Chapter 64
A resonant chime echoed through the arena, and with a shimmer of iridescent mana, three massive, dome-like barriers erupted from the ground, dividing the participants into their assigned groups.
The rules were clear and brutal: a royal rumble within each dome.
Killing was forbidden, leaving only one path to victory—force your opponents to surrender or, more directly, physically eject them from the barrier's boundary.
The moment you were thrown beyond that luminous wall, your chance was forfeit.
The instant the barriers solidified, chaos was unleashed.
In the first group, eighteen cultivators erupted into a maelstrom of clashing steel and flashing elemental energies.
The air grew thick with the scent of ozone, scorched earth, and the tang of sweat.
At the very edge of the dome, apart from the frantic skirmish at its heart, stood Lucas.
He observed the tumult with calm, analytical eyes, his mind whirring while his body remained still.
The primary question occupying his thoughts was the test's true design.
This isn't merely a search for raw power, he reasoned, watching a burly swordsman get blindsided by a wind-assisted kick.
It's a hunt for the most tactically adept. You must duel your chosen opponent while maintaining a constant, desperate awareness of the dozen other threats circling like vultures. Only someone who can safeguard themselves amidst utter chaos can be trusted to safeguard others. The victor won't be the strongest, but the one most capable of outlasting or outthinking a swarm of enemies.
A faint smile touched Lucas's lips. So why engage in the frenzy? Let them expend their energy tearing each other apart. I'll simply hide, wait, and personally escort the final, exhausted survivor to the exit.
[Mana Spell: Phantom]
The light and ambient mana around him bent and wavered.
His form dissolved into a faint, heat-haze shimmer, and his palpable presence vanished entirely.
He was now a ghost in the arena.
He wasn't the only one with this cunning idea; faint distortions elsewhere in the dome hinted at others employing similar stealth tactics.
To most, sensing another hidden foe would be nearly impossible.
But for Lucas, it was child's play.
His plan was simple: eliminate the other clever minds first.
After all, the intelligent ones always sought to remove their intellectual equals, often tricking themselves into believing they were the smartest in the room.
Meanwhile, elsewhere in the first group's dome, Austin was a storm of controlled motion.
From the starting signal, five competitors had targeted him, their weapons crackling with lightning-fast strikes.
Austin's short sword was a blur of silver.
He fluidly dodged one thrust, parried a second, deflected a third with a mana-reinforced palm, and drove his foot into the stomach of a fourth with such speed their faces hadn't yet registered the pain.
His superiority was immediately apparent—faster, stronger, more precise.
Three attackers fell back, regrouping, while two others desperately tried to pin him in a corner.
Their containment lasted a mere three seconds.
Austin disarmed one with a sharp twist of his wrist, launched him into the air with a knee, and finished with a concussive punch that sent the man sailing, tumbling, out of the barrier's luminous ring.
Austin had barely recovered his stance when a blade hissed toward his ribs.
He twisted, the edge grazing his tunic—a close call.
It was a reminder: these were not weaklings.
Every cultivator here could move at speeds exceeding fifty meters per second, their mana-enhanced fists capable of pulverizing a five-meter boulder.
Austin, however, operated on another level, his movements approaching seventy meters per second, his own strikes carrying the force to shatter granite giants.
As three of his remaining assailants coordinated, spells of devastating power converged upon him.
[Fire Spell: Great Fireball]
[Water Spell: Jet Stream]
[Earth Spell: Stone Chains]
Earthen tendrils erupted from the ground, snaking around his legs and torso in a crushing embrace.
A roiling fireball and a high-pressure lance of water screamed toward him simultaneously.
When intense heat meets rapid cooling, the result is catastrophic expansion.
BOOOOM!
A deafening explosion of steam and shattered rock filled the space, obscuring Austin in a thick, hot fog.
The attackers extended their mana senses, probing the haze… and felt nothing.
No presence inside the barrier.
Had he been blown out?
Before hope could dawn, a blur shot from the heart of the mist.
One cultivator only registered a world-shattering impact in his gut before consciousness fled, his limp body being caught by the neck and unceremoniously hurled beyond the barrier's light.
Another lunged at the blur.
Austin's sword met his with a shriek of metal.
Using his opponent's own forward momentum against him, Austin guided the force, his blade moving in a beautiful, deadly arc that sliced deep—enough to send a shockwave of agony through the man's system, but not to kill.
The cultivator crumpled, coughing blood.
Austin was already moving, his fist connecting with a third's face with a sickening crack, followed by a spinning kick that snapped the head back.
He grabbed the dazed figure and launched him from the arena.
A fourth attacker summoned [Earth Spears], jagged projectiles rocketing toward Austin's torso.
In response, flames erupted, sheathing Austin's body and sword in a roaring corona.
He became a firebrand, darting forward to shatter the spears mid-air before closing in on the earth-wielder, who now encased himself in a dense [Earth Armor].
To Austin, it was a futile defense.
[Fire Spell: Inferno Point]
His sword glowed white-hot, the temperature skyrocketing to ludicrous degrees.
Where it touched the earthen armor, the rock didn't just crack—it melted, bubbling into molten lava.
Austin's strikes became a relentless, incandescent barrage, each blow hotter and faster than the last, his power visible.
He finished the sequence with a definitive, sweeping slash.
[Fire Spell: Mountain-Cutting Flame Strike]
A colossal crescent of pure fire, ten meters wide, roared from his blade.
The earth cultivator desperately reinforced his armor, but the flaming arc sheared through it.
His defensive shell melted away, and he was catapulted across the dome like a shooting star, his flaming trajectory careening into other ongoing duels and inadvertently sweeping several other cultivators out of the barrier in his wake.
In total, Austin had single-handedly removed eight competitors.
He walked calmly to the bleeding earth cultivator, now groaning on the scorched ground.
Austin hauled him up by his collar, his voice flat. "Get that checked."
With a casual heave, the man joined the growing crowd of the defeated outside.
A stunned silence fell over the remaining fighters in his vicinity.
They were starkly reminded why Austin was whispered to be the strongest of their entire generation.
He let out a short sigh, then suddenly turned his gaze toward an seemingly empty spot nearby.
"Are you looking after me, Lucas?"
Only a soft, amused chuckle answered him.
Austin's eyes ignited, the irises shifting to a burning crimson adorned with three jet-black leaf-shaped pupils.
A fierce grin spread across his face. "Good. I've been wanting to see who truly deserves that title."
In response, the air wavered, and Lucas's form materialized, his stealth spell dissolving.
He stood with relaxed confidence, his own smile sharp and challenging. "Really? I thought we'd already settled that it was me."
"Confident, huh?" Austin shot back, his smile mirroring Lucas's.
Around him, the air erupted once more, flames roaring to life in a swirling, furious inferno that promised not just heat, but annihilation.