Endless Path : Infinite Cosmos
chapter-1814

With three days passing in the blink of an eye, all Regulars participating in the Seeded Tournament were asked to gather in the waiting rooms of the Coliseum located near the very center of Coliseum City.

As could be expected, the Coliseum was a massive fighting arena that was encircled by viewing stands that could easily hold more than a hundred-thousand Regulars with room to spare. Instead of a singular stage, however, there were five circular pillars hovering above frigid, Shinsu-infused, waters.

Though it would have made more sense for the event to be drawn out over several days, it was a long-standing tradition that the Seeded Tournament be concluded in a single afternoon. The Test Administrators didn’t want passing Regulars to stick around for too long so they had arranged for five matches to take place simultaneously. Ten minutes were allotted for each of these rounds and the victory conditions included: killing your opponent, forcing them to surrender, or knocking them off the platform.

Unfortunately for his opponent, Vahn found himself facing down a young man with dark-green hair, pale-purple eyes, and a pale complexion. He was the 32nd Seed among Wave Controllers, as, rather than determine the brackets by random, the Administration pitted the most powerful seeds against the weakest from the very beginning. This was meant to ensure that the finals were fought between the two strongest Regulars in a Position, effectively removing the factor of ’luck’ from the equation.

Vahn wasn’t particularly fond of bullying the weak, so, immediately after the battle began, he simply extended his hand towards the youth. Even gifted Wave Controllers at F-Rank took several seconds to form a single Baang, so, without any suspense whatsoever, his opponent was forced back by an invisible wall of pressure. It took longer for him to hit the water than it did for the actual match so Vahn basically had the full ten minutes to watch the other rounds. Fortunately, Team Wolf Pack was scheduled to participate in practically every round so he would have ample opportunities to witness his Children’s growth...

Though her match had already begun, Endorsi started things off with an extended yawn, much to the chagrin of her opponent, a spiky-haired man with a long scar running across his nose. From his perspective, she was demonstrating a complete disregard for him as an opponent, and, while this wasn’t exactly wrong, the truth of the matter was that Endorsi was, actually, tired. She hadn’t been getting much sleep as of late, so, while she didn’t actually take her opponent seriously, she wasn’t intentionally looking down on him either.

Unaware of Endorsi’s nightly antics, her opponent gnashed his teeth in indignation before pointing his Needle towards her and shouting, "I don’t know much about the strength of a Princess of Jahad, but you have no right to look down on me! If you don’t take this fight seriously...don’t blame me for what happens next...!"

Hearing her opponent’s threat, Endorsi couldn’t help but adopt a somewhat disdainful glower as she asked, "Are you an idiot? I am a Princess of Jahad. If I don’t have the right to look down on an opponent, who does? Rather than broadcasting your ignorance for all to see, why don’t you just attack? Seriously, are you expecting me to give you an invitation or something?"

Gritting his teeth even harder, the spiky-haired Regular lurched towards Endorsi with a burst of speed that caused the latter to roll her eyes. He wasn’t exactly slow, but, compared to the speeds she was used to dealing with, he might as well be standing still.

Showing virtually no effort, Endorsi casually side-stepped the Regular’s attempt to stab her in the gut. For a brief moment, she felt a powerful urge to just smash his face in, but, not wanting to do anything that might upset Gandr, she ultimately stepped around behind him before promptly pushing him in the direction of his initial charge with her foot. As a result, he ended up running out of the ring, unable to arrest his momentum before teetering off the edge and falling into the frigid water below.

Though her words had no way of reaching the man’s ears, that didn’t prevent Endorsi from snorting disdainfully as she crossed her arms and groused, "Maybe that’ll cool your head. Seriously, taunting a Princess of Jahad in public? Good luck finding people that want to team up with you in the future, you ignorant oaf..."

Seeing Endorsi kick her opponent out of the ring, Gandr couldn’t resist issuing a light chuckle as he stood rather cockily with Abby-tan on his shoulder. He had ended up pulling his opponent into his shadow before depositing the unfortunate fellow into the water below. This allowed him to view the matches of Endorsi and Ran without distraction since Vahn and Phae, unsurprisingly, defeated both of their opponents in an instant.

Unfortunately, with the weakest seeds being forced to fight against the strongest, things were very one-sided. Even Ran’s fight only lasted until he got annoyed by his opponent mocking his height. This resulted in the latter being sent flying out of the arena with a lightning-infused kick, courtesy of Ran.

Like many members of the Khun Family, Ran had a natural affinity with Lightning Elemental Energy. Even the physical form of his Shinsu Quality was a Lightning Spear so his speed, reaction time, and damage potential were exceptionally high in spite of the fact he was only twelve-years-old. He also had the ’benefit’ of his opponents constantly looking down on him. This allowed him the element of surprise, and, more often than not, allowed him to end most fights in a single blow...

With Ran’s fight taking the longest, the first round of the Seeded Tournament concluded after a mere 53 seconds had passed. This left many of the spectators feeling a little dissatisfied, as it was always more interesting to see drawn out and flashy battles, but there wasn’t really anything they could do other than wait for some exciting action in the finals.

Fortunately, so long as a member of Team Wolf Pack wasn’t competing, the other battles were still pretty exciting. There were even a few close fights where the lower-seeded Regular managed to come out ahead of their opponent. These were the most exciting battles for spectating Regulars as it was a chance for them to make a profit and see an underdog come out on top. Everyone liked to see the strong succumb to the weak as it allowed them to believe they, themselves, might be able to overcome adversity and achieve greatness...

Though he was lucky to have dodged a bullet by managing to avoid being pitted against any other members of Team Wolf Pack, Shibisu was still struggling quite a bit against the 6th Seed amongst Scouts. His opponent was a short and squat woman that gave off the impression of a bee thanks to her Needle and Observers emulating the bulbous stingers of a honeybee. She had luminous blue-grey hair, a thick fur coat that included a puffy fur collar, and, most troubling of all, bee-like wings that allowed her to fly around at extreme speeds.

Opponents that could fly were always extremely troublesome, and, if not for his Observers having an autonomous defense mode, Shibisu wouldn’t be able to offer any resistance against the rather fierce female warrior. To make matters even worse, she had an extremely high Shinsu Resistance, so, even when he did manage to land a blow, the most he accomplished was angering her even further.

Refusing to be the only person on his team that was eliminated in the first round, Shibisu traded in his rifle for a shotgun, beads of sweat appearing on his brow as he advised, "You’re extremely fast and tough, I’ll give you that. Unfortunately, it won’t be enough to allow you to take a hit from this weapon. You’ve already lost your Observers, Vespa...I suggest you quit before you sustain an injury that will interfere with your climb up the Tower..."

While continuing to evade the automatic fire from Shibisu’s three Observers, his opponent, Vespa, adopted a potent glower as she rebutted, "Rude human. Do you really think you can defeat me? Without your annoying gadgets and that stupid cloak, this match would have already been over."

Though it was a little embarrassing to admit, Shibisu couldn’t actually refute Vespa’s words. She had actually managed to stab him with her poison-coated Needle pretty early in the fight, but, thanks to his ’fashionable’ purple [Bagworm], the only injury he suffered was a painful bruise beneath his left pectoral muscle.

Shibisu felt a little annoyed by the fact he was only able to stay in the fight thanks to the items he had been given. That didn’t mean he could just discard them, however, as Vespa’s initial blow might have killed him had he not been fortunate enough to join Team Wolf Pack.

Exhaling a sigh, Shibisu adopted a combat stance with the stock of his Shinsu-powered shotgun loosely resting against his shoulder. Unfortunately, he only had enough Shinsu and stamina to fire off a few rounds before he was completely exhausted. If he didn’t defeat her before then, there was nothing he could do to stop Vespa from seeking vengeance. This made him feel slightly suffocated, not because he was afraid of losing, but because he would have lost in spite of the many benefits he had been given...

Feeling a shiver run through her body, Vespa increased the amount of Shinsu she was infusing into her wings. They were a translucent yellow by default, but, whenever she infused a large amount of Shinsu into them, they would radiate a vibrant golden light. This not only increased her speed by a tremendous amount, but it also made it exceptionally difficult for her opponents to look directly at her. This was a countermeasure she had developed due to the majority of her enemies attempting to clip or injure her wings, removing one of the few advantages she had over others.

With a focused glimmer flashing across her black sclera and amethyst-colored eyes, Vespa created a visible afterimage in her attempt to evade the fragmented beam of Shinsu fired by Shibisu. Then, before the latter could fire a second volley, several more afterimages appeared around the arena as she said, "I normally try to defeat my opponents without causing them pain...for you, I will make an exception..."

Immediately following her words, Vespa seemed to appear out of thin air right in front of Shibisu, the tip of her Needle creating a small ripple in the surrounding Shinsu as she aimed it directly at his face. Unfortunately for her, the defensive membrane generated by the [Bagworm] actually covered the wearer’s entire body. As a result, the tip of her Needle flattened to a dull point as it came into contact with an invisible barrier.

Though some of the force was still transferred into Shibisu’s body, causing his nose to momentarily flatten as he was pushed back by the force of the strike, his actual injuries were rather negligible. His training with Yoruichi had drastically increased his pain tolerance and resolution to continue fighting; so, even though he was sent hurtling towards the edge of the arena, he still managed to take aim at the surprised Vespa.

Realizing she wouldn’t be able to evade the attack at such a distance, Vespa surprised much of the crowd by spontaneously increasing in size. Her true form was actually much bigger than the squat and petite appearance she generally adopted for the sake of convenience; so, after deactivating her Compression License, her size increased from around 90cm to more than five meters in length.

By spontaneously increasing her size, Vespa only suffered moderate injuries as the penetrative beams fired by Shibisu pierced her lower abdomen. This was far from ideal, causing her extreme pain, but it was a lot better than tanking the attack with her face. Fortunately, she could still use her Compression License to drastically decrease the size of the wound by compressing her body back to its petite form. This required Points each time she activated it, but, considering the alternative was to bleed out from holes the size of fists, splurging a few thousand Points was a small price to pay.

Holding her bleeding abdomen, Vespa sneered in the direction where Shibisu had been sent over the edge. Part of her was tempted to fly down and finish him off but there were rules in place that prevented Regulars with flight capabilities from flying above or below marked lines. After all, if they could just fly wherever they wanted, it would cause all kinds of problems if they chose to interfere with other matches or spam long-ranged attacks...

(A/N: Alternate Titles: ’RIP 32nd Seeds...’,’Shibisu’s frustrations...’,That’s a big bumblebee...’)