Weapons of Mass Destruction

Chapter 553: 6th Round

POV Nathaniel

I deflect the attacks shooting toward me and expand [Eclipse], which continues to drain all color from the area.

One of the people in the throne room dodges my projectiles and continues to compress mana for an attack. I reach through [Eclipse], taking over his skill. My eyes feed me all the information I need—I read the movements of his mana—and find that I don’t even need to understand it fully.

I just interrupt the process, seize partial control, and feed the skill with so much mana that the guy loses control and it explodes in his hands.

Noname (Beyond, King) ⟶ Chump (Hell) +20 pts

What a name.

I teleport again and then move once more through another [Ley Line].

Their [King] struggles in a vain attempt to suppress my [Eclipse] and picks up a spear sitting next to him. His mana fills the weapon, and a sickly yellow light rapidly envelopes the blade.

The winner of the 6th round´s tournament is a man in his thirties, fit, cleanly shaved, with long black hair that flows freely. He is missing one of his eyes which has seemingly been replaced with a crystalline prosthesis, entirely covered in its own web of inscriptions.

He levies the tip of his spear at me and disappears. The air around him wavering as he fades from view.

Just before the last shimmering waves are gone I step into his reach using Wraith Dance. Ducking under the toxic looking glow of the spear’s tip and release a burst of kinetic energy, causing him to stumble for a moment as he rushes to defend himself.

He regains his composure quickly though, and his spear begins to shrink and expand as he swings it at me, forcing me to dodge once again. He puts some distance between us and tries to make himself invisible again, but this time I read him quicker, and [Eclipse] disrupts the skill.

An arrow from one of his remaining goons rockets towards my head, and I snatch it from the air, even as the lightning around it burns the flesh of my hand.

Without taking my eyes off the King, I emit a burst of mana tracing the path of the offending projectile.

Noname (Beyond, King) ⟶ Oliver Newt (Hell) +20 pts

I form a sword made of mana in my hand and use kinetic energy to charge at the [King]. As expected, he matches my speed using his stats and mana-based reinforcement and swings his spear in an effort to block my sword.

I let the sword dissipate and instead absorb my own inertia, change direction, boost my movements, and slam my palm into his shoulder sending him stumbling once again.

Grabbing the arm holding the spear, I release another burst of kinetic energy, and send the guy flying, to crash into one of the white stone pillars. Defending against the attacks of the remaining people here, I finish them with projectiles and bursts of kinetic energy and then grab the spear to throw it at the guy.

Meanwhile, he rises to his feet, his eyes, both normal and crystalline, fixed on me. The flesh around one of the wounds on his arm sizzles with the same yellowish light as his spear, and his arm rapidly regenerates. Before I can react, the spear vanishes from my grip and returns to his hand.

“It wonʼt be that easy,” he says as he brushes the hair from his face with a bloodied hand.

A web of intricate tattoos begins to trace a set of glowing lines across his body, pulsing with pale blue light. The pressure radiating from him is immense, just a step below Jeanʼs. And the yellow light surrounding his blade and spear is anything but reassuring, probably some kind of poison, perhaps even something that hinders healing.

“You wonʼt be able to hold this place for the whole hour. My guys should already be on their way, all in all, I just need to hold you up for a while,” he says while pointing his spear at me.

“I see,” I nod and start walking toward him, “but you are wrong about one thing.”

He takes steps toward me as well, ramping up the pressure around his body.

“I donʼt give a shit about the throne room. Once Iʼm done with you, I’ll simply wipe out the rest of your round.” I say.

Hearing me, he raises his mana even further, the tattoos even damaging his skin and muscles, and he charges me at incredible speed. He throws the spear, and I barely manage to dodge; only for it to reappear in his hand all over again just for him to throw it once again, forcing me to dodge a third time.

We crash into each other, and [Eclipse] condenses, focusing on the small area around us. And for a moment, the light of his tattoos dims, almost seeming to fade away.

Shock flashes across his face, but he pushes through, forcing the tattoos to reignite, as he strains to resist my [Eclipse]. But even that brief distraction turns out to be enough. I give his chest a tap, releasing a new burst of compressed kinetic energy, blasting him backward with a ragged hole in his chest.

Despite the pain he must be feeling, he twists in mid air as his body rapidly regenerates, evading my projectiles and deflecting any oncoming blasts of kinetic energy. Then his spear shoots past me, aimed with incredible precision, almost like a bullet. I dodge, but the blade, coated in yellow light, grazes my leg.

The effects of the poison hit instantly, a mix of mana disruption and searing pain that pushes through my [Focus].

I nearly stumble as I take another step to evade his next attack, the pain threatening to throw me off balance. Keeping my eyes locked on him, I release a wave of thermal energy through my body, forcing it into my leg, scorching my own flesh to fight back the poison.

For a moment, the yellow light resists my golden thermal energy until I push harder, increasing the output and compressing it further. The poison eventually burns away, along with a portion of my leg. Even then, the pain lingers, fading only gradually.

All this from just a scratch.

My mana spins in the crown and reaching a critical point it stops, releasing a disrupting wave I combine with [Eclipse] and reach him using Wraith Dance, each step I take sending pain through my body from where the scratch was.

I feint an attack, shift again, halt my inertia, redirect it, boost myself forward, then teleport through a [Ley Line], to finally appear at his side and unleash a concentrated burst of kinetic energy.

As two halves of his body fall to the ground, I watch his skill struggle to activate—the same sizzling flesh and yellow light trying to heal him. I even lower the effects of [Eclipse] to watch it happen, activating Mana Wavelength Iris to further observe the process and the effects of his tattoos.

The man heals in an instant. His tattoos begin to glow, trying to reactivate, but Iʼve seen enough. This fight is over.

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Letting my brain process the information from my eyes, I adjust the frequency of [Eclipse] and shut it down before it can take effect.

He takes a deep breath, coughs out blood, and rushes to get back on his feet.

My kinetic energy blows apart his leg, and he collapses to the ground once again. His skill immediately starts healing him again, and he keeps his spear pointed at me, despite the awkward position.

I slowly walk over to him, pondering aloud as I do, “You know, I used to have so much trouble with people disrupting my mana. And as I’m sure you can see, itʼs a really shitty feeling. You can have really strong skills, but what can you do if someone takes them from you?”

“You... you fucker, this shouldnʼt be possible at our level.”

I send another pulse, and the hand holding the spear disintegrates into a fine spray of pink mist, preventing the activation of whatever skill he’d thought to use.

“Unfortunately for you, Iʼm quite proficient when it comes to dealing with mana. And it seems like I spend more effort making sure it cannot be taken away from me.”

As I speak he continues trying to activate as many skills as he can. A stronger version of healing, the invisibility he used before, whatever quality linked him to the spear, culminating in a domain of his own. He also skillfully modifies his frequencies, showing clear familiarity with this kind of clash.

But it’s all to no avail.

“Thank you. I think I may have actually learned something from you.”

“I will—”

I donʼt let him finish, opting instead to increase the output of my Kinetic Mana Heart, blasting away the rest of his body and sending the debris littering the room flying.

Noname (Beyond, King) ⟶ Hector Valdez (Beyond, King) +5,000 pts

Congratulations, you have defeated the King.

You are in the throne room.

Time remaining to capture: 58 minutes 21 seconds

I fly up through the hole in the ceiling at the place where I broke the barrier and high into the air.

In the distance, the orange light of [Dawn] surrounds the area. That ever-so-familiar mana radiation stands between me and blocking the way that enemy people might use to return.

Landing near Savant within his domain, I walk and stop by his side. On the edge of the domain, corpses of people pile up—all fallen during [Dawn]. Well, not all; I also see flashes of Tacita hunting down those who try to move around the domain.

“They’re quite disorganized,” Savant notes as I stop by him. “They had a decent plan at the start and, according to Soph, even some interesting arrays used to combine the mana of bigger groups into a single powerful bombardment.”

“But?” I ask.

He shrugs, “They panicked after you broke their barrier that was supposed to be unbreakable and from where their [King] was supposed to snipe us and poison our defenses.”

Having said his piece, [Dawn] flickers and disappears, and Savant turns away, walking toward the base of the 6th round. I don’t spend time thinking about what he wants to do there; he must have an idea that capturing the throne room isn’t needed.

Turning away, I fly again, and mid-flight I stop using kinetic energy—the flight turning into a big leap, and inertia carrying me into the middle of the enemy’s backline. There are multiple barriers and defenses layered over their formation, but I can see through them all, resonate with them, and pass through easily, landing in the midst of them.

A scream erupts from the people around me after a brief moment of surprise, and a great multitude of people turn to attack me, firing off their skills in unison.

[Eclipse] reactivates and expands over a huge area, draining the colors out of it, and all these weaker, out-of-body skills flicker and deactivate. My mind splits into multiple parts as I identify the stronger ones, and my eyes observe the moment of their mana, adapting parts of [Eclipse] to strengthen the area around these people.

Hard difficulty or Hell difficulty—none manage to resist. Their skills explode, filled with my mana. They hit different areas, then change and turn on their casters.

And my heart beats, turning mana into kinetic energy as I charge them all, each of my punches killing someone. Wraith Dance carries me over the battlefield, Breaker Style destroys the stronger ones, and Pulser Stance confuses everyone trying to face me. I show no hesitation at all, and my mind slowly empties until there is only me and my opponents.

I jump back, and the earth implodes in front of me. I locate the Gravitational Primordial energy user, and [Empyrean Lance] breaks through the barriers of everyone protecting him and kills the guy in the process.

A notification.

A punch hits my side. My unique epic passive turns the impact into mana, and my body barely feels it. Using some of that energy, I boost my movements, and my punch explodes his head like a bursting watermelon.

Sensing large amounts of mana gathering nearby, I redirect more of my mind to the location, and take over the array, reaching out with a few Ley Lines, before expanding on the array and modifying it.

I lift the barrier in front of me, and the array bursts into a fiery explosion instead of a flame ball sent at me.

A dozen more notifications ring out.

Step to the side. Punch.

Notification.

Wraith Dance. An arm is torn free and tossed aside, and I finish the guy off with a javelin.

I teleport through [Ley Line] and deliver a stomp that destroys the attacks from below me. Three javelins break the barrier. A tricolored orb finishes the job.

Another Wraith Dance follows as explosions and screams erupt behind me and pieces of dirt and bodies start falling from the air.

All of a sudden, the movement halts, and I expand my field and start absorbing all the kinetic energy around me. It traps anyone from a difficulty below Hell, and even then not many of those manage to push through.

A few hundred people are held by my skill.

I release all the energy against the man charging me, and he is thrown away, an iron crown over his head and pitch-black armor around his body.

Then I see Lily tearing through the ranks, tracking the very same man who starts running away the moment he catches sight of her, only for Tacita to appear nearby and stab him in the leg—piercing clean through his black armor. Lily catches up to him. She grabs his arm, and despite her petite frame, she lifts his entire body and slams him back into the ground.

The other man with the [Mana Crown] floats lazily in the air and tries to push against my [Eclipse] with his domain. Our eyes meet, and he lifts the staff in his hand as the tricolored, dark blue, light blue, and purple light collects in it, strengthening his domain.

At the same time, he lifts the barrier and deflects projectiles shot by Min-Jae from far away and Sophieʼs attempts.

And that single moment of distraction is all I need to reach him.

As his eyes turn back to me, he teleports.

I resonate with the signature of his skill, taking over and following him through. As I reappear, I see him smiling, standing right in front of me. His staff is pointed at me, and projectiles swirl around him as well.

The remnants of his teleport around me twist, change, and attack me in a great effort to disrupt my mana, stop my teleport, and halt me—all at once. An incredible construct.

My [Mana Domain] expands further, extending beyond defending my body and blending with [Eclipse]. All the mana around me freezes, halts its movement, and turns against that man. I bend the whole of my [Focus] on the difficult task and succeed. Instead, his mana is disrupted and evaporates in a cloud of sparking blue particles. [Redistribution] then subdues the guy with ease, apparently his physical stats aren’t all that great.

I take a step toward him and bury my hand in his chest, pulling it free along with his still-beating Mana Heart. Before the guy disappears, I take a moment to observe the heart as much as I can.

I sensed it immediately, but itʼs different from mine, and even if I hadnʼt modified mine to generate kinetic energy, it would still be different. Itʼs likely a pure Mana Heart strengthened by a trait.

After a second, the man disappears along with his heart. People are already surrounding me. I lift off, breaking through defensive arrays and raising a barrier to block any incoming attacks.

Floating there, I start bombarding the rest of the 6th-round attendees. They try to resist, but it doesn’t matter. Their formations collapse, their defenses break, and one by one, they fall.

It takes only a few minutes. Soon, they are almost all cleaned out by my and the other´s efforts.

One remains, far away, barely visible. Realizing he’s alone for some reason he simply decides to run.

I watch as a huge boulder flies through the air, nearly the size of a motorcycle, gaining speed with every second. The running man notices it at the last moment, hastily raising a barrier and reinforcing his body. But it doesn’t matter, the boulder doesn’t slow at all. With an audible thump, it slams into him, crushing him instantly.

The notification rings out, informing me that we’ve won the first event.

Only then do I release the hold [Focus] has on my emotions and let the system teleport me out.