Endless Horde: Through the Eyes of a Godking

Chapter 418: Tournament Conclusion: Battle Won, War Lost

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Cedric would complain out loud if he could, but the gaping hole in his chest and the crushing grip the Thunder Prince had crushed his windpipe, so he couldn't.

In hindsight, he already knew that he wasn't able to take him down even after all that trouble. Cedric already had that idea when he saw the egg that the Thunder Prince was in earlier. It's the reason why he rushed to his teammates to help them break the enemy's island core because that's the next best thing he could hope for.

Alas, the followers of the Wise Dragon Clan are way too strong. Even after all his arrangements, the Thunder Prince still manages to find a way to break free. And it turns out that he's still hiding more strength.

Cedric gazed upon the new and strange form of the Thunder Prince. Contradictory to what he expected, he could barely see any traces of dragonization on his body aside from the scales running on his forearms and legs.

The Thunder Prince looked so much like a human now, aside from the visible scales on his body and his reptilian eyes. Even his wings and tails that he usually had in his primary form were nowhere to be seen. But that doesn't mean that he's weak in this form. It's quite the opposite, actually; he's at his most powerful in this form for some reason.

Cedric couldn't even sense when he moved. The Thunder Prince dealt with his teammates before he could react, and that's saying a lot since Cedric had the sharpest senses and intuition amongst his team.

The danger posed by the Thunder Prince in this form completely goes beyond what he had ever known. It was too much that he didn't even have the chance to retaliate. He was effectively killed before he knew what happened.

Unbeknownst to Cedric, though, the Thunder Prince isn't too happy with what he has done. He never expected that somebody here would push him this far.

He had never unleashed his bloodline like this before. He also never thought that he would use it against a fellow prodigy, but here he was. Although he did deem Cedric worthy of seeing this, inwardly, he's still disappointed in himself because he let this fight go this far.

If his parents were to hear of this, he would probably get an earful of their sermons. Oh well, it's a little too late for that now.

This form is achieved by completely synchronizing with his draconic bloodline. One has to know that even to most Draconians, only a few could unleash this form because one had to reach at least 90% compatibility with their bloodline in order for this to even be possible.

The Thunder Prince's compatibility with his bloodline reached a formidable 96%. This was a historical achievement since even his father, the patriarch of the Draconic Clan and right-hand man of the Wise Dragon Clan's patriarch, only had 94% compatibility with the bloodline of dragons.

Don't underestimate that 2% gap, because in terms of these concepts, that 2% gap might as well be compared to the distance between the heavens and the earth. This is what made the Thunder Prince the undisputed heir to the patriarchy of his clan.

With his free hand, the Thunder Prince unleashed a punch that shattered Cedric's gigantic sword.

As the sword exploded into fragments, he looked at the man-shaped hole it drilled through his reverse scale with a little bit of annoyance but mostly relief.

'That was close.' He muttered to himself.

If he was even a little bit slower than this, Cedric and his team would've definitely destroyed the island core, causing his team to lose. Fortunately, his panic forced him to rush here and remedy the situation.

He's a little annoyed that his teammates were useless. Sure, they were outnumbered and all, but they went down a little too quickly for his liking. They ended up being his burdens after all. If it weren't for his foresight of leving his reverse scale behind to protect the island core, this fight would've been over way earlier than he expected.

Looking at the nearly dead Cedric in his grasp, the Thunder Prince sighed in slight relief. With him and his team dealt with, it should spell his victory in this tournament.

What he didn't know is that Cedric was waiting specifically for this very moment to unleash his final struggle.

Capitalizing on the fact that he still had a little bit of fight left in him and the fact that the Thunder Prince dropped his guard just for a split second, Cedric reached out and grabbed his face with both hands and said:

"Boo!"

This alarmed the Thunder Prince, but before he could do anything, he saw Cedric's malicious gaze bearing directly at him before he was blinded by the explosion of gold.

"Fuck!!!" he cursed angrily.

The Thunder Prince was completely blinded by that explosion. Additionally, he was also burned directly by the unexpected move. He felt his eyeballs melting, his ears were filled with white noise, and his entire body was burned.

He regenerated all of this injury at the next second due to his powerful vitality, but it hardly mattered because he immediately saw that he was, once again, trapped.

The Thunder Prince found himself ensnared by nine illusory suns revolving around him. Each sun was connected with runes that formed a restriction on him. The formation itself wasn't all that complicated, but it's extremely efficient and does what they need to do. It didn't prevent him from unleashing his strength, but it did prevent him from going anywhere else.

This last ditch effort to ensnare him caused many things to go through his head; his thoughts went into a literal overdrive, and it made him realize something.

'Someone's missing from their team! '

Upon realizing this, the first thing that he did was to destroy the enemy island right away. Despite being trapped and barely having the mobility to do anything, he still managed to summon his artifact spear and send it towards the enemy island to completely destroy it.

Pshew! Boom!

Yet as the spear flew away, the Thunder Prince sensed movement nearby. He looked just in time to see the one that unexpectedly got away.

It was Howler the Werewolf.

The Thunder Prince blanched as he realized that he had been duped, but he comforted himself with the idea that his spear definitely moved faster than this guy, so it would still be his win in the end.

He ignored the shadow of doubt in his mind—the part of him that found it strange that this werewolf seems to be so determined to finish this battle despite the obvious results. Instead, he just focused on the outcome and believed that it's his win.

It has to be...

BOOM!!!

Cedric and his team's island was completely destroyed, pulverized even. It was reduced to nothing but space dust that would be floating around here somewhere.

The Thunder Prince looked relieved because, with this, he secured his victory in this tournament despite the odds.

At least, that's what he thought... but even after destroying the enemy island, nothing has changed. He could still see the werewolf ripping his island core apart with reckless abandon.

'What's going on? '

Boom!!!

Howler broke the island core with his claws, and as soon as he did so, a large system window appeared above everybody's head, signifying the end of the competition. It also contained a message congratulating the 41st Lobby Team for winning the entire tournament, much to the Thunder Prince's disbelief.

It wasn't until he saw Howler looking at him before ripping apart the space next to him, revealing the intact and shining island core next to him, that the Thunder Prince realized just how deep the scheme truly went.

"God fucking damn it!"

**

A few moments earlier

Howler watched mildly horrified as the Thunder Prince's spear continued penetrating their defenses. He looked at Cedric for further instructions and saw him sneakily taking out the island core and hiding it through multiple layers of space.

Cedric noticed his looking and smiled at him before attaching the core to him, much to Howler's shock.

"I'm turning you into a contingency," Cedric whispered to him as the rest were busy staring at their imminent doom.

"Why me?" Howler panicked a bit.

"Well, why not?" Cedric grinned.

"Is this really necessary?"

"I don't know," Cedric shrugged while wrapping him in many layers of enchantments to completely erase his existence. "Anyway, let's hope that it doesn't reach that point, but if it does, I'd trust that you'd know what to do."

With a final tap on his shoulders, Howler disappeared from everybody's senses without them realizing it. Cedric signaled him to leave the island and watch from a distance.

Howler watched as his team did their best to defeat the Thunder Prince, all while reigning in his impatience to help.

And it turns out that Cedric's actions had merits. Howler did become the decisive tool that cinched the victory for them.

That's how this tournament concluded...

With the Thunder Prince winning the fight but losing the war.