Beyond the Bloodline

Chapter 300: Battle Royale

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Jamie ignored the lively conversations and headed straight from the registration area, meeting an array of long lines stretching from the counter, filled with various Transcendents and hopeful Half-Deities.

Some spread out their auras, trying to intimidate weaker individuals in line while others did the opposite, choosing to stay hidden.

Television reporters filled the area, videoing promising contestants, but Jamie ignored all that and headed straight for the front of the line.

He snapped his fingers, casually hypnotizing all those on the line as he entered the front and spoke with the registrar.

It was a young-looking elf with glasses and she barely looked up at Jamie before handing over a form.

Jamie scanned the form, noting that it required information like affiliation, Existence Realm, and summon classification.

He left everything besides the name field blank, choosing to go with ’Jay’ as his name.

When he returned the form, the elf’s brows twitched and she looked up with a frown. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

"Sir, we require—"

"That’s fine. Just process it."

Jamie’s eyes glowed as he spoke and a ring of blue light appeared around the registrar’s irises as her expression slackened.

The elf nodded slowly, her fingers moving over the holographic console, finalizing Jamie’s registration without another word.

With that out of the way, Jamie entered the tournament area, where the competitors were gathered.

Most of them were Transcendents, though a few Half-Deities had slipped in. Among them, Jamie even sensed a Mid-Tier Deity, but raw individual strength wasn’t the focus here.

This was a Summoner’s Tournament.

The true combatants weren’t the summoners themselves, but the creatures they commanded. And since this was the Transcendence Division, all summons had to be at the Transcendent Realm.

Jamie found himself a quiet corner, ignoring the competitive tension in the air and instead focusing on the movie he was watching on his tablet.

Eventually, the announcement calling them out came.

[All participants, please report to the main arena for the first round of the tournament.]

The massive crowd of contestants moved into the spatial gate provided, towards the ginormous battlefield prepared for them. The area was a vast field spanning a million square kilometres, designed to accommodate the large scale of the competition.

The terrain was a diverse battleground, filled with sandy deserts, rocky mountains, grassy plains, dense forests, and swamps.

The tournament officials would randomly teleport participants across this landscape, and once inside, they would be required to release their summons and engage in a free-for-all battle.

The objective? Eliminate as many opponents as possible and secure a place in the next round.

There were thousands of participants, so this was the best way to quickly thin out the numbers.

While Jamie waited for the teleportation, a sudden roar of cheers erupted from the crowd. He glanced up, barely paying attention, until he saw who had arrived.

It was the Planet Lord of Kaelithis.

Dressed in his ceremonial armour, the ruler of this world stood at the highest platform, raising his hands to acknowledge the millions of onlookers. Then, with a dramatic motion, he reached into his cloak and lifted something high into the air.

The Stellar Keystone.

An artifact of legend, a symbol of their planet’s heroism, it gleamed under the light as the audience erupted in deafening cheers.

Jamie? He just barely held in his laughter.

While the entire stadium was busy celebrating the legacy of their hero, Jamie was busy thinking: "Man, if only they knew."

But before his amusement could get the better of him, the announcer’s voice thundered across the arena.

[Contestants, prepare for battle!]

A flash of light enveloped the competitors, and Jamie allowed himself to be teleported onto the battlefield.

◇　◇　◇

The free-for-all began immediately.

The vast arena exploded into chaos as summons were unleashed, clashing across deserts, mountains, plains, and swamps.

Meanwhile, in the announcer’s booth, the commentators began their analysis.

[And the first round is off! Let’s talk about the favourites for this year’s tournament!]

[Indeed! We’ve got powerhouses from all over—world-class summoners from the Imperial Federation, the Celestial Guild, the Beast Cult, and of course, the independent prodigies!]

[Not to mention the potential dark horses! Every year, a newcomer shakes things up—who will it be this time?]

Jamie, of course, was too busy to care for the commentators’ voices as he’d been immediately surrounded by five contestants the moment he arrived.

They thought he was an easy target since they’d never heard of him before, and thought he was one of the many nobodies participating.

From their similar clothing, Jamie assumed they were from the same organisation, though that didn’t change what he was about to do.

Reaching into his jacket, Jamie dramatically pulled out a palm-sized ball with runic markings and flung it into the air as he shouted.

"GLOX, I CHOOSE YOU!"

For a full second, there was silence.

And then the ball Jamie threw in the air exploded with light, releasing a surge of dark green energy that surged outwards in all directions.

The five competitors staggered back, their expressions shifting from confidence to shock as they felt the energy wave that slammed into them.

Then, as he flipped through the air, Glox’s voice rang out.

"I’M NOT A P0KÉMON."

He landed with a crash, immediately unleashing another wave of dark energy that surged outward, shaking the ground.

And just like that, the fight began.

Despite being flung into battle without warning, Glox understood the situation immediately.

Just like the last time Jamie had thrown him into a fight with zero explanation, it was simple:

Fight or die.

And Glox sure as hell didn’t want to die.

Of course, in reality, this was a tournament, not a real deathmatch. Any summon that was defeated would simply be teleported out of the battlefield along with its summoner.

But, as stated earlier, Glox had zero explanation of the circumstances, so he had no way of knowing that.

As far as he was concerned, this was life or death, and so he fought like it was.

Thanks to Jamie’s modifications, Glox now looked like the kind of creature parents used to scare their children into obedience.

Humanoid in shape, he had long green hair cascading down his back—ordinary enough. But his eyes were where the nightmare fuel began.

He was humanoid, with long green hair that flowed down his back. But his eyes were where the nightmare fuel started.

His eyes were vertically aligned, with green irises faintly outlined in gold.

Two pairs of wings unfurled behind him—the first resembling fairy wings with a blend of delicate feathers and bat-like membranes, shimmering in dark green hues. The second set was fully draconic, massive and armoured, with blade-sharp edges. His hands and feet ended in dark green, gleaming draconic claws, completing his chimeric form.

But more than his physical evolution, what really mattered was his power evolution.

Originally, Glox had wielded the Universal Law of Life. Specifically, a negative polarized version of it.

Now, he had more than just that.

In addition to Negative Life, he had gained access to the Law of Darkness and another law that intertwined perfectly with his abilities—the law of Withering.

Together, they formed a rather terrifying synergy, and these unlucky five were the first to test out its effectiveness.

The moment Glox’s aura exploded outwards, the effects were instantaneous.

Their shadows came alive and took hold of their bodies, restraining their movements. Flowing within the restraints were streams of negative life energy that began to drain their life forces.

But Glox wasn’t done.

They had been teleported into a dense forest, towering trees stretching high, vines hanging low, and a thick carpet of plant life covering the ground.

Glox infused his magic power into the trees, into the vines, into the roots beneath the soil, transforming them all into carnivorous monstrosities.

Leaves sharpened into blade-like edges, vines glistened with venom, writhing like serpents waiting to strike and the ground split open as roots erupted upward, forming gnarled, grasping claws of wood.

The opposing summons that hadn’t even finished dealing with the restraints and life force drain didn’t have a chance to properly react.

One of them managed to break free from the restraints at the last moment and leapt away, only to have a vine snap around its neck, hoisting it high into the air before crushing its windpipe.

Instantly, both the summon and its summoner vanished in a flash of light.

Glox had drawn first blood—in the entire tournament.

All spectators’ eyes turned towards him as he made short work of the other four.

A humanoid summon wielding a spear tried to charge, only to have the tree he stepped on suddenly split open, revealing a jagged maw that swallowed him whole.

Another summon, a tall metallic golem, swung its fist at Glox, but Glox unleashed a wave of darkness that engulfed its arm and made it rot mid-motion.

Its entire body crumbled to dust before it could even complete a strike.

In less than a minute, all five summons were gone and the forest fell silent once more.