Dungeon Diver: Stealing A Monster's Power-Chapter 830
I look around the massive white holding room, and everyone but myself and Ren are 1st Class Lords.
I see some recognizable races, like a snow-white serpent coiled up at the back of the room, staring me down with icy blue eyes.
A few emerald green-colored Lizardmen stare at us from the other side of the room, and I see two brown rock golems as well.
There are a few large cat creatures, humanoid ogre variations, and a strong-looking dark-skinned High Orc.
However, all of their true powers are suppressed, and no greater forms are active. The two other strongest beasts, the Mammoth and Berserker Giant, were disqualified by me, and that black rock golem was certainly stronger than the specimens here.
"I guess that's just how it goes... the Arena isn't fair..." I whisper under my breath, sensing the glass wall behind me start to change colors to show a fully restored arena full of hundreds of biomes.
The Announcer's voice starts announcing new Lords entering the white ring around the simulated wilderness, and the crowds in the stands get excited again, hoping to see another brutal fight like the one they just saw.
I don't pay much attention to the events, I'm more focused on the second spectate feed that has been live in my mind from Ember back on Ellipsia this whole time.
Mental images shared from the admin of my fight are transmitted his way, along with the detailed scans of the Grand Citadel here on the surface, and the strange black towers I witnessed on the underside.
As the round 2 clock starts to count down, I go over the final details of my plan, and he agrees to convey the message to the Warlords and to my generals once they wake.
–
"They're all quite close to finishing their acclimation. We'll be ready just in time," Ember replies, smiling and leaving the telepathy call, and turning to his side on the top floor of the High Orc Tower.
The dragon in the form of a long red-haired human looks up at a High Orc, Blue Ogre, and Berserker Giant holding Relic Class Soul Weapons, all ready for the battle of their lives.
Asic speaks in a slow and confident tone, "All of the Servants are acclimating to their new Freedom Avatars. They should be able to move naturally in a few hours."
Torvak speaks next with his arms crossed, "Indeed. We're ready too." He looks over to Zashen, whose body seems relaxed, but deep within his eyes, a red glow still hasn't faded away.
The monster stares down at Ember and gives a single nod, "Fighting Nobles will not be a problem. You will not see the same disgrace of a fight you witnessed the day we fought the former lord of this Citadel. The Warlords will be respected again after this."
Ember looks amused, looking off in the direction of the central tower and seeing the generals all surpassing 95% completion on their tower climb.
"They're almost ready too..."
–
As Ember and the Warlords talk amongst each other, the generals continue to climb floors in the tower, and the Demonic forces from the Fortress sink further and further down into the tens of thousands of kilometers of green clouds; I watch the Preliminary rounds of the Arena event move on uninterrupted.
Round 2 is filled with 121k Lords, roughly the same as the round I was in.
Seeing it from an outside perspective now, the manipulation of matchups between strong fighters from the Admins is as clear as day, but the Lords watching in the stands either don't care or don't see the whole arena in a game-like sense as I do.
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Many of the early matchups are quite boring, as it's mostly 2nd Class Lords fighting each other in long, drawn-out battles, or stronger 1st Class Lords dominating in their domains until they're finally tempted to move closer to other strong opponents.
I see a lot of familiar races, and as the round passes the halfway mark, I find that there are a lot more strong 1st Class competitors in this round compared to last.
I spot 3 Mammoths, controlling entire biomes similar to the strength of the one I fought, all scattered across the map.
A few extremely strong serpent races hold their ground against multiple 1st Class Lords at once. One of the pristine white serpents even battles a Mammoth for a few minutes.
However, the main attraction in this match is a creature with the body of a lion, and the head, front legs, and wings of a majestic eagle. Its greater wind form is large and strong enough to create shockwaves covering multiple biomes as it is slowly manipulated into battling against two Mammoths at once in the last 10 minutes of the match.
The battle is long and exciting, just as intended for a climax of this event like the Admins wanted, ending in the Griffon managing to kill one of the Mammoths, and brutally injuring the other.
If the match went on for another few minutes it would have won, but both moved on.
Over 15 biomes were destroyed in their brawl, and the newcomers filling the stands get pretty excited, but there is a general lull in the crowd that are still high on the intensity of my fight with the Berserker.
I can't help but to smirk while watching 36 of the entries this round all get teleported into this waiting room with us in avatar-suppressing cuffs.
The intelligent ones scan the room to get a feel for who to look out for, but the confused faces once they sense people fear the two humans sitting up against the viewing glass is quite funny.
Even so, they act far more confident as they didn't get to witness my round.
Two more white serpents group together next to each other in the back, and a single Mammoth sits alone at the other side of the room.
No one goes near either of these two, and the massive 30-meter-long Griffon stands in between the two Elite Races without a care in the world.
Its sharp yellow eyes stare forward at me, half analyzing, half showing its dominance over the room by not backing down from the greatest agreed upon threat.
I don't provoke it, but I do stare back, curious to know if it used its full power or not in that fight.
The Announcer's words drown out my curiosity, as over the next two hours, Round 3 and 4 go by just as fast.
The 3rd round is quite the letdown comparatively. There are far more strong 1st Class Lords than the 2nd, but there aren't outliers like this Griffon or any Mammoths to be found.
The dominating force of that match is another large white serpent.
The 4th round is quite interesting as well, as there is another Berserker Giant present that holds the same exact style of white glowing sword as the one I fought.
It kills pretty much everything in the arena. Mammoths, serpents, golems, every single strong Lord. So far, it's the only one that has managed to beat my point total, coming in at [72,880 points] once it's transported to the white room here with the 14 other entries that made it through this round.
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My gaze tightens on it once it teleports in, as I did see a light grey aura surround it during the match, but it never turned black like the one I fought myself.
It is far more heavily suppressed than any of the other creatures in this room, with dozens of shackles all over it, and it's escorted by two Demonic Servants to stand right next to the Griffon.
As they disappear, my growing intrigue is interrupted by a telepathic voice in my ear, coming from Ava down below in the cells beneath the Citadel, "I've been chosen to participate in Round 5..."
–
At the same time, the horde of Demonic creatures finally reach the ground below the clouds.
They begin to spread out evenly on the shoreline of the Sea of Corruption, watching the dense blue radiation filled with High Noble Vibrations stream out from the black sea.
Seraphel is still in his suppressed state, holding back the violent waves of energy within his body to not be torn to shreds thousands of kilometers below the corruption. Yet, small amounts of radiation leaking out is still visible, and if the monsters that lined the sea were anything lower than the strength of a Noble Demon at the distance they are right now, they would be crushed to death by the pressure in the atmosphere alone.
As they spread out, the individual figures of the creatures in this cloud of dark black and purple mist become more clear.
Demonic Orcs, Ogres, and Cyclopes all stand straight with burning hot purple soul weapons in their grasps. There are at least a thousand each, all standing at the ready, waiting for their leader to give the next command.
Demonic Berserker Giants, reminiscent of the King defeated by Raven on Kelfar, appear next—hundreds of them—all spewing out the dense Vibrations of a Noble Demon's blood, newly transfused, and ready for war, after waiting dormant in the Fortress for thousands of years.
Then finally, in the center of the Demonic clouds, the largest monsters of all flap their wings and show off their dark purple eyes, with extremely potent Noble Vibrations of their own radiating out from their mutated Demonic forms.
Dozens of Fallen Mind Controlled Wyverns touch down in a line, looking down into the Sea of Corruption where their old leader lies. He is fighting for his life, but they are there on a mission to end it once and for all.
