Chapter 89: Ruthless Pair of Dark Elves

As the pillar of light shot into the sky, three kilometers to the northwest, Rowan Ashcombe adjusted the grip on his own spear and grinned at the sight of it.

"There." He pointed. "Told you it’d show up eventually."

Tamsin Vale fell into step beside him, a Legendary-rank Ironclad Wyrmling coiling low and eager at her heels, scales catching what little light filtered through the canopy overhead. Both of them wore matching Legendary-rank gear sets, sharp and well-earned, the kind of loadout that had carried them through every fight so far.

Three kilometers to the southeast, a second pair moved with the exact same purpose. Kael Dunmore checked his own blade’s edge while Sera Voss kept pace beside him, a squat, fire-scaled Emberfang trotting along at her side, smoke curling faintly from its own nostrils with every breath.

Neither pair had any idea the other existed yet.

Neither pair noticed what was closing in behind them either.

Two people. Powerful. Ruthless.

Nyxara Veil moved through the underbrush without disturbing so much as a single leaf, a long rifle resting easy across her own shoulders, dark elf features sharp and patient in the dim jungle light.

Her partner, Vhalen Sarn, drifted more than walked, a curved dagger loose in one hand while shadows peeled off his own form in thin, restless wisps that moved like they were alive.

```

[ Nyxara Veil ]

Class: Shadowbound Marksman (Mythic)

Talent: Rubber Physique (Legendary)

```

```

[ Vhalen Sarn ]

Class: Wraithstep Assassin (Mythic)

Talent: Shadow Domination (Mythic)

```

Two units flanked each of them, silent and watchful.

Nyxara raised her rifle without breaking stride, sighting down its length toward Rowan and Tamsin’s distant signatures.

The shot took Rowan through the throat before he’d even registered the crack of the rifle firing, his own body folding backward before Tamsin managed to turn around. A second shot found her half a heartbeat later, her Ironclad Wyrmling barely finishing its own snarl before both of them hit the ground, dead before either understood what had actually happened.

Vhalen didn’t bother with a gun at all.

Shadows swallowed Kael and Sera both from three different directions at once, and the dagger that found Kael’s spine came from a blade that had never technically been anywhere near him a moment earlier. Sera’s own scream cut off half a syllable in, Emberfang’s fire guttering out along with her the instant her own connection to the summon severed completely.

```

[ You have eliminated Player Rowan Ashcombe. ]

[ You have eliminated Player Tamsin Vale. ]

```

```

[ You have eliminated Player Kael Dunmore. ]

[ You have eliminated Player Sera Voss. ]

```

Four bodies. Four seconds. Neither Nyxara nor Vhalen had so much as slowed their own pace toward the pillar of light still rising steadily over the treetops ahead.

---

Logan and Alice reached the rift’s edge only to find it wasn’t quite as simple as stepping through.

```

[ Event: Rift of Fortune. Requires two full teams present to activate. 1/2 teams detected. ]

```

"Huh." Alice pulled her hand back from where she’d already been reaching for it. "Guess we’re waiting on company."

Logan glanced toward the treeline, Grimlord’s Blade already loose in one hand just in case.

Alice went still a moment later, Starlit Vigil’s own range stretching quiet and patient across the whole ten kilometers around them.

Two signatures had gone dark somewhere off to the northwest. Two more had gone dark to the southeast, both pairs blinking out within seconds of each other.

Then Threat Detection caught something else entirely, killing intent bleeding faint through the trees from a direction closing steadily on their own position.

"Someone just wiped two other teams. They got ambushed to death. No chance for surrender." Her voice had dropped low, all the earlier ease gone out of it. "And whoever did it is heading straight here."

Nyxara and Vhalen stepped into the clearing a few minutes later, two units trailing behind each of them, expressions calm in a way that had nothing to do with the four bodies they’d just left behind them in the jungle.

The second the pair crossed into the light’s own range, the world lurched sideways.

All four of them vanished from the clearing in the same instant, the jungle, the rift, the whole island dropping away entirely, replaced by open sky and the hard stone floor of a colosseum floating somewhere far above anything resembling solid ground.

```

[ Event: Rift of Fortune activated. Let the trial begin. ]

```

The colosseum stretched wide around all four of them, stone walls rising high enough to blot out most of the sky, ten dark portal doors spaced evenly around the circular arena floor.

```

[ Rift of Fortune: Trial of the Ten Doors ]

Combatants cannot harm one another directly within this arena. All hostile attacks between players will pass through without effect. Summon Units are not allowed in this event.

Demons will emerge from the ten portals. Each carries a colored halo denoting its point value: Blue (lowest), Red, Purple, Golden, Black (highest).

Only the killing blow counts toward a team’s score. The team with the higher total when the trial ends claims the Relic reward.

```

Logan tested the rule immediately, flicking a stray cut toward Vhalen out of pure curiosity.

The blade passed through him like he wasn’t even there.

"Interesting." Vhalen’s voice came flat and unbothered, like being cut through meant nothing at all to him one way or the other. "Guess we’re just here to compete, then."

"Guess so." Alice’s own tone had gone cold, sharp enough that Logan felt it without needing to look at her. She’d already sensed exactly what these two had done on the way here, and competing against them wasn’t going to soften that any.

Nyxara said nothing at all, rifle already coming up to rest easily across one shoulder, patient and ready.

The first portal cracked open a moment later, and something small and wretched came scrambling through it, hunched and grey-skinned, a thin blue halo hovering just above its own twisted head.

```

[ Imp Wretch ]

Halo: Blue

```

More followed behind it, a dozen at once, spilling out of three separate portals in a chittering, snarling wave.

Alice moved first.

Starpiercer Volley!

Three arrows split into six mid-flight, each one finding a separate Imp Wretch before the swarm had covered half the distance toward them, gold fire tearing through thin grey hide like paper.

```

[ +6 points. ]

```

Vhalen answered without any visible effort at all, shadows peeling off his own body and swallowing four more Imp Wretches whole before they even registered a threat standing nearby.

```

[ +4 points. ]

```

"Cute pace." Alice’s grin came thin and competitive. "Let’s see you keep it up."

The portals kept cycling, blue halos giving way to red ones within minutes, the new demons faster and meaner with twin-bladed and snarling, forcing Logan to actually engage rather than watch from the sidelines.

Repear’s Stride! Severed Step!

The cut found a Bloodfang Stalker’s own footing before it closed the distance, dropping it flat and dealing enough damage with a second vertical slash for Grim Harvest to finish the job outright.

```

[ +15 points. ]

```

Nyxara’s rifle cracked twice in the same span of time, each shot punching clean through a separate Stalker’s skull before either one managed a single swing.

```

[ +30 points. ]

```

"She’s fast," Alice muttered it low, already nocking her next shot.

"So are we." Logan didn’t slow down at all, Overgrim Slash tearing through a cluster of three more Stalkers that had made the mistake of grouping up too tight.

```

[ +45 points. ]

```

The purple halos arrived next, demons wreathed in crackling violet energy, each one throwing out small bursts of dark magic that forced both pairs to actually work for every kill.

Vhalen’s own two shadow units, twin constructs woven from the same restless shadow he carried from his talent, tore into one Void Cultist from opposite sides while Vhalen himself vanished entirely and reappeared behind a second, dagger already buried in its spine before it finished turning around.

```

[ +80 points. ]

```

Alice’s Radiant Snare caught a third Cultist mid-cast, rooting it in place a half second before Horizon’s Requiem finished charging.

Horizon’s Requiem!

The shot punched clean through it and two more standing behind it, starlight tearing through all three in a single unbroken line while refilling her MP.

```

[ +240 points. ]

```

"Now we’re talking." Alice’s grin came fierce this time, watching the combined total tick upward on her own display.

The golden halos came slower, only two of them emerging across the next several minutes, but each one hit harder than everything before it combined, wings of blackened flame and eyes that tracked every combatant in the arena at once.

Nyxara took the first one down with a single shot threaded straight through one glowing eye, the demon collapsing before it finished its own opening roar.

```

[ +500 points. ]

```

Logan took the second, Grim Devouring Slash tearing straight through its defenses before Overgrim Slash finished what the first strike started, the demon coming apart in a spray of gold light and ash.

```

[ +500 points. ]

```

The scores sat close enough that neither team had pulled meaningfully ahead, the arena floor littered with the remains of everything both pairs had cut down so far, and somewhere above the tenth portal, the air itself began to darken.

A single black halo pulsed into being, vast and patient, waiting for whichever door it would actually emerge from.

All four of them turned toward it at once.

Whoever got the kill of this would win.

"We are fighting after this, right?" Nyxara glanced at Alice and Logan. "Don’t run."

"Nope. I wouldn’t call slaughtering you two a fight." Alice smiled.

"Big words." Vhalen coldly laughed.

"Just facts." Logan leisurely commented, wanting to rattle and agitate the opponents. "You two versus us two. Your two Mythic units, versus our one. I think it will take roughly five seconds for us to kill you four."

Alice added with a grin. "So yeah, don’t run once we win this event."

Vhalen and Nyxara clearly looked pissed, and before they could retort, the black halo demon emerged.