Chapter 253: Purging the Island

The big fortress faded from in front of us along with everyone who was standing there, and the view was replaced by a stretch of long green grass that reached our knees, trees surrounded us from every direction with the dark roots sticking out of the ground and tangling together.

"Hoo..." I let out a breath and let my sense expand in every direction, consuming the forest and everything in it... but even so it didn’t reach the edges of the island where it overlooks the ocean... and with some estimating it turned out we were roughly in the middle of the island.

The forest was full of monsters, most of them only Rank 2.

Behind me the voices of the group started rising in tension, and with them the clatter of weapons.

"I saw something moving over there."

"Calm down, or you might hit me with that weapon of yours..."

"Why is this place so cramped."

Without turning around to look, I felt the chaotic movements of this small crowd of tense teenagers, but the next moment Ellen’s voice rose over them.

"Everyone calm down please!"

The group settled down while Ellen looked at me and asked, "How are things around us?"

I shrugged. "Good, there aren’t many monsters and most of them are weak, just Rank 2 and only a few Rank 3."

Some of them got tense when I said that as they complained in an audible whisper. "Just Rank 3?"

Well, that was understandable, after all most of the people here were at the peak of Rank 2 and the start of Rank 3... Ellen and I, plus Leona and Kyle were at advanced Rank 3... as for Izel she also looks like she’s a step away from catching up to us, while Garon and Ivan were at intermediate.

So yeah, Rank 3 monsters were dangerous for most of them... on top of the fact that not everyone has abilities, or abilities that are useful in a fight.

Ellen nodded, her voice echoing in the place for everyone to hear. "Alright then, we’ll do what we planned beforehand... we purge this island first and use it as a base."

Everyone respected Ellen, and Elliot too... I mean they didn’t exactly like me.

"So, let’s start."

...

In a wide room full of screens many people sat running the current broadcast and editing anything before it got sent out, keeping in mind there were four separate broadcasts each one showing the movement of one group... one Empire.

The first twenty-four hours would be broadcast live, while the other days would become like long clips carrying the best moments of the tournament.

And because it was impossible to film every island and every person on it, only the best shots and the ones that covered the most were picked.

Actually, the first part wasn’t the most in demand to watch in the whole history of the Game of Kings, usually everyone prefers the individual matches in the finals, where people crowd into the stands.

Many Awakened were spread along the islands, most of them around Rank 5 in strength, not to mention the Kings in the fortress... all of them were ready to step in when things were about to get complicated.

And now everyone was watching the four delegations start working... each one of them had been moved to a separate island picked at random.

The Solaria delegation split into ten teams of ten people and spread out across the island led by their elite, they slaughtered everything that crossed their paths, purging the island in the first half of the day... even before the sun passed the middle of the sky.

And the other Empires didn’t show any less performance... all of them finished their areas in the first half of the day.

But this was only the beginning... and every beginning is easy.

...

"Hmm... I think your architecture level has gone downhill, what a disappointment!" I stood staring at the building that appeared out of nowhere... or specifically out of the ground, made of rocks and packed dirt.

Its shape was square and simple, divided into several rooms inside, enough for everyone to sleep comfortably without feeling like they’re being watched.

And this was the same place we appeared in for the first time in the morning, which is the middle of the island.

"Can you just shut up!" Elliot shouted with obvious annoyance, the ground opening in front of his foot forming a small hole about a meter deep.

I clicked my tongue. "Tsk... still disappointing."

He pulled out a yellow rod about two meters long with a spherical base at its end, for a moment it looked like he was about to hit my head with it. But in the end, he put the spherical part inside the hole and ordered the ground to close around the rod which left only half of it outside.

That was our own purging marker... it would work to scan the island and verify our success before the points get counted.

I stared at my watch where the results of our team and the groups were displayed.

[Auerlion]

[Points: 10 — Islands: 1]

[Erebus]

[Points: 10 — Islands: 1]

[Luminar]

[Points: 0 — Islands: 0]

[Solaria]

[Points: 0 — Islands: 0]

There were no individual points or anything like that, and ours hadn’t been counted yet because that rod needs some time to let us know if the purging was successful or not.

Some of the students were just coming back from the forest that had become shattered and torn apart because of us, dirt covering them while blood stuck to their exhausted faces... it was a whole half day of running and fighting without stopping.

"This is so disgusting!" A girl wiped the blood off her face with a nauseated expression.

"I felt like I was going to die out there."

I looked at the fallen trees and the torn roots... the forest around us had become shattered and torn apart, you could see the smoke rising in the distance and the remains of some dead monsters.

Ellen came closer with Emeris who had her hands behind her back, both of them looked very clean, like they’d been on a walk in the wilderness instead of just coming back from a battle.

Ellen looked at the rod planted in the ground before she looked at me. "Hasn’t Kyle come back yet?"

I pointed in a certain direction inside the tree line. "He’s coming."

It only took a few seconds for Kyle to come out of there in silence, no rustling leaves or sound of footsteps and not even the slightest trace of his presence... except his soul.

Ellen nodded. "Alright then, let’s gather inside when everyone’s done cleaning up."

...

When the sun passed the middle of the sky and started disappearing behind the tree line toward the west, the island had been officially purged and we got ten points, like the rest of the groups.

We hadn’t planned to move toward any other island today... that would’ve been very rushed and stupid, to start running without planning or knowing exactly where the other groups are.

So, while everyone was killing monsters here and there, Kyle was scouting and locating the other Empires and their performance in the fights.

And now that everyone had gathered in the building Elliot made... and let me say, being inside dirt walls with a hundred people wasn’t comfortable.

But we weren’t here to be comfortable of course, everyone had to hear Kyle’s short report.

"There are six islands next to ours. Auerlion is on the island to our north, only a few hundred meters separate us along with some small islands that connect these places, as for Erebus, they’re in the western direction and a whole island the size of this one separates us, and finally Luminar and they’re also in the far west right after Erebus." Kyle’s voice echoed off the dirt walls, sitting on one of the chairs Elliot made.

And from what he came back with, Auerlion were like tanks, sweeping through everything around them and crushing it, they didn’t have good organization and most of them looked chaotic, but in terms of speed and general strength of the individuals they were clearly superior to us.

As for Erebus, they were careful in purging the island and saving their energy, avoiding any risk of unnecessary injuries at the start... though he added something about them being too relaxed.

Luminar wasn’t visible to him unfortunately because of the islands blocking them, so when he finished going over that silence fell for a bit until Izel spoke as she tapped on the table.

"So do you guys think they’ll launch an attack on us?"

I opened my mouth before anyone else did. "I don’t think they’re stupid enough to even think about that." She looked like she felt insulted as she scowled.

Two groups can’t fight each other on the first day, not to mention it would eliminate many people from both sides and give the others the advantage, so there’s no point in it... I mean there are no purged islands to steal or anything like that.

So yeah, that’s the stupidest thing you could do.

"So, what do we do next?" Someone asked from somewhere in a quiet, shy voice.

And while a moment of silence fell... or quiet because it’s impossible for a hundred people in one room to go silent.

I raised my finger pointing at the ceiling... or specifically at what’s beyond it.

"We’re going to climb straight up to the higher levels."