The second resting zone did not last long for them.
They did not slow to recover, nor did they linger to observe others the way many participants did, because the mont the next set of veils ca into full view, the difference in pressure was already obvious, even without stepping inside.
The colors were deeper.
Denser.
Less like barriers and more like sealed systems waiting to be entered.
So veils pulsed slowly as if breathing, while others remained completely still, their surfaces smooth and quiet in a way that felt far more dangerous than movent. The air around them carried weight now, not physical, but conceptual, like stepping closer ant committing to sothing irreversible.
Almond didn’t stop.
He didn’t need to think.
His gaze moved once across the veils, and then he stepped forward.
Blue-purple.
The others followed imdiately.
The mont they crossed, the world twisted.
Not violently. Not abruptly.
But in a way that made the body hesitate for a fraction of a second as its instincts tried to understand what was happening and failed.
Then gravity changed.
Not as a whole.
In pieces.
The battlefield stretched out in fragnted layers of terrain, but unlike the first veil, the ground here remained mostly stable. What changed was everything else. Sections of space carried different gravitational pulls, forming invisible zones that unpredictably affected the movent and actions of everything.
One step forward felt normal.
The next dragged the body downward twice as hard.
The next lifted everything upward like the weight had vanished entirely.
Even attacks bent.
A projectile launched straight could suddenly curve off at an angle, dragged by a shift in force halfway through its path.
It was not chaos.
It was segnted control.
And it did not care if you understood it.
The system voice followed.
[Rule: Hunt Requirent]
[Eliminate 100 monsters to exit]
[Current Completion: 0]
[Total Participants: 639 ]
The mont the rule settled, movent erupted across the battlefield.
Monsters were already there.
Hundreds.
Scattered across the terrain, erging from cracks in space, from distorted air pockets, from zones where gravity seed to collapse inward and then release. So were fast, adapted to shifting zones. Others were heavy, anchoring themselves through sheer mass. A few floated entirely, unaffected by the segnted pulls.
And participants were already fighting.
So had dozens of kills.
So were struggling to reach even ten.
Most were moving cautiously, testing zones before committing, learning the pattern before risking speed.
Almond looked once.
Then he moved.
"Push."
That was all he said.
They did not slow down to learn the field.
They entered it at speed.
And imdiately, the battlefield pushed back.
The first shift ca mid-air.
Almond stepped into a low gravity zone and accelerated forward faster than intended, his body pulled slightly upward before the next section slamd down with double force. He adjusted instantly, using the montum instead of fighting it, his blade forming as he descended.
The first monster ca into range.
A floating, segnted creature that twisted through the air like it had no bones, adapting naturally to the unstable gravity.
Almond didn’t try to match it.
He cut the space it moved through.
The Edge of Ruin struck across a distorted angle, the slash bending slightly under the gravity shift, but the follow-up ca faster, the second strike correcting the path mid-motion.
Ruin Imprint.
Second.
Third.
The detonation crushed the creature inward, its body collapsing under its own disrupted structure.
He didn’t stop.
Around him, the others had already split slightly, not far, just enough to maximize efficiency.
Natalia moved like sound made visible.
She didn’t fight the gravity.
She used it.
Each step tid with the shifts, launching herself across zones at unpredictable angles, her attacks coming from directions that didn’t make sense at first glance. A burst of sound hit a monster from below, curved mid-flight, and detonated above it instead, catching it off guard.
Her count rose fast.
Kayla adapted differently.
She didn’t move much.
She anchored.
Roots spread into the terrain, not across it, but through it, gripping sections of stable ground and creating pockets where gravity shifts had less effect. Monsters that entered her range found themselves slowed, dragged unevenly, their movents desynced from their intent.
She eliminated them one by one.
Efficient.
Stable.
Saffa leaned into the chaos.
Her hamr swings carried montum, and in a place where gravity shifted unpredictably, that montum beca a weapon on its own. One strike launched her upward into a low gravity zone, where she rotated mid-air and brought the hamr down with amplified force, crushing two monsters at once when she re-entered a heavy zone.
She grinned.
"This one’s fun."
Ainen adjusted his flas.
Not wide.
Not spreading.
Each burst calculated.
He didn’t aim directly at targets.
He aid where they would be after the gravity shifted.
One fla curved unexpectedly, pulled sideways mid-flight, and struck a creature that had just entered that zone, the timing precise enough that it looked accidental to anyone watching.
It wasn’t.
Lily expanded her control.
Dreadlings adapted quickly, so anchoring themselves to surfaces, others floating freely, passing between zones with unnatural ease. They didn’t chase.
They intercepted.
Forcing monsters into bad positions where Lily’s own attacks finished them cleanly.
Fraisea moved quietly.
Her attacks were the least affected by the environnt, her control precise enough to adjust for shifts mid-cast. Beams of cold cut through space with minimal deviation, freezing targets in place long enough for gravity itself to do the rest.
Gopu stopped holding back as much.
Not fully.
But more.
His body adapted naturally, pushing through heavy zones with raw force, ignoring the strain, while low gravity sections let him move faster than expected. One strike sent a monster flying into a zone where gravity crushed it instantly.
He laughed once.
Clovelle watched everything.
Not the monsters.
The field.
She adjusted positioning constantly, calling out small shifts that kept the group moving efficiently, her own attacks tid with the changes, using the environnt as an extension of her control rather than an obstacle.
Almond’s pace increased.
Not drastically.
But enough.
He stopped spacing his strikes.
Started chaining them.
The Edge of Ruin moved faster now, each hit building montum, each follow-up expanding the destructive radius slightly. Terrain fractured under his attacks, not collapsing, but shifting just enough to disrupt monsters moving across it.
Ruin Imprints stacked.
Detonations followed.
His count rose.
Ti blurred.
The battlefield thinned in so areas and intensified in others.
Participants who had entered early were already pushing past fifty kills, so nearing completion, while others fell behind, struggling against the environnt more than the monsters.
Almond and the others didn’t slow.
They didn’t compete with others.
They competed with the requirent.
And they overtook it.
Natalia crossed seventy first, her movent becoming even more fluid as she synced with the shifting zones, her attacks almost playful now.
Ainen followed close behind, his control never slipping, his efficiency carrying him steadily upward.
Saffa broke eighty with a heavy strike that crushed three monsters at once in a collapsing zone.
Kayla’s count climbed steadily, never spiking, never slowing.
Lily’s rose faster than most realized, her Dreadlings feeding her constant opportunities.
Clovelle reached her count without ever looking rushed.
Fraisea followed, quiet as always.
Gopu finished with a final impact that shattered a cluster of creatures in a heavy gravity zone.
Almond finished last.
Not because he was slow.
Because he didn’t rush the end.
His final strike landed clean, the detonation collapsing the last marked target into nothing.
The system reacted instantly.
[Requirent Fulfilled]
Across the battlefield, those who had reached their count began to vanish, pulled out of the veil one by one, while others pushed desperately to finish before the field emptied of available targets.
The space dissolved.
Gravity stabilized.
The pressure lifted.
And Almond stepped forward into the next resting zone.
Behind him, the others appeared one by one.
All of them.
Complete.
Uninjured.
"That was fun." Natalia grinned.
"Indeed. My expectation are rising for the next one." Kayla smiled.
Saffa giggled. "Surely, it’ll be more insane than this one."
anwhile, the five princes who were watching them grinned from ear to ear.
"Let’s increase our bet against Torkal Doom Alliance’s slaves. They humilliated us last month, but not this ti."
"They are proceeding quite smoothly. If they continue with that pace, they’ll be in the top 50 at least."
"But the next set of veils has all the top powerhouses. Let’s see if these extraordinary Tier-6 beings can cut through them fast enough to be in top 100."
Aside from them, quite many were attracted to the unusual group of people.
After all, there was not a single Tier-10 in the third set of veils, let alone bunch of Tier-6 powerhouses. All inside were at Tier-11 and above. And there was no chance for people with broken decks like Almond and others to appear here as they would be usually at the top.
If they arrive here at the bottom, it would be because of two reasons. First, they either lost their deck and beca weak, dropping down as a slave. In this case, they were no longer considered exceptional powerhouses. Second, like Almond and others, they decided to start from the bottom or deliberate descended as a slave to have so fun. And there were no such people like that here.
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