47th of Season of Air, 59th year of the 32nd cycle

  The wall gave one loud crack before Newt arrived at the scene. The nanuqsaurus had a bloody face and a pair of legs sticking out of its jaw as it bashed its head once more against the reinforced palisade.

  The blow landed, then Newt’s glaive sliced the spirit beast’s throat and it toppled to the ground, disappearing as it did, along with Skillhorn’s remains. With two more minutes before the start of the next wave, Newt headed for the repair token, taking the long way through the jungle. He hoped he would find something useful, but the jungle appeared empty.

  With scant few seconds remaining, he waited for the next enemy to materialize.

  Damn, we lost Slickhorn, and I have eighty percent of my spiritual energy remaining. I can hold out until round twenty if I keep this pace, probably thirty if I stop detouring into the jungle. Yes, hopefully, I can manage an extra lane.

  ***

  “The event is proceeding much like the honorable ancestor presiding over it has announced. Nine hundred and seventy-nine teams of one or more have started the tournament, two hundred and fifty eliminated in the first round, a hundred and sixty in the second, a hundred and ten in the third, but the nanuqsauruses were a huge escalation!”

  Sleek liked Hardy better, his roughness and lack of charm made for a good foil, while Northstar, with her calm voice and clinical analysis made the whole broadcast dull. That was what the sect master wanted, dullness which would not rock the boat or offend any powerhouses in a moment of shock which strangled the brain.

  Damn rockhead, Sleek silently cursed Hardy for making his life difficult before continuing the broadcast.

  “That’s right, Northstar. When the round started, close to a half the remaining teams had weaker links, which would have already fallen had they been alone. Nanuqsauruses broke through their defenses, slaughtered the defenders, and while the number of teams which have failed is not all that shocking, a mere hundred and twenty, almost all teams, save for the top thirty have lost one or more members.”

  Sleek made his career on reading boring lines of numbers, transforming them into something exciting. A part of his talent came from the fact numbers excited him, especially numbers of spirit gems trickling into his pockets. Another portion of his talent came from the adopted persona and his airy nature, where, unlike Hardy, he never committed to anything. Under different circumstances, it was a weakness, but for an unbiassed reader of numbers, such a trait made him a better professional.

  “The grand sects and the ten forces striving to enter the lofty peak are still present in full strength, as are seven of the independents and three large sects. Explorer’s Gate, which has earned our special attention, isn’t doing that well.”

  Thankfully, Northstar picked up the speech.

  “They started off well,” she said, “sending the weakest member into the jungle while their lead combatant took on two lanes, the same tactic employed by all the major forces, but unlike major forces, Explorer’s Gate could only spare one person to comb the jungle.”

  Tyrannosauruses appeared in the hundreds of projections Sleek and Northstar observed.

  “Well, that escalated quickly!” Sleek exclaimed before Northstar could steal his line. “From nanuqsauruses to their massive cousins in a single step — and half of them died before I finished that sentence. Grand sects and their challengers are really something else, aren’t they? Those are peak third realm T-rexes, and so many of them died in a heartbeat.”

  In a corner projection, Newt ran for the next lane, as did the majority of the participants Sleek watched out for. Explorer’s Gate was yesterday’s news. The day’s event preferred powerful solitary participants or well rounded teams.

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  “Diamond Talisman’s disciples are completing their second line of defense,” Sleek shouted, doing his best to paint carving wood as the most interesting affair in the world. “Without spare flags for their spell formations, they are manually scribing their secondary defenses onto the walls.”

  “This event’s format favors them greatly, their spell formations trapped the tyrannosauruses and killed them in a matter of seconds, while nearly half the other teams’ strongholds are under attack now.”

  A multitude of projections displayed more or less identical scenes of tyrannosauruses tearing the defenders to shreds. Those who had surrendered initiative and fought close to their fortresses died in droves, and the massive dinosaurs attacked the gates, splintering them and stomping on the illusory villagers.

  Projections flickered and disappeared like bubbles as teams got eliminated. The spell formation scribe in charge of controlling them resized the remaining ones. Hundreds still floated in the air, but the clutter would soon clear.

  “Look at him burn the ground behind him! Explorer’s Gate’s Newstar Blazing Salamander is rushing to his sect’s third undefended lane. The T-Rex has torn away the wall’s reinforcements, aaand it’s dead, with Newstar rushing to repair the damage.”

  “Thunder Titans’ Steel Dream Ultraraptor and Hardstone Thunder Titan have also slain their third tyrannosauruses, but Thunder Titans’ situation is completely different from Explorer’s Gate’s. Their scouts have already found multiple caches with tar, pit traps, and additional villagers.”

  Sleek found the topic boring, especially with the new wave starting. “The T-Rex rampage eliminated a hundred and twenty teams, and seventy are still trying to deal with them.”

  A pair of smaller dinosaurs appeared across all screens.

  “An unexpected twist, the sixth wave are a pair of nanuqsauruses. And these are air attributed, so far, a hundred and twenty-five teams have fallen in the T-Rex wave, but who will survive this one?”

  ***

  Oblivious of how outside cultivators viewed his trial as a brutal sport and pastime, Newt hounded the second nanuqsaurus. Its strong air affinity made the monster freakishly fast, and it reached a third of the way to the fort before Newt caught up to it and slew it.

  Afraid he might miss the swift dinosaurs, Newt blasted his way towards the fort instead of cutting through the jungle. He reached the adjacent lane in a single leap, happy that Flare and Twochains were still keeping up with protecting their own walls. Before the Blood Cult’s attack, Explorer’s Gate had better options than Redleaf and Slickhorn, but things being what they were, they had to make best use of what they had available.

  I should’ve sent Slickhorn to roam the jungle too.

  His teammate’s senseless elimination irked Newt as he bisected the illusory nanuqsaurus’s head and dodged the other’s jaw snapping at his torso.

  Newt executed the second threat just as twin booms echoed from Skillhorn’s lane. The beasts had landed six blows before Newt had arrived, and instead of facing him, they each struck the gate one more time before perishing.

  The wall hung in tatters, but mere thirty seconds had passed since the start of the wave, and Newt rushed to the next lane, in which Twochains kept the two beasts at bay. Kusarigama made for a poor defensive weapon, but the man held long enough for Newt to sweep in from the flank and slaughter the dinosaurs.

  Twochains shouted his thanks, but Newt ignored him and sprinted to see how Flare was doing. By the time he arrived, the lane was empty, Flare running through the jungle in an attempt to find anything useful.

  “Twochains!” Newt bellowed at the top of his lungs. “Stop blocking the dinos. Let them reach the wall and kill them from the back, then go to the repair token and repair the damage!”

  Twochains excelled at attack, not defense. Newt believed he should be able to defeat defenseless dinosaurs before they destroyed the wall. That would buy them extra time and keep Twochains safe.

  With over two minutes remaining, Newt circled through the jungle, heading for the nearly destroyed wall’s repair stone while looking for something which could give his team an advantage.

  As Newt rushed through the impossibly dense shrubbery, he caught a glint of metal. The sight was artificial, in such dense trees and shrubs, there were no direct rays of light for metal to reflect, so Newt swerved to the left where he found a pile of seven-foot-tall metal spikes.

  Newt waved his hand through them, and the items disappeared, providing Newt’s team with an unknown benefit.

  He sprinted onto the lane and repaired the gate just before three nanuqsauruses appeared. With a sweep of his blade, Newt slew one, but the remaining two bolted, rushing towards the fortress. By the time Newt slew the other two, the fortress was less than six hundred yards away.

  Racing to the next lane, Newt crushed the nanuqsauruses, but not before the last one landed a hit on the wall. Another three booms sounded and Newt flew towards them across the fort without care for his spiritual energy, he had more than half remaining, and the way things were going, the challenge would end long before he exhausted himself.

  Newt landed in the middle of the nanuqsauruses with the wall reduced to ruined wood, one hit away from breaking. He slew one nanuqsaurus, roasted another’s head with a ball of flame, but the third one shattered the palisade, and the cowering villagers screamed.