Chapter 9 : A Kingdom Twist

Walking back over, mouth agape, still in shock about how many levels I went up, I asked them if they had decided on who got what items.

"Yes, we decided, I got the robe, Vortex the staff, MP, that lucky bastard, got the ring, and Astral got the sword just so we could shut him up." Tempest replied glaring at Astral.

"How about your levels? How much did they go up?" I asked a few seconds later after I let the details sink in.

"We haven't even checked those yet." Astral chimed in.

"Well, I did actually. I was able to get to level 52" MP stated proudly.

"Level 54, beat that because I did the most damage." Vortex said with a smirk on his face.

"I was only able to get to level 49." Tempest said sounding depressed.

"What! That monster must have given a shit ton of XP! Let me check what I am now, I bet it's way higher than all of yours." Astral shouted like a child. His face suddenly went pale and we all started to laugh.

"Why am I only level 45?"

"It's because you were getting your ass handed to you and didn't do any damage," Vortex said and then turned to me, "What level did you get to? I'm guessing at least level 54."

"You're only 11 levels away from my true level."

"So, you're only a level 43?" Astral asked confused. I face palmed.

"No I'm level 65. I got the final hit and that alone gave me ten levels." I said.

"Well, I was sort of expecting that from you." MP shrugged no longer shocked. We started walking back hoping that we didn't miss our next fight. We arrived at the arena just in time to enter the stage when we were called. The team across from us looked really confident.

"One level 35 will have no chance against two level 32's," the big black buff guy in front said. I almost burst out laughing!They had no idea that I was now double their levels, and that my team's levels are a good twenty levels above theirs. I bowed my head and spoke sarcastically so that everybody could hear me.

"Well, we might have a good challenge this fight, won't we boys!" The other team started to fume, but before they could say anything the announcer did his job and started the fight.

"I'll take on the two level 30's. You guys got the rest." I said and slowly walked away from my group. Just like I expected, the two level 32 on their team walked towards me drawing their swords.

"Now aren't you a confident piece of sh-"

"Well I can't help but be better than you!" I said interrupting him mid sentence. That was the last straw for them. They both charged me, swinging their swords down. Still chuckling, I raised my hands up and caught their blades. Boom. sword catch!

"Wha-, h-how? That's a sword catching technique!" the one on my left stuttered stating the obvious.

"That shouldn't be possible." The other said. I only used my new speed and strength to catch the blade at the precise second, what's so hard about that? Smiling I pivoted on the spot, whipping them across the arena, taking a chunk of their health out. Realizing I still had their swords in my hands, I dropped them, letting them fall to the ground with a clang. Wow that was cool. Level 65 is nothing to scoff at. Watching as they stood up, I looked over to see my team sitting down watching me… well everyone but Astral, who they left to fight their two remaining players. Chuckling, I slowly strolled over to meet my incoming foes who still had no idea what just happened.

"W-what level are you!" The black one asked, "You where only a level 35 this morning, so it shouldn't be possible to increase enough to do what you just did!"

"Um, we went into the forest to level up but then we faced a rare event boss and we beat him and got like, 10 levels each. I'm now level 65, sorry." I replied shrugging. I don't think the audience believed the story so they started calling us traitors and cheating scum all while the other team surrendered knowing that they were no match for us. Eventually everybody assumed that we had cheated and wanted us executed. Extreme right? Ya, this transition happened in honestly five seconds.

"We should run before they decide to ki-"

"Apprehend those traitors and keep them locked up in the dungeon!" the King yelled to the guards, interrupting me. Turning to my team to tell them to run, I saw that they already were. Damn bastards, leaving me like that. I caught up easily enough because of my speed, but the guards were hot on our trail. Racing off of the castle grounds and into the city, we all looked for a tavern or something of the sort to hide. Locating one, we all rushed into it.

"We should get out of the city and get into the next one since we're now defined as 'traitorous enemies of the nation'." MP stated sarcastically.

"Yes, I agree with that idea. We should leave now before every person will be looking for us." Vortex added into the conversation. Tempest and Astral both were silent at first but soon agreed.

"Looks like we're now enemies of this kingdom." I said concluding our little meeting.

The journey to the other nation was a surprisingly boring one, just a completion of running and hiding. At around halfway we started to see wanted posters of us, making us a bit more careful. Finally we reached the front gate of the next kingdom over.