Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

“Warrior\'s Challenge?” Leana asked interested. The Lyca said it, it sounded like a skill, but she had never heard of it.

“It is one of the blessings of Ares. There is nothing to gain when fighting a weaker opponent with overwhelming strength. <Warrior\'s Challenge allows us to adapt to the surrounding power level, so we may learn more in competing in skill, not brawn,” she preached.

This explanation had all of them heave a sigh of relief. To do it one needed the blessing of Hades to begin with and it truly suppressed the power, not just hid it. Seth had no reason to doubt the Amazon\'s words for now. This meant there was nothing unfair about her participation, but he still felt like this added and new worry for them

What if there were other, less fair, skills they didn\'t know of, that allowed people to hide their true level from appraisal skills? There could already be people who infiltrated the cities... On the other hand, such skills couldn\'t be very common. On the other hand, the system was usually fair, at least superficially. Like Lyca\'s, such skills had to come at a price.

But it wasn\'t wrong to be prepared for the possibility of someone sabotaging them from the inside.

...

“Welcome to the sixth day of our great Pythian games!” Umi Kaldrops excitedly called out to the audience. She stood on a platform on a dome, that covered the center of the stadium.

“As you can see, our arena is empty today, because we will be holding the great obstacle race over the next two days!” She waved her hand and a magical holograph appeared on the dome. It showed a model of the landscape southwest of Little Gamma.

“The race is being held outside of Little Gamma and leads our over 3000 participants through a prepared route across the mountains of Minas Mar. During their journey, the whole race will be recorded by golem drones for everyone here to watch,” she explained, as the model showed the simplified route of the race.

While most people would have to watch the race on the big screens and the central hologram, People in the more expensive seats also had personal screens that allowed them to choose who to watch themselves.

“In the following two days, you will be able to witness a race, unique across Chrona. As mentioned in the promotional material, it is a race where everything goes! There are only two simple rules:

Firstly: Do not purposely kill your opponents. This is not a martial competition.

Secondly: You are disqualified if your body cam is destroyed and the golem drones lose sight of you. Only those who were recorded without break, are eligible to win.”

While the announcer explained, her voice was also projected to the participants at the starting line outside the city. The hologram now showed the crowd of runners taking positions on a vast snowy mountain plateau. The starting line was indicated by a barrier shining in a cold blue.

But what can they win? Apart from the honor and publicity, the first place will be allowed to choose a Relic from Minas Mar and will receive 250 Gold in addition to that. Second Place will gain an epic item and 150 Gold. Third place will be able to choose between an epic item and 50 gold, or 150 gold,” she explained the motivation of the participants.

As she explained the rules and prices, Polter, Megan, Twinkle Rainborn, the goblin shaman of their former team who had arrived just yesterday, were focusing their personal screens on a participant of the runners field, that was currently taking position.

The participant they focused on was the Dragon Knight Caleb, seated on his Wyvern. He wasn\'t the only one with a mounted profession that promised himself an advantage in the race. Almost everyone was either mountain on some kind of beast or using a vehicle.

Polter would have liked to compete again with Caleb, the last meal had been especially delicious, since someone else paid. However, he wasted on cross-country. Dwarves were more like natural sprinters. Very dangerous over short distances. Polter rather chose to watch the race than take part in it.

“Many routes lead through these mountains and their journey all depends on their speed and decision-making,” Umi said without explaining any further, but she seemed to imply that there was more than met the eye. To the audience, it seemed clear that people on a mount or vehicle had an advantage, but was that true?

...

Seth looked at the starting line, strewn with exotic mounts and items. The people from the Voracious Cloud Continent were especially flamboyant. Unlike the players of the system and demon who were mostly using mounts, the preferred method of travel for cultivators was actually standing on their sword and levitating it.

If there was anything comparable to the cultivators standing on their swords, it was probably many of the wizards and mages, sitting on their staff or a broom. Compared to mounts and vehicles these probably had more maneuverability.

However, not all of them chose their weapon as a foothold, there were various designs of flying vehicles, that resembled what some of the players had, too. Some really extraordinary people still found a way to stand out by riding other objects like clouds or flags.

Once all of them had gotten into their starting positions decided by lottery, a traffic light counted down to the beginning, before a massive fireball was cast by Jess, who was at the location. At the signal, the field of people rushed forward and immediately began dispersing.

While the runners on the ground stayed a more or less coherent crowd until the left the plateau and entered the mountains, those on flying mounts separated from them as just after the starting line, taking to the sky.

Wyverns, eagles, various exotic, giant birds and winged monsters, brooms, swords, flying carriages, immortal shuttles, levitating discs, and clouds competed for the top spots in the sky. Early on, the flying swords and brooms, as well as the occasional disc, instantly accelerated to the head of the crowd.

Right from the start, the audience was given a great show, as nobody waited long to start fighting and sabotaging each other. After all, the rules only stated that killing was forbidden. Slinging spells and swinging swords, it was the leading positions hampering each other\'s process.

While people, blood, and severed limbs fell from the sky, the crowd on the ground wasn\'t better. Traveling at incredible speed, the viewers were able to witness high-speed battles that only lasted seconds.

Only half of the people participating even managed to leave the plateau on their own two legs. The rest dispersed into the mountains, where various routes of various levels of danger would allow them to reach the goal of the first stage.

Depending on what path they choose, they might see the winner of stage one as early as three hours later. Wrong choices could very well leave them in need of a high-ranked healer or potion. After all, Mina and the others had spent the last weeks to prepare the obstacle race.

Not only had they worked hard to herd powerful, high-ranking, or difficult monsters of the mountain range onto this small stretch they used as the race track, but they had also set various traps all across the snow, caves, forests, and skies.

Knowing what was to come, nobody in Minas Mar\'s booth was worried about the people flying in the skies. If anything, they had made the worst choice...