Chapter 384: First
Vayu cursed in his heart as he commanded his team to move faster. This time, Sylas had really screwed him over, and the worst part was that Sylas shouldn't have even known. How Sylas managed to deduce it was beyond Vayu.
Sylas' token read 'III' while Vayu's read 'IV'. This might seem meaningless, but in the coming clash of team, 'I' would pair with 'II' and 'III' would pair with 'IV'. This essentially meant that the first opponent that Vayu would come across other than these wolf spirits would be Sylas himself.
This seemed not to be a big deal. After all, this should be a good thing. Sylas was just one person. He should be ecstatic that he basically got a free ride to the final round.
Unfortunately, Sylas had seen through him.
This wasn't a simple tournament where there would be two elimination rounds to crown a winner. Instead, depending on how things went, there could end up being multiple rounds where each team would do their best to accumulate points.
Once this staircase event was through, there would be a clash, and then there would be four doors. These four doors would likewise be numbered from 'I' to 'IV'.
The first to win would receive priority in choosing your next round's opponent. Meaning, if Vayu was matched up against Sylas in the first round and cleared an easy victory, then he would be able to pick Sylas again in the next round and secure an advantage all the way up.
If he killed Sylas, it would be even easier, because that would mean that he would have free reign all the way up to the final rounds where the largest and truest rewards would be.
However, because Sylas exposed him, things would be different.
Because a loss didn't necessarily mean elimination, Aerwyna and Brisa might choose to collude, allowing one or the other to gain victory so that they could be the ones to challenge Sylas first.
This wouldn't be ideal for them, but it would even out the playing field. That was because whoever "lost" would then proceed to collude with Vayu, and then they'd switch over. So on and so forth.
But if Vayu got there first, then it would be meaningless.
Eventually, by the end of the rounds, they'd have an even distribution of points and they'd be right back to square one.
At the start, they had all seen Sylas' number, so this could have been guessed... but it wasn't until Sylas pointed it out that they put two and two together.
Before, Aerwyna and Brisa might have been slow on the uptake and chosen to fight it out. By then, Vayu would have already had an insurmountable advantage.
But now, he had to go all out in hopes that he still managed to reach the doors first. Only then could he firmly suppress Aerwyna and Brisa.
Due to a few words from Sylas, the first round, which should have been more a leisurely feeling out process, actually ended up being a full sprint to the end. Victory might very well be decided right here and now.
A solemn expression couldn't help but mar Vayu's handsome brows. He didn't know how Sylas had managed to deduce this, but it had put him in a terrible position.
What he didn't know was that it was impossible for Sylas to deduce the intricacies of all these rules without someone explaining it to him. Vayu could only blame himself for having such stupid reasoning.
Trying to enslave Sylas under the pretext that he would one day be their clan's subordinate made no sense.
It was possible that Vayu might have seen Sylas' potential and wanted to enslave him, but using such a rare Template on a slave you wouldn't even be able to control for at least another few years made no sense whatsoever.
The moment Sylas saw the Template, he realized that his being enslaved should somehow help Vayu out in the here and now.
Vayu had tried to have his cake and eat it too. He wanted to close up all potential loopholes, so he wanted for there to be no chance for Sylas to reverse the situation.
In the end, all Sylas needed to know was this to expose him. He didn't have to understand the details, he just had to vaguely understand what Vayu wanted and expose him on its merit. Then, Brisa and Aerwyna, who did know the intricacies of the rules, would be able to figure out the rest for themselves.
As he had said... they were competitors as well. He might be public enemy number one, but he wasn't the only enemy.
Now, Sylas' competitors were burning through the stamina and reserves in ways they usually wouldn't... while he was leisurely keeping up pace without expending nearly the same amount of energy.
...
The second step and the third step were practically the same. The Level of the wolves didn't change. Instead, the number of them, and the speed with which they spawned and recovered was greater. In addition, the second step spawned two wolves from the very beginning, while the third step spawned three, making it a bit trickier to handle.
However, now that Sylas knew what he was aiming for, he didn't hesitate or pause. In fact, he only got better at dispersing and disrupting the Runes.
He fused his Rune Soul control with his telekinesis, applying the same concepts he had learned during his battle with the snail in order to make his disruption sharper and more violent.
His telekinesis seemed to give his Rune Soul control more substance, and it was then that Sylas realized that Rune Soul was actually an application of his Charisma and probably scaled with the stat as well.
When he realized this, his comprehension seemed to deepen and the fourth step was somehow even easier than the first despite the fact it now had Level 6 wolves.
Sylas charged
all the way up until he cleared the ninth step.
The world swirled around him and he found himself locked in a transparent barrier he wasn't
allowed to leave.
But there was no one else around him.
He had gotten here first.