Clarence was standing on one of the five circular discs along with hundreds of thousands of other people. There were at least millions of them before the first round but they were all weeded out.
He looked around to see that all of them were of similar age, as it was obvious, since twenty was the age limit of the participants.
Those not meeting the requirements were thrown out even before the qualifying round as they simply weren't teleported into the vehicle by Marvin.
"Uhm"
All of them looked upwards to see Marvin standing in the air, who had fake coughed to attract their attention. Once he saw that he had the attention, he said,
"Next, you will all be grouped in batches of hundreds and will fight a battle royal. The first thousand players on the leaderboard won't be in the same group, the privilege of having a high rank."
As soon as he said, without giving them the time to prepare for things, he waved his hand and all the people below felt themselves pulled in by a force. Some tried to resist it to test their might, while some just let it be.
Clarence found that he had been grouped with a hundred other people and there was a bluish dome-shaped film covering them. He quickly put strength in his legs and brandished his daggers.
One of the new techniques he learnt in the mountains was that it allowed him to twist his body at impossible angles for a second, but any more and you'll feel the pain instantly, as the technique could only run for a second at his level.
Instantly executing his leg technique and slither, the technique which allows him to twist his body, he began wreaking havoc among the ninety-nine people. At this point, people were either standing too far from each other or had their guards up.
Seeing someone make a move, being a battle royale, they obviously wouldn't help the person who was being attacked. They all went as far away, while some used this distraction to sneak attack those close to them.
After being done with the first person, he instantly moved on to the second. As time went by, he was getting more and more efficient, such that it garnered attention from the rest of the group, who had basically classified him as a threat by now.
Not caring about anything, he simply cut their arms or their legs to make them unable to fight. He was unfazed by the number of people coming his way after they decided to eliminate him first.
He was faster than anyone else. Group tactics wouldn't do anything to him but just give him an easier time to cut down their numbers.
In just two and a half minutes, there was almost no one left inside the dome capable of fighting. As soon as he was done, the dome crumbled into light pieces and returned to Marvin, who turned to give Clarence a passing glance.
Clarence looked around to see that the entirety of five circular discs were covered with such domes. He then looked up towards the leaderboard to find his name in the glaring golden colors standing at the very top.
He grinned when he saw that, and kept looking at it to see who would come second and so forth. And about the previous conjecture, he was critically wrong.
Although demons had a higher number of people than the other races in the qualification battle, it was only by a slight margin. Very different from his previous thoughts that demons would dominate the leaderboards.
He continued looking at the leaderboard and soon a second name came up, Clara Denkin. He looked around to see which dome had crumbled and spotted a blonde young lady standing alone on the disc adjacent to his.
Judging from her slightly long ears, Clarence had a doubt that she might be from the elven race. The race, which were like humans in the same way as dragons, were like demons.
Elves were born with stronger souls and were talented in cultivation at the start. As they grew up, their physiques strengthened by itself and their talent at physique related things increased as well.
Unlike humans, who were although born with a stronger soul, their talent in physique related things need to be increased by treasures.
He looked away from her and focused his attention back on the leaderboard where there was already a third name, Adelaide Lowell. He once again looked around to find who it was and spotted a black haired young lady on the same disc as him a couple distance away.
"A human, damn, I was naive to think demons could dominate the rankings. I guess this round is a little tilted in the favor of those with higher speed."
As he continued looking at the leaderboard, where names kept popping up, he finally saw Bernard Arlington coming in at ninth rank and Everett Winslow at thirteenth.
He assumed that although they might have speed, it might not be enough to rank them at the top or they simply didn't give their best.
He soon noticed a thing he had failed to, the people who had failed were teleported out of the five discs. He just thought it was a dumb thing he failed to spot till now.
Getting a little bored, he sat down and took out his daggers from their sheath and began cleaning them. After he was satisfied with their shiny appearance a few seconds later, he put them back into their sheath.
Just as he was thinking of what to do next, he sensed a person approaching him. He turned his head around to see that it was Adelaide Lowell, the third ranker.
He got up and extended his hand to greet her, to which she did the same while saying,
"Adelaide Lowell, from the family of the lightning serpent. A top ranked family of the human race."
She had a smile on her face the whole time as she introduced herself, her tone held a bit of pride, but he could sense no malicious intentions behind it.
He shook her hand and smiled while saying,
"Clarence Verity. Heir to the Royal Family of the demonic empire. Son of Lysander and Sienna Verity."
His tone held an equal amount of pride when he said that, while on the opposite side, Adelaide was a little surprised listening to his identity.