Ceres Chaos [Exosuit Progression]

[The ‘Survival’ format for the melee category begins now! 64 participants on each square will have to push out one another using only weapons! No armour is allowed, and certainly no exosuits! The square will continuously reduce in size as time goes on, so the participants only have less than an hour to make sure they are the last man standing on their square!]

The medical expertise of Athen allowed limbs and nerves to be regrown easily albeit over a long time, so the arena owners and examination council didn’t really care what the participants did to each other as long as they did not kill each other.

Braton stood firm in the centre of the small floating square, already having intimidated other people within his group with his sheer size and build.

While not as tall as Chad, he exuded an equally strong presence that almost created a fear zone around him, allowing him to occupy the most advantageous spot in the square – the centre.

No one dared to approach him or even initiate a fight with him, not given his size.

The other sixty-three participants started to look at each other, trying to gauge their own internal rankings.

Looking around them, they could only come to one conclusion: they must defeat Braton first to even have a chance of winning.

If they fought amongst themselves while leaving Braton alone in the centre, even if they survived till the end, they would’ve run out of stamina before fighting him.

As the eyes of the group around him started to converge on him, Braton still stood as still as a statue, his eyes closed and arms crossed.

He seemed like an unmovable statue of a conqueror, destined to last the ages. It took a good three minutes for someone to finally convince the rest of the group to put their differences aside and hit Braton first.

If they fought amongst themselves first, Braton would certainly win when the last man standing is exhausted. If they all grouped up and attacked him first, then there will be a slight chance that they will win.

“Good, this is exactly what I wanted! Against the world with a pure body and soul!” Braton yelled with such force that the front attackers dashing towards him almost stumbled from the shock.

Most of the participants had basic swords and spears, rushing at him intending to maim Braton and drag his body away from the centre.

As the group finally converged in a circular fashion, surrounding Braton, three spears lunged towards him.

Braton finally uncrossed his arms to dodge the spears in a swift and rapid fashion, using his fist to slam each of the shafts so hard that they fractured into pieces on the spot.

The force of the motion disrupted the attack, causing the attackers to lose their balance in various directions.

This allowed Braton to use both his hands to grab a head in each, flinging their bodies into the crowd of participants around him.

They slammed into the participants, causing a few people to be immediately knocked out cold.

The participants’ defensive shields were all immediately triggered, creating a thin protective film over their bodies, preventing them from suffering any further hits.

Unfortunately for the participants who were knocked off the floating square, a medical team made of students instead of experts from the nearby hospitals were on permanent duty for the duration of the competition.

In some sense, it was their graduation examination too to potentially be a professional medical expert in the field, or at least a medic in the army or the police enforcers.

[What tremendous force! It seems to be almost equal to Chad’s showing of strength in the qualifiers. Who is this unknown participant?]

[He is Braton, from the exact same orphanage as Ceres! Is that Zone 17 a hotspot of miracles for the outers? How are they producing so many wonderful upsets? Today’s viewers who bet on the underdog would certainly be happy!]

In response to the main announcer’s shout, a small minority cheered as loud as they could, knowing that despite their lack of information gathering or even logical thinking when betting, they had potentially earned the biggest jackpot in their entire lives.

Back in the dumpling restaurant and the orphanage in Zone 17, sounds of cheers and shouts echoed through the halls and the streets as the local residents celebrated their time in the limelight, with various people boasting about how well they knew Braton.

Lisa continued serving the customers as normal, completely confident that Braton would perform that well. She had been Braton’s main sparring partner for the last six months, improving his speed and reaction timing.

On top of that, how many other participants could say that they have fought against a cyborg and won?

Over at the Gladius, the viewers didn’t break into much festivities, as they already expected this of Braton.

Ardan smiled as the lobby had a small wave of murmurs and nods, mostly foreigners who were watching and appreciating Braton’s strength.

The only anomaly was the bodybuilding club that Braton was a part of, who was naturally screaming their lungs out like their lives depended on it. “LET’S GO BRATON! SHOW THEM WHAT WE GLADIUS BOYS ARE MADE OF!”

Explicit phrases advocating the bloody mutilation of various human body parts and genitals soared through the air, as a clear circular gap was formed between the normal viewers and the bodybuilding club.

They shouted to their heart’s content, not noticing Vice-Manager Fye who was storming over, about to mutilate them herself.

Back in the arena, the group that was attacking Braton were astonished at the sheer force with which Braton threw the bodies, seemingly able to fling an entire hovercar with a single hand.

As the timer hit 5 minutes, the square started to shrink in size, causing a wave of panic to go through the participants who were near the edge.

They started to shout at the front attackers and press forward, causing the frontline to have no chance for retreat.

Cornered as they were, the attackers resolutely rushed forward together with no cohesion in mind, only hoping that they could stay sober enough while remaining in the centre.

Despite the sheer number of participants overwhelming Braton, the sense of unity was close to zero. Who would willingly sacrifice their entire body so that someone else they didn’t know could advance into the next round?

Some of the smarter ones held back while others who either had too much faith in humanity or didn’t know any better threw themselves at Braton without any tactical planning, allowing Braton to exploit the gap between attacks and retaliate.

A few participants even got in extremely close to Braton and tried to cling onto him, hoping to last the thirty minutes while waiting for Braton to be exhausted.

Using a single hand to grab the ankle of a fallen attacker, Braton started to swing the body around him by using it as a large flimsy club It smacked everything around him, conscious or not.

He suffered a few direct hits from swords and spears behind him, but while they managed to poke through the skin, they could hardly cut any deeper into the tough flesh that had been hardened by years of training and enhancers.

As Braton swung the body around, he noticed that the ankle that he was grabbing was already starting to snap off cleanly from the sheer number of impacts, while the guy was already fully unconscious from the multiple brain concussions.

“The human body is said to be the best weapon, but it seems that only my body is. I’ll have to find a replacement.” Braton immediately grabbed the legs of another ‘corpse’ who was pretending to be knocked out and used him as the replacement.

The ‘corpse’ tried to protest, but the sudden acceleration he experienced and subsequent concussion caused him to faint immediately.

Slash wounds and holes started to form on Braton’s body as he couldn’t dodge every single attack, but it hardly seemed to faze him.

In fact, it gave him even more adrenaline as he continuously swung random bodies at the incoming participants, almost like a human tornado that continuously knocked participants out.

“How did you weaklings even survive through the qualifiers with such puny ‘guns’? I should have knocked you out myself back then! Get the fuck out of here!” Braton bellowed, going on a rampage to clear everyone out from the centre.

A few injured participants tried to lure the angry bull towards the edge, assuming Braton was all brawns and had no brains, but Braton remained within a fixed radius around the centre of the square, retaining the advantage without over-extending.

As time went on, it became easier and easier for Braton to knock people off the floating square as the square shrunk with every five minutes.

Soon, he was the only man standing in the centre with a circle of bodies strewn around him.

However, the game did not end, signifying that there were still people alive and well remaining in the square.

“You have a choice, risk a stay at the hospital or forfeit now.” Braton spoke slowly to the few ‘bodies’ lying around.

Suddenly, some of the ‘bodies’ stood upright, before jumping out of bounds themselves. Braton waited another minute, but there were still about twenty ‘bodies’ remaining.

Sighing, he slowly picked up one body at a time before flinging them out of the square like a fisherman returning the fish he caught into the ocean.

Most of them pretended to be knocked out and hoped Braton didn’t notice, but it was to no avail. Some of them tried to launch a surprise attack, only to be bitch slapped by Braton right in the cheek and then unceremoniously thrown out.

Without any suspense, Braton eventually became the only human body on the square.

Flexing his precious ‘guns’ in a bodybuilder pose, he shouted out in a victorious voice:

“Behold the human body! With just my bare fists and my soul, I have won! Hahahaha!” He conveniently ignored the fact that he hardly threw a punch this round, instead using his palm or other human bodies to prevent his knuckles from getting too hurt.

“…” The viewers at the dumpling restaurant were too astonished to say anything. Lisa crushed the glass of beer with her bare hand just as she served it, while a customer was too afraid to say that it was the beer he ordered.

“You fucking idiot! You used other bodies as weapons!” She stormed off into the restaurant away from the street where the viewing party was held, everybody too afraid to stand in her way.

The bodybuilding club in the Gladius, however, were all for it, screaming and laughing despite having just been brutally ‘suppressed’ by Vice Manager Fye.

[What a marvellous showing from Braton for Group 13 of the melee category! While I have my doubts about him claiming that he had only used his fists, he is indeed a formidable opponent!]

[However, in the next section of the competition for him, it will be a 1v1 duel! I highly doubt the opponent would allow him to grab his ankle that easily, so stay tuned for how Braton deals with such a scenario!]

***

Trissa was completely still, wearing her aerial exosuit while laying flat on the rooftop of a two-storey building.

The ‘death’ race for the ranged category was already on, but hardly anyone had moved from the starting area.

The time limit of the race was only 8 hours long, and the finish line was barely 50 kilometres away from their starting position, but Trissa knew deep down that anyone that tried to run or fly in the open would immediately be riddled with holes.

This was the group format for the ranged category.

The start of the race had already been chaotic, with everyone taking potshots at each other immediately, forcing even the most confident participant to hide out in a spot and watch for others first.

There were 63 other ranged participants all holding their angles, scanning the skies and open streets that had nothing in them.

With this in mind, Trissa kept laying low while she observed her surroundings, trying to spot anyone who currently had a line of sight to her position. She spotted a few camouflaged snipers laying low, almost immobile.

They didn’t seem equipped with the right tools to make it to the end, but it seems like their main strategy to win the race was to kill everyone else.

As much as Trissa liked fighting and killing people, which caused her heart to race, she knew the facts deep down in her heart that it wasn’t enough to win it all.

The atmosphere was as tense as a tightrope wire, with almost no one moving.

The first three minutes of the race already had multiple shots fired while participants still tried to find the best hiding spot, but the status quo was now being held with all sixty-four participants keeping each other in check.

Some of the more well-connected ones started to form secret teams and squads, increasing their ability to knock out other solo participants.

All it took was for a single spark to set off the whole tinderbox and ignite the race.

Trissa breathed heavily as she formulated a simple plan right there on the spot, waiting for the perfect opportunity to move.

Just as some of the participants decided to relax into this stalemate that might go on for the entire duration, Trissa finally decided to be the spark.

She gathered a handful of dust and rubble, chucking it into one of her thrusters’ exhausts on the back, before lifting off fast right into the open sky.

[And the first mover has appeared, which seems to have run out of patience! What is she thinking, flying out that far out into the open?!]

Immediately as she took off, a series of rapid-fire energy beams and physical bullets spewed across the skies towards her.

Trissa bundled up as a ball, using her arms to grab and lift her knees to the front of her chest while her exosuit thrusters continued to fire off erratically with the dust and rubble creating a large smoke trail. This created a smaller physical profile while flying upwards in a smoke column.

However, instead of going towards the finish line, Trissa climbed even higher, starting to reach the altitude limit for her exosuit thrusters of 150 meters. The weapons fire didn’t stop there, however, with people continuously trying to hit her down.

While the camouflage snipers were more than happy to exert their full range capabilities, their gunfire also revealed their location, causing a few smart participants to take the chance to attack them.

Despite the starting area falling into complete mayhem, no one made a move towards the finish line, knowing that if they ran out right now they would be shot down just like Trissa.

Just as she reached the maximum height that her exosuit could bear, a series of shots finally clipped her exosuit in the back, damaging the thrusters and causing it to explode.

The explosion created a smoke cloud, out of which fifteen different parts fell from the sky, creating multiple trails that streaked across the sky. The patterns of smoke trails looked like a tree, with some of the trails being larger than others.

Some of the participants immediately caught onto the ruse, knowing that one of the larger smoke trails and parts must be Trissa.

A few of them dashed towards the estimated landing points while heading towards the finish line.

The town that was previously silent burst into a constant state of warfare, with a continuous stream of energy fire and bullets that lit up the area.

The shots fired by the participants towards Trissa had exposed their positions to the snipers, and the snipers too had exposed their position after firing.

Nobody knew how many people were taken out, though no participant actually died after getting shot as each of them had the one-time defensive shield that protected them.

This is why the Loeric Empire tolerated such a dangerous competition that could potentially claim lives.

Trissa acted as one of the larger falling debris, continuously puffing smoke and dust out of one of her thrusters, sending her into a spiral. The explosion was planned, with her thruster pack already set to ‘planned disassembly’.

But instead of falling directly towards the finish line like what others expected, she fell sideways instead, tricking them.

The few that tried to take the opportunity to run off for the finish line became the main targets instead, getting shot down mercilessly by those behind.

Just as she landed near a random building in the town closer to the finish line, she ditched the burnout thruster pack and activated her four remaining backup thrusters that were on her elbow and shoulders, which only allowed her to accelerate forward and minimal dodging.

They weren’t as powerful, but she had a good head start now as she was the first mover to not be targeted.

She dashed through the houses and buildings of the town, using them as cover against some of the participants who finally realized they were tricked and started to try and cut her off.

Others instead tried to sprint for the finish line, only to get continuously harassed by ranged fire from others as well.

The race had the participants trawl through the entire town, while the centre of the battle continuously moved slowly towards the finish line.

It was an all-out free-for-all, and right now Trissa took advantage of the previous ruse to lead the pack.

As she flew through the street with her exosuit, a trio of fast aerial exosuits of the same design also caught up behind her, working together and taking potshots at her from 300 meters.

Trissa finally showed a wide grin upon seeing the first bullet fly dangerously close to her cheek, taking out two energy knives and immediately deploying her flaps to slow her down tremendously.

The sudden deceleration caught the trio off-guard, not expecting such a crazy move, allowing Trissa to get near to them.

She spun in mid-air as two of the exosuits nearly grazed her while using her two energy knives on both hands to slice the thruster packs cleanly off the back of both of them in a single sweeping motion.

Before the thruster packs could hit the floor, she let go of one knife fully and grabbed a single thruster pack before putting the pack onto the back of her exosuit, docking it and regaining full thruster ability.