Scarlet

After a lovely night’s rest, sleeping off the leveling sickness, I return full of energy for the next competition. Which turns out to be a tower defense competition. One where we have to defend our towers and the core inside of our towers from a wave of monsters.

A competition that ends up being really easy when I make a large bubble of Red Plague surrounding my tower, giving me more time to catch up on my sleep.

Then the next competition after that one is, to my surprise, a simple brute force test. One where we simply punch a wall and it determines how much force we put into the punch, and the winner is whoever punches it the hardest.

A complicated competition for sure.

I nod my head at that thought as Tar snorts.

All of the other competitors go first, punching the wall and not making even a single crack in it. Not even making it show any sort of reaction at all. Meanwhile most of the competitors get a number somewhere between three hundred and five hundred, which also represents how many points they’ll be getting via dividing the number by three.

Until Leonidas goes and the entire wall shakes with a couple of cracks emerging, making a number slightly above a thousand show on the wall. Followed by the rest of the Demon Lords and Amelia.

Although, while Amelia is the only Knight about on par with the Demon Lords in level, she still focuses on magic. Not physical strength.

So her physical capabilities are all lower than her mental and magical.

Which lead to her only getting eight hundred and fifty three points.

Unfortunately for me, this competition bans the use of magic. So I can’t use the Red Plague for this to enhance my strength.

A pity, but I’m already really far ahead on points as things are anyways.

Once my turn comes around, I step up to the wall, pull my fist back, and punch straight at the center of the wall. And my punch ends up being just like the other Demon Lords, except Leonidas. Which makes sense since my level is about the same as Vorgrim and Xyvandra at this point.

I step away under a wave of applause and cheering before standing back with my arms crossed as the rest of the competitors take their turns.

The rest of the competition doesn’t last for much longer, and soon enough the fourth competition of the tournament comes to a close. Then King Oberon goes over his usual spiel again congratulating people for changing in rankings and pointing out that I’m still at the top.

This tournament is beginning to feel rather boring.

“Don’t tell Father that,” Tar says, almost making me snort in amusement. “He’d be rather upset.”

Yeah, yeah.

At least things should get more interesting when I can’t just brute force my way through everything with the Red Plague anymore.

Tar nods his head from my shoulder as the king finishes up his spiel. Then the next competition’s rules and description appear high in the air.

Rise of the King

Description: All Competitors will be placed in a randomly generated map where a single golden crown will be placed somewhere across the map. Holding the crown will grant the owner game points that do not affect the overall point score of the tournament every second the crown is held, along with a regular point for every ten seconds the crown is held. The competition will last for three hours, and various non-lethal traps and loot boxes will be placed throughout the map.

Rules: Killing other competitors is allowed. Anti-death clause is allowed. Common boxes grant one point, uncommon grants three points, rare grants five points, epic grants ten points, and legendary grants twenty-five points.

Goal: Keep the crown for as long as you can. The one who holds it for the longest will win.

Rewards: First place gets one hundred points. Second place gets seventy-five points. Third place gets fifty points. And all competitors may keep the points they accrued throughout the competition.

“And the next competition of the tournament is our very first competitor versus competitor tournament! Competitors will compete for the crown, killing each other or just making the others forfeit the crown themselves, trying to hold it for as long as they possibly can!” King Oberon declares, making the audience grow excited in anticipation of the competition. “This will be the last competition of the night! So make sure you stay to see it!”

Hmm. Basically capture the crown.

This one could prove more challenging for me. I won’t be able to use the Red Plague to capture the crown from someone else. Not if I don’t want to permanently eat their reality.

So I’m going to be left using my normal skills and actually fighting for the first time in this tournament.

A faint grin stretches across my face at that thought.

Although when I do get the crown I can always just laze around in a bubble of Red Plague.

“That wouldn’t work,” Tar points out. “Your mother can just erase the Red Plague and pass through if she wanted to.”

True. Not sure if she cares enough about this tournament to do that, but she certainly could if she wanted to.

Of course, I could always make the bubble large enough that she can’t do that. But where’d the fun in that be?

I think fighting the Demon Lords and Knights of Humanity might be fun.

“Just be careful that you don’t lose control of your blood and infect them,” Tar reminds me. “Or the blood making up your clothes.”

Yep. That would be bad.

The fae king continues talking for a little bit before he spreads both of his wings out and a vast arena appears beneath us. One with the appearance of a large volcano.

My eyes narrow slightly at the chosen battlefield. One that favors Vorgrim and Red.

“Now let’s begin!” King Oberon shouts, following which I find myself teleported into the arena in a random location.

Then a bright golden light shines up into the sky like a pillar, showing where the crown is.

A crown that’s located on the other side of the map from me.

Well that’s annoying.