章節 26: Burning Mess
Eventually, the fifth day came to an end.
There were less than a hundred participants left as the final date kept closing in.
As usual, Andrew used smart strategies and timely ambushes to take out his opponents. It was a fact that the battlefield had no dignity nor honor, only those who survived and those who didn't.
The chance of encountering an enemy drastically decreased as day became more carefree, but Andrew didn't let himself slack off.
At this point, he alone had killed 78 people by the end of the fifth day.
The hunt was smooth as he mostly encountered exhausted and wounded demons. He mostly stayed at the outskirts of the jungle biome since the center was a hell pot.
Many people tried to escape to the peripheral areas of the biome, but they weren't so lucky as they met calculative Andrew who swiftly ended their lives.
Everyone was surrounded by death as any moment could conclude their lives. Some were simply unlucky to be exhausted not in the right moment, some were just overconfident and stupid forgetting where they actually were.
They were on a battlefield that initially had two thousand participants, yet now it has been reduced to less than a hundred.
It would be genuinely surprising if arrogant and dumb individuals managed to come so far.
The jungle was silent as ever. No one dared to make even the slightest sound. At this point, some of the demons had crafted bows and arrows, so the possibility of being killed by an archer wasn't null.
Everyone used their crafty minds to lay out traps and create weapons. Some even had to resort to drinking the blood of others since they knew that a river shore was closely watched by everyone.
Andrew also wasn't someone who despised drinking blood. He had to do so in order to increase his survival chance even by the slightest margin.
At least there were fruits on the trees, otherwise everyone would have to resort to cannibalism. Of course, there were some demons that preferred the meat of their brethren more than mere fruits so finding half-eaten or completely eaten corpses wasn't uncommon.
The demonic society was rather pragmatic. The suppression by Solaris made them forgo any morals since they were treated worse than livestock there.
Solaris wasn't some kind of holy or sacred race. They were just beings who happened to be born with a purifying type of mana. They were like any other living being: selfish and greedy.
The demonic race was originally considered a sub-race. Not eligible to even be deemed as equal species. Thus, anyone can imagine how many horrors they had to live through under the rule of Solaris.
They were treated worse than slaves, worse than livestock, worse than objects, even empty air would get more living rights than them.
They experienced many gross things.
It was surprising that Solaris weren't the ones who were considered as demons since even modern-day demonic society wasn't as ruthless to their sub-race slaves.
Yet, this is a paradox of life. Good is painted as bad and bad is painted as good. World isn't black nor white, it just had a really dirty shade of gray.
Moreover, this world was ruled by strong, weak had no say in anything.
So, the demons could only blame their weakness.
___
On the sixth day...
There were a couple of dozen people left. A rather big alliance by the standards of the current number of participants had assembled.
It almost had two dozen demons in it. Moreover, they were one of the most skilled ones since they have come to survive to this point.
Andrew had already seen their scouts go around looking for the rest of the survivors. He understood that they were professionals in the way of killing too since they were extremely keen on their surroundings.
And the thing that shocked him the most was that there was a humanoid wolf among them, truthfully he had seen demons that were outwardly different from others.
They were of various species, mostly animals. They were unique mutations of demons and animals and were considered as hybrids by the rest of the world.
Even if they are hybrids they aren't considered as sub-races as long as they have at least one member of their species that became an Archmage.
Truly, whether the species was considered as sub or not depended on their ability and potential to produce an Archmage!
Before birth of Demon God when Demon race was in its infancy phase, obviously there were no Archmages. Given a couple more millions of years, maybe the first Archmage would have appeared in Demon race even without the spread of Demon God's bloodline.
Evolution is tricky stuff so no one can really be sure whether it would have happened without the existence of Demon God Arhan.
Scouts operated with three demons in each team. They wandered around looking for the rest of the survivors.
Of course, it wasn't easy even one bit to find anyone for them.
Extreme caution was evident in each survivor who wasn't a member of this alliance. They didn't dare to stay in the same place for too long since it might leave evidence of their presence.
The battlefield royale had now transformed into a game of hide and seek and those who are found out will meet a sad end.
The scouts were thorough in their search for survivors. Eventually, a couple of remaining participants slipped up and eventually died as a result.
A day passed...
Finally, it was the last and deciding day. The alliance which had formed was extremely chaotic and disordered as members wanted to increase the chances of their admittance into Blood Devil Corps.
The conditions to pass were:
1. Be in the top ten by the number of points you have been assigned by the judges during the entire examination.
2. Be the only top 10 that have survived to pass.
These conditions were extreme since only the ten best partakers will be selected.
Eventually, someone snapped and a bloodbath started in the alliance. They started to ruthlessly kill each other in hopes of getting more points or just being one of the only top ten.
Unlike in the battlefield royale that Andrew participated back in Noris Town, this didn't call every remaining participant to a specific location so they could slaughter each other.
It mostly employed the previously mentioned method of hide and seek.
Since no one knew what were their results and that this would probably decide their entire lives since they have come so far among two thousand original participants. Moreover, the majority of them were almost close to becoming thirty years old!
By the laws and rules of Demonic Abode. *Once a member of Demonic Abode, a branch of glorious Demonic Cult fails to become a mage by the age of 30, he or she will be considered as nothing by an expandable material*.
It meant becoming livestock, something that can be used and thrown away anytime.
The majority of them still haven't become mages even if they were nearing the age of 30. It was due to various reasons, one of them lack of comprehension of mana or desire for magic materials.
Not everyone wants to have a standard and common body of a mage so they try to acquire materials stuffed with mana that will better adapt their body to the mana. Increasing their attunement by a slight margin.
Even this slight margin was considered as a massive increase since talent and aptitude were set in stone from birth.
Blood Devil Corps is a golden ticket for those who desire to acquire magic materials.
That's why the alliance broke so easily due to stress and anxiety of its members.
Andrew didn't miss out on this handy opportunity as he swiftly killed a couple of former members of now crumbled alliance amidst the chaotic mess that it had transformed into.
He was even lucky enough to stumble upon a founder and leader of the alliance. Of course, he didn't hesitate to decapitate him the moment he saw him exhausted, beaten and injured, ignorant to the fact that he was the one who was originally behind the idea of an alliance.
The slaughter continued as all the remaining participants wanted nothing but to reduce the number of competition and increase their points.
Eventually, a fire broke out!
One of the crafty demons decided to burn the whole biome since it would be pointless to search for survivors.
'This is a brilliant idea!' Andrew exclaimed in his mind as he looked at the burning trees in front of him.
The fire spread wildly as some survivors eventually were stuck at dead ends and burnt to ashes.
Andrew didn't know whose idea it was or whether this person had survived his or her own master plan.
Andrew stayed on the outskirts of the jungle. The moment the fire headed in his direction he dived into the nearby river as he cautiously swam underwater.
Everything was a mess as the jungle biome kept being reduced to ashes.
At times, Andrew encountered some demons and had to fight underwater, such fights were a real challenge for him since there were virtually no footholds in the deep river.
But Andrew being Andrew, he smartly used his environment to his advantage as he decimated his opponents.
Like this, the seventh day concluded...
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