“There they go,” a youth said.

“It seems the civil period is over. We'll see a lot of people biting each other tomorrow,” another boy said.

“The way they did it is correct. Even I don't think I can escape from that ambush with my Victa sealed. But, they picked the wrong target,” Airmaster said.

“What do you mean, Prefect Monus?”

The group was from Zetel, participants for the U-18 Regidana Tournament. Among the ten, six got transported into the book.

“This Tanael is not so simple. Don't let his flippant and carefree attitude fool you.” Airmaster turned to the other two. “It’s a shame we cannot watch the show. Let’s wait a bit for their return. It won't last long.”

***

Fajrin, the youth with the alias of Green Scorpion, was cool watching his teammate get waylaid by some chumps. He glanced at the woman who seemed to have some relationship with this Tanael. She was looking thoughtfully at the empty place where the pile of bodies used to be.

“Worried about your friend?”

“Him? I pity them.”

The lack of doubt in Black Cat’s voice told Fajrin all he needed to know.

Hm, perhaps I should examine this Tanael more closely. His element is wind, isn't it? The eagle arrow that sniped the book was also of wind affinity…

***

In the Path of Paradise resort suite, there were two youths conversing cordially. The place was the best accommodation the resort had to offer and the price was no less stellar. But to people like Oscar Regisea, they were more concerned about maintaining their face and appearance rather than a fistful of spark shards.

The laughter between these two people was a common occurrence in their friendly chat.

“Blade of Justice? Hehehe, brother Troy. I didn't expect such a corny name from you.”

“Urgh, don't remind me. It seemed such a great idea at the time,” Troy hid his embarrassment by drinking a beverage with orange color. “Oh right. I heard you tried the impossible difficulty twice, brother Oscar. How did it go?”

“Wasn't it obvious looking at my score? There are no extra 5000 shards aren't there?” Oscar created lines on his forehead with his scowl. “They are too difficult. I dropped to the 5th place because of the healing cost and the loss of time.”

Oscar clawed back to the top spot despite the shard loss because of his extraordinary fighting ability. His Victa took quite a hit though.

Troy replied with an understanding smile. He too had experienced the impossible difficulty quest with his body. “To think we were talking about the Regidana tournament just a week ago. Now we’re here. Life is really unpredictable.”

“We pretty much secured the position among the top five until the second round of the trial. Other than questing, what did you do to pass the time, Troy?”

“Same like everyone else, Profound Practice, mingling with the people, you should try that, Oscar, instead of holing up in your castle alone,” he gestured to the nice suite around them.

“Bah. A royal cannot ‘mingle’ with commoners.”

Troy had been with Oscar long enough to know that his friend had a flaw in his social views despite his best effort to amend it. Unwilling to go further in this line of conversation, the Blade of Justice changed the topic.

“Well, there are interesting gossips to be found in the tavern, such as this Tanael guy.”

“What about him?” Oscar asked.

“He quests often.”

“So? We all did.”

“Like, often-often. He easily had already completed double the amount of quests than the average folk. His ability is still mostly unknown.”

“Mmm,” Oscar remained unimpressed. “Lots of guys tried to hide their ability but they are forced to go all out to get into higher ranks. So, he is one of the few who succeeded, huh?”

The heroic-faced Troy nodded. “The top 50s are filled with guys that can complete a string of expert quests reliably. There are a few exceptions, such as Tanael who climbed to the top 50 with the sheer amount of hard difficulty quest grinding.”

Viers was 39th. When he was close to getting kicked out of the top 50, Viers finished a bunch of quests to keep his rank. He had no intention of rising too high. He still waited for the opportune moment, at the feeding frenzy between black spark holders.

“But?” Oscar asked.

“Because of the blue colloid, being in the top 50 is a highly desirable position. Those who barely missed the cut would want nothing more than to snatch a spot for tomorrow’s reward. When Tanael groups with other people, he only uses items to fight. Some said he was actually weak and only rose to the top 50 by the virtue of his luck and wealth,” Troy added.

“Ah, so it's only a matter of time until someone tries to take a swing. If the nail that stands out does not have the foundation to back up its appearance, it will get hammered,” Oscar finished his shot of liquor.

***

His name was Darian the Barbarian.

The ambush was going as planned. He and the other six chose to break the unsaid truce among the black spark holders, therefore, the target must be someone worthwhile; fat enough with shards or they would have wasted their initiative. As they aimed at the top 50 positions, defeating someone already in that position was the sensible action.

The group led by Darian had done their research. As expected, none were easy pickings. They rose to their position because they had the strength to back it up. Real, tangible strength.

With a few exceptions.

Darian and his gang also made use of the group quest feature. When someone made contact with the non-group member while the quest was activating, if the quest still had an empty participant slot, the guy automatically became counted as a group member and got transported to the quest space.

It would be where they fought their target. How many spark shards would he get by defeating this meaty prey? Darian anticipated the result very much.

It was with such feeling Darian emerged from teleportation.

Now, go into formation as pla-

“EEEEAAAAHHHH!!”

A female scream resounded like a sonic burst.

After piling up on Tanael, they were supposed to get away from him immediately and encircle him. However, right off the bat, there was a complication. One of them, a young woman -with quite a beautiful face if one might add- was writhing in pain on the floor as if she was on fire.

The group wanted to aid her without delay but the guy who was the likely culprit was standing right next to her.

“Mina!” Someone shouted worriedly.

“What did you do to her!?”

Against their aggressive inquiry, the handsome Tanael stood unflinchingly. His reply was conveyed in a strange manner.

“Initiating HK protocol. Observation: This one has accepted the collective death wish. Would the next meatbag please step up for termination?”

“Whatever you’re doing to her, stop it or-”

The blustering youth -who most likely had feelings for her- got blasted by Tanael. It was an Arte, a fast-moving pale-white ball of energy as big as a basketball. There were two big black eyes-like designs on the speeding force of energy.

“Guahh!?”

The straight moving Arte broke his shield and continued on to his body, passing by his body as if it was not there before submerging into the wall. The youth was wide-eyed in surprise then screamed in pain, just like the girl before.

Arte - Vengeful Spirit.

“What was that?”

“Arte of some kind! It’s fast!”

An enemy appeared behind Tanael as if he used a Blink. “You’ll pay for that!” His voice was barbed like thorns.

He slashed his sword diagonally but Tanael was gone. His eyes darted left then right but he couldn't see Tanael anywhere.

“Above! Watch out!” Darian shouted.

But how could Darian's warning be in time? From five meters above, Tanael dived with even more speed than he jumped with in the first place, fist first.

“Mockery: I can hear the sloshing liquid inside your squishy organs from a mile away.”

The guy tried to use his sword to defend with its flat side but the attack came nonetheless. When the glowing fist made contact with the metal, it shattered like porcelain stepped on by an elephant and the fist went on to hit the guy’s chest. Because of the angle, Tanael sent the guy to the ground, between his fist and the stone flooring. His ribs were undoubtedly broken, heart and lungs were damaged too. In the aftermath, a white shockwave of power spread out on the ground, extending up to a few meters from the epicenter. The ground pound shook the stone room’s very foundation; they all felt the vibration beneath their feet.

“Bwahaagghh…”

The guy said his last words and lost consciousness. It should have been a fatal wound but he mysteriously didn't die.

Arte - Desolate Dive.

“Statement: Three meatbags down, four remain. The probability of them winning against this superior lifeform has plummeted even further.”

“DO NOT FEAR! Attack together!” Darian shouted an order before the fear set in. Driven by the instinct to act, the remaining three out of four charged towards Tanael.

Darian himself opted to remain at a distance.

One charged in for a melee while two let loose ranged attacks. Tanael, after taking a glance of their position, snapped his fingers.

They were readying for an attack but didn't expect the direction would come from right beneath their feet.

The mystical blow appeared in the form of ghosts. Spectral ghost heads, to be exact. They were not realistic-looking, only the shape of two empty holes for eyes and one of for mouth, all open as if they were letting out an inaudible scream. There were big heads and small heads, attacking from the ground to up above like the three had suddenly stepped on a landmine.

After the initial blow thrust them upwards, gravity brought them back down. None of them made so much as a twitch. From their eyes, ears, nose, and mouth, blood flowed.

Arte - Howling Wraiths.

Tanael turned his head to the only enemy left. A duet of screaming still colored the background.

“Fact: The last meatbag is trembling. The subject has a 50.38% probability of fluid expulsion from the lower body.”

“Wait! I give-”

Tanael blasted the stocky but muscular youth with three Vengeful Spirit Artes in rapid succession. If he gave up and got transported out from the quest, how could he get his hands on Darian’s spark shards?

The first one Darian blocked with his magical shield but the shield also broke into fragments. The second one Darian endured thanks to the life-saving treasure on his person although the treasure expired after withstanding the mysterious white orb with two big black eyes-like designs. The third hit his torso and went out through his back.

“GWOOOOHHH!!?”

Darian felt as if his insides were a pane of glass and someone had hit it with a sledgehammer before gathering the pieces, turning it into burning molten glass then pouring it back into his body again.

He fell to the ground unconscious, face first. Tanael stood before the fallen body.

“Commentary: The meatbag’s request of surrender has been denied.”