Chapter 329: Seasoned Battle Champions!

Uhtred continued journeying with the moving crowd, and soon enough, a magnificent city came into view.

It was unlike anything he had ever seen, its grandeur unmistakable even from a distance. A dense, organized grid of city blocks stretched across the horizon, dotted with high-rise buildings of a peculiar architecture.

Above it all, tiny specs of flying crafts drifted freely through the air. Compared to the previous city Uhtred came from, this looked like a whole different world entirely.

And yet that wasn’t all.

At the center of the city, a grand spire — an obsidian structure that towered far above every other building in the city — stood proudly. It pierced straight up into the sky, where another jaw-dropping marvel lay:

A floating city.

The city below was already magnificent, but the floating city above was even more so. Without needing to be told, Uhtred realized immediately that the city above belonged to the true elites of this human kingdom.

From his vantage point, he couldn’t see deep into the floating city, but from what he could see at its outer edges alone, only the absurdly rich could afford to live there.

At the center of the floating city, a disc-like glow emanated — an energy-source of some sort, likely powering the grand arrays and artificing engineering that allowed the entire landmass to float.

Piercing right through that center ring of the floating city was the spire that towered from the city below. It continued upward past the floating city and straight into the sky above.

"Bloody fucking hell," Uhtred muttered, caught in a mix of awe and utter shock.

Beside him, a few traveling adventurers chuckled at his expression, muttering snide comments about a "country bumpkin" and how he "hadn’t seen anything yet."

Uhtred caught himself, realizing he was gawking like an idiot. He reined in his expression and continued the last stretch toward the city. At the same time, he continued to observe, but far more analytically this time. In doing so, he noticed a few key things:

First, and most notable: the city had no walls. There were no visible barriers, either. But that didn’t fool Uhtred at all. The fact that the city had no walls or barriers only went to show how confident they were in their ability to defend their borders.

Second: now that he was closer, he could see several other major roads from the West and East, all converging on the main road leading into the city, yet there wasn’t the slightest traffic jam. There was a small checkpoint manned by powerful ascenders, but they didn’t really stop anyone to check who they were. Rather, they seemed more like people who were there only to step in if something went wrong — or more aptly, if someone of note was flagged.

Which means there’s some sort of detection mechanism there, Uhtred surmised. Shit. Would they be able to tell I’m a Champion?

He had come so far without being found by any local authorities yet. He at least wanted to get into the city and try registering himself at a Stele without the intervention of any external force.

Sigh. Where’s that damned elf when you need him... Uhtred cursed internally. He remembered that Elion Silverwood and his mate, Eifrith Ra’Elis, had bypassed the guards of the previous city and entered easily. Perhaps Elion also had a way to enter this one without being spotted?

Uhtred would’ve asked the elf directly, but Elion had disappeared from his sight about ten minutes ago. It was as if he had simply vanished into thin air.

Fuck it. I’ll just continue and hope I don’t get flagged...

Uhtred reined in his passive essence draw as much as he physically could. He mellowed his aura so as not to stand out among the crowd. As he got closer to the checkpoint, his heart thudded in his chest, but he remained outwardly calm and collected.

However, just as he arrived within a hundred feet of the checkpoint, he felt a light tug on his arm.

Instinctively, his aura began flaring, but he stopped himself at the last second before things went out of hand.

"Calm down! It’s me!" He heard a sharp whisper right in his ear.

"Elion? Where the fuck did you go?!" Uhtred seethed quietly. "More importantly, why can’t I sense you at all?"

It was as if Uhtred was speaking to a ghost. He could hear Elion’s voice whispering in his ear, and he’d even felt him tug at his arm earlier. But when he sent his senses back probingly, he sensed nothing. He glanced back smoothly to double-check, but it was the same thing, save for one minor difference:

With his Gnostic Eye active, Uhtred had been able to see Elion’s status details hovering in empty air. Besides that, though, he could barely make out anything else. Perhaps there were some vague signs — faint threads of essence warping light and revealing his presence — but Uhtred hadn’t been able to fully analyze that in his brief glance back.

He was about to ask another question when he felt Elion slip something cold into his palm.

"Place it where your core should be. It will help mask your presence better."

"What exactly is it?" Uhtred whispered back, suspicion in his voice. Even though he was tense, it didn’t mean he couldn’t think straight. Elion had all the time during their walk to give him this beforehand, so why now when he was right at the checkpoint?

I don’t even know what this thing is and he’s telling me to place it directly on my core?

Uhtred heard nothing else from Elion. They’d reached the checkpoint now and he could already feel a heavy, probing weight scanning the ascenders ahead of him.

In the end, he chose not to use it and simply trusted the aura-suppression measures he’d already taken. The probing wave washed over him, and in that moment, he felt a deep perusal — like invisible eyes were scrutinizing him from all angles.

It felt almost questioning. It was hard to describe, but it was almost like the probing wave was beguiling him, subtly asking whether he had anything to hide or not.

Uhtred remained stoic, a complete brick wall. There wasn’t the slightest trace of his prior tension on display. If there had been, without a doubt, he would’ve been flagged on the spot.

The wave washed past him, carrying on to scan the rest of the crowd trailing behind.

Uhtred released a silent breath, thanking his lucky stars. But at the same time, his expression soured slightly. He finally looked down at the device that Elion had handed to him.

It was a small disc of some sort, cold to the touch and practically translucent, overlaid with intricate, miniature arrays.

Uhtred recognized he could simply be paranoid right now, but he felt a weird sense of relief that he hadn’t used it like Elion had wanted.

Forcing me into a corner and conveniently providing a solution? Uhtred snorted in his mind. Nothing reeks of a scheme more than that.

Who knew what the disc was inlaid with? Looking at it now, Uhtred would bet it was an artifact given to Elion by his Sponsor. And if there was one rule Uhtred had stuck by for the longest, it was to never trust Sponsors at all...

Silently, Uhtred called out Elion’s name under his breath, trying to get some answers from the elf himself. But just like before, he was nowhere to be seen.

In the end, Uhtred could only make his way into the lower city by himself. He put his suspicions about Elion to the side for now — there would be plenty of time to unpack that later. Presently, he needed to get a grasp on the current situation in the city.

.

.

Just like the previous city, Uhtred walked around this one, first to see if there were any signs like he, Zara and White Raven had agreed upon — if there was any city to find such signs, it would be a capital like this.

He also kept an ear out for information about the champion competition, which wasn’t hard, since this city was a hub for information. At every corner, people were discussing the latest development — talking about the rankings, which race possessed the most shards, the most prominent champions, and those most likely to fail.

It didn’t take much time before Uhtred found his way to a viewing arena where he finally got his first real look at what the competition was all about.

In a wide, colosseum-like building, massive holographic screens hovered above a loud, cheering crowd. There were about ten different screens, all showing different champions locked in heated battle.

Two of those screens were perpetually focused on the same champions — one with Black Sun Mateo and Antoine Blanc as a team, and the other with King Alexei operating alone. They were the only human champions being shown on any of the screens, so one could understand why they were the focal point.

The other screens cycled through interesting fights and clashes between champions of other races.

Uhtred’s eyes locked onto Black Sun Mateo and Antoine Blanc’s figures on the main screen. They were battling a horde of Goblins assaulting what appeared to be a strategic point the two were holding down.

The crowd watched with bated breath, roaring every time Black Sun Mateo picked off a Goblin from long range. Meanwhile, Antoine Blanc served as the tank, clashing with the Goblins directly and keeping them from closing in on Mateo.

Uhtred raised a brow in surprise. He had to admit, their teamwork was pretty good — in fact, far better than just good. They fought like a two-man squad that had survived many battles together.

Antoine Blanc moved as if he had a sixth sense for where Mateo would shoot next. At times, he would leave his back completely exposed to an incoming Goblin, trusting that Mateo had him covered. At other times, he’d set up a strike that lined up several Goblins for a single clean shot to tear through them all.

It was an impressive display, yet it was still nothing compared to what Uhtred was seeing on the other screens...