When the daylight finally came, all the participants of the tournament gathered in the middle of the colosseum. There were more than a thousand of them, some participants looked nervous, tightly holding onto their weapons while others stood nonchalantly, waiting for the games to start.

Surrounding them, the spectators were cheering for the participants, as if this were a sports event and not a fight to the death event.

In the middle of this gathering of these mighty warriors were the king and the elven princess standing on top of a floating white marble platform.

“Ladies and Gentlemen, I declare that the first tournament of our kingdom shall commence! The first part will consist of a battle royal! You will be transported to a separate dimension in which you will fight till only one of you remains. Killing your opponent is forbidden and you will be immediately transported to the infirmary when you are defeated. Aside from this, there are no other rules! Now go and bring us honor!”

Snapping his fingers, the competitors disappeared from sight and several floating monitors appeared before each spectator, displaying the different areas of the dimension.

The place where the warriors arrived looked like a jungle with ancient ruins peeking out from the ocean of trees.

The second, the warriors arrived, they jumped on each other to thin out their numbers. Some ganged up on the most dangerous ones while others decided that it would be more profitable to work alone.

Appearing in a small clearing was a tall brown hooded figure standing immobile, with its insectoid legs sticking out from his robe.

“Let’s start with the preparations.”

Phil lifted his book up and started to read aloud a prayer while he simultaneously activated his [Mold Field] skill.

“Mother Nature, Shaker of Earth, hear my prayer and grow my garden. Plant growth!”

As a green glow started to be emitted from his book, the field of white flowers quickly took over the vegetation surrounding him.

“Magic Prayer: Garden of Nergal.”

Once there was nothing more around him than the flowers, he slammed his book shut and exhaled a thick cloud of black smoke, releasing several disfigured wilds.

“Go and attack. If it's an animal, kill it and bring it here. If it is not, just put it near death.”

The monster roared and ran into the woods, leaving their masters alone.

“Now then, let's get this show on the road.”

Phil inhaled deeply and as he exhaled, an ever-denser cloud of black smoke escaped his mouth., teaming with unimaginable things.

“Who knows how long this game will last, it's time to prepare for a long day.”

As more smoke escaped from his mouth, he started to pray again.

“Winds of the sky hear the words of a small sinner who begs for your audience. Guide my voice to your ears so that it may reason in your mind and may your glory be spread through the world of mortals.-

*****

Random elven warriors POV:

“AAAAAa!”

The elf parried the strike of his adversary and kicked him in the guts making him fall forward, losing consciousness in the process.

“Another one is gone.”

“Hey mate! How are you doing?”

Running to him were the members of his own group.

“Yeah, just a bastard from that monster’s group. He was tough.”

“What I heard; they were bred to be that strong. It makes you wonder what the hell did they do to their own children.”

“Really? Damn, this is going to be a pain to deal with.”

Rustle.

The elves jumped as they heard the sound of something moving in the foliage of the trees.

“Be prepared! There can be monsters hiding here!”

They held their weapons high, but when nothing happened, they put them away and started to move deeper into the woods, looking more for their kind and hunting for any adversaries.

“What’s that?”

Not far away from them, a pack of the disfigured monsters was seen carrying something to the other edge of the forest.

“Let’s follow them. We might find something “

Crushing on the ground, we followed the monsters, arriving at the edge of a flowery field.

“What in the-“

From every side of the field, monsters came and put their loot on the ground, only for them to rise again as deformed abominations.

In the middle of the field, was a veritable black tornado, the winds carrying the rambling of something sinister.

“Is this part of the tournament?”

“Whatever it is, we need to get as far away as we can.”

Rustle.

Behind them, they heard something stepping on a branch.

It was a deformed abomination, a mismatched body parts of a gray bear, a wolf, and some sort of insect, held together by some sort of green substance.

The elves screamed as the monster jumped on them.

*****

“OH, ANOTHER GROUP BIT THE DUST!”

The crowd cheered as a group of elves appeared in the colosseum, barely alive, which was taken away by the nurses who were on standby.

“Wow, that’s a nice tornado! It reminds me of Atlas when we first met.”

Amongst the spectators, an old woman looked happy as she was watching the screen, while her daughter was holding onto a taste of holt chocolate.

“Please Mama, don’t tell me another story about one of my uncles. I can’t even look some of them in the eyes anymore.”

“Bah, you kids are too sensible! In my day, we weren’t bothered by things like that. I remember when I was your age-“

“Mother!”

A few seats away from them, a black-cloaked figure was sitting alone and was talking to someone through a golden coin.

“Go forward a few steps… Yes, then turn right. You will meet a group of idiots that way, you can dispose of them, but do it quickly, some of the pets of Rot are nearby.”

“OH, WOULD YOU LOOK AT THAT!”

The presenter's voice boomed as the screen of the spectators shifted to an ongoing battle.

Standing on a cliff that was overlooking the entire valley, two competitors were engaged in ferocious combat.

Both of them were lightly armored and used short swords, their silhouette disappearing and reappearing as their weapons collided.

“Tch, just die already!”

One of them jumped away to catch its breath,

It was a ranger from the elven tribe, its body wrapped entirely in bandages and a leather armor chest piece. On its shoulders was a short bow and a quiver full of arrows.

“That’s my fucking line.”

The other one also stopped moving and spit out a mouthful of blood.

It was a rogue from the lizard man tribe wearing almost nothing more than a loincloth, its scaly back stuck with several arrows, but it didn’t seem to hinder its speed.

The two of them stared at each other for a long time, before they jumped at each other again.

Some of the spectators cheered, and others started to look for another fight.

As this went on, deep beneath the colosseum, in the tunnels, the kayeri were in an uproar.

They carried all their stuff in crates which were later put onto the specially made wilds to be transported off-site.

The ants also evacuated, carrying their larvae through their tunnels to safety. Even the still sleeping queen was carried away, the ants making sure not to wake her up, fearing what she would do.

Meanwhile, the black knights were gathering in the entrance of the tunnels, fully armored to the teeth with specially made living weapons ready for their signal.

And without anyone noticing it, at the deepest parts of the tunnels, where the green upside-down heart was, the organ was beating faster than ever.

The being which was made from hundreds upon hundreds of dungeon monsters felt that the time from which it was created was coming.

Soon, very soon, it may be set free.

****

As the tornado was growing tall enough for everyone to see it, a silver armored knight ran through the forest, crushing anything in its passage. Keeping up with him was another party of knights all having highly valuable weapons and armors.

“We are here!”

The knight stopped in his tracks, looking down on an abominable sight.

On a field filled with white flowers corpses of monsters were lying everywhere, pulsating, and reshaping while greenish-black mold growing on them.

At the center of the field, the tornado was spinning with great speed, as the wind carried arcane chants with it.

The leading knight took a deep breath and shouted.

“PHIL! WE CAME TO END YOU!”

Brusquely the tornado stopped and flew into the air, becoming an ominous black cloud.

Once in the eye of it, a brown capped figure was standing motionless, holding a brown book in its spinal arms.

“Who are you again?”

“Bastard, did you forget about me?!”

“It's just you guys are too far away from me, and you are wearing a helmet.”

The figure grabbed his cloak and took it off showing the world its disgusting figure.

A cylindrical insect, with a bloated belly, six arms, and an oval head, was dripping a blackish liquid from its mouth.

“Can we not do this? I am about to finish my plan to end this whole game as quickly as I can.”

“What are you talking about?”

“You guys saw the tornado that I was spinning just now, right? The winds contained a special kind of poisons, which are stored in the cloud over my head. I now just need to do the right prayer and then Boom! The poison spread out, everyone sick, the game’s ended and if I am lucky this whole thing is canceled.”

“…You really don’t remember me, do you?”

“Not the slightest.”

The knight stabbed his greatsword into the ground and took off his helmet, showing his handsome face, which had some scales running under his eyes.

“I am the eldest son of the king. By the rights given me, I declare that you, Phil Smith, are a danger to our kingdom and must be immediately executed.”

“… No, I still can’t remember you. Still, I hoped that I could miss out on the fighting in this first part of the game.”

The nearest pill of flesh socked, and several tentacles soot out from it, tipped with harpooned-shaped bones.

With A speed unlike any other, the owner carrying a huge shield lumped forward taking on the attacks.

“Go!”

At his signal, his comrades rushed into the garden, moving like a well-oiled machine.

From the ground several more tentacles shout out, grabbing one of them on the ankles.

“Fire Magic: Charred Ground!”

The mage, who had a crimson red staff, slammed its feet on the ground, burning the flowers and the wines into ash.

“Keep moving forward! Burn anything that’s in your way!”

“Sigh, fine then. Come to me, my children. Protect your father.”

Around the monster, the pieces of fleshes started to move as if pulled by a magnet.

The sight was so grotesque that the knights stopped in their tracks and could only watch as the formless blob was taking on a new form.

Six insectoid legs supporting a huge body that seemingly belonged to a man clad in black armor, made from the bones and hides of the dead creatures.

Its head was a deformed mess of flesh and blood shot eyes, looking down on the enemy as if they were insects.

In its hands, the giant held two long swords that were made from the bones of different monsters that were held together by pulsating green flesh.

Meanwhile, the monster, sitting underneath this thing, regurgitated several weapons all made from bones, coated with pulsating green flesh, or had living eyeballs in them.

“Since we are doing this, I should present myself, considering I am about to go through an evolution and a name change. “

From the forests, several more deformed monsters came, roaring and groaning in anger.

The giant’s chest opened up in a way that an insect mouth would, revealing several spike-lined tendrils and two glowing lumps of heart-like organs.

“I am the Father of The Kayeri, The Pioneer of Medicine, the one bearing the title Plague Father, Darwin Tim Right! Please remember it as I am sending you to hell.”

*

*

*

[Time till evolution: 6 Hours.]