Supremacy Games

"Damn it, the dragons have surpassed us!" Webor cursed in anger as he displayed the ranking list before his teammates.

"It was bound to happen." Felix sighed, "I just didn't expect it to be this fast."

"Hopefully, they land in a floor that requires finesse to waste their time." Nina wished.

At this point, they could only pray for the goddess of luck to take pity on them and slow down the dragons' climb until they catch up.

...

A couple of hours later...

Cherufe's team had climbed to the twelfth floor while almost everyone were still stuck at the tenth floor.

For the dragons to take such a long time to conclude just one floor, this made Felix understand that the upcoming floors would have a significant increase in their conclusion duration and difficulty.

Just like the rules implied, after each ancestral floor, the difficulty jump significantly.

-You have been stuck in the ancestral floor for too long...Would you like to ally with another team?-

"It's here!"

Suddenly, Webor jumped from his place in excitement after hearing the notification.

The others weren't as thrilled as him, but they were still happy that some progress would finally occur.

"We accept." Felix agreed for everyone.

-A team will be dispatched in a few seconds...Prepare to receive them.-

"F***ck this sh*t!"

The instant Webor heard so, he immediately snapped and started breaking trees around him in anger.

"Landlord's team are really in a luck drought." Micheal smiled wryly as he clarified, "Having a team sent to them will force them to fall down by a floor after elder Manananggal will choose to pass the other team."

In other words, Felix's team would become the last in the ranking as they would need to repeat both the ninth floor and the tenth floor!

"It's doomed..." Rotspawn massaged his eyelids in frustration.

"Doomed or not, let's just try our best." Felix said with a faint smile.

As the captain, he would never show that he had lost hope even when the odds were stacked against his team.

'Hello everyone, we are here for the rescue.'

Abruptly, a message was sent to them by The Magnifier, making their eyelids twitch.

Soon, five space worms exited a dimensional rift and floated around them.

"I didn't expect you guys to be struggling this hard too." The Magnifier said.

"Things happened." Felix wasn't in the mood to elaborate.

"Hmm, so where is Mannangal's copy?" The Magnifier dropped the chitchat and wondered, "You guys are sitting in the center of the map. Does Manananggal's copy prefer staying in the corners?"

"He is dead." Rotspawn answered bluntly.

"Huh?"

Naturally, his answer had threw the space worms off.

"I didn't think you guys will be in the mood for jokes when the dragons are two floors ahead." The Magnifier snickered.

In his eyes, it was impossible for the copy to be dead, yet they were still stuck in his floor.

Unfortunately, neither Felix nor the others were in the mood to explain it in detail...It was already shitty that another team would take advantage of their effort and pass the floor, why would they waste time explaining it to them as well?

'Let's scout ahead.' The Magnifier frowned, 'I don't know if they had given up to spew such bullshit, but I refuse to be stuck here wit...'

-Congratulation challengers.-

-You have successfully impressed The Ancestral Vampire and obtained the right to move on to the eleventh floor.-

-Time taken...Calculating...thirty seconds.-

The Magnifier tiny mouth was widened in disbelief and bafflement after those three notification resounded promptly in his mind.

When he glanced at his teammates and saw that their reaction was more or less the same, he knew that he wasn't tripping!

"How? What? Why? The f*ck is going on here?"

The Magnifier kept looking around him in utter confusion, not daring to believe that he was given the right to pass the ancestral floor without even seeing the copy!

At the start, when he realized that his team was teleported to ally with Felix's team, he knew that their situation was f*cked.

After all, he didn't forget that he had sworn to assist Felix's team against the primogenitors' copies at the ground floor.

That's why he greeted them with that rescue joke, knowing that his team would be the one downgraded a floor.

But now? He had no idea what to think anymore.

"Safe journey." Felix wished him calmly while breaking into light particles with the rest of his teammates.

Just like the space worms received notifications that they passed the floor, his team had also received notification that the ninth floor was welcoming them.

"Wait! Tell me what the f*ck happened here!" The Magnifier shouted, not able to accept this god sent opportunity falling into his lap like this.

"Watch the replay."

Felix said one last time before disappearing from the floor, leaving the space worms more confused than ever.

"Sigh, the game is ruined...Let's meet in the after the party." Lord Dune shook his head in disappointment while standing up.

He nodded at the elemental lords and the others before teleporting away, not planning to remain and watch the game anymore.

"I hope you guys are happy." Thor said coldly as he eyed the Darkin faction members.

If it was just Thor giving them this look, Saurous and the other two wouldn't even bother to glance at him.

Unfortunately, almost all primogenitors were displeased by how things turned out.

A beautiful and entertaining concept that involved them in the games was ruined just like that by him.

From this point on, there was no way in hell the primogenitors would agree to include themselves in the games anymore.

What's the point if their conflicts would make them biased?

Even though Lord Dune had left the gathering, the game still carried on and the primogenitors continued watching it.

The only difference was that the Darkin faction members were being excluded from most conversations as no one wanted to deal with them at the moment.

This was the price they had to pay when they brought in their conflict within a game that was meant to liven the atmosphere and entertain them.

Still, the show must go on...

***

Three days later...One hour before the end of the game.

"Cherufe's team is still ahead by a whole two floors than the second runner, Dune's team." Micheal commentated, "I think this is it...There is no way to catch up to them when those floors take hours to conclude them."

Micheal didn't even bring up Felix's team, knowing that it was even more impossible for them to catch up.

At the moment, Felix and his teammates were struggling in the fourteenth floor, trying to finish the challenge as fast as possible.

Unfortunately, the challenge required them to spend ten hours of constant battling against desert monsters.

There was no leeway on reducing the time.

It wasn't like they had gotten unlucky with the challenge or such...Everyone had faced the same situation after passing the tenth floor.

Even Cherufe's team were subjected to those long ass hours missions.

However, because they were so far ahead from everyone else, it didn't affect their lead whatsoever.

On the other hand, Felix and his teammates had truly given it their best and everyone cheered for them.

They were dropped to the ninth floor, turning them into the last team in the game from being the first.

Yet still, they battled their way to the tenth floor and managed to impress the ancestors after landing against the Light primogenitor, Amaterasu.

It was a difficult and peculiar battle but still, they earned their way to the eleventh floor.

Unfortunately, the instant their feet touched the eleventh floor, Felix realized that the game was truly doomed for them.

The missions took a long time to finish, and they had no more clues to assist them...Even then, he didn't dare to raise the white flag before his masters and gave the best performance he could muster.

It was a glorious performance alright as he had managed to help his team climb from the last rank to the third rank, passing all other teams besides Dune's team and Cherufe's team.

Too bad, Cherufe's team lead was simply too much for anyone to catch up...

'Five minutes have remained, captain.' Webor informed Felix with a dejected expression.

'I know.' Felix replied while slicing up tens of sand monsters with a single swing of his battleaxe.

There were thousands of them popping out akin to mushrooms around them, making him go absolutely wild with his battleaxe.

He didn't care anymore about the game, the win, the bets, the unfair treatment, or anything that could bring down his mood.

He just kept slicing, slicing, and slicing until his arms went numb and his skin completely tainted with blood...

When his teammates saw him like this, they refrained from mentioning the time again and focused on their own sides of the battlefield.

Seconds went by then minutes...Before long, the game had reached its last ten seconds.

Micheal and the viewers started the countdown while most teams stopped carrying on their mission and started staring at the sky, waiting for the final announcement with disheartened expressions.

"Three...Two...One!!" Micheal brought the same near his lips and shouted as loud as possible, "MAKE SOME NOISE FOR YOUR WINNERS! CHERUFE'S TEAM!!"

Clap Clap Clap!

Out of respect for Cherufe, the viewers had no choice but shower the dragons with a round of applause.

Whether they liked Felix or not, they all knew that if Felix's team wasn't treated like crap by Manananggal, the outcome would have been different.

Even the dragons in the stands knew that Felix and his teammates were robbed in this game.

Absolutely robbed...