Chapter 747: Run!
Reina was already gravely wounded. Now she lay collapsed on the ground, her expression calm—almost as if she were resigned to death.
A trace of sorrow flickered on Elsa's face. Her pale complexion made her look as if she'd just recovered from a serious illness...
Seth had given up. He sat on the ground, completely unceremonious, his beloved staff tossed carelessly aside...
Hubert was covered in blood, his entire body marked by charred wounds. Just now, he'd been the only one holding the line against the Destroyer Guard. Even the magma flames alone had left him battered and scarred...
Anderson hovered in midair, staring wordlessly at Leon.
"You still have the nerve to pick up that Nullification Rune? This is already the second match. The next one will definitely be Sky Rank. Do you really think that rune will help?"
Despair was etched across all three of Anderson's faces—despair so deep it had become resignation.
"Hell, dying in the King's Coliseum isn't exactly shameful. And with you all dying alongside me, I guess I'm getting a pretty good deal..."
Suddenly, Anderson looked at Leon.
"Merlin, your talent is honestly the best I've ever seen. It's a real shame you'll die here. But knowing you'll be dying with me? That makes things a little easier to swallow..."
Everyone wore the same look of despair—a silence steeped in death.
In the King's Coliseum, only those who survive nine consecutive battles can leave. They've only fought two so far, and already a level thirty-nine monster has appeared...
If they hadn't been lucky earlier—the Destroyer Guard was strong, but not too bright—they wouldn't even have the luxury of lying here waiting to die...
The third match will definitely bring out a Sky Rank monster!
Sky Rank...
That's a different breed altogether. Below Sky Rank, everyone's just a mortal. No matter how strong a mortal is, they're no match for a Sky Rank being. It's a difference in kind and essence—a gulf in the very nature of life itself.
And with rules involved, even a first-level Sky Rank creature could wipe them out without breaking a sweat...
Everyone fell silent, except Anderson, who seemed to have made peace with it all—rambling on about things that had nothing to do with their situation...
Leon, meanwhile, acted as if he hadn't heard Anderson at all. He stared intently at the center of the King's Coliseum, his gaze deep and almost possessed, oblivious to everything else...
Slowly, as time passed, the sense of despair thickened and built up—until a distant metal gate began to rise, and hopelessness reached its breaking point.
The third match had begun...
Reina stared blankly at the distant sky, tears glimmering in her eyes...
Hubert's warhammer, Slaughter, slipped from his grasp and clattered to the ground. He gazed dumbly at the slowly rising metal gate...
Seth forced a bitter smile, covering his face. Strangely, there was little despair in his expression...
Elsa was steeped in despair, mumbling to herself: "To be killed by a Sky Rank creature... at least that's a worthy death. Too bad we'll never find the Life Sigil Crystal's magical incarnation..."
Beta, who'd been hiding from the start, was now sprawled on the ground, clutching his head and sobbing: "I don't want to die! It's over, it's over, I'm dead, I'm dead, I don't want to die..."
The metal gate continued to rise. Just as it was about to fully open, Leon—who'd been staring at the King's Coliseum in a daze—suddenly broke into a smile.
Striding to the center of the King's Coliseum, Leon glanced around. Then, fiery wings sprouted from his back as he soared into the air, raising the Doombringer Staff in one hand and clutching the Death Tome in the other, chanting a spell at full volume.
A high, rhythmic chant spilled from Leon's lips...
Anderson, still rambling below, floated up and glanced at Leon: "Merlin, just come down already. Stop resisting—it's pointless..."
"The third match is about to start. Whatever comes out, we can't hope to fight it. Let's just stop resisting and pray that, after all these years, the King's Coliseum isn't as perfect as it used to be. Maybe we can bargain with the creature and have a slim chance..."
"Maybe if we stop fighting, the King's Coliseum will shut down and we'll be able to leave..."
"And if not, at least we'll die quickly—save ourselves some suffering..."
............
Anderson kept trying to talk Leon down, but Leon acted as if he couldn't hear a word. He was casting a seventh-level spell—something his rank shouldn't allow.
But his mana, its quality, and his control over it—every aspect was already at the level needed for a seventh-level spell.
Normally, he wouldn't use it—not because he didn't know how powerful seventh-level spells were, but because their casting time was so long, they weren't practical in combat.
As Leon chanted, surging mana began to radiate from him—powerful magical energy rolling out like a tide.
A full ten seconds passed, and Leon still hadn't finished chanting.
Even Anderson was stunned for a moment.
"Merlin, just come down already. What spell are you casting? Why is the incantation so long?"
Leon’s chant grew louder and more melodic, almost like an elven song.
Twenty whole seconds!
Only when the metal gate was fully raised did Leon abruptly stop chanting.
In an instant, mana surged wildly. Countless streams of magical energy gathered overhead, the clouds thickening into a colossal vortex streaked with lightning and roaring flames...
Gradually, all the clouds collapsed inward, coalescing into a massive golden spear in midair, surrounded by waves of fire and thunder.
The oppressive aura pressed down on everyone below.
A moment later, a beam of golden light plummeted from the sky, slamming into the center of the King's Coliseum.
Inside the metal gate, a pair of eyes began to glow. Everyone squeezed their eyes shut in despair.
But after a long moment, the expected roar never came. There was only silence—no monstrous howls, no thunderous crash...
When they opened their eyes again, a miracle had happened...
The King's Coliseum had vanished...
All around was empty ground. The exhausted survivors sat, eyes closed, waiting for death—except Anderson, who stared wide-eyed in utter shock.
Leon’s powerful spell had erased the entire King's Coliseum in an instant...
Leon let out a cold laugh.
"With such cheap tricks, you really thought you could fake the King's Coliseum? How naïve..."
From the start, when fighting those three level thirty-eight monsters, Leon had sensed something was off. Only creatures with king-class bloodlines—true rulers of their race—should be able to enter the King's Coliseum.
The Three-Eyed Golden Behemoth and the Runic Stone Giant were fine—they were the strongest of their kind. But the Unicorn Six-Tailed Fox was odd: when enraged or terrified, its horn turned red. A true king-blooded Unicorn Six-Tailed Fox’s horn only ever turns gold!
At the time, Leon was just a little surprised—there was no time to dwell on it in the heat of battle. But during the fight with the Doom Guard, the oddities kept piling up...
The biggest anomaly was the King's Coliseum itself!
There were times when gods and demons themselves had fought in the King's Coliseum!
Even setting aside gods and demons, Sky Rank creatures were common in the King's Coliseum. If anyone could just break the arena by brute force, it wouldn’t be much of a challenge.
But the real King's Coliseum—unless a god or demon got bored and joined the fight—was never damaged, not even a scratch!
Even Sky Rank masters couldn't harm the King's Coliseum in their battles!
Yet when the Doom Guard attacked, the ground of the King's Coliseum shattered like ordinary stone. That made no sense at all.
The Doom Guard was strong, sure, but only level thirty-nine. For it to damage the arena’s floor—when even two Sky Rank fighters couldn’t—that was impossible!
It couldn’t be done! Even if the King's Coliseum looked worn by time, every stone here was impervious to anything below Sky Rank.
But the name alone was intimidating. During the fight, no one noticed these details. Afterward, with the looming threat of the third match, everyone’s nerves were shot—who had the energy to care about minor inconsistencies?
So after the battle, Leon kept pondering these illogical details, using his magical apparatus to track and deduce the truth. Finally, he formed a bold hypothesis: the King's Coliseum was a fake!
He pinpointed the center of the fake arena and unleashed his strongest spell. As expected, the King's Coliseum vanished...
That attack exceeded the illusion’s limits, causing it to collapse instantly...
With the King's Coliseum gone, only four corpses remained.
The Three-Eyed Golden Behemoth, Unicorn Six-Tailed Fox, Runic Stone Giant, and Doom Guard—all lay quietly on the ground. Not only had Leon and his friends been fooled; these monsters had too...
The survivors opened their eyes, staring blankly at the changed world around them, unable to process how things had shifted so quickly...
Just then, a horde of Dark Elf wraiths appeared—hundreds of them—surrounding the group. Spells erupted everywhere, mana surged like a tidal wave, and a storm of magic rained down on them.
Anderson shouted, "Damn it, what are you all waiting for? Run!"