The Innkeeper

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A shadow covered the arena as an array covered the entire visible sky. The spectators' minds shut down as they tried to process what they were seeing, while the competitors were trying to absorb the fact that Lex was completely unharmed by the previous bombardment.

Lex on the other hand, was thinking of ways to endlessly increase his firepower while making his array as precise as possible.

He also had to give a large part of his focus onto the array itself as well. While the characters that formed arrays were found in the universe, making them reappear was not magic. Lex had to expend his own spiritual energy to form them, which is usually why when he formed arrays they were close to his body. After all, the shorter distance his energy had to travel before forming the characters, the less energy he would have to expend.

This over the top performance right now was necessary not because Lex wanted to be a show off, but because he wanted to take out 300 of his opponents at the same time, without killing them, and without causing the damage to spread. Those extra few requirements made the array much more complicated, but that did not seem to be an issue for him at the moment.

There was just one drawback. Since he was channeling all his spirit energy into the sky, he could use none of his techniques. So until the array was complete, he would have to survive without them.

But just because Lex's mind was unusually intune with arrays, and this was his special moment - in his mind at least - it did not mean his opponents would allow him to continue his performance unimpeded.

One of the beasts recovered from the shock and dashed towards Lex to attack him up close and personal. It did not understand what was happening and did not care. One solid hit was all it would take to end the fight.

A massive toad appeared before Lex and smashed down hard.

BANG!

*****

BANG!

A body flew out and crashed into a pile of corpses, but it moved instantaneously and did not take any time to rest. He couldn't. Even the briefest of moments for respite could spell the end for him, since on this galactic battlefield, Alexander Morrison was nothing more than cannon fodder.

His peak Golden Core realm strength placed him on the lower end of the spectrum on this battlefield, and he should not have been so deep behind enemy lines. But who cared about such things during war?

Through twists of fate, various coincidences, and a lot of bad luck, Alexander found himself facing death at every corner, and now it was his job to make it out alive.

Behind him, four others moved with remarkable cohesion, and supported each other to the utmost to survive the onslaught. They were Alexander's team, and he was their captain.

Oddly enough, his was the only team that hadn't suffered a single death so far, but it was not a coincidence. Alexander used every ounce of his skill, strength, technique and resources to make sure that none of them would die. Often enough, he intercepted attacks that would have killed them and suffered the damage in their stead to keep them alive.

Many assumed he was just an emotional leader, but the truth was, out here, he was so outclassed in every sense that if his team suffered even the slightest drop in strength, they would not be able to survive.

So to live, he had to keep his team alive so they could support him, and to keep them alive he had to face every danger that came their way. But it could not be helped. He was not a lucky protagonist who would get saved every time he encountered danger, nor was he the golden child of destiny. Out here, in the battlefield between humans and Fuegans, he was not even qualified to be a footsoldier. It would take his whole team to fight a single enemy.

But as he gathered his energy and dodged more attacks, the look in his eyes was not one of a wounded animal, or a desperate man. The look in his eyes was one of hunger. He was hungry to grow stronger, and not just by breaking through a higher realm. He would be the best of the best.

The six swords floating behind him aligned with his moves and attacked the enemy in front of him.

BANG!

*****

BANG!

Aegis' body smashed deep into a mountain. The armor he had been wearing had crumbled away. No it had crumbled, and then pressed into Aegis's body. But Aegis himself did not seem to notice. He gathered strength in his body, the mountain breaking around him, and pushed himself into the sky.

Surrounding him were hundreds of monsters, all of them immortals. All of them had hidden in the dark corners of the realm for millions of years to achieve the strength they had now. So why would they besiege him now? It was because of the Blue Crystal Essence in the necklace around his neck.

He brought it out to attract Zagan, but he would have to fend off waves of other monsters till Zagan arrived. But he was not afraid. They called him the strongest in his generation, but how could they not hear the insult in that statement? He was not satisfied with just his generation. He would be the strongest of all generations.

The crown prince zoomed off to punch a monster the size of Mount Everest in the face.

BANG!

*****

The competitors were not only attacking Lex, they were even fighting with each other to get a chance to land a hit on Lex. They had no cooperation or cohesion, but that only worked in Lex's favor. After all, he just had to survive long enough for his array to be completed.

It was much easier said than done, for not a single spot of his body remained uncovered in blood.

As strong as his instincts were, he was not able to avoid all attacks effortlessly. Yet that did not matter, for Regal Embrace was finally showing what it was worth. Directly or indirectly, he had suffered hundreds of attacks already in the last 4 minutes, but while he suffered numerous wounds, not a single bone in his body broke.

A cat the size of a house appeared before Lex and tried to stab him with its claws but missed. It wasn't because Lex dodged, but because Lex stopped running altogether which caused the cat to misjudge where to attack.

This could also count as dodging, but the reason it did not count as such…

He looked up at the sky with a bloody grin. The array was glowing, and it began to rumble. Thunder rumbled in the sky then, in an instant, 300 golden bolts of lightning struck down from the sky, landing on all the contestants without missing a single one.

BANG!