Beyond the Bloodline-Chapter 308: Speedrun to Semi-finals

With a furious roar, he poured all his remaining magic power into them, buffing their strength to their absolute limit.

Then, with desperation in his eyes, he sent them all charging towards Jamie with the sole aim of eliminating him.

But they never even reached him.

Astragrim lifted his skeletal arm, and a curse of death swept over them all, siphoning away their life forces. Meanwhile, his Death Knights ripped through Gauxor’s summons with brutality, tearing through their bodies like they were made of paper.

The Bone Wyverns descended upon Gauxor’s so-called ’Arch Lich,’ their razor-sharp claws and fangs shredding it limb from limb before its undead screams could even finish echoing.

Meanwhile, the Zombie Knights met the rest of Gauxor’s summons head-on—and annihilated them. 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

Blades pierced through rotting flesh, shattered bones, and cleaved through magical beasts like they were nothing.

Within moments, the battlefield was left with only one opponent standing—Gauxor himself, panting, magic-exhausted, and trembling in horror.

Astragrim released his Bounded Field, letting the battlefield return to normal. Then, without a word, he raised a single bony finger and fired a small, focused magic bullet.

The projectile whistled through the air and struck Gauxor’s forehead, snuffing him out instantly.

With his task complete, Astragrim turned to Jamie and bowed slightly.

[I have eliminated the impudent skeleton and its master.]

Jamie nodded with a light chuckle.

"Good work. You can return."

As a summoning circle appeared beneath Astragrim, preparing to take him back, Jamie walked past him and whispered.

"Prepare your army and come to this galaxy as fast as you can."

Astragrim’s flames flared, his sockets widening in realization.

"?! Yes, my lord."

He bowed deeply once more before vanishing into the ground.

Jamie then turned to Glox, who had been watching in silence the entire time.

"Seems you didn’t get any action."

Glox’s eye twitched.

"...If you have that kind of creature under you, why am I even here?"

"For my entertainment."

Jamie responded with a laugh, while the referee, still visibly shaken at what he had just witnessed, hesitated before finally raising his hand and declaring Jamie the winner.

◇　◇　◇

Meanwhile, in the spectator stands, Orikar sat with a deep frown on his face.

’What the hell is this guy?! What kind of summon was that?!’

If Jamie truly had such a powerful undead under his command, his victory was practically guaranteed.

Orikar clicked his tongue, frustration evident. Then, his gaze shifted to his adopted son, who had just finished his own match.

’I’ll have to use Plan B...’

He clenched his fists.

’I’ll break out that creature. The Planet Lord would get suspicious, but I have no choice if I want to get the Keystone.’

With that final thought, Orikar tapped his index and thumb fingers together twice, and a magic circle materialized between them.

Simultaneously, an identical magic circle appeared on the back of his adopted son’s neck.

For a brief moment, his son’s eyes lost focus.

Then, as clarity returned, he glanced toward the giant screen displaying Jamie’s battle, his gaze narrowing in silence.

◇　◇　◇

Time moved forward, and before long, all the Round of 32 matches had concluded.

Restoration potions and other recovery items were provided to the contestants, and soon, the Round of 16 was set to begin.

Once again, news reporters and other tournament officials tried to get to Jamie before he entered his assigned battlefield.

But despite their best efforts, by the time they realized what was happening, Jamie was already inside—standing in the arena, hands in his pockets, waiting for the match to start.

The referee, wary of Jamie after seeing footage of the Round of 32’s match, hesitated before raising his hand.

"Begin!"

Instantly, Jamie’s opponent unleashed everything they had.

Their summons manifested in an instant, both terrestrial and airborne creatures, all of them roaring, screeching, and howling as they charged forward.

At their master’s command, every single one of them activated their Unique Skills and unleashed full-powered attacks at Jamie, an onslaught of destruction racing towards him.

But Jamie barely even looked at them. Instead, he turned his gaze to Glox and spoke calmly.

"I’m buffing you. Full power from the get-go."

As he spoke, summoning law energy flowed from his body and into Glox’s, layering buffs upon buffs on him.

Glox, feeling his body surge with power, unfurled his wings and leapt into the air, hands outstretched.

Between his cupped palms, an orb of dark green energy condensed, its density distorting the air around it.

And before any of their opponent’s summons could reach Jamie or Glox, the orb was already firing a beam of dark green energy that tore through the battlefield.

It swept across the field, erasing the charging summons in an instant. Their bodies disintegrated before they could even scream, and before the summoner could even react, the beam slammed into them as well—erasing them on the spot.

Just like that.

Jamie’s Round of 16 match was over.

◇　◇　◇

When the Quarterfinals came, Jamie once again appeared in the arena before anyone could stop him.

Glox didn’t need any instructions this time. The moment the match began, he raised his hand and drew a circle in the air with his magic power-coated finger.

A portal of swirling dark green energy manifested, and from within, a massive, jagged spear of Negative Life Energy began to emerge.

"Vorpal Desolation."

The moment the portal was fully formed, Glox snapped his fingers and the spear launched forward at terrifying speed.

The opposing summon barely had time to register the threat before the spear pierced straight through its chest, its entire body exploding into pieces.

But it didn’t stop there.

The spear continued forward, tearing through the air and impaling the summoner standing behind, their lifeless body collapsing to the ground and vanishing.

Another instant victory.

And with that, the Quarterfinals were over.

It took less than 30 minutes for the other quarter-final matches to conclude, and after 30 minutes of rest time for the contestants, the Semi-finals began.

When Jamie glanced at the matchup and saw his opponent’s name, he laughed.

"It reeks of conspiracy."

His opponent?

Orikar Jr.

With an amused grin, Jamie stepped into the arena, taking a selfie to post on his social media, with the reporters in the background like usual.

He then disabled his Selective Imperceptibility, waving at the cheering crowd as he headed towards his side of the battlefield.

His gaze locked onto Orikar Jr.’s, and for a brief moment, the two simply stared at each other.

Then, Jamie’s lips curled into a wide grin.

"Oh, now things are about to get interesting."

Jamie’s amused tone made it clear that he had noticed something entertaining.

Orikar Jr. heard his words regarded him with wary eyes, but Jamie simply laughed and called out to the referee.

"Hey, ref, give us a sec. I need to have a word with this guy."

Without waiting for a response, Jamie casually strolled up to Orikar Jr., tilting his head as he inspected the side of his body.

Naturally, Orikar Jr. took a step back, suspicion lacing his voice.

"What are you doing?"

"Looking for the magic circle, obviously. Ah, I see—you’re probably skilled enough to use an internal one. Or are you?"

Jamie’s words made no sense to the referee watching him, but upon hearing them, Orikar Jr.’s brows furrowed, suspicion flickering in his eyes.

Despite sensing the suspicion, Jamie simply shrugged.

"Oh well, no point in doing this now. It’ll be more fun later."

Turning around, he waved a hand dismissively.

"Alright, ref, you can start the match."

The referee, though still confused, didn’t hesitate to start the match and run away, just in case Jamie summoned another powerful undead.

Jamie summoned Glox like always, while Orikar Jr. called forth a massive white tiger, its fur streaked with black and red stripes.

The audience erupted into cheers, recognizing it as Orikar Jr.’s most famous summon. But Jamie merely raised an eyebrow.

"Oh, so you can even borrow summons too?"

Hearing Jamie, Glox glanced at him in confusion.

"What are you talking about?"

Jamie simply waved Glox off.

"Don’t worry about it. Just do your thing."

Like before, he activated his buffs, and Glox’s wings snapped open, sending a wave of darkness law energy pulsing through the ground.

Dark green vines erupted from the ground and several dozen orbs of negative life energy condensed around him. The tendrils lashed out at the tiger, while the orbs of negative life unleashed hypersonic speed beams of dark green light.

Across from him, the massive white tiger roared, its deep red eyes glowing as it unleashed bursts of red wind blades in all directions, shredding Glox’s vines to pieces.

The tiger leaped aside to evade the negative life beams, but they twisted mid-air, homing in on its position without losing momentum.

Seeing this, Orikar JR. quickly cast a spell, and the tiger raised its forelimbs, slamming them against the incoming attacks. The beams crashed into its arms with explosive force, sending shockwaves through the air.

Dark red blood splattered from the wounds, but instead of falling, it hovered, twisting unnaturally as it coiled into razor-sharp tendrils.

’Blood Magic?’

Glox narrowed his eyes and clicked his tongue as he deactivated the Regeneration Negation aspect of his negative life energy and reversed its effects—instantly closing the tiger’s wounds and cutting off its source of the blood it was gathering for an attack.

With a deafening roar, the tiger unleashed a barrage of blood tendrils that short forwards like spears, while bursts of red-tinted light exploded in blinding pulses.

At the same time, the wind howled around it, forming swirling vortexes of razor-like currents it sent towards Glox.