Living Life As A Game: Through And Through
/ Living Life As A Game: Through And Through 125 Fiendish Deligh
Ignoring the hateful crowd around her, Elizabeth waited to be interviewed again. Soon, the same interview from the Forging Event appeared before her and said, "Ms. Ultimatia… I didn't expect us to meet so soon. Anyway, since most people already seem to know who you are, let's skip the introduction… So, um… is there anything you want to say about this victory in the First Stage?" At a loss for words, the interviewer did the best he could to mitigate Elizabeth's image and the public opinion.
"Yeah! How the fuck do you explain this 'victory?' We all saw your Egg was still unhatched after the time ran out, so what do you have to say about this obvious cheating?!" From the spectator arena, one of the most spiteful spectators set off a chain reaction of people questioning why Elizabeth passed even though she clearly failed the requirements.
Then, as the crowd's displeasure approached its climax, from the VIP area, in manner all too familiar with those that had been around to witness the First Event of the tournament, Marshall could be seen speaking into the announcer's mic, saying, "I, Marshall Quinn, of the Taming Frontier Faction can testify to Ms. Ultimatia's passing score. The tournament's rules only disqualify those who's Clearlight Sparrows fail to develop at least orange feathers. While it is true that she turned in an unhatched Egg when the First Stage ended, literally all the judges witnessed the birth of the Sparrow in its current state… The bird didn't accept any of our energy, meaning Elizabeth nurtured it up to that level in 10 minutes with the Equalizing Method..."
It was possible to hear the sounds of people realizing the absurdity spoke over the mic as a steady clamor of "What?!" "Impossible!" and "No way..." consumed both audience and competitors alike. If ever anyone raised the question, "What is the Equalizing Method?" There would be a whole group of people preaching the history of this most basic Bear Rearing technique. The same technique Elizabeth used to nurture her Demonic Beast Egg, which would, in essence, match a Tamed Beast's potential to its master's.
With Marshall resolving the crowd's concerns over the validity of Elizabeth's score, neither Elizabeth nor the interviewer bothered to continue on with the interview. Awkwardly, the interviewer excused himself from the competing arena as the announcer came back to announce the start of Stage Two. Switching places with Marshall, the announcer sat back in his spot by the mic, coughing a couple times before saying, "Ehem… So, for the Second Stage, the Capture Stage, the remaining competitors are to work with the Clearlight Sparrows they nurtured in Stage One and leave to the Northern Forest. Using any and all methods, competitors are to capture and tame as many wild beasts as they can within a time limit of twenty minutes. Only the top 100 will proceed to the Final Stage and those that fail to Tame a Beast with strength surpassing the Pawn Stage will be disqualified. Additionally… those that fail to return after twenty minutes pass will also fail. Now, with the rules set in place, get ready… get set… GO!"
Like a fleet of locusts, the competing Beast Tamers shot off in various directions into the northern forest after escaping through a gateway made for their quick exit and re-entry into the arena specifically set in place for this Stage. Shaking her head, Elizabeth looked at her Clearlight Sparrow with a helpless expression as she ran into the forest along with her peers. The Stages of the Beast Taming Event were governed by three key factors: Strength, Potential, and Knowledge.
With the outcome of preceding Stages heavily impacting the subsequent Stages, the competitors that were wiped out during the First Stage didn't have enough potential. Now, having to rely on the Clearlight Sparrows they nurtured in the first Stage, depending on the degree of the potential developed, Beast Tamers competing in the Second Stage would face varying levels of difficulty working with their Sparrow companions to find other beasts to Tame. The more developed the Sparrows they nurtured in the First Stage, the more "intelligence" their Beasts would possess and thus, the easier it would be to communicate complex messages between Beast and Master.
For the Second Stage, Beast Tamers were expected to rely on their Sparrows to scout from above and relay several messages back. Whereas an undeveloped Sparrow might not even possess the ability to fly, some of the best Beast Tamers who's Clearlight Sparrows possessed green or higher graded feathers could accomplish more than just convey the position of wandering Wild Beasts.
However, that only applied to regular Beast Tamers… Elizabeth was not like the others. With her Lifespan Watch and Spatial Ripple techniques, the Clearlight Sparrow's job was more or less taken care of. Moreover, since she was allowed to use any method, with her armor once more seeing the light of day as she prepared to enter combat, Elizabeth planned to fulfill her role as merciless demon by having whatever Beasts she came across either submit to her or become spiritual sustenance for her bloodline and physical food for her Clearlight Sparrow.
With the cheat-like set of tools at her disposal, the helpless smile that had dawned on her face was replaced with an amused expression of acceptance as Elizabeth thought, 'I wonder… What would happen if I came back with an army of King Stage Tamed Beasts? Would people straight up quit?'
Alas, her thoughts were interrupted as two guys appeared before her. Additionally, hidden in several places outside her direct line of sight, Elizabeth's detection abilities picked up the presence of five others. Stopping to see what these people wanted, Elizabeth said, "Do you mind? I'm trying to compete here..."
"Heh! Don't push your luck, kid! Now, cough up that Sparrow and swear a Martial Pledge to keep your mouth shut about this encounter and I'll think about letting you leave in one piece." The man speaking didn't even consider the possibility that Elizabeth might be stronger than him. Not only was she confirmed to be fifteen-years-old with a sizable portion of her time spent studying Forging and Beast Taming, even if she did somehow manage to develop a decent Martial Cultivation, he was confident in his various partners in crime that Elizabeth wouldn't be able to endure their combined assault; especially when the aspect of surprise was in their hands.
Revealing her teeth in genuine joy for the acts of "idiocy" playing out before her very eyes, Elizabeth said, "I'll give you one chance. Fuck off..." As she spoke, the radiant smile on her face morphed into one of malice as she calmly walked in a path that would pass between the man and his other exposed partner.
In complete disregard for her warning, as Elizabeth walked within reaching distance of the man, Elizabeth had to lean her head to dodge a punch launched at her face. As a cunning light shined through her eyes, Elizabeth restrained herself and merely threw the man to the side after he failed to hit her. "Dumb bitch! You'll fucking regret that!" The man's partner had his body combust with weak orange flames as his Warrior Stage physique moved to subdue Elizabeth, but not before dealing a few painful hits.
Withholding the urge to instakill the idiot before her, Elizabeth only deflected the sinister attempts to harm her whilst also using a relatively weak kick to show a slight superiority. Using the arrogance bred from seeing her plan begin to work, Elizabeth said, "See, the two of you are nothing but weaklings! Now, don't mess with me again, else I'll..." At that moment, two of the hidden spectators dashed at her from her left, another two from her right, and the final person appeared from behind her.
With all of them already geared up with swords drawn, they only intended to force her into submission as it would be hard to cover up a murder with so many experts present in the island; not that they had enough grievances with Elizabeth to wish for her death anyways. However, Elizabeth knew none of that and with so many people appearing to make an attempt at her life, she didn't care where she was or who they were. This would only end with them suffering the consequences of their actions.
Happy to have successfully baited all the hidden people into attack her at the same time, her three completed Chaos Seals of Pressure activated to interfere with all her enemies at the same time. Elizabeth didn't even bother calling for her Inferoria Blade or Dual Pistols as she savagely used her own hands to near instantly kill all those around her without so much as a whimper escaping. Only the crisp sounds of bones breaking and organs erupting could be heard in quick succession as Elizabeth used her Muay Thai to kick, punch, elbow, and knee her enemies into oblivion.
Then, as there only remained a visceral pile of broken corpses, Elizabeth refused to express anything other than a shrug as she moved to try out her new bloodline ability for the first time. She felt nothing from murdering these people in self-defense, and even less from using their dead bodies as tonics for her cultivation.
Materializing a red sigil identical to the heptagram diagram that represented her Godslayer bloodline, Elizabeth instinctively knew how to use the Spell as he plunged her right hand right into the navel section of the first man who had tried hitting her and literally stole his still functioning Dantian. Taking the small core-like organ which should have been impossible to physically touch, Elizabeth used the power of the [Talent Stealing Blood Seal] to crush the Dantian into an impure Qi which her body could completely absorb in an instant.
Upon absorbing the energy and channeling it through her Magic Connection a couple times, the energy was refined into a usable state within seconds and Elizabeth was left shaking her head from how broken the technique was. So long as she could quickly find something to kill, she would have a virtually limitless supply of energy. Moreover, the energy provided by directly "Stealing Talent" was available to her almost immediately, making it even easier to work with than the energy found in solidified monster cores.
Chapter end
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