(Michael's POV):
It was nearly a month since we got stuck here... We created major progress with the castle, with the participation of all members in our team. We had completed various structures including various inns and allowed various human NPCs to reside within the castle. Denzel suggested this to make use of NPCs to make the area a little more lively. Not only that but since collecting money is easy, we don't really have the need for those NPCs unless some visitors come in and go.
It was only dawn when I woke up in my room in the keep.
"Damn... This sight is quite addicting... I might feel even more alive here than home."
Today marks the twenty-fifth day we got stuck in Survivor's Path...
I started moving around the keep and bumped into various other members in the castle.
A girl with long gray hair was moving around the hallway, I called out to her since she was the first one I saw.
"Oh hey Valeria, where are the others?"
"Huh? Oh Michael... Seymour is outside the castle right now along with Denzel and Allen. They seem to be discussing about something..." - Valeria
When I walked closer towards her, I noticed that she had to really look up just to see my face. Shorty-
It was apparent that I might bring myself to imminent death if I say that though...
After keeping down, we exchanged greetings as I thanked her for the information.
"Thanks, I'll head to them now."
I waved at her as I ran through the hallway leading to the staircase. I started wondering about what to do for the group.
In all honesty, I did want a fantasy world where we become anything we want to fight against giant monsters... It's an old fantasy but I guess it sure is thrilling fighting using our bodies...
If I have to say, my life is neither boring nor exciting. It's completely average. I excelled in science, English, decent in gaming, and had enjoying fantasies like any other person could have.
I had arrived outside of the palace and was immediately greeted by Seymour as he sees me.
"Oh hey Michael! Perfect timing! We're about to discuss the event that will happen later." - Seymour
"Event? What do you mean?"
And here I had missed quite a lot of detail it seems...
Later on the day...
We arrived to the central spawn where a tournament is upheld. The way the tournament works is the standard elimination. The prize is a single card.
"It was told that all of it is a series of cards that will assist a person's adventure greatly throughout the game. There are twenty-one cards in total, clearly telling us that taking all of them is impossible for the moment." - Seymour
"We can only compete on one per card too since everything goes all at once..." - Denzel
"Then that means..."
"Yeah, each member would go to what interests them... We can't pick the same card alright..." - Robin
Each of us went to the card selector and prepared ourselves as we discuss about our abilities. Seymour took the lead in inciting each one of them to try their best and win the card.
"Alright everyone, you shall perform your utmost best and try to defeat every single enemy you are faced. If you lost, then it's no biggie, I'll give you a consolation." - Seymour
"We've trained ourselves in this world while building the castle, we might as well put it to test for the tournament. So perform at your prime, and use everything you learned against the enemies for future reference..."
The other members started nodding while fearlessly smiling. Denzel showed a dark smile that doesn't suit his cool ice appearance...
"Michael, Robin, Denzel." - Seymour
Seymour suddenly called out the three of us which made us look at him who showed a pressuring gaze.
"You have no right to lose." - Seymour
The three of us didn't feel terrified or nervous, we felt pretty determined that we could definitely best all enemies without much effort. We took out our weapons and raised them up.
My Reaper Blade... An average scythe that could be bought in standard weapon shops, but was upgraded by Denzel's smithy tech...
Robin's Runic Blade... An enchanted sword that has the ability to disperse any form of magic. An overpowered original weapon made by Denzel and one other member who is an esteemed Royal Sage...
Seymour's Imperium... A spear with a large blade that will suck up and void the mana of the target upon contact. It will siphon all kinds of stats and could cause status effects such as mana exhaustion, unluckiness, and even physical asphyxiation. An original done by Denzel with the assistance of our sage and Seymour himself...
And lastly, Denzel's Omnitelum… A weapon that shapeshifts into a schematic of another weapon. Denzel's perfected all-rounder weaponry.
After shouting out our disbelief, we entered our desired arenas with determination. I chose the Devil card as it will suit my class which is somehow; "Demon King"...
I kinda like my class since it's basically something I thought up came true... With the ability to generate any magic formula, I learned from our sage about different kinds of fire magic. He taught me some basics in magic and combining various elements to boost my fire to counter certain elements. With everything learned from him, I could technically win this tournament.
It's not just him who taught me that... Seymour completely improved my physical capabilities and I had found a weapon of my expertise, a scythe. I learned various techniques that I could use with a scythe to create various methods to attack an enemy.
I entered the arena where there was a huge audience around. I didn't get the chance to feel someone cheering for me as I noticed that I was teleported to a place where there are a huge amount of players in a gladiator style arena.
"Now let me expound your information regarding this tournament. At the very start of the tournament, all competitors are to fight until you are in the danger zone of your health. Combat will be enabled but your health will not drop down to zero and will stay at one. That means if your health dropped to one, you are officially out of the tournament and will be teleported out of the arena and be fully recovered like nothing happened. After that, it will continue to diminish until only two remain. They will be given some time to rest and prepare themselves to fight each other with duel health. Duel health is a safe health that will activate upon invitation of a duel. Losing all of your duel health will not result to a death but will become unconscious for a certain amount of time. The duels here will be until one person loses consciousness and has no time limit. However, you can set timers for your duels to end without passing out."
Are you ready?! Was what the announcer said after that explanation. I prepared my scythe and noticed that most players aiming for this card have something that involves fire magic at the very least. There are ones that do not have any form of fire magic but could still be dangerous since they are well equipped.
"Begin!"
"Gate of Hell!"
Without hesitating, I immediately flooded the entire arena with lava. I jumped up to avoid being drawn in by the lava and kept an eye over various enemies.
"That seems to get the attention of the spectators..."
I started to hear various cheers directed at me for launching a pinnacle-scale magic at once. I eliminated more than fifty players in one swoop before the lava disappeared completely.
I landed down gracefully and noticed various players aiming for me.
"Let's have fun... Shall we..."
I mixed in two elements and imbued fire to the scythe. The blade emits raging flames with the deep red crimson color. A mix with pure hellfire and blood.
I avoided all the attacks of various players while slicing them off with my burning scythe. The fire became strong enough to melt flesh without contact. However, I feel fine because the perfect bonus with the demon type classes is... Permanent fire resistance.
I eliminated more and more players who are targeting me and continued dodging like a dancer following the choreography of an interpretative dance. Except that, I'm killing people in range...
After some time the number of attackers lessened so I simply stayed down and conserved my energy much more by staying still. I patiently waited until some retards appear and tried to attack me. There was no one that attacked me and just simply sat down while watching the rest of the competitors duke it out. There were some people trying to attack me from time to time but it slowly whittled down to two people in a powerful clash. It was an intense fight with a person with holy fire and a person with dark fire. They exchanged various attacks and are trading their health nicely and carefully. It was the closest match but it ended with the holy fire winning against the enemy with the dark fire.
An announcement came towards the arena and teleported both me and the person with the holy fire to a separated resting zone. We're separated by a glass wall that we cannot break and just simply waited for us to become fully recovered and fully prepared.
"Guess I'll just plan out huh?"
Holy fire is dangerous for me, it's a combination of angelic elements that could pose harm to our elements. I can't confirm the class of my enemy before going all out against it. I'll focus my attacks by closing in and probably continue moving to the side and aim for the blind spots instead.
After thinking for some time, I looked towards the enemy I'm fighting. He spread out a pair of wings that look like from an actual angel in a myth. Pure white feathers and practice maneuvering.
"How the fuck am I supposed to fight that..."
The two of us were teleported again to two ends of the arena. The cheers are going loud as if to make bets on who will win. I didn't have a choice but to go all out right this moment.
"Demonic state!"