All eyes were on the massive numbers above the coliseum as they counted down from 15. The guests, the soldiers, the beasts and the various agents, waiting to report back to their planets as soon as the event began, almost felt as if their heart beats synchronized with the countdown.
Loretta and the mysterious devil watched while sipping some green liquid. As casual as their demeanor seemed at first glance, the slightest increase in pressure as she clenched her teeth said otherwise. The sloth that had practically wrecked havoc back on Nibiru looking for eligible beasts, and for the first time made its presence known on the planet, sat extremely comfortably. It had forgotten that it still could not control its strength, and its very sight could destroy mountains back on Nibiru. It would go back and fix things later. Anthony was standing in his room surrounded by various recording and analysis equipment. He planned on recording each game for analysis and review later.
Lex was also patiently waiting, though he was no longer sitting alone. A couple of the guests he hadn't had the opportunity to meet before came and introduced themselves. To his left sat Akihiko Tanaka, a Japanese man in his fifties. Oddly, despite his apparent vast influence, he had decided not to cultivate. To his right sat a young man named Remy Lavern. He was an interesting person. He directly came up to Lex and informed him he wanted to use the Inn to host a meeting for a secret society and was wondering what kind of benefits Lex could provide, which as could be expected triggered a quest. Lex told him to come and ask him once the Midnight Games were over – he didn't want to focus on two long quests at the same time.
As the seconds passed and the numbers got lower and lower, the anticipation that filled the air was practically palpable. Alexander, adorn in a thin silver armor that only covered his chest, was completely still. His excitement, his anticipation, his anxiety and everything else that he was feeling were buried deep. A mistake he had made when he met RussianPrincess77 was overconfidence, and Alexander never repeated a mistake twice. Even though he was adamant about doing things his own way, he was treating this extremely seriously. So while everyone was looking in the air as the countdown went from 3, to 2, to 1, Alexander only looked forward and tightened his grip on the sword in his right hand and the briefcase in his left hand.
The next second a bright light flashed across the Inn, momentarily blinding even the strongest cultivator. All the Foundation level armies disappeared. The screens in the air turned on and a wild grassland appeared in view. The plains were vast with nothing but random shrubbery, trees, and tall grass.
The devil besides Loretta frowned as he recognized the area, but this was only the beginning. A massive horde consisting of tens of thousands of zombies of all shapes and sizes suddenly appeared right in the center. About 5 miles away from the zombies in three different directions, three different armies appeared..
The beasts and Earthling still had a moment to adjust, but for the soldiers of the Empire, the battle began immediately!
*****
Right as the event was about to begin, Ragnar had the entire planet under supervision, not only by the several Juggernaut class vessels that surrounded it, but with his own spiritual sense as well. He even had special spatial fluctuation detection devices installed planet wide so that he would know immediately when the various armies arrived on the planet.
But things did not play out according to the simplest and easiest prediction of teleporting the three armies onto the planet, which in a way is exactly what Ragnar expected. The spatial fluctuation devices started beeping, but before anyone had any time to investigate their results, Ragnar physically felt a change in the fabric of space around the planet.
He opened scans of the planet from the Juggernauts view and ten opaque domes became visible on various parts of the planet. He located the closest one and immediately dashed towards it to investigate. Completely ignoring the hordes of zombies that surrounded the dome, Ragnar approached it and tested it out using a device because he was doubtful of his suspicions. But the result corroborated what he thought.
The area within the dome had somehow been transformed into a pocket realm, without actually cutting off the space from the planet itself. How this was possible, Ragnar did not know, nor could he understand. What he was able to determine, though, was that, because the space was not cut off, the pocket dimension shared the same atmosphere and ecosystem as the planet instead of developing one itself. This also allowed the nodes to continue to function, as if they had been teleported away or moved into a pocket dimension cut off from the formation they were supposed to be running the formation would fail.
But that was not all. All zombies above the Golden core realm within the dome were being ejected outside. He suspected that likewise, all zombies above the Foundation realm were being ejected from whichever dome was hosting the current game.
Just as he was about to return, he noticed a particularly strong demon ejected from the dome. A demon of this level was not supposed to be on this planet – clearly it had been hiding near the node, protecting it, but how could it escape the sight of the Innkeeper? Ragnar was now thoroughly convinced that the Innkeeper was many levels above himself.
The General and the demon exchanged looks, but did not engage. Ragnar was still the stronger one, but a fight of their level would activate the formation surrounding this planet. He had no choice but to let the demon leave.
Ragnar returned to his command room and gave the order for an all out attack. While the games handled the destruction of the nodes, he would handle the rest of the planet.
*****
The moment the game began, various beasts and humans disappeared from the Inn. One particular beast reappeared in a jungle, face to face with a massive snake.
"The games have begun," the beast said, "and the sloth is preoccupied. It will not return to Nibiru for at least 12 hours while the games take place. I did not spot Igishima in the coliseum, but it is likely in its room. Considering a lack of response from Red Nation, I think it's still unaware of the situation. It likely won't return before the games end."
"You've done well," the snake replied, its voice much happier than its expression portrayed. "Pass down my orders, begin a full assault! We must take all of its territory before it returns. I'll have a nice surprise waiting for it when it comes back home."
"Yes sir," the beast replied, and immediately left.
*****
On Earth, a virtual meeting was once again taking place in the bunker under the Sahara. But no one was speaking, they were all waiting silently. Eventually, a person appeared in the room as if teleporting from somewhere.
"The games have begun, they will be occupied. But they'll likely return the moment they get news that something is happening, are you sure you want to do this? Why not wait till the Golden core soldiers are committed instead of the Foundation ones?"
"Cowardice will not ignite the flames of revolution," said a feminine voice. "We were preparing to take on their full strength anyway, the disappearance of a few thousand Foundation realm experts is already a great boon. Not to mention, the longer we wait, the longer there is a chance for a mistake. Since the preparations have been made, we will begin now. Pass down the orders. Everyone get into your marked positions and prepare the weapons. In two hours exactly, we'll strike all targets at the same time. Even if the family heads return, the moment we start, it'll be too late for them to do anything."
Without replying, the various holograms started disappearing. In two hours, the destiny of Earth would change.
*****
On the battlefield, Alexander quickly scanned the terrain for potential threats the moment he appeared. Seeing no immediate danger, he sent out a few scouts before kneeling to start the device that looked like a briefcase in his left hand.
It took him a few minutes, which was enough time for his soldiers to secure the surrounding area. Fortunately, there were no enemies nearby, so they would be uninterrupted in the short term. The rest of the human army separated from them, clearly acting under a different commander. Alexander did not mind.
When the device was ready, he took a few steps back and watched as a dozen mini-satellites were launched into the air. When they reached high enough and their rocket trails ended, the satellites activated their cloaking mechanism, hiding them from plain sight. They could still be detected using spiritual sense, they weren't completely covert, but this was good enough. In only a few minutes, Alexander obtained a live projection of the entire terrain. Identifying the location where the Empire's soldiers were clashing with the zombies that arrived with them, Alexander passed out orders and began moving.
Even if he wanted to test himself, he would do it in the smartest and most efficient way.
The sound of screaming, fighting, explosions and the clashing of metal resounded as Crawford-41 directed his troops. The moment they were teleported, exactly 100 zombies adorning their zombified beasts each assaulted them. Their suicide attack was vicious and extremely lethal. These zombies had some kind of ability that affected a large area which directly immobilized the side of the Jotun forces facing them.
Acidic mucus rained down upon them while sharp bone splinters crashed against their defenses, threatening to split them apart. The ground was split asunder as bloody tentacles erupted from beneath, trying to cut through anything in its path. The roars of over a hundred angry zombie beasts thundered across the army, threatening to tear their ear drums. With claws sharp enough to tear through metal, they slashed at the defending soldiers.
It was as if armageddon was raining down upon the humans. An overwhelming evil was crashing against a small army, one that had gripped the entire universe with fear and hate. Yet even as fire and fury rained upon the humans, like a scene depicting the end times in many religions, the humans stood firm. Against steel and bone, against bloody maws and spiked claws, against the full strength of this suicide squad, not a single soldier fell.
Shoulder to shoulder, the front line dug in and stood their ground, protecting their brothers and sisters behind them. Death could not scare them and a maelstrom of attacks could not make them stumble. Wielding shields that grew into massive, eight feet tall and three feet wide versions of themselves, these soldiers were the pride of an Empire. Known only as the Bulwark team, they were the dedicated protectors of each Jotun army.
Finally, the zombies reached the soldiers and crashed against the makeshift wall of shields. The beasts rammed their bodies as the zombies used their unusual limbs and claws to cut through the barricade. The very ground shook from the force of the collision, and even the viewers back at the Inn trembled unconsciously as they saw the sight, but true to their prestige, the Bulwark team's defense remained unpenetrated..
From the time the game had started, not even a minute had passed. Yet the moment the zombies crashed against the shields, their momentum was interrupted. This was the opportunity that the Jotun soldiers had been waiting for.
"Squads three and five, circle around and attack from behind. Bulwark team, hold them down!" Crawford-41 commanded. In a calm yet quick way, the soldiers started moving, acting according to their orders.
The purpose of this suicide squad of zombies was to hold the soldiers in place as the rest of the zombies retreated to meet with their main force. Tier 3 zombies, equivalent to Foundation cultivators, started to attain intelligence, but it was still in a very primitive form. They could understand their instinctual desires to feed, and to a degree plan how to get what they wanted, but the concept of teamwork or long-term planning escaped them. The Jotun forces did not know how big the main force of zombies would be, but under the command of a proper leader such as Pramod, their lethality would increase exponentially.
Pramod wanted to get to the main force while maintaining his initial number of zombies, while the Jotun soldiers wanted to stop him, no matter what. While the soldiers fought, Pramod and his mounted units had already gained a huge lead. Soon, a chase would begin that would determine how the rest of the games went.
As strong as the army was, dealing with suicidal enemies was not easy. It took an entire thirty minutes before the zombies were dealt with – with no Jotun casualties or injuries, of course.
Once the suicide zombies had been eliminated, Crawford-41 checked on his soldiers as well as the fallen corpses. After running a quick scan, they realized that these zombies had been poisoned with a deadly, fact acting virus. Had even a single soldier been injured, within minutes he would have died, and then subsequently turned into a zombie. It was unknown if only the 2500 zombies were poisoned, or if all of them were. Depending on the answer, this could be even more dangerous. Furthermore, none of the zombies dropped cores. This was because the devils had attached a collection formation to each node to automatically collect all zombie cores within a certain area. Since they knew a battle was upcoming, there was no reason to leave such a boon to their enemies.
"According to preliminary scans, the chances of this battlefield being sector 776 are incredibly high," a technician informed Crawford-41. "As we move, I'll continue to scan the terrain, which should confirm our location. Once the location has been determined, we can crossmatch our location with a scan of the planet to get a detailed map of the area."
"Good. Once the location has been determined, forward the map to me. Everyone, assume pursuit formation and immediately begin chasing after target 1, but keep an eye out for ambushes. They will not let us catch up easily, but we cannot let them meet up with their main force!"
Needing no further instructions, the soldiers reorganized themselves to facilitate a chase and immediately began. As expected, Pramod had left behind various traps and ambushes to slow them down. The good news was the Jotun soldiers suffered no casualties. The bad news was that Pramod and his army, atop their mounts, were gaining the lead.
While Crawford-41 and his soldiers gave chase, and Alexander and his soldiers made a beeline to cut Pramod off, the rest of the human soldiers had set up a temporary camp and started scouting the area using drones. Their first objective was locating the enemies and understanding the terrain before making a plan of action. It was not as simple as simply fighting the zombies as the Innkeeper had said unexpected things may happen during the games. Since their objective was to get as many points as possible to prove their worth, they had to act accordingly.
Unlike the humans, who all moved with clear purpose, the beasts divided themselves into three different groups, each with their own plans. The largest group was formed of wolves who were originally from Blood Fangs territory. They wasted no time whatsoever and ran off on their own. They were searching for their prey, and would decide what to do once they found them. The second largest group was one made of elephants.
The elephants all boasted a natural advantage in brute strength and defense. They had been forced by the sloth to participate, and behaved begrudgingly. They knew that if they did nothing, there would be hell to pay once the game was over, yet at the same time, they did not want to be too proactive. The sloth might have been a little more lenient had any of the elephants inherited the Fiery Mammoth bloodline, but none of them had. It was not so far as to say that the elephants were disposable, but forcing them to participate in the games, at least, would not get the sloth in trouble.
The third and smallest group was a random collection of strong beasts. Some of them came willingly for the promised rewards by their territory leaders, some of them had been threatened, all of them were uninformed about what they should be doing. Reaching an unspoken consensus, they decided to simply follow the elephants from a distance.
Only thirty minutes had passed and another eleven and a half hours remained, yet even while most were still planning their moves, the crowd at the Inn was going wild!
Everyone was expecting a clash right at the start due to the presence of the zombies, but the ferocity of the fight had taken them by surprise. The humans hooted and chanted for the valiant soldiers, and the five Nascants looked on with the utmost seriousness at the soldiers that surpassed anything they could have imagined. Not a single soldier had died so far, despite the onslaught! It let them know firmly what their place in the universe was.
Lex was especially amazed, this being the first time he'd properly seen cultivators fight. It was a shame that he had to maintain his distant image as the Innkeeper, otherwise he would be chanting with the crowds as well.
Even he did not know what surprises were in store for the participants, so he, too, was watching on in suspense.
Besides the various screens showing what was happening to the participants, another screen depicting the points received a lot of attention. The Jotun Empire had 200 points for killing 100 zombies and 100 of their mounts, but the distribution for the individuals was what attracted the most attention. While most of the names on the list so far had one or two kills to their name, a single name stood out: Cara Deathsworn – V2001.
Cara Deathsworn was her name and V2001 was her registration number. The V let people know that she was from Vegus Minima. The reason why her name attracted so much attention was because of the number of points she had accumulated: 29. While each of the soldiers had one or two kills, she had 29. A lot of the guests found themselves turning their screens to her and watching replays of her fight.
Maybe a lot of them were expecting to see some beautiful warrior, cutting through the zombies like a valiant hero. Unfortunately, they could not see her face under her helmet, and armor was not designed with visual appeal as a priority, so it did not look too flattering. What they were able to catch was a moment when her armor was damaged around her arm. Before the armor stretched itself to cover the damaged area, the guests were able to catch a glimpse of rock-hard, extremely lean muscles. It woke many of the viewers up to the truth that Deathsworn was not a fairy warrior out of an anime. She was a soldier, and she was built like a killer. For some reason, that only increased her number of fans.A few minutes into the chase, the crowd started diverting their attention to the other participants. At first, it seemed that the others were just doing their own form of recon, until someone noticed that Alexander and his army were moving too quickly in a straight line for it to be reconnaissance. Unlike the actual participants, the guests had access to a map which showed the location for each of the participants. When someone finally realized that Alexander was moving directly to intercept Pramod, excitement filled them and they spread the word.
Alexander was coming from Pramod's left, and based on the distance would intercept them only 1 and a half miles away from the main zombie horde. The fact that the previously mentioned horde was also slowly moving outwards made the point where the two would clash uncomfortably close, but only for the participants. For the guests, the possibility of a larger clash only made it more thrilling.
One would think that Alexander's family would be worried for him at this point, as the other Nascants slightly were – though their reasons were different. No, the Morrisons could be seen sitting together, casually chatting amongst themselves. Brandon would sometimes whisper something in his wife's ear that would make her chuckle, while Ragnar and Hillary – Alexander's mother – seemed to be discussing the details of the other armies.
A few moments of peace filled the time, but instead of boring the guests, it only served to build the anticipation. Alexander's clash would be extremely dangerous, especially considering that he was outnumbered almost two to one.
He was aware of this fact, as his satellites gave him the most detailed information amongst the participants. He knew he only needed to hold them long enough for the Jotun soldiers to catch up. He was not doing this because of some agreement with the Empire, or because his family told him. This was simply the best course of action for him. Numerically, this was the smallest target and also one with the greatest return in terms of weakening his enemy..
The wait was not long – in only a few minutes, the two armies came within sight of one another. If he did not move into position to block them, Alexander would have employed a long range attack, but that would only slow down their speed. So at this moment, he urged his troops to move even faster while the enemy had not noticed them.
This was a drawback of having zombies as subordinates. They could not warn Pramod of the approaching army, even if they spotted it due to their lacking intelligence. But they were fighting in a plain – the view was largely uninterrupted. Pramod finally noticed the army when they were almost directly in their path, and without hesitation, passed out a command. The army of zombies split in two, one continuing to move in a straight line and another turning right and moving that way.
Alexander had no way of knowing which of the groups Pramod was in, as his satellite was not capable of providing such detailed information, not that he could have done much even if he knew. In a few moments, Alexander got into position to block the incoming horde.
"Lay down suppressive fire!" Alexander commanded into a mic, prompting a barrage of artillery fire. But even as bullets tore through the air, they were unable to deter the oncoming horde. The zombies launched their own counterattack as they neared, ready to directly tear into Alexander's army.
Yet the spirit tech used by the Morrison family, while unable to match the quality of the Empire, was extremely imaginative. Some of the soldiers were wearing an unusual backpack out of which hundreds of mini-drones kept flying out. Flying in front of Alexander, they seemed to form some kind of formation. They remained unreactive as friendly fire passed them by, but whenever an enemy attack neared, an electric field was formed between the drones that zapped the attack.
Unfortunately, while the field served to destroy some of the attacks, some of them were only weakened. As the soldiers suffered the attacks, the stark difference between their armor and gear compared to the Jotuns once again became evident. Although there were no casualties so far, many soldiers were already injured in the first volley.
But since the two forces were different in many ways, there was no need for them to use the same tactics. Alexander was not planning on taking on a direct collision of a charging force. He was planning on tearing them apart!
"Penetration tactic 1," Alexander calmly commanded, as if he was not under attack. Behind him, his 6 blades became airborne.
The defining difference in combat between Foundation realm cultivators and those below that realm were the spiritual techniques that one could use. They became more versatile, and a wider array of options were available to you. While most techniques served a single purpose and were driven by the energy a single person could provide, such techniques were less common in war.
One hundred of the soldiers behind Alexander wielded unusually heavy weapons that had the shape of a rocket launcher. The fact that, despite their cultivation, the soldiers were struggling to hold it demonstrated their weight.
But while there were only 100 soldiers with such weapons, a thin blue line was formed in the air, connecting the weapons to the rest of the surrounding soldiers. They were all using an energy build up technique. Such a spiritual technique was usually the buildup for a larger attack, but this took things one step further. In the presence of another person using the same technique, a blue line made of spiritual energy connected them, multiplying the speed at which they gathered energy. In the presence of 1000 people using the same technique, a web was formed and the energy buildup was so quick and massive it threatened to blow up the very people using the technique.
Then, via the blue lines, the energy was transferred to the weapons, which had already been aimed. It barely took a few seconds for all of this to happen, and just as the zombie horde was about to crash into the soldiers, the weapons fired!
100 blue balls of flames launched with the ferocity of a bolt of lightning and roared like a continuous clap of thunder. Completely eviscerating the zombies in their path, the blue flames traveled fifty feet before destabilizing and exploding. The force of the attack launched the zombies in the air, the heat of the flames burning those in its path to a crisp, the shockwave of the attack causing them to fall over.
Yet this was not meant to be Alexander's main attack. This only broke the momentum of the charging army. Sword in hand, blade hovering behind his back, Alexander was the first to charge into the zombie horde, followed closely by his soldiers.
Originally, Alexander would have liked a long range battle where he could use his spirit tech to destroy the zombies before they even got close. But since they were already too close to the horde by the time they blocked their path, he would not shy from doing things up close and personal.
Considering his recent entry into the Foundation realm, Alexander should have been at a disadvantage. But someone forgot to tell that to his blades that were ripping through enemies like paper. He could not act with the flexibility and precision he liked, and so often only cut off limbs instead of beheading zombies, allowing them to survive. But his soldiers would take care of the weakened zombies, he only needed to guide them and lead them on the path to victory.
His blades carried a red hue, a visual effect of the spiritual technique he was using: Unending Solder. Its effect was simple yet powerful, it gave his blades a massive increase in cutting power. A zombie that had somehow turned invisible suddenly latched itself onto Alexander with octopus like tentacles and bit at his throat. Yet before the zombie could succeed, a blast of spiritual energy emerged from Alexander's body and ripped the tentacles away and threw the zombie far away. This was the effect of a defensive body technique Marlo had gifted him when he entered the Foundation realm: Magnetic pulse.
Unfortunately, Alexander's grandfather got his hands on the technique and changed it just a bit before Alexander learned it. As a result, Alexander's hair was not standing up straight as his body was surrounded by a visible, golden aura – looking very much like a certain anime character.
The 100 students from Troy academy who were watching their senior fight were losing their minds as they screamed and shouted. This was the pride of their academy. This was the pride of Earth. And this was the pride of the weeb community.
Alexander himself did not notice his peculiarity and continued to ruthlessly cut down his enemies, which only kindled the passion in his fans' hearts. Even some of the Jotun soldiers who were watching the fight were attracted to the literal golden child of Earth.