The next morning, I once again found myself in the arena, staring at the sky listlessly. The second phase of the singles tournament would begin today, which meant that participants of all ages were filing into the stadium. Already, I could tell that there would be just as many people competing as there had been in the doubles tournament, but I had to admit that there were a lot more noteworthy people present this time.

Cerion, for one, wouldn’t be on my side this time. Informal teams and alliances were strictly forbidden. If we came across one another, at most, we could avoid battle and retreat. Working together wasn’t an option.

I saw our previous rivals milling about as well. Arcellus was still in a pensive mood, no smug smile adorning his face like at the beginning of the last category.

Karon and X were present as well, though they were standing apart from each other. I guessed they were partners, but not friends.

“So, Arthur. What do you think of your fated rival?”

I turned to Cerion with an upturned brow.

“Do you mean Arcellus? He seems calm.”

“No, no. I’m talking about the church-lady. She’s right over there!”

I looked to where he was pointing, and sure enough. A young lady adorned in white, shining armor, carrying a spear, stood there. The other contestants gave her a wide berth, and the fact that her eyes remained closed didn’t exactly invite conversation either. She used single-target light-affinity attacks, if I remembered right.

“I see her, yeah. Why is she my rival all of a sudden? Arcellus uses an element that has an advantage over mine, too.” I asked, confused.

Cerion waved a hand dismissively.

“Nothing, just what I heard some guy say to his friend earlier this morning. Rumour is that you’re a demon in disguise, and that the church sent her to exorcize you in the tournament. ‘Divine deliverance’ and all that.” he replied, chuckling.

I sighed.

“Hopefully, it’s just him that thinks that.” I murmured to myself.

“It never is, Arthur, it never is…” Cerion teased. “Oh, look. The announcer is back! Time to get this party started. You better hope you don’t meet me until the finals, Art.”

“I should be the one saying that.” I replied with a smile, before the crowd of hopefuls quietened down.

“Ladies, gentlemen and everything in between! Welcome to the second category of the tournament, the tier 2 singles tournament! Known as the highlight of the entire tournament, this particular category draws the eyes of the shakers and movers in the country! The talented youngsters that have made it this far will get the chance to prove themselves to all and gain immense fame! And don’t forget, the winner gets to choose a single item from the second level of the Royal treasury! This time, a total of 5OO tier 2 contestants will be participating! This includes all of the seeded contestants this time! It’s sure to be an interesting round, this one!”

“Now then, let’s take a look at this round’s rules! This round will be a variation of ‘King of the hill’! This round will take place in a desolate landscape cordoned off by the royal mages. This desolate landscape is dotted in small hills and boulders, which we shall call ‘crowns’. To go to the next round, contestants will have to amass points, which can only be gained by remaining within a crown’s area of influence. This time, the contestants won’t know how many points they have until the end.

Players can defeat each other, temporarily knocking their opponents out of the round. Note that no points will be gained or lost by either party, regardless. Ten minutes later, the loser will be allowed to rejoin the arena.

There is a twist, however… the rocky desert within which this round takes place is infested with tier 1, 2 and even a few tier 3 monsters. Most of the time, these monsters stay underground, but when even a single contestant enters a crown, all of the local monsters will attack that person.” the announcer said in a loud whisper, causing the spectators to ‘oo’ and ‘aa’ theatrically, playing along.

“But it’s not all bad, my dear viewers! For each monster they kill, contestants will be awarded points. On top of that, monsters will be worth more points if they have defeated other contestants!”

Aha. There’s the real twist. Other people might not pay particular attention to this part, but I could tell where this was going. The fact that there was no reward for defeating other contestants made it better to assist one another to ward off the monsters. That was contradicted by this final rule, however. Monsters would be worth more points if they had defeated others, so tricking people into getting KO’ed by monsters would be the fastest way to shoot ahead of other participants.

“With all that being said, It’s time to start the round! You will be teleported in 3…2…1… good luck!”

I grit my teeth as I felt my body twist itself to fit in an imaginary hole. When I opened my eyes again, I found myself in a desolate, sandy landscape. It resembled the area within which Cerion and I had killed those bandits a month ago, though the elevation of nearby hills and boulders was lower. The dry wind buffeted my face, and I took notice of a few small bugs, scurrying away the moment I appeared out of thin air. On the horizon, I saw a small hill, with an illusory golden crown hovering above it, so large you would be able to see it from miles away. In fact, I thought I could make out a few more in other directions. It wasn’t clear just how many crowns there were, but hopefully there wouldn’t be too many people there to poach my monsters.

Using Aura step, I threw myself in the direction of my destination.

About a minute later, I arrived. It seemed we had all been given a fair location to appear at, because there was nobody else here, since I had gotten here first. The crown area was marked by a glowing circle drawn in the sand, apparent from a distance. It was large enough to match the arena back in the capital, and from this height I could see everything for miles. The flashes of skills that occurred everywhere around me let me know that the other contestants weren’t far off now. If I waited for them, the monsters would be easier to handle, especially since the first wave would be the biggest one. On the other hand, I needed to get all the points I could while I had the monopoly. After a short moment of hesitation, I stepped into the circle.

Immediately, I realized that what I had expected to happen, was, in fact, happening. The ground shook and my [Weak mana sense] picked up on a loose congregation of mana, most of the earth affinity. It was a noticeably large amount, otherwise my mana sense wouldn’t have picked up on it, but the mana felt… floaty… bloated. If a large amount of mana usually felt like a rock, then now it felt like a bag of sand. Disjointed mana sources, all held together by… something?

A moment later, I understood just why I had gotten that impression. A shelled, brown monster dug its way out of the earth. It had three red eyes, just barely visible from the cracks in its carapace, six legs, all with sharp, hardened spikes at the end and a weird formation of horns on its head. Thick, sharp mandibles clacked when it noticed me. It looked like a bastardized ant had been merged with a wyvern. Its tail, made up of several parts the same way an insect’s leg was, had a hardened club at the end, that would no doubt break bone in one swing. It was the size of a horse, so I estimated it to be a tier two. I could deal with that, easily. Then one of its sisters joined it on the surface. Still easy to beat. Then another. And another. Then, a few more.

Before I knew it, I was surrounded by a few dozen tier 2 insects, as well as an innumerable amount of tier 1 versions of the same.

Their uniform movements and positioning, the weird feeling of combined mana-signatures I got earlier… It all told me one thing. This thing was a hivemind.

Then, they all charged. I used trusty maelstrom skill, which would buy me a temporary reprieve, since all the tier 1 bugs got shredded when they made contact. Their big sisters weren’t much better off, I only needed a single sword arc to kill them. I loved it when my enemies ran to their own death and fueled my progression. Unfortunately, this thing wouldn’t fall for that trick more than once, being a hivemind and all. Hiveminds weren’t stupid, were they?

Sure enough, now that a large number of them had already died, dyeing my sword blue with their blood, the rest were starting to become more cautious. The bugs skittered about, backing up so they could dodge my sword arcs as they emerged from my maelstrom. More than a few bugs were too stubborn to dodge, though. They tried to block my attacks, and paid the price. The sword arc tore straight through their hardened pincers and carapace, tearing the insect meat behind it apart.

I smiled. These things were weak, and the battle was going better than expected. My experience with tier 3 creatures must have tainted my danger sense.

Unfortunately, that also meant that the other contestants saw their chance.

Several warriors, archers and mages ran into the crown and started killing my prey left and right. Some even targeted those that were already dodging my attacks, effectively kill stealing.

After that happened a few times in a row, I was starting to get frustrated.

“Can you target your own monsters, fuckers!” I shouted. Some of them looked away. They had probably seen my performance in the previous category. One of them hadn’t, apparently.

“Why don’t you stop hiding behind your little shield and come hunt them yourself, pussy?” one girl taunted. She was a rogue of some kind, wielding dual daggers and dashing around.

An insult like that was hard to let slide. Furthermore, she wasn’t nearly far enough away to get away with a taunt like that. I dropped my maelstrom and used aura step to launch myself at her. With surprising speed, I flew across the hill. Before she could react, I had already appeared before her. Instead of drawing my sword, I reached for her neck and used my superior stats to lift her in the air with one hand.

Finally, her situation dawned on her. Fear and surprise became visible in her eyes, and she started to panic, repeatedly slashing at everything she could reach. It was futile. My healing was too efficient for her to deal with.

With my hand still around her throat in a vice-grip, I went to the nearest insect, which snapped threateningly. She started to realize what I was doing and started to kick and scream, her daggers stuck in my armor now. Then, I shoved her neck directly into the creature's mandibles, and watched as it chomped them closed. Before she could react, she was teleported away.

I coated my fist in dark mana, and threw a punch at the creature’s head, squashing it and covering my fist in bug brains. I didn't know how many points that netter me, but I was hoping for a lot.

Slowly, I turned to the other competitors.

I shouted loudly, so that my voice could be heard over the sound of battle.

“You have three options! Either you leave my crown within the next five seconds, or I feed you to the insects! Make your choice now, or I’ll make it for you.” I growled, trying to sound as intimidating as possible.

Apparently, I had succeeded, because just a few seconds later, half of my opponents had left. The other half… they would soon join them. One way or another.