Awakening

Shiro looked at Shin, his body distorted and massive, by now a lot of the participants had become aware of the situation and had come to stop Shin.

Shin shot out black lightning rods every now and then killing a hand full of participants with each round.

The participants remaining were now around 120, each of them had the power and capacity to survive on their own which reduced the amount of casualties Shin could produce.

The remaining 120 participants including Shiro came together to better understand the situation and find a solution.

"The only solution is to kill it"

One of the participants spoke first, the others looked at this guy but didn't say anything, they indeed had the same idea, but if it was that easy, they wouldn't have been reduced to such numbers.

Shiro came forward while keeping his attention on Shin's movement before speaking

"We can't kill him"

The others were at a loss for words, the hot headed ones immediately began shouting and cursing him while those that were more reserved didn't say anything.

One of the hot headed guys immediately ran forward with a sword in his hand, he pointed it at Shiro before speaking

"You say we shouldn't kill it but that thing killed my brother, my only remaining family member"

He charged at Shiro determined to impale him with the sword, Shiro didn't hesitate and reached out to his sword. Once the guy saw Shiro's hand on the hilt of the sword, he immediately saw a sword pass through his head instantly killing him.

It only appeared for a brief second, the guy immediately jumped back as sweat broke out on his forehead. The boy was confused, didn't he just die, he then took another look at Shiro before stepping back, if that was what death felt like then he didn't want to experience such a thing again.

Seeing that no one else was speaking up, Shiro continued speaking

"That thing is a friend of mine, but he is being controlled by that man"

Shiro indicated the man he was talking about.

"I honestly don't know how to deal with this situation but I hope that the solution wouldn't end up making us enemies"

Hearing Shiro's words, a lot of the reserved ones began thinking up solutions they didn't think it was possible to take on the berserk monster which made the only possible solution to take down the man controlling it.

Each of them focused their attention on the masked man before charging towards him, they had superior numbers and each of them were equally skilled so they thought they could easily take him down, after all he was just one man.

The man saw the remaining 120 participants heading towards him, they were scattered around before slowing coming into a formation.

"Even without prior arrangements each of them know where to position themselves, such talents"

The man then focused his attention on Shiro who led the charge, his superior speed allowed him to stay in front of the charging crowd.

The man readied himself, against such a group of equally skilled geniuses even he could get hurt if he was not careful. The masked man then launched himself towards the approaching crowd, he moved at incomprehensible speeds before landing at the center of the participants. Once at the center, the melee focused fighters couldn't touch him while he had free access to the ranged ones, he immediately began causing havoc and killing the participants.

The old man who had started the phase was no longer relaxed, this exam had been one thing after the other and if he did not intervene now, it would only cause unnecessary casualties.

The old man began trying to activate the gate which led to the test arena, he summoned a large amount of spiritual energy before trying to activate the gate.

"…"

"…"

After several failed trials, the old man came to the conclusion that he was no longer in charge of the arena, the people who invaded the arena must have used some kind of artifact to take control of it.

They had to think up other ways to get into the arena before it got too late.

Several space inclined cultivators were called fort to open a spatial portal leading into the arena, they gathered in a circle before casting a spell.

Several symbols floated into the sky as runes began forming, in between those runes were magic circles, each of them were nine layered magic circles showing just how complex this spell was.

Complex runes and patterns appeared one after the other as the spell came into conclusion.

*

Back in the test arena, Shiro and the others engaged the masked man while trying to avoid the occasional black rods Shin shot out from his body. The black lightning around Shin had reduced and he was beginning to get smaller, Shiro noticed this change and began paying more attention to Shin.

The masked man was definitely stronger than the participants but the amount of people he could take on was limited which greatly reduced the amount of kills he could get. In the few minutes he had been fighting them he had only managed to take down 20 people bringing their numbers to a 100 or so.

The ranged fighters kept spamming spells on the masked man disrupting his rhythm and causing him damage while the melee fighters kept him from targeting the ranged fighters.

The strategy was going well without any trouble until Shin's massive body moved, the terrifying speed he moved at landed him at the center of their formation, the black lightning that wrapped his body oozed out and began killing the participants, the masked man was able to evade the lightning while killing a few of the participants in the process, Shin's body finally settled down and returned to its original form.

The masked man then looked at the sky, he saw a gate opening which meant his time was up, he then looked at Shiro and Shin. Shin was sprawled round on the ground, his body was weak and frail, and he then looked at Shiro who had been fighting him since the beginning, his body looked beat up and weak.

"I guess I should do it now"

The man murmured, he placed his two fore fingers in front of his chest facing them towards his chin. Gently, he closed his eyes for a brief moment before opening them forcefully, patters filled his eyes as an energy wave pulsed around instantly paralyzing the remaining participants, he then looked towards Shiro, snakes busted out from the ground around Shiro trapping his weak body, one of the snakes then bit into his neck leaving behind a mark which expanded until it looked like the pattern on the man's eyes.

The man then disappeared before appearing directly in front of Shiro, he placed his other hand on the spot where the snake bit while leaving his other hand in the same position. Energy flowed into the mark changing the color from the original ash to pure black.

Shiro screamed and contorted in pain as the energy flowed into him but the snakes restraining him were enough to hold him down, the masked man smiled as he jumped back, in the position he was before an energy blast appeared as a lot of people landed around Shiro.

"It's too late, the awakening has already began"

The man said as his figure began fading.