Chapter 727: The King’s Crown (End)
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The final day of the tournament’s second stage has arrived.
By now, the participants were down to mere hundreds due to the constant fights and the safe zone shrinking.
Speaking of the shrinking safe zone, its size was reduced to mere kilometers at this point. Cedric doesn’t even need to try hard to see every single thing happening within it.
As the safe zone shrank, the more fights for the crowns ensued, and with the addition of the flying swords, who remained as great disturbances, by the way, their fights just got more intense and unpredictable.
Looking at the leaderboard now, there were only 90 of the seeded participants who managed to retrieve their crowns and resume gaining time. Three were still hunting for theirs, and the rest have been eliminated.
Yes, 7 seeded participants had been eliminated by now, which was a surprising development.
Obviously, Cedric was one of the reasons why they got eliminated, mostly due to his flying swords, but he’s not the main reason why they were eliminated.
The main culprits were the other participants and the forbidden zone.
Seeded participants, as powerful as they are, were just as arrogant, if not more. It’s their hubris that caused their downfall. They underestimated the sheer will and desire of others to get rid of them and thought that they were infallible just because they’re strong.
The best part is that those who got eliminated can’t even complain since they were eliminated within the set rules of the stage. Five out of the six other participants that were eliminated were pushed out to the forbidden zone by the combined efforts of the ordinary participants, thus removing them from this stage. The sixth one was eliminated by a peer who took his crown.
The seventh, which is also the first to be eliminated, was Ragnar whom Cedric himself eliminated.
It was a roller coaster of events, one that truly ignited the excitement of the audience.
The best part is that this was far from being over because even now, fights for the crown are still happening.
If there’s something that hasn’t changed since the start of this stage, it would be Cedric’s position, which still dominated the leaderboard.
He’s the undisputed first place at this point since he’s the only one who never had his crown removed. And until now, nobody dared to challenge him in a 1v1; everyone was avoiding him and his location.
It’s quite funny actually because he could remember the seeded participants talking big about putting him in his place or teaching him a lesson, yet as soon as he dealt with one of them, they all cowered.
Of course, there are still people who looked down on him and still thought that they could easily get rid of him. As for why they haven’t done anything, it’s because they had other things to attend to, mainly securing their crown amidst this chaos.
As for the ordinary participants who managed to secure and hold on to a crown, there were three of them.
Fabros was one, and he’s one who held it the longest, not counting Cedric, of course. He managed to secure his even before Cedric’s plot twist, and he had been hidden since. Even with the regular broadcast of his location, he still managed to hold on to his crown. Because of that, his time has accumulated enough to secure his spot on the leaderboard.
If he could hold on to the very last moment, he might even surpass some of them because of the ’final gambit’ mechanic that states that those who had a crown until the very last moment of this stage will receive a six-hour bonus on their final time.
As for the other two ordinary participants who managed to secure a crown, they were individuals whom nobody expected to thrive in this stage.
The first one was called: Stoneheart. He’s a large man who didn’t look very smart. The reason why he’s able to secure a crown is due to his ability to turn into a statue. In his statue form, he remains mostly invulnerable to damage, and even if he were damaged, he’d recover it quickly so long as he’s touching the earth.
One thing to note is that when Stoneheart turns into a statue, everything that’s on him is affected too. This applies to his clothes and items, and more specifically, the crown itself. It didn’t matter what they’re made of; once Stoneheart used this ability, they turned into a statue with him and became mostly invulnerable too.
This isn’t his inborn ability. It’s a skill he learned somewhere. Its use was conditional, and the setting of the second stage just happens to fit that, which is why he thrived after receiving a crown.
The second one was Tyrone, most likely his real name. Unlike Fabros, Tyrone was very exposed. He made no effort to hide his location since it’ll be revealed anyway.
While he can’t turn into a statue that’s invulnerable to most damage like Stoneheart, Tyrone had a special skill that kept the vultures away, and that is an artifact called ’Spiritual Chain Link.’
The Spiritual Chain Link is an invisible chain that only the most sensitive sensors and Tyrone himself can see. Tyrone can command this chain to attack anybody within his line of sight. The chain itself wasn’t lethal, but its effects certainly were because this chain links Tyrone and his targets as one, meaning that whatever happens to Tyrone happens to his linked targets as well. In fact, the effects on his target were amplified to the power of 10.
Because the chain was invisible to most, those who targeted him don’t even know what happened. All they’d know is that hurting Tyrone was killing themselves, and that’s enough to chase them away.
One thing to note is that Cedric dealt with these three people during the previous stage, and their means were completely ineffective against him.
Fabros tried his best but failed.
Stoneheart’s invulnerability in his statue form was damaged by Cedric’s sword and failed. His apparent invulnerability was unable to stop Cedric’s gigantic sword from ending his life.
Tyrone’s Spiritual Chain Link could only dream of entangling him since Cedric could see it as clear as day and could swat it away.
But of course, just because their abilities can’t deal with Cedric, it doesn’t mean that they’re ineffective against other participants.
Their abilities were a pain in the ass, even for some of the seeded participants. It’s for this reason that they’re still holding on to the crowns after all.
Of course, it wasn’t just them that were trying. There were still hundreds of ordinary participants left in the battlefield, and they’re all doing their best to steal a crown at the very last moment.
Even though it’s the final day and there’s not enough time to actually get them to the final round, just appearing on the leaderboard again would suffice for them.
A little exposure was better than no exposure at all. They’d take whatever gain they could get, even if they had to pour their blood, sweat, and tears on it.
Zwoon!
The sound of the zone shrinking sounded out again. This caused the participants to be on the move again, and this movement caused yet another round of chain reactions that made the battlefield turbulent once more.
Ordinary participants against the seeded participants were taking place all over again, with the former doing their best to steal the crowns of the latter.
Cedric watched all of this occur on the spot, completely unbothered and calm. Even as the final hour crawled closer, no participant dared to cross him.
More hours passed just like this, and soon, the final hour was upon them.
The final shrink of the safe zone just occurred, reducing it to a mere hundreds of meters wide. By now, all the remaining participants were in sight of each other. There were still struggles here and there, but not as much as before since there weren’t many of them left.
Everybody was spent. Literally too tired and barely standing at this point. It has been quite chaotic, after all. The only one who remained as fresh and as energetic as before was Cedric, who’s looking at them all with an amused expression.
The seeded participants hated his guts so much, they’re not even hiding their glares at all. Yet despite having every reason to team up and attack him, they didn’t.
That’s because they’re afraid of him and his flying swords, which are now hanging in the skies, threatening to fall at any given moment. Anybody who tried to do something funny to him would be warned by one of the swords falling near them at a speed none of them could react to.
It’s because of this that, even though they really wanted to teach him a lesson, they couldn’t. Because he’d probably kill them before they could do anything worthwhile.
And so, the countdown ended without any further fanfare.
The King’s Crown was concluded with Cedric sitting at the very top of the leaderboard. The gap between his results and the second place was, frankly, so much that it’s embarrassing.