"You know we have ears, right?" Mira teased, smirking. "The wind tried its best, but your b*tchy screams can’t be mistaken for anything else."
"That was Jojo’s cry... she feared for my life."
Arthur coughed and swiftly switched the subject after noticing everyone’s unconvinced looks.
"Sir, I think it’s time for them to ascend the rope." He grinned.
Tyrese and the others gave him an annoyed look, but he didn’t care... Dominic took his side and forced the other two teams to ascend the rope and fight against each other.
As for Levi’s team and the passed-out Ashen Tribunal squad? Shelby used his authority to bring them down.
"Not a bad save... now, you don’t have to be afraid of falling during the real game."
Levi praised his little brother the moment he landed next to him.
Seeing the extended fist, even when Arthur was annoyed to be tested like this, he could never ignore a fist bump from his brother.
"Tsk, you could have warned me at least."
"Where is the fun in that?"
Jojo smiled in enjoyment while showing Arthur an edit of his fall on repeat... Arthur’s eyelids twitched for a moment, but then he smirked, "To make an edit of me while hanging upside down, you sure do like me... am I the only one on your mind?"
"You’re on my mind, alright, but for the wrong reasons..."
Jojo sneered, but then she realized that what she said made it much worse... Before she could explain herself, Arthur replayed her words over and over again with a slight modification to her voice, making it seem like she wanted him to do something naughty to her.
"Delete your edit, or this goes on your social media profile."
"You won’t dare."
"Don’t test me, woman." Arthur narrowed his eyes, "I cultivated a heroic image on social media and won’t allow you to ruin it."
"Argh... you’re so annoying!" Jojo huffed in irritation while erasing the edit, "You’re lucky Sir Dominic is around."
"Heh... sure."
Arthur knew that Jojo had gotten much stronger after her latest evolution, but so had he... even if she was a Psych Specialist, his subconscious barrier was tough enough to handle her after his latest mutation, which had primarily enhanced his spiritual defenses.
It was like with each perfect evolution, the Shadowlife Seed ensured to prioritize his glaring weaknesses during the evolution... with Khu’zan’s dormant connection to the Nine Gemheart Royal Families, each perfect evolution awarded him access to a Gemheart.
His path was more or less similar to Levi’s Nine Senses evolutionary path... and it was going to get much better after the Titan transformed his Shadowlife Seed into an Origin Seed.
While Jojo and Arthur started bickering over who would defeat the other, Levi and the girls ignored them and focused on Tyrese’s and Evangeline’s teams... they had just ascended the rope and were slowly treading in the direction of its center.
As for the Ashen Tribunal team? They were taken away by Shelby to be awakened.
"Who do you think will win?" Shia asked, chilling next to Levi with a pink popsicle in her mouth.
"I genuinely don’t know..." Levi shook his head, "Neither of them has practical options to prolong their stay on top of the rope... they have to play it much safer than us, and it changes the dynamic of the battle."
"True." Nurah nodded in agreement.
Their battle against the Ashen Tribunal went so smoothly because the other team was putting the majority of their focus on remaining on the rope. Meanwhile, Levi had linked everyone with his aetheric chains and left them to fight freely, unafraid of falling.
This gave them an immense environmental advantage.
As expected, when the two teams finally met, their battle was as ugly as it could get... Tyrese had gotten himself drunk and rolled down the edges of the rope three times, saved by his teammates each time.
Though that was a good trade-off, as his drunkenness got rid of something called fear... without fear, he terrorized Evangeline’s team, who were forced to deal with an unstoppable juggernaut on top of a spinning rope.
Still, Evangeline got creative with her powers and found new ways to make her teammates fight at ease, restoring the balance.
After the battle had gone on for around fifteen minutes, and more than six Daywalkers fell into the abyss just to be saved by Shelby, Dominic concluded the battle.
"I know this is your first time... but it’s not good enough," Dominic said solemnly. "Only a handful of you... along with Levi’s team... are the ones I currently have full confidence in to survive the Death Game. Keep this in mind: you will be called on at random, which means you must learn how to survive the game’s design and the nightcrawlers’ onslaught on your own."
"We have around ten days in the Boundless Expanse... and I want each one of you to create a technique or figure out a method to win against the game’s design... only then can you truly focus on defeating the Conquerors."
No one showed any hint of dissatisfaction with being given homework to do... after ascending the spinning rope and fighting on top of it, they realized just how brutal it was going to be for them during the real game.
Especially the Ashen Tribunal’s team, who were taking glances in the direction of Levi’s team after that one-sided beatdown.
It made them understand that it was nearly impossible to fight at full strength if they had to worry about falling off every second.
"What about artifacts? We are allowed to bring in one." Tyrese wondered, "I doubt I can create a technique to help me... but an artifact might."
"It should be a last resort option... You can bring only one artifact, and I prefer it to be an armor type." Dominic disclosed.
"My body is my armor." Tyrese smiled, "I am getting it."
Dominic shooed him away with his hand and addressed the rest, who didn’t have the same confidence in their physical strength as Tyrese.
After he finished, he manifested a screen with the four chosen nightcrawlers’ nests to represent the Conqueror’s faction. They had extra details after Dominic’s subordinates did thorough research on each nightcrawler.
It appeared as such:
//Nest Rank: Shadow Castle. Nest Leader: Kaeh’thos (Tier 4) ((Poison Elementalist) Leader’s Conqueror Rank: Invader Conquest Team: Orry’Xel (Hired Blade Mercenary), Thrae’Mok (Shadow Mercenary), Sil’Kharon (Poison Elementalist), Deyss’Vael (Poison Elementalist), Rakk’Thuun (Poison Elementalist) Conquest Team Name: The Law Defiers. Successful Defenses: Zero. Territory Size: Forty-six square kilometers.//
//Nest Rank: Shadow Castle. Nest Leader: Xorr’Vaedryn (Tier 4) (Void Wyvern) Leader’s Conqueror Rank: Invader Conquest Team: Sael’Drakk (Undead Chimera), Neth’Korr (Undead Chimera), Vyss’Arael (Undead Chimera), Jor’Thyrek (Hired Blade Mercenary), Molg’Vess (Undead Chimera) Conquest Team Name: The Undead Summoners. Successful Defenses: Two. Territory Size: Thirty-eight square kilometers.//
//Nest Rank: Shadow Castle. Nest Leader: Vael’Thyssar (Tier 4) (Plague Crow) Leader’s Conqueror Rank: Invader Conquest Team: Korr’Zhael (Plague Crow), Myrr’Dovek (Plague Crow), Shyraxx (Plague Crow), Ul’Khethis (Plague Crow), Brax’Morr (Shadow Mercenary) Conquest Team Name: The Black Crow Legion. Successful Defenses: Three. Territory Size: Forty-four square kilometers.//
//Nest Rank: Shadow Castle. Nest Leader: Nyr’Kalloth (Tier 4) (Abyssal Basilisk) Leader’s Conqueror Rank: Invader Conquest Team: Vel’Syrr (Abyssal Basilisk), Drae’Nok (Abyssal Basilisk), Ithra’Kel (Abyssal Basilisk), Mor’Zyph (Shadow Mercenary), Khelt’Ruun (Abyssal Basilisk) Conquest Team Name: The Basilisk Order. Successful Defenses: One. Territory Size: Thirty-one square kilometers.//
"As you can see, there are two Hired Blades and three Shadow Mercenaries." Dominic said solemnly, "We don’t have information on the Hired Blades, as this might be their first Death Game to join as mercenaries... still, you should be careful of them."
"Shadow mercenaries are the real trouble, though." Evangeline frowned, "These kinds of mercenaries are extremely dangerous... their rank implies that they have won more than seven Death Games."
"Seven Death Games as mercenaries... damn." Arthur remarked with a side glance directed at Shelby, "The Duskbound Order sure is investing heavily in this event."
Arthur wanted to make a joke at the expense of the Solar Aegis Sanctuary for not putting the same amount of effort into the event... but he knew better.
"Mercenaries aside, the Nest leaders and their teammates aren’t weaklings at all." Dominic shared while highlighting their specific information.
Most Raiders were left taken aback to see that all the nightcrawlers were at Tier 4. Not a single one of them was Tier 3, which should have technically messed with the nests’ hierarchy.
After all, nightcrawler nests operated on a strict hierarchy based on strength... how could another Tier 4 nightcrawler respect the orders of a nightcrawler with a similar tier?
"These nests weren’t created natively by random nightcrawlers banding together for survival under a strict hierarchy system." Dominic explained, "They are elite squads under direct support and investment from the Duskbound Order... their main purpose is to win the Great Campaign or any type of event between the factions... why do you think we have won the Great Campaign only once for a whole century? The Duskbound Order knows that if they allow irregular nightcrawler nests to be the only ones joining the event, they will never win it, considering that they follow a strict strength-based hierarchy, where the leader is always the strongest."
Most Raiders nodded with grim expressions... they already had a feeling that the chosen nightcrawler nests for the event wouldn’t follow the norm.
Otherwise, these kinds of nests couldn’t take down a full team of Warden Daywalkers with a bunch of Tier 3 nightcrawlers. They would be forced to rely too much on mercenaries to bulk up their strength, and as much as Conqueror-based mercenaries were available and much cheaper to hire, they wouldn’t be enough to help them win the Great Campaign.
"So... trust me when I tell you that we don’t have room for jokes or messing around." Dominic warned sternly, his gaze landing briefly on Arthur and Jojo, "If you don’t work your hardest in these ten days to prepare for the game, I can assure you that half of you might not make it, even if we win."
"Understood?"
"Yes, Sir!"