Chapter 112: Platinum Drop
High above the Hunting Grounds, hidden behind the Colosseum’s uppermost arches, a room existed that wasn’t on any building plan.
It was a small room, but fancy. Velvet curtains hung over the windows, a heavy mahogany table sat in the center, and crystal glasses were filled with dark wine. Two men sat in plush armchairs, while Prince Oscar sat in a wheelchair, his body limp from the neck down, his eyes locked onto a mirror mounted on the far wall.
The mirror didn’t show reflections.
It showed Holden Voss, standing alone in a golden dome, staring up at a Venom-Tail Manticore.
Prince Oscar’s head lolled slightly to one side, a lazy smile on his face. His paralyzed fingers rested uselessly on the armrests of his chair. A servant stood behind him, carefully holding a glass of wine to his lips when he leaned forward to sip.
"Look at him," Oscar said, his voice smooth despite everything. "Not even running. The slum rat doesn’t even have the sense to be afraid."
Royal Envoy Cassius leaned forward, adjusting his gold-threaded collar with practiced ease. "He probably thinks the dome is part of the exhibition. A special effect for the cameras."
"There are no cameras," Oscar said, grinning. "Not anymore."
Beside him, Prince Julian sat rigid in his chair. His hands gripped his wine glass a little too tightly. Ever since Holden had destroyed his brother’s cultivation, Julian’s arrogance had turned into something bitter and desperate. He needed this. He needed to watch the boy who’d humiliated his brother die screaming.
"He’s going to die," Julian whispered. "That thing is Rank 3. It’ll tear him apart before he can even draw his sword."
Oscar laughed softly. "That’s the point, brother. No witnesses. No evidence. Just a tragic accident during a media exhibition. The dome malfunctioned, the beast broke loose, and poor Holden Voss was found in pieces."
Cassius raised his glass. "To tragic malfunctions."
Julian raised his too.
Oscar leaned his neck forward, and the servant tilted the glass to his lips. He drank.
Down in the golden dome, Holden looked up at the Manticore.
Then he looked at the walls around him. Through the translucent golden surface, he could see the blurred shapes of his team. Lyra was right there, her spear raised, slamming the butt of it against the barrier over and over. Emric had his shield pressed against the wall, pushing with all his strength. Renna was firing arrows at the dome, each one bouncing off harmlessly.
They’d been at it for almost a minute now.
The dome was soundproof. Opaque to cameras. No live audience. No prying eyes from the outside world.
Holden summoned his Star-Forged Sword from his inventory.
He didn’t hold back this time. He let his energy flow freely, pushing his Rank 2, 5-Star aura out from his core like a tidal wave.
The air around him shimmered.
His skin darkened, taking on the faint metallic sheen of Iron-Body at full power. His muscles tightened, his bones hummed, and his grip on the sword shifted from casual to absolute.
Then he activated Hellfire Cleave.
Crimson fire exploded along the blade, so bright it turned the golden dome red. The heat warped the air into visible ripples.
Outside the barrier, Lyra stopped pounding. Even through the wall, the temperature spike was visible. Her eyes went wide.
The Manticore roared and lunged.
Its venomous tail whipped forward, the glowing stinger cutting through the air at a speed that would have killed any Rank 2 fighter instantly.
To Holden, it moved like honey pouring from a jar.
His 10,000x multiplier didn’t just make him fast. It made everything else slow. The stinger’s path was a bright green line drawn across his vision, inching forward like a lazy snake.
He stepped left.
The stinger missed by a foot.
The Manticore’s three eyes widened. It had never missed before.
Holden was already moving. His body became a red streak, low to the ground, closing the distance before the beast could pull its tail back for a second strike.
Three steps.
Two.
One.
WHOOSH.
The blade came up in a vertical arc, leaving a thick wall of bright red fire behind it. The edge met the Manticore’s neck at the exact point where the chitinous armor plates met the softer flesh beneath.
The fire did the rest.
The head came off clean.
It sailed upward, trailing a spiral of black blood, and hit the golden dome. The body stood for a moment, legs locked, tail still twitching. Then it toppled forward and crashed into the floor.
[Ding!]
[Venom-Tail Manticore (Rank 3, 1-Star) Defeated!]
[Base Reward: 10,000 KP]
[Rank Difference Bonus: +10,000 KP]
[2x KP Booster Applied!]
[Total: +40,000 KP!]
[Current Balance: 146,790 KP]
A brilliant white light erupted from the corpse. It condensed into a chest made of gleaming platinum, glowing with faint golden veins. It hovered three feet off the ground, spinning slowly.
Platinum Chest.
Holden didn’t hesitate. He reached out and swiped his hand through the chest. It dissolved into blue pixels and vanished into his System Inventory.
He dismissed his sword and pulled his aura back in. The metallic sheen faded from his skin. He looked exactly like he had before.
Just a Rank 1 kid in a tournament.
CRACK.
The sound came from everywhere and nowhere. A sharp, violent fracture, like glass breaking in a vacuum.
Up in the VIP room, Prince Julian was mid-sip when the magical mirror shattered.
Julian choked on his wine.
He bent over coughing hard, spitting red wine all over the clean tablecloth.
"What happened?!" Oscar’s head snapped toward Cassius, his smile vanishing. "Cassius! What happened to the mirror?!"
Cassius stumbled backward, his perfect composure broken. "I... I don’t know! The connection was severed! Something destroyed the link from inside the dome!"
Julian kept coughing, tears streaming down his face, wine dripping from his chin.
Oscar’s jaw clenched. His useless hands twitched against the armrests, a reflex his broken body couldn’t follow. "Fix it! Turn the cameras back on! Now!"
Down in the clearing, Holden walked to the golden wall where his team stood on the other side.
Lyra had her palm pressed flat against the barrier. Emric was muttering calculations under his breath, trying to find a weak point. Renna had given up on arrows and was just kicking the wall.
Holden looked at them. Then he looked at the wall.
He kicked it.
THOOM.
A section of the golden dome bent outward like punched metal, creating a gap wide enough to walk through.
The three of them stared at him.
"Hi," Holden said.
"Holden!" Renna grabbed his arm. "Are you okay?! We couldn’t hear anything! The whole dome just went dark and then there was this insane heat and—"
"I’m fine."
"But there was a Rank 3 beast in there!" Emric pushed his glasses up, his hands shaking slightly. "I caught a glimpse through the barrier before it fully solidified. That was a Venom-Tail Manticore. How are you still breathing?"
Holden shrugged. "It wasn’t that tough."
Emric started to say something but stopped. He opened his mouth again, still couldn’t think of anything, and finally just gave up and fixed his glasses.
Lyra stared at Holden. Her eyes moved from his face to the gap in the dome, then to the dark shape lying in the grass behind him.
"Is that..." she started.
"Yes it is."
"You killed it."
"Yep."
She didn’t ask how. She just held his gaze for a long moment, something sharp and knowing flickering behind her eyes. Then she nodded once and said nothing else.
The moment his foot touched the grass outside the dome, every camera drone in the forest sparked back to life simultaneously. Blue crystals glowed bright. The Live feeds reconnected. A hundred thousand viewers who had been staring at black screens for minutes suddenly had their picture back.
The first thing they saw was Team Soup, standing around a broken golden dome.
The second thing they saw was Holden walking out, dragging something behind him.
The Manticore’s head was enormous. Three dead eyes stared at nothing. Venom still dripped from the severed stinger attached to its neck. Black blood painted a line in the grass behind him.
Cassius came running from the treeline. The Envoy’s mouth was moving a mile a minute before he even reached them.
"What a tragic equipment failure! We are trying our best to fix it! The dome malfunctioned and a beast somehow entered the enclosure! We are so grateful our champion is unharmed! The Crown takes full responsibility for this unprecedented—"
Holden let go of the Manticore’s head.
It rolled across the grass and came to a stop at Cassius’s feet, bumping against his polished shoes.
Cassius looked down. His mouth kept moving for a moment before the words stopped coming out.
Holden looked directly into the nearest camera. His expression was calm and pleasant.
"Thanks for the light workout," he said. "Your Royal Family really knows how to treat a guest."