Scarlet

“Just as stated in the rules, the final round will be a battle royale between the five remaining competitors! And the first, second, and third place positions will be based on who is left standing last!” King Oberon declares as every other competitor is suddenly teleported away from the arena, in the sky near where King Oberon and Gramps are. “The five competitors will be placed inside of a large map made for this competition. The map itself will be filled with monsters all above level one thousand seven hundred, and the competitors will have to make their way through the monsters to find and defeat each other! Those defeated by the monsters will be eliminated from the competition.”

He snaps his fingers, making the five of us appear floating high above a large map. One with multiple different biomes to it.

At the very center of the map is a large volcano that doesn’t appear to be currently active, meanwhile there is nothing but forest all around the volcano, and mountains surrounding those forests. Really tall mountains that act as a sort of barrier separating the arena and what’s not part of the arena.

Everyone quickly begins trying to memorize the map as King Oberon continues, “But don’t forget about the hidden little secret in this map! Because there is one! And you really don’t want to miss this not-so-little guy.”

As he says that, I can’t help but notice some movement coming from the volcano’s crater. But I can’t see exactly what it is. Just that it’s hidden very deep down in the lava, that it’s very massive considering the size of the ripples it’s sending around, and that it isn’t likely being hurt by the lava.

Some sort of massive fire-breathing lizard is my guess. That’s what a video game would do for a boss like that.

Although I am rather curious about what its level is. Especially considering that I see quite a few monsters down there that are already around level two thousand.

So if they’re that high already, and King Oberon is warning us about the big one… what level is it?

Level 2200? 2300? Maybe even higher?

Surprisingly, the first thought that comes to mind isn’t to avoid it at all costs.

“Scarlet, that’s probably not…” Tar begins to deny my thoughts, only to seemingly remember how powerful the Red Plague is. “Just… don’t die, please.”

Meh. It’s fine.

If I die to the beastie then I’ll just respawn afterwards. I have anti-death clause activated for this competition after all.If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

Honestly don’t think anyone has it disabled. Not a single person.

For most of this entire tournament, in fact. With the exception of a few non-combat competitions and the ones where enabling it wasn’t allowed.

Like the Tower Defense. Wasn’t much point in activating it there when we weren’t even in danger.

Would just be a waste of points if they did have it enabled in those competitions.

But for anyone who’s made it this far in life, to this level? No one’s gonna risk their lives fighting in a tournament. Especially not against allies, and not while the void invasion is coming.

Would be stupid.

Just a waste.

“Says someone who killed a competitor in your sleep,” Tar points out, but I just cross my arms.

That wasn’t a waste. And he killed himself.

I had nothing to do with his decision to jump into my barrier.

Tar snorts at that, but I just focus on the volcano as the Fae King keeps talking, “Just like with the previous duels, surrender is an option, and so is the anti-death clause. Every competitor will be placed on different edges of the map, and this time they’re allowed to see the map beforehand.”

Now that he mentions it, the map is basically like a five-sided star.

I focus on studying everything I can about the map while we’re still up here. And I see the others doing the same.

But I make sure to continue listening as I do so, since he’s still explaining things, “Also, one thing to note is that no one is allowed to fly above one hundred meters above the ground. If you do, you’ll be struck by lightning and sent crashing back down to the ground. So keep that in mind.”

That doesn’t sound like fun.

Studying the map we’ll be on makes me realize a few things rather quickly. One, it’s rather large. Something I didn’t really need to study it to see. So large that it’d take a normal human being weeks to walk through it. Although that’d just be minutes to fly through it for me at my level. Two. There are a lot of monsters on the map. And I mean a lot. Of. Monsters.

Tens of thousands, all scattered around the map. Maybe even hundreds of thousands. Enough that if they were let loose on Earth, it’d be the apocalypse. Especially considering that they’re all at a minimum level of 1700.

Which means that it’s not a good idea to go rushing around at top speed. Especially since I see some areas that look like traps and ambushes made by the monsters.

Also, the monsters seem to grow stronger the closer you get to the volcano at the center of the map.

“However, I feel I should mention that there is a nice point reward for finding and slaying a certain hidden beast,” King Oberon adds before quickly rushing to say, “Now let’s begin!”

Wait, a reward? How much?

I don’t get an answer to my question as I quickly find myself being teleported straight down into the map on one of the corners.

Okay, now I’ve gotta kill that beast. Not only would it give me who knows how many levels, but it’ll give a point reward too?

How could I just ignore it?

“You realize he’s trying to get you to kill it, right?” Tar points out, and I just shrug.

Yeah, probably.

He wants me to succeed in this and win anyways, doesn’t he? He wouldn’t have helped send me to fight the void creatures on that other planet if he didn’t.

So he most likely wants me to take advantage of the monsters in the competition as well. Even if the way I go about the rest of the competition seems to upset him a little.

“A little?” Tar comments, but I ignore him as I proceed through the forest.

Time to hunt.