From Human to Skeleton: Revived with Infinite System Crystals

Ty listened intently as Lord Herald addressed each member of the attack squad with a mix of amusement and seriousness.

"I expect a lot of things from you, Yagrid. Never would I see the day where you are locked away in a prison for stabbing that asshole's eye out. HAHA, I trust you will be able to handle the task by yourself practically."

"When it comes to you, Ja-law, a former prisoner who did his sentence and joined the kingdom's military, I am surprised to see you volunteering. I hope your skills will assist Yagrid."

"Fi-Rend, I hope to see you do well even though I think your skills would be better suited for backup and defense work, but I want to push you."

"Ciu-on and Diez Tolks, you both have similar skills when it comes to durability and hard defenses. You should be able to tank hits to throw off just about anyone."

"So that takes care of Squad 1, the attack squad, Squad 2, the assassination squad, and the King. Let's see, let's build out the defense why don't we? Please go stand to the side and use the last 24 hours to prepare as needed."

Ty intently watched as Herald dismissed the relevance of the other teams with a wave of his hand. "I will be honest, I could care less about the rest of the teams for the most part... I do feel you all have useful abilities one way or another, but for the Jester King to play fake..." He paused, grabbing a small orb from the table, "this will do."

As Gears stepped forward, his voice confident, he addressed the orb, "I believe you can be full of surprises, from the information I have."

Ty pondered to himself, remembering the strange object they had injected into him. Is that what he's referring to? His thoughts were interrupted by his own curiosity. Speaking of which, hey creature, you awake?

A drowsy voice responded from within him, "A bit. I tend to sleep more when you are calm. What do you want?"

"I'm going to need to tag you in at some point, not sure when exactly, but I expect my powers might cut off randomly due to something that was injected into my wrist."

The voice chuckled darkly, a hint of malice in its tone, "If you let me loose, I will just kill everyone in sight."

Ty smirked slightly at the response. Well, thank goodness. That actually works out for me if that happens, but in this first arena, I don't want to overburn myself.

Ty stiffened, listening intently as the inner voice laid out its intentions. Well, once I have fully repaired my own soul, I will eventually take over completely, and you will be the prisoner, and I will be the host!

"We will see about that," Ty responded silently, bracing himself internally. But do be ready, because things are going to hit the fan, especially with Lord Herald assigning me to draw into the den of lions.

His thoughts were abruptly interrupted when Lord Herald grabbed a line of more orbs, concluding, "These will be all of the squads for the first arena. Do note that these are just a starting point, and after you complete your task—or fail to complete your task—the rest of the 62 hours will be up to you."

As Herald spoke of taking a closer look at the Arena, his words were cut off by a sudden explosion. The wall beside them crumbled, revealing a man dressed in a dark black outfit topped with a Dark Bogart hat.

"Well, look at this," the man declared with a menacing grin, stepping through the debris. "I found where they were hiding the money makers. How about we let loose?"

Caught off guard by the sudden intrusion, Ty instinctively took a huge step backward, his senses on high alert.

As Herald looked visibly annoyed by the intrusion, he snapped his fingers, sending a swift stream of sand at the intruder, who was notably shorter.

Ty's eyes widened in shock as the man deftly pulled out a katana, its blade etched with a delicate pattern of roses.

With a swift motion, he sliced his own forearm, spraying blood forward. The blood met the incoming sand and disrupted its flow, causing it to fall to the ground.

In the blink of an eye, the man leaped, dodging the remaining onslaught of sand. As he moved, he rained down a storm of blood from his wound.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

"This must be the man who attacked the prison before we arrived," Ty thought, piecing together the chaos unfolding before him.

Enjoy new tales from empire

"What could he hope to gain from attacking all of us? Wait—cause chaos, destroy the integrity of the game, destroy the revenue stream. That's probably his aim."

As Ty watched the man manipulate his own blood, watching it triple in size and form droplets, he suddenly felt a prickle on his skin.

Instinctively, he dodged each falling drop, while those around him, confused and unprepared, covered their faces and got hit by the blood.

As Ty dodged another assault, he caught a flash of lightning out of the corner of his eye. Fernando, transformed into his lightning state, zipped past Ty and slammed into the man with the katana.

Before they crashed into the wall, Fernando managed to smear some of his own blood on the attacker's shoulder.

Ty watched in horror as Fernando reeled from the impact, the katana protruding from his stomach.

Fernando grimaced, grabbing the blade as Lord Herald rushed up from behind, delivering a powerful strike to the back of the attacker's head. The force of the blow sent the man tumbling to the ground, where the entire 50-man team quickly surrounded him.

Lord Herald gently lowered Fernando to the ground, cauterizing his wound with heated sand. "Rest up, okay, dumbass?" he said with a mix of concern and reprimand in his voice.

Rushing towards the downed man, Lord Herald's anger was showing as his eyes furred. "How dare you—disturbing in the most holy of the Titanis Competitions!" he bellowed.

The man laughed, unfazed, even as he lay on the ground with Lord Herald towering over him.

As dozens of golden sand spikes formed around Herald, the man smirked defiantly, "Like I would ever buy bullshit like that! You just enjoy senseless murder and want to control the world! May the worlds go back to the great black flame!"

Streams of dark red blood swirled around him.