The first match ended with Ekai's victory, a battle of attrition that eventually ended with his opponent being overwhelmed.

  The second match then began, Misen taking on Goldway's second-placed A-Ranked Adventurer, a Water Magic user with spotted fur-covered arms……I'm guessing snow leopard Anima.

  Since ten of the sixteen S-Ranks were still away tending to the damaged road and piles of corpses, Goldway's roster for these exhibition matches consisted of the remaining six S-Ranks and the top two A-Ranks.

  They had seriously selected their best available options to take us on.

  The rest of their Adventurers were on guard outside the stadium, as well as spread out in the districts. So long as none of them were traitors, slipping past that much security won't be easy.

  The second match began.

  Misen dominated the fight with his Lightning Boost overpowering his opponent, who was adept with ice magic but was too slow to hit Misen.

  He slumped to his knees as Misen rushed in for the final blow, but right as he reached him……sharp icicles rapidly popped up around him, a spiky, defensive wall surrounding him.

  Misen was too close to stop or dodge, and ran right onto an icicle, the barrier teleporting him out right before he got skewered.

  Wow……talk about careless.

  His opponent was impressive though, he had pretended to have given up and then drew his opponent, who was much faster than him, into a trap.

  It was a pretty similar tactic to the way I had almost won my encounter with Misen in the Brawl of Glory, which the scars on his right shoulder and right side of his neck constantly reminded me of.

  Misen re-entered the waiting area as Fuo headed out for the third match.

  "You sure do seem to prematurely drop your guard a lot, huh?" I greeted him, mimicking his smirk.

  Childish, I know……but I don't care.

  He clicked his tongue in irritation but didn't respond.

  For the third match, Fuo was taking on the fifteenth placed S-Ranked Adventurer, an Earth Magic user. He was a skinny guy in his mid-twenties, with a shaved head and bear paws for hands. It was a pretty glaring contrast, the guy was as thin as a twig but his hands were beefy AF.

  The fight began, and it proved to be an intense one. Fuo used Skate and her rapid-fire ice arrows while her opponent used Slide to match her speed, along with Earth Levitation to block her arrows as well as fire his own projectile attacks.

  They were pretty evenly matched, neither of them letting up nor allowing the other any room to breathe. The first person to slip up would lose.

  It happened soon, as Fuo began to run out of Mana and failed to avoid her opponent's rock projectiles as she was unable to attack or counter using ice arrows. Oh, right……despite her immense skills with Ice Magic, her Mana capacity was a fair way below average.

  The crowd cheered voraciously as the barrier was taken down so that the next pair could enter the arena, that had been a seriously close battle.

  Fuo looked pretty displeased at losing, and was covered in dirt, but her opponent was far from unscathed too, more than a couple of Fuo's arrows had grazed him, he had cuts across his sides and arms. Considering that he was an S-Ranked Adventurer, that wasn't a bad result.

  Next up was Vi, facing their thirteenth placed S-Ranked Adventurer, a burly guy with a thick beard and large hammer as a weapon. I didn't get the chance to see what his Elemental Magic type was, since Vi went for the element of surprise and struck with her full power kick as soon as the fight began, ending the bout in less than a second.

  Of course, her opponent was teleported out before she could make contact, and her momentum carried her forward to the barrier wall, absolutely shattering it like a glass pane upon contact.

  "Her kicks have gotten more intense, huh……," I muttered to myself, as the crowd let out gasps of surprise.

  Fuck, man……I think even I'd have a hard time surviving that.

  And with that, it was finally my turn.

  I felt my anticipation rise as I walked out to the middle. Since my arm guards got destroyed in the explosion last night, I wasn't able to carry as many needles or knives as I would have liked, but I was using the opportunity to test out the needle mini-crossbow thingy.

  My opponent looked pretty excited to start too.

  As the barrier activated……

  "Begin!"

  I drew both my blades and activated Lightning Boost at x2 to start off with, shooting forward and slashing my sword at his head. He blocked my strike with the chain of one of his nunchucks, before swinging the other one at my chest.

  I quickly skipped back before it could strike me, as an explosion of wind burst out from the peak of his swing. His attacks were powerful……but I can dodge them easily with Lightning Boost.

  I triggered the mini-crossbow, firing three poison needles at him. I dashed towards him as he deflected them, maxing out my Lightning Boost at x2.5. I activated Stream, extending the reaches of my blades with lightning as much as I could.

  I attacked him with a relentless barrage of slashes and strikes, without giving him a chance to strike back.

  His reflexes and reaction time were pretty insane, he was much slower than me, but was still able to just about react and evade the brunt of my attacks, getting away with minor nicks and scratches.

  His movements and use of the nunchucks were very unorthodox and hard to predict, making full use of his flexibility. His technique looked all over the place at first glance, but he hardly had any openings.

  If he could match my speed, his fighting technique would almost definitely beat mine. It was throwing me off even now.

  However, with my speed far superior to his, he wasn't able to counter or strike back. He was forced to be on the defensive, my relentless attacks pushing him on the back foot, rendering him unable to charge up and launch those decompressed wind blasts.

  If I can keep this close range bout going for just a bit longer, I'll almost definitely win.

  As I struck forward with both blades, he used the back of his hands to deflect them, getting electrocuted and cut in the process. In the fraction of a second of an opening that created, he rapidly swung a nunchuck up at me, which also sent a spray of blood spatter at my eyes from his gashed backhand, forcing me to step back to avoid it.

  And then, once again using a barely existent opening, he flew straight up, out of my reach.

  I fired some needles at him, which he easily blew away with a spin of his nunchucks. Damn it……just like that, he had turned the tables on me. I should have expected him to use Flight at some point, I let down my guard and got rooted in the battle of attrition.

  "You're seriously good, the fact that you forced me to fly out of your range is an admission that I don't stand a chance against you in close range combat," He grinned, swinging his nunchucks down to fire expanding blasts of winds at me. I swiftly avoided them, putting away my blades and firing streaks of lightning up at him, which he avoided.

  Fine, let's try increasing the scale.

  Take this, Lightning Web!

  I spread out branches of lightning from each finger, expanding and spreading them out above me, like an electric spider web. He couldn't avoid this, but it wasn't all that damaging either. He was pretty high up, and the farther I spread out the lightning branches, the weaker they get.

  Also, it's hard to maintain.

  He was getting zapped all over, but it probably felt no worse than static shocks after walking on a thick carpet.

  Forget it, I sighed as I deactivated the attack……this move burns up way more Mana than it's worth anyway.

  Well, then……I drew out my sword and held the handle between my teeth, while charging up lightning inside both my wrists.

  I'll put most of what I have left into this blast.

  At the same time, he began spinning his nunchucks, rotating, compressing and pressurizing the air around him.

  Looks like he understood what I was going for.

  With this much distance between us, we were both having no trouble dodging normal attacks from each other……in that case, we'll both use attacks that can't be dodged, whoevers' is more powerful, wins.

  It was the same way our last duel had ended, but this time……it was going to be conclusive.

  My wrists began glowing, as the arena began to feel like the inside of a hurricane as Einn's wind grew in scale and power.

  His face appeared to be strained……guess he was having trouble breathing with the amount of wind spinning around him. It was so rapid that it would probably shred a human into mincemeat the moment it comes into contact with them.

  Alright, here goes……I held up my hands and swung my head across, the blade cleaving off my hands above the wrists.

  Now, then……

  Lightning Incineration Canon, Hands-Free!

  "Alright, take this……Death Cyclone!"

  Oh, wow……he yells out his attack names.

  Respect.

  The impact rattled the stadium, static electricity filled the air as I felt my hair standing up. The two massive blasts clashed for a moment, seeming to stop in mid-air for a split second as neither was able to overpower the other, before they violently dispersed in every direction from the point of impact.

  I dodged blade-like blasts of wind that were sent out from the point of impact, along with thick streaks of rapid lightning. I was using my maximum speed, but this was like trying to stay dry while at the bottom of the damned ocean!

  Yeah, dodging all of this……is impossible.

  I lost my left leg to a blade of wind and my right arm to a streak of lightning as I ran out of room to evade, before I found myself teleported out, right before a stray lightning blast took off my head.

  Damn it, I los- as I blinked, Einn appeared next to me, teleported out as well. As the chaos inside died down, the visible damage to the barrier looked pretty extensive, it was cracked so badly that it looked like even a sneeze would shatter it.

  I began growing back my missing limbs, starting with my left leg so that I could stand. My severed limbs were way too torn up to be reattached this time around, so gotta regrow them.

  This is going to drain a lot of stamina, and I only have about a tenth of my Mana left, too.

  Still, I never knew that lightning and wind react like that when they clash……I wonder if that can be scientifically explained, or if it's a phenomenon only possible with the magically generated lightning and wind of this world.

  Either way……that had been quite a sight.

  "I suppose that's a draw……I didn't expect that big explosion when our attacks met," Laughed Einn, with a bemused expression.

  "Nah, I was teleported out first, so I lost……I'll beat you next time, though," I replied, standing up as my missing leg finished growing back.

  "You're welcome to try, I'll take you on any time!"

  I headed back to the waiting room, nearly done healing as I reached it. I felt exhausted though, regrowing two limbs sapped a ton of stamina, that along with my severely depleted Mana made for a seriously draining combination.

  As I sat down to rest up a bit, I didn't watch the next two matches……the results were that Gela lost hers while Instructor Trocuelo won his.

  And then, it was down to the final match. Persia against the top A-Ranked Adventurer.

  As the king activated the barrier and began to declare the start of the fight……a loud explosion from a section of the crowd stunned all of us, as horrified screams rang out and echoed across the stadium.

  It was happening.

  As more explosions sounded from outside the stadium, I rushed out of the waiting room and towards the arena as fast as I could. As I ran out into the open, another explosion burst out from where the crowd was seated, followed by another, and another.

  I got a good look at that last one.

  I saw a white-robe teleporting there holding a Blood Crystal……in other words, these were suicide bombers! But how were they teleporting here, you need the specific coordinates to- ……oh, no.

  How could I have overlooked such an important detail!?

  So that's what Valse had been doing when I spotted him the other day……he was getting location coordinates to use to teleport these suicide bombers into specific locations. And I'd seen him getting the coordinates of a location near the Forbidden Zone……not good.

  The king deactivated the barrier, but before either Persia or her opponent could move, someone teleported to the center of the arena. Valse Darrte.

  "Advisor Darrte! What is the meaning of this-!?"

  "Oh, shut up, you incompetent excuse for a king! You are leading our great nation down the path of ruin with your pointless alliances with weak nations and abolishing of our traditions, so I and many other fellow like minded patriots have taken up arms and are staging a coup-de-tat! With the support of our long-standing allies, the Magic Research Group, of course!"

  He had a crazed look in eyes, with an unhinged grin. He was so excited that he was practically overpowering his own sanity.

  "I see……so you have chosen treason," Said the king wistfully, as his palms began to glow a golden bright light.

  "Treason? Oh, no……your very existence is treason to this nation, we are simply rectifying that-!"

  He was interrupted by a beam of bright gold, blasting into him.

  "It saddens me……I once considered you my most trusted advisor," Sighed the king, lowering his hand.

  Wow, Light Magic really can both heal and destroy.

  "It's useless! Your pitiful Light Magic cannot touch me!" Declared Valse, appearing unscathed as the smoke cleared.

  No, wait……he had a barrier around him. With a cocky laugh, he sent out a fireball at the king, who narrowly dodged it.

  I see……it was like a personal version of the one-way barrier we'd encountered against the white-robes, just big enough to hold one person.

  "Why are you doing this!? What is it that you want!?" Demanded the king.

  "To rule this nation, of course. And make no mistake, it will happen! The ten S-Ranks who were sent to clear up the road between us and the Rustlands are all dead, courtesy of the Magic Research Group! Unfortunate, but they can always be replaced. I have set up teleportation points throughout the districts and the slums, where by now there's no doubt that my allies have teleported to and culled the trash amongst the populous using those delightful Blood Crystal bombs! To that end, I should get going, my friends in the Magic Research Group have planned something grand to subdue the citizens under the new rule of the nation of Goldway……I am quite excited to see what they have up their sleeve."

  "Are you fucking stupid!?" I spoke up, "I saw you gathering the location coordinates in a spot near the Forbidden Zone……do you plan on ruling over a nation of Zombies?"

  The rest of my group, as well as the eight Goldway Adventurers we'd fought had all made their way outside now. The crowd that had been watching us had been completely wiped out by the barrage of exploding Blood Crystals.

  The king and the Adventurers looked absolutely outraged, there was a LOT of furious bloodlust being directed his way.

  "Foolish boy……you know not of what you speak, yes I did collect location data at the edge of the food district, which happens to also be the edge of the Forbidden Zone. However, that was to suppress and subdue the population within the food district. Hah! What, did you truly think that we would release the monsters within Forbidden Zone!? Madness! Such an act would mean the end of this nation, possibly the world! And even if we wanted to do so, the Spell Scroll used to deactivate the barrier was long destroyed! Now then……I really must be going, I do not want to miss the show! But first……," He smirked as he pulled out two scrolls, before turning to look at Persia, "……I need to kill you, you little bitch."

  He pulled out……a Blood Crystal.

  No……

  I desperately shot towards Persia as fast as I could, as he tossed the crystal towards her, pointing one of the scrolls at it and activating it, before throwing it aside and activating the second scroll, which teleported him away……

  The crystal landed in front of Persia, glowing brighter and brighter as she began to spring back using Propulsion.

  Damn it, no……I wasn't going to make it.

  The flash of red grew blindingly bright, the force preventing me from getting any closer.

  For a moment, I thought I saw a flash of gold, before the red grew even more overwhelmingly bright.

  No……

  As the explosion died down and the smoke began to clear, I felt panic rising up inside me.

  No……

  No, no, no……

  I took a step forward, then another one, and another, picking up my pace with each step, my breathing getting more and more uneven.

  "No……no, no, no, no……PERSIA!?!?"

  I dashed through the dust cloud towards where she had been, frantically searching for her.

  Where was she!?

  Come on……come on……I don't care about anything else, just please……let her be okay! I desperately scanned through the smoke, my eyes rapidly darting around, trying to get a glimpse of her.

  There she is!

  I dashed towards her, before crouching down on my knees as I reached her.

  She was sprawled on the ground, her right side was badly burnt, and……I felt my chest tighten as I held my breath and moved my fingers towards her neck, reaching out to feel for her pulse……

  In that moment, if felt like a dam inside me just broke. Tears began uncontrollably streaming down my face, I couldn't stop……I had never felt such an intense feeling before. I had never felt such intense……relief.

  She was alive……she was alive!

  I picked up her unconscious body in my arms and embraced her tightly, as my eyes began pouring like waterfalls, and I let out gasps of relief.

  "H-hey……that kinda hurts," She tapped my back weakly, smiling at me as my tears fell down onto her face, "You know……you look really ugly when you cry."

  I was far too relieved to think of a comeback.

  "I……was really afraid that I lost you," I whispered with a sigh of relief, smiling softly as my tears began to slow down.

  "Hey……give me more credit, I'm tougher than that," She winced as she moved her burnt arm, before the fatigue and pain caught up with her and she passed out.

  Looks like she was just asleep, that blast must have really taken a lot out of her. The heavy burns on her right side and arm suddenly began to fade, as a golden light from behind me shone on her.

  "I am thankful……it appears I was able to weaken the Blood Crystal enough to prevent any fatal damage."

  That's right……I saw a flash of gold right before the crystal exploded. I turned to the king and bowed my head.

  "Thank you. Seriously, I'm genuinely grateful from the bottom of my heart, thank you!"

  I meant every word of that……I felt immense gratitude towards the king of Goldway for saving Persia.

  The echoes of explosions were ringing out all around us……the entire country really was under attack.

  The Goldway Adventurers quickly split up, to try and take out the assailants and gather the surviving citizens.

  As for our group, we agreed to help them.

  Instructor Uensh took Persia back to the castle to get some rest, as well as to let Azyl and the others who weren't here know what was going on. Fuo went with her, in case they ran into any trouble.

  The rest of us needed to find and stop whatever the Magic Research Group was planning.

  "We should head for the Forbidden Zone. Despite what Valse said, I have a feeling that they plan to make use of it……somehow," I suggested.

  "Everything you told us today turned out to be true……very well, we shall follow your plan then," Agreed the king.

  As I led the way to the spot where I'd noticed Valse calculating location coordinates, a range of emotions were surging inside me.

  The immense relief I'd felt had now given way to a furious rage, burning inside me. I wanted to kill him in the most painful way I possibly could.

  The entire country was stained deep in blood.

  Corpses littered the streets, men, women and children, their bodies strewn all over the place. It looked like the Adventurers who had been keeping guard had also gotten caught up the explosions, their blown apart bodies lay alongside the lifeless bodies of the citizens, as billowing towers of smoke were rising up all around us.

  They had solely used suicide bombers so far……there wasn't a single living white-robe to be seen anywhere.

  Just how many Blood Crystals had they used?

  Smoke and flames were erupting all over, as far as the eye could see. They must have used dozens of those explosions, maybe even more.

  They would have had to, to cause this much widespread damage. Even I was having a hard time stomaching the chaos and blood all around us……this was an absolute massacre.

  As we neared the boundary between the Food District and the Forbidden Zone, we saw him……Valse Darrte, surrounded by about ten white-robes.

  They were all inside a barrier……probably another one-way barrier, meaning they could attack us but we couldn't attack them. And the only person we knew that could break this barrier was Azyl……unfortunately he was in the castle, having stayed in his room after opting out of the exhibition matches.

  "It is over, Advisor……no, Valse Darrte! End this now, before our nation suffers any further casualties!" Declared the king, walking up to them.

  Ideally, we should have hidden and come up with a plan before approaching them……but I guess seeing his people dead all over the streets had pushed the king over his limit.

  Even I had never directly seen this level of bloody carnage, in either of my lives.

  "End this? But it is just beginning! The star of the show will be arriving soon, so just sit back and watch!"

  Star? What was he talking about? How the hell could he be so confident when he had no idea what his 'allies' plans even were? It was painfully obvious that he was being used, did he really not see it? No, it's more like he was choosing to ignore it, he was drunk on power that wasn't yet his, and it was clouding his judgment.

  Yeah, no doubt about it.

  He had let The Magic Research Group had manipulate and use the shit out of him.

  Someone then teleported into the middle of their barrier.

  A young man with a familiar face, with brown hair parted in the middle in front, and the back tied in a short, low ponytail. He wore a white coat with a black shirt underneath, a ring with the number 4 on it as well as the curved X ring, and had the tail of a cheetah.

  "You again……Hacte Routh."

  "Hm? Oh, it's the little shit who collapsed one of our torture caves and made a fool of our lapdog……I see you're still alive," He greeted me disdainfully.

  Vi, Gela and Instructor Trocuelo glared at him, bloodlust emanating from all of them. Guess that torture was still pretty fresh in their minds.

  "What do you want with our nation?" Demanded King Aurich.

  "The nation itself, of course. The Magic Research Group……well, I suppose we won't be calling ourselves that for much longer……anyway, we're tired of operating out of scattered hideouts in monster infested zones, we lose so much human capital to those things, and it's such a waste of material……"

  "Er, sir Routh? What are you talking about, this is not what I-," Began Valse, looking confused.

  "……and so, we will destroy this nation, and then rebuild it for ourselves."

  As he smirked menacingly, I saw multiple red glows from the corner of my right eye, before a massive, deafeningly loud explosion shook the ground like a violent earthquake, as shards of debris came flying out.

  That had……come from the right……oh, no.

  The walls surrounding the Forbidden Zone were crumbling down, a deafening clang erupting through the air as the massive gate fell forward, with nothing left to support it. As the dust cleared, the sight that met my eyes gave me chills.

  A massive, massive barrier, shimmering dark purple, in the shape of a box, and inside it……I could see tens of thousands……no, hundreds of thousands……maybe even more, creatures moving around inside it.

  "Now that that's out of the way……," Smiled Hacte, pulling out a scroll and pointing it towards the barrier, "It's time for you all to die."

  So, not only could they deactivate literally the most powerful type of barrier in the world……but they could do it remotely too. Not to mention that we were a good five hundred plus meters away from the barrier.

  "Not……good," I muttered, as the barrier began to slowly dissipate.

  "What is the meaning of this!? I demand an-!"

  "You demand nothing of me, filthy swine," Hacte interrupted in disgust, before pushing Valse out of the one-way barrier, "Well, I don't want to get caught up in that disgusting swarm of monsters……so I'm leaving. Let's see……was the teleport point over……here? Hm, maybe a bit to the left?"

  Damn it, he was just casually leaving and we couldn't do a thing to stop him with that one-way barrier in our way.

  "N-no, wait……you can't leave me here-!"

  He disappeared with a smirk, the white-robes inside the barrier going with him.

  The Forbidden Zone barrier was almost down……we would have to run soon. We can't fight those numbers. We can't stay here any longer.

  But before that, I needed to take care of one thing.

  "I……I-I was betrayed!? Un-unthinkable, I was going to rule this nation-!"

  It's too bad……I'm not going to be able to make this bastard suffer before I kill him, there's just not enough time.

  "Fucking die, you piece of shit," I interrupted with a cold, blank glare, as I slashed his head off of his shoulders, splattering his blood across the street as his headless body collapsed onto the ground……

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  Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Don't forget to vote, and feel free to leave a comment, I appreciate any and all feedback and criticism! Also, check out my Instagram account @aimdaqs for posts relating to this book.