The purple egg split into two halves and gushed out a strange green liquid. From its remnants, a strange figure appeared. All of its features were reminiscent of insects. Compound eyes, an exoskeleton with sharp protrusion and a tough carapace that the creature wore like plate armor. Its strange mix of green and purple color made it look even more alien.

And yet, the creature looked human, in a way. For starters, it was bipedal. It used two cricket-like legs to remain upright. On top of that, it had fingers that ended in sharp claws, as well as mandibles around its mouth. To summarize: it was a mix between a human and a bug, which made it all the more unsettling.

My mana was still flaring, its mana capacity well above any monster I had used the skill on before. Apart from its strange appearance, that was the only thing that made me keep my distance, cautious of its possible strength.

The newborn took in its surroundings and looked at the hesitant classers that surrounded it. Then, it turned its head to the sky and let loose a guttural, chirping screech. Right as I expected all hell to break loose, a figure flashed by, only noticeable for a moment. The bug lowered its chin violently, then stilled as a single purple line appeared on its cheek, a few streaks of purple blood leaking from the cut.

The perpetrator, who had aimed for the creature’s neck, had disappeared again, not willing to face retaliation. Unfortunately, the speedster didn’t have any choice in the matter. Before the rest of us could capitalize on the situation and take it down, it disappeared, just as its attacker had, before reappearing a hundred meters away, with an arm lifted to the sky like a spear. X, one of the seeded participants, hung limply from its arm, his chest pierced where his heart would usually be.

I sucked in a surprised grunt, though Karon wasn’t so discrete. He let out a horror-filled screech and screamed unintelligibly, before sprinting from behind the safety of his goons and creating a wave of flaming oil as he ran.

“X! You’ll pay for his death, abomination!” he screamed wrathfully. X’s limp body was teleported away, though the creature's arm remained red, stained with his blood. It wasted no time and countered the wave of oil with a swipe of its hand. Lacking any kind of visual effect, the wave of oil was still deflected by a sudden blast of air and Karon was thrown back to his mates.

The speed, strength and mana capacity of the creature could only mean one thing: it was a tier 4, sent to slowly wipe us out. The hunters had become the hunted.

At that moment, I realized that the only way to beat this thing, if that was even possible in the first place, was to work together. I could just outlast my competition, but… where was the fun in that?

Apparently, John had the same idea, because he addressed the rest of us as we drew our weapons.

“How about a truce, lads? I don’t know about you, but I’m not much fer’ gettin’ skewered by that monster-queen.”

I didn’t bother listening to the quiet murmur of assent, too eager to finally get this fight started, and launched myself at the bug. The queen, as John had called it, fit its look oddly well. There was something feminin about its torso, I thought, as I attempted to cleave my sword into the aforementioned body-part.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t fast enough to get past the queen’s guard, because she lifted her arm just in time to block my strike. The dull clang that reverberated as a result wasn’t exactly a consolation either. If anything, it reaffirmed my theory that she was a tier 4.

Before the queen could parry my strike, I lifted my feet in the air and catapulted myself sideways, throwing my body out of the way of an incoming fireball, which struck true.

I looked over at Arcellus and gave him the middle finger. Just because I was durable didn’t mean he could use me as bait.

The bug jumped out of the flames, seemingly unscathed, and attempted to go for me. Before she could take off, a gust of wind and a flying boulder threw her out of my path, sending her sprawling, though she quickly recovered.

“Need a hand, lad?” John asked with a smile.

“This isn’t a battle you can fight alone. We must unite for the greater good.” the naïve monk next to him said. What was his name again? Gaius! That was it!

Apparently, our reinforcements didn’t think so either. The few dozen of us that remained all started to throw skill after skill at the queen as she emerged from the rubble, repeatedly sending her back.

After a few minutes, it became obvious she was sandbagging, though. She hadn’t moved as fast as she had when X had wounded her, since then, nor had she bothered taking the initiative.

“She’s playing with her food…” I muttered absentmindedly.

“For once, I think you’re right. How unfortunate that it had to be in this situation.” Cerion said as he appeared beside me.

We didn’t waste any more time and threw ourselves into the thick of it again. Ducking and jumping to dodge passing spells and skills, we made our way to our target and engaged it in a melee battle. Our swords were coated with our respective elements, but even that wasn’t enough to leave a mark on its carapace. The queen’s speed became progressively faster as we fought, and her skills at close-quarters combat noticeably improved. I attempted to go for its leg, but was blocked by her arm. For a moment, Cerion and I were both pushing back, our swords grinding against her armor, but we were being pushed back.

Just when I was starting to think this was a losing battle, a third party intervened. Arcellus came out of nowhere and used the distraction we had created to dig into her unguarded back with his flaming sword, causing the creature to shriek from the pain.

All of a sudden, the air itself expanded and threw us all back a few meters, though we recovered rather quickly.

Immediately, the creature was on top of Arcellus, attempting to gut him. The two engaged in a highspeed clash, one I could barely follow. I knew Arcellus’ swordsmanship was something else, but this was incredible.

Cerion and I rejoined the fight and took some of the creature’s attention from Arcellus, giving him a welcome reprieve.

“Helping the… enemy… now, are we?” Arcellus said in between ducking and swinging.

Before I could answer, we heard a hysteric, angry cry above us.

A giant, murky black ball was descending right above us, about to make an impact. All three of us dodged backward as Karon slammed the queen with a thick, house-sized glob of the stuff, before it all lit up, the queen still inside.

“Take that, you filthy animal!”

The queen emerged from the tar, her carapace still on fire. Expecting her to go for Karon, I moved to intercept, but was held back by a hand on my shoulder. As I turned to look at the person who held me back, I heard her speak in a small, quiet voice.

“I believe it is my turn now.”

I snorted in surprise and took a moment to observe the cause behind this strange interruption.

There, a relatively small, blond-haired girl stood. She was wearing immaculate white armor and carried a long, ornate spear.

Her voice may have been quiet and reserved, but the look in her eyes told me she was being serious.

Lifting my arms in surrender, I stepped back. She nodded in appreciation and charged at the queen with the fervor of a galloping warhorse.

As she ran, she sped up and golden light coalesced around her figure, casting her armor and spear in a warm glow. Then, as the queen moved to block her strike, it snaked around the arm the bug had lifted in defense and pierced straight through her carapace, appearing on the other side of her body. The girl pulled back and her retreat was covered by an armada of earthly spikes that erupted out of the ground every time Gaius stomped down some distance away.

I whistled at the entire display, impressed, and joined the rest of the participants in attacking the queen from all sides.

Eventually, more and more attacks got past the queen’s guard, leaving small cuts and stab wounds. Each time, our target would scream progressively louder and louder, until the noise became ear piercing, the random blast of wind turning into small scale tornados. No matter how we fought, we just couldn’t get her to stay down. It didn’t help that the weaker participants were dropping like flies. Those that were left were either seeded participants or cowards that kept their distance, unwilling to even attack our target.

Unfortunately, this all had to come to a head. At some point, the queen had had enough of the beating she was receiving. She screamed. This time, though: She. Wouldn’t. Stop.

The air around us continued to expand, and the sound itself made people bleed from their ears, the sound waves visible with the naked eye.

Karon had calmed down, turning from a hysteric rage to a vengeful calm. As these sound-based attacks got worse, though, he started to focus on defense. With this final scream, he pulled up a giant barrier of oil that covered us all. It did little to block the sound, but the winds themselves were kept at bay.

Then, the barrier fell abruptly. In a panic, I rushed to his location.

“What’s going on? Is he out of mana?” Cerion asked me from a distance.

“No…, not quite.”

I grit my teeth, seething with rage as I found out what had happened. When I arrived near Karon’s position, I found him with his last remaining alliance member. Strangely, Karon had a knife sticking out of his back. As Karon gurgled up some blood, staring out in front of him like a corpse, he was teleported away.

His previously loyal friend turned to me with a bloody knife in his hand, crying, shocked by my arrival.

“Look, I need the points to pass! We can’t beat that… that monster, anyway, see?!” he asked hysterically, trying to justify his betrayal.

He didn’t see my sword arc coming, and looked at his chest in surprise as a long, red line appeared.

He was teleported away a moment later.

“You’re lucky this is a competition, traitor.” I stated, less angrily than I felt.

“Status report, Karon’s out. His ‘friend’ betrayed him. That one’s gone, too.” I said to Cerion and Arcellus, who spread the word as we headed back to the battlefield.

Gaius and the blond girl were still fighting diligently, along with a small group of other, talented fighters. One of them had to be the final seeded participant, but I didn’t have the time to figure out who it was.

There were about ten of us left at this point, so I believe it was time to do something drastic.

Shouted to the other participants as loudly as I could.

“Everyone, charge up your strongest skill, I’ll hold her off for a minute! It’s now or never!” I said, taking charge.

Thankfully, Arcellus agreed and nodded, while the rest assented as well. Desperate times called for desperate measures.

I launched myself at the queen, who was flitting around the battlefield like she was born to do so. I got close to her and sent a powered up, mana intrusive overloaded sword her way, leaving a curse mark on the arm she brought up to block. I quickly made some distance, using the dust kicked up by my aura step as cover, and sent more attacks her way. She emerged from the dust in a rage, and I barely managed to keep up with her following strikes.

On the sidelines, I could see skills in all kinds of colors being created and I could feel the mana being drawn in from our surroundings as their cores worked overtime.

Just half a minute more.

I kept up my mana intrusion, and aimed for wounds that were already there. My strikes did superficial damage at best, but I knew the overloaded mana would slowly overwhelm the creature.

15 seconds.

The queen stomped down on the ground and nearly sent me flying, but a hastily put-together maelstrom kept me from being thrown. I dispelled the maelstrom in favor of another clash and pushed against the queen’s guard as best I could. I failed, not strong enough to match her stats, but I had succeeded in keeping her distracted.

“NOW!!” I shouted.

Gaius was the first to move. He stomped down with both feet, and made a strange grasping motion with his hands. The earth around the queen came to life and grasped her legs, before twisting and hardening, taking on a strange, copper sheen. The queen gurgled, surprised, and tried to free herself, but failed. Realizing what was about to happen, I apparated away, joining the others and spectating the rest from a distance.

As the rest of the participants let their skills go, all hell broke loose.

Golden spears descended from a hole in the sky, a small sun that twisted the air around it with its heat exploded on target, a cyclone of water tore through every obstacle to get to the queen and a giant wooden sword came down from the sky. All of their skills combined in one giant explosion, which sent most of us flying by virtue of the shockwave itself.

A myriad of colors erupted, the spectacle truly unmatched in beauty and power. More and more skills piled on top of one another, until their creators ran out of mana. The crater left behind was truly… impressive.

“Is… is it dead?” Cerion asked hesitantly, breathing heavily from the exertion. Before I could answer, I heard a strange noise to my right.

“Guhu… urg…”

As I looked over, I found Gaius, his heart speared through by the queen. She looked beat-up, and was missing an arm and a part of her torso. In a panic, I shouted.

“She’s not dead yet!”

I moved to attack her, but she disappeared from my sight in a flash. Slowly, I heard more and more panicked voices from around the crater. I saw all of us struggling to defend ourselves and failing. The non seeded participants went first. Then, the blond girl was cut in half and Arcellus’ sword broke from the impact of a single strike. He was defenseless and couldn’t block the queen as she decapitated him. Cerion sent out a tidal wave, but it was futile. His torso was cut diagonally and his body was separated into two halves.

I screamed in anger and created a maelstrom, but it was too late. The queen ignored my skill and just walked through it as if it wasn’t even there. As she flattened her hand into a dagger and sent it through my chest, I could only think of one thing.

“Sandbagging, indeed…”

Then, everything went white.