Commandeering Interceptor and the arrival of a 7th-floor Contestant

Kai sneered and looked at Moraine's chest.

There was a circular area on it, flashing blue and white; a clear sign of Mana being poured into it. The thought of having such armor on him made Kai lick his lips.

"Die! You pervert!" Moraine covered her large breasts with her left hand that had lost armor up to her elbow.

Kai laughed at the misunderstanding but cared little about clearing it up. Yet, the thought of armor just didn't go away from his mind.

Kai knew little about all Iron Man armors, but with the help of Item-M, he knew more than other Contestants of his floors.

'Mark V is much thinner than the regular plating of an Iron Man armor and has a weaker armor composition to reduce the weight and size of the suit,' Kai recalled the info. 'Apart from its lack of heavy weapons and its lightweight, it can still fly. However, it cannot reach high altitudes or speeds and is limited in the weight it can carry during flight.'

Compared to the Model 1 Iron Man armor Kai had previously faced, Mark V drastically lacked in power. Nonetheless, Kai adored this armor from his heart.

There were two reasons for it.

First, like all Iron Man armors that were Items or Set-Items, Mark V wasn't fueled by an Arc Reactor. Rather, it was the Contestant's Mana that fueled it. Arc Reactors weren't Items just anyone could obtain, and were among the most rare Items in the Multiverse, to begin with.

Second, Mark V was composed of inter-weaving bands of small plates, instead of interlocking large plates. It lowered the Defense, compared to other Iron Man armors, but it also provided greater flexibility; flexibility that swordsmen like Kai and Moraine dearly needed in battles. Not to mention, the armor itself added quite a few points in Strength, Agility, and Perception, making it highly desired by in-fighters.

Add its ability to fly in a limited area and up to a set altitude, letting one go in and out of the fight, and it was absolutely the best armor Contestants like Kai could hope for.

Kai's Coridite Armor, granted by One Half of the Power Sword, was an absolute monster as well, raising his Defense by a whopping 12 points. Then there was its ability to reduce and deflect incoming damage. But it was bulky, and affected Kai's flexibility, too.

After half an hour of this cat-and-mouse chase, Kai and Moraine finally spied the Interceptor in the distance.

The only problem was there were just too many Contestants surrounding the ship.

However, the moment Kai saw the Contestants, a smile surfaced across his bloodied lips. Moraine snorted in disgust at the sight of his smile, but even she knew it was the only way to survive this chaos.

Involve as many Contestants as possible!

It worked on Moraine, and it would work on others as well.

The moment Kai and Moraine arrived at the docks, pursued by the gigantic Shadow Creature, others noticed them as well.

"That's…"

"Isn't she Protector…"

"A shadow copy of Moraine the Elegant…"

"RUN!!!"

With a massive boom, Kai and Moraine landed in between the Contestants' groups, and instantly their expressions changed.

"Jack Sparrow!"

"No!"

"Get off…"

Too late. The Notification had already arrived in front of their eyes.

These were all 4th-floor Contestants, and a few of them were 5th-floor as well. They had no chance of surviving alone, to begin with. When the notification appeared, they instantly gave themselves up to their fates.

Just as Kai and Moraine were about to rush toward the boat, two more incoherent booms reverberated in the distance.

Kai's head spun to his left, and his eyes narrowed. Suddenly, his expression changed.

From afar, Blade Singer and Aloof were coming toward them, carrying William Turner with them. A hideous Shadow Creature with extremely long limbs and a dwarf Shadow Creature, around whom the space kept fluctuating, was chasing them.

But this wasn't the reason for the change in Kai's expression.

Contestant Aloof, who possessed the power of Telekinesis from Mob Psycho 100, was missing his right hand. And according to Kai, he was the strongest among all the Protectors, if one was to ignore Moraine's Wings of the Grim Butterfly.

Kai's gaze landed on the dwarf Shadow Creature, and his frown deepened.

It was then that his heart stirred, sensing a connection.

Kai threw Jack toward Moraine, making her gasp, and with a burning roar, he dashed toward the incoming 6th-floor Contestants.

Both Blade Singer and Aloof got shocked as they saw Kai's sudden charge, but they also noticed his eyes weren't looking at them.

Kai indeed had lost the sight of Contestants. In his eyes, there was a young lady, wearing a nightgown and a black earring in her left ear. A few feet away from her, a white-silver mist was slithering, fending off the claws of the countless Shadow Creatures. Even then, her gown was tattered, and there were several bloody marks on the young lady's arms and face.

She was naturally the young Cersei.

The Characters from the Book didn't possess a true fleshly body, but until they returned to the Book's White Room, there wasn't a difference between the forms they assumed and a genuine human body, either.

Only Dementor-Kai could sense the lack of Breath within them; their lack of a Soul. And only Selene's venom could instantly force them back to the Book, making them lose their bodies on the spot.

Other than that, they were just like any other human being; full of pain, love, and anger.

Kai obviously wasn't worried about Cersei. But Selene and Cersei had inadvertently come between Aloof and the dwarf Shadow Creature, and he couldn't let others see her disappearing just like that. Not when all Contestants' eyes were on the Shadow Creatures pursuing the Protectors.

To others, it seemed like Kai was heading to save Aloof and Blade Singer. Only Moraine knew it wasn't the case, but even she couldn't figure out the reason for such an outburst.

The moment Kai rushed past Aloof, making the Contestant narrow his eyes, he grabbed Murasame and hacked at the dwarf Shadow Creature with all his strength. The Creature's tiny eyes trembled, and the space between them exploded, sending Kai, Cersei, and Selene in three different directions.

Kai used the chaotic scene to send the command before they got out of his Telepathy's range. -/Board Interceptor. Don't talk to anyone and wait for me./-

The best-case scenario would have been to let Cersei return to the Book, and then use Selene to swallow the earring. But, with 9th-floor Contestants watching over the entire Island, Kai dared not take such a chance. This was the Book, an Item desired by an Old One. If a 9th-floor Contestant were to take a liking to it, then Kai didn't have the strength to resist him.

No. It was better to let Cersei hide among the Contestants, and then disappear with her after going out of the Inheritance Land.

As Kai forced out blood, giving an impression of being injured, Contestant Aloof turned around and added an attack over Kai's, forcing the dwarf Creature back even more. Aloof then nodded at Kai, eying him eerily.

Kai rubbed the blood off his mouth, and silently rushed toward Interceptor, maintaining a distance between himself and William Turner, who was swaying over Blade Singer's shoulder.

The moment they boarded the ship, the Contestants separated into two factions.

On one side were Kai and Moraine, and the Contestants forced by them to become temporary Protectors of Jack Sparrow. Ensui's user, which Kai had fought underwater, and the marine with powers of Shinken Blue, were part of this group.

On the other side were Blade Singer and Aloof, and the other, forced, temporary Protectors of William Turner.

"Set the sail!" Moraine took the command, standing tall at the Poop deck. "Take the charge of ropes and rudder!"

Both Blade Singer and Aloof had quiet personalities, so they didn't object to Moraine's commanding their end of the Contestants, either. They instead took the job to fend off the Shadow Creatures along with a hundred other Contestants, keeping them off the ship.

The Contestants steered the ship off the dock in no time, a heavy gale assisting their survival.

In the distance, some hundreds of meters away from the docks, the sound of cannon fires was resounding, echoing over the foggy seawater. Black Pearl and the 7th-floor Contestant's galley were having at each other, trying to bring the enemy down.

Kai and the other Contestants took a long arc away from them, hoping to bypass this fatal encounter.

It was then that a yellow flash appeared in all eyes, blinding them instantly.

When the flash receded, the hearts of Kai, Moraine, Blade Singer, and Aloof trembled simultaneously. At the top of the foremast, a man, with a black coat and high collars, was standing casually, looking down at all Contestants as if they were bugs.

In his left hand, there was a head, blood dripping off the bloody stump, marking its freshness.

This head belonged to Hadoken, the Nen-user, a mid-level 6th-floor Contestant.

In his right hand was also a head, but it belonged to a Shadow Creature, whose face oddly looked similar to Hadoken. This head was giving off a shadowy fog, and in no time, it melted like gelatinous liquid.

The 7th-floor Contestant shook his right hand, flicking the filthy substance off it, and threw Hadoken's head on the deck.

"I believe…" the old monster drawled, his gaze pausing on Kai, Moraine, Blade Singer, and Aloof, "… you children are being rather naughty, aren't you?"

"Black Wasp!" Blade Singer gasped, taking a step back. "A top-level 7th-floor Contestant with Heavenly Body Magic — Meteor!!"

Black Wasp's eyes narrowed, making it look like he was smiling under the high collars.

Then, with a blinding flash, he disappeared.

Kai's pupils trembled when he couldn't even see the trajectory. But, in the very next second, Black Wasp reappeared at the same spot, carrying one more head.

This?! Everyone drew a horrifying gasp, but only Kai recognized the head.

It belonged to the ninja who had used Summoning Jutsu to call a Bakugan.

"Running away underwater…" Black Wasp commented, his voice ghostly and ethereal, "… this is bad. This is very bad."