Chương 243: Chapter 121 - Everyone's got a plan until they get punched in the face.

For a moment his chat was silent, then it blew up all at once. Normally that would make him double back and show some exaggerated reaction to spice up the content. He didn't need any of that this time, everything was a pure genuine reaction.

"Wh-wha-what just happened?" Sideark completely forgot about his role as an entertainer and his mouth was just agape. Even his fourth realm mind could not process the events that had just transpired. The Tournament, THE fourther tournament had always brought some excellent content, both before and after the tourney. This had been looking like one of the spiciest ones yet. Juniper versus Shadowstrider was amazing on its own but there was even Goreblatt, a massive dark horse that had an unusually high cult following.

The madlad was competing despite having killed a Leafstalker, a Realmer! Everyone in the content creation community had been eating well propping up the tournament. Sideark was no different. He had gone on multiple extremely popular podcasts and hosted his own 'Sides with Sideark' to hype things up. One unfortunate thing that they'd lamented, was the fact that the newbies like Zedart, Valee and Mahjit didn't have at least half a year to catch up.

Honestly, if it wasn't for the rushed format of the tourney and it had been a regular month long event they might have even been able to have a great showing. Now that would have been a real tournament for the ages. Still, that was podcasting content. The what-ifs belonged there. Now he was completely focused on commentating this great content, making it more entertaining for his viewers than anyone else. It wasn't like there wasn't so much to talk about anyway.

The Witch Tyrant coming out of her seclusion after her assault. The new announcer, that was obviously a high tier [Mage] and even the dragonslayers in attendance. Sideark had memorized every single known skill from the popular adventurers and had been ready to commentate the tournament of a lifetime. It was just unfortunate they had gotten content that he had little to no understanding of. Oh, Sideark had enhanced the original content when Artigan gatecrashed the opening ceremony.

Informing his streams of all the possibilities this could go, throwing out predictions left and right. His main prediction had been that the Witch Tyrant could weave intricate plots to have Artigan fall to the competitors. If you at all paid attention to history, it was the safest bet, and the smartest. Sideark's analysis was respected by millions. After all, unlike a lot of the other streamers, he was a fourth realm Destined himself. It gave him some real authenticity for the greatest tournament in The Realm.

Even more so than higher realm adventurers. Even they would come on to his streams to collab with him so they could appeal to his audience. They asked for his advice and listened to his analysis. But when the dragonslayers started fighting and his chat started asking him about the impossibly high speed fight? When questions kept getting thrown at him, like what skills would help adventurers be able to turn into a real draconic monster? One that could fight seven dragonslayers by themselves?

That was when Sideark started sweating. He took a toilet break to 'come up with the answer.' He had naturally concluded that this was a drake class evolution that everyone must have overlooked. Sideark hadn't checked out theories from other people or anything. To ease himself of the guilt of stealing ideas, he had started to make some expert predictions on what was likely to happen.

He had been glad that whoever was filming had edited it live to remove most of the truly gory parts, leaving it mostly friendly for public streams. Though, even if it had gotten bad, Sideark would have kept streaming anyway. Site rules mattered little when you were as big as he was. Plus there was no way they would ban everyone when they were all streaming the same thing. At least it looked like the monster was slowly getting whittled down. Now this was real content.

This would be talked about for years– Then the dragon ate the dwarven dragonslayer. Then the dragon began a Legend manifestation. For a moment, things were looking like it was going to go terribly wrong. There were tears in his chat as they lamented the death of a rare dwarven dragonslayer. Sideark clenched his fists, no longer thinking about his stream.

"This monster had to die." He said it with so much conviction his chat had been swayed. As if answering his prayers, a ritual cage of light surrounded the monster, forcing it to stop. The Witch Tyrant declared her ritual spell and thanked the other dragonslayers for delaying the monster long enough. Sideark had been so glad to have taken the Witch Tyrant's side in his predictions. It was always the right answer. If in doubt, bet on the Tyrants to win. He breathed a sigh of relief.

Of course everything had been a plan to entrap the dragon in a ritual spell. Of course the Witch Tyrant wouldn't let Artigan get away after terrorizing The Realm. It was all one great plan. Then Artigan started laughing. Sideark had started to laugh at the stupid blacklister too. A true idiot, believing himself on top of the world after having beaten a few third realms. This was the real world. There are levels to the fourth realm that you can't even dream of, you stupid arrogant bastard.

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. His heart had soared, watching the mother of all hexes descend on Artigan's head.

"Watch chat, this is the punishment that comes down to those that defy the Tyrants. This is for Gilbert you evil bastard!" Never before had anyone heard of a hex that could injure someone's soul before. As expected of the Witch Tyrant, she had figured out a way to truly target Destined unlike anyone else. Then Artigan raised his sword, as if his tiny blade was going to do anything. … Except it did. The sword grew without end, dragging something from the city around Artigan to form it.

It solidified and the raging current started swirling around the blade, becoming a raging tempest. Then Artigan swung down, the blade as large as the massive screaming skull. It broke the entirety of the skull and exploded. Just like that. Artigan stood, grinning as his music blasted out of his speakers, doing a challenging T-pose against the Witch Tyrant in a fit of mad daring. Even though Sideark was a professional, it took him ten seconds to gather his wits. Sideark did the safe thing.

Glazing the Witch Tyrant as much as he could"Haha, guys this is probably all part of the Witch's plan…" The camera then zoomed in on the Witch Tyrant's face. That cold beautiful, calculating face had an expression of frozen shock on it. Like she had no idea what to do. An expression that the world had never seen from her before. Then something blurred. A dragon appeared before her. And punched the Witch Tyrant in the face. Then things really went out of control.

– Even Gamielle hadn't expected Ryan to destroy a tenth tier ritual himself. She did, however, recover faster than anyone else on the board.

"Pinkie, there girl!" And the stupid crazy bitch took the opportunity of a lifetime. – The light cage Pinkie was in was just for show. The Witch Tyrant had told her to stand down and focus on trying to consolidate her Legend so that was what she did. Pinkie was no fool. She did not believe for a second that an imperfect fist was enough to take on the Witch Tyrant. Maybe once she perfected the full transformation it would be possible to take her on but not before that.

She was only happy to take the time to focus on getting stronger. That fight had been the impetus for her understanding of her target of transformation. She understood what she had been missing. At first she had thought that her understanding of biology and circulatory structure hadn't been perfect–and while that was true, it wasn't the main problem. The real issue had been the one thing that separated that apex monster and everyone else. Its nature.

Pinkie hadn't ever thought that the idea of concepts or even the creature's mentality would be what stood between her and her perfect transformation. The concept of dragons had come much later, after she had perfected her draconic warform, not before. It was only in the middle of multiple dragonslayers, where she was fighting without any restraint, refusing to yield that she went through an enlightenment. This was how the apex behaved.

It cared little for what others believed was possible or whether it could succeed or not. It simply did. It would throw itself against the world, time and time again. Until it or the world broke. And now it was a force of nature. Pinkie was so focused on it that she hadn't cared when a giant sword of aura formed from a fourth realm. Nor had she been impressed when the ritual blew up. She only looked up to watch the faint ripples of the world settle around Ryan.

An acknowledgement by the world that he had truly done a great feat. As expected of the Witch Tyrant. All of this had been planned. Everything was clearly a performance. To set up her newest pet project's Legend. Pinkie did not listen to the words like "Binding Hex" or punishments about whatever. It wasn't important. You never listened to the words of [Witches]. What was important was paying attention to what the Tyrant was allowing you to do. That was how Pinkie thought.

"Pinkie, there girl!" When a telepathic nudge by Gamielle poked her in the side and directed her attention upwards, she blinked. The Witch Tyrant was completely and utterly wide open. Every single one of Pinkie's scales instinctively vibrated at the opportunity. In her current state, she was more beast than person, more of a primal force of nature than anything else. The concept she had touched upon demanded her to take it. TAKE THE FIGHT. Pinkie hadn't completely lost her mind either.

If the Witch Tyrant was giving you an opening, it was because she wanted you to take it. The plan was obvious. Hit the Witch Tyrant and run off with Ryan. Possibly increase her own fame in the process. A real force of nature would take every opportunity to get stronger. Pinkie phased through the fake walls of light, [Blinked] to get closer, and her body blurred into lightning. And her fist connected with the Witch Tyrant's face. CRACK The Witch Tyrant went careening off into the air. Right towards the city barrier.

She managed to stop herself from going splat onto the barrier, a hand covering her face. Pinkie frowned, then she stared at her own fist. She knew what punching the Witch's barrier felt like. She had plenty of experience with it when sparring with her. Normally the Witch Tyrant would fight with an illusory body covered by a barrier. Normally when her dragonscale fists hit them, the impact would be enough to crack the barrier but otherwise there would be little feedback.

This time the barrier had almost completely shattered and prismatic shards stuck to her hands. This time there was a bit more oomph to the hit. This time there had been a physical rattling within the barrier. Like something solid was actually within the barrier all this time She doesn't leave her cottage except in rare exceptions like the time with Indigo. She must have improved her illusions. Pinkie turned her focus from her fists towards the Witch Tyrant's obvious illusion.

The Witch Tyrant was looking dazed and holding her nose and her mouth, blood dripping out of her hands.. That was some great illusion work. Classic. Instead of running for the hills, Pinkie just stopped. There was a sense of trepidation. Wrongness. Despite her instincts screaming at her to run she felt a bit of morbid curiosity as to what the weird feelings were. It was the same for the other dragonslayers too. A multitude of small pupils started dotting across the Witch Tyrant's eyes.

It was as if hundreds of tiny pupils had always been there, lurking underneath the surface of her eyes, waiting to come out. Like she had been some sort of eldritch monstrosity in the guise of an ordinary elf. Which Pinkie would believe she was. The pupils kept appearing, all rapidly gathering into the middle, layering into one regular pupil. Her expression was still of shock but her eyes were more–vibrant, for a lack of a better word.

Like every interaction before had just been a robot only emulating the actions of the real Witch Tyrant. As if she had only been operating on a few threads to deal with everything. And now all of those fragments were combined into one. For the first time since her daughter died. The Witch Tyrant's mind was no longer scattered. The weight of all of her focus came together and her true presence descended on the entirety of Sector Four.

Even to dragonslayers, it felt like they were looking up at a being that transcended them all. As if they were merely in the fourth realm, looking up at a dragonslayer. Even Pinkie felt like that. And with the return of her full focus came emotion. Things that had been hidden away by working on hundreds of different tasks and plots at the same time. Her hand lowered from her mouth, her own blood covering it. Yet that was not where she first looked. She glanced back at the city, back at where her fake daughter was.

For a moment there was true grief once again. Then her eyes turned to stare at something in the air, her eyes reading a system screen. The action was so unguarded, so unlike her. Then the Witch Tyrant's eyes turned to Pinkie. You could even smell and taste her anger in the air. It blew the [Dangersense] of everyone that was watching, even through their screens. Which meant everyone in the entire Realm. Then Pinkie finally started panicking.