What the fuck was going on here?

  For the first moment, he had feared a mind skulk or something similar. Just by the sensation of it, he knew that wasn't it. This was something he was exceedingly familiar with. Something he knew and was connected to. Yeah, this was the doing of a certain blue bastard alright.

  In the movies, when someone had their mind taken over by some kind of ancient, evil demon or spirit, the victim was portrayed as being stuck in a tiny little prison cell where nothing but a narrow window barred up with thick metal rods allowed them to watch what was happening outside in the real world.

  This was nothing like that. He was watching all of this from a front row seat with surround sound and a little fan hidden in the arm rest of his chair that blew air into his face at crucial moments to add to the immersion. He was experiencing everything first hand.

  He just couldn’t control any of it. It was as if he was strapped into a pre-programmed exosuit. Like being the pilot of a plane where only the co pilot’s yoke was functional and everything you did to try and land safely was met with continuous loops and napalm out of the plane’s ass.

  Backlash still in effect, Eik’s body hopped high into the air, countless small knives of crystalline toxin forming like icicles around him in the air. As he brought down his arms, all of them rocketed toward the ground where the cultists were only now beginning to retreat.

  How was he doing this? Materializing solid toxin without physical contact — and this ridiculous number simultaneously. What was happening?

  Even the robed figures who made it out from under the immediate rain of deadly spike were struck all over as the projectiles curved in their trajectory to impale them deeply. As Eik began to fall back to the ground, he felt Accelerant react to a silent order.

  Blood and guts showered his body when he landed unsteadily in the grass, knees beginning to fail him as Backflow took its toll. Every single cultist has died instantly, several small craters in their bodies where the Accelerating crystals had ripped out chunks of flesh.

  There was barely any time to take a breath before someone — someone who was not dressed in a gray robe, finally — crashed through the underbrush, panting hard as a grievous wound in their side spilled blood into the grass in a continuous stream.

  A pair of cultists followed right on her heels, a blinding flash of silvery light catching her in the shoulder and felling her.

  Long, thin ears poked out from underneath a metal skull cap, sharp facial features giving her a look much like that of elves from stories and myths. She could have been a sibling to the guy who had led the cult in the town where Eik and the team had undertaken a rescue mission to bring safely home a group of F-rank children.

  The cult had had the population of that town in a firm grip of iron, performing ritualistic sacrifice and cannibalism.

  Eik hesitated momentarily, wondering if he was about to run into a trap, but quickly dismissed the idea. He had met plenty of elves in Gimleh and they had all shared those rather similar features that sometimes made it difficult to tell who was who — not that he had ever admitted as much to any of them.

  The cult apparently absorbed any people they could get their hands on, and just because Eik had had a bad experience with one particularly culty elf did not mean that there was a good reason to suspect this one.

  The effects of Backflow was beginning to wane. Damage to his body didn’t feel nearly as horrendous as it had been the first two times he had used the ability to this degree, but he was reaching his limit nonetheless.

  Stumbling as he tried to run forward, a blue fracture rippled into existence right in front of his face and immediately began to pull him in by some manner of invisible force. For a second, and instinctual part of him resisted the pull but this was obviously the portal that would bring him back to the headquarters of the Nidafjeld Alliance after the final five minutes.

  Craning his neck, he looked out behind the humming fracture to check on the elf. One had appeared in front of her as well but not in front of the cultists. Before she could get through the portal, one of the robe clad bastards planted a sword in her calf that kept her from leaving. She screamed and another flash of silvery light cracked across her forehead, leaving her barely conscious.

  “Shit!” Eik cursed and dug into the pouch on his belt. Fingers finding the three smoke bombs he had looted from the lightning user in the beginning of the trial, he chucked them all at the spectacle with as much precision as he could muster considering the state he was in.

  Smoke burst out into an enormous radius, completely enveloping all of them. He thrown it a little bit too far so the glow of the fracture was still subtly visible as it pulsed inside the smoke. Frustrated yells followed by a scream reached Eik’s ears as the blue light flickered out of existence.

  Did she manage to get through?

  He got his answer when the two cultists suddenly raced out of the smoke toward him, another flash of light hurtling toward him at insane speed. Using the last of his strength, he leapt through the fracture, the vertigo setting in right away.

  Only then did he realize that he was back in control of his body. Had Profound Toxin been running the game for a little while there? That was rather… concerning, to say the least. Had it been because he’d been on the verge of losing consciousness but hadn’t quite lost it? Did that mean something like that could happen again, given the right circumstances?

  But what his body had been capable of under the command of another entity had been something else. Things he had thought wasn’t possible with his current power had been done. Contactless manipulation and contactless activation of Accelerant. As if it had been showing him the next step.

  A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  The other side of the fracture spat him out in the middle of a scene that could best be described as pure and utter chaos. As Backflow had now faded completely, he was so deprived of strength that he could only just lift his head.

  Everywhere around him people were running back and forth, tending to countless wounded Awakened, all of whom were presumably returners from the same forest Eik had been running around in. Treatment was being given to everybody and luckily the Nidafjeld Alliance had no shortage of healers in attendance since they had been prepared to receive the Championship challengers.

  In the distance, gigantic display screens hung suspended in the air, displaying a score board. Eik narrowed his eyes to see what was written. In the end, only the first line mattered to him. He grinned.

  Championships of the Nidafjeld Alliance - Round 1 scores:

  1st place - Eik Magnasen - 53 points

  The highest final scores of the tournament would not only become interdimensionally recognized and elevate the status of their entire world within the Unified Mass, they would also be allowed access to the armory of the Nidafjeld Alliance — a collection of artifacts which apparently was so grand that even the most powerful clans and individuals envied it.

  The higher up in the tournament you placed, the rarer the items you were allowed to choose from. Eik wanted that. Not for any noble reason, but because it sounded so freaking awesome.

  Additionally, according to Mikla, fighting and vanquishing other Awakened was a more effective leveling method than killing monsters, so for people who were already risking their lives fighting monsters, this was a great opportunity to grow stronger.

  The top families who tended to create the strongest Awakened were constantly pushing to keep their statuses, so an opportunity to send their young to a tournament like this was a chance few could pass up.

  The question was, now that the cult had made an entrance, would the Championships continue, or would they be suspended for the time being? But as long as they started up again later so Eik could get his prize, it didn't matter

  Through blurred vision and heavy eyelids, Eik spotted the elven woman about a half dozen paces away from where he lay. A healer in a simple linen robe put her in a recovery position, poured healing potion into her mouth and wound, and started healing her with glowing hands when Eik too was rolled over onto his back.

  “Several stab wounds and cuts. None of them look life threatening,” a man with a large, thick beard said as he gave Eik a once over, checking his pulse and pupils among other rudimentary first aid tests. The man looked familiar somehow.

  A younger man — this one beardless — behind him took notes on a clipboard and watched the whole procedure with great interest. An apprentice, maybe? The healer relayed his observations to the younger man who recorded his every word with reverent diligence.

  A faint pulse rushed through Eik’s body. Once, twice, three times. It was almost imperceptible. “We’ve got extensive internal damage to… everything, frankly,” he said, almost with a sense of wonder. “Hey, what’s your name? Can you hear me? Hey!”

  Eik tried to answer but his jaw just didn’t seem to want to open to allow him to speak.

  “What should I write?” the younger man asked, the tip of his pen hovering hesitantly above the paper.

  The bearded healer ran his fingers down the cuts in Eik’s body, each of the smaller cuts closing up completely at the mending touch. He hummed. “Just write… Just write what I said before. Extensive internal damage to all organs and tissue. Exact severity unknown at current time.”

  Kneeling down, the apprentice studied Eik’s flaky skin closely. “Just what kind of ability could cause something like this at D-rank?”

  “I’m honestly not sure on this one. I’ve never seen anything quite like this. Didn’t you watch the show?”

  “Unfortunately not, no,” the apprentice said.

  “Mi… Mine,” Eik finally managed to rasp hoarsely through a throat that felt more like an arid desert than a part of the human body.

  “I’m sorry, did you say something?” the bearded healer asked, putting his ear close to Eik’s mouth.

  “I’m sa-saying that— that it was my abi-ability that did this to me…”

  “Your own ability did this to you?”

  “Why would you want that?” the apprentice asked with an expression of puzzlement.

  Eik rolled his eyes but got caught by a fit of coughing before he could say anything more. “Here’s some water,” the healer said and tipped a container against Eik’s lips, the cool relief running down his throat the best feeling in the world. “Try to take some deep breaths.”

  He did. “It’s not like this is the main purpose of the ability. It makes me stronger temporarily but takes a heavy toll on my body in return. This ain’t my first rodeo, unfortunately.”

  “Damn,” the assistant muttered, his pen stopping for the first time. “That kind of… sucks, dude.”

  “Tell me about it. So, how’s it looking doc?”

  “I imagine you’re in a lot of pain but we’ll get you fixed up soon.”

  Eik stared up at the bearded face in silence for a few seconds. “Come on, man. Don’t sugarcoat it for me. How bad is it?”

  “I’ll get you walking again within the day, I think. Do you have a resistance ability?”

  “A resis—… Uuh, yeah, yes, I do. Wait, you’re seriously going to get me back on my feet that quickly?”

  “Maybe early evening, yes.”

  “That’s… fast.”

  The man chuckled heartily. “That’s good to hear.”

  “Moon Shall Swallow appeared in there. There must have been hundreds of fractures spitting them out in groups. The showed up just before the challenge was over. Was that a part of it? An additional test?”

  A shadow came over the bearded healer’s brow and his jaw worked vigorously, the thick hair shifting comically with the movement. “No, that was most definitely not planned. We were attacked. Out here in headquarters first. Guards arrested detachments of cultists all over the premises during the test. They struck while the festivities were ongoing.”

  Eik tried to sit, his heart suddenly beating quickly. “Out here too? Did people die? I need to find my friends!”

  The healer was clearly well above D-rank because he didn’t appear to be exercising any strength whatsoever despite pushing Eik back down on his back with a hand so utterly immovable that it might as well have been a passenger plane parked on top of the leg of an antelope. “You will find your friends a little later, my friend. For now you’re my patient and that means I tell you what to do. And I’m telling you to lie still.”

  “I need to know that they’re okay,” Eik hissed through gritted teeth.

  “Do you know where they are?” the assistant asked.

  “They were with me when we got sucked into the first challenge. At the opening ceremony.”

  “Then they probably just moved over to watch the show on the big screens. I don’t think anybody died there. There was just a bit of commotion is all.”

  Eik stared at the young man with wide eyes. “Watch the show, you say…?”

  “Yeah.”

  “They could see everything that went on in there?”

  “Yeah, of course. It’s an event for the audience more so than for the participants.”

  “Bu-But I… I…”

  “Uff, you didn’t realize? Did some embarrassing stuff, did you? You’re not the first. When you gotta go you gotta go, after a—”

  An explosion ripped the assistant from his feet, slinging him across the ground where he collided with a patient to Eik’s right.

  What had been the outer wall of a huge building had now become a gaping hole. Gray clad figures marched out en masse, chanting as they began to attack.

  And enfeebled as he was, all Eik could do was watch and they advanced.

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