“That’s fine; we gamble 5 Tier-2 Evo-Stones, 10 Shards of Skill, and 20 Tier 1 Fire Codexes.” Cynrik’s reply caused everyone except the members of his party to gasp loudly before the gasps turned into cheers of greed.

“Excellent, this is **ing great, hahaha; not only do we get to beat the ** out of you noobies, but we even get the resources we planned on taking in the first place.” But unfortunately, the leader was overcome by greed and had yet to realize the sinister glint in every member of MyrkLys’s eyes.

“Faction Battle and its subsequent Stakes Clause have been accepted by both Groups, contacting the appropriate amount of Referees and initializing teleportation sequence.”

The VS AI’s male voice caused everyone to put aside their greed and

/or malice as the information about their battlefield was displayed on each individual’s Watcet.

Seconds later, the gymnasium-sized living room was emptied as the battle’s participants were bathed in hazy red light and teleported away.

The flash of light made everyone close their eyes in response, and when the members of MyrkLys opened them, gone was the interior of a building and in its place was a vast forest space with trees and grass as far as the eye could see.

“Teleportation complete, Red Team has 173 members, Blue Team has 5; as this is a Ranked Faction Battle, ranking points will be removed from the losing team and Distributed to the winners as a reward. Additionally, a Referee has been dispatched to each team leader to receive the Stakes Clause Wagers.”

No sooner did the VS AI finish spouting its prewritten speech than a massive gust of wind kick up the dust around Cynrik. When it cleared, a woman in what Cynrik could only assume was the Referee uniform appeared beside him.

“MyrkLys Leader Ivar Ragnarsson, please present the items you designated for the wager.” The woman said, using a professional tone.

However, Cynrik could see the pitty in her eye as she noticed there were only five members on this team and nearly 200 on the opposite.

“Not a problem, ma’am, I only need a moment to do so,” when Cynrik saw the woman nod in consent, he turned to the members of his party. They were standing around, examining their surroundings for potential advantages.

“Hey, I need everyone’s Evo Stones; toss them here,” Cynrik said aloud, but he said something different to Brance and Selene.

Flash your Watcets, I don’t like the way this ref is looking at us like we are walking to our deaths.

All present complied with Cynrik’s instructions; Gabby and Benny pulled out their Evo-Stones and handed them over obediently. Selene and Brance pulled up their sleeves, flashed their Watcets, and tossed the gray stones like baseballs to Cynrik, who flashed his Platinum Watcet to the referee and handed all the Wager items over.

When the referee spotted the two S-Rank-colored Watcet and Cynrik’s SS-Rank, her face contorted in shock but quickly returned to normal a second later and received the Evo Stones, Tier-1 Codexes, and Shards of Skill before placing them in a unique ring.

After double-checking everything was in order, she briefly explained her job, which boiled down to making sure there were no killing blows.

“Faction battles are played in a Battle Royale format, so all opposing team members must be rendered unconscious or forfeit to determine a winner.”

“Because this fight is also enacting the Stakes Clause, dismemberment and severe damage to opponents are legal, as are all weapons and support items. The death of an opponent will be an instant disqualification for the person involved and the entire team.”

DING

When the referee finished speaking, everyone’s Watcet’s lit up and chimed, signifying they had received a notification.

“Now that I have explained the rules, please tap the “I Agree” box on the notification, and a five-minute prep timer will begin; when the clock reaches zero, the battle will begin.”

The woman waited for a moment and watched the members of MyrkLys tap the hovering holo display giving their approval to begin the fight. Once everyone was finished, she bid the team farewell and pressed a button on her sleeve, activating some kind of active camouflage and disappearing from view.

Cynrik smirked and used Mana Sight, but as he expected, even with the ocular skill on, he could not locate the referee’s Mana Signature, so he gave up and put on his Assassin tools, completing his Full Damage Mode.

Casting a glance around, he quickly located several small groups moving in the distance, lining up into a single file horizontal line.

‘Hehe, morons, they want to sweep the whole forest for us at the beginning of the fight so they can crush us quickly. That’s fine; they are in for a rude awakening.’ Cynrik mused in his mind before meeting the eyes of his party and getting serious.

“Gabby, cast your Prestidigitation and make exact copies of all five of us. I want them hiding behind or in trees as if waiting to execute a sneak attack; remember to keep them peaking out a little bit so that it looks like we are greenhorns.” Wasting no time, Cynrik began issuing orders one after another, starting first with Gabby, who, in his current plan, would be setting up the decoys as a distraction.

Gabby didn’t audibly reply but instead set about activating her skill and casting quick glances at everyone in their armor to get the details perfectly before placing them into random hiding spots.

“Selene, take Benny and start setting up traps in the trees; if you don’t know how Benny can show you, he’s actually the best of us at it.”

“Got it, off we go, Benny,” With cat-like agility, Selene caught the unsuspecting boy by the scruff of his neck and jumped up into the trees to start rigging up any hanging traps they could.

Just leaves us, Brance. I need you to carve out some of this terrain, make a few trenches, barricades, hell, even pitfalls would be fine. Since we don’t have to worry about dismemberment or maiming, we can hurt these punks as much as we want so long as they don’t die. PLUS, you could bring them back from the brink of death if we go a bit too far.

Seriously, can’t you just fight for sport? Why is it always straight to killing with you, Cyn? Fine whatever, I know you aren’t dumb enough to kill someone and lose our Evo Stones; just try and keep it in bounds. Brance replied before stomping the ground with his left foot and falling into a hole of his own creation, disappearing underground so he could start working on traps.

Fan out a bit and set any and all traps with a distance of about 2-4 meters apart, it looks like these **s are gonna march shoulder to shoulder in our direction when the timer dries up. Using the party mind link this time, Cynrik got his point across to everyone except Gabby, who was panting and sweating heavily.

Although Prestidigitation was only originally a Tier-0 skill, Gabby had advanced it to Tier-1.5, allowing her to go from creating small animals to full-sized human replicas. The only downside was these replicas weren’t corporeal, and once someone stepped through or attacked them, the fake people would shatter and disappear.

However, in raising her skill’s Tier and partnering it with her Tier-1 Telekinesis, Gabby obtained the ability to make them move, almost like puppets, which fit Cynrik’s plan perfectly. Seeing Gabby’s haggard expression, Cynrik flashed to her side and handed her a Stamina and Mana potion, making her drink it down before continuing.

A second later, the little girl returned to her peppy self and quickly put the finishing touches on all the replicas.

In the meantime, as MyrkLys swiftly and efficiently set about placing traps and preparing for battle on the opposite end of the battlefield, the leadership of Epsilon Chall was already counting their chickens before they hatched.

“Hey, Boss Levin, who gets those Evo Stones when we win? There are still quite a few new members who have yet to reach Tier-2?” one of the faction’s lieutenants asked.

“Who said anything about new members getting them? When we win, I plan on using them to recruit a couple of those new S-Rank First Years to our side. Of course, it will go even smoother if that person happens to have a Fire Affinity; Tier-1 Fire Codexes don’t grow on trees.” Levin grinned cockily as grandeur plans of becoming the top Elite Faction in the Second Year flashed through his head.

“Luckily, I was able to invite the remaining members of our faction to the battle before we were teleported, turning this into a 173v5; haha, those idiots won’t know what hit them.” Levin cheerfully shouted, raising the morale of all his underlings.

“Boss is too intelligent; how can those fools stand against our numbers. Even if they are all A-Ranks, we have far superior numbers.” One of the three lieutenants murmured.

“Alright, enough talk; everyone line up, shoulder to shoulder. We will execute an entire sweep side by side to the opposite side, eliminating any chance for escape. I want you guys to break all of their limbs, but leave that bastard who stabbed my arm and the girl. I want to deal with them myself. Everyone else is fair game.” Levin shouted at the top of his lungs so everyone could hear.

Looking out over the expanse of forest terrain, he didn’t know why, but Levin felt slightly uneasy with the outcome of this fight. Being Tier-2 and coming from a relatively prominent family, he had seen powerful beings in the past, and for some reason, he got a similar feeling from all five of the opponents.

Setting aside the fact that he was unable to dodge the stab of the girl’s older brother, Levin had secretly broken into a cold sweat when their leader showed up and blew the door to smithereens. That was a door graded to withstand attacks from someone hitting with the strength of Mid-Tier-2. Yet with one kick, it was shattered.

This was why Levin had requested backup from over 70 members of his faction. Hopefully, 173 would be enough to win this fight…if not.

BEEP BEEP BEEP

“PREPARATION TIME EXPIRED, THE FACTION BATTLE IS NOW BEGINNING, YOU WILL HAVE 1 HOUR. START!”

The VS AI chiming loudly echoed from seemingly nowhere, signaling the start of a bloody and one-sided massacre.

“Teehe Ha Ha, MYRKLYS MOVE OUT!” Smiling sadistically, Cynrik kicked off the ground and sprinted forward while flinging both arms down, extending out his newest and untested invention, the Grapple Shot.

THAT IS MAGIC CASTLE NUMBER THREE!!!, SHOUT OUT AS ALWAYS to our boy Joe_jo_3480; he has single-handedly dropped half the Magic castle goal solo dolo. We are getting close to meeting all our goals.

-This series is exclusively published on WebNovel if you are reading it anywhere else…You Wrong, Fam. PS Check out the discord, https:

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/discord.gg

/dcxKNJEMwg