Shadow Slave

As soon as the commentator mentioned Mongrel, the feed changed to the image of a menacing figure in black armor calmly walking through the forest, the blade of the infamous odachi resting on its shoulder. The lightless pits of the demonic mask's eyes stared directly into the camera, as if there was nothing but darkness beneath it.

As soon as Mongrel appeared on the screens, the chat exploded.

"YES! It's Mongrel!"

"Hail to the Lord!"

"Huh? Who is Mongrel?"

"...You mean hail to the LADY?"

Dimi laughed.

"Ah, yes. This guy. Well, Mongrel is a really impressive fighter, but the results may not be as predictable as everyone thinks. Every year, the same thing happens — at the later stages of the tournament, two distinct groups clash. One is the Dreamscape elites, and the other is newcomers attracted by the rewards. Historically, the newcomers tend to do better."

He sighed and shook his head.

"Plus, we don't really know a lot about Mongrel. Sure, he has a very impressive track record, but most of his wins were achieved against random opponents. Who knows what will happen when he faces the best of the best? If I were to bet, my money is still on Queen Bee. If anyone has a chance against the newcomers, it should be her."

Syclus nodded a few times, expressing his enthusiastic agreement.

"Sure! But, still, returning to Mongrel. Everyone is dying to know who he really is under that scary mask. And if anyone knows anything about you, Dimi, they'll know that you must have your guesses…"

The older man smiled, his eyes suddenly gleaming with excitement.

"Funny you should ask! Actually, I do have a theory…"

***

Lord Corvus was

"Challenger Fry was eliminated."

"Challenger Erax was eliminated."

flood of white sparks. These three Awakened attacked him as a group, and while their skill

alive for more than several seconds was already an

Sunny shook the drops of blood off its blade

clean his blade, since the blood was bound to turn into sparks of

it look. The Awakened were dangerous enemies, since each of them possessed a unique Aspect. They were cunning, resourceful, and unpredictable. That was

himself. He had decided against it a long time ago, since being able to crush his

like any normal shadow would, while the other two were wrapped around the Autumn Leaf — the Memory he used to change the color of his hair. Since it had no other purpose, the augmentation did not give

hair must have

a rush to eliminate as many

the qualifying rounds —

fighters launching a coordinated attack on him, or

skill, but not to that degree. Even for a battle-hardened veteran like him, someone who had spent hundreds of days fighting

battle royale is going to be

cloud of splinters, and something sharp shot at him with incredible speed. Cursing, he dashed to the

next moment, a giant arrow whistled past him and embedded itself into the trunk of

glanced at the arrow, then lunged into

'Curses! A sniper!'

another giant arrow fell from the

gritted his teeth

***

of a broad-shouldered young man was shown, drawing the string of an oversized bow. His mightly muscles strained, and

the two commentators were not

survivors, but actually

back to the skirmishes in the ancient forest, which were starting to

grandchild seems to be in big trouble! Despite Mongrel's savage victory over the three other challengers, now