"You know we have ears, right?" Mira teased, smirking. "The wind tried its best, but your b*tchy screams can't be mistaken for anything else."
"That was Jojo's cry... she feared for my life."
Arthur coughed and swiftly switched the subject after noticing everyone's unconvinced looks.
"Sir, I think it's ti for them to ascend the rope." He grinned.
Tyrese and the others gave him an annoyed look, but he didn't care... Dominic took his side and forced the other two teams to ascend the rope and fight against each other.
As for Levi's team and the passed-out Ashen Tribunal squad? Shelby used his authority to bring them down.
"Not a bad save... now, you don't have to be afraid of falling during the real ga."
Levi praised his little brother the mont he landed next to him.
Seeing the extended fist, even when Arthur was annoyed to be tested like this, he could never ignore a fist bump from his brother.
"Tsk, you could have warned at least."
"Where is the fun in that?"
Jojo smiled in enjoynt while showing Arthur an edit of his fall on repeat... Arthur's eyelids twitched for a mont, but then he smirked, "To make an edit of while hanging upside down, you sure do like ... am I the only one on your mind?"
"You're on my mind, alright, but for the wrong reasons..."
Jojo sneered, but then she realized that what she said made it much worse... Before she could explain herself, Arthur replayed her words over and over again with a slight modification to her voice, making it seem like she wanted him to do sothing naughty to her.
"Delete your edit, or this goes on your social dia profile."
"You won't dare."
"Don't test , woman." Arthur narrowed his eyes, "I cultivated a heroic image on social dia and won't allow you to ruin it."
"Argh... you're so annoying!" Jojo huffed in irritation while erasing the edit, "You're lucky Sir Dominic is around."
"Heh... sure."
Arthur knew that Jojo had gotten much stronger after her latest evolution, but so had he... even if she was a Psych Specialist, his subconscious barrier was tough enough to handle her after his latest mutation, which had primarily enhanced his spiritual defenses.
It was like with each perfect evolution, the Shadowlife Seed ensured to prioritize his glaring weaknesses during the evolution... with Khu'zan's dormant connection to the Nine Gemheart Royal Families, each perfect evolution awarded him access to a Gemheart.
His path was more or less similar to Levi's Nine Senses evolutionary path... and it was going to get much better after the Titan transford his Shadowlife Seed into an Origin Seed.
While Jojo and Arthur started bickering over who would defeat the other, Levi and the girls ignored them and focused on Tyrese's and Evangeline's teams... they had just ascended the rope and were slowly treading in the direction of its center.
As for the Ashen Tribunal team? They were taken away by Shelby to be awakened.
"Who do you think will win?" Shia asked, chilling next to Levi with a pink popsicle in her mouth.
"I genuinely don't know..." Levi shook his head, "Neither of them has practical options to prolong their stay on top of the rope... they have to play it much safer than us, and it changes the dynamic of the battle."
"True." Nurah nodded in agreent.
Their battle against the Ashen Tribunal went so smoothly because the other team was putting the majority of their focus on remaining on the rope. anwhile, Levi had linked everyone with his aetheric chains and left them to fight freely, unafraid of falling.
This gave them an imnse environntal advantage.
As expected, when the two teams finally t, their battle was as ugly as it could get... Tyrese had gotten himself drunk and rolled down the edges of the rope three tis, saved by his teammates each ti.
Though that was a good trade-off, as his drunkenness got rid of sothing called fear... without fear, he terrorized Evangeline's team, who were forced to deal with an unstoppable juggernaut on top of a spinning rope.
Still, Evangeline got creative with her powers and found new ways to make her teammates fight at ease, restoring the balance.
After the battle had gone on for around fifteen minutes, and more than six Daywalkers fell into the abyss just to be saved by Shelby, Dominic concluded the battle.
"I know this is your first ti… but it's not good enough," Dominic said solemnly. "Only a handful of you... along with Levi's team... are the ones I currently have full confidence in to survive the Death Ga. Keep this in mind: you will be called on at random, which ans you must learn how to survive the ga's design and the nightcrawlers' onslaught on your own."
"We have around ten days in the Boundless Expanse... and I want each one of you to create a technique or figure out a thod to win against the ga's design... only then can you truly focus on defeating the Conquerors."
No one showed any hint of dissatisfaction with being given howork to do... after ascending the spinning rope and fighting on top of it, they realized just how brutal it was going to be for them during the real ga.
Especially the Ashen Tribunal's team, who were taking glances in the direction of Levi's team after that one-sided beatdown.
It made them understand that it was nearly impossible to fight at full strength if they had to worry about falling off every second.
"What about artifacts? We are allowed to bring in one." Tyrese wondered, "I doubt I can create a technique to help ... but an artifact might."
"It should be a last resort option... You can bring only one artifact, and I prefer it to be an armor type." Dominic disclosed.
"My body is my armor." Tyrese smiled, "I am getting it."
Dominic shooed him away with his hand and addressed the rest, who didn't have the sa confidence in their physical strength as Tyrese.
After he finished, he manifested a screen with the four chosen nightcrawlers' nests to represent the Conqueror's faction. They had extra details after Dominic's subordinates did thorough research on each nightcrawler.
It appeared as such:
//Nest Rank: Shadow Castle.Nest Leader: Kaeh'thos (Tier 4) ((Poison Elentalist)Leader's Conqueror Rank: InvaderConquest Team: Orry'Xel (Hired Blade rcenary), Thrae'Mok (Shadow rcenary), Sil'Kharon (Poison Elentalist), Deyss'Vael (Poison Elentalist), Rakk'Thuun (Poison Elentalist)Conquest Team Na: The Law Defiers.Successful Defenses: Zero.Territory Size: Forty-six square kiloters.//
//Nest Rank: Shadow Castle.Nest Leader: Xorr'Vaedryn (Tier 4) (Void Wyvern)Leader's Conqueror Rank: InvaderConquest Team: Sael'Drakk (Undead Chira), Neth'Korr (Undead Chira), Vyss'Arael (Undead Chira), Jor'Thyrek (Hired Blade rcenary), Molg'Vess (Undead Chira)Conquest Team Na: The Undead Summoners.Successful Defenses: Two.Territory Size: Thirty-eight square kiloters.//
//Nest Rank: Shadow Castle.Nest Leader: Vael'Thyssar (Tier 4) (Plague Crow)Leader's Conqueror Rank: InvaderConquest Team: Korr'Zhael (Plague Crow), Myrr'Dovek (Plague Crow), Shyraxx (Plague Crow), Ul'Khethis (Plague Crow), Brax'Morr (Shadow rcenary)Conquest Team Na: The Black Crow Legion.Successful Defenses: Three.Territory Size: Forty-four square kiloters.//
//Nest Rank: Shadow Castle.Nest Leader: Nyr'Kalloth (Tier 4) (Abyssal Basilisk)Leader's Conqueror Rank: InvaderConquest Team: Vel'Syrr (Abyssal Basilisk), Drae'Nok (Abyssal Basilisk), Ithra'Kel (Abyssal Basilisk), Mor'Zyph (Shadow rcenary), Khelt'Ruun (Abyssal Basilisk)Conquest Team Na: The Basilisk Order.Successful Defenses: One.Territory Size: Thirty-one square kiloters.//
"As you can see, there are two Hired Blades and three Shadow rcenaries." Dominic said solemnly, "We don't have information on the Hired Blades, as this might be their first Death Ga to join as rcenaries... still, you should be careful of them."
"Shadow rcenaries are the real trouble, though." Evangeline frowned, "These kinds of rcenaries are extrely dangerous... their rank implies that they have won more than seven Death Gas."
"Seven Death Gas as rcenaries... damn." Arthur remarked with a side glance directed at Shelby, "The Duskbound Order sure is investing heavily in this event."
Arthur wanted to make a joke at the expense of the Solar Aegis Sanctuary for not putting the sa amount of effort into the event... but he knew better.
"rcenaries aside, the Nest leaders and their teammates aren't weaklings at all." Dominic shared while highlighting their specific information.
Most Raiders were left taken aback to see that all the nightcrawlers were at Tier 4. Not a single one of them was Tier 3, which should have technically ssed with the nests' hierarchy.
After all, nightcrawler nests operated on a strict hierarchy based on strength... how could another Tier 4 nightcrawler respect the orders of a nightcrawler with a similar tier?
"These nests weren't created natively by random nightcrawlers banding together for survival under a strict hierarchy system." Dominic explained, "They are elite squads under direct support and investnt from the Duskbound Order... their main purpose is to win the Great Campaign or any type of event between the factions... why do you think we have won the Great Campaign only once for a whole century? The Duskbound Order knows that if they allow irregular nightcrawler nests to be the only ones joining the event, they will never win it, considering that they follow a strict strength-based hierarchy, where the leader is always the strongest."
Most Raiders nodded with grim expressions... they already had a feeling that the chosen nightcrawler nests for the event wouldn't follow the norm.
Otherwise, these kinds of nests couldn't take down a full team of Warden Daywalkers with a bunch of Tier 3 nightcrawlers. They would be forced to rely too much on rcenaries to bulk up their strength, and as much as Conqueror-based rcenaries were available and much cheaper to hire, they wouldn't be enough to help them win the Great Campaign.
"So... trust when I tell you that we don't have room for jokes or ssing around." Dominic warned sternly, his gaze landing briefly on Arthur and Jojo, "If you don't work your hardest in these ten days to prepare for the ga, I can assure you that half of you might not make it, even if we win."
"Understood?"
"Yes, Sir!"
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