Awakening: I Ascend As A Legendary Ranked Necromancer-Chapter 32: smell of hell

When I finally blinked the blinding brightness from my eyes, I let out a soundless gasp. An ocean of dark water stretched out before me, reaching as far as my eyes could see.

The sun above failed to penetrate the still surface, but what caught my attention even more were the platforms suspended over the sea. Each one was large enough to hold three people, and every platform was connected to others by flat wooden bridges.

A single platform has four bridges connecting it to the others.

My eyes widened. "Meaning I’ll be fighting off at least four people at once or close."

But that wasn’t all, the sea was divided into several islands by broad stone bridges that cut the sea.

That realization snapped me fully awake. I looked around and finally noticed where I was, standing at the edge of one of the rocky beach. All the Awakeners had been brought here at once, surrounding the water. Some had even been placed directly on the stone bridges separating the islands.

And they had already started, people were climbing onto the wooden bridges, sprinting across them.

Dangerous!

If I didn’t move now, I’d be trampled as people snapped out of their teleportation daze. I bolted down the rocky slope, picking my way smoothly over the jagged ground.

I reached the edge and leaped onto the nearest wooden bridge. It shook violently beneath my feet, swaying over the dark water, but I didn’t stop. I kept running, vaulting from bridge to platform, from platform to bridge.

Suddenly, I rolled down and forward, and a moment later Intense heat swept just over my head!

I didn’t look back to see who attacked, I only ran faster, I can’t take the nearest platform. That’s where the competition will be the fiercest.

The clang of steel rang out around me, magic and mana lit like lightning, flashes of light arced into the sky, and the air ripped with pressure.

The fight had begun.

Fifty thousand Awakeners struggling to reduce themselves to five thousand.

I pumped my limbs hard, blurring across the bridges. As I landed on another platform, a flash appeared out of nowhere. I partially transformed my hand and slapped a sword aside. 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

I hit the platform with a heavy thud that made it tremble.

A blade came to rest against my shoulder.

"How dare you try to claim my platform!" a woman said gleefully, as if she had been waiting for this.

I slowly raised my hand. "Sorry. I didn’t see you in time. I’ll choose another one."

I turned to leave....

.....and froze as the sword pressed closer and tighter against my neck.

"I think you knew exactly what you were doing," she said. "You just wanted to pick a fight with me, but bad luck for you, because I intend to loo...."

Hermit transformed.

My arm erupted, larger and longer, as fangs burst forth and slammed into her chest, bones snapped as ribs crushed, blood splattered as she collapsed, her sword falling from her grip.

"So this is what it’s come to." I didn’t look back at the body as I begab running again.

One hour was going to be a very long time.

The farther I went, the more people I saw fighting. The dark water below slowly began to change color. Eventually, I reached near the center and stopped.

"I’ll make my stand here."

I sat down in a lotus position at the center of the platform.

Almost all the platforms around me were already claimed. Awakeners watched one another in uneasy silence, broken only by distant flashes and the ringing of weapons.

We were one of the earliest.

But now things are getting closer.

My heart began to pound. The fighting was spreading outward, pushing people away from the most violent clashes. Three platforms away, the one a man was sitting on suddenly split apart and he fell screaming into the dark sea below.

A woman climbed up between the fractured halves and, once on top, joined them back together with her magic.

She smiled...

.....but then a shadow suddenly loomed overhead her.

She looked up almost too late.

Black feathers rained down. When they struck the platform, they pierced straight through it as if it was made of paper, he dodged some, split others cleanly in half but there were too many.

Soon, she was riddled with black iron feathers.

I looked up at the attacker.

A female Demon hovered above, wings gently flapping. Her skin looked human, but her eyes were lined in red, and two black horns gleamed atop her head.

She descended onto the platform. The moment her feet touched down, her wings vanished. She kicked the dead woman’s body away, sending it splashing into the sea.

She grinned, turned and noticed me watching.

"You. You’re strong. Do you want to fight for this platform?"

"I’d rather not."

She scoffed. "You humans are always like that. But....." her gaze sharpened, "why are you human and yet smell like my home world... Hell?"

I stiffened.

I smell like Hell?

I didn’t answer. Instead, I asked, "Who are you?"

She was about to respond when a slashing light tore through the air, cutting down two Awakeners behind her. Feathers materialized instantly, forming an iron wall without her even turning.

They rearranged and shot out like bullets. A distant splash echoed.

She smiled as she returned as If nothing happened.

"My name is Anins. I’ll spare you today because you smell familiar but next time, I won’t. If I have a reason, I’ll kill you, human. This place is boring. I’ll go somewhere else to have fun."

I could only watch as she flew away without giving me a chance to say anything.

"What just happened?" I muttered. "Did she really say she wouldn’t kill me because of a smell?"

"As if I’d let you kill me,"

But she was already gone.

"Ah, Mr. Torvan. Fancy meeting you here."

A very, very familiar voice spoke behind me.