The battlefield had become a massacre.

Blood hung in the air like rain; the ground was a quilt of mud and crimson.

Screams ricocheted between broken banners. Bodies of orcs, goblins, demihumans, elves, and lesser beasts littered the field — some already heads severed, some still twitching with limbless torsos.

The stench of burned flesh and iron burned the back of everyone's throat.

'This is war. Be merciless,' Alex thought, moving like a shadow with purpose.

He appeared everywhere at once — a flash of steel here, an eruption of force there. An orc lunged, tusks bared; Alex's blade sliced an arc and the orc's head flew in a slow, crimson bloom.

A pair of goblins tried to flank him; Alex planted a foot and the ground erupted, shaping jagged earth-spears that impaled them in a dozen points.

A demihuman cavalry charge bent toward him — a single stomp from Alex hurled a shockwave that shattered bones and threw riders like ragdolls.

Sometimes he cut off heads cleanly, watching them topple away as if removing inconvenient thoughts.

Sometimes he drove his sword through bellies, leaving men gasping eyes to the sky. Sometimes he tore limbs free with cold efficiency — no hesitation, only action.

He had not come here to be kind; kindness meant death.

'If I were them, I'd do the same. Survive or die. There is no room for regret now.'

A shredded elf crawled on the ground nearby; both arms severed, his sleeve a bloody rag. He looked up at Alex with wet, pleading eyes.

"Please—please, don't—" the elf begged, voice broken. "Forgive me…"

Alex advanced, sword tipped down, the final note of a sentence in a story written in blood. He raised the blade.

Boom — a concussive force detonated through the air and knocked Alex off balance. He flew back in a blur, rolled, and slammed onto his heels. The ground kicked up under him, grass and dirt spitting in arcs.

A blond-haired elf stood where the shock had come from. The aura around him was not a simple shimmer but a pressure — the air itself seemed to crack under the weight of it, tiny fissures snaking outward from where he planted his boots.

He regarded Alex with an insolent stare.

"Looks like you enjoy killing the weak. Why don't you try me?" the elf said, voice cold and sharp.

Alex whistled low. "Damn. Impressive speech. But this is war. If I were in their place, that freaking elf would have done the same." He shrugged, amused by the elf's sanctimony.

The elf gritted his teeth and fell silent. Alex laughed, a short, humorless sound. "What, cat got your tongue?"

There was no answer. That silence tasted like mouthwash gone wrong.

Alex blurred forward — the movement was almost casual. He leapt and brought a kick aimed straight for the elf's head.

To his surprise, the elf caught the kick, palm flat and steady, and with a sickening snap slammed Alex through force, sending him skidding across the ground.

Alex rolled, flipped up, and smirked. "Looks like you're a strong one."

"Who the hell are you?" the elf spat, blood slicking his lips. "How can a human have that much strength?"

"Beats me. Maybe I'm not a normal human," Alex replied, voice low.

He attacked again. A feint, then a real strike — the first kick aimed for the gut was bait. The second landed full on the elf's face, a clean explosive contact that sent the blond crashing into a shattered pillar.

He hit the wall and slid down, blood making a map across his features.

Rage warped the elf's face. He drew a bow in a shaking hand and began to chant, words old and lethal. Magic ran along the arrow: runes seared into the shaft, words that burned with heat and blue flame.

He loosed it.

The arrow streaked like a falling star, shredding through two charging soldiers and scorching the skeletons of another who dared stand in its path.

Darkness swelled inside Alex, pooling like oil. He whispered a counter-chant and his body drank the leyline, shadow and void folding into him.

The elf's arrows shuddered in midflight — then the darkness flipped them back, turned them into living shards of night that screamed into the bodies of nearby archers.

Flesh smoked; bone bubbled as if under acid. The blond's strongest spell ate his own people.

The elf fell to his knees, eyes wide. "Impossible... that was my strongest—"

He looked at Alex and breathed, "You're a monster."

'Are all elves idiots?' Alex thought bitterly. 'Does he not understand this is kill-or-be-killed?'

Alex readied the finishing blow. The blond croaked, pleading, a pathetic flutter of defiance left in him.

Then, like a knife of wind, someone slammed into Alex's face — close enough to knock breath from his lungs.

Alex caught the incoming fist with a single hand, palm clamped to forearm, feeling the raw, stored power in the attack.

The attacker was the red-haired leader of the Dragonkin; scales flashed beneath leather, muscles rippling like braided rope.

The leader expected bone to crush on contact — but his fist hung there, arrested by Alex's hand.

"What the hell is he?" the leader thought, stunned.

The leader slammed his head forward; the collision rattled Alex. He released the hold, skidded back, hand pressed to his temple. "Damnit," he hissed, tasting copper.

Alex blinked and recognized the attacker. "I was deliberately not killing you and your people because I owe you a favor. But you're making it hard to keep that promise now, Mr. Red Hair."

The leader — voice rough, pride like an armor — said, "My name is Samara, human. I'm telling you this because you're worthy of knowing it."

Alex rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah. I don't much care," he said, tone flat.

Samara's eyes narrowed. "I know how much of a hypocrite that elf is, but I can't let you kill him. I made a promise to someone to protect him. Since this guy is from my world."

Alex snorted. "I don't care about that. But now that you've attacked me, you're my enemy. That's all there is to it."

Samara's lips tightened. "That's a shame."

They both shifted into stances. The air trembled with the energy bleeding off their bodies. The surrounding fighters backed away instinctively, some too slow and crushed by the pressure radiating from the two.

Samara studied him carefully. "Are you not going to use a weapon?"

Alex exhaled slowly. "The swords and weapons I brought already broke. They couldn't handle my power. I've got no choice but to fight with my fists."

Samara's eyes glinted with savage amusement. "Do you realize what you're saying? Fighting a Dragonkin with your bare hands… Do you have a death wish?"

"Maybe I do," Alex replied dryly.

"You're crazy."

"I hear that a lot lately."

Layers of mana spiraled and hardened around Alex's fists, glowing faintly like molten steel. Samara grinned, lifting his own fists as a different, alien brilliance coated them.

The energy was sharp, dense, and strange — almost humming with a frequency that the arena itself seemed to recoil from.

Alex frowned. 'What is that?'

The system's voice whispered into his mind. [Host, that's Espera. It's an energy used in higher dimensions, just like how you use mana.]

'Is that so… Interesting,' Alex thought, smirking.

Samara blurred, crossing the distance in a heartbeat. His fist shot toward Alex's jaw, but Alex raised his arm, blocking and countering with a heavy kick.

Samara twisted, caught the leg, and hurled Alex like a cannonball. Alex flipped mid-air and came crashing down on his feet, launching forward with a brutal right hook.

Their fists collided.

BOOOOM!

The entire arena shuddered violently, stone tiles exploding beneath their feet. The shockwave ripped outward, hurling weaker fighters across the battlefield. An unfortunate ones obliterated into pulp just from the aftershock.

They moved again, blindingly fast. Alex's knuckles hammered Samara's ribs, cracking scales, but Samara's counterpunch landed on Alex's shoulder, rattling him to the bone.

He hissed, pain lancing through his body, but forced himself to keep moving.

Samara's Espera-coated strikes hit harder — heavier, sharper, cutting deeper than mere mana reinforcement.

Every blow carried weight that distorted the space around it. Alex clicked his tongue. 'Tch. My mana coating isn't doing enough. His Espera is on another level.'

Still, Alex pressed on. A low sweep caught Samara's leg, staggering him, only for Samara to slam an elbow into Alex's spine, nearly buckling him.

They exchanged dozens of strikes in seconds — fists, kicks, headbutts, knees — each collision detonating like miniature explosions.

The ground collapsed chunks of the arena caved in, crushing unlucky combatants who were too close.

Entire groups of elves and orcs screamed as shockwaves tore them apart like ragdolls caught in a storm.

By the time they finally stopped, both men stood bloodied, bruised, and panting, glaring at each other through swollen eyes.

Samara grinned despite the blood running from his lip. "You're the first person to last this long against me in all my battles."

Alex, chest heaving, smirked back. "You're strong"

Then taking a pause he said.

"But playtime's over."

Darkness erupted around him. Black tendrils slithered out of his skin, curling upward like snakes. The sky dimmed; even the blood-soaked ground seemed to recoil.

"Vitality Drain," Alex whispered.

The tendrils shot outward. They pierced through the bodies of every fighter still standing — goblins, elves, orcs, humans, demihumans — all shrieked as their very life was siphoned out of them.

They withered in seconds, collapsing into empty skeletons. Some tried to hide, but the tendrils hunted them down relentlessly. There was no escape.

Samara's eyes widened in horror. "What… what is this…?"

He tried to resist, Espera flaring wildly, but the tendrils pierced him too. He roared, struggling, his veins bulging as the black cords drained his strength.

"AHHHHHHHHHH!"

Alex narrowed his eyes. "Be grateful. I'll leave you half alive."

The tendrils released Samara before completely consuming him. He slumped to the ground, gasping, barely clinging to life.

A buzzing voice filled the sky.

{ Top 100 survivors have been confirmed. }

Alex walked over to Samara's half-dead body. "I left you, that hypocritical elf, and your Dragonkins alive. That's the favor I owed. But Next time, don't get in my way."

He kicked Samara in the chest.

"Kyaaaaaaaaahhhh!" Samara screamed — but the scream wasn't masculine. It was high-pitched, trembling.

Alex blinked. 'Hold on… that didn't sound like a man.'

He knelt down and tugged the Dragonkin's mask away. His eyes widened. Beneath the mask was the face of a beautiful woman, black horns curving from her head, her cheeks streaked with blood and tears.

She looked at him with wide, vulnerable eyes, almost breaking.

Alex stiffened. 'Partner…'

the system replied.

[What?]

'Let's get out of here. Whenever I get entangled with a woman, bad things keep happening.'

Without another word, Alex bolted, running at full speed then suddenly his body dissolved into motes of light and vanished from the battlefield.

Above, a massive holographic board flashed into existence.

{ Rank 1 : Lucifer Morningstar

Kills : 147880

Rank 2 : Samara

Kills : 50475

... }

---------

A/N:

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