With careful movement, Eric made his way into the warehouse where the device indicated that the blue dot was.

  He was now making his way through the elevated walkway that was near the roof. The blue dot had not moved from its original location at all, making it easy to locate.

  The warehouse itself had nothing out of the ordinary. The strangest aspect about it was how empty it was.

  The entire central area of the warehouse was empty, it looked like a very squared letter “C”, while the “C” itself was nothing but racks full of various items. If he were to guess, the empty area was just for ease of loading and unloading.

  With Eric’s eyesight, he could easily make out that they were technological devices that were completely alien to him.

  Some of them seem like human parts. That’s an arm, those are eyes and that looks like… he narrowed his eyes, a mouth?

  Every piece of technology that he saw was some technological enhancement or replacement for ordinary human body parts. He was even able to recognize some of them since he saw them being used on his way to the warehouse.

  As Eric kept eyeing the racks, his sight suddenly landed on those that were near the edge of the central area, something or someone had moved.

  It was subtle, nothing too noticeable, a shadow that wasn’t there before, but before he could accurately assess what he was seeing, an entire rack was already hurling in his direction.

  With barely any time to react, Eric dodged forward on the walkway.

  The rack crashed into the walkway, not only causing most of the rest to shake, but also destroying an entire section of it and disconnecting it from the rest.

  As Eric came to a stop, turning to face in the direction from which the rack had come from, he saw another one already coming his way.

  He dodged once more, this time toward the direction he came from, stopping short of the already destroyed section of the walkway.

  The second rack crashed against the walkway and the entire structure swayed in response to the violent attack.

  Eric struggled to find his balance under the aggressive movements as he now suddenly found himself isolated on a small piece of barely hanging walkway.

  He jerked his head violently, once more facing the central area of the warehouse, only this time he didn’t find anything odd, not even the faint movement that he had noticed a few seconds earlier.

  Suddenly, the warehouse became eerily silent, the only sound coming from the swaying walkway and falling pieces from the thrown rack.

  “Shit,” he muttered, observing the platform he was on. “This won’t hold.”

  With zero hesitation, he jumped down, reinforcing his legs in an attempt to reduce the impact from the fall. Whatever damage, if any, was small and quickly healed.

  He now found himself behind the racks that were near the central area with all his senses being stretched to their limit.

  He could hear some of the vehicles that passed through the road with which the warehouse connected. His eyes trembled under the strain with which he was putting them under, trying to peel them more than he was physically capable. Even his skin felt more sensitive, all his hair standing on end.

  But all of that proved to be useless as he suddenly felt something penetrate his arm, exit it and then burrow into his chest through his side. Whatever had stabbed him was long and cold, he could feel it slowly crawl toward his lungs.

  Was this planned?! his mind screamed in question.

  As blood began to pour out of his mouth, he felt the weapon push against the wound it had created. Suddenly, he felt the weapon leaving his body, but then he soon realized that wasn’t the case, it was him that was leaving the weapon behind.

  In the blink of an eye, Eric now found himself being flung through the racks, all across the room, hitting the other end of the warehouse.

  ----------

  “How long until this ends? My opponent changed again. I feel like I’m spinning a roulette,” Anna said, irritation clear in her expression. “Wait, no. That’s not a roulette, is it?”

  Stella was also looking at the match ups, seeing names disappear without a trace. “It’s slowing down, and the time is almost up,” she commented, turning to look at the timer.

  Tournament of the Strong: 5:04

  No other messages had appeared since the one that announced everyone’s first match up. In that time the name of Anna’s opponent changed twelve times, Alex’s changed three and Stella’s remained unchanged.

  It unnerved her to know that her opponent was either as composed as she was, avoiding conflict or worse, actively participating in the chaos and still alive.

  “What’s the worse option?” Alex asked, looking at Stella.

  “Huh?!”

  “What’s the worst option?” Alex repeated. “Someone who isn’t participating in what’s going on outside, or someone that is, and is still very much alive.”

  “Those can’t be the only two options,” Anna commented.

  “On the one hand, if they aren’t participating, then that means that they have a brain and aren’t just here because of luck,” Stella began, her gaze still fixed on the match ups. “On the other, uf they are participating, then they have enough skill to survive that chaotic mess. Either option is bad. But just like Anna said, there might be other reasons.”

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  “Like?” Alex asked.

  “They might be asleep,” Anna suggested. “They might not even know everything that’s going on right now.”

  Stella gestured toward Anna, agreeing with her suggestion.

  “With all this noise?” Alex asked.

  “You can get used to loud noises when you need to. Just ask Stella,” Anna said, a smile appearing on her face.

  Both Stella and Alex looked at her with a puzzled expression.

  “During one of your little excursions, Marcus was doing this experiment that resulted in a lot of explosions. And I really mean a lot. But Stella here literally slept through them all like they were nothing. It was incredible,” Anna said with amazement.

  “It can’t be the same, can it?” Alex asked.

  “It was worse,” Stella answered dryly. “It was the reason we pushed his lab toward the edge of the territory. We were having an earthquake every ten minutes.”

  “Damn, I can’t believe I missed that,” Alex said, a bit sad.

  Noticing Alex’s reaction Anna quickly changed topics. “Speaking of—no, wait, there is nothing in common. Forget that. What about the children that accepted the tournament invitation, any news?”

  Alex made a slight frown because of how Anna started but quickly answered. “None of them have appeared on the matches, so that’s good. But we still can’t be too careful, the timer is still counting down and something might happen to them when it reaches zero.”

  “Something will most definitely happen when the timer reaches zero,” Stella added. “Two of the people that we brought through still don’t have an opponent and something tells me that it might be related to the people that didn’t arrive through the portal or on time.”

  “Any ideas?” Alex asked, nervously. “Whatever pops into my head tends to be a bit negative and I need alternatives.”

  “Sorry,” Stella said, shaking her head.

  “Nothing,” Anna added.

  Tournament of the Strong: 2:37

  “You guys should come see this,” Alex said in a serious tone.

  He had been standing near the window the entire time, monitoring the situation and making sure that it didn’t go out of control. Though his main focus from the beginning had always been the attendants and every single one of there actions.

  “What are they doing?” Anna asked, confused by what she was seeing.

  “They’re taking control of the situation,” Stella answered.

  The attendants were simply walking up to those that were fighting and stopping them.

  There movements weren’t elaborate, nor did they convey power in any manner. In fact, they looked like perfectly regular humans, however the effects that their actions had were immense.

  A challenger was about to bury their lightning covered fist on their opponent, when an attendant simply grabbed their hand and ordered both of them to sit down.

  Somewhere near the center of their section, a boar made entirely of water was rushing toward its target, only to dissipate as it passed by an attendant.

  Throughout their entire section similar events were occurring. Weapons were being stopped midair, either by the hand of an attendant or by an invisible force, the cause didn’t matter, only that it was happening.

  Tournament of the Strong: 1:10

  Most of those that still remained quickly caught on to what they had to do and quickly settled down, doing as they were told, but not all of them were so wise.

  “Oh, no. Look at that guy,” Anna said with an almost childlike excitement, that was completely new to her, as she pointed someone out.

  She wasn’t one for punishment, but she was curious about what the attendants would do. It can’t be that bad, right?

  It was a scrawny looking man, if they had to guess, he was a teenager. They had no way of knowing what his powers were, but looking at how oddly the shadows behaved around him, they were sure it was somehow related.

  An attendant had already told him and his opponent to settle down, but there was something about him that told Anna that he wasn’t done and that he wasn’t going to stop. It was why she pointed him out to the others.

  “Here he goes,” she added.

  One of the shadows suddenly turned abnormally sharp, nothing like the plant that was casting said shadow.

  The sharp shadow suddenly shot toward the attendant’s own, but there was something there that Anna recognized, it was a lack of will.

  Sure enough, the shadow stopped just short of the attendant’s own as if it were a threat. None of those that were looking could make out what was being said, but they were able to clearly see what happened next.

  The attendant turned to look at the teenager in the eyes, a beaming smile plastered on their face.

  “Shit,” they all said almost in unison.

  Anna’s excitement faded instantly. Every single hair on her body stood on end, she somehow knew that what was about to follow wasn’t something that they usually did, and it would be worse than it needed to be.

  “Deserved,” someone a few floors below them said. “Trying to damage family property.”

  The attendant walked toward the teen, causing the shadow to touch their own and a wound appeared on their side.

  The attendant remained unfazed, and the teen couldn’t do anything. At some point his entire body decided to turn off and not respond. His face was still responsive, and you could see genuine fear as tears streamed down his cheeks.

  The attendant reached for his head and as if were a screw, they began to twist it, with each turn they would elevate it a bit more. All the while, the teen screamed nonstop. Whatever primal instinct had stopped his body from reacting before, was completely gone and he screamed his lungs out.

  Most looked on in horror, some with fascination and others were just waiting for the young man to die, bringing an end to the screams.

  But no matter how much they twisted, how much their head was separated from their torso, the screaming never stopped.

  Anna was one of the few who had been able to discern what was happening.

  “They’re using concepts to stop or at least slow his death,” she said, her voice grim.

  “How? And which concepts?” Stella asked, curious.

  “I—I—I, I don’t know. These have nothing to do with the sword or with sharpness. I least I don’t think they—” She frowned mid answer. “No, it does have to do with the sword, maybe cutting, but it’s being applied in a weird way.”

  “Maybe it has to do with how your death was stopped during the goblin incursion,” Alex suggested.

  “Maybe…” Anna answered, mulling over the possibilities.

  In the meantime, the teenager’s head was completely detached from his torso and it now rested on a bench that was directly behind them. The attendant didn’t stop there, they proceeded to do the exact same thing to each and every one of his limbs.

  Those that were close enough, or had high enough perception, could see that from each of the detached body parts, there were small cable-like connections still tethering them to the torso.

  And anyone with even a bit of knowledge could tell that they were veins, nerves and everything needed to keep him as he was: screaming and in pain.

  Tournament of the Strong: 37

  The other attendants were completely indifferent toward what was happening. They were busy moving the others away from certain areas and towards others.

  Most of the challengers were being moved toward a central road that led to the main arena, while the rest were being left as they were where they were, with no explanation.

  Even amidst the chaos, the attendants that had been busy with opening up their shops didn’t stop, and now they were almost done with all the preparations.

  “Looks like it’s almost time,” Alex commented as he looked down.

  Below, entire rows of people were leaving the building that they were all currently in.

  Attendants were on each side of the main entrance, keeping them in line and making sure that nothing that could disturb the order that they had forcefully instilled was allowed to happen.

  As the three friends removed themselves from the window, swallowing hard in an attempt to forget what they had just seen, a knock was heard at the door.

  “They’re here, guess—”

  Tournament of the Strong: 0

  Alex’s words were cut off as he, Anna and everyone that had been left alone, not guided toward the central road, vanished in a bright light.

  Stella looked around in surprise, but she already had an idea of what was going on and proceeded to exit the room, leading the entirety of the Solace participants on her own.