"So without further ado, let's begin the first match," Zara instructed.
Zephyr and his opponent, Ryan, headed towards the battlefield and stood at their respective places, taking a fighting stance.
Zephyr stood firmly, his stance wide and solid, eyes focused and unyielding.
Ryan, in contrast, adopted a nimble and agile stance, the slender rapier poised in front of him.
Ryan's expression was one of intense concentration, yet he was plagued with growing unease.
The wristbands on their hands beeped three times as a signal to commence the fight.
Beep... Beep... Beep...
"Voosh!"
As the fight commenced, Zephyr initiated with a powerful overhead swing.
The blade cut through the air with a roar, and a gust of wind [Wind Affinity] followed the motion, propelling the blade's impact with additional force.
Ryan attempted to parry with the rapier, but the force of Zephyr's attack pushed him back.
Zephyr pressed the advantage, his sword moving with controlled rhythm.
Each swing aimed to strike, unleashing a wave of ice magic that froze the ground around Ryan.
The ice spread rapidly, turning the battlefield floor into a treacherous patchwork of slick surfaces.
Ryan struggled to adapt.
His attempt to close the gap was thwarted by ice barriers and sharp gusts of wind.
Every thrust met with an ice wall, reducing the force behind his strike.
As the fight reached its climax, the clash between Zephyr and Ryan took a final, dramatic turn.
Despite Ryan's fatigue and the icy terrain working against him, he managed a desperate effort to use one of his elemental affinities: Fire.
Ryan, struggling to get back on his feet, channeled his remaining energy into a burst of flames, hoping to counter Zephyr's overwhelming strikes.
Flames erupted from the rapier, creating waves of intense heat that momentarily melted some of the surrounding ice.
The fire provided a brief respite, allowing him to close the distance.
Zephyr, recognizing the threat, met the flames head-on.
He conjured a powerful gust of wind to push back the fire, but the flames managed to singe the edge of his sword.
With a determined expression, he focused his mana, channeling both wind and ice in a final move.
A massive blast of icy wind shot from his sword, extinguishing Ryan's flames and freezing the ground beneath them.
With one final, powerful swing of his blade, amplified by a surge of ice, Zephyr delivered a crushing blow.
Ryan, unable to defend, collapsed on the icy floor.
Defeated.
The students burst into a resounding cacophony of applause.
Aziel could hear many of them whispering:
"Woahh... he didn't even give Ryan a chance to fight back."
"I wish I was him."
"Don't wish too much."
"He isn't the top-ranked student of our class for nothing."
"There's a huge gap of power between rank one and rank nine!"
Aziel's thoughts also matched theirs.
'The fight... it was way too one-sided.'
Zephyr made his way towards Zara, who seemed stunned by the event unfolding before her.
"Well done, you really are a prodigy.Do you want to step out to the restroom or just stay here and watch the other fights?"
"I will wait."
Saying so, Zephyr changed his trajectory and went towards Aziel.
They high-fived, but as soon as they did, Aziel could feel eyes staring at him from everywhere.
Other selected students also complimented Zephyr as he went and stood beside them.
Just like that, other fights also ended one-sided, with the top-ranked students in the class being the overwhelming victors.
Now, it was finally his turn.
Aziel's.
He stood in an unprofessional fighting stance as the wristband beeped.
Beep... Beep... Beep...
•••
More than fifty figures ran for their lives, while one who seemed to be their leader fought against the Veils.
They were apparently inside a Shadow Rift, the rift which had brought the most destruction when it first appeared.
With a wave of 4.5...
The highest wave ever recorded in history.
In this rift, the ground was a barren wasteland of cracked, lifeless earth, with sharp jagged rocks scattered like the remnants of a once-vibrant world.
The sky was a dark, unsettling shade of purple.
Dominated by a monstrous, omnipresent eye, a colossal and terrifying feature that cast an unnatural crimson glow over everything below.
The eye, with its iris a swirling vortex of deep blood-red hues, seemed almost alive, as if it possessed a consciousness of its own.
The eyelid—if it could be called that—was perpetually open, its edges etched with a dark aura that rippled with an unsettling, liquid-like movement.
Its gaze was terrifying, compelling those who dared to look at it to feel an overwhelming sense of dread.
As if every action was judged by an all-seeing malevolent force.
"Retreat! Retreat!"
"We don't have enough manpower to go against those void-ranked Veils!"
"I will hold them off. In the meantime, you all run towards the exit!"
A man with black hair and emerald eyes screamed, his voice loud enough for everyone present to hear.
"But... Maste—"
"Do as I say!"
"Roger!"
The man with emerald eyes seemed to be killing every Veil that came into his view in an instant.
To be precise, he was dominating.
To have this much power, it was clear he was at least a legend-tier mage.
That meant his overall stats were about [SS to SS+].
But he dominated only until he saw, far ahead of him, a Veil.
Not just any Veil.
A cosmic-ranked one—he could easily deduce it from the sheer mana leaking from its body.
This was also the first time humanity—no, the current humanity—had sighted a cosmic-ranked Veil.
Its presence was ominous, continuously bearing down on him.
It was a creature with a human torso, but instead of a single head, it had multiple snake heads.
Its lower body was also that of a human, but with a different color.
The Veil stood still, gathering a glowing dark sphere of energy in its mouth, then launched it skyward.
Upon release, the sphere converted into a beam of dark light that pierced straight through the skies.
The sphere exploded, discharging a network of electric bolts that scattered in different directions.
The sky rained down electric bolts, and everyone present—whether Veils or escaping humans—was struck by them and burned to a crisp.
Their screams echoed faintly in the vast expanse.
•••
[New quest arrived]
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