Alex’s face instinctively scrunched up in disgust when he saw the monster that had just spawned before him. The giant rat-like creature stood on its hind legs, matching him in height. Even though it stood a few meters away, its stench reached Alex, and he fought the nauseating smell that trickled into his nose from making him vomit.

Bull-Rat HP: 150

Points: 5

The revolting creature looked straight at Alex, matching his gaze, then turned around and started walking away. As it moved, a thin, red circle highlighted on the ground remained centered around the over-sized rat, matching its movement.

That’s the aggression radius. Alex thought. As long as I don’t enter that circle, I won’t draw aggro from it, and it won’t attack me.

Alex waited a moment, hoping another monster would quickly spawn so that he could ignore the grotesque rat, but there was nothing. With a sigh, he reluctantly approached the monster and entered the red circle. The rat swung around immediately and assumed an aggressive stance, hunching forward. It bore its rodent teeth out as it let out a windy hiss.

The smell from this distance spun Alex’s stomach. I’d rather not touch this thing if I can avoid it.

The Bull-Rat snapped its tail on the ground and pounced at him. Alex sidestepped to evade the lunge and placed his palm a few inches from the monster’s fur. With a quick activation of Spirit Blast, an explosion of energy erupted from his palms, blasting the rat back a short distance.

Alex checked the status screen above to see how much damage he did. He clenched his jaw when he saw the result.

120 HP? I only did 30 damage with that attack? … It must be because I’m still level 4. These things are scaled to fight against level 10s. Maybe I should forgo trying to preserve my spirit energy

The enemy turned around to face Alex and charged at him once again. This time Alex failed to dodge, and a swipe from the enemy’s claw tore a chunk of flesh from the side of his chest.

HP: 91/100

Damn. I would’ve taken only a few points of damage as a Knight. As a Spirit Fighter, I gotta be more careful.

More monsters started spawning around Alex but he ignored them; this rat was going to get some payback. He brushed off the fact that a piece of his chest had been ripped off. He didn’t feel any pain from it, after all, and every event in the Dominion Games played out through an HP stat, not actual physical damage.

Slightly pissed off and revolted that something so hideous got him, Alex entered Tiger Form and a flaming energy rushed through him, releasing orange aura around his body. With this heightened sense of power, Alex quickly dashed in and delivered a Tiger Fist at his foe. The tiger-shaped energy surrounding his fist dug into the giant rat, knocking it to the ground and dropping its HP to just under 80.

Before the enemy could get up, he slammed two more tiger fangs into its rat body, killing it on the spot. On the corner of his vision, Alex saw his point score rise to 5/100.

Hmmm. I wonder if this competition has a score board. He willed open a leader board screen and confirmed his suspicion. This screen showed how every participant was doing, displaying the total points everyone had accrued so far. The person in first place already had 11 points, and a few others trailed closely behind. Not bad. I gotta pick it up.

He turned around and surveyed the arena. There were around ten identical blob-like monsters scattered around him.

Slime HP: 50

Points: 1

Alex ignored them. They were only worth one point, and because he was at a level disadvantage, it would take him longer than average to kill them. Besides, he’d waste a lot of spirit energy killing them.

More and more monsters continued to spawn, turning the arena into a giant pool of strange creatures. Red circles covered a good portion of the ground, and he’d have to be careful not to pull aggro from too many monsters, or else he’d get swarmed. He had to pick his battles carefully.

At the far end of the arena, a behemoth of a monster spawned, shaking the ground with its arrival.

Colossus HP: 1,250

Points: 55

The humanoid-shaped monster was massive—easily the size of a building— and it appeared to be made of the same material. It held a giant white club which it dragged along the ground as it slowly swayed with each step.

Hell no. Alex thought. That thing will take forever to kill. Besides, one swing from its club will probably drop my HP to zero. This one’s too big, but the slimes are too small. I gotta find some monsters that are just right.

He checked the leader board and saw that people’s scores were shooting up. There wasn’t much time left to be picky.

With a quick scan of the battlefield, he finally found his next target.

Spore Plant

HP: 280

Points: 10

The stationary plant stood in place, its vines dancing around it like over-zealous tentacles. Alex had fought them before, so he knew exactly how they worked. Individually, the spore plants were weak, but they had a nasty little trick to them. Every second engaged in combat with the plant, there was a chance that cotton ball-like spore would attach to you. And every second that any Spore Plant in the vicinity remained alive, there was a chance that the spore would detonate, causing a large explosion which did considerable damage.

It wasn’t the safest bet, but Alex didn’t have much choice. In preparation to engage with the monster, he swapped forms, and the orange aura that engulfed him was replaced with purple aura. As he entered the plant’s red circle, vines started snapping at him like whips. Luckily for him, the vines traveled slowly, and it didn’t take much effort to dodge them.

He activated Dragon Head and slammed the dragon-shaped energy constructs that extended from his arms into the enemy. The plant barely moved with each strike, but its HP dropped slowly. Alex kept up his assault, striking at the plant from a distance while dodging its vines and making sure not to enter another monster’s red circle.

As its HP neared zero, a white, cotton-looking ball sprouted up on Alex’s shoulder.

Damn, I already got a spore? I need to rush and kill all the Spore Plants before it detonates.

With another slam of the dragon’s head, Alex killed the monster, adding the 10 points to his total. But he wasn’t in the clear. The spore remained on his shoulder, meaning that there was at least one other Spore Plant in the arena. If he didn’t kill it soon, the spore would detonate.

He spotted the other plant nearby and moved in to battle it. Just as with the first one, he opted to keep his distance and use the dragon heads to attack. A short moment after engaging with the second plant, the spore on his shoulder began to pulse.

Alex gritted his teeth. Crap.

An explosion of white erupted on his shoulder, leaving him dazed for a moment. He quickly shook it off and backed away from the plant to check the damage he’d sustained.

44/100 HP.

Cursing his low durability, he backed away from the plant and disabled Dragon Form to save his spirit energy. Those spores do way too much damage. One more of those explosions and I’m done for.

Alex opened the leader board and checked how the others were doing. His eyes sprang open when he saw the top score: 58 points. Second place had 31. Not believing what he was seeing, he checked the name of the person in first place. It was someone named Max Dorlan.

Who the hell is that? And how’s he doing so well at level 10?

He closed the leader board and turned his focus back to the task at hand. With only 15 points, he was starting to fall behind. But not for a lack of opportunity, the entire arena was now full of monsters, and he’d have to be extremely careful not to trigger aggro from any monster that he didn’t intend to fight.

Half the battle of the first round was simply picking which monsters to engage with. Some were weak but gave very few points, while others were powerful and gave a lot of points. Trying to balance that scale between enemy strength and point value was key in this challenge.

But Alex couldn’t afford to be too cautious, it was time for a risky play. His spirit energy was depleting, and he needed points quickly. He ignored any monster worth less than 30 points as he tried to find his next opponent. Eventually, he spotted what seemed like the jackpot.

Mirage Phoenix

HP: 999,999,999

Points: 100

Alex smiled devilishly when he read the monster’s name. Just like with the Spore Plant, he’d encountered this one before, too.

The phoenix sailed through the sky overhead, far above any of the other monsters in the arena. A cluster of orange sparkles covered the phoenix like a thin veil, giving it a majestic look that contrasted greatly with the other monsters. A double-finned tail trailed behind its body, matching it in length, and creating a trail of glitzy orange.

Assuming this is the same phoenix as the one I saw in the past, that tail is the key. Alex thought. The key to dispelling the mirage and getting me to the next round. But how do I get to it with no ranged attacks…

The answer came to him with a quick inspection of the arena. There was only one way to reach the phoenix, and the ground-shaking monster was the answer.

He made his way to the colossus and waited just outside its red circle until the orange bird’s flight path brought it directly overhead. Once he stepped inside, the colossus turned to him, and raised its gigantic club above its head at a lumbering speed. Alex waited for the perfect moment and rolled to the side as the club crashed into the ground beside him. The tremors from the ground rattled him but he quickly composed himself and got on his feet.

As the giant club lifted off the ground, Alex ran up to it and hopped on top. His bodily control was put to the test as he balanced himself on the rising club. Thankfully, the light foot that the Spirit Fighter class gave him, allowed him to nimbly race down to the club as it moved through the air. He reached the giant’s hand and continued his ascent via the monster’s arm and shoulder. When he reached the colossus’ head, the phoenix was still a few feet away. But still within reach if he took a risk.

Alex ignored the steep drop below and took aim at the phoenix. With a Pulse Dash off of the giant’s head, he launched toward his target. The phoenix spotted him once he entered it’s red circle, and it took off upwards, trying to avoid the assault. It moved quick, and Alex’s body soon reached its peak and stopped ascending, leaving his target still out of reach.

Damn it! He cursed as he felt his body start to drop. Might as well try this. Purple aura surged through him and he threw a dragon head at the orange bird. The dragon’s jaws snapped at the phoenix and gripped it in a firm clench. Alex held on tightly to his prize as he plummeted to the ground.

A shock wave of impact rippled through Alex’s body when he hit the ground, but there was no pain. With a quick glance of his HP he saw just how close he cut it.

HP: 4/100.

With no time to count his blessings, he slammed the phoenix into the ground and stepped on its tail to make sure it wouldn’t move. He swapped back over to Tiger Form for the extra power and dug both tiger’s fangs into the phoenix’s body. Using every ounce of strength within himself, Alex pulled upwards tearing the body from the tail. The glimmer from the orange sparkles disappeared instantly, and the monster went from looking like a dignified phoenix to a regular old bird.

Mirage Phoenix

HP: 1

Points: 100

Just like that, the illusion was gone. Alex swatted the bird away dismissively, and it disappeared in a poof of feathers. His score rapidly climbed up to 100 and he felt himself get transported once again.

A short moment later, he found himself back in the pod and he let out a sigh of relief. I just barely got away with that one.

He pulled up the leader board on the screen in front of him. His name was at the top written in gold; the only one to achieve 100 points so far. Next was Max with 85 points. A few others lingered around 60 points, competing closely for third place. Once again, he found himself wondering about this person. Who is he? If he’s this good at such a low level, how come I never heard of him in the previous timeline?

Max’s score hit 100 a few minutes later, turning his name gold, too. Alex sat patiently in his pod as more and more contestants hit 100 points. He checked the names of the first few people to complete the first round to see if he recognized any. None of them rang a bell, and he quickly started ignoring them. In a way, the first two rounds were just elimination matches; a way to qualify for the third round which was considered the real event. Alex decided that he wouldn’t start worrying about his fellow competitors until then.

The 64th contestant finally hit 100 points, and a siren went off, signaling the end of the first round.

A message appeared in the screen in front of him.

Congratulations on completing Round 1!

Preparing for Round 2…

After a brief delay, Alex found himself transported to a new arena, though this one was much smaller and circular in shape. The familiar barrier covered him again, preventing him from acting until the event officially started.

The second round is supposed to be a team event. Alex thought. So, where’s my tea-

“Huh!?” A loud voice blurted out from his left side. “You again!?”

Alex turned toward his partner and his face dropped when he saw who it was.

Oh God… why her… anybody but her…