Devouring Dragon Heir-Chapter 83: Ch Flora Duskbane
As soon as the battle started, a thousand participants simultaneously entered their respective VR capsules.
With a sizzling sound a few gasses were released as the VR pods launched,
the participants inside the capsules were instantly transported inside the vast virtual realm.
Each individual appeared at a random, pre-determined location in the sky at the height of 2000 meters approx with a parachute on their backs.
One of these participants was Flora Dusk bane.
She came from a minor family, a branch under the larger, more influential House of Hawkins.
In the previous conclave, Flora had not even gotten the turn to participate, as Klaus had abruptly disrupted the event midway with his dominating victory over multiple scions.
this event had irritated her, but had also made her the fan of Klaus’s devilish charms. she wished she could meet his idle. The obsession was so severe that she now ran a ’Klaus bennet fan girls club’
From her childhood, Flora had risen through sheer grit and intelligence. She had cultivated her innate talents, achieving an A-rank by her early twenties with pure dedication.
She made her way into society not through inherited wealth or status, but with her sharp wits and a natural knack for navigating complex political landscapes.
although she did come from a branch family which was still much influential than common populace, but in comparison to the direct scions of the legacies, she was much better.
Her ambition was cold and calculated very high. She had also aced the Academy’s rigorous written entrance exam, a prerequisite for all hunters below S-rank.
As soon as she appeared in the forest, a sleek rapier with a purple hilt and handle materialized by her side.
She immediately gripped it as her instincts took over to raise her guard.
She began navigating the dense tropical forest with swift movements and caution, her eyes scanned every corner of the forest.
Her primary objective was to locate her friends and form a group. Unity was key in these long, drawn-out battle royale.
Flora was a proud A-rank hunter, a rising star in her circle.
Being the best in her family and among her immediate friends had instilled in her a deep sense of confidence about life, about her ability to overcome challenges.
And like her, almost every other participant immediately started looking for their friends.
They aimed to group up, form tactical alliances, and clear the trials they would face over the next three days together.
Yes, the battle royale would last for a full seventy-two hours. It was a long-stretched battle designed to simulate real-life dungeon scenarios where endurance and cooperation were paramount.
She had been walking in a specific direction for a few minutes, relying on her internal compass and the subtle landmarks she had noted during her descent.
Suddenly, she passed a particularly gnarled, ancient-looking tree when she abruptly stopped moving.
"Huh?" she murmured aloud, a puzzled look on her face.
A strange sense of déjà vu washed over her.
"Why do I feel I have been here before?" Sheathing her rapier back into its virtual scabbard, she began running, a sense of suspicion creeping into her mind.
Her aim was to cross the forest and reach the open plain area she had spotted while falling from the sky a while ago, hoping to get a clearer perspective.
She ran for a few minutes as she pushed her stamina to the limit.
Her enhanced senses confirmed she was moving in a straight line. Yet, to her growing horror, she spotted the exact same gnarled tree she had seen earlier.
A cold dread began to seep into her.
She ran again, faster this time as her breaths came out in ragged gasps, only to end up at the exact same spot.
This terrifying loop kept happening. She ran, she saw the tree, she ran again, and she ended up back at the same tree.
It was an inescapable, maddening cycle. This continued until she was absolutely certain of it: she was trapped in this maze, or something even worse.
Suddenly, the virtual sun, which had been high in the sky, started setting with alarming speed.
The vibrant daylight rapidly faded as evening dusk settled over the virtual forest. The shadows deepened, the air grew cooler.
"What?" Flora whispered, her voice laced with fear.
She looked at her wristwatch’s digital display that showed only two hours had passed since the battle began.
How did the sun set so quickly? The time distortion was impossible.
But her questions were soon answered, not by logic but by her deepest fears.
She felt the ground beneath her trembling, a low, resonant vibration that grew steadily stronger. Turning around, her eyes wide with dread, what came to her sight took her breath away.
"Aaaaaaa... hhh!!!"
A giant, mountain-sized black spider, its multiple eyes glowing with malevolent green light, appeared in front of her.
Its massive, hairy legs scuttled across the ground, covering the distance in mere seconds. Before Flora could even scream, before she could raise her rapier and fight back, the colossal arachnid lunged, its massive fangs opening wide, almost instantaneously swallowing her whole.
Her vision went black.
But the hell did not stop there. She immediately reappeared on the exact same spot, the gnarled tree looming before her.
And suddenly, it was daytime again, the sun high in the sky, as if the previous terrifying sequence had never happened.
Flora was sweating heavily, her body trembling uncontrollably, her mind teetering on the edge of sanity.
She looked around frantically, then ran again, desperately clinging to the hope that it might have been a dream.
But her hopes were shattered when she saw the exact same thing happening again and again.
The lost path, the sudden dusk, the ground trembling, and the colossal spider swallowing her whole.
She was stuck in this endless loop of hell, living the same terrifying death over and over again, for God knows how much time.
Her greatest fear, spiders, was being exploited mercilessly by the adversary.
Meanwhile, in the real world what was truly visible to the outside spectators was a purple-haired man with a creepy, unsettling smile and weird, intricate tattoos covering his exposed skin.
He was looking intently at the spot on the ground which showed the image of a visibly shivering Flora Duskbane, sprawled on the virtual ground. This was Veridian, the grandson of Paragon Neil Ashford.
Veridian’s usual eye patch was now lifted from his left eye, which was now exposed.
It glowed with a mesmerizing amethyst hue, shining with a dull black shades.
This was the source of Flora’s torment. He was using a unique, powerful illusion skill to trap Flora in her personal hell.
Outside, the commentator, Leonard, shouted in excitement, his voice booming with theatrical energy.
"Ladies and gentlemen, the first confrontation has started between Veridian Ashford and Flora Duskbane! And from the broadcast, it seems Veridian has trapped Flora into a completely surreal illusion!"
On the screen, Veridian, in the virtual world, simply moved with a casual stride.
He took out a small, gleaming dagger from his side and, with a swift, precise motion, slit Flora’s virtual throat. Her body dissolved into pixels, signifying her defeat and elimination from that round.
As soon as Flora died in the simulation, she appeared right at the place where she had initially spawned at the start of the battle royale, her physical body in the VR capsule still trembling.
Her mind, still reeling from the endless loop of terror, was disoriented. 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂
Thinking this was just another cycle of the repetitive hell, she shivered uncontrollably and quietly waited under a nearby virtual tree, closing her eyes, bracing herself for the scary monster to swallow her again. She expected the loop to continue.
But then, a new panel appeared in front of her, not the terrifying illusion, but a system notification from the VR broadcast feature.
It displayed her new score balance as 0 points, and listed the participant she had lost to, under which Veridian’s name appeared.
Looking at the panel, she slowly digested the information. The reality of the situation, the fact that she had been toyed with, humiliated, and defeated, slowly returned to her sanity.
The endless loop of fear was broken. She realized that she had been trapped, manipulated, and systematically tormented.
A cold, burning vow formed in her mind "I will teach this Veridian a lesson"
She would make him pay for this humiliation.
She said this aloud, her voice a low, determined whisper, and then walked towards another direction.
A clever scheme was already forming in her mind.
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