LOGINBeneath Blackrock City lay a vast sewer system, forgotten for over a century.No sunlight ever reached here. The walls were slick with slimy moss, and sewage trickled through stone troughs underfoot, reeking of acrid rot.Leo carried a windproof lantern, leading the way.He’d changed into a tight black leather suit, and his boots made no sound as they stepped through the puddles.Eira followed close behind, her eyes scanning the shadows warily.In her past life, Rhoderick had used this very sewer network to lay a deadly trap on the eve of the semi-finals. But she needed to confirm the exact location herself.They wound through the labyrinthine tunnels for half an hour, finally stopping before an abandoned drainage outlet in the east district.A rusted iron gate blocked the path ahead.Behind it, the space was sealed off by a thin, translucent red membrane.“We’re here,” Leo whispered.He closed his eyes, and a faint wisp of wind primal energy spread from his toes along the ground.Hal
The lobby of the Windchaser Outpost.The wind outside slammed against the wooden windows, making them rattle loudly.Eira sat at the scratch-marked wooden table, studying the map of Blackrock City’s sewers Leo had given her the night before.The map was a tangled web of lines, marking the exact locations of dozens of drainage outlets. She needed to find the best route for a stealth infiltration.BANG!The outpost door was kicked open.Eve burst in, wearing her dark golden armor, grinning from ear to ear.Behind her trailed a dozen servants in Blackrock royal livery, each carrying an exquisite sandalwood gift box.The merchant guards drinking ale in the lobby froze, staring at the boxes and swallowing hard.“Sis! I came to see you!”Eve waved a hand, and the servants lined the boxes up neatly on the long bench.“This dump doesn’t even have a brazier. It’s freezing. I brought you some stuff.”She rubbed her hands together and opened the first box.Inside lay a dozen pigeon-egg-sized cri
In the Temple Drudgery Quarters.Lila curled into a ball on a pile of hay, her fingers digging deep into the mud beneath her.Two of her nails had broken off, caking her fingertips in dirt and blood. She didn’t care. The agony in her stomach, like a million worms eating her alive, made it impossible to draw a full breath.Her once pale golden Silvermoon wolf core was now crisscrossed with dark brown cracks. The concentrated Dark Blood poison Eira had sent back was burrowing deeper into its core with every heartbeat.This was no ordinary laxative.She couldn’t even hold her half-wolf form anymore. Her bones creaked and groaned as she reverted fully to human.Creak.The heavy wooden door of the drudgery quarters creaked open a crack.Cold wind rushed in.Vera, in a faded grey coarse linen robe, stumbled in carrying a tattered food box. She threw herself down beside Lila on the hay.She’d traded her last piece of jewelry to bribe the guard for half an hour of visiting time.“Lila! My bab
Heavy footsteps thudded against the dark red bloodstone stage.The floor trembled slightly with every step.Barton stood two and a half meters tall, his muscles bulging like blocks of granite, straining the seams of his custom-made oversized leather armor.His eyes were bloodshot, a cruel grin stretched across his face. The stench of blood and unbridled bloodlust hung thick in the air around him.Eira tossed her grey cloak aside and stepped onto the stage, her black combat attire flowing softly as she moved.They stood face to face.The contrast was stark—an adult grizzly bear staring down a helpless kitten.The roar of the hundred thousand spectators died down. Everyone waited for the inevitable bloodbath, for the kitten to be torn apart.In the hidden private box, Lila trembled with excitement, already salivating at the thought of Eira’s brains splattering across the stage.In the VIP box, Kaelen’s hand clamped down so hard on his sword hilt his knuckles turned white. Every muscle i
Morning of the twenty-second day.The Central Arena of Blackrock City.This massive circular coliseum, built to hold one hundred thousand people, was packed to the rafters. The stands boiled like a cauldron, flags snapping in the wind, the roar of the crowd threatening to tear the sky apart.The giant fighting stage at its center was paved with solid dark red bloodstone. The blood of every contestant who had died here over the years had seeped deep into the stone, staining it forever.Eira sat in the most obscure corner of the contestants’ area, dressed in her sleek black combat attire.Her hands were wrapped in clean white bandages, hiding the wounds from her training. The other contestants kept a wide berth, staring at her like she was already a corpse.In a hidden private box high above the stands.Lila sat in the shadows, her face hidden behind a thick veil. She stared at Eira, her nails digging deep gouges into the wooden windowsill.“Laugh while you can. Breathe while you can,”
On the outskirts of Blackrock City stood an ancient coliseum, abandoned for centuries.Cold wind whipped fine shards of ice through the broken stone pillars, sharp as blades. Scattered across the coliseum floor lay massive dark boulders, hardened by centuries of volcanic ash until they were as tough as forged steel.THUD!A dull crash echoed through the empty arena.Eira, clad in a thin training robe, drove her right fist hard into a boulder as tall as she was. Silver moonlight power exploded across her knuckles—but the rock only bore a faint white scratch.The recoil tore open the skin on her hand. Blood dripped from her fingertips into the snow, blooming into bright red flowers.Only two days remained until her match.What would work? How could she break through Barton’s defense?Eira gasped for breath, staring at the boulder. Barton’s physical strength, amplified by the Dark Blood berserker array, would be even harder than this rock.Her moonlight power was pure, but her awakened s







