The insects' mandibles snapped shut as the person it was chomping on disappeared, teleported out of the arena. I cut its head in two before it could react to this new development, pulling out my greatsword with a wet squelch.

“That should be the last of them…” I muttered to myself. The few stubborn contestants that had stuck around after my announcement had now all been sent away. They would rejoin the competition in 10 or so minutes, but my hope was that they would now understand the implications of trying to muscle their way into my territory.

With a predatory smirk, I continued my slaughter, since tier 2 bugs really weren’t much of a challenge.

Over the next hour, I continued killing the bugs that assaulted me. The hivemind had tried to attack me in every way. Sending squadrons of bugs to attack me from below, sending flying bugs to attack me from the air, even everything at once, but it was futile. I really had to thank my maelstrom for my success. Those without AOE skills would be crying right about now.

As time passed, I racked up more and more points, though I noticed their numbers start to thin near the end of it. Sure, more insectoids popped up with every few kills, but it seemed the hivemind had caught on to my strategy, because fewer and fewer were appearing to reinforce their assault. It wouldn’t be willing to infinitely supply me with more fodder, anyway.

As I killed the final bug present, no more new ones dug themselves out of the earth to replace them. In fact, I couldn’t even hear the sound of their burrowing anymore. The rumbling and shaking had stopped, the only sign that there had ever been a hive of bug monsters here being the corpses left behind.

All of this led me to believe that my well of points had dried up, that I would have to search for another crown to farm for points. That would waste valuable time though…

Before I could finish that thought, the rumbling and shaking picked up again, louder and heavier than last time, respectively. I searched for its source with my mana sense, but had no luck. Whatever was causing that ruckus, didn’t have enough mana on its own to be picked up on. Helios, I couldn’t wait to tier up that skill.

Because of that, all I could do to prepare was keep my blade at the ready and my senses alert, so that I could jump out of the way if it emerged below me.

This turned out not to be necessary, because when the rumbling intensified and the earth split to reveal my opponent, the humongous bug kept a respectful distance.

It was easily the size of a house, its mandibles and legs as long and sharp as swords. This time, I was faced with a centipede-like creature, though it still shared some features with the bugs I had been fighting before, mostly its color palette.

It snapped its mandibles as it took in the sight of me, as well as the carnage I’d left behind. I wasn’t sure if it understood the implications of the bodies next to me, if it wanted vengeance for the death of its brothers and sisters or just saw me as a tasty snack. Hell, I didn’t even know if this thing was attached to the hivemind or not!

It didn’t matter though. Our battle was inevitable.

I reacted as the creature dove back underground, the dry earth parting for it as it moved. I ran up to its twisting body that was quickly submerging itself and attempted to leave a curse mark on its shell. Unfortunately, the shell's defensive property was outstanding and my blade just glanced off with a twang. Before I could aim for its softer underbelly, which it had kept close to the ground to prevent me from reaching it, the creature twisted further and disappeared underground completely.

“Damn it. Too arrogant of me. I should’ve gone for the underbelly.” I mumbled frustratedly. I had aimed for the shell because I could reach it far faster and because I had believed that my strike would have been strong enough to crack the shell, but it seemed that was not the case.

It continued to burrow under me, until it eventually attacked from below. As it rushed out of the ground and nearly took flight, I dashed out of the way and realigned my body with its own, leaving a cut in its belly before it managed to submerge again.

From here, things would become easier. I placed my focus in sword arcs and overloaded orbs which I sent into the sky above me. My skills would then turn around and head for the curse mark I had left behind, whether I wanted them to or not. This meant that my attacks followed the creature’s movement to the minutest detail, and dug their way into the ground to reach their target. In the orb’s case, they just blew up instead, sometimes revealing the monster’s tunnel as the dust cleared.

I managed to force it out of the ground that way, and force it to scuttle rather than dig to get around. This caused the fight to turn into a melee battle. I didn’t bother holding my mana intrusion back and sent a little bit into its body everytime its pincers clashed with my sword. This was only possible because the knicks my tier 4 sword left in its pincers technically counted as ‘cuts’ for the system. Still, it did the job.

The fight intensified as the creature started to realise it was dying, because its attacks became borderline suicidal. It rushed forward with no way to retreat, either sending me flying into a boulder or causing it to accrue more egregious wounds along its underbelly. A few minutes later, its wounds and overloading mana intrusion finally got the best of it.

I was a little banger up, to be sure, but I hadn’t gotten seriously wounded. My healing skills would take care of me, regardless.

That centipede was probably around the middle of tier 3. It was tough and strong, but hardly had any skills to speak of, as was typical for monsters. Unaware of the system and its potential, monsters instinctively prioritized stats over skills and mana. As a result, those that did the opposite were usually pretty tricky to deal with. I myself, had encountered such a creature, the goblin shaman in the first dungeon I ever conquered.

The danger had passed, but I was still left with a dilemma. Stay here to slowly farm points, or leave in search of more monsters… If only I could see my points and figure out what was more profitable.

Luckily, or perhaps unluckily, a system notification took that choice out of my hands.

Event notification: The tier 3 ‘King’ monster in charge of this crown has been defeated. The crown will now disappear and no longer reward points to those within the area. For clearing a crown, you have been awarded points.

Event notification: You have cleared a crown. All of the people currently present within the crown will be gathered into one alliance. Search for a new crown with your alliance and clear it to receive an increased amount of points. Note that no two alliances can attempt to clear one crown at the same time.

Event notification: You have joined alliance ‘R’, because you helped clear the crown designated as ‘R’. Assist your alliance mates and take revenge on any monsters OR competitors that have defeated one of your alliance members to receive extra points. You can join other alliances as long as both parties agree.

Slowly, I took in this new information. This crown had dried up and become useless, so I had to find another one. Apparently, this one had been named ‘R’. Did that mean there were 26 crowns at the start of the competition? One for each letter of the alphabet, kind of like the team designations in the doubles tournament.

The competition itself created alliances between people, apparently, but that wouldn’t work out for most. Those that were all vying for the same crown wouldn’t work together, even if the event lumped them together in an alliance. People get grudges easily, after all. The fact that even more points would now be awarded for sneaky tactics and betrayal didn’t help the situation.

I was thankful that I had cleared this crowd alone and was the only member of the ‘R’ alliance, to be honest. I couldn’t imagine the amount of betrayal and conspiracies that were taking place in other newly formed alliances.

Wistfully, I looked around for another crown, one that had hopefully been left alone. In the end, I settled for a crown that was in between two others, on top of a mountain.

After a moment, I shot into the horizon.

~scene transition~

A few minutes later, I arrived at my destination. Contrary to my expectation, this crown wasn’t located on top of a mountain, but rather, within one. Well, kind of. A large canyon ran through the dusty terrain, and a small creek trickled through its center. The perfect place to relax and kill some bugs.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t the only one to aim for this one. On the other side of the canyon I could make out a large group of people, standing around.

I turned serious and renewed my focus. First come, first served.

By the time I got down the cliff side, the other group had noticed my movement and was racing down to the unoccupied crown as well. Too little, too late…, I thought to myself. I was far faster than their group and had set off earlier, so when I was the first to set foot in the crown, it came as no surprise.

As the ground started to rumble and shake, the other group arrived, with a familiar figure in front. They stepped into the crown with no resistance, causing the ground to still and the burrowers to leave. Apparently, when the system said ‘no two alliances can clear one crown at the same time’, it meant it. The points we could gain from just standing here and not killing any bugs were limited.

I stared at Karon, frustrated at his intervention. A large group of people stood at his back, made up of at least twenty people. They remained quiet as Karon took the lead. It wasn’t strange for a sneaky and strong fellow like Karon to take control of that little alliance, anyway. While his attempt to persuade Archellus to his side in the previous category had been feeble, that was mostly because Arcellus was a strange person.

“Did you leave your last crown to others or something? What are you doing here alone?” he asked, shocked. I guessed he thought that someone else had forced me out of my crown, because I was alone.

“No, my last crown was cleared.” I explained, leaving out a lot of crucial details.

Apparently, Karon caught on anyway.

“So you ‘got rid’ of your alliance, then? Not entirely unexpected, I suppose…”

The alliance members that Karon led recoiled a bit at the implications of what their leader had said.

I didn’t bother making conversation and gave him an ultimatum.

“Stop bothering me and leave. This crown is mine.” I declared. The welcoming smile on Karon’s face became a little strained, hearing that, while his subordinates started to draw their weapons in anticipation. Karon lifted a single hand to calm them.

“Do you really believe that you can defeat us all by yourself? I’m not weak either, you know…” he said threateningly.

“I do. Your move.” I replied confidently.

Karon’s smile widened as he cooked up another scheme.

“How about we make a deal, then.” he said, sounding like a merchant selling snake oil.

“A deal?” I asked. “I don’t need to make deals to get what I want.” I replied, uncompromising.

“Just think about it…” Karon said placatingly. “We could fight right here. No doubt, you would win in the end, if only because of your healing capabilities. However, you wouldn’t gain many points, if any, doing so. We could fight to stall and keep you from clearing this crown for a long while. That, I am certain of.” he said slowly.

I grunted, acknowledging his threat.

“The deal I had in mind is simple… the ‘B’ alliance shall leave you to clear this crown… and in return you owe me one favor, to be cashed in in this round, at any time. Don’t worry, I won’t order you to defeat yourself or take up too much of your time with my favor.” he proposed.

After thinking about it for a few seconds, I agreed.

“As long as it doesn’t cost me too many points to do so, I will complete your favor.”

“Then it seems we have a deal…” Karon announced, smiling.

We shook hands on it, and the ‘B’ alliance left me to my devices.

When I heard the ground start to rumble again, I knew they had left the canyon.