155 Darakth (1/2)

Suddenly, an emotionless, approaching robotic, voice reverberated inside Hayden's mind. ”Selecting environment… Environment selected. Block 3 will be competing in the Harsh Ice Wasteland.”

As you can see, the preliminary free-for-all isn't as simple as putting all contestants in a plain arena and making them fight each other. It put all competitors in a randomly selected simulated environment that was as big as 150 acres (Approximately 600,000 meters).

All participants will enter the environment at the periphery, each spaced out at least 4,000 meters from each other. When two minutes passes, there will be a boundary that will slowly push to the center, and in eight minutes, the match will be limited to an area of 0.5 acres. It was pretty much the standard free-for-all rules in FPS games.

The environment is simply to test a young wielders' combat adaptability and has no adverse effects as it is akin to real-life environments, making wielders resistant, immune even, to the effects of any environmental damage, including heat and cold.

The voice in Hayden's head counted down from 10 to 1. The second it finished verbalizing the last syllable of zero, the wall in front of him slid down, revealing a marvelous sight of a… Well, Harsh Ice Wasteland.

Unlike what one would imagine, there was no snow or cruel weather. Conversely, the sun hung up high in the cloudless blue sky. Although the sun was red in color and appeared either much smaller or far more distant than the Sun.

As for the general environment, it was deserted and was riddled with glaciers that imitated trees. It was a literal ice forest. Not a snowy taiga biome It was a veritable ice forest. In the horizon, there were dunes of what appeared to be ice alongside a large ice mountain.

Hayden stepped on the icy ground. It wasn't slippery as there was no liquid buildup on its surface due to the temperature of the surroundings. Licking his lips, Hayden discarded his white shirt. shifted into the full form of Indestructible Devil, his selected Ability to use all throughout the Quasilix. Minus the wings of course.

At the end of the day, Indestructible Devil was a transformation Ability, reinforcing every attribute that he has. Despite it really not holding a candle to Divine Perception when it comes to augmenting his senses and mental faculties, it did enhance the two by a bit, at twice its normal capacity.

Hayden advanced to the forest of ice spikes, activating his essence energy sensing. He ran around and, soon enough, he found two people duking it out. One of them was holding a gigantic greenish hammer, the other was some kind of bear with water swirling around them.

Estimating from where the arrows originated, Hayden ran towards it at an extreme velocity, giving no chance for the archer to escape. Hayden pierced the right eye of the archer with his right claw, killing her without resistance.

Out of the blue, the ground shook. Somewhere in the distance, outside of the ice forest, near an ice dune, a woman grew to the size of the Eiffel Tower. Unfurling his four wings and using his Empyrean Power's 50% augment, Hayden rushed to the woman's head and punched it. With the power of his punch, the woman's face curved backwards and was ultimately crushed to smithereens. The sound that Hayden's punch produced was akin to a cannon shot.

On the way there, Hayden has already seen that there were a few people down there that was fighting it out. They all stopped clashing when the boom of Hayden's punch resounded. Needless to say, there was the factor of the dead giant woman falling backwards as well.

They all looked up and witnessed the most horrifying sight. It was Hayden, with his demonic king at full blast. Hayden flew down, landing Terminator style. People solely caught a glimpse prior to Hayden disappearing.

Without a warning, every wielder on-site was killed by a perforation on their right eyes, blood spurting out of it. Just like that, Hayden has killed a total of 16 people in this free-for-all.

Exiting the scene, Hayden shook off the blood on his right hand's index and middle finger. He spat on the eyes, disappointment in his eyes. ”These wielders are weak. What kind of training did they put them in? What a waste of time.”

By that point in time, everybody behind him was revived and exited the stage out of dismay. They couldn't believe that Hayden slaughtered every single one of them in a span of a second. It was insane.

”You think this is a waste of time?” A woman with a beautiful figure and face asked him. A golden halo was conjured up above her, her eyes glowing gold. ”I'll show you the strength of a Foris.”

Hayden raised his right hand up and beckoned at the woman. ”Show me.”

The woman's figure flickered, traversing the distance between her and Hayden at a moment's notice and then she threw a fist towards Hayden's face. Hayden caught it with his right hand, greatly surprising the woman. 'He can keep up with my speed? What in the world is this?'

”Is that all?” Hayden asked with nonchalance. ”Come on, give me your best shot.”

The woman retracted her hand, twisted her body, and twist kicked at Hayden's right temple. Hayden received the blow with his right arm. When that exchange was done, the woman groveled in pain and sat on the ice.

Hayden's toughness was far too high! The attack actually broke the woman's leg instead of damaging Hayden. It was an absurd occurrence that nobody would think is possible.

”That's your best attack?” Hayden's countenance, which was full of detestation, annoyed the woman to a great degree. As a result, she accumulated golden light on her right hand and blasted it at Hayden.

The ray of light struck the area between Hayden's right shoulder and chest. Unfortunately, the light… Only tickled Hayden. It made nary a dent on him, feeling as if an ant bit him.

”W-what?” The woman gaped at Hayden. ”You… How… Devil!”

Hayden's entire person transformed into a jet-black curtain of darkness, with the location of his eyes only having red with white wisps surrounding it.

Hayden put her out of her misery by piercing her heart. With the commotion settling down, Hayden tapped the essence formation on his Qewtyour and the map was projected. Meanwhile, in his mind, the list of the remaining participants poured in. Amongst the 73 remaining people, Darakth was still there.

Hayden focused on the map. He noticed that there was a boundary closing in. ”It's been that long already?”

Hayden shrugged. He didn't care for the time and rushed to the center of the map, which was a flat sheet of ice. Hayden sat cross-legged in the very center, waiting for his opponents to come.

In the next few minutes, there were challengers here and there that Hayden killed effortlessly. By the time four minutes has passed, Hayden's body count rose to 37. Every spectator watching in the stands was in utter disbelief.

Hayden was a natural-born cold-blooded killer! He would strike for the weakest point of somebody as fast as he can, not giving them the slightest chance to resist. During the past four minutes, they've watched Hayden kill with a single attack: Thrusting his index and middle finger to the target's hearts.

What's amazing is that Hayden didn't stand up for most of the wielders he defeated. He let them attack him and he countered by inserting his index and middle finger into their chests. He stood up exclusively when there was a long-ranged wielder that he couldn't beat without standing up, taking a single second to beat them.

By the time the clock struck eight minutes, there were two people left. It was Hayden and… Darakth, whose full name was Darakth Zijul.

”That guy is strong, yet he's unconfident.” Hayden felt pitiful for Darakth. ”I wonder what his Ability is.”

Somewhere faraway, Hayden saw the silhouette of Darakth, approaching him. Hayden rose, licking his lips. ”Don't let me down, Ro-Darakth.”

Darakth didn't cease his advance. Hayden chose to observe Darakth for the intervening period of time. When Darakth was 20 meters away from Hayden, Darakth's body was engulfed in white flames.

Hayden observed further and noticed that Darakth's body was that of a fire spirit's, except that the fire that flowed within him was white.

Darakth's figure started to hover above ground. He raised both of his arms, two white fireballs being materialized on it. Darakth motioned his hands to Hayden, in what Hayden assumed the command for the fireballs to be hurled to him.

The fireballs traveled at a fast pace. Still, it was no match for Hayden's own speed. Accelerating forward, Hayden dodged the fireballs effortlessly. Before he can arrive, Darakth split into three figures. Scanning over the two replicas, Hayden couldn't differentiate them at all.

'I miss Divine Perception.' Hayden was not fond of any kind of unknowns. Divine Perception helped him with that. 'Well, in this situation, it's best to go with the straightforward approach.'

Hayden conjured up his infernal flames with the intention to attack for the first time. He conjured 10 blazes, one for each of his fingernails. He focused part of his Devil Force into his arms and legs. To his surprise, Hayden could increase the enhancements of his arms and legs without needing to redirect everything on those four.

Right now, the strength of his arms and legs are at 11 times, whilst the rest of his body was merely at nine times heightening.

Brandishing his claws, Hayden instinctively knew how and released ten flame razor that quickly moved to Darakth. The three Darakths seemed to panic and plopped down atop the ice. Hayden took advantage of this and knocked the three down with a punch on the face.

When Hayden knocked the rightmost one, the two other Darakths merged into it as Darakth fainted. Hayden felt a stinging sensation on his right fist. He checked it and was stunned of its state. His right hand was frostbitten.

He triggered Endless Regeneration, the frostbite gone in an instant. ”That will be a pretty handy power in the future.”