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…"

***

Corvus was

"Challenger Fry was eliminated."

"Challenger Erax was eliminated."

his feet, which were already turning into a flood of white sparks. These three Awakened attacked him as a group, and while their skill was not bad and

fact that they had managed to remain alive for more than several seconds was already

the drops of blood

to clean his blade, since the blood was bound to turn into sparks of light and disappear, too. But

that short skirmish was not as easy as he had made it look. The Awakened were dangerous enemies, since each of them possessed a unique Aspect. They were cunning, resourceful, and unpredictable. That was why he had

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

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

have looked gorgeous,

under the mask, Sunny jogged forward. He was in a rush to eliminate as

the inherent problem with the battle royale format of the qualifying rounds — as soon as true powerhouses revealed themselves, weaker participants were

there could be a dozen fighters launching a coordinated attack

veteran like him, someone who had spent hundreds of days fighting for

going to be

into a cloud of splinters, and something sharp shot at him with incredible speed. Cursing, he dashed to the side and barely dodged out of

him and embedded itself into the trunk of another tree,

at

'Curses! A sniper!'

arrow fell from the sky, almost

his teeth and continued

***

was shown, drawing the string of an oversized bow. His mightly muscles strained, and when he

two commentators were

of the Forgotten Shore survivors, but actually the son of the

at Dimi with a wide smile, and then turned the conversation back to the skirmishes in the ancient forest, which were starting to happen more frequently and grow

Mongrel's savage victory over the three other challengers, now he seems to be in the crosshairs of one of the newcomers you spoke about earlier. Let's