Chapter 13: Crown Game - 4
Silence.
Silence reigned in the arena for a moment, deafening to the point that even a pin drop could be heard.
Rak and Khun stood at the two sides of the throne, ready to leap at a moments notice in protection of their third teammate.
Winston looked around, reading the flow of the waves with his spirit vision. Zarhan moved before him, spinning his spear in the air.
This time, there was no team left that wanted to collude. Every other team that held less ability had already been eliminated.
Winston's eyes scanned his competition.
Three people in cloaks stood at the opposite end of the arena. Another team stood to the right, consisting of a woman in a mask and a tight spandex and two other men, one with four arms and the other with a single crystal for his eye.
And finally, to the right of the previous team, stood another team of regulars.
Time stood still for a moment. Nobody moved.
And then, something clicked.
Whooosh!
Winston and Zarhan rushed forward, the wind breaking behind them.
Amon followed from the side, going towards the left.
At the same instant, the woman in the spandex, moved with precision. The metallic staff she held in her hand, seemingly heavier than 20 kgs, was twirled around effortlessly in the air as she moved towards the other team to her left.
Winston's eyes dropped on the staff coloured in gold for a moment, his Marauder powers instantly calculating the value of the staff. Then, his figure approached Rak.
"Raaaaaaa!" The gigantic crocodile screamed with power as he smote down his red spear towards us, aiming to impale us in a single swoop.
Winston quickly jumped to the right, avoiding the attack all together before it could even reach them.
Zarhan propped up his spear before him and deflected the spear to the right.
To the side, Winston having rolled over came face to face with Khun.
Shung!
The sound of metal clashing was heard as a giant sword was pulled out from his bag, Manbarondenna and smashed wildly into Winston's broadsword.
Winston felt his arms twist for a moment, before he realized what was happening.
Quickly, he jumped back.
He's well versed in sword fighting. Twisting the opponents strength against them to open up a striking point. Interesting. Winston smiled in delight.
To the side, the woman in the spandex had already taken care of the other team. With that, her and her teammates rushed towards the throne.
The crocodile was quickly surrounded by Zarhan and Amon. Although Amon wasn't able to help much considering the gap in strength, his weapon still proved to be a nuisance for the crocodile, allowing them to hold him off.
Winston rushed back at Khun, this time in anticipation for his skills.
A flurry of attacks was what followed soon after as both of them slashed at each other wildly, with none of them being able to get the advantage.
Winston, with his spirit vision and instinctive fighting responses was able to dodge all of his attack before they even got close, meanwhile, Khun had his bag offer him protection. No matter how hard Winston seemed to hit it, it didn't budge a single inch.
As they were engaging in their duel, Winston felt something jump over them, as testified by the change in the shinsu.
Whiiirll~
The woman in the spandex effortlessly jumped almost 10 meters into the air, flipping her body while doing so. Then, holding her weapon, she took a stance and smashed wildly onto the unassuming figure that sat atop the throne, Bam.
"Bam!" Khun screamed, a brief moment of distraction. And with that, Winston did not miss the mark. Taking his leg back, he embedded it deep into Khun's abdomen, throwing him back towards the throne.
"Black turtle!" The crocodile yelled, throwing away both Zarhan and Amon with a single sweep of his spear.
However, just when the strike was about to connect, some metallic sounded.
Clang!
A giant disc, orange black in colour floated soundlessly in the air, blocking her attack and throwing her nimble body back.
She slid on the ground some distance from the throne and looked at the perpetrator.
Rak, who had been rushing at the throne to save his teammate was intercepted by the other two teammates of the spandex woman.
In front of the spandex woman, a figure clad in a dark brown cloak suddenly appeared. Evidently, the figure was that of a woman.
"You shouldn take on someone in your own dimension, don't you think?" She said in a melodious voice.
The masked woman didn't speak, only adopting a combat stance.
Winston on the other hand, while rushing towards the throne was intercepted by a gigantic hulking mass, a figure clad in a brown robe, its face somewhat visible which revealed dark red teeth, perhaps another mask underneath the cloak.
The figure, wielding a cleaver in hand smashed it down right onto Winston's figure, who was almost too slow to dodge.
Shit! He cursed in his heart.
Zarhan appeared behind him, stabbing with his spear.
Clang!
His spear slid off of the cleaver of the giant regular.
However, at the last moment, he pushed his body forward and at the last moment, kicked the gigantic regular in the side, making his footing stumble for a moment.
"Go! Get the crown!" He screamed.
Without wasting any time, Winston ran.
Without a second of delay, he had already reached the crown just in front of the last elevation.
With that, the situation came into view.
Have they banded together? Why would they do so? Did that guy carry another team in his bag? Winston wondered, looking at the team of cloaked individuals protecting the other team. But the team with that masked woman is still with us! We can win! Winston cheered.
Khun appeared before him, in his hand a short sword.
Winston raised a brow and quickly began to counter.
Just then, he realized something.
If this goes on like this, we'll quickly run out of time. From the time the final round started, 4 minutes have already passed!
Then, for some inexplicable reason, he remembered the test administrator, Lero ro and the sleeping bag man, who had used shinsu for their attacks, and the process for which he had seen completely with his spirit vision.
It was support from his intuition!
Compress! He yelled internally. Then, utilizing the basic principles of cogitation, his mind instantly stepped into a state of transcendent focus.
And with that, a bright light flashed.
Shiiiiiiiiiiii!
A blinding flash of light illuminated the entire arena, momentarily blinding all the regulars. Khun, who was standing in front of him closed his eyes.
Winston looked beside him, a ball of Shinsu had materialized, taking the form of a soft ball of light.
For a split second, barely longer than the time it took one to blink their eyes, Winston felt something. A strange power flowing through him, filling him with strength unlike anything he had felt. It was something different from the Sequence potion powers, something more... malleable(?), was that the right word?
Then, as that feeling ended, he broke out of his short stupor.
His eyes turned furious and then the ball of Shinsu moved.
Shaaaa!
Boom!
Without any delay, the ball of Shinsu moved to hit Khun. However, because of his unfamiliarity with the ball of shinsu, the ball impacted Khun's bag, throwing him back dozens of meters with a great explosion.
Everyone's eyes turned towards Winston's figure for a moment, widened in surprise at the presence of a Shinsu user.
At that moment, Winston could have sworn he heard Zarhan yell "I knew you were a shinsu user!" in the background.
At the back, taking advantage of the cloaked woman's distraction, who had, at this point revealed her face, the woman with the mask jumped with all her strength right towards the throne.
At the same time, Winston who had no one to block him now, dashed at the throne, right towards Bam's figure who was looking towards the cloaked figure towards his right.
Got you! Winston grinned, extending his hand.
Then, the spandex woman landed to his right.
What?
Bam!
The metallic staff was blocked by his left arm, staggering him for a moment.
"Turtle!" The crocodile yelled from behind.
The masked woman didn't stop, wildly swinging her weapon towards the cloaked figure.
Strike!
The head of the cloaked figure was grazed, throwing off it's cloak to reveal a young girl with freckles.
Winston didn't stop and leapt forward without issue.
However, just as he was about to grab the crown off of Bam's head, the waves around him grew restless.
"Rachel!" He yelled, abandoning the throne and throwing himself towards the young woman.
He left the throne! Winston's eyes widened as he adjusted his direction.
His hand grabbed the crown off his head, just in time for him to intercept the metallic golden staff with his head of all places.
Bam!
And just as that happened, Winston felt something click inside of him. As if something was dissolving inside him, quickly transforming into beads of light that surrounded his soul and merged with it soon after.
But...
Shaaaaa!
Duuu!
With the brief moment in which he relished in the feeling of a potion digestion, the Shinsu in front of him changed suddenly. He ignored the masked woman's strike that was coming right for his face.
His eyed widened.
Spurt!
Blood spurted from his hand and from the face of the masked woman, each having been seemingly slashed with an invisible blade. A gigantic golden light enveloped them, centered around the boy who had just fallen down.
Damn! Did the weapon react?! Winston cursed in his mind, completely forgetting about the digestion of the potion and the crown entirely.
Throwing himself back, he leapt out from the light, landing on the ground. Quickly, he turned off his spirit vision because of the huge blend of colours he was constantly seeing moving in front of him.
As the light finally subsided, there was silence in the entire arena.
The masked woman clutched her right eye with her hands, sitting motionless on the floor. While Bam, the brown haired boy laid there atop the blond haired young girl, his hair stained crimson of his very own blood.
Nobody moved, too shocked by the events that had just transpired.
"Attention all regulars!" Then Lero ro's voice broke then out of their thoughts.
"The crown has been destroyed! And so, with the destruction of the crown, the crown game is also terminated!" His words landed like a bomb atop their heads. Winston looked at the ground, where supposedly, the crown had been accidentally dropped because of his hand injury.
There was nothing there, only empty air.
Then, he looked at his hand. There was a deep gash, running from the middle of his middle and ring finger to somewhat into the middle of his hand.
The adrenaline had blinked out the pain, making him not feel anything.
Well... there goes that... He sighed.
~~~
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A/N: Throw some stones.
Also, what are your thoughts about the position he should be assigned to? I was thinking maybe fisherman or wavecontroller. I'm confused but leaning more towards the former. Share your thoughts.