Chapter 170: The Prepared Battlefield
The livestream went live the moment the Mythical Gate shimmered into view. The viewer count climbed faster than anyone expected.
Twenty thousand.
Forty thousand.
Sixty thousand.
It continued rising and the chat exploded with messages.
"Third Authority Candidate!"
"It’s finally Elden!"
"Wizard versus Kai!"
"This one’s going to be insane!"
Sora smiled at the floating screen beside her. "Welcome back, everyone." She gestured toward the two Hunters standing before the enormous gate. "Our third Authority Candidate is about to challenge Elden Ashcroft."
The camera shifted toward Elden.
He looked completely relaxed. His blue-green staff rested against one shoulder while he smiled at Kai. "Ready?"
Kai returned the smile. "As I’ll ever be."
The gate slowly opened and both stepped inside. The entrance sealed behind them with a heavy rumble.
Silence followed.
Kai instinctively looked toward Elden. "...Hm?"
Nobody.
The open plain stretched before him. He saw white tone with broken pillars and ruined walls. Yet the most striking thing was Elden had vanished.
Kai blinked. "...Already?"
There hadn’t been a countdown.
No greeting.
No opening attack.
No dramatic entrance.
A strange feeling settled into Kai’s chest before then the sky flashed. His eyes shot upward and he saw blue-green magic circles covering the sky.
Dozens.
Then hundreds.
Each one rotated slowly as glowing runes circled around their edges. Kai’s eyes widened. "...Seriously?"
The first circle pulsed.
BOOM!
A pillar of blue-green light crashed toward him! But Kai vanished with Air Step as the beam struck the ground instead. And before the dust settled, another circle activated. Then another and then another.
Bolts of light rained from every direction.
Kai rushed forward as he jumped over some, slid past the others, and launched himself forwards to evade the rest.
Yet the beams began to adjust to his surprise. The first missed, the second corrected and the third predicted where he would appear next.
Kai crossed both blades.
A beam struck the Fractured Blade.
The impact forced him sideways with chunks of stone exploding around him. Yet this only made Kai chuckle as he recovered and continued forward. He launched himself over another incoming blast.
A second later something caught his attention. Floating above several ruined buildings were blue-green spheres. Each one was barely the size of a person’s head. Ancient runes rotated around them in perfect circles.
One pulsed.
Kai’s instincts screamed.
BOOM!
An arcane blast erupted from the sphere.
Kai twisted sideways. The blast grazed his shoulder before continuing through a broken tower, leaving a perfectly circular hole through solid stone. Another sphere activated and then another.
Three blasts crossed the battlefield simultaneously.
Kai cut one apart with the Fractured Blade. "...Got one."
But it didn’t fade away and began glowing. He grimaced as he rushed away before the floating pieces exploded.
"Of course, he wouldn’t make it easy." Kai muttered before then three more spheres quietly drifted into position.
Kai stared at them. "They’re replacing each other."
The spheres weren’t attacking individually but working together. It was like dealing with floating magical turrets.
Another blast crossed toward him but Kai disappeared. The beam carved through the wall he had been standing on. The entire structure collapsed and Kai landed lightly on the ground before freezing.
The stone beneath his feet glowed and blue-green lines spread across the ground. "...Oh."
The rune activated.
BOOM!
The ground exploded. Kai launched himself upward just before the blast swallowed the area beneath him. Before he landed, another rune activated on a nearby wall and ice erupted outward.
Dozens of massive spikes burst across the corridor.
Kai spun around them before a third rune lit up and stone pillars exploded from the floor. The path disappeared. A fourth activated before chains burst from the ground, snapping toward his legs.
Kai cut through them.
A fifth.
A sixth.
A seventh.
The battlefield itself came alive as every few steps another trap activated. There wasn’t a safe direction anymore but Kai found himself laughing. "Seriously?"
He cut another chain apart before vaulting over an exploding rune. And then he began realizing. The distances between every trap and the timing. Everything fits together too well.
Another beam of light shot toward him. Kai shattered it apart with Pulse Fist before looking around again and his smile slowly grew. "...You came here already."
Silence answered him.
Kai laughed. "No way..." He looked around the battlefield one more time. "...You prepared the entire dungeon."
The realization changed everything. This wasn’t a dungeon trying to kill him but the battlefield Elden had created to defeat him.
Kai could almost picture it. Elden arrived earlier in the day and setting up the dungeon with his runes and trap.
Kai shook his head. "...That’s ridiculous."
Another explosion erupted behind him.
Kai smiled even wider. "...I like it."
A distant roar echoed through the ruins. Several dungeon monsters charged into view. Massive armored beasts rushed toward Kai from opposite streets. He lowered the Fractured Blade. "Finally."
Before the monsters reached him, blue-green runes beneath their feet activated.
BOOM!
The first monster disappeared inside an explosion. A second stepped onto another glowing circle. Ice spikes burst upward and the creature was frozen in place. Three floating spheres immediately fired and the monster exploded into fragments.
A third tried climbing over the ruins.
A wall of stone erupted beneath it.
Another rune activated overhead.
A pillar of light crashed down and the monster never reached the ground.
Kai stood completely still as he saw every monster die with none of them being able to reach him or even come close. Kai burst forward again and the battlefield immediately answered.
Nothing flashed.
Nothing warned him.
The ground beneath his left foot suddenly became impossibly heavy. His body lurched downward.
CRACK!
The stone beneath him shattered as gravity doubled in an instant. Kai’s knee nearly touched the ground before he caught himself with the Fractured Blade. "Even the gravity?"
He pushed against the invisible weight. The moment he escaped the glowing rune and the pressure vanished. He barely had time to recover and thin blue-green lines appeared across the corridor.
One.
Three.
Ten.
Twenty.
Kai’s eyes narrowed. "...Lasers."
Half a second later, every line fired and the beams swept across the hallway like giant blades.
Kai quickly vanished and evaded the first beam. Before then another crossed where his head had been. A third cut through a ruined pillar behind him, slicing it cleanly in half and the entire structure slowly tipped over before crashing into the street.
Kai landed behind a fallen pillar that blocked another beam. The fallen pillar blocked another beam. And then he kicked another broken pillar. mThe massive chunk of stone rolled across the corridor, intercepting several more beams before they reached him.
The lasers vanished.
Then another trap activated.
The corridor split into three.
Kai frowned. "...Seriously?"
Three identical hallways stretched ahead. Each one looked real and each one contained the same broken buildings.
"Mirror illusions." Kai closed his eyes and stopped looking. Instead he began listening for the place where vibration or wind was coming from. And once he found it, he rushed towards the center path.
The left and right corridors shattered into blue-green light and the illusion disappeared. A glowing rune pulsed beneath his feet. Kai ignored it and he had already taken three steps.
Nothing happened. "...A fake?"
Then his instincts screamed.
Three seconds was all it took. Before the delayed explosion erupted behind him. The blast chased him down the corridor. Kai Air Stepped forward and the explosion missed him by inches before swallowing the hallway he had just left.
Dust rolled past him.
"I didn’t think he would make this so annoying."
Another arcane orb appeared overhead.
Then another.
Five this time.
Instead of firing immediately, they spread out and surrounded him. The first blast came but he sidestepped it before the second forced him to move right and then the third forced him backward. The fourth forced him into another glowing rune and then Gravity doubled again.
Kai stumbled just as the fifth orb fired, forcing him to thrust his left hand forward.
Pulse Fist.
The compressed shockwave detonated between him and the incoming blast. Both attacks exploded together. The shockwave scattered the remaining orbs and Kai immediately followed.
Thread Caster.
Silver threads shot through the air and wrapped around two floating spheres. Before he yanked and the orbs slammed into each other.
BOOM!
Both exploded.
The remaining three activated simultaneously.
Kai switched to earth mage and then stone walls erupted around him. The first blast shattered the wall. The second exploded against falling debris. The third never reached him.
Kai burst through the dust and the Fractured Blade flashed through all three of them and this time he was already gone before it exploded.
He landed atop a broken rooftop and realized the dungeon stopped attacking. He continued walking, looking for anything more but there was none. Which only made him worry a bit more.
Soon the area opened into an enormous chamber.
Kai stopped. "...Wow."
The chamber was beautiful.
Ancient stone pillars surrounded a circular arena. Blue-green mana drifted lazily through the air like glowing mist. At the center sat a massive boulder and Elden rested upon it. His staff lay across his knees. His eyes glowed softly and he looked as though he had been waiting for hours.
Behind him...
Kai’s smile slowly disappeared.
Hundreds of magic circles floated quietly in the air. Then he looked higher to see thousands of circles across the chamber.
Elden’s small smile appeared. "You made good time."
Kai looked around one last time. "I don’t think..." He shook his head. "...I’ve ever seen anyone this prepared."
Elden chuckled. "I was hoping you’d say that."
He stood and the staff tapped the stone once. Every magic circle lit up and the chamber exploded with blue-green light.
Mana flooded the arena.
The air itself vibrated.
Kai slowly tightened his grip around the Fractured Blade. Lightning began dancing across the Storm Sovereign Cloak. Wind circled around him and his smile returned. He looked at Elden and then at the thousands of prepared spells surrounding them.
"Now this looks fun."
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