Ch 75:- Battle Royal

The event was about to start, and the screen displayed the field where it would take place. Compared to before, it looked like the arena was completely transformed. On the screen now, there was what looked like a little makeshift town. The town appeared to be partly destroyed, resembling ruins, but there were several areas that would allow students to use them as vantage points.

"I wonder how they managed to make something so fast?" Quinn asked.

"Oh, that's simple," Logan replied. "They just had a few earth users come on stage and make it real quick. I saw them getting ready as I was heading out."

The participants of the event entered the stage once more. All the ranged users entered with their beast weapons by their side, while also wearing a red-colored chest piece that seemed to cover their upper body with a tiny hexagonal pattern all over it, undetectable to normal eyes unless one looked close enough. What seemed strange, though, was that not a single one of them wore any beast armor or boots. The only difference was the weapons themselves. It seemed like each participant was also given different types of material to be used. For bow users, they were given all the same arrows, and the same for the other weapons as well. As for the ammunition given to participants, they were designed to explode on impact and produce a paint-like splatter.

"Ladies and gentlemen, all the participants are now ready for the ranged event, so I will quickly explain the rules. Each person has been given a set amount of ammunition to be used for their ranged weapons. There is a safety period of one minute where participants will not be allowed to attack each other and must enter the small makeshift town. If a participant does not follow this rule and chooses to attack, they will be disqualified. The aim is to hit others while not being hit yourselves. If any bit of paint touches the red marking on the participants' chest, a sound will indicate, showing they have been eliminated from the round. Students must quickly exit the field, and the red-colored chest piece will turn black, showing they are no longer active.

"After the first 40 students have been eliminated, the round will end. Scattered around and inside the building are several ammunition spots where the players may refill.

"Now that the rules have been fully explained, let's get this show on the road!"

The students were then randomly split into four groups for this event. Each of them was to enter the small makeshift town from the north, south, east, and west entrances. The layout of the town was like a big cross. There were several buildings and small alleyways, but larger pathways crossed each other in the center.

Layla was at the north entrance, and by luck, it seemed like there were a few others that she recognized with her as well. The annoying blonde-haired girl was there, along with the brother and sister pair.

"Just my luck to be put in the same group with them," Layla murmured.

She took in several deep breaths, trying to calm her nerves. Usually, she was quite good at calming herself down, but today was different.

"Does that mean I actually care about this lame event?" She thought to herself, remembering how her mother would always tell her that one only gets nervous when they care about it.

"I just have to get through the first round. If I can do that, it will prove I could actually do something on my own, and I'm not just some burden on everyone," Layla said to herself, "Just don't get eliminated, just don't get eliminated, you can do it, Layla." She carried on repeating these words to herself as if it was some chant. The more she said, the less likely it seemed to become a reality.

Although she was going against Pure's wishes, they hadn't even bothered to explain to her what they had planned to do, which had irritated Layla quite a bit. Going against their orders, she would have at least liked to pass the first round to prove to herself she could do it, and then she would immediately eliminate herself from the second round with no problem. (Author Note: Pure's wishes being to drop out of the game as fast as possible.)

One more day in the event couldn't hamper their plans too much, and it wasn't even like they cared if she didn't.

"Alright, let the event begin!"

The buzzer had sounded, signaling the start of the event, and students from all four entrances had entered the small town. Above the arena, a holographic display of the countdown had begun. Some students had split off immediately from the group and went on to look for their hiding spots, while others already had a few targets in their minds.

And Layla had a sneaking suspicion she had become one of those targets. Right on her back, out of the corner of her eye, she could see the blonde girl and the brother and sister pair. Although this was a singles' tournament, it looked like they knew each other beforehand and had decided to team up. While looking around, Layla noticed that this was a tactic that had already been implemented by many. A lot of people were running together in groups rather than singles.

'Did they decide this beforehand or just now?'

It was too risky for Layla, and she knew no one else in the competition; all her friends were on the outside, and if she teamed up with people now, how would she know if she could trust them?

Hoping her suspicions were not right, Layla decided to stop going along the straight path and bolted between two buildings down an alleyway. However, just like she had expected, the other three had followed her.

"Why? Why did you have to target me? What did I do? Is it because I look weak?" She said in anger as she gripped her bow. There were now only fifteen seconds left on the timer before participants were allowed to hit each other and eliminate them.

"That's not fair!" Quinn shouted at the screen, seeing that Layla had three people on her tail. "Why are they grouping up on her?"

"Quinn, you should know better than anyone that this world isn't fair, not the way it is right now anyway. It's not against the rules, so let's hope she doesn't take this loss hard," Vorden replied.

"Loss? You can't count her out just yet," Fex said positively. "She can still turn this around."

"Yeah, I agree with Fex on this one. If she uses her head a little bit, then I am damn sure she would be able to take all of them down super easily," Rayne said.

"Oh, really? How?" Vorden said in a taunting voice full of disdain, clearly showing his dislike against Layla.

"Just let's say she will win, and I am 100 percent sure she will win!" Rayne said with some anger continuing, "At least she is genuine, unlike someone who is a parasite living off others."

Hearing it, Vorden went still pale, his eyes wide open as he looked at Rayne as if he saw a ghost.

Immediately after saying it, Rayne leaned forward, closing his eyes as he expanded his senses before soon finding Layla's life force signature. After that, he immediately discreetly summoned a soul shard before crushing it and then, with a single hand, performed some hand signs and used the newly extracted soul force and his own Qi to form a mind bridge before transferring information about the strategy he thought about straight into Layla's mind. Her mental defenses were lowered due to her stress and panicking, making it easy for Rayne to share his ideas with her.

Suddenly, Layla felt a sudden influx of information, leaving her momentarily dazed. With only 5 seconds left before the players were allowed to attack, Layla quickly assessed her surroundings. She found herself in a room with a staircase leading down and a window. With not much time to proceed with any of the plans she thought about, she went with the only backup plan she could think of. She closed her eyes for a brief moment before opening them, immediately readied her bow with three arrows, and shifted into position.

*Beep*

The sound of the buzzer went off, indicating that the students were now allowed to attack. With that, Layla took one last deep breath as her heart raced, pumping up her body. She swiftly shifted on her heels, performed a quick motion with her hand in less than a second, and then sprinted towards the window. With each step propelling her forward as she used her telekinesis to accelerate herself, she moved quickly and then leaped from the window.

Everything seemed to play in slow motion for Layla as she saw the blonde-haired girl being lifted by her other two colleagues with wings on their backs. They were flapping back and forth, trying to reach the window, but they were shocked, their eyes wide, as they didn't expect Layla to make such a daring move. Without wasting a single second, she shot her arrow at them and, without turning back, shot another arrow back at the window across the room. Three successive *Ding* sounds rang out as the arrows hit their targets. A smile formed on Layla's lips as she neared the opposite building and used her telekinesis to pull herself forward, grabbing onto the edge and then climbing up onto the roof of the smaller building. Huffing as her heart started to slow down to a normal pace before falling down on her butt as the adrenaline rush wore off, she felt both wobbly and ecstatic. She somehow managed to defeat three of her opponents with such ease, using only her skills and the power of a surprise attack. With this came another strange rush of determination and confidence as she stood up immediately, readied her bow and arrow, and surveyed her surroundings before peering down to see her defeated opponents move away.

Not wanting to climb down, she decided to travel through the roofs, maintaining a high vantage point as she moved from one building to another. Using her telekinesis to push herself extra forward and occasionally climbing up one of the taller buildings, she continued her strategy.

As she was climbing up suddenly, she heard a whoosh sound, and without thinking twice, she jumped. She saw a bolt moving towards her at high speed, but it didn't stop there. Multitudes came forward out of fear, instinct, and some unknown memory. Layla created or unlocked a new skill called [Telekinesis Barrier], something she could never have thought of doing before. The bolts immediately slowed down, but she could feel it was using up too much of her energy. So without hesitation, she shot an arrow of her own as she fell and redirected all the bolts not hitting her before making a sharp impact with the asphalt. She lay there motionless, having exhausted all of her power, followed by a distant ding sound signifying the disqualification of the player.

A smile adorned her face as she rejoiced in her accomplishment, but it was quickly gone as she seemed dejected and afraid. A green-haired boy stood above her with a crossbow.

"That was a ballsy move you did there. What level are you? Only level 3, what a waste," the boy commented as he smiled at Layla's bravery, even though she would soon get disqualified.

As the boy bantered, a smile appeared on Layla's face, and seeing this immediately alerted the boy. Before he could shoot, the crossbow was yanked from his hand and thrown aside by Layla's telekinesis. Without waiting, Layla immediately kicked his knees, making him kneel before loading an arrow and shooting point-blank, disqualifying him. But she heard two successive dings and got confused. She looked at herself and saw that the armor color had changed to black, but when looking back, she couldn't see anyone as far as her eyes could spot. However, far away, on the tallest building, stood a girl with platinum blonde hair and blue eyes, holding a long bow in her hand.

"..." Layla didn't have anything to say as she exited the arena; she and the boy got eliminated at the same time.

"So, what do you think?" Rayne said, his voice full of amusement as he looked at Vorden, who was slack-jawed at the development.

"Didn't I tell you she would be able to defeat those two?" Fex said excitedly that Layla was actually able to defeat them.

"Now I am feeling tired. I am retiring to my room," Rayne said as he stood up and looked at Quinn, who had a huge smile on his face. Although Quinn was a little sad that Layla wasn't able to win, he was happy for her progress.

"Come on let's go," Quinn said. "There's no need to watch this anymore, let's head back to the hotel, and we can try to cheer her up."

As they made their way out of arena Rayne moved closer to Selene before whispering " I want you to meet a friend of mine so do you want to?"

"Of course, let's go," Selene said.

Being eliminated from the event, Layla left the field and was allowed to head back to her hotel rather than the underground slot. She made sure to sign out and return the equipment given to her and proceeded to write her name down on a digital tablet.

As she wrote, she saw the boy from earlier come forward and started greeting her while praising her for her ability to think clearly and straight. She herself was shocked by the amount of clarity she was able to hold and maintain throughout the whole event, but she just shrugged it off.

Quickly, a digital signature was placed, and she walked off after saying goodbye to the chatty boy.

She took the elevator that went directly to the top of the arena; it was a little walk from where she was since the underground facility looped around and had several places along the way.

The elevator from the arena floor allowed one to go straight into the hotel lobby, as they expected some students to want to rest straight away or cool down before doing anything else.

The ride up the elevator felt like it was taking forever to reach the top. As she started to contemplate everything that she did in the event, viewing her strategy and whatnot, she realized that even though the strategy was only theoretical, it was turned into reality. She couldn't help but feel a bit disappointed that she didn't win. Thinking about this, her mood darkened.

"I am useless," she said as tears started to roll down her cheeks. "Everyone was right—Vorden, Pure, my mother. They all told me several times that there was no reason for me to be here… Erin, where are you?" She cried.

As the elevator made a ding, indicating it had reached the top floor, she made sure to quickly wipe her tears away with her sleeve, fearing that there might be someone in the hotel lobby who would have spotted her.

When the elevator doors opened, Layla took a step forward and was surprised to see a single student standing in the hotel lobby, not too far away from the elevator entrance. The short dark raven hair of a girl could be seen, and when she turned around...

"Cia?" Layla called out.

"I've been waiting for you, Agent 100," Cia replied.