"Nothing much, I’m quite interested in something you hold," Atheline said, and continued forward.

Poller was forced to hurriedly follow.

"I do not think I have anything of value your highness."

A chuckle filled with amusement reached his ears. He glanced at Atheline’s back in confusion.

"You do have... your element."

The forest fell silent. Poller didn’t know how to respond at first. Only a handful knew of his element and this was a little bit of a shock to him but it wore off immediately.

How would he have been able to hide it if his highness had seen him being chased by the greedmire?

"But..."

"You possess something phenomenal and you know that," he cut him off before he could refuse," it’s such a waste to let yourself rot in such backwards water."

"You do not lack a space elementals user," he responded.

Atheline stopped and turned to look at him. His lips curved into a small smile.

"I do have some at my disposal, but it doesn’t hurt to have another does it?" Atheline calmly replied, tilting his head slightly.

Poller was unsure of how to respond. The thought of climbing ranks had been on his mind for some time, but now that it had been placed on his lap, he didn’t know what to do. If he refused he would be seen as ungrateful but if he accepted, he would be turned into a noble’s pet.

"You can think about it, we have until the end of the competition," Atheline said.

Poller let out a sigh of relief. He was genuinely scared of Atheline, the first display had shown him how cruel he could be and he didn’t want to end up dead.

It felt as though he only had one choice.

"Is that a deadline for the proposal your highness?" He asked just for the sake of it.

A small chuckle slipped through. Atheline nodded after calming down. It was amusing to see how the man had changed from over-eager to a terrified mouse in mere seconds and now he was trying to worm his way out of the situation.

Atheline wouldn’t let that happen, it had taken too much planning to get here. He had practically made sure the man wouldn’t refuse his offer.

"This is the only amount of time I will be here," he said.

"I will think about it your highness. "

Atheline nodded.

"Good."

His gaze shifted to the trees and Poller followed his gaze expecting something to fall from the tree like the other time but nothing.

Wind blew softly against the trees allowing strings of light to fall to the forest floor.

"He should be able to help you since he isn’t part of the competition," Atheline mummbled almost to himself. Poller looked at him in pure confusion.

"Who are you talking about your highness?" He asked.

His eyes shifted between the trees but he saw no one, just leaves rustling against each other.

"You’ll see," Atheline said," Luther... come out."

Poller almost jumped out of his skin when he felt a presence suddenly appear behind him. He turned to see a dark-haired high elf standing quietly behind him. He took a step to the side in surprise.

He hadn’t felt his presence at all and from the looks of it, he had been following them all the way. Poller glanced between the two of them watching the new man bow to Atheline.

That was when it came to him, his servant.

Atheline met his gaze.

"Luther should be able to rack up enough kills," he said almost dismissively," he’s my servant so he can let you have the last kill or something during the fight."

Poller was still a little confused.

"Will that be alright your highness?"

Atheline shrugged.

"Just call it a team if it makes you feel better. The goal is to win not care about your own morals," he said and turned to leave.

"Thank you your highness."

"Sure, sure."

He vanished into the dense vegetation.

"We should start, you have a long way to go before you could reach the top twenty."

Poller nodded but hesitated slightly.

"Let me check something first."

He reactivated the image stone in his hand. He was curious about his results, he didn’t want to go into battle distracted.

"The top five have already changed again," He said, shoving the image stone towards him.

Luther glanced at it, then lost interest.

[Atheline Sunblade, 2078 points, rank 1]

[Igrad Neill, 1200 points, rank 2.]

[Yander Blackburn, 890 points, rank 3]

[Simion Vilkorian, 878 points, rank 4]

[Caius Therlner, 869 points, rank 5] 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

"We should go."

He nodded and slipped the stone into his pocket. He hurriedly followed after Luther who didn’t seem to be in a good mood.

.

.

.

The viewing chamber in the palace had long lost its excitement. Both nobles and commoners in the Court who had once spoken loudly now watched the screen in veiled tension, their conversation reduced to whispers and occasional gasps whenever a monster appeared on the half of the screen.

Most contestants had already settled into the outer region. Some had formed temporary alliances others hunted alone while the unfortunate had already fed the hungry monsters.

The audience could only watch those at the outer circle since those who had entered the inner parts of the forest had basically disappeared from everyone’s view, they could only watch the rankings and decide their locations.

This had also become a past time for most of them.

Lilith sat on her chair, legs crossed as she watched his value increase with each passing second. One hand supported her cheek while the other rested atop her armchair, fingers tapping lazily.

A small smile graced her lips before it disappeared, yet the room could feel the pressure emitting from her.

Servants moved quietly as they placed her lunch next to her, trying to be as quiet as possible.

Although the screen could no longer see Atheline, she could easily find where he was.

A faint silver line shimmered within her pupils, invisible to everyone except herself.

Her gaze was fixed on the screen watching the other competitors but what she truly watched was the movement of the thread inside her mind.

Steady heartbeat. Uninjured. Moving quickly deeper. He was moving far deeper than any participant should have dared venture alone.

"Is something the matter, your majesty," her personal maid asked.

She didn’t respond immediately. Her eyes narrowed slightly, the tread trembled once and she could feel the strong anticipation transferred through.

A soft smile appeared on her lips before disappearing just as quickly.

"He found something interesting," she said.

The maid’s brow raised in confusion.

’Interesting?’