77 – Elite vs Elite

35F Hell Train

While Boro left and we had a tense standoff, I quickly analyzed the recent battle performance and assessed the enemies arrayed before me. I did not remember or recognize any of their skills from canon, so I had to go off what information I had gathered recently.

First, Moontari was probably among the strongest guys in his team, since Aka was confident in sending him out solo. But that was only because of his skill in Reverse Flow—that was an absolute trump card in fights against most Regulars at this level, and to be able to do it to Ten Family descendants who had higher resistance meant that he had almost nobody to fear.

Yet in terms of sheer firepower he couldn't even really get through my Beastionts' thick skin/armor, being more of a skill type fighter than raw power.

The rest of Aka's team probably had at least one real heavy hitter, and it looked balanced with the bald guy being a Lightbearer and the girl being a ranged shooter filling a Wave Controller role.

I had to assume that the girl's rifle might be dangerous, since those types of weapons were usually more powerful than basic Baangs or even Shinsoo Wands for direct offense.

Aka Williams himself was apparently a melee fighter, but he filled the very rare role of Defender. When I saw this intel before, I had to double take because it was the first time I'd even heard of it. But upon further research, one of the Ten Family Heads, Hendo Lok Bloodmadder was also famously of this role.

Basically it was a frontline tank, and he certainly looked built right for it.

If I wanted, I could probably just break through and escape into the Train by myself, since I doubted any of them could catch up to me with Burstshift and my own defenses against field control techniques.

But I'd have to abandon the team I'd brought, which wouldn't be a huge loss but certainly inconvenient. I intended for them to move around as a decoy of sorts, or to guard my avatar and other things if my attention had to be moved elsewhere.

Going all out revealing my main body was another option, but it wasn't a card I wanted to play until absolutely necessary.

But with my current restraints, this battle would be challenging, despite my outwardly confident demeanor.

It was likely that at least a couple of their team members could directly overpower my Beastionts, while Moontari operating with support from a well coordinated team would be much more dangerous.

The biggest uncertainty was Aka Williams himself. He was likely to be stronger than the top E-Ranks at this point, but exactly what that meant was unclear. Androssi and Viole were the best reference points I had, but my avatars and Beastionts were yet untested against a true elite of that level.

Androssi could easily defeat Axie and likely any of the monster Beastionts regardless of their basic stats. Even if she had lower strength, her skill and damage potential from Shinsoo greatly exceeded the Beastionts, while they couldn't damage her much in return. It was even less of a contest against Viole, whose explosive Shinsoo techniques dealt way more damage than physical blows.

As a Defender, Aka Williams might have comparable defensive prowess to Androssi, but in a support role that seemed well suited to holding a specific location, like the situation now, while his team unloaded on the enemy.

Meanwhile, I couldn't count on much support besides maybe Darul with his Lighthouse. In fact, in this battle they were arguably liabilities since they were outclassed too much.

So I sent a silent message to Darul's Lighthouse in preparation for my strategy.

[Break through with the team when there's an opening. Don't wait for me, take any path] My message displayed in front of him.

[We can't abandon you] He returned

[I can get through whenever I want, but can't take all of you, so you need to go first, I'll catch up] I sent.

[OK]

"It seems you still do not plan to back down, even at the possibility of fighting my whole team," said Aka at last. "You are far too arrogant, so I will make you see reason."

"Do you expect me to be impressed that you're trying to recruit me while having nobody strong enough to defeat me one on one?" I asked.

"This is hardly a one on one. By my count, your team has eight Regulars including yourself, while mine has six. It is your own foolishness that you surround yourself with weaklings who cannot help you," said Aka. "And you're also mistaken. You could not defeat me one on one even if I offered you such a duel. Or would you like to take back your earlier bravado to fight any or all of us, and demand single combat now?"

"I allowed you to provide some entertainment, but now you're simply in the way and wasting my time. If you were fully confident in single combat you would've come forth already. It is because you're uncertain that you would rather pretend that this is still a team fight."

He snorted. "Don't mistake humility for lack of confidence. It's unbecoming of a leader to demonstrate their personal superiority at every opportunity the way you do."

"Enough talk, either get out of the way or fight!"

"So be it! Formation C, do not let her pass!" Aka ordered.

My Beastionts charged forward all at once, including the tiger I rode on.

Two more Light Cubes appeared, bringing my total to 6, including the Control Cube beside me that held my main body, which expanded to human size so that I could use my full Lighthouse skill, since being Compressed reduced it. This was the maximum that I could manipulate with my main body present.

Simultaneously, I, as Sasha, jumped off the tiger onto the main Light Cube, the two new Cubes moving closer in front on either side while the tiger continued forward.

The three other Light Cubes moved with the foremost Beastionts in a wide encirclement, emitting a Shinsoo control field to protect them.

The bald Lightbearer revealed six Light Cubes of his own, three of which were in front of the girl with the rifle. A beam blasted out crossing between the Cubes to be enhanced, striking the wolf at the front of the charge, and toppling it over with the explosion.

I returned fire with the same Lighthouse assist technique, launching a beam from my own Baang, but slower as I was managing both the Baang and Cubes at the same time.

Another three Cubes generated a barrier to block it just before it struck Moontari, whom I'd attempted to take out of the fight while he was still recovering.

Aka Williams stepped forward and took up a strange stance with his arms down as if he was hunching over, then unleashed a fiery aura from each limb before meeting the two other wolves charging in.

He stopped them cold with a double punch that sent them flying back a few steps, but otherwise not terribly damaged, unlike the shooter girl's beam that almost OHKO'ed the first wolf.

That wolf laid on the ground heavily wounded and burnt, regenerating quickly but was incapacitated for a while.

The sunglasses guy and shaven guy both rushed towards me, ignoring the Beastionts in the way. My bear and fourth wolf attempted to intercept, but both were frozen by Moontari for a second. By the time I put my Cubes into position to unfreeze them, another beam from the girl had slammed into the bear and tore a huge hole in its chest.

The other two wolves continued to assault Aka Williams, together with the beetle which spat acid at him, but he held them all off and blew away the acid with his own fiery Shinsoo aura.

The sunglasses guy jumped towards me after getting around the wolf, but got tackled by the tiger.

He fought it off with his Needle momentarily before it got frozen, and then he used the opportunity to stab deeply into the tiger's side, breaking through the skin with a powerful Shinsoo enhancement on his weapon.

Two beams approached the melee combatants from opposite sides.

One from the shooter girl hit the tiger, the other from me hit the sunglasses guy before he could pull out his Needle from the tiger.

My beam was much weaker than the girl's but the sunglasses guy's defense was worse than my tiger's, so they both ended up blown away with serious injuries.

The power of their team formation was quickly proving itself. While Aka Williams defended the front, the Lightbearer defended from attacks that got around Aka, and enhanced the power of the shooter girl's long-range attacks that could take down any unit on my side in a single hit.

The shaven guy had crossed the remaining distance to me after the beetle failed to intercept with sticky goo.

Although I had floated five meters off the ground, he jumped off the ground with Shinsoo and shot a Fisherman reel that rolled around and caught my Cube, allowing him to drag himself towards me.

Meanwhile I saw that the girl was powering up another shot, aimed in my direction and possibly gunning for my Cube.

I couldn't have that, since the Cube was weak and could get destroyed easily revealing my main body.

So I let the Cube fall and Burstshifted after quickly sending a message to Darul from the control panel inside the Lighthouse that I operated with my main body.

The beam came as expected and narrowly missed my Cube, which also forced their Fisherman to fall back down since his reel didn't have a solid hold anymore.

The beetle launched another blast of sticky goo, capturing him in it.

Meanwhile, I sped straight into the heart of their formation.

"…!" They all had expressions of shock upon seeing me fly the distance in an instant and get past Aka before he could turn his attention to me from the wolves he was fighting off.

I dropped a flashbang underneath, then fired two Baangs at close range at the gunner girl and Moontari.

Predictably, Moontari had frozen me with Fast Skip, but my Baangs went off anyways and blasted both of them.

While using two at a time was my avatar's limit and halved the Baangs' power, it was still sufficient to knock them off their feet even if they failed to deal serious damage.

By the time Aka Williams turned around after flinging away the wolves, the flashbang went off and bought me a few seconds to break out of the Fast Skip and regather my Light Cubes towards me that were still trailing far behind. Aka Williams' huge body blocked the flashbang from blinding anyone on the other side of him.

At the same time, Team Darul had started rushing forward on the right side of the room, prepared to go around Aka's blockade.

I ordered my two wolves to disengage from Aka and go to team Darul together with the fourth wolf that was still uninjured, while the beetle spat more globs of sticky goo at Aka Williams from behind while he was blinded.

The bald Lightbearer was the first one to recover and had three of his Cubes create a containment field around me and sent his other three to make a barrier blocking the gate to the inner Train.

However, he miscalculated as the containment field wasn't nearly as effective on my avatar as it was on my Beastionts.

I simply Burstshifted again and struck him with a palm using the Floral Butterfly Piercing Technique.

He failed to dodge completely and blood burst out of his shoulder, then I followed up with a Baang that fired at point blank range.

Engulfed by the blast and likely concussed, his Lighthouse barrier disappeared.

Team Darul had jumped onto the wolves, then Aka Williams charged over with a furious release of Shinsoo, his whole body emitting a powerful heat with his fire aura that got rid of the goo slowing him down.

I Burstshifted again right in front of his face and then my snake Decompressed, launching itself onto his head and wrapping around his neck in a choke before biting hard.

It successfully pierced his defense and drew blood, simultaneously injecting paralytic venom. At this level it wouldn't likely be very effective against him, but simply disrupting and slowing him a bit was all that I needed.

By now the first wolf that got hit by the gunner girl's beam had regenerated to a movable state and was back up, so it charged Aka Williams from behind and bit into his ankle while I retracted the snake.

The beetle picked up the still wounded and incapacitated tiger, while the bear got back up despite still having a hole in its chest that hadn't fully closed.

I dropped some smoke grenades around the gate just as Team Darul crossed through riding the three-wolf pack, then I Burstshifted again to the beetle and tiger, returning them both to their Bowl.

Aka Williams had kicked away the wolf biting his ankle again, and then made a decision and yelled out new orders to his team.

"Ignore the weakling team, let them go and focus on the girl!"

By this point, the Fisherman with brown hair and shaven lines was simply trapped in the sticky goo that'd been sprayed on him, the bald Lightbearer was clearly disoriented when he got back up, and the other three members were similarly in a rough shape. Their other Fisherman with the black jacket had recovered a bit but was bleeding and burnt all across his upper torso after taking my Lighthouse-assisted beam earlier. Moontari and the gunner girl were only bruised, but Moontari was panting in sheer exhaustion and barely standing.

While they tried to recover and regroup to blockade the gate again, nobody attacked me so I returned the wounded bear into its Bowl too, and then also the wolf that Aka had kicked away..

Now the field was cleared of Beastionts except the snake that was still wrapped around my body and the three wolves that had escaped already with the team.

I stood behind a vertical ring of my Light Cubes, giving them an amused smirk. "You all look terrible right now. Still think you can win against me one on one, Sir Aka? It looks like I'm winning even against your whole team."

"You may have gotten your team past us, but that was all. Even if my team is weakened, you're not exactly winning, either. Your Shinheuh are too wounded to fight while most of my team can continue," said Aka. "If you wish, I will offer you a one on one duel now, foregoing our advantage."

While we spoke, I considered the tactical situation again.

Although moving my avatar through them wouldn't be difficult, the challenge was the rest of my stuff.

I'd put away the Beastionts, and the Arms Inventory in its Invisible Mode was attached to me, so that was fine.

The problem was the Light Cubes, or more specifically, my Lighthouse Control Cube that held my main body.

While active as Light Cubes, they wouldn't be able to move as quickly as me. I would have to retract them back into the super condensed and deactivated form for them to attach to my body with Shinsoo like the Arms Inventories, Pocket, etc.

I couldn't do that with the Control Cube though, and it was beyond my multitasking ability to maneuver it through the blockade earlier with Team Darul while I had to concentrate on the avatar in melee combat and spellcasting.

A clear example of why I wanted to get a special Open Bowl for my main body, but alas, I simply had to work around it for now.

More importantly, with how persistent this guy was, if I only escaped by a hair they might try to get me again later, at an inopportune time.

Perhaps a show of force was in order, even if that meant revealing cards I'd been holding back.

"It is too late for you to be honorable now, Sir Aka. Now that I no longer need to be concerned about hurting my own team, I'm afraid it is your side which is at a disadvantage, not me," I said, before reaching one hand into the air.

The lid of my main Cube behind me opened, and an obscure black form emerged.

My main body, now hidden underneath a thick layer of black cloth-like mass of flowing tendrils, making its form unidentifiable as human or even alive, except for two red lights for eyes coming out of holes at the head area.

Immediately, Shinsoo surged and swirled around it, liquid rapidly condensing out of the air and creating a powerful rotating suction force across the entire area.

"…!" Aka's calm face changed as Shinsoo pressure rose dramatically.

"What is this power…?!" Moontari asked, eyes widened in shock. "How can it control this much Shinsoo?"

"Annihilate them, Deep End Beast!" Sasha's voice shouted.

"Too strong," said gunner girl, then she aimed. "Strike Anima first."

Their Lightbearer quickly used Lighthouse Assist with all of his Cubes at once.

The girl's gun unleashed the most powerful beam yet, but this time a counter Baang was formed immediately by the water spirits, boosted by my own Lighthouse Assist, and released an even larger beam that quickly overwhelmed theirs, forcing the girl to dodge to the side.

"It's almost like back then…!" Aka murmured quietly, fists clenched. "I don't know who you are but I can't let that happen again!"

Then he ran forward to meet the challenge while fully engulfing himself in a red aura, roaring.

As the torrent grew stronger, many of the Regulars present were forced to cover their faces or grab for footholds to avoid getting swept up.

I made a horrific, artificial screeching sound, then gathered a large amount of water Shinsoo in front of me, before launching it as a huge spinning wave like a drill multiple times the size of Aka.

As it collided against him, his aura briefly surged while pushing back with his arms in a bear hug motion, almost bringing my wave to a stop.

Impressive, I thought, his Position as a Defender was well earned.

However, my technique exploded shortly after from the pressure build-up, knocking him off his feet.

Before he could get his bearings I followed up with another drill wave towards Aka and multiple streams hosing down his teammates.

In the end, they were all left strewn on the ground, unable to block my passage through the door with Sasha and all of my Light Cubes.

O O O

30F Archimedes

On the second day after boarding the Archimedes, the participating Regulars were gathered up on the fourth floor of the Archimedes, at a massive stadium, where people from the Middle Area, Regulars of other floors, and various other guests were able to watch from the gallery level that encircled the open stadium.

Strangely, there were no seats so they all had to stand, though there was probably some other VIP area with seats that I couldn't see at a glance.

A central cylindrical platform was where the co-hosts Io and Punk, two guys in suits wearing a blue and red full face cybertronic helmet and visor were explaining the rules.

The participating Regulars were able to wait at either a dedicated section of the gallery, or individual waiting rooms where they could rest and had screens broadcasting live.

Beta had snuck out of the Acorn Workshop to attend at the viewer gallery, and my Beastiont was in its Compressed form beside him, after following him as he left the Workshop. As I expected, he didn't care about reporting me since he didn't care for the researchers, nor did he care to fight me this time since he was trying to go to watch the tournament.

So I made small talk and pretended to be his Shinheuh, and he played along with it, or at least didn't object to me following him around or clinging to his shoulder.

"What's with all these complicated rules?" Beta muttered. "Who cares?"

"Plain fighting gets dull. They do this for the paying viewers," I said.

"I just wanna see some fights already."

The Workshop Battle would be split into 2 stages. In the first stage, 10 gamblers were chosen from the One Shot One Opportunity game (the bullet game to get on the Archimedes), from the highest scorers using the light bullets.

They were the team leaders, and by betting on the outcomes of the group free-for-all fights happening inside the stadium, the six gamblers that earn the most from betting would advance to the second round, which was a team tournament.

In the second stage, team leaders would use the money they earned to buy teammates and items.

With the group fights, the Regulars were all split into groups of 8, and they needed to compete to plug the 3 sockets in the middle of each circular stadium.

Falling off or losing the plug given to each participant was a fail.

Only 3 from each group could advance to participate in the next round, and the round would not end unless all three sockets were plugged, regardless of the number of Regulars remaining.

The first group fight had four members of Sweet and Sour participating, with an upset from Miseng who used Verdi's power up flower and went berserk, followed by another upset by Prince remembering that he was actually pretty strong and regaining his confidence to work with Akraptor and Wangnan to cinch the win.

"Not bad. Those kids are funny," said Beta. "But I hope this isn't the best or it's hardly worth my time."

"There are lots of groups left," I said.

Only the three guys from S could pass the round, but Miseng probably wouldn't have accomplished anything in the next round anyways.

"Viole! Did you see the power of the new Prince?! I'll beat you and make you come back!" Prince shouted into the waiting area where he noticed Viole watching from above.

Wangnan started dragging him away while Prince continued to shout. "You're embarrassing! Come here!"

"Don't look down on me! I'm growing up! I'm getting better!" Prince ranted.

Once the first fight was over, the hosts announced that five groups would fight at once.

The group lists were published on floating screens.

The gamblers were given extra time to place their bets before it started.

In Group 6, two names notably drew attention from the whole crowd: Varagarv, the top E-Rank Regular, was listed with Axion.

O O O

[Interlude]

"What a tense atmosphere in Group Six! That's the Varagarv, Mad Dog of Yama! The strongest E-Rank Regular!" Said Io the co-host.

"Hmph. Who decided he's the strongest?" Anak muttered from the gallery, beside the rest of Team Ship.

"He's been called the strongest E-Rank Regular for a long time," said Chang Blarode, helpfully advising Horyang and Goseng instead of finishing their fight in a nearby stadium. "But he hasn't appeared to take the tests in a long time. I wonder why he decided to enter the Workshop Battle…" He looked at Horyang. "But here's some advice, big guy, never fight him."

"And in the same group is the Crystal Knight Axion! The E-Rank Regular who has never lost a battle and rumored to have defeated a Ranker! Both these outstanding Regulars have not appeared in public for a long time, what will they do here today?!" Said the other co-host Punk.

"The strongest, huh?" Beta asked. "They do feel a bit different from the rest…"

While everyone stood still, Varagarv began silently walking towards the sockets. He wore only pants and went bare chested with a red and white hood that had abnormally long strips going down his back.

No other Regulars moved, and Axion merely watched.

"What's this? Is Varagarv going to the sockets unchallenged?! Amazing! No one can stop him! Even Axion is wary!"

Then another Regular came up. "I'm the warrior Amaguta! I request a battle with the top E-Rank Regular!"

This Regular was also bare chested and powerfully muscular, with a shield in one hand and the plug in the other.

He was ignored, and then in anger, he attacked Varagarv from behind.

Suddenly, his head exploded and his body fell down without even touching Varagarv.

The top E-Rank Regular plugged a socket. He stared at Axion momentarily, who returned a look of curiosity, glancing at the dead body.

Then Varagarv turned his gaze to the gallery, and his eyes met Viole's.

'He did it without creating a Baang?' Viole thought while looking intensely at the stadium, recalling what Reflejo on his FUG given team had told him before the battle.

"He was originally a warrior who fought at the secret canine fighting grounds…controlled by a Slayer, Baylord Yama. The warriors there are called Mad Dogs. Baylord wanted to show off the strength of his canines so he sent three young canines up as Regulars. Varagarv was a strong, perfect warrior. He got his nickname as the strongest E-Rank Regular not long after he entered the Tower, that's how strong he is. But one day he stopped going up and cut ties with FUG. Rumor has it…he hates FUG with a passion and kills anyone related to FUG," said Reflejo.

"Then the reason he's here…"

"Is to fight you, Mr. Viole."

Beta narrowed his eyes at the scene. "The hell was that? The guy's head just exploded on its own?"

The Beastiont didn't answer him this time, as Axion was concentrated on the stadium.

"Interesting," said Axion, smirking. "Even I could barely see the counterattack. That kind of ability is perfect for posturing, makes me wish I had something like that."

Varagarv looked back at Axion, but didn't say anything, merely standing there.

In the gamblers' room, most of the potential team leaders looked nervous, aside from Ship and the disguised Khun, but they were both wearing frowns too.

Only Ron Mei, the Mad Dog's "angel" teammate, wore a smile. "Looks like Varagarv might let that guy pass too, if he just plugs in his own plug. And I was curious to see how he'd fight! Too bad," she said to Ship who sat beside her. "Isn't he on your team now? Since he always teams up with the princess."

She was on somewhat friendly terms with Ship having had previous encounters with Anak and him in the past, and hung out with Anak at the pool the day before too.

"Yeah, he is. It's probably best that they don't fight here," said Ship.

'I thought they might fight and so I just betted on Axion. I won't lose anything if he also takes a spot, but I won't earn as much as I should've either,' thought Ship Leesoo.

'I don't like that smirk on Axion's face. Is he going to fight even though he might not have to? Why did I have to bet on both of them?' Khun thought. 'But Varagarv already passed so I should be fine, right? …What did the rules say about if a passing Regular gets knocked off of the stadium?'

The group fight wouldn't be over until 3 plugs were in the sockets, even if Varagarv himself had passed. So if he wanted to end the fight, two more plugs had to be placed.

"With an unbelievable show of force, the Mad Dog has taken one of the passing spots! Now the rest must fight over the remaining two!"

Axion decided to walk slowly towards the sockets just as Varagarv did. He wore his trademark bulky teal colored crystalline armor today, complete with a half face helm. His sword was nowhere to be seen, however.

"Will nobody challenge Axion either?" Asked one of the hosts.

"Hey, wasn't this guy frozen like the rest of us, maybe he's not that strong?" One Regular said aloud.

"Yeah, how about we take him out together first?" Another Regular suggested.

Soon all of the other Regulars decided on their course of action and moved closer to Axion in a circle, who continued forward languidly.

"Get him!" The other Regulars rushed forward to attack at once.