Within the Colosseum, the last of the Reality Emulators in the section allotted for the Polyphaga Trial Zone Team opened up and sent out a Horned Beetle onto the podium ground.
He was none other than the Team Leader of the Horned Beetles, Pompa.
As soon as he got out, Pompa held his chin high and waited for his team members to surround him with cheers and exhilaration for successfully clearing the 8th Monster Wave and single-handedly making it quite far in the 9th Monster Wave.
However, not even the barest of his expectations were met. Instead, the bunch of Horned Beetles seemed to ignore him as they stared at the top screen floating several meters above the center of the podium ground.
It wasn't just them, but every single one within the Colosseum was the same. Even the Tournament Manager, Felarial, wasn't an exception.
To find what everyone was staring at, Pompa turned his attention onto the ink-black screen only to narrow his eyes right away and watch the black screen with even more keen eyes as if he was trying to understand something complex.
A few seconds from then, the still silence in the Colosseum was broken by ripples of gasps followed by noises from various heated discussions.
Whereas Pompa still continued to stare at the black screen with his bead-like eyes.
For some reason, he seemed to grow irritated as time passed on. After another few seconds, he couldn't take it anymore and approached his fellow Horned Beetles.
Pompa smacked two of them on the back of their heads before grunting, "Ahh!! Just what is there on that black screen other than boredom. What is all this fuss about?! "
The two Horned Beetles that took the hit stumbled on their feet and almost fell to the ground.
When they found that it was Pompa, they felt wronged and complained for a while before one of them pointed out, "Leader, we aren't looking at the black screen but the narrow column above that. It contains the information on the Earth Trial Zone team's performance in Round-2. Look at it, and you will know what the commotion was about."
Pompa's ears burned in embarrassment from learning that he didn't grasp such a simple detail, and his subordinates had to point it out to him when it was usually the other way around.
He shamelessly covered it up with a scoff, "Hmph!! Did you all think I haven't already seen their Sco…..."
However, Pompa's words were stuck in his throat as he took a clear look at the information over the top screen.
[Earth Trial Zone Team - (13th Monster Wave-ongoing) (Current Score: 9298826.)]
He exclaimed in disbelief, "What the Bell!! They managed to reach as far as the 13th Monster Wave?!"
Before Pompa could utter anything else, the Score on the top screen once again refreshed, and the last two Reality Emulators in the section allotted for Earth Trial Zone Team opened up.
Everyone's gazes landed on Jay and Dante, who had just experienced the 13th Monster Wave and stepped onto the podium ground.
Jay didn't even take a look at the refreshed Leaderboard and made his way to the Earth team's seating area along with Dante.
There, he sat without as much as a word, whereas the rest of the Earth's Alpha Chosen were curious to know how Jay and Dante scored a million points when they barely survived the 13th Monster Wave for just a few seconds.
Noticing that Jay wasn't in a mood to speak, they turned to Dante for answers.
As for Dante, he kept looking at the sky as if he had seen something he couldn't forget.
Dante got back at them, noticing their piercing gazes as he massaged his forehead.
"Alright…Alright, enough with that. I will brief you all on what happened there. Jeez, facing 100 Tier-5 Monsters was already overwhelming enough; now, having to relive that memory is too much to handle. Just give me room for a breather."
After a few deep breaths and a soft sigh, Dante shared his experience with the rest of the Earth's Alpha Chosen.
"After barely surviving the 12th Monster Wave, Jay and I recovered our Health, Stamina and Spirit Energy as much as possible in the 10-minute break.
We initially planned on hiding at one of the Barren battlefield's top corners, but just a second after the 13th Monster Wave began, we realised our plan wouldn't work."
"Why? Were they really huge and terrifying?" Kasim impatiently cut in half.
Andrea knocked on his shoulder, "Oii, Meat Head! Just listen….will ya?"
Kasim scratched the back of his head and wryly smiled at the others, "Sorry…sorry. I'll stay silent."
After that, Dante resumed, "The Tier-5 Low-Phase monsters were terrifying? Yes, but not huge. They were at most our size. However, don't be fooled by that. Even the word 'terrifying' is an understatement to the power they had displayed."
He took a deep breath and recalled a memory as he subconsciously shivered before continuing, "The sheer destruction they unleashed was off the charts. In terms of power, they made the Tier-4 High-Phase monsters look like little children.
Their presence alone suffocated me to the point my body froze in fear. If not for Jay carrying me on his shoulder, I would have died within two seconds after the 13th Monster Wave began."
While Dante continued explaining to the rest of the Earth's Alpha Chosen, Jay recollected his memories and analysed some crucial details.
The first one was the Tier-Suppression. Although the emulated monsters weren't able to use direct Tier Suppression, the oppressive effect took place when they faced Tier-5 monsters.
It was due to the vast difference in Tiers. Dante was affected by that but not Jay.
Ever since the beginning, the Tier-Suppression showed no effect on him. Every time that happened, Jay would contribute it to his abnormal amount of stats, which placed him on a Tier above his own.
But facing Tier-5 monsters made Jay think otherwise. After all, the overall stats of peak Tier-5 Low-Phase monsters sit around 3500, and that was more than thrice that of his overall stats.
{Author Note: Tier-5 (Lv.101 - Lv.250)
Tier-5 Low-Phase (Lv.101 - Lv.150),
Tier-5 Mid-Phase (Lv.151 - Lv.200),
Tier-5 High-Phase (Lv.201 - Lv.250)}
Due to that, Jay concluded that he was pretty much immune to Tier-Suppression and believed his Unique Innate Talent, <LOOT>, has something to do with it.
But since he was not 100% sure, Jay didn't give further thought to it and moved on to scaling the attributes of Tier-5 Low-Phase monsters.
With 3500 overall stats, that would mean each of the five attributes would have 700 stats on average.
Then it all made sense to Jay as to why he heard several ear-deafening noises whenever those monsters moved.
It was due to their phenomenal movement speed that exceeded the speed of sound, and the loud noises were none other than the sonic booms heard from breaking the sound barrier.
{Author Note: Speed of Sound = 343 meters/sec (1125 feet/sec)}
If not for the 'Thunder Miasma Field' blocking their senses, the monsters would have caught Jay and Dante in a flash.
That showed Jay the extent of Thunder Miasma's capacity. At just Lv.21 Mastery (Stage-3), the Thunder Miasma was almost on par with Lv.41 Mastery (Stage-5).
But under the siege of the Stage-5 Masteries of 100 Tier-5 monsters, even the seemingly all-powerful 'Thunder Miasma' slowly lost its potency.
When Jay realised that the Thunder Miasma Field couldn't hold and hide his location for much longer, he gave it his all and used up his entire Spirit Energy reserve into a single full-powered attack, <Mega Bolt>.
Since Jay used the skill <Spirit Energy Recharge> during the 10-minute break, he recovered his Spirit Energy to the full extent, and expending all of that into <Mega bolt> made it even more powerful than when Jay used it the last time.
However, not even a single monster died under the full-on collision of such a powerful attack.
But that enraged the monsters even more, and before Jay could move further away from them, a Raven-headed Humanoid monster dashed towards them before slashing Jay and Dante in half with its blade-like arms.
That was how both of their emulated health bars dropped to zero and were sent out of the Reality Emulators.
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