Chapter 354: Phase Two of the Protocol

[Transportation initiation in 1 Hour]

Violet glanced at the timer that was slowly ticking down, trepidation and anticipation both surging through her.

It had been a long 10 days since the announcement was made stating the imminent arrival of Phase 2 of the Chapion Beast Protocol.

Violet had been trained primarily by Karla, the bear woman preceding a very... physical, training method.

In other words Violet had been beaten black and blue repeatedly, for hours on end and only given brief moments of rest in between brutal combat scenarios.

Still as much as Violet wanted to complain about the brutal treatment she had received, she couldn’t turn down the effectiveness of it.

Her domain felt significantly more stable from when she first evolved. Her control over it was similarly much more precise, where at first she could only really turn it on or off with some minor control over its size upon activation.

Now she was able to designate certain areas where her domain will effect, be they connected or separated from her body. This allowed her to use her domain to create ’fields’ wherein she could rapidly etch void runes whilst protecting them from opposing forces.

Similarly she could then use these localised expressions of her domain to disrupt her foes magical attacks and constructs.

Given Violet’s domains innate opposition towards reality it could be used both offensively or defensively to harras enemies.

Thanks to her last fight with Karla she had even discovered how to momentarily supercharge her domain to temporarily overpower a more powerful hostile domain. Granted its effectiveness was quite limited, but it showed a possible route to develop further.

Luna’s training on the other hand was much more ’tame’ by comparison, not to say hers was easier by any means, just that she didn’t suffer extreme bodily harm for any failure.

Luna had however developed quite intricate control over her domain and the effects she can manifest within it.

Borrowing her affinity with illusions, the king had helped integrate her usage of frozen illusions into her domain.

Now when Luna fought she twisted reality into her own playground.

She would create illusions both within and outside of her actively controlled domain, creating both real and illusory obstacles and both to hinder foes and aid herself when she fought.

But that was only part of her advancement, she had further refined her combat style. She had spent hours sparing with the King, wherein he systematically broke down how she fought, forcing her to either discard the unnecessary parts or refine what was lacking.

Karla had done much the same with Violet. Forcing her to refine how she fought, breaking bad habits and developing new tactics at the same time.

They hardly had any free time left to them during the last 10 days, so had been enjoying this final day of mostly relaxation. They spent it catching up with their friends who they would have to once again leave behind.

None of their friends had managed to secure a place within the protocol, having not encountered any champion beasts.

That initially surprised the two companions, seeing as they had encountered several over their journey. However, their was nothing to be done about it so they simply moved on.

Currently the girls, along with the few friends they had made in Shan were gathered in one of the courtyards of the Palace.

Rhyana, Susan, Vithrax, Masin, Andrea and Steve, the scout of Masins team that went with him to Cragkieth. Along with them were both the king and queen as well as Kayla and a few of the serving staff who were providing food and drink to the assembled crowd.

"So how long till you will attempt your evolution?" Violet asked Rhyana as they made their way through plates of food piled high with delicious meats.

"Hmm, not too long, I think I’m about ready to go, but Susan wants to take a little while longer to solidify her own ideas and strengths. I don’t want to do anything without her besides me so it will depend on when she is ready." Rhyana replied inbetween bites.

"Iv told you that you don’t have to wait for me." Sighed Susan.

To which Rhyana instantly responded. "And Iv told you that you that I will wait as long as you need. I’m not evolving without you, I’m never going to leave you behind."

Violet watched as the blond haired dogkin blushed slightly as she looked away whilst muttering under her breath quiet enough that Violet struggled to hear. "Stupid dragon always saying such things."

Violet smiled at the interaction, choosing not to mention anything seeing as Rhyana didn’t seem aware of exactly how much affection Susan held for her.

She then remembered how her own relationship had developed with Luna and couldn’t help her eyes drifting over to her companion.

Luna was currently talking with both Olivia and Masin about something, laughing at something Olivia had said. A smile found its way onto Violet’s lips as she watched her beloved companion.

Her thoughts were interrupted when several smaller dragons landed in the courtyard and quickly made their way over to Violet. Looks of saddness clear on their faces.

Dawn, the golden scaled dragon spoke up first, her voice soft and nervous. "Are you really going away?"

Violet let out a soft sigh as she replied. "Yes, both me and Luna are. The system is bringing up to a place where we will be competing to become a champion beast, whatever that is."

The golden dragon stayed silent for a while before she spoke up again. "How long will you be gone for?"

"I don’t know I’m afraid, it may only be a short while or a long time. But, regardless of how long it takes, we will be returning. We are both pretty strong!"

Little Dawn looked like she wanted to say more but Luna spoke up as she walked over. "Don’t worry little Dawn, we will be fine. But when we get back I expect to find that you all have reached tier 4 you hear me." She said whilst looking over the gathered young dragons.

She got a bevy of agreements, both reluctant and excited from the assembled dragons.

From there the two companions spent the rest of their time with their friends, until, finally it was time.

[Transportation initiation in 30 seconds]

Seeing that they both nodded at one another before moving away from everyone else before initiating their transformation into their beast forms.

From there the two massive beasts looked over their assembled friends and allies fondly, Violet was the one to speak up. "Well I guess this is goodbye for now, thank you everyone for all you have done for us. We will be back before you know it."

Then it was time.

Transportation in 3

2

1

Then with a flash of golden light both beasts vanished from the courtyard, leaving behind the faint glimmer of etherial runic patterns in the grass before they too faded away.

**

Violet opened her eyes to find herself in an entirely white space, their was nothing all around her, just undefinable floor, walls and ceiling of the same featureless white material.

She tried to scratch the floor with one of her claws yet not a scratch was left behind regardless of how powerfully she tried.

She tried to summon a void bolt, or anything magical yet nothing happened. She even tried to extend her domain yet to her growing horror found that nothing happened there either.

Then she noticed that Luna was no longer besides her and her panic truly began to rise, she couldn’t even feel their companion bond anymore.

Just as her panic was beginning to reach a breaking point one of the walls suddenly changed colour and an androgynous voice rang out all around her.

"Welcome nacent champion. This is the Champion Beast Protocol, congratulations for reaching Phase 2."

The voice was monotonous, packing of any emotion or inflection, it was decidedly unnerving and did nothing to calm down Violet’s bubbling panic over her situation.

"In the screen before you, you will see an island." As the voice said the coloured screen was now showing a mostly round island of indeterminable size. It was seemingly split into several different biomes, from forest to desert to grassy plains, Arctic environs and more. All of them ringing the central region which was that of a massive and seemingly dormant volcano, given the large crater in its middle.

Interestingly Violet noted that their were 5 distinct circles of open land that were highlighted blue.

"You will be assigned a biome based on your nature, from there you will have 1 week to make your way to the central caldera. Failed to make progress will result in disqualification and immediate explulsion from the trail grounds."

Violet observed the island, wondering where she will end up given her void nature. Still the voice continued.

"Each competitor will be assigned a token, you can collect more token by defeating other nacent champions. During your journey you will only be able to advance past each barrier if you collect additional tokens. 2 for the first, 5 for the second, 10 for the third, 15 for the fourth and 20 for the 5th."

As the voice spoke each barrier flashed in time with the voice, showing that the 5 circles were the barrier in question and that one would have to both fight and win to advance.

"Only the first 1000 to reach the caldera will be allowed to enter Phase 3. Good luch Chapions."

Then the screen showing the island turned back into white and then the walls began to dissolve.

The second Phase of the Chapion Beast Protocol had officially begun.

**

A/N:

Hey everyone, sorry but gonna be taking a bit of time off before resuming, probs around a week.

Will return to the story with the begining of the second phase!