Hours had passed since Fae had his meal at 'Dragoons Delight' and it was now time for the third and final challenge to take place.
Arthur was once again standing on a high platform ready to speak to all the examinees, and prepare them for the final exam.
"Greetings to all who have made it this far." Arthur said and paused, waiting for the crowd to silence and prepare to listen to him. "If you've made it this far you've done a spectacular job, you've showcased that you're knowledgeable and capable of resisting the pressure of your peers with the first challenge, you've shown your capability to strategize with a team and fight team battles in the second challenge, and finally you'll now showcase your true power and fighting prowess in a 1-on-1 style tournament." Arthur spoke in an inspiring voice and raised his arm into the air causing the crowd to do the same. Even Fae had raised his arm up feeling inspired by the speech.
"The rules are simple, there are none. Any weapons, formations, powers, capsules, any advantages that you have are applicable to this fight as long as they're YOURS. You may not rely on outside help or bring in anything you didn't step into the arena with. We also suggest you don't mindlessly indulge in murder because while killing is sometimes the only way to win, it is not always. If you go against someone clearly weaker than you and decide to kill them I will punish you personally."
Arthur said all of this in an authoritative tone and as the last part left his mouth an overbearing pressure descended upon the crowd.
The pressure was greater than any pressure Fae had felt before, the pressure he experienced in the first trial paled in comparison to this pressure, which made him feel like his entire body was being targeted by the strongest swords in existence.
Fae's mind was all over the place and he couldn't even think under the pressure, but after a few moments Fae put himself together enough to come up with an idea. Before when Fae was against a lower pressure he used it to train his energy and instantly shot up in Mythic rank, what if he tried that with this even greater pressure?
Fae immediately began to bring the bloodline energy surrounding him into his body, but the moment the pressure hit Fae's bare body he let out a blood curdling scream and collapsed to the ground, this scene wasn't uncommon as many of the participants under the pressure collapsed but for entirely different reasons than Fae, their bloodline energies just simply weren't strong enough to protect them against Arthur's pressure.
This was kind of a secret pre-trial to the third trial, Arthur exerted his pressure to see who would be able to handle it, if someone couldn't handle the pressure they wouldn't be removed from the exam as this wasn't an official trial, Arthur simply used this as a way to test the examinees directly and take into account those who collapsed deeming that they probably wouldn't be worth much as students, declaring them as weak. Arthur looked into the crowd memorizing all the students who were able to handle the pressure and looking down on those who couldn't, Arthur didn't care whether you were a noble or a commoner, he only cared about your determination, and willpower.
As he looked around he noticed Effy had collapsed. 'Well Red I guess your eyes have failed you, he couldn't even handle a fraction of my pressure.' Arthur thought to himself. Red had approached Arthur letting him know that there was someone participating in the exam who would utterly shock everyone, but the one Red had chosen couldn't even handle this.
If only Arthur knew that he had just awakened in "Effy" something that would shake all the examinees to their core.
As Fae laid unconscious on the ground a voice sounded in his head. {Fae don't get ahead of yourself, there was no way you could've handled that pressure with just your body.} The system voice sounded with concern, even though Fae couldn't hear him.
Suddenly another voice spoke in Fae's head, this was different than the system, or even the voice that had spoken to Fae a few times before, Crimson, no this voice was entirely different, it sounded gentle, but overbearing, like even the whispers of the voice could cause a kingdom to fall. "Leave him alone he made a good effort." The voice said directing it at the words that the system had said earlier. The voice continued to speak, this time to Fae. "You're brave kid, Crimson was right, the future is in good hands." A slight green glow surrounded Fae's limp body. "They want to bully The Devourer with pressure?" The voice said with a sudden force in his voice. "HOW DARE THEY! YOU SHALL SHOW THEM PRESSURE." The voice shouted as the green glow around Fae became brighter. Good luck, little devourer." The voice said as the green glow began to glow even brighter and start to condense on Fae's forehead. Once the glow left everywhere but Fae's forehead it shot into the air and Fae suddenly awoke.
He looked around to see the speech was just coming to an end and everyone who had collapsed was beginning to wake up. Even though it may have seemed longer in actuality Fae had only collapsed for about 45 seconds. Fae's head was pounding and he began to internally yell at himself for thinking he'd be strong enough to handle Arthur's pressure with his bare body. He now knew he had a long way to go if he ever wanted to be someone truly strong.
'I couldn't even handle it long enough to go up one rank.' Fae thought to himself, saddened that he couldn't get any stronger, when suddenly he read a few system messages that put a smile on his face.
{New Skill Granted: Devourer's Pressure}
{Devourer's Pressure: A true Devourer can consume hearts and spirits with just a glance. A pressure that's been refined through years of training, breaking yourself down, and building yourself back up.}
{Skill Description: Host releases a pressure that causes opponents to experience pain, discomfort, and fear.}
{Quest Issued: SHOW THEM TRUE PRESSURE}