With a subtle tap of his foot, Jay soared effortlessly to the top of the Reality Emulator he had just exited. Below, thousands of Alpha Chosen surged forward, streaming through the hundred Reality Emulators meticulously arranged across the Colosseum's expansive grounds.
A barrage of ranged attacks flew toward Jay from all corners of the Colosseum. Elemental projectiles, Weapon Aura crescents, and other types of Innate Talent abilities filled the air. There were so many attacks that the sky above him was almost completely blocked from view.
Jay's heightened perception of time allowed him to see his opponents' movements and attacks as though they were trapped in slow motion. Every attack that flew towards him unfolded before his eyes with crystal clarity.
Coupled with the Pseudo-Speed Energy enveloping him, he could effortlessly weave through the chaos of their strikes. There was no need to even activate║Berserk║, and enhance all his stats by 60%.
But before he could move, a phantom-like spatial barrier appeared around him, locking him in place. His movements became sluggish, as if his entire body had been plunged into a pit of quicksand.
Jay recognized the skill instantly, Zeix's Innate Exclusive Skill,║PHANTOM LOCK║. It imposed a fragment of Zeix's personal Inventory Space onto its target, trapping them for a limited duration.
Even the air around him was gone, making it impossible to breathe. However, with his Tier-3 Physique, further strengthened through cultivating the Origin Physique, Jay could survive for over half an hour without air, let alone a few seconds.
When he tried to force his way out with raw strength, a strange sensation stopped him in his tracks. Every effort to move was reversed, pulling him back to the exact spot he had occupied a moment ago. It felt as if time itself were rewinding, resetting his position over and over again.
Jay quickly pieced it together. This wasn't just spatial manipulation—it was the work of the time-element user Zeix had warned him about. The combination of spatial and temporal abilities formed a near-perfect trap, one that even he couldn't escape instantly.
Among the countless Innate Talents in his arsenal, none dealt with time, leaving him at a rare disadvantage in understanding or countering this situation.
However, that didn't mean Jay was completely defenseless. With a simple mental command, the Origin Glaive hidden within the space around him returned, transforming back into its tattoo form.
The moment it did, Jay felt the spatial and time restrictions vanish, as though they no longer had any effect on him. Freed from the trap, Jay effortlessly continued to evade the thousands of incoming attacks.
Even if he had stood still and taken the barrage head-on, it wouldn't have caused him significant harm. The Centauri Kavach, now upgraded to Legend Grade, made him nearly impervious to attacks from anyone below Tier-5.
But among the onslaught, one attack stood out. It was the only one that could have pierced through his full-body armor and caused considerable damage.
From a distance, it looked like an ordinary metal spike. Upon closer inspection, however, it revealed itself to be a copper-brown lance, the length of an average car, gleaming sharply as it hurtled toward him.
The lance struck the ground with a resounding impact before moving on its own, launching itself at Jay with incredible speed. He dodged it, but as he shifted position, a cluster of thin, razor-sharp metal shards shot toward him from his new location. He narrowly avoided them with a quick adjustment.
Jay frowned, taken aback. These attacks were far from ordinary. The damage output of both the lance and the metal shards was at the peak of Tier-5. No one present should have been capable of such a feat.
His sharp eyes scanned the Colosseum as he dodged another pass from the relentless lance. It tracked his movements with uncanny precision, while occasional metal ambushes erupted from the ground or rained down from above. Jay weaved through the neatly arranged Reality Emulators as he searched for the attacker.
Soon, his gaze fell on the source of the assault, and what he saw left him momentarily surprised. The one responsible wasn't another Alpha Chosen—it was the Tournament Manager, Wibbit.
The short, plump rabbit, dressed in his signature yellow tuxedo, stood with an eerie smile plastered across his face. Jay didn't need confirmation to understand what was happening. The twisted glint in Wibbit's eyes and his unsettling posture told him everything—Urzo had possessed him.
The confirmation came a moment later when Wibbit's voice rang out, high-pitched yet laced with a groggy malevolence. "Kekeke… We meet again, my dear enemy."
Jay locked eyes with the possessed Wibbit, weaving effortlessly through the maze of Reality Emulators.
Jay quickly deduced that Wibbit possessed either a metal-type Innate Talent or an Earth-elemental Innate Talent, through which he later comprehended the metal element, a higher Earth element.
At Tier-5 Mid-Phase, and with attack power output at Tier-5 High-Phase, Possessed Wibbit was undoubtedly the strongest individual present there—aside from Jay himself.
The lance Wibbit used was no ordinary weapon. It was a powerful Legend Grade item capable of autonomously tracking and attacking its target. Along with the sneaky metal shards Wibbit conjured from a distance, the threat was amplified by the thousands of Alpha Chosen still launching their own barrage of attacks.
Jay didn't remain purely defensive. Activating Starborne Horizon, the flight ability of his armor, he took to the skies. His gaze locked onto Possessed Wibbit, who stood far above on a metal disc. The surprise on Possessed Wibbit's face was unmistakable. It was clear he hadn't expected Jay to be capable of flight.
Urzo reacted immediately, relentlessly bombarding Jay with a storm of metal spikes from all directions. The relentless assault left no apparent way to approach without getting pierced. Jay, however, refused to face the attack head-on. Instead, he activated║Tidal Draw║, a recently improved Myth Grade skill.
The skill's activation cost was high, but its effectiveness matched its price. A sudden and immense gravitational force exploded outward, scattering the incoming spikes far away and even flinging Possessed Wibbit off his platform.
Without hesitation, Jay activated║Tidal Draw║again. This time, instead of repelling, he targeted Wibbit directly, pulling him in at breakneck speed.
As Possessed Wibbit hurtled toward him, he struggled to retaliate, preparing to conjure another barrage of metal spikes, but they were interrupted when Jay activated one of his 10 passive skills required for ABYSS FRAME synthesis:║Terror Apparition║.
This ability distorted the perceptions of everyone around, forcing them to see the user as the most terrifying entity they had ever encountered. It amplified fear and dread to such an extreme level that even the strongest minds were overwhelmed.
Since the skill affected both allies and foes indiscriminately, Jay kept it toggled off all the time. But now, surrounded by enemies, he unleashed it without hesitation.
The results were immediate. Possessed Wibbit faltered, his attacks losing precision as the overwhelming fear began to take hold. All around Jay, chaos erupted as those in proximity succumbed to sheer terror.
Exclusive artwork for every free chapter is now available on my PATRE0N page! You can find the link in my Discord server.
The first ten to comment for new chapter releases will get '1 ADVANCED CHAPTER' for free on Earth Alpha Prime's Discord server.
In the discord server, I opened a private channel for those Top 10 candidates, where I posted the respective Advanced Chapter.
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