Adrian limped his way around the cave, trying to find his way out.
"Cough… there are three stages to the lily of the valley.." Adrian reminded himself of this undeniable fact in order to not lose hope.
"Stage one, red spots all over the body and the inability to use magic or ki."
He felt dizzy, so he lay down.
"Stage two, dizziness and blindness alongside a weaker constitution."
He got up and continued his mindless roaming in the dark.
"Stage three, coma followed by death."
He coughed profusely, blood on his hand.
""Haha… it seems I'm in stage two."
Adrian stood still and considered his options.
"Seriously, isn't this too unfair? I'm practically a walking corpse. The only reason I managed to live this long is due to the breathing method taught to me by master."
Adrian's face contorted between a desperate smile and a frown.
"I can't give up now.. And I won't give up anytime soon until I carve the path to my 'happy ending'."
Having resolved himself, he carefully touched the cave wall, memorizing its texture.
"I might have lost my vision, however that just means my other senses have been enhanced."
He listened for any resemblance of a sound, for what felt like a century, unmoving.
Drip.
"Ah. Was that the sound of a droplet?" Adrian concentrated more, waiting for another drop of water.
Drip.
"It is! Could the source be from the stalagmite that woke me up a couple hours ago?"
Adrian slowly headed towards the dripping water, stumbling along the way but getting used to it as time passed.
Growl.
A starving wolf made itself seem intimidating in front of Adrian.
"A wolf? Is this the partner of that lost wolf?"
Adrian slowly backed away, his hand slowly unsheathing his sword.
'I'd rather I not fight this, my hands are trembling just from holding my sword.' Adrian felt the wolf getting closer.
"It doesn't seem like you want to back off. In that case, try me!" Adrian yelled.
The wolf lunged at Adrian, biting his arm.
Instead of a frown, Adrian's face held a smirk.
"I can see you now." He used all of his body weight to slam the sword deep into the wolf, killing it.
"Hah… hah…. hah…" Adrian's face turned pale.
"I… don't have a lot of time.. hah…"
"Must… survive.."
Adrian soon made it towards the entrance of the cave.
Adrian felt the sun on his face.
"I.. made it out."
In the distance, the announcer's voice could be heard.
"Now, my dear viewers! We have successfully made it to the top 10!"
This announcement left Adrian broken.
"Top 10…? Already? Then 990 participants died, in something as worthless as a mere tournament?"
"From this point onwards, in the middle of the forest, the saintess tears alongside the saint herself will be awaiting the worthy victor in this tournament."
Adrian walked alongside the trees towards the center of the forest.
—--------------------------------
Aria could be seen in the distance, running using an acceleration spell.
"So they made a bonafide final area for everyone to fight, is that right?"
She prepared three wind spells. "In that case, I'd better show them whose the final boss."
As Aria got closer towards the center, the temperature kept increasing.
"I'm guessing the heat is the fault of the blonde boy."
When Aria made it towards the center, she was confronted with a massive circle of fire cornering everyone inside.
"Excuse me." She activated the prepared wind spells all at once to hush the fire in one go.
Wooosh.
Inside the circle, there were 7 burnt bodies, the saintess in a protective barrier of the highest divine degree, and Kaya, fighting against Michael.
"You insect!!" Kaya manifested 20 stone stakes, sending them all towards Michael.
"Haha! Is that the best you got, princess?!" He burnt them away with a flick of his fingers before creating 30 fire arrows of his own, homing their way towards Kaya.
'Something is off with Michael, I've heard of him before, but never was he powerful enough to stand face to face with the princess.' Aria bit her fingernail.
'It'd be best if I remain a spectator for now and swoop in when they are both at their weakest.'
[System user located near vicinity! Resuming synchronization]
Aria, seeing the notification, quickly turned her head around.
In the distance, a red-spot-ridden Adrian lay breathing heavily.
"Huh? Adrian? Why does he look like that?"
Adrian yelled at the top of his lungs.
"Everyone, stop!" At his command, everyone's attention turned towards Adrian.
"Brother?!" Kaya looked at her brother, worry in her eyes. "What happened to you??"
"Hah? Another insect, wait for your turn. I'll make sure to properly put you in your place after dealing with this one here."
Adrian, disregarding every comment, yelled out to the saintess.
"Aurelia, quickly, you must leave before it's too lat—" before Adrian could finish his sentence, a magic shot pierced through the barrier and into the saintess's head.
"Insect, you dare try to stop us?" A being made of red blood with long nails and horns looked at Adrian.
"You disgust me."
"Adrian! Dodge!!" Aria extended her hand, activating her acceleration spell on Adrian.
Adrian tried moving away, however the shot was too fast, taking out his entire arm.
"Agghh!" Adrian writhed in pain, barely keeping his consciousness.
"Adrian!" Kaya ran towards Adrian, using the strongest healing spell she knew to at the very least stop the bleeding.
"Damn, those magic tower bastards fooled us! We can't allow this to proceed."
Arthur unsheathed his sword and looked at the pope.
"Quick, use a teleportation spell and get us in there!"
"I- can't?" the pope looked confused as he tried to activate the teleportation rune, failing in the end.
"...There is interference being employed," the emperor calmly announced.
"What?!" Arthur yelled. "There must be something we can do."
"I will teleport you two to the closest area." The emperor, with a gesture from his hand, teleported the two.
The emperor silently continued to watch the situation unfold.
"...What will you do now, my son."
"What is that?!" Aria exclaimed as she prepared as many offensive skills as she could.
"..a demon." Michael muttered hesitantly.
"But.. all demons should have been extinguished from the mortal realm since the last crusade 100 years ago.. so how?"
"Foolish mortal, did you expect our race to die so easily?" the demon snickered.
"Prepare for your doom, boy." Behind the demon, a purple-hued gate opened up, monsters exiting out of it in hordes.
"A gate?!" Aria cast a team-wide protection spell and attacked using 3 wind slashes, cutting down 20 molten dogs.
"Damn it, how did they open the gate? Shouldn't this be impossible with the nature of gates?!"
Kaya yelled out while attacking the hordes rushing at them.
"Whatever the case, all we have to do is hold out until help arrives." Michael manifested three small balls of pure white fire, throwing them into the horde, exploding the incoming wave into burnt corpses.
"Oh mortals, it's futile." The demon extended its hands forward, summoning 100 small needles made of blood magic.
"That magic.." Adrian, in pain, struggled to yell. "D-Dodge that attack, now!!"
Michael hesitated for a second before listening to Adrian. "You better be right about this choice." He manifested a large ball of fire, exploding it right next to them, sending them flying into a tree.
"Ow, are you crazy? What was that?" Kaya yelled before shutting up completely after noticing the crater-sized hole in place of where they stood seconds prior.
"You recognize blood magic, mortal?" the demon looked interestedly at Adrian.
Adrian remained quiet, his hand holding the stub where his arm existed.
"It's a shame you'll die here, not many recognize our holy magic."
"Who said I'll die here?" Adrian revealed what was in his hand.
"Saintess tears?! You fool, give me that—" Michael tried snatching the vial, but it was too late, Adrian had already taken half of it.
A golden beam hit Adrian's entire body, forcing the group to separate, leaving him in the middle.
"That.. power.. That damn saintess saves others even in death, huh?"
"In the end, that won't change anything. A weakling will always remain a weakling!" The demon laughed maniacally.
"Let's see you live this one, you mere insect!"
The demon used the blood of the fallen monsters to prepare a blood beam.
A man with green hair, now harboring a white hair strand and a reborn body, slowly walked outside of the beam of light and unsheathed his sword against the beam.
—----------------------------------------------
"Why did I base my martial arts on the mountain lion?" Arthur thought deeply on how to answer this question.
"Well, of course, it's because the mountain lion is the strongest when it's cornered."
—------------------------------------------------
[The system has recognized the use of a martial art!]
[compatibility with the martial art at 100% martial art evolution is proceeding!]
["Mountain lion's descent" has evolved into "The Lion's Fangs!']
[rating for skill is 'SS' rank]
[warning skill rank is too high for the user! The user will take damage with each use of the skill!]
"First Fang: oblivion"
A sword aura drenched in pitch black covered the sword before exiting in a horizontal slash…
Completely neutralizing the beam and taking the head of the demon along with it.
"I always wondered how much damage my skills had without the 50% debuff."
Aria chuckled from sheer disbelief as she stared at his status.
Name: The Fool
Age: 18
Title: Pitiful Prince
Magic power: ??? (Blocked by external influence)
Divine power: 50 (max 100)
Will power: 35 (max 100)
Strength: 50 (max 100)
agility: 60 (max 100)
ki: 50 (max 100)
"This monster.." Adrian smiled