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

"Challenger Fry was eliminated."

"Challenger Erax was eliminated."

as a group,

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

the air, Sunny shook the drops of blood off its blade and continued

turn into sparks of light and disappear, too. But that was already a habit of his... not to mention being extremely

Awakened were dangerous enemies, since each of them possessed a unique

Sunny wasn't using any of his shadows to augment himself. He had decided against it a long time ago, since being able

Autumn Leaf — the Memory he used to change the color of his hair. Since it had no other purpose, the augmentation did not give him

hair must have looked gorgeous,

forward. He was in a rush to eliminate as many other players as he could before the first

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

could be a dozen fighters launching a coordinated attack on

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

to be much more intense than I have

to him suddenly exploded 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

giant arrow whistled past him and embedded itself into the trunk of another tree, its trembling shaft as long as

and glanced at the arrow, then lunged into a

'Curses! A sniper!'

second later, another giant arrow fell from the sky, almost skewering him to the

teeth and

***

the string of an oversized bow. His mightly muscles strained, and when he released the string, a

were not

Forgotten Shore survivors, but actually the

and then turned the conversation back to the

secret grandchild seems to be in big trouble! Despite Mongrel's savage victory over the three other challengers, now he seems to be in the crosshairs of one of the newcomers you