I groaned, struggling to move due to my broken bones and torn muscles. They were healing, of course. They always would, saving me from any mistakes I made. Had I become desensitized to situations like these?

I placed my focus back on the issue at hand. The ground was rumbling, and a crown had appeared around us, with the crater at the center. That meant that bugs were coming, which in turn meant a whole load of points were about to burrow out of the ground. Problem was: Arcellus was still here. Even worse: the crown would be visible for kilometers around. The other teams wouldn’t pass up this opportunity, not even the ones that were farming their teammates like cattle.

The origin of the crown remained a mystery for now. All I knew was that this place would turn into a chaotic battlefield, with nearly 500 competitors all vying for points and territory while the bugs endeavored to kill us all.

Finally managing to lift myself above the rubble, I took stock of my surroundings.

“Huh. It’s bigger.” I muttered to myself. Indeed, it was. The crown, which would normally already be quite large, had turned into a giant, broad enclosure. The boulders behind me, the shrubbery in the distance, all were included in the soon-to-be battlefield, leading me to believe that perhaps the creation of this crown hadn’t been a coincidence after all. The organizers were trying to capitalize on the spectacle Arcellus and I had made, they were trying to escalate things even further. Whether this had been their plan from the start or whether they had improvised, I couldn’t know.

I heard mutterings and footsteps behind me, so I turned to their source: Karon.

“If you’re going to be competing for this crown, the deal’s off, Karon.” I greeted him stoically.

Karon shook his head and chuckled, the rest of his group falling in line behind him.

“You’ve done your part of the deal, Arthur. Consider our agreement completed. I hope you’ll forgive me for not letting you get the monopoly on the crown this time. This place is starting to look like the stage for the final battle, you see.” he remarked with a fake smile.

I waved his concerns away, though.”

“Forget about it, Karon. I don’t think I can keep anyone away from this place. Stay in your section of the place and I might not get in your way. Much.”

Light groaning on the other side of the crater alerted me to the fact that Arcellus was waking up from his nap. Apparently, he hadn't been wounded enough to be teleported away. Shame. Though, I supposed his help would be appreciated in the coming minutes.

~scene break~

Several minutes later, more and more groups were arriving and entering the circle, while the bugs kept us all waiting. For some reason, they still hadn’t bothered to actually show themselves, causing my competition to quickly increase in number. At least they weren't exactly fond of one another, either. Karon’s group was having a staredown with two other groups, who were snarling at him in anger. Meanwhile, John’s group, which had been the most recent group to arrive, was faced with Rictas and his band, who had all joined some kind of mega-alliance, composed of at least 50 people.

A few more groups, all of which had their own grudges and history, were acting similarly, causing the tension in the crown to rise. Eventually, I was starting to wonder which would happen first: the bugs burrowing out of the ground or two alliances losing their patience and starting the battle earlier.

Surprisingly, I didn’t have to wait long.

One of the alliances I didn’t know drew their weapons. Their opponents matched their actions. Then, it was only a matter of who swung first. The other alliances didn’t bother keeping pretenses up anymore after that and rushed at their respective rivals.

The next ten minutes were a bloodbath. People were constantly being sent back to the arena, but the first of the casualties were already starting to return to their factions, reinforcing their numbers. It didn’t help that more and more alliances were arriving, which included a few familiar faces. Cerion, for example, had become the leader of a small but powerful group that was tearing through contestants all willy-nilly, uncaring of their affiliation. The enigmatic mercenary X has struck out on his own and was acting similarly.

All kinds of skills and elements were flying haphazardly through the air. Flaming balls of oil caused burning patches of the stuff to trap people, while Cerion’s waves were tearing the weaker contestants a new asshole, so to speak.

Truthfully, the only people who weren’t bothering with the battle so far were Arcellus and me. No, we were focused on what was to come. Since we didn’t have alliance mates, there weren’t any revenge points for us to farm anyway.

A few minutes later, an event notification finally brought some clarity to the situation.

Event notification: All competitors have entered the regal crown! Earn exponentially more points by staying in the crown longer than your competition. From now on, any person that is knocked out inside of the crown will permanently be eliminated. Those that leave the crown will be eliminated.

Event notification: Earn points by defeating your own alliance members OR by taking revenge for them. The last member standing of each alliance will receive points!

Well. That certainly spiced things up. Betraying your alliance directly now awarded points as well, meaning that there was no point in subterfuge anymore. Furthermore, alliance members also counted as competitors, so outlasting them rewarded points by itself.

Sure enough, all of the competitors that were in the middle of the heated battle paused for a moment to read their notifications, considering their new options. Then, one solemn voice broke the silence, rising above the rumbling sound the insects were making below us. He was dressed like an easterner and had strange orbs attached to a necklace he was wearing. His palms were pressed onto one another, as if in prayer.

“Everyone, I have a proposition. Why don’t we abate this senseless series of conflicts. It doesn’t create a good image for the people of Roa if we act like brutes willing to do the utmost for the sake of glory. If we simply call for a truce and fight the bugs together, to the last man standing, everyone can get a fair chance.”

I chuckled as I processed what he had just said. I could see John agreeing with a proposition like that, but the rest of these desperate folk? They would see this competition for what it was: a show. Nobody truly died, and people’s motivations were superficial at best. That meant that they wouldn’t stick to their morals and principles as tightly as they might in a life and death situation. I doubted that Rictas would sacrifice his teammates in a real combat situation, for example.

Sure enough, mocking sounds of protest erupted shortly after the easterner made his proposal. Hold on… an easterner? Wasn’t there a seeded participant that was an easterner? Gaion or something. No, Gaier. No wait…

Before I could remember his name, Gaiur spoke up again.

“I’m afraid I must insist, everyone. The actions you have all shown me so far have been far from honorable. As a result, I feel I must intervene.”

At this, people just started jeering at him.

“And who the fuck are you to tell me what to do, baldie? This is a fucking competition, dumbass!” someone said.

“All of our behavior reflects our virtue, stranger. We must create the habit to be good, to do the right thing, even when it benefits us more to be cruel.”

I grinned, liking what this guy was saying. This wasn’t exactly the time or the place, though.

Before Gaior could continue to explain, several people lost their patience and charged at him, seeing him as a weak target to be eliminated first.

They weren’t ready for the house-sized boulder Gaer pulled out of the ground and threw at them, though. Before it hit them, cracks in the rock started to appear and lit up, before the boulder blew up, sending everyone nearby flying.

Then, all hell broke loose. The fighting continued, while Gaia fought off the few that were still hellbent on refuting his philosophies. Everyone else just fought however was closest, some even stabbing their alliance mates in the back, only to be eliminated themselves right after.

Not wanting to lose out on the points available to me, I jumped into a tight group of people and created a maelstrom, cutting into them. From there, a chaotic battle where friend and foe were indistinguishable ensued.

Arcellus joined the brawl this time, picking off groups of contestants. Just when the skirmish looked like it couldn’t escalate further, the organizers made their move. Finally, the bugs made their appearance.

And eliminated dozens of participants the moment they appeared.

I almost couldn’t believe my eyes as I saw the swarm of insect monsters tear through our unorganized group of desperate fools. All of them were the tier 3 variants we had met earlier. Two armored centipedes made an appearance. They were the same size as the one I had struggled to beat by myself. Well, ‘struggle’ was a big word, but still. That was just the start. The dragonflies had appeared, along with a catalog of creepy crawlies fit for nightmares. A strange beetle that shot fire out of his backside, an armored bug that rolled itself into a ball, a giant bug that seemed to have sticks for legs…

The battle between contestants quickly turned into one of man versus monster, all thoughts of points basically forgotten, buried under the adrenaline that we all felt, that even I felt. Still, I couldn’t forget about the main objective of the round. I had to get points. That meant that slaughtering these tier 3’s was paramount.

Remembering the tough armor of the centipedes, I decided to hunt the dragonflies instead. Launching myself into the sky with a blast, I redirected my flight at one of the speedy creatures and jumped onto its back while it was distracted by other prey. I wasted no time and cut it right in half with a sword arc that stretched the length of its entire body, before setting my sights on another one.

As the two halves of a body fell to the earth below, a rumble and the sight of a giant wave of fire notified me of Arcellus’ own hunt, which had charred a strange spider rapidly.

Meanwhile, Cerion had sent a cyclone of water at the flame-spouting bug, carving into its flesh in seconds and killing it.

Slowly, the other contestants seemed to remember that they were supposed to be the hunters, not the prey, and they gathered with their alliance to start taking down tier 3’s of their own.

As I repeated my strategy with another dragonfly, taking advantage of its flimsy defenses, I heard the ground rumble again, more bugs burrowing out of the ground. There were dozens of the fuckers, and not nearly enough humans to deal with them.

Slowly, participants started dying off, unable to keep up with the influx of tier 3’s. I didn’t have time to see how they died, but no doubt it was a mix of monster and human action. Some bad eggs would still be betraying their mates, even in this situation.

Our numbers started to thin quickly, especially since stronger people like me weren’t exactly focussing on helping to protect the weaker ones. It was still every man for himself.

As the number of insects increased yet again, I started to realize what the event notification had really meant with ‘gain points for staying in the crown longer than your competition’. The swarm that was accosting us had grown to the point of being insurmountable. They were even starting to push back against me and Arcellus, as well as the other seeded participants.

Gaier and some light girl were doing well hunting the bigs at their own pace, but Karon and X were having difficulties. X’s weapons weren’t much use against the tough armor of certain bugs, and they didn’t cut deeply enough on their own to kill the weaker ones. Meanwhile, Karon was having trouble actually putting the big lugs down permanently. Fire wasn’t very effective against their exoskeleton, unless you counted Arcellus’ sun-based flames, and trapping giant monsters in oil wasn’t easy either. It wouldn’t be mana-efficient, at least.

And that brought me to the final issue, mana-efficiency.

As I jumped from bug to bug, cutting into their head and dodging the tougher bugs that were aiming for me, I was constantly regenerating mana, keeping me topped up. Others couldn’t say the same, usually.

About ten minutes later, most of the other competitors had been defeated. Only the strongest were left, such as the seeded participants and exceptions like John and Rictas, which were still clashing and competing for kills. All in all, I would say that there were about thirty people left.

With the end in sight, I focused on defeating as many of the bugs as I could.

Then, something peculiar happened. A loud screech pierced through the air, its origin veyµry obviously inhuman. The bugs stilled and burrowed underground, as if commanded to.

I tried to rush after them, but refused to follow them into their tunnels, which were quickly caving in. All of us who remained were breathing heavily, staring around in confusion, until the rumbling ground stopped.

A moment later, the sound returned, more uniform than before. Slowly, a giant green bulb pushed its way out of the ground. It didn’t look like any bug I had ever seen before… no, it looked like… an egg?

We heard a thump, and the egg shook. Then another. Another shake. Slowly, I started to feel a creeping sensation. It took me a moment to realize mana sense had triggered, and was picking up on a presence. A single, familiar, presence. The presence that had coated all of the other bugs’ mana like a coat.

The hive mind.

Then, with no warning, the egg burst open.