Chapter 188: Chapter 188 – Arc of Betrayal

I shot forward to face the last two attackers. The woman with the electric energy whip and the man with the tonfa—or side-handle baton.

The electric whip lashed out with surprising speed, leaving a blue trail in the air. I dodged, feeling the air near me vibrate with electric energy. The man with the tonfa immediately closed the distance, his rapid combos fast and precise, targeting joints and vital points.

They were strong Rank A Awakeners. Their combination of long and close-range attacks was effective, and at full strength, they might have been a serious challenge.

But I didn’t have time for a drawn-out game.

When the electric whip lashed again, this time I didn’t fully dodge. I raised [Mindrender], letting the whip coil around the blade. Electricity jolted through my hand, making my muscles twitch, but I held on. Then, with all my strength, I pulled.

The woman was caught off guard, stumbling forward off-balance. The man with the tonfa tried to attack to distract me, but I’d anticipated it. With my left foot, I kicked a chunk of concrete debris on the ground towards him, forcing him to pause for a split second.

And in that pause, I was already upon the woman. My free hand punched her stomach hard.

The air rushed from her lungs. Before she could react, my saber swung, slashing across the side of her neck. Not fatal in the real world, but enough for the system to deem it a critical injury.

Her body glowed, then vanished.

The man with the tonfa, seeing his partner eliminated, panicked. He retreated a few steps, trying to create distance, but I didn’t give him the chance.

I threw [Mindrender] straight at his chest. He tried to block with his tonfa, but the force of my throw was too great. His tonfa was knocked aside, and my sword embedded itself in his shoulder. He fell, and before he could rise, I was on top of him, one blow to the head knocking him out. His body also vanished.

Five people eliminated. My breath was now truly ragged. My muscles trembled, my vision slightly blurred. But I couldn’t stop.

I glanced around. Of the sixteen contestants left, seven more were now walking towards me with serious expressions—they had learned from their comrades’ mistakes and were now coming in a larger group.

And on the other side, Raven was still holding on, but her situation was getting worse. She was now surrounded by five people, and I could see a wound on her arm slowing her movements. She wouldn’t last more than another minute.

My mind raced. I was alone, exhausted, surrounded. Raven was alone, wounded, also surrounded. But if we worked together…

It was the only chance. After all, only the two of us were from top academies in this area. Our mutual enemy was everyone else. Simple logic: the enemy of my enemy is my friend. And to survive, I had to cooperate with her.

I made a decision.

Instead of waiting for the five people approaching me, I shot forward. Diagonally, cutting across the field at the maximum speed I could still muster. Pushing my tired body as fast as possible, making me look like a fast-moving shadow among the ruins.

The seven people moving towards me were startled, yelled, and tried to give chase, but I had a head start.

Raven and her four attackers didn’t even notice my presence until I was very close. One of Raven’s attackers—a man with a large mace—was raising his weapon high, ready to smash Raven who was trying to parry attacks from two others.

No time to think. I leaped, [Mindrender] swinging from behind.

Swish!

The man with the mace never got to finish his swing. My sword severed the arm holding the mace, causing his weapon to fall. Before he could scream, my side kick slammed into his waist, knocking him down. His body began to glow.

Raven, startled by this sudden intervention, glanced at me. Her sharp black eyes narrowed, but I saw a flash of recognition—she understood.

We didn’t need to speak. We immediately stood back-to-back. I faced the five attackers closing in from one direction, plus the three remaining attackers from Raven’s side. Raven, though wounded, stood firm behind me, watching the opposite direction.

“Thanks,” she whispered.

“Don’t thank me yet,” I replied, eyes still fixed on the enemies. “We’re still surrounded.”

And we were. The twelve remaining contestants had now organized themselves. They formed a loose half-circle around us, maintaining a safe distance, but clearly intending to overwhelm us with numbers.

Their faces were full of determination. They’d seen what I could do. They knew Raven was tough. But they also knew we were tired, wounded, and outnumbered.

One of them, a woman with neatly tied blonde hair, stepped forward slightly. “You two… you’re amazing. But this is over. Just surrender. Leave the simulator with honor.”

Raven snorted. “Screw you.”

Raven and I then fought fiercely against the twelve of them.

The twelve contestants no longer held back. They knew this was their last chance. If they failed to defeat us here, they’d be eliminated one by one. So they brought out everything.

From behind their line, a man with an energy bow fired a blazing lightning arrow. It shot with near-invisible speed, splitting the air with a hiss. Beside him, a woman raised her hands, and the ground beneath my feet suddenly turned into sucking quicksand, grasping my ankles.

“Aegis!” I shouted in my mind, and the bluish shield appeared again, just as the lightning arrow struck.

BRZZZT-CRACK!

The shield shattered completely this time, breaking into pieces, but it held off the attack. The quicksand still held, but with my Strength, I ripped my feet free roughly.

While I was busy with the long-range attacks, three others—two men with swords and a woman with a spear—charged from the front. They attacked simultaneously, covering all angles of escape.

But I wasn’t alone.

From behind me came a low roar almost like a beast’s. Raven had transformed. Her eyes, once sharp and black, now emitted a faint red glow. Her axes, once swung with precision, now spun wildly, creating a deadly vortex around her. She seemed to have entered some kind of ’berserk’ mode—increasing power and speed at the cost of defense and control.

She lunged into the group attacking me from the side, her axe smashing through one man’s sword and immediately continuing into his shoulder. The man went down, eliminated before he could scream.

I seized the opening. With my saber in hand, I leaped forward. I let the spearwoman’s thrust miss by my side, then slashed at the wrist holding her spear. She screamed, retreating. The two swordsmen tried to flank me, but I pivoted, my sword swinging in a wide arc, forcing them back.

The battle became chaotic, brutal, and intense. Raven was like a whirlwind of death, smashing anything that got close, sometimes even nearly hitting me. But somehow, we developed a rhythm—she disrupted their formation, created openings, and I moved in, delivering precise, lethal strikes.

One by one, they fell.

I slashed across the chest of a man trying to sneak up from behind, sending him away in a glow. A shame there were no points for eliminating other contestants.

Raven smashed a woman’s shield and sent her flying with a kick that made her body vanish mid-air.

I dodged a jet of fire from an elemental specialist, then hurled [Mindrender] into his chest.

Raven deflected a volley of energy arrows with her spinning axe, then leaped and brought her axe down on the archer’s head.

Five… six… seven… the number of people I eliminated kept climbing.

I kept fighting. Every swing, every kick, every sword throw reduced the number of enemies. Blood and sweat soaked the ground. Cries of pain, roars of anger, and the clashing sounds of weapons filled the air.

And finally… suddenly… silence.

I stood, breathing heavily, [Mindrender] in my hand dripping ’blood’ that slowly evaporated. Around me, the bodies of the eliminated contestants had vanished, leaving only stains and marks of battle.

Raven stood about three meters away, also breathing hard. Both her axes were still clenched tightly in her hands, but her body swayed slightly. She looked worse than me—the wound on her arm was worse, there was a gash on her cheek, and her uniform was torn in several places.

We looked at each other. On Raven’s face was a thin, strange, almost crazy smile. The faint red glow in her eyes was fading, returning to black.

“We… did it,” she said, her voice hoarse.

I nodded, trying to calm my breathing.

We both smiled. A smile of victory, relief, and maybe a little disbelief. Out of twelve opponents, we had survived. We had defeated them all.

But then, something changed in Raven’s eyes.

Her thin smile suddenly widened, grew sharper. Her eyes, which had just returned to normal, suddenly flashed, and that faint red glow returned—brighter and more intense.

And in an instant, Raven moved towards me. With the speed still left from her berserk mode, she swung her right axe in a swift, arcing strike aimed at my back.

“Finally,” she hissed, her voice dripping with satisfaction. “Now it’s just you.”

Time seemed to slow. I saw the axe closing in, the glint of the blade, the expression on Raven’s face which was now a mocking smirk.

She had never intended to cooperate until the end. She had only been waiting until all the other enemies were gone. And now… now it was my turn.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep