The battlefield had become unrecognizable.
Beasts the size of towers rampaged across the cracked, burning ground—each one a nightmare given form. One had molten horns, its breath melting steel. Another, with serrated stone armor, crushed bones with a single step. One let out a roar so deep, the vibrations burst a nearby participant's skull from sheer pressure.
Screams echoed. Blood painted the soil. The air was thick with death and heat.
Among the chaos, some warriors stood apart—not just surviving, but dominating.
---
The Beast Whisperer – Kenjiro
A participant stood calmly amidst three towering monsters.
His arms were outstretched, his fingers twitching like a puppeteer's.
The beasts snarled… and stopped. Their rage faded.
One bowed.
Kenjiro smirked, his white eyes glowing faintly. "Why fight the chaos… when you can own it?"
He turned toward a charging warrior, who barely had time to scream before the beasts pounced—tearing him apart with claws that moved faster than blades.
---
The Iron Wall – Dairo
A young boy sat in meditation—unmoving.
Beasts tried to reach him, but every time they got close, they slammed into an invisible wall, their bodies torn apart by the recoil.
Above him floated four hexagonal runes, each pulsing like a heart.
His voice was cold. "You think survival is luck?"
A massive beast tried again.
He stood, lifted a single palm—and whispered, "Then break through this."
BOOM!
The beast was obliterated mid-air, nothing left but chunks and smoke.
---
The LIGHT – Jin
A blur zipped across the battlefield.
A beast roared, then suddenly paused—its throat spilling blood.
Another raised its head—and it was gone.
SLASH.
Five more collapsed before anyone even saw the strike.
Jin reappeared mid-air, flipping his blade casually. "Still too slow."
A warrior turned toward him, panic rising. "W-what are you?!"
Jin just grinned. "Light doesn't wait."
And vanished again.
---
The Berserker – Ryogo
A warrior stood alone—five beasts circled him, foaming with rage.
He cracked his neck.
"Come."
They charged.
He didn't dodge.
He met them head-on—catching two jaws in his bare hands and ripping them apart. Blood sprayed like a storm as he punched through one's skull and used its corpse as a club.
"ONE!"
He spun, knocking two more back, before screaming like a demon.
"TWO!!"
He was drenched in blood—none of it his.
---
The Shadow General – Shouma
One man raised both arms.
All around him—shadows rippled. Then—
A hundred shadow warriors rose.
Each armed. Each deadly.
They rushed forward like a swarm, tearing into beasts and participants alike.
From behind, Shouma whispered, "I'm not alone…"
He grinned.
"…I'm an army."
---
The Creator – Tetsuya
He knelt, touching the ground.
The earth shook—and from it, beasts emerged. But not wild ones—exact replicas of the ones in the arena.
Stone for skin. Fire for breath.
They followed his command like hounds.
"Playtime's over," Tetsuya whispered, eyes gleaming.
His copies and the real monsters clashed, roaring as the ground split open beneath them.
---
Meanwhile, Yukato and Hiroshi were still fighting side by side. But the pressure was building. A massive beast struck Yukato hard, hurling him back into a pillar.
Blood sprayed.
Hiroshi spun toward him. "Yukato!"
But Yukato wiped his lip and stood.
"I'm fine… damn it—" he coughed, "—I told you not to help me!"
Hiroshi growled. "You were about to get crushed!"
"I don't care!"
Yukato raised his sword.
"You think I need saving? Don't mock me!"
Another beast charged.
Yukato didn't dodge. He sprinted forward, letting out a roar and plunging his blade through the beast's mouth, slicing it from inside.
As it collapsed, Yukato turned back to Hiroshi.
"We're not brothers right now. We're rivals."
Hiroshi smirked, eyes glowing blue.
"…Then don't hold back
The battlefield had become a graveyard of ambition.
Blood soaked the sands. The air reeked of burnt flesh, scorched armor, and twisted magic. Roars from the monstrous beasts echoed like war drums, shaking the ground itself.
A massive stone beast, its three heads crowned with twisted horns and molten eyes, smashed its fists into the earth—crushing two participants who screamed for their lives… until they were nothing but red mist.
Another competitor screamed, "WHY AREN'T THEY DYING?! I CUT THROUGH ITS NECK TWICE!"
A voice nearby responded, half-broken, half-laughing, "Because they're not alive to begin with!"
Near the southern flank, a boy stood in eerie stillness. The beasts ran past him—uncaring. One of them even kneeled before him. He smiled. Dark markings crawled across his face.
"They're listening to me… because they're cursed souls like me," he whispered.
"Obey," he commanded. The beast leapt at another participant.
A few paces away, a girl encased herself in a dome of spinning crystal shards. No matter what attacked, it shattered before touching her.
"I'm not just defending," she muttered, "I'm waiting for them to kill each other… and then I'll move."
In the center, a blur moved like lightning—Jin. His form flickered in and out of sight, blades of pure light slicing across the beasts' legs and torsos. Sparks flew.
One of the observers gasped, "Is that guy even human?"
Elsewhere, a lone warrior howled like a beast himself. With his bare hands and an obsidian sword clenched between his teeth, he battled five of the stone creatures at once. Roars, blood, shattered bones—it all blurred into a frenzy.
"COME ON, YOU STINKING ANIMALS!" he yelled, slamming his knee into one's jaw while plunging his blade into another's eye.
To the west, another warrior had conjured a hundred shadows, each wielding a blade—an army from a single soul. They leapt in perfect unison, slashing at the incoming beasts.
Above it all, a cloaked figure raised both arms. "Arise."
The very land around him began to change—beasts started emerging from the ground itself, identical to the real ones.
Participants turned in horror.
"Are those real or…?!"
"Replica beasts?!" another shouted. "What the hell is this guy?!"
---
Amid the Blood & Sand — Strategic Pause
Yukato, panting, slid beside Hiroshi as three beasts collapsed behind him—injured but still moving.
Yukato wiped the blood from his mouth. "This isn't working, bro."
Hiroshi, eyes sharp, nodded slowly. "They don't die."
"They regenerate. Even if we cut off their limbs, they reattach. Even if we burn them, they rise again," Yukato growled.
"So… what's the trick?" Hiroshi muttered, glaring at the beasts still charging toward others.
Yukato lowered his sword slightly. "They don't feel pain. They don't bleed. They're designed not to die."
Then his voice dropped to a whisper.
"They're testing our minds. Our will."
Hiroshi nodded. "They aren't just monsters. They're living illusions of pressure. Whoever breaks… dies."
---
Elsewhere — Participant Thoughts
> "My fire doesn't work… my sword doesn't pierce… this can't be brute force…"
"They want us to think this is a battle of power—but it's a battle of sanity."
"If I hesitate, I'm dead. If I retreat, I'm dead. If I doubt, I'm dead."
A participant, already half-mad, screamed into the sky, "WHAT ARE YOU?!"
One beast answered with a roar that shattered his bones with pure sound.
He fell.
Silence followed