Chapter 184: Chapter 184 – The Great Chicken Chase

If it were just a flock of ordinary chickens chasing me, the scene might have been funny. But unfortunately, what’s behind me is an ugly, multi-story-tall giant chicken, plus dozens of its ’chicks’ the size of cars, all with mouths full of sharp teeth ready to grind me into pulp.

Good thing my speed is still enough to keep ahead of them, even if my breath is getting ragged.

I summoned [Mindrender] back to my hand after it automatically returned to my inventory. The moment I felt its familiar weight, I hurled it again with full force. This time I got lucky—the blade sank right into one of the Giant Rabid Rooster’s eyes.

SCREEEECH!

The monster shrieked in pain, thrashing wildly, toppling building debris around it with swings of its bleeding head. But that just made it angrier, chasing me even faster.

I kept running, throwing [Mindrender] repeatedly each time it returned. My long-range attacks hurt and slowed the giant down, but they couldn’t bring it down, let alone kill it. Even its wounds were starting to close on their own—regeneration. Of course, a Rank S monster wouldn’t fall to something so trivial.

Two Rank A Rabid Roosters suddenly shot out from a narrow alley, trying to cut me off. I sidestepped, sliced one’s neck, then immediately stabbed the other through the heart before continuing to run. But my energy was draining fast.

Then I saw a group of four—probably from different academies—fighting desperately against a pack of Rank A Rabid Roosters at an intersection. Our eyes met.

They immediately went pale.

I just gave them a brief nod as I sprinted past them.

“HEY! WHO—WHO ARE YOU?!” yelled one of them.

But his question was drowned out by the roar of the chicken horde that suddenly turned to follow me, swarming into the intersection.

“YOU BASTARD! BRINGING MONSTERS HERE!” shouted another, his voice cracking with fear.

They immediately scattered, running alongside me, their faces a mix of panic and hatred.

“YOU IDIOT! WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?!” snapped a blue-haired girl as she ran for her life next to me.

“Survival,” I answered shortly, while throwing [Mindrender] again at the giant still chasing from behind. This time it only hit its thigh.

“Survival MY ASS! NOW WE’RE ALL GONNA DIE!” yelled a burly guy beside her, already gasping for air.

We kept running, and every time we found other contestants fighting or hiding, they met the same fate. At first, they’d curse and get angry, but once they saw the wave of monsters behind us, they had only one choice: join the run.

Our group kept growing. Two archers trapped on a rooftop came down and ran. Three people hiding in a ruined store were forced to flee while swearing at my name. Another tight-knit group of five from a single academy initially tried to form a defensive formation, but their courage vanished the moment they saw the Giant Rooster, and they joined the fleeing ranks.

“WHO PISSED OFF THE ZONE BOSS IN THE FIRST PLACE?!” shouted a robed contestant, his face red from running and anger.

“IT’S HIM! THE GRAY-HAIRED GUY! SOCHERON! THE STAR WITCH’S SON!” someone else answered, pointing right at me.

“TRYING TO BE A HOTSHOT, HUH?! NOW WE ALL PAY THE PRICE!”

“I’M GONNA KILL YOU, BASTARD!”

Curses and swears kept flowing, but weirdly, no one dared to stop or attack me. Because ahead, beside, behind—everything was already filled with Rank A Rabid Roosters coming from everywhere. Their individual strength wasn’t enough to break through, let alone fight the boss. The only choice was to run together, hoping for an opportunity or a way out.

The monster wave drew closer. Their roars grew louder, the sound of their claws scraping the asphalt like the rumble of war drums.

“FASTER! THEY’RE GAINING!” someone screamed.

Then, a heart-wrenching shriek.

A female contestant who had lagged slightly tripped. She fell. In an instant, the leading pack of Rank A Rabid Roosters swarmed, surrounding her.

“HELP! HEL—” Her cry was cut off, swallowed by the sea of monsters.

But before they could tear her apart further, her body suddenly glowed and vanished without a trace. The simulator system had extracted her just in time.

But that incident sent panic into overdrive.

“WE’RE ALL GONNA DIE LIKE THAT!”

“I DON’T WANT TO BE ELIMINATED FROM THE TOURNAMENT LIKE THAT!”

“IS THERE A WAY OUT?!”

Meanwhile, outside, the atmosphere in the Colosseum was only heating up.

The Host, his face shining with excitement over the unexpected spectacle, yelled in an almost shrill voice.

“LOOK! LOOK, AUDIENCE! AN UNEXPECTED DEVELOPMENT! ADAM SOCHERON HAS NOT ONLY PROVOKED THE ZONE BOSS, BUT NOW… IS HE LEADING A MASS EXODUS?!”

The camera focused on the long, ragged line of contestants fleeing, with an ocean of monsters behind them, and the enraged Giant Rooster in their midst.

“THE OTHER CONTESTANTS CAUGHT IN THIS SITUATION DON’T SEEM HAPPY! ANGRY AND TERRIFIED FACES! BUT THIS IS A TOURNAMENT! AND IN A TOURNAMENT, THERE ARE NO RULES AGAINST A CONTESTANT… BRINGING TROUBLE TO OTHER CONTESTANTS!”

The audience roared with laughter, some cheering, others anxiously watching the contestants who were almost caught.

“WILL THIS END IN A MASS SLAUGHTER? OR WILL A HEROIC RUNNER EMERGE TO SAVE THEM ALL? TIME IS STILL TICKING! AND THE SHOW… SEEMS TO HAVE JUST LEVELED UP!”

The host, engrossed in commenting on the chaos of the mass escape I’d caused, suddenly fell silent. The main camera feed on the Colosseum’s giant screen shifted sharply, leaving the fleeing, panicked crowd to focus on a completely different zone.

“OH-OH! WHAT’S THIS?! IT SEEMS WE HAVE AN INTERESTING DEVELOPMENT IN A DIFFERENT ZONE!” he shouted, his voice full of sensationalism. “EVERYONE’S ATTENTION TO… YUKIE ICEBLOOD!”

Yukie stood in the middle of the emptiness, as calm as when she’d entered. No sweat, no heavy breathing, even her uniform collar was still neat. She simply looked around the now-deserted plaza, as if confirming nothing was left.

Then, with measured steps, she began to walk. Leaving the plaza, heading towards a large highway leading to another part of the city. Her plan was simple: find more monsters. The job wasn’t finished.

But she didn’t reach that highway.

Just a few steps from the edge of the plaza, from behind ruined cars, from low rooftops, and from the mouths of narrow alleys, figures began to emerge.

Not monsters. But other contestants.

They numbered around twenty, coming from various directions, wearing uniforms from different academies. Some were from Arclight in their white-silver uniforms, and others from lesser-known academies. They moved cautiously but quickly, forming a loose ring that trapped Yukie at the plaza’s exit.

They weren’t one team. That was clear. But they seemed to have reached a silent agreement, a temporary alliance forged by a common threat.

A man from Arclight, sword already in hand, stepped forward. His face was tense, but there was resolve in his eyes.

“Yukie,” he said, his voice struggling to sound steady. “What you just did… it defies reason. You’re too strong for this competition.”

A woman in a dark red uniform, her hands already sheathed in stone, looked at Yukie with a complex gaze—a mix of awe, envy, and fear.

“We’ve been watching your score. If you keep going like this, no one else will have a chance. This is a tournament, not a one-person show.”

A burly contestant clenched his fists. “So we decided to work together. Stop you here. Don’t think this is unsportsmanlike. In a real war, an enemy that’s too strong gets ganged up on. That’s survival logic.”

Twenty pairs of eyes fixed on Yukie, waiting for a reaction—anger, scorn, or at least a change in expression.

What they got was… nothing.

Yukie stopped walking. She turned her head slowly, her white eyes sweeping over each person surrounding her. Her expression didn’t change at all. No anger, no anxiety, not even an impression that she considered them a threat. Her face remained flat, cold, like the surface of a frozen lake in midwinter.

She was silent for several long seconds, just looking at them.

Then, in a voice that was flat, calm, and devoid of emotion, she uttered one word.

“Okay.”

The twenty contestants, who were already on high alert, moved almost simultaneously. They weren’t amateurs. They were the best representatives of their academies. So they attacked with surprising coordination for a makeshift alliance.

Attacks came from all directions. Energy arrows from Arclight shot forth, sharp stones flew, close-range fighters charged at high speed, and various elemental and illusion skills from other academies filled the air.

Yukie didn’t move from where she stood.

She simply raised her hand again—but this time, not to freeze everything. From the ground around her, meter-thick walls of ice grew instantly, forming a perfect protective dome around her. The attacks slammed into the ice walls with explosions and showers of energy, but not a single one penetrated.

Then, the ice reacted.

From the surface of the walls, hundreds of ice spikes the size of arms shot out like guided missiles, each heading for a specific target—every contestant who had attacked. Their speed was extraordinary. Some contestants managed to dodge or parry, but many did not. Cries of pain rang out as the ice spikes pierced shoulders, legs, or shot past dangerously close as warnings.

But Yukie wasn’t finished. With a subtle motion of her fingers, the air around the attackers suddenly turned intensely cold. Their breath turned into thick fog that instantly froze, forming a thin sheet of ice on their faces and clothes, critically slowing their movements.

Then she moved.

For the first time since the fight began, Yukie stepped forward. But her movement wasn’t like running. It was like gliding—ice formed a slick path under her feet, allowing her to shift with near-invisible high speed.

She appeared in front of an Arclight archer. Before the man could nock another arrow, a short ice spear had formed in Yukie’s hand and stabbed his hand, disarming him. A light kick to the chest sent him flying backward, and before he hit the ground, ice had shackled his ankles to the floor.

She pivoted. Two attackers in brown uniforms came from both sides. Yukie didn’t dodge. From her arms, two long ice blades formed. One horizontal slash, and both fell with non-lethal but incapacitating chest wounds.

The fight lasted less than a minute.

Twenty of the best contestants from various academies lay on the ground, some shackled by ice, others clutching bleeding wounds.

No one was dead—Yukie had deliberately avoided lethal strikes. But no one could get up and fight anymore. They were defeated. Easily. In fact, it seemed that Yukie was putting in no real effort.

She walked among the fallen, her steps calm. Almost all the contestants avoided her white gaze, ashamed and defeated.

Then she stopped in front of the Arclight man who had spoken first—the “spokesman.” The man tried to get up with one hand, the other clutching the wound in his thigh where Yukie’s ice spike had struck.

Yukie looked at him.

“If you truly wanted to defeat me, you should have attacked silently.”

The Arclight man was silent for a moment, then gave a bitter chuckle. “Would that have worked? A silent attack… against you?”

Yukie shook her head, once.

“No.”

Then, she raised her foot and kicked the man’s chest with controlled force.

Thud.

His body was thrown several meters, and before he hit the ground, he glowed and vanished—extracted from the simulator by the safety system due to a critical condition.

Yukie looked around at the remaining contestants still lying on the ground. They all, one by one, began to glow and vanish too, forcibly ejected after their defeat.

Within seconds, the plaza that had been filled with twenty contestants was now empty again. Only Yukie stood in the middle, alone once more, surrounded by the remnants of a battle that disappeared as quickly as it began.

She let out a small sigh that was almost inaudible, then turned and resumed walking toward the highway that had been her original destination, as if she had just cleared a minor obstacle on her way.

Outside, the Colosseum fell silent for a moment, then erupted with a roar louder than ever before. Admiration and awe blended into one.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep