Cursed

Chapter 35: The Robotic Anomaly Part 1

Keqing fled from the fight for the rest of the night knowing that Raiden was still after her. She clutched her right arm in pain after it was caught in the vortex and almost shredded up.

The vortex that caused mass destruction in the Arena woke many people up including Kitayuu and Sparkle, "Can't I get one good night of sleep!" Sparkle said out of frustration as she stood up and stretched.

Kitayuu stirred and rubbed his eyes as he woke up.

"Tsk, you really are a deep sleeper" Sparkle said after seeing him rather unbothered.

However, Kitayuu jolted awake when there was a sudden rustling in the bushes.

Sparkle squeaked and started scanning the area, "One disruption after another"

Kitayuu stood up and did the same, he looked in one direction for a few seconds before turning around and...

"AH YOU IDIOT!"

Kitayuu stumbled back after knocking his head and opened his eyes. To his surprise Bennet was on the floor also clutching his head.

Sparkle turned around to see what the commotion was about and chuckled at the sight, "Isn't that your boyfriend?"

Kitayuu; "You shut up now!"

"Man I never thought I'd find you" Bennet said as he stood up still clutching his forehead, "And you're with... her?" He said as he focused on Sparkle who was standing behind Kitayuu.

"You got a problem?" She said with a smirk.

"N-no not all all, I'm just surprised t-that you're teaming up with Kitayuu..."

Sparkle chuckled and walked towards Bennet, putting a hand on his jawline and caressing it gently, "My my aren't you a flustered one." She said as she continued to caress him and walk around his body.

Bennet went stiff and his face started turning red.

Sparkle chuckled and continued to tease him, "What a cute little puppy you are hehe" She threw her arms over his shoulder from behind, sending chills down Bennet's spine, "My darling, if there's one thing you need to learn... it's that..."

Bennet suddenly came back to his senses when he felt a knife pressing up on his neck.

"you should trust no one"

Seeing his reaction, Sparkle took herself off his shoulders and spun the knife in her hand, "Now hurry up Kitayuu, do you want him to join us, because if not I'll get rid of him here"

Kitayuu; "I hope you know I'd rather team up with him against you, but every man counts."

Sparkle scoffed, "Whatever, what the hell even happened to you" she said pointing at Bennet's shirt where the entire right side had been burned off.

"Oh uh, I might've gotten into a fight with Raiden and hit him with everything I had yesterday..."

Sparkle raised an eyebrow, "You mean what woke everyone up on the first night?"

Bennet; "Was it that bad?"

Sparkle snorted, "Are you stupid? We could see the explosion from miles away! I'm even surprised Raiden is still in this thing after getting hit with that!"

Bennet's eyes widened, "Wait what? You're joking, that should've taken him out!"

Kitayuu shook his head, "Nope, apparently he got into a confrontation with someone else who was definitely powerful as well and launched a powerful attack that destroyed anything in its path, but DAMN, Bennet! I never knew your secret move would be that impressive!"

Back at the opera house, Furina sat next to Zhongli and Ei with a wide smirk on her face, "Well Monsieur Neuvillette, how about we spice things up a little teehee~" she hovered her finger over a big red button.

"Lady Furina, are you sure those kids can handle it? It already killed two contestants that were tampering with i-"

"Do it" Ei said in a stern voice.

Furina looked at her with a bit of a shocked expression, but quickly giggled, "I see you're also getting bored... Well then, since you insist." She pressed the big red button and an area within the Arena started shaking, just in time for the sun to rise.

People who were clashing in the area immediately stopped and turned their heads to where the rumbling was coming from. Hikari and Ayaka were hiding in the area as well and just the feeling of the ground shaking, struck fear in many eyes.

A large amount of rockets suddenly emerged from the trees and collided with the ground near where people were standing. As the two girls watched, they saw many people getting launched into the air as a result of the explosions and a massive tree came tumbling down from where the rockets were being shot from. Hikari gulped in fear as she just managed to catch a glimpse of what was causing the ruckus. A metallic arm so massive struck the ground, causing the nearby trees to shake uncontrollably.

Kitayuu's group felt the impact despite being quite far away and immediately agreed to investigate. A large portion of the arena was now covered with fallen trees, dust and many bodies of people severely injured, some had even lost their lives. As Kitayuu's group ran towards the commotion, they noticed some Hilichurls and even Mitachurls running as fast as they could in the opposite direction, not even bothering to attack them.

Bennet gulped, "What the hell is going on..."

The moment they all reached the area of the commotion they all froze in place and looked up at a colossal figure towering everything around them. A massive ruin guard that dwarfed a regular one in comparison, standing well over 15 meters tall, was effortlessly taking out dozens of contestants, by simply swinging its arms and shooting rockets.

Sparkle for the first time actually had a serious expression on her face, which told Bennet and Kitayuu that this was definitely something that everyone, even the best of the best had to worry about...

"Ruin Grader huh?"

To be continued...