NOVEL NEXT 86. The Final Boss
Of the 917 competitors, only one-third was left. One Void Scout alone was responsible for half the eliminations.
The D-rank monster didn't move very fast. It always pursued the closest person with the same running speed expected of a mortal. If the human didn't run fast enough and the Void Scout reached a proximity threshold, the competitor simply exploded.
There was no indication of how it was done; the target just blew into pieces that quickly turned into motes of light.
Then the Void Scout turned to the next closest one and ran at them.
For a while now, all black lightning bringing Void Spawn had all been striking the center of the arena. Shen was confident his group was the largest and that the lightning was striking the point considered the middle of them. He could confirm Bob's life easily enough, as the D-rank Scout was on Bob's half of the arena, and almost everyone except the archer was running desperately. It was harder to see what was going on the other half of the stage, which was a chaos of people and Void Scouts fighting, but Shen caught glimpses of Evelyn and Alicia now and then.
His arcs were already—
Suddenly, the D-rank looked at the skies and released a terrifying screech. The nine closest people to it all exploded at the same time. Then a blue beam fell from the skies, disintegrating the Void Spawn into nothingness.
It had reached C-rank, then been dealt with.
There was no move to revive the people who had died to the C-rank. They were gone for good and could only blame their lack of agency for not getting as far from the creature as possible.
After it died, there was a moment of stunned silence before chaos returned to the arena.
Shen's arcs were already back to the half of the battlefield where his group had arrived. He always looked back to see if they hadn't missed an agility fighter, and once, he and his companions had. They had retreated to deal with the guy together, to minimize risks, and it had been the right call. Two Void Scouts had rushed to kill him, but he triumphed quickly with his companions, dealt with the agility fighter, and returned to their arcs.
Now, they reached a group of five people with three agility fighters. They engaged, and as usual, Shen killed his opponent, then helped with the others.
Suddenly, a pillar fire descended from the skies on one of the other two in the enemy group, supposedly a mage. He tried to protect himself with an ice barrier, but it was quickly crushed, then he screamed in pain as he was burned alive.
The last remaining member of the enemy group just sighed and looked around before running away.
Shen looked at the mage who had summoned the pillar of fire and was glad to see Alicia. She was together with Evelyn and fifteen others, maybe all the group's remaining mage. That was an impressive number compared to the seven agility fighters the group had had.
Besides the mage, there were also three resistance fighters. Two were in leather armor, holding shields and wielding a mace and a shortsword; the other was Sandra. They were here with the largest group, as Shen had recommended.
"How're things going?" he asked, talking fast. The longer they stayed in there, the greater the chance of everyone else in the group dying and a Void Scout spawning in their midst.
"Fine!" Alicia and Evelyn replied together. They looked at each other for a few seconds until Alicia nodded, conceding to Evelyn, who continued, "We can do a lot together. We're alternating on who attacks and defending and saving willpower. How are things going for you?"
Black lightning fell on the center of the Arena again.
"We accomplished our goal and left Bob on the other side of the arena but lost one," Shen said. "Keep close to the wall, making rounds around the place. Leave the center to the Void. It would be a waste of willpower for you to fight too many of them."
Shen and his helpers constantly moved through the center, but they were quick enough to avoid the Void Spawn most of the time.
"If you meet Bob," he continued, "tell him to join you for extra protection against the Void Spawn. If you meet the strength fighters before us, tell them to do the same thing you're doing. After we finish dealing with the agility fighters, we'll split up among the survivors to help against the Void Spawn too."
Black lightning struck the arena.
"Go!" he yelled and did the same, returning to his arcs.
Things proceeded easily enough from there. His swordsman companion died in a fight against seven agility fighters, but Shen and the daggers-man—he Inspected him for the first time and saw he was called Thomas Hill—won in the end.
Finally, they reached the opposite side of the Arena to where they had left Bob.
Around six hundred lightning bolts had struck the arena since the beginning, making it about ten minutes of stage. Of the six hundred Void Scouts who had materialized, only around two hundred were alive. However, more and more were appearing in the middle, and they were filling the arena, as the competitors did their best to avoid them.
Unfortunately, there was no announcement about scoring a point. Either Shen and Thomas had missed an agility fighter, or the system wouldn't let them know how many points they had until the stage ended.
"Thomas, pick a side and run alongside the wall. I'll go to the other. If we missed any agility fighter, they should be alone. Don't die. I saw how you fight; you can do it."
There were more things they could do to assure all agility fighters were dead, but it would be overkill. Moreover, they needed to help their group. Less than a hundred people remained.
"Alright," Thomas said and picked left. That was the direction they had seen their group's mages. Shen rushed in the opposite direction.
He found no agility enemy. He avoided five Void Scouts and was forced to fight one. About halfway to the other side of the arena, he met a single strength fighter: Scott.
Eight enemy strength fighters surrounded him, who had once more become an avatar of fire. He was fighting them very well, his flames and punches keeping them away from him. However, it was only a matter of time until he fell.
Shen didn't like Scott, but his group might need to score the strength point to pass. Unfortunately, Shen and his attacks couldn't touch the strength enemies. So he did the only thing he could to help; he ran around, attacked three Void Scouts, then lured them to the ones Scott was fighting.
Chaos ensued. Shen took the opportunity to rush to Scott. "Put off your fire! I'll bring you away!" The system had said nothing about touching allies. He hadn't tried doing it before, but it wouldn't cost him anything to try.
"Fuck you!" the boy yelled. "I need no help from no chink!"
Unfortunately, the system translated that.
Shen wasted not even an extra second trying to convince the racist asshole. He turned and kept going, but he knew his group wouldn't score the point for strength.
The number of Void Scouts kept increasing. It was getting hard to go through them with a fight.
At a certain point, Shen was forced to fight three of them. Others approached. He did his best to escape but failed repeatedly. He had the wall to one side, and a dozen Void Scouts formed concentric half-circles on the other. Whenever he found an opening out of the inner half-circle, he was stopped at the outer half-circle, and they rearranged their positioning to surround him. He was forced to go back to the wall.
He gave up after enough tries and filled his body with Combat Qi.
He could only do his best to survive.
Shen's qi reserves were about to hit rock bottom.
He had been fighting for a long time. More than twenty Scouts prevented him from leaving the wall now, three of them constantly locked in battle against him. Shen did his best to dodge and deflect, but they were as fast or even faster than him, forcing him to spend his qi to survive. He used the energy in bursts, only when needed, to save some.
But it was a downhill battle. Within the next few minutes, his qi would be gone, and he would follow suit.
Or maybe not.
Blue mana beams descended from the skies, striking all Void Spawn in the arena, turning them into harmless smoke.
Shen saw Alicia, Evelyn, a panting Thomas, and five mages to one side of the arena; the resistance fighters were gone. Two strangers were on another side, and a guy was isolated like Shen.
Two points. His group had two points. If the three people were from the same group, it would all come down to who had scored first.
And it looked like they were from the same country. Their faces resembled Shen's own, especially on the eyes. They were glaring at him.
Tutorial - Final Stage
Results:
United States of America: 2 points - Agility and Magic
China: 2 points - Strength and Resistance
His fears were confirmed. Did they win? Did they lose?
Tutorial - Final Stage
The participants in the agility stat scored first.
The sixteen-year-olds of the United States of America have won.
| Stage clear reward: +20,000 AP
| Total AP: 173,212 AP
"Traitor!" one of the Chinese roared. "We'll kill you! We'll find you and—"
Light surrounded them all.
Shen materialized back on the grasslands.
He was inside a blue circle drawn on the ground, a couple of dozen yards wide. About a thousand people inside circles just like his formed a gigantic circle around an enormous circle around a big pile of what looked like metallic rocks. It was like a small mountain. The people were of all ages, not just sixteen-year-olds, and if their looks were any indication, they also hailed from all remaining countries in the tutorial.
Those were the elite of the world, the ones who had reached the final boss of the final stage.
Shen had materialized wearing his usual G-tier robe and holding the E- spear he had brought previously. His spoils of war were also beside him. It seemed there would be no half-measures on this stage.
Suddenly, the earth trembled, and the air was filled with the sound of metal scraping on metal.
The mountain was moving.
It uncoiled, and a limb appeared, then another, and a third and a fourth, and a fifth and a sixth. Soon, in the center of the stage stood a monstrous metal golem over three hundred feet tall with four arms and glowing blue eyes that seemed to release a mist.
Shen didn't even have to use Inspect for a red health bar to appear above its head.
| Titanic Metal Golem (D) | 50,000 / 50,000 HP
Tutorial - Final Stage - Final Boss
In front of you stands an old weapon of war.
Titanic metal golems have strength, agility, and resistance equivalent to D-. They can't kill any Void Spawn, but they can hinder the Void's advance. They are also useful against more mundane enemies.
1,322 people remain in this tutorial. None of you are D-ranks. You have no chance of ever killing this golem without assistance.
Thus, we've created weak spots to help you defeat it.
Each weak spot is exclusive to a stat.
Strength fighters will deal extra damage to it by striking its feet. There's no secret to it, do your best, but beware of its retaliation.
Agility fighters must strike specific spots on its neck. Floating steps will ascend to create a path for you.
Magic fighters will deal extra damage to its heart area. It's that simple.
Resistant fighters will deal extra damage simply by protecting others. However much damage you take will be returned to the final boss.
You can see your relevant weak spot as red circles.
D- stats. Shen didn't think it would be as simple to damage the golem—or even survive—as the system suggested.
Shen was an agility fighter, so red circles appeared on the sides of the golem's very, very short neck.
At the same time, the grass shattered, and thousands of tiny islands barely large enough for one foot started floating around the golem; they were the way to reach the neck's weak spots.
Tutorial - Final Stage - Final Boss
Participation points will be calculated based on damage dealt either directly, through an attack, or indirectly, by providing assistance that helps someone else deal damage.
Your participation points will be visible above your head for everyone.
There will be no damage return on friendly fire.
The one person of each age group who has the most participation points when the golem falls will become a Pioneer.
You can die during the fight. If that happens, you'll be teleported back to your circle, and your participation points will be reset.
If the golem dies while every fighter of a stat from an age group has died, the one who had the most points before death will be picked as a winner.
Every time all participants are in their respective circles, the fight will reset. You will be given ten seconds to join the next fight or not. Those who don't accept will remain safely locked inside their circles.
You have three months. If you don't kill the final boss until then, Earth will have no Pioneers.
Shen sighed.
So there were two final bosses.
The easy one was a fifty-yard-tall D-rank war weapon of pure metal that they couldn't damage without taking advantage of artificially generated weak spots.
The much harder one was human greed.