arrow and spitting it out behind me, where it detonated against the trees like a bomb.
Only then did I realize the arrow was imbued with wind. It wasn't just destructive; it was a condensed calamity. Whirlwinds tore through the impact zone, obliterating everything and carving a massive crater.
No respite. My electric blades rose again to meet another strike from the armored warrior.
The impact flung me back like a rag doll, but unlike the last clash, her robust body reinforced with prana remained completely unharmed. The difference in resilience was obvious. Still, I wasn't shaken. On the contrary… my blood boiled. This disadvantage, fighting on the edge, the taste of blood in my mouth—
I was enjoying it.
Behind me, I felt the killing intent of the dual-blade warrior as she swung both weapons in a shining arc to take my head. But she didn't expect what was coming. My eyes blazed, and from them burst two colossal lightning bolts that were immediately devoured by a rift opening in front of my face. The bolts reappeared behind my head, unleashed as if fired straight from the back of my skull.
She had no time to react. Her eyes widened at the impossible sight, and a scream tore through the forest.
"AGHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
The attack struck her full on. Her body was hurled violently through the air, the stench of burnt flesh filling the clearing. Her shriek rang out, sharp and desperate, mixing with the crackle of electricity still dancing across her. She hit a tree with such ferocity that her body became lodged inside the shattered remains of the half-destroyed trunk.
"Shit, it's HIM. It's Glenn!" shouted the armored warrior.
At last, the warrior in heavy armor realized who stood before her: Glenn.
I used gravity once more, compressing my legs to the limit and leaping high into the air.
The next instant, a colossal blade of wind tore through the space where I had just been, shredding the ground and carving a gaping rift in the earth. I pulled myself up into the canopy of a tree, but another arrow shot toward me.
Unlike the others, it exploded before hitting, a concentrated burst of prana that slammed into my back. The special clothes on my torso shredded apart, and my skin was pierced as though a thousand needles had driven into me at once. A cry of pain escaped my lips—but I used the force of the blast itself to hurl myself forward, straight toward the armored warrior who now held the front line alone.
The electric blades in my hands morphed into long spears, more than ten feet each, blue and savage, crackling like thunder. I hurled both at her. She reacted with skill, leaping back, but before the spears hit the ground, I copied the archer's strategy—my spears exploded just like the arrow that had torn into my back.
A storm of lightning erupted in every direction, ripping through trees, splitting stone, and, most importantly, striking her legs. It didn't cause grave injury, but it slowed her just enough for me to close the distance.
"DOWN!" I roared, and gravity surged a hundredfold.
The sudden impact made her stumble, her swing faltering and missing me by a hair's breadth. The blade passed inches from my torso. I seized the opening, pressed my palm close to her abdomen, and opened a dimensional rift. From it shot a black arrow the very same one her companion had just fired at me.
Honestly, warriors had a clear advantage over mages at this level. For mages to defeat warriors, it required immense effort, plenty of time, and careful strategy none of which I had in that moment. I wasn't interested in crafting strategies either.
And if I didn't have time to plan, then nothing was more efficient than returning their own poison.
The arrow tore through her heavy armor, ripping a look of shock from her face before she was hurled back like a fish caught on a hook. A wind drill conjured at the arrow's tip spun violently, shredding her defenses. Her body was flung against a tree, twisting like a top, before being nailed to the trunk by the very spell meant to kill me.
The impact ripped apart the entire upper half of her armor. Blood streamed from every pore of her skin before her vision dimmed and her body vanished, leaving only the monstrous arrow embedded in the wood.
"Phew…" I exhaled, turning toward the remaining competitors.
The dual-blade warrior was still breathing, struggling to free herself from the tree, while the archer and the wind mage stayed out of my radar.
Without mercy, I summoned dozens of orbs of electricity above my head. Before the dual-blade warrior could regain her balance, a storm crashed down upon her. Bolts rained like a tempest at sea, an ocean split apart by thunder. Her screams echoed for a few seconds, until they were silenced completely along with her presence.