The core of the arena sensed the key and had to accept it. It needs the key before it can join the full network of arenas. So it opened itself despite knowing that he is there waiting for this exact chance to pounce.
Soverick pounced at the vulnerability that appeared. He dug in and tried to break the defense in one fell swoop. His efforts were not enough. The other arena spirits helped in resisting him. He only got halfway through. His progress was delayed by their defense so the key left him behind. Then the vulnerability closed up faster than he could take full advantage of it.
He sighed and said to himself. "This will have to do for now. One more and I'll get my price."
One more victory and he will finally get through the core of an arena and get the knowledge he craves. He is patient enough to wait for it. The arena spirits won't be able to keep him away for long. The law of order within the core will be his when their defense fails the next time he comes calling.
He turned his attention to his environment. He is in a white world even bigger than the arena for the 2nd challenge. All of the arenas are to join with the others for the 3rd challenge. Only the best 3,000,000 of this challenge will be able to move on to the last challenge. He is not the only one in the arena. There are a few others too. They are the last man standing in their own 2nd challenge. The number of people in the arena will increase when the competition starts.
He chose to sit and meditate. He can't go far or interact with others for now so he decided to focus on the core and get as much advantage as he can.
POV OF The First Sage.
He looked at the third challenge. It is the final challenge for the battle sage monkeys before the two races are joined in battle. Battle sage monkeys think it is the 3rd challenge of the competition. They are wrong. This is the last challenge and where the simple competition ends. The fourth challenge is where the major stakes for the two administrators lie. Everything has gone well up to this point. It is here that problems will start to crop up.
The sage watched all the eliminated competitors in stasis. They will be removed from stasis and transported to the combined arena when the third challenge begins. For now, they are above the arena in their various white worlds.
35 arenas passed the first challenge.
The others who failed to kill the rank 10 monster in their arena were sent to keep Salvos company. They missed the opportunity to increase their feats with the second challenge. So none of them can become the last man standing. Their failure to defeat the rank 10 monster in their arena destined them to be fodder for the second and third challenges. It has made it unlikely that they will be able to fight for the side of the battle sage monkeys in the fourth challenge.
For the ones that defeated the rank 10 monsters, they combined with some arenas for the 2nd challenge. Once every group has acquired a last man, then the third challenge will start. All of the arenas of the battle sage monkeys will be combined for the third challenge. That means all 4.5 million battle sage monkeys will compete now in the same arena.
This combination will bring a lot of problems. The first and major problems are caused by Salvos. He has been kept away from the general populace for now. He was alone in the first challenge so he could go all out and he wouldn't disrupt anything important. Then the failures of the first challenge were sent to keep him company for the second challenge. Theirs is not an enviable experience.
Salvo's arena is the largest in the second challenge with the largest number of competitors. 5 arenas were joined together to form a group for the second challenge which makes a total of 7 arenas and 7 people that became the last man standing since only 35 arenas killed the rank 10 monsters. That left the remaining 10 arenas to be combined with Salvo's arena.
His arena is at least double the size of normal ones. He was up against a million other competitors including 10 other kings. Their numbers, opposition, and schemes of any kind were all for naught. He became the last man standing easily enough. Now he will be in the combined arena for the third challenge and everyone will be forced to suffer his existence.
The first problem will be an increase in the amount of collateral damage because of Salvos. Salvos is indiscriminate with his attacks. All the competitors will be at risk of untimely death. That will ruin the balance of the competition.
The second problem here is that Salvos is too strong for his own good. Apart from his existence being unfair to others, a clash between him and Soverick will surely kill one of them. Those two are too dangerous to be taken lightly or to hold back for during a fight. They will attempt to kill each other swiftly and expediently.
It is a pity because the first sage would like to keep them both. Unfortunately, only one person can have the divine crown. Funny enough, it was his idea to make each race choose a divine crown. It was supposed to strengthen one side while weakening the others considerably.
It was an attempt to reduce the prowess of 8 out of the 9 paragons of the Vipers in exchange for strengthening one of them. It mattered because he had to create a champion to lead the battle sage monkeys. Without a champion, then they will surely lose. In a way, the first sage placed all his eggs in one basket with the divine crown and now it has come to bite him in the ass.