Chapter 2132: Puppet
*BOOM*
Sam felt the punch on his spine. He was sent flying like an arrow from a bow. He landed a few meters way and then rolled on the ground for a couple of meters. By the time he came to stop, he was already surrounded by a bunch of people all brandishing their weapons.
The guy with the buff made his way forward.
He lead the attack while Sam tried his best to defend himself.
A few minutes later, Raios once again felt it. Another ominous feeling. He could also see where the possible spawning spot is, so he kicked on Sam's chest, sending him flying in that particular direction.
Just like that he caught another handicap.
"FUCK YEAH!"
Raios punched the air in excitement like a little kid and attacked Sam with new found vigour. At that moment, Sam is suffering from an energy handicap. He is unable to circulate energy as freely as he wanted and the sudden change left him a bit defenseless.
"This is great." He muttered to himself, but the others heard it as well. They believed Sam is in trouble and the onslaught continued.
As they lost themselves in the high of beating the shit out of the top ranker, the debuff disappeared. Sam who was lying on the floor suddenly punched the ground and threw himself into the air. He caught a hold of one of the opponents and attacked.
His arm directly went through that guy's shoulder.
He used that shoulder as pivot and broke the neck of him. At the same time, Raios jumped to a different location and caught a hold of the popup that came there.
The moment he did, a specter manifested near him.
He could feel its connection with him. At that time, it became a part of him and he knew how to use it like its his own arm.
The battle continued just like that.
Raios predicting the appearance of the pop-ups. When it is perk, he would either take it or 'accidentally' make his teammates take it. He was smart enough to understand that showing off by taking more would make him the next target after Sam.
So, he played it safe.
And long story short, as time passed the participants managed to do something that they didn't think was possible.
That was corner Sam into a miserable state. He stood at the corner of the formation with his arm broken, a couple of ribs fractured, clothes ragged and the flesh covered in bruises from top to bottom.
"I am going to pay you back for this."
With those words, he surrendered and disappeared.
An ominous silence resonated in the dome after his disappearance. The silence that felt so threatening and violent at the same time, but there was no visible change in the dome's atmosphere.
"We did it."
Raios muttered almost like a whisper as if he couldn't believe it himself. As if he is afraid that if he spoke out loud the surroundings will disappear in a whisper and he will wake up from a dream.
Even if Sam was repeatedly stuck with handicaps, even though he was outnumbered by one to many, even though he felt like it was very unreal, they still managed to deal with him. They might not be able to kill him, but they really did defeat him.
He surrendered.
Voluntarily with some help.
*BOOM*
Once the shock settled inn, all hell broke loose.
They started attacking.
By now it is obvious who is going to win and the story didn't change one bit. Raios used the massive advantage he held to defeat the others one by one. He killed some, defeated some. Once they were all gone, he sat down in the middle of the dome while panting heavily like his life depended on it. Even with all the advantages he held, he felt a bit troubled dealing with all of them.
He couldn't even understand how Sam held out for so long on his own.
It felt like an impossible task.
But now that's done, there is something else waiting for me.
"Congratulations, Mr. Raios. You are the top candidate of this test. Now you have the final test. If you clear it, your current reward will be multiplied by ten, or the reward will stay the same. However, you do not have the option to not take the test.
You have to and you shall go through it."
That was announcement and the next moment, the blue orb started glowing. Raios felt his whole body enveloped with that blue light. He started healing, but his sense became dull. He could see, hear, smell or use his spiritual sense.
By the time the light cleared out, something stood in the place of that blue orb.
A humanoid metallic puppet.
It is glowing with silvery grey energy as well as some purple runic patterns are being engraved on it in real time. The puppet is at least ten feet high. It looked lean, small waist with its torso forming a giant V taper. The legs long, bulky, but long. Same goes for the arms. The head looked plain, except for the sharp blade like structure extending from its eyes brows to the back.
It is a combination of silver and purple.
"Your final test. Fight with the puppet."
And that next moment, the runes on the puppet were completely engraved and the silver ones glowed. The gravity in the surroundings increased by a thousand times. At least that was what it felt like to Raios. He couldn't even feel his own face as he hit the ground with his face first.
The puppet is now controlling the gravity.
Sam watched with some snacks as two of his puppets are about to fight. The metallic puppet he created and the human puppet, namely Raios who he was playing with for a while.
The puppet started glowing with lightning energy.
It the purple lightning crawled up to the blade of the sword as it swung at the young man.
The blades clashed.
*BOOM*
The explosions raged the golden dome that was intact even when ten candidates were fighting started cracking up, bit by bit.
Raios felt what hell would feel like, what real terror is. The puppet was overwhelmingly powerful. The power that could crush him at any moment. However it is not doing that. As if that power is trying to... teach him?
The way the puppet moved that sword, the way its body moved. It is like a dance, powerful but graceful dance. A grace that shouldn't possibly match with that gigantic figure, the metallic body and that menacing might.
However, it is doing it.
It is like a giant metallic butterfly, only the wings are not visible.
The puppet is trying to teach Raios. Teach that sword art, trying to make him explore it.
And when the sword art was executed...
*BOOM*
The explosive sword landed on Raios' chest making him fly and crash into the golden dome, breaking it.
"You have failed."
That was the announcement and Raios came out of his trance.
After healing him, his reward is announced.
"Congratulations, you won that puppet. Not only can you autonomously operate it, you can also mount it."
The announcement paused and the puppet's body opened up. Raios was stunned, a force pulled him and then threw into that puppet's body. The puppet closed up.
Raios felt like he was hovering in a dark space. However, he also knew that he is inside the pocket dimension.
He just felt bigger, stronger and powerful. Along with the control over the runic patterns and attacks programmed into the puppet.
The announcement continued.
"The puppet also has the sword technique you have seen recorded into it. It was just the first step of it, that you have seen. It consists of five more and all of them are recorded. With a guided learning feature, you can learn it.
That is also your reward.
Now, get out of here."
He was thrown into the grey space. The puppet around him disappeared and it directly entered his storage, even without his permission or prompting.