- Oliver -

  "Damian?" Oliver murmured, surprised to see the familiar face projected on the hologram.

  The st time he'd seen him, they were desperately fleeing from goblins in the icy caves of GL581. Now, Damian appeared there, marked by scars that told part of the story after being ered by the goblins. Oliver recalled seeing one of Damian's teammates during the fight against the Orks but hadn't known the boy's whereabouts until now.

  'Looks like he didn't e out unscathed,' Oliver thought, the marks on Damian's face. 'It doesn't make up for what he did, but it's good to see the goblins mao pay baehow.'

  The narrator's voice echoed through the loudspeakers: "The sixty petitors have ehe field. Let's start the match!"

  Uhe Trial Tower, there were no giant holograms in the arena, and it wasn't clear who was narrating. However, his ents reverberated throughout the stadium and to those watg from home.

  "Alright, we have many talents in this arena. Let's highlight those with the greatest ce of advang in this phase," the entator expined.

  'He doesn't seem to be an officer from the hey're really turning this into a sp spectacle,' Oliver reflected as he listeo the description.

  "Oeresting petitor is Damian Nemo. Besides belonging to one of the Great Houses, he possesses the power of his lineage: he's capable of trolling beings with weaker minds, especially monsters," the entator expined.

  At that moment, the gates at the ends of the arena began to rise.

  "Unfortunately, he has a whip as his Ranger on and was from the Sed Battalion. Therefore, I don't have high expectations for his performahe narrator added with a slightly skeptical tone.

  In the dim light of the gates, a horde of robots rose. Each exuded a threatening aura, even though they were just training maes. Their silhouettes were desigo simute real threats: metallic armor marked by scars, eyes glowing like indest red dots. Some wielded firearms, while others brandished sharp cws ready to attack.

  The robots began to mar unison, advang against the petitors. The symphony of metal and rhythmic footsteps captured the spectators' attention.

  When the maes were less than fifty meters away, they suddenly ged. From a slow advahey began to run at high speed, charging ferociously at the oppos.

  "Let's finally begin the fight," annouhe narrator, full of enthusiasm.

  Although the petitors should have been aware of the robots' behavior from the provided descriptions, the ferocity of the attack still surprised some. A few showed hesitation, but not Damian. Quickly, he threw two metallic disks on the ground. Oliver watched, intrigued, expeg him to use the whip defensively.

  From the disks, a bluish energy began to emanate, f a field that seemed to intensify as the match progressed. Dozens of robots approached Damian, who skillfully swung the whip against the first two adversaries.

  The flexible bde of the whip hissed through the air, ing around the first robot. With a swift movement, Damian pulled the on, causing the mae to lose band collide with the sed approag robot. The collisioed in a shower of sparks and meical pos flying in all dires.

  "Impressive! Damian shows exceptional skill in handling his on!" excimed the entator.

  'The first horde will have twenty robots; as long as a person had a good performan their bat training, they should be able to easily get past the first round,' Oliver thought, watg the petitors.

  "Another iing talent is oher side of the arena: Mirel Thorhe entator announced, his voice eg throughout the arena. "The girl es from a lesser House but has an odd boon."

  Upon hearing the name, Oliver immediately directed his gaze to her battlefield. The area where Mirel fought had something strahin, almost invisible wires were spread everywhere, refleg the artificial light in silvery tohey looked like giant spider webs, stretg out in a plex mesh that covered the terrain around her.

  The robots advaoward her, their metallic armleaming uhe intense lights. One of them, mile, ran and leaped in a high arc, aiming to strike Mirel from above. With a subtle movement of her hand, almost as if dug an invisible symphony, she activated her trap.

  The thousands of wires around her came to life in the blink of ahey moved with frightening speed and precision, iwining and f intricate patterns. The robot was enveloped mid-air as the wires sliced through its metallic carcass like sharp bdes. In seds, the mae was shredded into thousands of pieces, which fell to the ground like a rain of metal.

  The entator held his breath, impressed at the demonstration of power and trol.

  "No wonder her niame is Spider," the entator said excitedly. "She uses wires as her Ranger on, trolling thousands of steel fiments to set traps and eliminate her oppos. Mirel was also among the top scorers during the Ranger on training of this quarter!"

  Oliver watched, impressed. The elegand efficy with which Mirel maniputed the wires were hypnotic. Eaent was calcuted, the wires responding instantly to her ands, f barriers, traps, and offensive ons. She transformed the battlefield into her own domain, a deadly web from whio enemy could escape.

  Other robots tried to surround her but met the same fate. Wires emerged from the ground and surrounding structures, capturing aroying the maes with surgical precision. The arena around her became a zone of artistic destru, a testament to her unparalleled skill.

  A sudden shriek echoed through the room, surprising even the entator.

  "Raaakk!"

  Oliver turned sharply to the other side of the s, with his heart rag. The other petitors' reas indicated that somethiraordinary had happened.

  "What is that?" questiohe entator, his voice den with surprise aement.

  High-definition cameras quickly focused on Damian's arena. The enrged image revealed an impressive se: two Ice Goblins had appeared otlefield, strategically positioning themselves to defend different parts of his area. Each creature moved with supernatural agility, tearing apart approag robots with fierd precise strikes. They carried steel bdes in each of their hands that shone uhe arena's intense lights.

  Damian, at the ter of his zone, maintained a fident pose. His eyes were fixed on the oppos who mao escape the Goblins, and with fluid movements of his whip, he ralized any remaining threats.

  "Was that a small teleportation device he threw?" the entator pondered, still trying to uand what happened.

  Oliver crossed his arms, thoughtful. 'Smart. He prepared items to plement his bat style,' he reflected. 'He'll be quite difficult.'

  The first wave of attacks was ing to an end. Sirens sounded, indig the start of the assault.

  "First wave over!" annouhe entator enthusiastically. "Get ready for the sed wave. This time, we'll have more robots, and they'll be faster. In this stage, we should start seeing the first eliminations—"

  Before he could finish, an ued event caught everyone's attention.

  As the petitors prepared for the new wave, one of the partits took a daring measure. With an agile leap, he crossed the barrier that delimited his area and invaded a nearby petitor's arena. Shots were exged from both sides, the tension rising rapidly. The invader advaoward the oppo's pilr, determio sabotage their defense.

  However, upon toug the pilr, he simply vanished, disiing into a shower of particles.

  "Looks like we have our first defeat!" excimed the entator, the surprise evident in his voice. "Someone didn't read the instrus provided on their gaus. petitors must remain within their arenas, ot touch other partits' pilrs, and ot attack their petitors."

  Oliver brought his hand to his forehead, incredulous. 'Fuck! Someone really didn't read the extra rules,' he thought, shaking his head in surprise.

  But he wouldn't be the st to test the limits of the regutions. As soon as the sed wave began, one of the recruits revealed a peculiar Boon. As he swung his arms, the recruit released a dense bck smoke that began to spread throughout the arena. The thick fog hihe vision of the other petitors, creating a chaotid uable enviro.

  Spectators awaited an intervention from the anizers, but nothing happehe petitor remained in his area, hadn't touched others' pilrs, and hadn't directly attacked any oppo. He was teically within the rules.

  'It was expected that someone would try something like this,' Oliver sidered. 'Sooner or ter, strategies like this would appear.'

  A sudden cry of shock came from nearby.

  "My God!" excimed Isabe, her eyes fixed on her hologram. "Arena 23 fiheir exam. They must be starting to call the group."

  "That quick?" asked Oliver, surprised.

  "Yes. There was a teancer among the petitors. He infiltrated a virus into the robots, boosting their strength to the maximum, wiping out all the other partits in the first round," Isabe expined, still shocked by what she had watched.

  "Tricky," murmured Oliver. Determining whether the a was within or outside the rules was quite hard. The teancer hadn't directly attacked the others but had influehe adversaries' robots, making them more dangerous.

  Before he could ponder more oter, his gau vibrated softly. An urgent notification fshed in the air.

  | Please proceed to Arena 23

  "It's my turn."

  GCLopes