Chapter 69 Chapter 65 - Arcana Academy Entrance Exams V
69 Chapter 65 - Arcana Academy Entrance Exams V
As the entrance exam went on and with only fifteen minutes left to spare on the clock for the candidates to survive till the very end, their previous number of about six hundred candidates which had been whittled to almost five hundred following the appearance of the robotic monsters, had now reduced to a measly sixty-nine.
This rapid change in number put a sour taste in a lot of parents and guardians mouth due to the fact that a lot of their wards and children had been eliminated.
However, for the rankers and the people who had just come here for the thrill and excitement of a survival-like show, this rapid whittling of numbers meant that they could now see the candidates that were truly skilled, very talented or a combination of both.
As a result, despite the number of magic spells and weapon arts going off here and there in the now almost completely destroyed arena, a good number of ranker's eyes, along with a sizable number of people in the audience, had their eyes almost completely glued and mesmerized by the figure of two youths.
The first youth, who was black-haired and had deep emerald green eyes, completely dominated the grassy plains he had been on since the exams began with pure and overwhelming strength.
They watched as Aiden landed his greatsword in a powerful downwards vertical slash, splitting a flaming basilisk that was about to fire a fiery red beam of concentrated flame into two equal halves, all of its internal mechanical components in full view.
Almost immediately after, they watched him dash to a rhinobear in an instant and instead of attacking with his greatsword, landed a devastating punch to its side.
The sheer impact of this destructive punch, sent shockwaves through the creature's large body and messed up its robotic internals, instantly leading to the mechanical beast shutting down and going out of commission.
This also caused the rhinobear to fly through the air like a ragdoll despite its fairly big size and heavy weight, and crash sideways onto into an arachnoworm, completely crushing and pulverizing the robotic creature that was about to fire a net of searing hot flames like a soft mold of clay.
They then watched once again as the youth, effortlessly evaded a compressed ball of wind from an elemental golem with a slight tilt of his body, almost as if predicting the attack before it even happened.
In an instant, they watched him dash and jump at breakneck speed and appear directly in front of the golem's head, his greatsword cleaving through the iron components it was made of and beheading it in an instant.
Despite him completely dominating the part of the arena he was on, what had drawn most people to the way he was fighting however, was how he was effortlessly doing all these without using a single spell or weapon art and to top it all off, the youth had a genuinely excited smile playing on his lips.
"Wow… Just wow…" one young male youth in his early twenties who had been sitting close to Anna said with a lot of admiration in her eyes.
'That's my son!' Anna said to herself proudly while also viewing the part of the screen that was projecting and now focusing solely on Aiden's battle.
Soon enough though, just like a lot of people in the audience had been doing, she diverted her attention to another screen that was now solely projecting Flynn's battle.
"And that's my son too!" Anna proudly and unconsciously stated aloud this time, her chest seemingly almost puffed out in pride.
Leopold just glanced at his wife with a chuckle while Briar did a small little clap for both of her brothers.
"Man… Flynn Belmont is one crazy lad… Talk about not even moving from that particular spot on the hill for the past eight minutes since he started battling those monsters…" a young man who was sitting directly beside Leopold, said to his female friend who was seated just beside him too.
"It's mesmerizing…" the lady muttered, her eyes completely glued to the screen.
She could not explain what it was about how he was fighting but to put it simply, it was almost like the silvery-green haired youth knew what was going to happen exactly before it happened and he reacted to it seamlessly with beautiful footwork, precisely clean strikes of his katana and a few well-placed spells here and there.
As her and some of the other people in the arena continued viewing Flynn's battle at the top of sloppy hill of the arena that was just near a small stream, they watched as the silvery-green haired youth seamlessly and skillfully changed the trajectory of his katana from a direct downwards slash, into diagonal downwards slash, immediately beheading a robotic arachnoworm that had tried to evade his very first attack.
The youth then immediately sidestepped, just as a rhinobear charged past him and almost collided with his body.
Flynn however did not miss this opportunity and swiftly coated his katana with mana, enforcing the metallic blade of his sword and swiftly driving it straight into and along the sides of the robotic monster as it charged past him.
The robotic creature then crashed and tumbled to the ground and shut down, just a fair few meters away from Flynn, indicating that the youth's sudden attack had been definitely effective against it.
As Flynn flicked his katana slightly to perform a chiburi to spray off the black oil from his weapon, he suddenly raised his free arm in a sideways direction to his left without even looking at the place itself and immediately chanted a spell inwardly.
'[Telekinetic Series: Force Push]' Nôv(el)B\\jnn
An invisible wave of energy suddenly moved through the air from his open palm and collided with a flaming fireball that a flaming basilisk had fired from afar.
The moment the two spells collided, the flaming fireball was repelled and shot back directly with an even greater force at the robotic basilisk, instantly burning a gaping donut hole through its mechanical head as it had its attack reversed on it.
Some people in the crowd couldn't help but marvel at how the youth was seemingly attacking effortlessly without even having to look in the direction he needed to attack from, almost like he could see just a second into the future.
To some of the rankers who didn't know, especially those who had been alternating between Aiden and Flynn's battles, they had wondered if the youths could use mana sense but almost immediately, they had discarded the idea.
It was impossible for people who were not S-rankers and above to use mana sense! Much less kids who had not even reached A-rank. It was definitely and totally impossible!
That was the belief that they had.
Burying these thoughts into their minds, some of them resumed their viewing of the brother's match and soon enough, they watched a blonde-haired figure appear out of a streak of blue lightning and land on the ground, just near the stream Flynn had been at.
Flynn who watched Lucas land just a few meters from him, averted his gaze away from him while angling his gaze to the sky, a thoughtful expression gracing his face due to the phenomenon he was seeing taking form above the skies again.
Lucas on the other hand despite landing quite close to Flynn, did not even notice him because he was dealing with robotic monsters of his own.
Two robotic rhinobears had seemingly locked on to him just a few moments after he had dispatched two elemental golems and were now relentlessly charging at him.
Considering it had been nearing ever closer to him just after he had destroyed the two golems, the blonde-haired youth had decided to create a safe distance from the charging monster in an instant, something he had promptly achieved with his [Blitz Jump].
Now that he had achieved what he wanted to, the streak of blue lightning dissipating from his body in small sparks, Lucas raised his dual daggers in a cross-blade form while taking a battle stance as the rhinobear relentlessly charged towards him.
As soon as the charging monster was just a few meters away from him, Lucas took a crouching position and immediately dashed back towards it, muttering a weapon art under his breath.
The moment Lucas muttered his weapon art, his dual daggers instantly gleamed and transformed into a dark purple hue.
Soon enough, just as he came into striking zone of the charging rhinobear, he immediately slashed downwards in a cross guard manner with his two daggers and instantly, two big purple dark lines in the form of an 'X', swiftly cut the robotic beast into four equal parts, instantly ending their lives.
Lucas then heaved a sigh of relief while standing upright from his crouching position, taking in his surroundings and scanning the area around him for more robotic monsters.
Due to him doing this, it didn't take long for him to spot Flynn in the distance, just a few meters away from him, slightly gazing at the sky for some reason.
"Flynn…" Lucas muttered in contempt while staring at the silvery-green haired youth.
Following this, the blonde-haired youth who had a deep grudge against Flynn for some unknown reason that Flynn himself had no idea about, had his face morph into a deep frown and instantly retrieved his dagger while seemingly trying to ambush him.
However, before he could, he watched as Flynn suddenly summoned his [Force Field] spell, all while still gazing at the sky.
Before Lucas could even wonder why he did so, he watched as a golem with a gaping hole in its mechanical abdomen crashed onto his [Force Field] and bounced off of it, directly into the stream of water just below the hill Flynn was standing on.
Lucas, along with the people in the crowd who had not expected this sudden occurrence, watched as a brown-haired lady also materialized suddenly out of thin air, a few trails of white shimmering particles emerging from her body.
The lady in question then landed just a few meters away from Flynn while holding her spear in her hand, the tip of its blade dripping with black oil.
"Amelia?" Lucas seemingly asked himself, immediately dashing and jumping onto the hill she and Flynn was at.
Amelia who had now arrived at were Flynn was completely by coincidence, watched as the silvery-green haired youth deactivated his barrier spell, a thoughtful expression on his face.
Almost immediately too, she suddenly heard her fiancé's voice behind her.
"How did you get here Amelia?" Lucas asked in curiosity, just as he landed on the hill and began walking towards her.
"That's a long story…" she responded and then, her eyes travelled over back to Flynn who seemed to be thinking about something, a few of his fingers placed on his chin.
'What is he doing…' Amelia wondered to herself but almost instantly, she, along with Lucas watched as Flynn immediately glanced downwards at the ground, almost as if he could spot something there.
At this point, even Lucas who had wanted to ambush Flynn, just watched on at the weird actions the youth was doing.
Flynn however, after looking at the ground for a few more seconds, suddenly let out a sigh of resignation while also having a few internal thoughts.
'Whatever the hell is been placed into that rectangular box in the sky again and whatever gigantic robotic creature it is that's slithering underground the arena's stage, we'll all be finding out pretty soon…' Flynn mused to himself.
'Besides, Aiden will deal with whatever the hell it is. Pretty sure he's definitely enjoying this entire entrance exam…' he inwardly continued.
'That being said, I guess the robotic monsters in the arena's now reaching maybe a few tens… maybe even less. It's a bit weird that I haven't been attacked by any of them even after staying still for almost about a minute or so…' he added, his relaxed expression returning to his face.
Following this, the silvery-green haired youth raised his head, glanced sideways towards where Lucas and Amelia were, and then, casually began walking down the slope of the small hill.
Internet reception is genuinely horrible over here. Been battling with no internet for almost the past twenty minutes until I was finally able to upload this chapter.
Caeruleum_
Creator's Thought