CHAPTER 562: THREE REMAINING

The ground crunched under Yvonne’s massive feet as she followed someone’s trail. The forest and arena were entirely silent. After the few premature deaths at the beginning, the match boiled down to guerilla warfare.

About two hours had passed, yet more than half of the fighters remained alive... at least that’s what Faith whispered into Yvonne’s ear...

The shadow could see the entire territory, and kept a constant account of every fighter’s position. Yvonne’s current prey was, for example...

The foliage ruffled above the tall woman, causing a wide grin to stretch across her helmeted face. She could’ve moved through the terrain without making a single sound, but that wasn’t her plan... She wanted to spring the enemy trap!

Suddenly, she felt two ropes tighten around her legs and began pulling them apart. From above, a heavy net landed right on top of her, pushing her body into a sideways split, which hurt like hell.

Afterward, arrows began raining down on her, but the armor protected against them with relative ease.

When the pair of hunters saw how useless their projectiles were, they finally left their hiding spots and ran towards Yvonne with shortswords.

A youthful pair of twins appeared before her, one man and one woman. Each had an athletic build and brown hair. They both wore leather hunting outfits, leaving only their hair length as a distinguishing feature.

Yvonne waited patiently as they got closer, then when the window of their escape passed, she attacked. Her armor grew spikes, which easily cut the rope and net. She then jumped to her feet, summoning a pair of javelins and tossing them towards the surprised siblings.

Sadly, they reacted in time, and evaded the weapons. However, the maneuver made them lose precious moments and gave Yvonne time to close the distance.

Her hands grew a pair of longswords, which she wielded expertly. With her right hand, she stabbed towards the female twin. With her left hand, she slashed at the male twin’s chest.

The woman sidestepped the stab and cut her blade along Yvonne’s gauntlet, sending sparks into the air. The man crouched under Yvonne’s slash and tried pushing his blade through Yvonne’s armor.

The pain arcing across Yvonne’s body felt unbearable. Multiple ribs broke under the heavy pressure, but it left no serious wound, and gave her the perfect opportunity.

She dropped her swords and grabbed both siblings. Her left gauntlet held the male twin’s right shoulder, while her right hand grabbed the female twin’s left arm.

With a ’gentle’ squeeze, she crushed both siblings’ bones. They groaned in agony and dropped their weapons as Yvonne pulled them closer.

Their heads moved into Yvonne’s armored armpits and by squeezing her arms towards her chest, she applied immense pressure onto their skulls. A few moments later, their heads exploded against Yvonne’s large chestplate, like watermelons.

Blood dripped from her armor as she glanced towards the dead twins. Her gaze held no emotion as she said, "Apollo and Artemis are dead... How many more are left? And where’s War?"

She didn’t need to whisper, since the new drones were quite bad at picking up noise.

All the fighting sounds are added as an effect automatically, and if she would speak without a helmet, the drone could read her lips and recreate her voice. However, with the helmet on, nobody would hear her question... or Faith’s answer...

"There are twenty of you remaining, but attacking War now isn’t the best option. He’s hunting with fervor. Let War tire himself out, while you make sure nobody else remains who could interfere with your last fight!"

Yvonne sighed and stretched her arms. She began walking again, this time silent as a cat, which seemed uncanny given her massive body.

"Fine, where’s my next prey?" she asked, and the shadows whispered their answer. "Four hundred meters to the left. Some Transcended angel hiding between a few branches fifty meters above ground. His wings are covered in blood, and he barely survived his last fight."

The tall woman stayed silent and followed Faith’s instructions. After walking three hundred meters on the ground, she jumped onto the nearest branch ten meters above, then continued climbing until she stood sixty meters above ground.

She jumped from one branch to the next not making a single sound. The tree was firm under her feet and didn’t bend under her weight, which didn’t surprise Yvonne since the forest wasn’t natural.

In fact, the forest was her second cheat. It’ll lend her victory if the situation becomes dire, but for now, it stayed dormant silently watching Yvonne’s every move.

After a few more jumps, she arrived at her destination. Light breathing echoed in the air as Yvonne crouched and gazed down upon her prey.

The angel wore a once pure white armor, which now dripped with blood. His wings didn’t seem fully healed yet, which was odd for a Transcended. Yvonne herself could heal most wounds in one second, but she could clearly see broken bones within those wings.

Her assessment of the situation was quick, and soon she began climbing down the tree until only a few meters separated her from the angel.

Gradually, a long spear grew out of her palms, which she kept absolutely still. If she would’ve stabbed towards the angel, he would’ve felt the light breeze of the attack and could’ve evaded in time. Yvonne instead used a much more cunning tactic.

She let the spear grow about three meters in length until only a dozen centimeters separated its tip from the angel’s neck. A long moment passed, and with a sudden, powerful move, she pushed the blade through the angel, beheading him with ease.

He didn’t make a single sound as life left his eyes. The head fell towards the ground, hitting a few branches along the way, and his body soon followed.

However, as they landed, the armor made no noise... A near invisible layer of shadows cushioned their fall...

The drones couldn’t pick up differences between light and dark either, so summoning shadows didn’t disturb the broadcast. On the footage, the responsible software still added the landing noise, making the clueless spectators cheer in excitement.

"Seventeen remaining, including you." Said Faith, as Yvonne jumped away on the branches.

Far away, Yvonne heard the sounds of fighting. The screams of pain, explosions and clash of weapons echoed throughout the forest.

Not everyone tried staying hidden like Yvonne. However, the noises died down just as fast as they appeared, plunging the dark forest back into its deafening silence.

"Where to next?" she asked while squatting on a lower branch.

Below her, large craters and tendrils of smoke marked a recent fight. There wasn’t any corpse nearby, which meant either both fighters survived, or someone got exploded into smithereens.

Strangely, none of the trees suffered even the slightest damage, which was a loophole in the Contracts. While inside the arena, none of the fighters could damage anyone without Contracts, such as Faith or Bea.

"Two hundred meters to your right. Some minor god is trying to set up an ambush. However, beware that two other fighters are headed that way."

Yvonne nodded and sprinted along the branches until she found the ambush site. The ground below the branches was covered in a giant splash of mud... That was her target!

"How the fuck am I going to kill this thing?" She asked herself while watching out for anyone nearby.

"I’ll mark the heart. Prepare to throw your spear." Whispered Faith, and a second later, a tiny blob of dark shadow began floating a few centimeters above the mud pool.

There was no hesitation in Yvonne as she tossed her spear with full force. It went through the mud into the ground below until only the very end of the shaft remained visible.

Nothing happened to the pool of mud, but she felt the primordial god perish from the spear. However, since the mud remained, Yvonne had the perfect idea to trap the two fighters headed her way.

She quickly jumped down and laid into the pool. It stretched deeper than it looked, and so she summoned spear after spear, pressing them deep into the solid ground below the mud, with their blades facing upward.

Yvonne then left the pool, or more like its previous prey’s corpse, and climbed the trees once again. The mud soon dried on her body, right when she heard light footsteps approaching.

Two heavily armored gigantic knights with bat-like wings, horns and sharp tails... Demons...

Suddenly, Yvonne felt less confident in her plan. She wasn’t sure her spears could pierce the heavy armor covering the creatures’ massive bodies, but it was still worth a try.

The demons approached the mud pool and stopped at its edge. They seemed uncertain and were about to go around the pool when Yvonne made her move.

She dropped down from the lowest branch silently, then sprinted along the ground towards the demons standing side-by-side. The shadows grew thicker along her path and absorbed the sound of her footfalls.

When she was a few meters away, her knees bent then extended quickly, propelling her into the air and forward feet first. She drop-kicked both demons with enough momentum to push them into the pool.

They roared in surprise and anger, but there was no stopping their fall. They both fell on a few spears, but it wasn’t enough to punch through their armor... Luckily, Yvonne had one more idea...

She jumped after the demons while summoning spears in each hand. Her body became a strange flying handstand as she fell straight towards the demons.

The spears carrying her weight and momentum pressed down on the demons’s chests, right where their hearts were. The spears cushioning them also began pushing through the armor, into their bodies.

A few seconds passed, but eventually the demons died, and Yvonne left for her next target...

This hunt continued until Yvonne heard Faith say, "Three remaining."

Then all hell broke loose...