Author's Note: Unedited Chapter -------------- Gustav grabbed a green faced alien on the right and flung him away the moment they arrived on the first stair. "Go!" They moved forward together, pushing through the crowd to get further ahead. It was really a sight to behold as the participants began attacking one another due to the spaces on the stairs not being enough for everyone to move through at the same time. It was really a sight to behold as the participants began attacking one another due to the spaces on the stairs not being enough for everyone to move through at the same time. Everyone wanted to be ahead but they also needed to make sure they didn't seperate from their captains. Some groups moved towards the smooth surface of the monolith and began climbing with their limbs attached to it instead of using the stairs. Some other planetary species tried to climb as well but they soon realised it wasn't as easy as it looked. It's surface was incredibly smooth so only species who knew how to stick their body to things or excrete liquid from their skins that would help them stick to the monolith could successfully climb. Gustav already canceled the thought of climbing before the challenge began. He knew it would be incredibly difficult and time taking so the stairs were the best option especially if they were going to stick together. With the start of the new challenge, the entire arena was once more in a state of uproar. Lots of participants had already gotten kicked off the stairs from the very beginning and some were still getting kicked off after making a bit of progress. If one got pushed off the stairs, they had to start again since flying wasn't allowed. This was even more frustrating for species with wings, it made their wings look useless. "Out of my way!" A massive Klaxosape swung a giant thirty foot long club as he charged forward. Sweeeeiiihhhh~ The club cleared a bunch of participants on before them, sending a whole group of twenty flying. The Klaxosapes followed him closely from behind, letting their teammate clear the path. Fwwhiii~ He swung the massive club forward once more at a bunch ahead, but the moment it arrived before the humanoid figure on the right it was stopped. Bam! A hand had reached out to stop the massive club. "Hnnghh!" The Klaxosape groaned as he realised he was unable to pull his club backwards but the moment the person who stopped the club turned to face him, he froze. "Captain Crimson?" His eyes widened as Gustav let go of the club, causing him to stagger backwards and lose his footing. He rolled down the stairs for a couple of feet before the other Klaxosapes caught him. They were about to question what the issue was when they spotted Gustav and the others ahead. "Watch where you're pointing that thing," Gustav voiced before running ahead to catch up with the others. The stairs were even more crowded at the bottom at this moment as lots of participants had been sent off. Bang! Bang! Boom! All sorts or attacks were sent forth as participants attacked one another while trying to reclimb the stairs. At this point Gustav and the others had scaled more than two thousand stairs and were heading further upwards. Gustav would occasionally leap across a hundred feet in a go with the others. They were extremely quick but made sure not to cross the height limit when leaping. E.E did the same as he conjured vortexes to cover short distances since it would be against the rule if he used it to the fullest. Zhrriihhh~ He conjured another vortex and stepped forward. The moment he arrived another one hundred steps away, he sensed something. "Uh oh," He muttered as he looked down to see a white glowing circle appear around his foot. Gustav and the others arrived a step behind E.E with conflicted expressions as a bright white glow surrounded the entire group. Zing~ They all vanished in the next instant. "Hmm? The earthlings are gone," Captain Kriv voiced with a surprised expression. "Hahaha, that's what they get for being so prideful," The one who attacked Gustav earlier laughed. "It doesn't, matter let's go!" Captain Kriv voiced as he increased his pace. "Be careful here, this is where they dissapeared," The vice captain voiced as they made their way forward carefully and quickly. The others behind also quickened their pace, carefully crossing the area earth participants had vanished from. Zing~ Earth participants reappeared at the bottom of the monolith. "What the hell!?" "E.E what did you do!?" The group yelled in fury as they realised what just happened. "I don't know..." E.E had a baffled expression as he voiced. "It's not his fault. Anyone would have fallen into that," Gustav stopped the others from berating him. "Indeed... even though handler one mentioned that we'd meet different obstacles, there was no way to know what to expect," Aildris chimed in. "Let's get back up there," Gustav stated while turning towards the start of the stairs on the right. It was still crowded with loads of participants and now they were behind everyone. Gustav charged forward in the next instant, speeding through the midst of two participants that were in a heated battle. Fwhoosshhh~ The wind generated from his speed was like a slap to their faces as they just realised what happened. "Hey!" They both yelled out at the same time and turned to face the direction Gustav headed in only for three others to sped past them as well. Fwwhoosshhh~ Fwwhoosshhh~ Fwwhoosshhh~ Elevora and Sheila leapt over them, causing the two to look up in bafflement but at this point didn't even know who to focus on. Up ahead Gustav could see that they were more than four hundred participants in heated battles, crowding where the stairs began. There was not even a bit of space to pass through as attacks dispersed across the vicinity powerfully. "E.E," Gustav uttered calmly as he approached the crowd. "Got it," E.E voiced in response as he raised his right hand and twirled his index and middle together. Sweeeeiiihhhhh~ A massive vortex suddenly opened up below, covering the entirety of the beginning stairway. "Waaaaahhhh!" Every single participant crowding the place, fell into the vortex which closed up after swallowing them all. "What the hell!?" The other participants behind who were battling with one another stopped after witnessing this. Without wasting a second more, they charged forward. Now that the stairways were free, this was a great opportunity to climb. Zhrrrihhhh~ A massive vortex opened up hundreds of feet behind the monolith, vomiting over four hundred participants upon its appearance. "Those bastard earthlings!" "Damn it!" "Get to the stairway hurry!" They all quickly collected themselves with tones of annoyances as they charged at the monolith ahead. At the moment, Gustav and the others were making their way across the stairs once more. They moved very quickly and since they already covered this area earlier, they were not worried about activating any traps. Angy of course had to move slower due to everyone else being slow. They had to scale the monolith as a group. They soon crossed the distance of more than five thousand stairs and began closing in on the area where E.E had activated the trap earlier. "Be careful of where you step and follow my footing," Gustava announced as he scaled another three hundred stairs in an instant. The group made sure to always land where he is. Since their speed wasn't hindered the group could move very quickly in a single step. Crossing a thousand stairs wasn't a problem but doing so without your feet touching a single stair in the process would result in disqualification. The restrictions for this challenge, ultimately caused everyone's speed to be reduced. Gustav leapt past the area where E.E initially triggered the trap and kept moving. God Eyes was currently activated to look out for traps but Gustav wasn't very confident in its abilities at the moment. The way the trap was activated made Gustav suspicious about being unable to tell if a step had a trap before hand. On the brightside, he could see the footsteps of the other participants who had gone before them through God Eyes so he made sure to follow these footsteps. Since the others ahead hadn't encountered the same situation yet it meant following their steps wouldn't be a problem. After a couple more minutes they had scaled more than fifty thousand stairs. Gustav was still following the footsteps when he suddenly paused. "Stop!" Gustav voiced. The group behind instantly came to a pause as they looked up ahead and stared at Gustav with questioning gazes. 'The footsteps are no longer visible... something happened,' Gustav said internally as he looked upwards. His sight zoomed across a distance of five thousand feet and he soon understood why this was the case. "We just finished scaling the first layer," Gustav announced.