"Ah... Sorry, I didn't notice it." said Chris as he stopped the scratching.
"Chris, what happened to your arm?" Sky asked, rather worried.
"Uh-huh..." Chris is a bit reluctant to tell Sky what happened in Null Dimension.
"Show me your arm." said Sky.
"Well... Actually, it's not just my right arm..." said Chris.
"What? What do you mean by that?" Sky asked, really worried and shocked.
Chris sighed, rather than roll up his sleeve, he pulled down his shirt collar a bit showing a rather gruesome sight. Near Chris's lower neck, there are numerous of densely packed insect bite wounds that might trigger trypophobia.
"Oh gosh! Chris-chan! What happened? Those wounds look painful!" Maria exclaimed.
"Chris, actually what happened in Null Dimension?" Sky asked.
"Well... It's complicated. I'll let you know once we passed this match." said Chris.
Sky nodded despite not agree with Chris's suggestion, he knows that this tournament is important and he respects Chris's choice as those wounds actually aren't that bad.
Blair's and K's team seems to noticed about Chris's injuries as well, they start accelerating their speed in 'wipe up' other contestants hoping to end this survival match faster. However, some other parties on the field actually see this as a rare opportunity.
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Thirty minutes later, five teams had been eliminated from the survival match, and more than ten teams have less than half of their members left, Chris's barrier still stays firm as the beginning, and Sky's team members including Chris haven't really shown any sign of fatigue... Well, of course! It's not like they had been doing anything in this half an hour.
Suddenly, a handsome boy in British suit caught Chris's attention with his suspicious actions.
"That boy..." Chris murmured.
"Chris? What's wrong? That boy is actually one of the Royal Guard and is a full-grown man, according to Mr. Blair." said Sky, trying to lighten Chris's confusion.
"I felt some really sinister magic from him, and it's getting stronger when he is getting nearer to us." said Chris, a bit alert but still maintain his composure.
"Sinister magic? Like some sort of curse magic?" Sky asked, a bit curious.
"Yes... Argh..."
All of the sudden, Chris felt some stinging sensation from all of the tiny wounds on his body which caused him to flinched a bit.
"Chris-chan!"
"Chris!"
"Ah... Right. This god damn curse magic that I hated so much." said Chris as he stared hard at that boy...
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After realizing his curse magic is actually effective on Chris, the boy swiftly ran towards Chris's direction and casts a spell, all of the sudden, the sky above the field is covered in dark clouds filled with weird purple lightning. Then, a black shadow serpent emerged from the clouds...
"Hmm? Chris, why does this looks like a knockoff version of your Hakuryu?" said Sky.
"Ah... True. It would be funny if they name this as '*Kokuja'." said Chris.
"But still, that looks kind of dangerous, let's be careful." said Sky.
Then, Chris stared at Sky for a few seconds.
"Just for your information, I'm not going to give up on my 'strategy' here." said Chris.
Obviously, he is still not willing to get out from the barrier, same for the others who had total faith in this absurd strategy of Chris. Sky has no choice but to laugh awkwardly.
*Kokuja means Black Serpent. Since Hakuryu means White Dragon, so this Black Serpent really has a vibe of rip-off products.
As Sky and Chris are fooling around, the Shadow Serpent had fully emerged from the clouds and is dashing towards Sky's direction at a crazy speed and finally crushed onto the barrier really hard, caused a small explosion that brings up along all the dust and debris on the ground, creating a thick mist...
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All the audiences on the audience's platform and contestants hold their breath when they saw that rather impactful scene, they all stopped their movement and patiently waiting for the mist to fade.
As the mist is fully gone, a loud and restless applause raised from both the audience's platform and the field. Chris's barrier remains strong and firm even after that deadly attack from the shadow serpent.
"That's it? I expect it to at least able to leave some scratches on my barriers. What the hell with all those grand preludes before the assault?" said Chris, a bit hard to believe how weak that fancy attack was compared to his barrier.
"Anyway, it seems like you had successfully impressed those booing audiences." said Sky, rather happy and proud for Chris.
"How many teams left on the field?" Chris asked.
"Well, seventeen. Only one team left needs to be eliminated." said Sky.
"Hmm... Good. Now it's my turn to show this copycat how the real thing should look like." said Chris as he released his magic seal.
"Ah... This guy is angry right now." Sky mumbled.
The sky that just returned its brightness turned dark again, this time, the cloud glows in glorious and magnificent golden light, a majestic image of a white dragon glowing in eye-piercing golden light emerged from the cloud. Then the dragon splits into eight smaller dragons, the dragons swiftly dashed in eight different directions and crashed to the ground hard that it caused a mild earthquake. As soon the dragons crashed to the ground, team Royal Guard is eliminated, however, instead of been eliminated at the seventeenth place, they are at the passing boundary, the sixteenth place, another team is eliminated before them instead.
"Ah... So they even have a sacrificial team huh?" K who is at the other side of the field mumbled as he saw the results...
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*Something out of the story
Sky: "Dear readers."
Chris: "Hmm?"
Sky: "This chapter is meant to be released for webnovel.com."
Chris: "Oh! This matter. Yes, if you're reading this chapter on another platform than webnovel.com, know that it's an illegal copy diffused without the Writer's authorization."
Sky: "As what Chris said. Right now, this story is free on the authorized platform, so please read it from authorized platforms as mental support for the writer."
Chris: "Mhm... There are two authorized platforms. One is webnovel.com. And another one is that messy and half-dead Weebly site that she uses for draft and backup... But not recommended."
Sky: "Ah... Haha. Yes, as Chris said."
Chris: "But look out, those scums might change this note to their own website link. So, be cautious.
Sky : "By the way, if the cover page is the old cover page that shows two stickmen, stop reading it, it's cursed and might caused the writer to stop writing."
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