Chapter 430 The Arena
"What's wrong?"
"These guys, all of them are at least Tier II."
"What?!"
The whole team was shocked at Reign's words. Even though the Earth had changed and the monsters that had shown up were incredibly powerful, Tier II monsters were still not something that was easy to find, Eldar had previously told them that Tier III would be the strongest monsters that were present on Earth right now, and that would stay like that for a good while.
To suddenly find out that all of the humanoid monsters that were in the arena were Tier II was mind-boggling.
"How could there be so many of them here, didn't he say that there were only some Tier II monsters in the desert?" Shadow asked as the others all looked at Drayce.
"Well, I guess that this is a space that's isolated from its surroundings, I mean, just look at this place, this arena itself is larger than the pyramid, yet it's inside of it," Beast said as the others all nodded in agreement.
"Don't forget, even Transcendents are not worth that much in the universe, not to mention just mere Tier II beings." Reign said with a heavy voice as he looked around him. He was once again reminded of how insignificant and weak he and the others were in the universe.
Compared to those that held real power, they were not even comparable to ants, perhaps a grain of sand would be a better comparison.
Even Transcendents, beings that were currently overlooking this planet and were helping them out, incredibly powerful beings that came from different planets and traveled through the universe, were nothing more than just normal people compared to the gods that ruled over different parts of the universe.
"What's this about Drayce?!" Reign shouted as Drayce waved at him.
"It's nice to see you guys, the previous two teams that arrived here were not very lucky." Drayce pointed his finger at a pile of bones on the ground.
"I'm happy that some worthy challengers have finally arrived, do your best boys, this is only the beginning after all." Even though the clamor and shouts of thousands of monsters echoed inside the arena, Reign and the others were able to hear Drayce as if he was right next to them.
His words echoed in their heads as they stared at the pile of bones he had previously pointed at.
"Two teams were actually here before us?" Shadow asked with confusion as he looked at the pile of bones.
"Wait, does he mean two teams as in one group formed of two teams, or two teams that were both formed out of two teams each?" Beast asked as the others looked at him in a befuddled manner.
"Bro, that confused me more than this arena."
"You gotta word yourselves better man."
"I think we all understand what you meant to say, but that truly is a confusing question."
Reign, Wolf, and even some of the angels spoke to Beast as he looked at them with an embarrassed smile on his face.
"Sorry, sorry."
"Anyway, I think the latter is the answer, after all, during this challenge, we are all considered to be one team," Wolf said as the others nodded at him in agreement.
"So, who the hell came here before us?"
"Does it matter?" Tank asked Shadow who stopped for a moment before shrugging his shoulders.
"I guess you're right, whoever they were, they failed, which means that we are still the only ones that can actually do the hidden task."
"Well not quite, there are two other teams that have managed to clear the arena, although barely." Drayce suddenly said.
"They're doing the second part of the challenge, but between you and me, I don't think they have a chance, so no hurry."
"Huh, two more teams?"
"How the hell did they get here before us?!"
"Well, this is only one of the entrances, there's a total of 7 such buildings in the desert, I made it look like this in order to draw players in, my architectural style is quite something, am I right?"
"It sucks."
"It looks like something a five-year-old would make."
"It's a crime to call that a building, or even an object."
Upon hearing the negative words of Reign and the others, Drayce lost his enthusiasm as he looked at them sadly. Mia and her angels said nothing, mostly because the angels were too scared to say anything, they had seen how Drayce had dealt with the Berserkers during the first challenge and were terrified of angering him.
"I, I just wish you were more gentle guys, I mean, ahh, nah, no worries, let's just start this thing," Drayce said dejectedly as he levitated towards a platform that was located high up on the arena.
As Drayce arrived, a golden throne suddenly materialized and he sat down on it, looking down at the arena with interest.
"That's!" Wolf suddenly shouted as he stared at the golden throne.
"What is it, bro?"
"Look at his throne, but carefully."
Reign and the others stared at Drayce's throne for a couple of minutes before realizing what Wolf was so shocked about. The throne wasn't made of gold, when one focused and looked deeper into it, one could see powerful flames rampaging inside of it.
"He actually turned his fire solid and sat down on it, while the inside was normal," Wolf said as he gulped. Since he had a fire ability, he knew just how difficult something like this was.
Hell, it was impossible, Wolf didn't have a clue how the hell one could do something like this.
Even though he knew Transcendents were powerful and could bend elements to their will, something like this was inconceivable to him.
'If this guy can do things like this, what sort of things could Saints do, not to mention gods.' Wolf gulped nervously as he stared at Drayce that had a broad smile on his face.
'Good, I got some of my image back, should I tell them that this is something that most Transcendents can't do, nah, they'll learn that later.' Drayce thought as he looked down on Reign and the others before signaling with his hand.
"The match shall start, the challengers will first face…" Drayce said before a bucket full of paper appeared in front of him. He reached down and grabbed one piece of paper before smiling at it.
"Pentos and his tribe."
The whole arena suddenly shook as the spectators cheered wildly.
"PENTOS!"
"PENTOS!"
"PENTOS!"
The loud sound of the humanoid monsters shouting and jumping up and down echoed inside the arena and the ground started shaking slightly as Reign and the others looked at them with confusion.
"Who the hell is that Pentos guy?"
"I guess we're going to find out soon." Reign said as a gate opened at the other end of the arena.
The arena was suddenly silent, all the spectators stopped talking and moving as the only sound that Reign and the others could hear right now were footsteps that were nearing them from inside the gate.
Soon they were able to see their opponent.
A 3-meter tall lion-man exited the gate and entered the arena. Wild cheers from the crowd greeted him and 5 more of his brethren that appeared next to him.
With a large axe in his hand, the lion-man uttered a loud battle cry and smiled ferociously at Reign and the others.
"Be careful, that guy, he's strong, very strong." Reign suddenly said as he stared at Pentos. He used his [ Inspect ] skill, only to barely see anything as it was limited in the arena.
[ Lvl 90, Pentos ]
That was the only information he was able to get from the skill, the mana he could feel coming from the lion-man was enormous and he knew that the battle they were about to go through was going to be a tough one.
Even the 5 lion-men next to Pentos were not to be scoffed at, they were each level 80 and were more powerful than an elite monster of the same level.
Luckily, they held the upper hand when it came to numbers, they had over 20 members and after Beast and Tank used their abilities, they would have 11 more. The 5 lion-men would be handled by the angels and the tamed beasts together with Tank's four generals while they would focus on fighting Pentos who was probably a boss-ranked monster.
Each of the lion-men held a different weapon in their hands, one had a spear, one wielded a hammer, one had a saber while another had a sword, and the last one, wielded a halberd.
Even though Reign and the others were fully confident that they would be able to win this battle, it was still better to be careful as they didn't know anything about their enemy.