The Challenger's Return: Rebirth of the Rainbow Mage

Otto's fingers blurred as they moved through the space, creating small trails of blue light that served to illuminate the darkness.

His eyes were focused.

He weaved the tendrils of mana from each of the arrays on the sides of the hole into this array at the bottom into a beautiful blue net of runes inlaid into an orb.

The rumbling sounds from the hole increased.

Otto's fingers slightly sped up.

His brows creased further.

He knew his target had almost arrived.

Minutes passed.

Otto never once let up his concentration.

He raised his hand to wipe a few small beads of sweat from his forehead.

Finally, the array was finished!

Would this be able to kill Mikelo once and for all?

Otto didn't know, but he would definitely be giving it his best shot!

Otto slapped on the new [Winged Escape] array onto his back. The improved array added additional stability and acceleration to his flight.

His 'wings' flapped, and Otto's body shot up into the air.

Before breaching the surface, a thick layer of sand covered the hole.

Otto quickly slapped on another array formation there.

This one created a small, semi-solid cylinder that extended all the way from the bottom of the hole to the top.

Its opening was rather large, but the tube narrowed as it approached the bottom of the hole, until it was just big enough to cover the body of a single person.

This would further confine the space from where the displaced sand could exert its pressure.

He was utilizing a principle of force here. If one stacked books on top of a wooden board covering the whole body, one would still be able to bear the pressure.

But if those same books were stacked on top of a needle placed on one's head, the books could give one a gruesome death…

Otto also added a few stabilization arrays for the thin layer of sand on the top of the hole.

He didn't need the hole to be open; that ran the risk of accidentally trapping a few spiders.

It wasn't that Otto minded a few more spiders dying, but if a spider accidentally bore some pressure and saved Mikelo from dying instantly, Otto ran the risk of the entire plan failing…

Otto [Blinked] up to the surface, bypassing the small layer of sand.

He surveyed the scene.

The spider horde grew larger and larger to his eye.

Otto squinted to make out their exact distance from his current position. It wasn't long before he noticed a beaten up Mikelo within the crowd, slightly further back.

Mikelo's face was calm, but his legs carried him quickly through the horde.

Otto quickly ran through some mental calculations, comparing their current position with their expected position, before nodding his head.

Good.

They were on track.

But Otto was still running out of time.

He plopped down and added yet another stabilization array to the layer of sand above the hole.

As he did so, his eyes happened to meet Mikelo's in the center of the crowd.

Mikelo stared at Otto for a second.

Then, he looked away.

He was having enough of a hard time attempting to keep his sanity and would not participate in any mind games the human wanted.

At the same time, Mikelo wondered what Benson was planning.

He hadn't made any moves for a while now.

Mikelo felt slightly uneasy…

But Mikelo brushed off the feeling.

What was worse than dying over and over again in the 'jaws' of a spider?

At least, Mikelo couldn't think of anything more painful than this.

He was lucky he had unlimited revivals…

Just in case, though, after each time he came back to life, he did his best to run as far as he could lest he unwittingly get caught in a trap.

Otto merely watched from high in the sky as Mikelo's legs unwittingly carried him closer and closer to the small tunnel.

Suddenly, a spider knocked Mikelo's body hard to the left right before he died.

Mikelo's body flew out like a puppet with its string cut off.

He died.

0.6 seconds later (for the record, Otto had been timing), a bright green light flashed.

It was still muted, though Otto could pinpoint its origin behind Mikelo's chest.

Not that it mattered.

He wouldn't be able to get to it.

After another 0.58 seconds, Mikelo's body reappeared once more.

He looked around.

To his right and in front, the spiders grew sparse, while they were increasingly packed to his left and back.

But Mikelo ran to his left once more.

He even spared a glance for Otto, hovering in the air.

His gaze carried a hint of provocation.

But Otto ignored it entirely.

Since his prey had already stepped on the trap.

He activated the array on top of the trash chute.

Actually, Otto had hoped that Mikelo would step directly on the center of the array, such that Otto could catch only Mikelo in its midst without taking the spiders at all.

But he wasn't so lucky.

At the same time as he activated the array, Otto also cast [Reduce Friction: Unlimited] on top of Mikelo.

The sand collapsed.

Mikelo was horrified.

He began to fall.

Along with a couple dozen spiders

Instinctively, Mikelo's hand reached out.

He wanted to slow himself with sand.

Only to find that not only did his hand carry no grip whatsoever, but the thing he was trying to grip was actually smooth rock!

The spiders were no different tumbling down the chute by the dozen.

Otto was forced to release a few supercharged casts of [Gale Push] to rid the chute of spiders.

Mikelo glanced at Otto with his eyebrows raised.

So this was a trap set entirely for him.

Otto merely nodded and closed the chute once again by dragging the displaced sand back to the top.

Mikelo fell smoothly down the diagonal tunnel.

But he wouldn't go down so easily, either.

Mikelo knew he had two major advantages against his opponent.

One, his opponent couldn't directly attack.

Two, he couldn't die while under the influence of this small token.

He punched the rock as hard as he could while still moving.

Even through the cushion of air in between his hand and the tunnel wall, the rock splintered slightly.

Mikelo grabbed the piece of rock and began to drag it along the floor of the tunnel as he fell to add friction and slow his descent.

For a while, it worked.

Only, gravity was stronger.

Mikelo continued to pick up speed and his rock grew ineffective.

Sadly, Mikelo didn't have a single additional piece of equipment on his person.

Even if he had, they would have been discarded once he'd revived, in any case.

Otto blinked back into the giant pit as soon as Mikelo's body fell down the chute.

He needed to see the final Throskart's ultimate death with his own eyes.

Soon, Mikelo's body exited the chute and fell straight into the pit.

Despite his accelerating speed, 6.5 km was no joke of a distance.

Mikelo's eyes went wide as he looked around the pit of sand, where blue runes glowed and dimmed in synchronization on the side of the walls.

His face paled.

He suddenly realized what his opponent was trying to do.

But how did that human build this in only a few hours?!

How could he have known exactly where Mikelo would land?

And it took advantage of the only weakness of his revival tool!

How had he figured that out?

Mikelo's brain whirred as he desperately grasped any possibility of escape.

He looked above him where Otto's figure was steadily shrinking as he fell towards the bottom of the pit.

He didn't want to die for real!

His confidence stemmed from the fact that he knew he 'couldn't' die…

But soon a voice echoed in his ears, as if it had heard Mikelo's desperation,

"Apologies. We have no grudge, but I'm afraid we cannot survive together."

Otto's tone was detached, his words strictly professional.

"If you wish to place blame, blame the one who gave you this task."

Mikelo looked up at Otto's figure hovering in the air.

His gaze carried intense resentment as he fell.

Otto watched calmly as Mikelo hit the ground.

Of course, he died instantly.

The runes below him glowed blue.

Then, the runes on the sides of the hole simultaneously lit up.

Sand began to pour towards the top of the hole in a large circle.

Otto quickly [Blinked] out of its way.

He watched as the sand slowly began to pour down.

It was a grand spectacle, resembling sand filling an hourglass on the largest possible scale.

The process was not particularly fast.

But it didn't need to be fast.

No matter where Mikelo went, the pressure from the sand would now be pointed directly towards him…

The sand continued to pour out of the arrays and into the single half of the hour glass.

Little by little, as more sand was added, the tube it was contained in slowly but surely began to compress it.

Pressure was added rapidly until the displaced sand resembled the rock in the first tunnel more than the sand floating on the surface of the desert.

Mikelo woke up anew.

He witnessed the sand gathering towards the top of the tunnel and his face paled further.

But then, he revealed a small grin.

Thank goodness the process was so slow. There was a chance to escape!

Mikelo started trying to dig a hole in the sand below him.

His finger furiously scratched and dented the compressed sand.

But that was all.

It didn't give any more than a few centimeters no matter how hard he hit it.

Mikelo wasn't stupid.

He gave up on that sand and turned his gaze towards the walls of the hole.

The higher up he went, the looser the sand would be, perhaps?

[Reduce Friction: Unlimited] was no longer applied to Mikelo's body, so he had no trouble climbing the wall.

On his first try, one piece of sand-rock broke, sending him careening down back to the floor.

Mikelo barely avoided death, but broke both of his legs.

He tried again, this time using only his arm strength to propel his entire body upward.

6.5 kilometers was a terrifying journey directly upward, but Mikelo was convinced that it was not impossible to make.

But Mikelo fell once more after only 100 meters.

This time, he died, then revived a second later.

But sweat beaded his brow as he realized the sand was approaching faster and faster because the translucent tube narrowed slightly towards the bottom.

How much time did he have?

Was he really about to die here?