'I actually thought the others will be strong... Seems only that guy is worthy to be my opponent,' Mirabella thought, her gaze flicking briefly towards the spot where Hitachi had vanished.
She walked towards the leather bag with a casual grace that terrified everyone watching. Austin and the remaining teams held their breath as she picked it up, her movements deliberate. She took out three scrolls and let the bag drop back to the trampled grass.
She stared at the scrolls for a few seconds, as if weighing their value, then tossed two into the air without looking.
"....?!"
Everyone watched, hearts pounding, as the scrolls arced through the air. One landed perfectly on Carl's open palm. The second landed in Grace's hands.
"Get to the Core Region, and any points you've already gained will be tripled," she said, her voice cutting through the silence.
She cast one final, dismissive glance at Rose, then unrolled her own scroll. The spatial magic flared, wrapping around her in a crimson vortex, and she vanished from the Inner Region.
Instantly, the suffocating pressure vanished. The air rushed back into the clearing, and the teams gasped, chests heaving with relief.
After catching their breath, heads snapped towards Carl and Grace, eyes burning with envy and desperation. But they were stunned in place. The two teams had wasted no time; they had already activated the scrolls given to them and vanished, leaving only fading particles of light behind.
"Shit!"
Austin cursed under his breath, sweat dripping down his face. He scrambled to the bag, his hands shaking slightly as he snatched a scroll.
'She took down Aurelia in seconds... The pressure isn't the main issue here,' he analyzed rapidly, his mind replaying the gruesome execution. 'I have a feeling the result would be the same even without the pressure. Forget all that. I must get out of this place.'
He moved his gaze to the surrounding faces—faces twisted with greed and fear.
"They'll have to kill themselves for the remaining scrolls."
With that cold observation, he unrolled his scroll and vanished, escaping the incoming bloodbath.
Everyone looked at one another. For a split second, no one dared to move an inch. They watched as Rose, dignified despite the circumstances, moved towards the bag and took her scroll.
'Mirabella Sunny... Now I know why Lord Hayatobi recognized you,' she thought, a shiver running down her spine. She unrolled hers and vanished.
The moment her silhouette faded, chaos descended on the Inner Region.
"KILL THEM!!"
Roars erupted as dozens of teams rushed towards the remaining scrolls, unleashing a torrent of fireballs, sword slashes, and curses. The clearing became a meat grinder.
__
[Core Region - The Reflection Lake]
WHOOSH!!
Hitachi appeared in a landscape of startling serenity. The chaotic forests were gone, replaced by a flat, endless expanse of water that reflected a starless sky. At the center of this lake sat a small, mist-shrouded island. Upon it rested the true Dragon Statue mentioned by the Elders.
Hitachi stared at the scroll in his hand, then at the twenty-five narrow wooden bridges extending from the darkness to the central island like the spokes of a wheel.
"Hmm..."
He held the scroll in his hand, and walked towards the nearest bridge. The moment his foot touched the ancient, creaking wood, the environment warped.
He vanished from the lake.
___
[Unknown Location.]
Hitachi appeared in a dark stone passage, the air heavy with the scent of ozone and decay. He moved his gaze around the place, his expression bored, and deposited the scroll into his spatial inventory.
"Come out," he said, his voice echoing in the gloom. "I can hear you breathing."
"Hehehe."
A knight clad in obsidian armor, darker than the shadows around it, materialized out of thin air. It sat atop a massive armored warhorse whose eyes burned with spectral green fire. The knight held a longsword wreathed in black mist.
[Guardian Knight - Level 150]
'Lv150. Not bad,' Hitachi thought. His hands back in his pockets as he started walking forward, treating the entity like a roadside statue.
"Ignoring me!!" the knight yelled in a rage that vibrated through the stone floor. It spurred its mount, the horse rearing up before charging. "DIE!"
The knight thrust his sword forward with enough force to shatter a boulder.
Hitachi didn't break stride. He simply took a single, fluid step to the side. The massive blade passed through the space his chest had occupied a millisecond before.
He walked past the frozen knight.
The two creatures—horse and rider—tried to turn, their eyes following him, but their bodies refused to obey. They stood statue-still.
Hitachi stopped ten meters behind them. He slowly removed one hand from his pocket and tapped two fingers against his temple.
'It seems the academy picked this Boss for me... They just made a mistake with its strength,' he thought. He resumed walking.
CRACK!
Behind him, a web of fissures appeared on the black armor. The knight and the horse shattered simultaneously, collapsing into a pile of metallic dust and fading smoke.
One hit. No contact. Just will.
___
[Mirabella's Passage.]
Mirabella appeared in an identical stone passage. She didn't look around; her eyes were locked on the figure standing in front of her.
It was a woman dressed in a sleek black ninja outfit that clung to her form, leaving only her sharp, calculating eyes exposed. She held two daggers that dripped with a viscous, purple liquid.
[Shadow Assassin - Level 150]
"A level 150 Assassin? Not bad." Mirabella nodded her head approvingly and walked towards the lady, a small, terrifying smile playing on her lips.
"You must be Mirabella... Anyway, this is where you stop," the assassin said. Her voice was a hiss of wind.
She vanished.
She moved around the space with incredible speed, bouncing off the walls and ceiling, becoming nothing more than a blur of killing intent.
"You guys are really looking down on me," Mirabella muttered. She didn't slow her pace. She didn't even raise her hands.
"Aren't you so arrogant?!!"
The assassin appeared directly behind Mirabella's neck, thrusting the two poisoned daggers forward.
But to her shock, the air around Mirabella condensed. Red energy blades, solidified from pure bloodlust, manifested instantly around Mirabella's body like a porcupine's quills.
"...?!!"
WHOOSH!!!!
The assassin only saw a flash of crimson.
The next moment, the red blades shot out in all directions. The assassin's body was caught mid-air, sliced into countless pieces before her daggers could even graze Mirabella's skin.
Blood and parts fell to the ground with a wet thud.
"Pathetic," Mirabella muttered under her breath, walking without looking back.