The white panther is 10% faster than the players and can also turn invisible. Its ability to turn invisible will stump most people, but not Kelvin. He had too many means to find it.
He could sense it with his Life Domination ability, Mind Overseer, and Extraordinary Perception. So the white panther of the third obstacle wasn't that much different from the second obstacle.
He destroyed the third obstacle easily and moved on. For his efforts, he gained 9 game points, so he had earned a total of 18 game points.
Others didn't have things so easily. Almost everyone passed the second obstacle with only one elimination.
So 37 players reached the third obstacle. But many of them were eliminated at this junction.
The problem was the invisibility of the white panther. It stumped many players and rendered most of their abilities useless.
Evil Eye, Charmer, and Butcher directly became useless at the third obstacle. Charmer was the weakest. The panther grabbed her and killed her.
Evil Eye was luckier. She was able to escape from the panther and move on to the fourth obstacle.
Butcher became injured but managed to grab the white panther when it attacked her. She was able to grab it and kill it.
Her success earned her the full marks, but her injury meant that she was unlikely to be able to continue the game.
The smart thing to do was to give up. But she didn't want to give because this was already her second attempt at the advancement game. She didn't want to go through another round of 19 games again.
However, Charmer's death sobered her up. So even though she didn't want to give up, she had to consider it.
But she didn't give up immediately. Instead, she waited to see how difficult the fourth obstacle would be.
Charmer wasn't the only one who was killed at the third obstacle. There were two others that died.
There were very few people who performed well at the third obstacle. One of them was Mecha Man.
Mecha Man couldn't see the white panther when it disappeared. But he didn't need to because he could summon a grenade launcher.
The grenade launcher is a phantom weapon created with his ability. It is not as durable as a real one, and it will disappear after some time. But the explosions created by its grenades are real.
He shot many grenades in front of him in a random pattern. One of the resulting explosions managed to injure the white panther.
The injury released blood, which Mecha Man saw and took advantage of to find the panther. The panther died soon after, so he moved on.
The fourth obstacle is something that appears to be a black stone puppet. It is humanoid, and its body looks like it is carved from stone.
The stone puppet has only one eye, no lips, no nose, no ears, and no mouth. It doesn't have hair either.
It is smooth all over. He can tell that it has no hair and is completely smooth because it is naked.
The puppet has the same amount of strength as any player that comes up to it. But its speed is lower than that of the players, so it is easy for them to avoid it.
But if players are hell-bent on killing it, then they must have enough power other than physical strength to kill it.
This requirement wasn't a problem for Kelvin. He still tore the stone puppet to shreds with his body.
The same thing happened to the fifth obstacle. It was the same black stone puppet, but it had 10% more strength than the player. This made no difference to him.
Actually, there was a little difference. The puppet was able to beat him and injure him a little more than the previous puppet was able to achieve. But he was still able to heal his injuries and tore it apart with his metal claws and spikes.
It wasn't until the sixth obstacle that things became a little tricky. The puppet gained the ability to create clones and multiply itself.
When Kelvin saw the ten puppets rushing towards him to beat him up, his eyes couldn't help but twitch.
He thought to himself, "This is your lucky day. I don't want to use my shadow clones so you can bully me. Take advantage of this opportunity because it won't come around again."
He can use his shadows here. It makes him think of Wrath and if it were possible for her to stay beside him during the games too.
She hadn't said that she was able to do it. But she had said that she watched his games.
He couldn't figure out how else she could do that if she wasn't stalking him. Unfortunately, she wasn't willing to tell him.
She said she would tell him when he trusts her. That can't happen anymore, so he might never find out.
He put out the thought of Wrath from his mind and focused on the sixth obstacle. Now that it can split itself, he can't escape easily even if he wants to.
Fortunately for him, he doesn't need to escape. They might outnumber him ten to one, but the best that they can do is beat him up.
With his metal physique and ability to heal, what he is least afraid of is being beaten. Thanks to the Life Domination ability, he can absorb life force from the stone puppet and also weaken it.
Apparently, the puppet is a living thing. It bleeds like anyone else. So Arthur wasn't scared about trading injuries with it.
He fought with all ten of them and killed them. Then he moved on to the seventh obstacle.
He earned 12 game points for the fourth obstacle. Then he earned 15 and 18 game points for the fifth and sixth obstacles. Plus the previous 18, he had earned a total of 63 game points.
This official put him at the top of the ranking displayed above the track for everyone to see.
As the one in the lead both in terms of points and position, there were a lot of people paying attention to him. Both the players and the audience were paying attention to him.
There's also the black crow. Its voice had become high because of excitement.
It said, "Look at that, people. We are barely 2 minutes into the game, and Augustus has shown us that he has what it takes to reach the end of it."
"I am impressed. He can surely take a beating. I guess this is what a soldier is made of."
Many players were paying attention to him. Butcher was one of them.
When she saw what the fourth obstacle was, she decided to continue the game. Something that can only fight with fists is not a difficult obstacle for her to defeat.
She was injured, but she was still able to destroy the fourth obstacle. All she needed to do was grab hold of it for a while.
Unfortunately, she was injured by the fight. Her injuries got worse when she fought the fifth obstacle. The puppet had become stronger than her and could injure her better.
She came out of the fifth obstacle bloody and beaten. She still didn't want to give up, though. But when she saw the sixth obstacle split into ten, she knew that she stood no more chance.
She sighed in regret and chose to surrender. That made two of the most feared five that have been eliminated.
Evil Eye and Mecha Man didn't have much problem with the next three sets of obstacles. As long as Evil Eye kept her distance, she would be able to kill the puppet without any injury to her person.
The puppet was slower than her, so this was easy for her to do. Even when the puppet split into ten, she was still able to bring it down. It just took a while.
It didn't take long for Mecha Man to go through the three puppets. His grenade launcher is still good enough, so he didn't bother to change his summon.
He used explosions to clear his way up to the seventh obstacle. When he saw what the seventh obstacle was, he couldn't help but laugh.
No one died to the black puppets. The puppets were slow, so it was easy for people to escape from them.
The players didn't have much of a problem until the sixth obstacle when the puppet split into 10. The number of players was reduced to 31.
The seventh obstacle was a giant drop of water. The water could shift its form, but it couldn't move. It looked like a giant blue slime.
The giant blue slime occupied the entire track. So unless someone could fly or become intangible, there was no way to avoid it.
The slime wasn't actually made of harmless water. The liquid that made up its body is corrosive like acid.