Chapter 789: Glaive [GT Ranking Bonus Chapter]
Teo Swig opened his eyes after the white light had swallowed him. But he wasn’t standing on his feet; instead, he was suspended on something. His blue eyes snapped toward the thing that was holding him up: a web. The strands were thick and unnaturally durable, easily capable of supporting his weight without showing any signs of snapping.
"An unknown Player has entered a designated Negative Zone. The Zone Function is as follows: division of points gained from any kills to a quarter."
The announcement echoed within Teo Swig’s ears. He didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. He had just arrived; he hadn’t even assessed his surroundings or anything of the sort, yet he was being told that any points he earned would be reduced to a quarter.
Teo sighed, choosing not to think too much about it. To him, if anything, this was actually a good thing; it meant he had something to kill this early on, gaining an advantage in the Inter-Empire Competition immediately.
Although he didn’t know the rewards for this competition, he wanted them more than anyone. Everyone else who was favored to win this competition was a noble or possessed immense backing. But he, Teo, didn’t. He was simply a humble commoner, winning the rewards would increase his strength faster, enabling him to escape any noble who might want to tie him down. Freedom had always been one of the things he valued most.
With that, he immediately checked the cost of unlocking his Astra energy and affinity. After checking that, he leaped off the web that had been suspending him in place. His blue eyes traced everything around him. He was in a sort of cave, though he wasn’t entirely sure; it seemed to be some kind of underground chamber, one that appeared to be housing something.
From the webs he could see, Teo could already guess it was an arachnid, maybe some type of spider. The more he walked, the more clues he found pointing to that conclusion. But something was wrong, the farther he went, the stronger the smell of blood in the air became. It could be that the spiders were simply having a meal, but Teo, who had been on missions from his first year through his third year at Star Academy, possessed enough experience and knowledge to suspect that wasn’t the case.
And as though proving his point, a heavy presence brushed past Teo’s senses. It was something everyone within Crymora was familiar with: Malice.
Which meant a single thing: a Negative Emovira or Emovirae was involved.
His footsteps immediately came to a halt, not out of fear, but simply caution. After all, he couldn’t assess the strength of the Emovirae from the Malice they emitted alone, especially when it felt as though the Emovirae were trying to control it.
’Are they trying to break through into Rank 5?’ Teo thought to himself. It was common knowledge that Rank 5 Emovirae and above could erase their Malice and conceal it if they wished, and they were also more intelligent. Stepping into that rank was a form of evolution for them.
And just as he had sensed them, they had sensed Teo.
Normally, they might have ignored him because they were preparing to step into the next rank, but at the same time, they couldn’t allow some random human to disrupt their ascension into something higher.
And with that, both of them stepped out from the inner cave where they had been hidden, their Rank 4 presence drenching the air, their Malice suffocating. The atmosphere itself seemed to grow heavier as they revealed themselves.
In front of him was a Spider, as he had expected, but it was a spider-type Emovira instead. It possessed a human-like upper body, while its lower body was that of a spider, complete with eight legs, its eyes glowed faintly within the darkness of the cavern.
The second Emovira was an Ant. It stood upright, its exoskeleton black, its claws long, their sharp edges shimmering with a shredding power that promised shredding destruction.
Teo’s expression remained calm, his hand simply moved toward the weapon hanging on his back: a glaive.
"Hu... h...man... le...ave," the Ant Emovira spoke. Although its evolution wasn’t complete, it had already started to gain a measure of intelligence and speech.
"W..we.. sh..all.. spare... y..ou... t..his.. o..ne.. tim..e," the Spider followed with its own incoherent speech.
Teo didn’t reply, he wasn’t much of a talker. He simply loved getting into the action and saving the talking for never. Although many might think Rank 4 Emovirae and Fang-Class monsters were equal because they shared the same rank, that wasn’t the case.
Emovirae generally seemed to be stronger on average, and with these two on the verge of a breakthrough, they were even stronger. Well... not that it made a difference at this moment to Teo. His grip on the glaive tightened slightly as he prepared to move.
The earth beneath Teo’s feet sank in and shattered as he shot forward like a cannon. He thrust the blade of his glaive at the Ant with pinpoint accuracy.
The Ant’s reaction was immediate, its ant wings beat through the air, pushing its speed and agility to the peak as it nimbly dodged at the last second, clearly not expecting Teo to be this fast.
The Spider Emovira closed the gap, it stabbed at Teo with two of its sharp legs. But Teo simply sidestepped as though it were the easiest thing in the world. He didn’t just dodge; he retaliated. He swung his glaive, and like a knife through butter, the blade sliced through four of the Spider Emovira’s eight legs.
The Spider Emovira ignored the pain and screamed at the top of its lungs, unleashing a sound-based attack that roared forward, aiming to kill Teo where he stood. The sound wave surged through the cavern with enough force to crack parts of the surrounding stone.
Teo simply shot to the side, narrowly dodging the attack, but before he could even make another move, the Ant was already on the move. With a humming sound, it appeared before Teo, its claws moving to tear his head off. Teo could literally hear the air being torn to shreds by the force of the Ant swinging its claws.
He simply leaned backward, dodging the attack by a few centimeters while slashing upward from below in a diagonal motion, his glaive tearing through the Ant’s exoskeleton as though it didn’t even exist.
The Ant’s eyes widened in pure shock, its wings flapping again as it tried to put distance between itself and Teo. But Teo’s second hand moved as he clamped down on the Ant’s extended arm by the wrist, not allowing it to escape. And in one linked motion, he made a horizontal slash, decapitating the Ant. Its body turned to ash before it could even hit the ground.
The Spider Emovira, seeing this, immediately tried to flee. Although in pain and possessing only half of its original eight legs, its speed was still astonishing. Survival instincts had completely overtaken any thoughts of fighting.
Teo simply entered a throwing stance as he launched his glaive through the air as though he were a gold-medal javelin Olympian. The glaive whistled through the air and stabbed straight into the Spider Emovira’s head, the force of the throw shooting the Spider forward as the weapon drove into a wall with a booming sound.
Teo simply walked forward with calm steps and pulled his weapon from the wall as the Emovira’s corpse turned to dust. He raised his hand and gazed at his point balance, which showed nine hundred (900) points.
Teo couldn’t help but sigh at his bad luck. If he hadn’t landed in a Negative Zone, he would have had three thousand six hundred (3600) points and been Rank 1 at the moment. Considering how quickly he had earned those points, the loss felt especially painful.
Truly, the Negative Zones were ruthless.
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AUTHOR’S NOTE: Before you judge me for not showing Asher, these Chapters were to show other important characters for the Inter-Empire competition.
And also, Rank 9 on the Golden Tickets Ranking is hot on our tails... please help.
