9 Capturing Flags (1)

The sun was at its peak, pouring its strong light onto his face. He slowly opened his eyes, letting out a grunt from the pain coming from the sunlight. This grunt of pain was not caused purely because of this, there was also the throbbing pain that remained in his head.

Putting his hand in front of his eyes, he raised his head. He smelled grass entering his nostrils, and the cool wind that shook his black hair.

He looked down through the gaps between his fingers and saw the bright green grass.

"So, that's the 2nd Floor..."

Removing his hand from in front of his face, Uriel looked around him.

He saw a vast green lawn that stretched as far as the eye could see. In certain areas, the grass had grown so tall that it was over a meter high, while small and large earthen mounds sprang up from the ground, blocking out the light in certain places. In addition to the sun, the wind was also at its peak, stirring the grass into a relaxing sight.

However, Uriel could not admire the landscape for long — a voice came up, interrupting him.

[Hello, everyone — regulars who wish to climb the tower! I welcome you to the Second Floor of the tower, also known as the Testing Floor!]

The voice was very excited. Looking around, he found a cube floating in the sky from which the voice came.

[Why Testing Floor? Well, it's because on this floor you will be tested on whether you are worthy of climbing the tower! And you know what else? Right now, you are in the process of a test! You may be asking yourselves — what, test? How do I pass? — but it is very simple! All you need to do is to decrease the number of regulars at the test site to 112, and you will automatically pass the test! Fun, don't you think?!]

"...A knockout."

[—I hope you have fun and good luck to all you regulars who aim to climb the tower! May those who prove most adept and pass the test, remain!]

After that, the voice and the cube floating in the sky disappeared.

Uriel frowned and looked quickly around him, with caution in his eyes. Since he had only taken a cursory glance to identify the place around him, he didn't know if there was anyone else besides him in this area. So now that the test had begun, it would not be unusual for someone to sneak up on him. However, fortunately, he didn't encounter anyone but himself. Despite this, he did not completely relax.

Right now, he was in a completely open field — in other words, an easy target. Someone could simply attack him from afar, and he wouldn't be able to see.

While thinking about this, Uriel spotted a small hill not far from where he was standing and approached it, slowly so as not to risk being exposed to possible enemies.

The situation was terrible for him. He had no weapons and not much experience in fighting. So he could only rely on the powers of the demon, which was not something he could count on all the time. That was because it might alert the rankers who were conducting the test of his presence.

'Since Urek has just entered the tower, the Irregulars should not yet be a huge fear factor in the tower's residents. However, since Phantaminum has already entered the tower, it won't be long before the Irregulars are extremely feared and treated as people who come to die at all costs by the people in the tower.'

In the tower, unlike the Regulars who were native to the tower, the Irregulars came from outside the tower. Furthermore, whenever an Irregular appeared, the entire tower was thrown into chaos — Enryu, The Red Tower, who killed a Floor Guardian and was probably ranked 1st in the rankers at the moment; Phantaminum, The Riddler, who should be storming the tower king's palace at this very moment and would soon be considered 1st in the rankers; Urek Mazino, who entered the tower at the same time as him; and Twenty-Fifth Baam, who had not yet entered the tower.

All these Irregulars, without exception, caused chaos in the tower. So, they were the source of fear for countless people inside the tower and were constantly hunted by those about the king of the tower. Although, Enryu was missing, Phantaminum likewise, and Urek was too strong for any ranker who was also not an Irregular to face — so all this hatred for Irregulars was poured out on Baam, the protagonist.

However, that hatred was about to be poured over him as well. So, Uriel knew that his main priority was to become stronger, to be like Urek who was too strong for the rankers to dare to face him.

Anyway, his main concern — besides becoming stronger — right now was to find a place to hide, or at the very least, to get out of this open field.

He approached a hill not far from where he was standing. That was because he could hide under it and avoid being targeted by the regulars participating in the test.

'At least, I hope I don't run into anyone from the 10 Great Families—'

Just then, a sudden light appeared as it shone towards Uriel's throat. Since it was moving very fast, it was difficult to see its shape, however because of the sharp point coming toward him, he identified the approaching object whipping the air.

It was a spear. A spear that had been fired in his direction and was less than a second away from hitting him.

Thud!

"Whaaa—!"

—And he kicked the ground furiously, launching himself forward. At the same time, the spear that missed its target, continued until it fell to the ground behind him.

'Shit, what was that?'

Pushing his hands over the grass, Uriel stood up with frowning eyebrows. Since he was running at high speed toward the small hill, he wouldn't be able to stop his steps in time, so his only alternative was to launch himself forward and hope the spear didn't hit him. But who had thrown the spear?

With his eyes ajar, Uriel looked at a place about fifteen meters from him.

As if sensing his gaze, the grass moved and a person stood up from it.

It was a boy with carefully combed blue hair and light blue eyes. Around his neck was tied a dark blue scarf with a light blue circle drawn in the center.

"A member of the Khun family?"

"Uhm. I am Khun Huo. And you? Who are you? Maybe someone from the Ha family?"

"Ha family? No, my name is Uriel Elune; Uriel is my first name."

"Wow! I really thought you were from the Ha family since you were able to easily dodge that spear. Although if you took another second, your neck would have been pierced."

He looks confident, Uriel muttered to himself. Huo had a very relaxed look on his face, along with that confident smile.

He had reason to be confident about being a member of the 10 Great Families.

These families — along with the Zahard royal family — reigned within the tower as its rulers. Their members were known to usually be much stronger than normal regulars, as they had strong bodies and absurd talent and potential inherited from the blood of their family leaders. Moreover, Huo was especially from the Khun family, the family is known to be one of the two strongest families along with the Arie family.

Each family was known to have its own specialties, obviously inherited from their family leaders, and the Khun family members were known to be true masters of the spear. Therefore, Huo seemed a bit surprised that Uriel, who looked weak, deflected his sneak attack.

Uriel sighed heavily. He had narrowly escaped Huo's attack, so he was sure that it would be extremely difficult to dodge it, should Huo advance towards him with a spear in hand.

As if realizing his caution, Huo's smile widened and he pulled out a spare spear, since he had shot one at Uriel, and said:

"Now, I want to know if you will be able to dodge or defend yourself again."

"Hey, hey, I don't have a weapon..."

"Then dodge my spear."

"And if we fight with our fists, doesn't that sound like a nice proposition? Or you, a member of the Khun family—"

"This is not a time to talk!"

Huo closed the distance between them in an instant and thrust the spear forward. He was very skillful, for his spear did not even tremble as its tip shone with sunlight. However, Uriel had no time to admire his mastery with the spear.

Whoosh!

He tilted his head to the side and deflected the spear. As if expecting it, Huo changed the direction of the spear and cut it diagonally.

Uriel jumped back and dodged again, however this time it was much more complicated.

"Wow! You dodged again! Let's keep going!"

"Son of a—"

The spear moved forward again.

'—Shit... If this continues, I'm going to get pierced at some point.'

But, he had a choice. Greenlight surged around him and Uriel felt the demon's power permeating his body. At absurd speed, the pupils of his eyes turned green and a bulge grew at the left end of his head. Uriel was in his newly named Demon Mode.

"Huh? What..."

Huo was extremely confused, yet Uriel was not going to explain it to him.

He dodged Huo's spear coming toward him and took advantage of the gap to fire his clenched fist at Huo's face.

Bang────!

"You-Kupphh────────!"

Huo's scream was unrecognizable as he was thrown away by Uriel's punch. However, it was not Huo who was most shocked by this development, it was Uriel.

'Was he thrown that far away?'

No, that was not the right question.

"How did he survive?"

Without a doubt, the head of any normal human being would have exploded like a balloon with that punch. However, Huo had only been thrown. It certainly wasn't his physical ability inherited from his family — if that were the case, he wouldn't have even been thrown.

'...Did he steal something from Khun Edahn as well as Khun Aguero?'

No, there shouldn't be so many crazy people in the world. Shaking his head and muttering to himself, Uriel looked down at the ground.

His gaze found the spear that Huo was using a few seconds ago.

'Although I couldn't kill him with that punch, being thrown away counts as a defeat, right? So I'll be collecting the winner's prize.'

Without a second's hesitation, Uriel grabbed the spear for himself.

Then, he looked at the small hill he was planning to hide on before being surprised by Khun Huo's attack.

'My best option is still to go there, so I— Huh?'

Just as he was about to take a step forward, Uriel went rigid.

"What was that?"

He had felt something.

—The power of the demon he was controlling had reacted to something external.

***

"What was that?"

Asuka looked at a distant location. It was only for a moment, yet she had felt...

"Oh, never mind."

But, she quickly forgot about that strange feeling and decided to focus on the test. She was currently taking a test on the 2nd Floor of the tower, so she shouldn't be lost in thought at a time like this. At any moment, someone could attack her, so she should be on high alert.

After all, she needed to climb the tower to accomplish her goal — to avenge her parents.