Hour Two, Northeastern Sector
Jade's eyes swept the forest, analyzing mana concentrations and identifying the densest creature populations. There. About two kilometers west, a ravine system where his senses detected multiple B-rank signatures and something stronger pulsing at the center.
He moved immediately, stepping into the shadow of a massive tree and activating shadow-travel. The world blurred as he flowed through the network of darkness webbing the forest, distance collapsing in seconds as he moved from shadow to shadow with fluid grace.
The ravine appeared ahead, a deep cut in the earth at least a hundred meters from rim to bottom. Its walls were overgrown with bioluminescent moss that cast eerie blue-green light across the stone, creating an otherworldly atmosphere. And at the bottom, exactly as his void sense had indicated, was a nest.
Jade's eyes cataloged the threats in an instant. Fifteen B-rank Razorwings roosted on ledges carved into the ravine walls, their metallic feathers gleaming in the moss-light. Each one was roughly the size of a large eagle, but their beaks were serrated and their talons could shear through steel. Four A-rank Void Stalkers prowled the ravine floor, their sleek black bodies radiating predatory intelligence as they patrolled territories marked by claw marks and old bloodstains.
And coiled around a massive stone pillar at the ravine's center was the source of that overwhelming mana signature.
An S-rank Obsidian Wyrm.
The creature was easily thirty meters long, its body thick as an ancient tree trunk. Scales like polished black glass covered every inch of its serpentine form, each one reflecting the moss-light in fractured patterns. Its head was massive, crowned with swept-back horns, and even from this distance Jade could see the rows of crystalline teeth lining its jaws. The mana signature radiating from it was so dense it warped the air, creating visible distortions like heat shimmer.
An ancient dungeon boss. Something that had survived battles and claimed this territory as its domain.
Jade stepped off the ravine's edge and dropped.
The fall was silent, his body cutting through the air without resistance as shadow wrapped around him. The Razorwings didn't notice. The Void Stalkers didn't sense his approach. He was just another patch of darkness in a ravine full of them.
Then he reached the bottom and the shadows exploded outward.
Tendrils of compressed darkness erupted from every direction simultaneously, each one moving with viper-quick precision. Three Razorwings died before they could even screech a warning, their necks snapped by tendrils that had caught them mid-roost. Their bodies tumbled from the ledges, hitting the ravine floor with wet thuds.
[EXP +48]
[EXP +48]
[EXP +48]
POINTS: 225
The other twelve Razorwings exploded into motion, their metallic feathers bristling as they took flight. Their screeches echoed off the ravine walls, sharp and piercing, alerting everything in the nest to the intrusion. Feathers launched like projectiles, dozens of them, each one sharp enough to punch through flesh and bone.
Jade compressed the shadows around himself into a spherical barrier. The feathers struck it and clanged harmlessly off the solidified darkness, creating a sound like rain on metal. Then he sent those same shadows outward in whip-like strikes, each tendril seeking a target with perfect accuracy.
Five Razorwings were torn apart mid-flight, their bodies shredded by shadow before they could react. Blood and feathers rained down across the ravine floor.
[EXP +48]
[EXP +48]
[EXP +48]
[EXP +48]
[EXP +48]
The four Void Stalkers had already been moving, their pack hunter instincts kicking in immediately. They converged on Jade from three different directions, moving with coordinated intelligence that spoke of years hunting together. Their claws left gouges in the stone as they ran, their bodies low and fast.
Jade's hand rose, and the temperature dropped dramatically. Ice formed in the air above him, compressed and shaped into dozens of needle-thin blades, each one perfectly aerodynamic. They hovered for half a heartbeat, then launched in a spreading pattern that covered all three approaching vectors.
The ice blades moved faster than arrows, whistling through the air before finding their targets with surgical precision. Each Stalker was hit multiple times, the blades punching through gaps in their natural armor and severing major arteries and neural pathways. Three of them collapsed mid-stride, momentum carrying their bodies forward to skid across the stone.
[EXP +96]
[EXP +96]
[EXP +96]
The fourth Stalker managed to dodge most of the barrage through sheer instinct, taking only glancing hits that wounded but didn't kill. It pivoted and tried to flee, recognizing a threat beyond its ability to handle.
Shadow tendrils caught it before it made three steps, wrapping around its legs and yanking it off balance. The creature hit the ground hard, and the tendrils constricted, crushing bone and organ until its struggles ceased.
[EXP +96]
The remaining seven Razorwings were already trying to escape, their survival instincts overriding territorial aggression. They flew toward the ravine's upper edges, seeking the safety of open sky.
Jade didn't let them reach it. Ice spears formed in rapid succession, each one launching upward with enough force to punch through metallic feathers and the flesh beneath. Seven bodies fell, one after another, until the ravine floor was littered with corpses.
[EXP +48]
[EXP +48]
[EXP +48]
[EXP +48]
[EXP +48]
[EXP +48]
[EXP +48]
Which left only the Obsidian Wyrm.
The massive creature had been watching the entire time, its ancient intelligence analyzing this new threat that had just slaughtered its entire nest in less than thirty seconds. Now it uncoiled from its stone pillar, thirty meters of serpentine muscle and scale moving with surprising speed for something so large.
Its jaws opened, revealing rows of crystalline teeth that gleamed in the moss-light, each one long as a sword blade. A sound emerged from its throat, somewhere between a hiss and a roar, the vibration of it making loose stones rattle across the ravine floor.
Then it struck.
The Wyrm moved like lightning, its massive body blurring as it closed the distance between them in less than a second. Its jaws snapped shut where Jade had been standing, teeth clashing together with enough force to shatter stone.
But Jade wasn't there anymore. He'd shadow-traveled three meters to the left, emerging from darkness with ice already forming around his arms. The ice compressed into gauntlets that wrapped from knuckles to elbows, each one radiating cold so intense the air around them crystallized into visible particles.
The Wyrm's head whipped toward him, tracking his movement with predatory focus. Its tail lashed out, the appendage thick as a tree trunk and moving fast enough to break the sound barrier. The crack of displaced air echoed through the ravine.
Jade caught the tail with his left hand, the ice gauntlet making contact with scales and stopping the momentum completely. The force of it should have shattered bones, should have torn his arm from its socket. Instead, the Wyrm's tail simply stopped, held in place by strength that shouldn't exist in a frame as slender as Jade's.
Then he yanked.
The Wyrm's entire body was pulled off balance, thirty meters of scaled muscle jerked sideways by a force it couldn't resist. It crashed into the ravine wall hard enough to crack stone, moss raining down from the impact point.
Jade didn't give it time to recover. He closed the distance in a blur of motion and drove his right fist into the Wyrm's skull, just behind its eye ridge where the bone was thinnest. The ice gauntlet impacted with enough force to crater the bone beneath those black scales, and the Wyrm's head snapped sideways from the blow.
It shrieked, a sound that made the entire ravine vibrate, and coiled its body around itself defensively. Blood ran down its scales from the impact point, dark and viscous.
But S-rank creatures didn't die from a single strike, no matter how powerful. The Wyrm's tail whipped around again, this time from an angle Jade couldn't easily block. He took the hit on his shoulder, letting the force spin him away rather than resisting it directly. The impact would have pulverized a normal person. Jade just rolled with the momentum and came up standing five meters away.
The Wyrm pressed its advantage, lunging forward with jaws wide. Jade met it head-on, raising both hands as the temperature in the ravine plummeted. Ice spread outward from his position in a wave, climbing up the stone walls, covering the ravine floor, and most importantly, reaching for the Wyrm.
The creature tried to retreat but wasn't fast enough. Ice caught its lower body, spreading across its scales and locking into place. The Wyrm thrashed, its S-rank strength cracking through the ice in multiple locations, but Jade just kept building more layers. Each crack was immediately filled with fresh ice, thicker than before, reinforced with compressed shadow that made it harder than steel.
The Wyrm's struggles became more desperate as more of its body was encased. It snapped at the ice with its jaws, shattered sections with its tail, used its mana to try burning through the prison. But Jade's output was overwhelming. For every meter it cleared, two more meters froze solid.
Within forty seconds, the creature was completely encased. A prison of ice ten meters thick surrounded its entire body, only its head still visible through a gap Jade had left deliberately.
The Wyrm's eyes met his, ancient intelligence recognizing what was coming.
Jade compressed both his cryokinesis and shadow manipulation, focusing all his power on a single purpose. The ice prison began to constrict, pressing inward from all sides simultaneously. The Wyrm's scales cracked under the pressure. Its bones began to break. Its organs compressed.
The creature tried one final struggle, its mana flaring in a last desperate attempt to break free. But it wasn't enough. The ice continued constricting, inexorable and absolute, until the Wyrm's mana signature flickered and went still.
[EXP +192]
Jade lowered his hands and the ice shattered, falling away to reveal the Wyrm's crushed corpse. He checked his watch.
POINTS: 737
CURRENT RANK: 178,234
Seven minutes had passed since he'd spotted the ravine from two kilometers away. That was crazy efficiency for an S-rank elimination.
He shadow-traveled back to the surface and continued deeper into the forest, already searching for the next concentration of high-value targets. His void sense spread outward, mapping terrain and identifying creatures worth hunting.
The elimination round had only just begun.
....
Hour Two, Imperial Palace, Aethorian Capital planet.
The Emperor sat in his personal viewing chamber in the heart of the imperial palace, galaxies away from the tournament planet. Multiple holographic displays surrounded him, showing feeds from across the continent through quantum communication arrays that transmitted in real-time despite the impossible distances involved.
His closest advisors stood in attendance, taking notes and providing analysis as the rankings populated.
"Darius Kane continues to impress," one advisor noted, highlighting the current top-ranked participant. "Four thousand points in just over two hours. House Valorian's investment in his training is showing clear dividends."
"Indeed," the Emperor said, his tone carrying that practiced warmth that made people feel valued while committing to nothing. "And Cassia Mordren's military precision is exemplary. Silverpeak Academy continues to produce quality commanders."
The holographic displays updated continuously:
1. PARTICIPANT 847 - 4,293 POINTS
2. PARTICIPANT 12,094 - 3,876 POINTS
3. PARTICIPANT 7,621 - 3,654 POINTS
4. PARTICIPANT 1,234 - 2,847 POINTS
5. PARTICIPANT 88,302 - 2,791 POINTS
Thousands more rankings filled the displays below those top five, all climbing rapidly as participants across the continent accumulated kills.
"Any unexpected standouts?" the Emperor asked, his eyes tracking the numbers with practiced efficiency.
"Several worth noting, Your Majesty," another advisor replied, pulling up additional data. "Participant 88,302 from House Mordian is exceeding initial predictions by approximately forty percent. Participant 45,677 from the former general family is demonstrating remarkable talent control for her age and rank. And there's been significant gambling activity around a few lower-ranked fighters, though nothing that's reached the priority feeds yet."
"Monitor those with unusual betting patterns," the Emperor instructed. "Sometimes the masses notice potential before official assessments do. If the gambling houses are moving odds dramatically, there may be information we're missing."
"Already flagged, Your Majesty."
The Emperor nodded and returned his attention to the feeds, watching another privileged child demonstrate expensive training. Politics disguised as sport, as always. But occasionally, genuine talent emerged from unexpected sources.
Those were the ones worth watching for.
....