Almond and Maya walked towards the center as Xavier went on to stand at the winner’s corner, and Emma went to his opposite, the northwest corner.
“Almond, the fantastic summoner, please make a show. The audience is excited for your summons!”
Almond wryly smiled and summoned his Spirit Wraiths—Infernal Knight Ashkar, Dark Pope Benedict, Starlight Beast, and replacing Crystalist since it had fought yesterday.
Wintersun Lady Nyssara!
“Woah, woah, woah, the Fantastic Summoner has graced us with a new summon, a beauty no less!”
As Nyssara appeared and processed the ongoing event, her hand fan transformed into a crystal shining gray plated hammer with icy patterns as it smashed into the ground beside her, while her graceful dress transformed into a crystal knight armor dress with a gray metallic color and icy patterns. The dress had a badass gray semi-metallic crystal long skirt and a thin crystal visor covering her eyes.
“I smell a battlefield, Master,” Nyssara spoke, a visible cold wave oozing out from her.
The audience went absolutely bonkers as the screen showed her entrance, erupting in huge uproar.
“This guy has crazy good-looking summons!”
“Fuck, I am envious!”
“She is so cool!”
“I want a summoner-type class!”
Maya looked at Nyssara, feeling an ardent desire to face her as she summoned one of her class-based weapons—Glacial Drop Slingshot.
Almond smiled, “You two would be a good match.”
“Well, let us start the countdown without further ado!” Gelato shouted as the countdown appeared between the duo.
‘Nyssara, your hammer is powerful, and you learned how to wield it properly. Fight on your own and keep in mind the training we had.’
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Maya was focused, not a trace of smugness in her. Only a serious and dignified air hung around her as if she was ready to give her all in this battle.
The countdown hit zero, and she instantly released a slingshot attack aimed at Almond.
A strawberry-sized icy ball shot, breaking the sound barrier.
*Smash!*
Nyssara swung her arm, smashing her hammer to block it as it burst into an icy mist.
Maya wanted to freeze that mist and debuff Nyssara, but before she could do that, Nyssara’s moving hammer that smashed her attack wasn’t just for defending. It instantly unleashed an icy spear that forcefully disrupted and used her attack’s icy mist to bolster her spear.
Maya attempted to dodge without hesitation and succeeded, her weapon already changed as she now wielded two revolvers.
Both went for Almond.
Nyssara’s eyes coldly gleamed.
Luminous Squall—S-rank skill!
A dreadful storm descended on the platform, covering 100 meters of area. The storm consisted of attributes of light, ice, and water.
Maya instantly started freezing, ice forming all around her body at once.
Her speed drastically lowered, along with her chances of victory because of this skill.
Meanwhile, Almond and other summons started gaining resistance to ice and an ethereal icy armor around them.
This skill consumed Mana per second after an initial cost of 10% of her maximum mana. Within this storm, her speed drastically increases along with her other synergizing skills’ power.
‘I can’t waste my Mana on resisting this. I have to finish her off before she finishes me,’ Maya began shooting without stopping.
She used class skill-generated empowered bullets and two buff skills, one from each class, as she consumed 70% of her Mana.
‘Good decision,’ Almond nodded.
Good decision, but it made no difference to the final outcome.
Nyssara had already used another skill after Luminous Squall, a skill synergizing heavily with it, bringing out the ultimate offense.
Prism icy crystals manifested around her, glowing with dreadful beauty.
Radiant Ice Prism (S).
Those crystals unleashed laser-based attacks, precisely hitting all bullets.
Maya emptied all 12 bullets in pairs of two, each half a second, but during these few seconds of confrontation, Nyssara nullified all of her bullets with her icy-light laser bullets.
But that was not all.
Nyssara had more crystals, and they began shooting at Maya while she dashed forward with her Hammer.
Maya used a skill, breaking free from all the ice and making a focused run.
She wanted to escape from this storm’s range.
But her heart dropped shortly as she noticed that the storm was moving with Nyssara.
‘Fuck.’
Her Focus Field discovered incoming attacks as she jumped while her weapon changed, and she turned around midair, pulling the string of her Aquafrost Longbow.
The gleaming arrow shot at Nyssara was a mere 5 meters away from her, already in a jumping motion to reach Maya.
‘You can’t dodge this,’ Maya’s eyes glinted.
But her expression changed in the next moment.
Nyssara’s hammer struck the arrow, shattering it into a burst of icy mist while she spun midair using the blasting impact and moved forward by releasing a burst of ice from her back.
Maya’ wanted to move, but she could only think about moving instead of actually moving because…it was too late.
Nyssara’s heel kick struck Maya on her head, shooting her down on the floor.
But before she could do anything, the floor erupted in a big icy spike, with Maya completely frozen inside it.
Nyssara landed right at that time, gracefully yet deadly as her hammer swung right on Maya’s head as she descended, striking ruthlessly without the slightest hesitation.
*Boom!*
The crystal shattered, and Maya was blasted down to the ground. The badge absorbed the entirety of the damage as a loud beep rang.
*Uproar!*
The audience burst out in uproar while Gelato was wide-eyed as he shouted, “DAYUM! Ladies and gentlemen…dayum!!”
“Wow,” Kira’s eyes sparkled. “That summons looks like she has some good combat sense. It’s completely different from the only skill show of his previous summon.”
“And she seems as intelligent as normal humans. Maybe all of his humanoid summons are intelligent and capable of good growth and learning. That’s…honestly crazy powerful,” Marcus muttered.
“Hehe, Almond has trained his humanoid summons in combat. They are pretty good, with their combat style revolving around their powerful skills,” Natalia grinned. “And trust me…Almond is a damn good combat trainer.”
On the platform’s inner area, Maya stood up while still feeling slightly wobbly as she shook her head.
Gelato used some kind of skill to make her stable before looking at Almond and using Magic Whisper, ‘Lad, this summons of yours was quite powerful. Are the other two humanoid summons the same?’
‘Of course,’ Almond replied. ‘They are trainable, and I’ve taught them, so you need to change my title. I am not just a Fantastic Summoner.’
“Good fight,” Maya stood up and nodded at Nyssara and Almond, “I look forward to our next meeting.”
After saying that, she walked towards the loser’s corner.
“And the winner is Almond the Fantastic Summoner! Can’t wait to see his next match, right?!”
The audience cheered loudly.
…
Match 3 began shortly.
Ron the Geocrusher Fighter vs. Finn the Thundering Might.
Both warrior-type and close-range fighters.
Their battle was intense, a clash between Earth and Lightning.
One used earthen gauntlets, and another used a thundering hammer.
But in the end, Ron clutched the victory. The disadvantage lightning-element had against Earth played a part, but that was no excuse because it was a matter of getting hit strongly or hitting strongly first.
After their battle, Match 4 began soon.
Anya the Silverbolt Whip vs. Lily the Dreadspire Harbinger.
Anya tried her hardest, but Lily simply overwhelmed her.
The best bet was to keep out of Lily’s Dreadspire Mantle’s range, but that was impossible given Lily’s primary class—Phantom Thief, which gave her a powerful dash and increased speed.
She only used the Phantom Dance skill of her Primary class while using Dreadspire Mantle and Warlock Enchant: Dreadspire Elements.
Phantom Dance increased her speed drastically while also giving her a powerful dash trigger. It lasted for 1 minute, and during this minute, there was no way for anyone to escape Lily.
Combining this with her Dreadspire Mantle that scared everyone within 10 meters of her, lowering their reaction speed and their attack and defense, it was over.
Anya could only attack once, which failed, and then Lily overwhelmed her, finishing the battle within 13 seconds.
Judging from the audience’s reaction, she became no less popular than Almond’s arsenal of summons because of her powerful vibe and visually delightful skills.
As she went to stand by Almond, Gelato called for the last match of the round.
Kira the Crescent Stormblade vs. Eliara the Steel Fortress.
One was a katana user and a high-speed light combatant with a focus on offense and movement aided by A-rank Water elemental mastery and a rich arsenal of combat prowess with the katana and sword-based skills.
The other was a warrior type using a spear and a shield with B-rank Metal elemental mastery, with a focus on both offense and defense.
Everyone expected an intense clash between them, but Kira decided otherwise.
The battle was over shortly after it began. Kira’s slash projectiles overwhelmed Eliara, preventing her from attacking and forcing her to defend.
But she couldn’t defend enough.
The round showed a clear and distinct difference between everyone’s prowess.
“And there we have our top five Silver-rank adventurers! And among them will emerge the most powerful Silver rank adventurer, the one to grace the throne of the silver bracket of Rising Star Leaderboard!”
“Without further ado, we shall start the battle of the top 1 spot right away. My little rising stars, use the potions and recover your Mana and Stamina,” Gelato handed over the potions to the top 5.
On the loser’s corner, the five who lost could only watch while sitting cross-legged and observing the next round for the throne.
“I’ll take the first spot,” Xavier said as he turned to Almond, his eyes firm.
Lily leaned ahead a bit and looked at Xavier, “Seriously, you can’t. It’s impossible.”
Xavier’s face flushed before he snorted, “We’ll see.”
Lily rolled her eyes. “There’s a fine line between delusion and confidence, but this line seems to be blurry for you.”
Gelato coughed, attracting their attention while the holograms also showed him facing the winners from a side angle.
“Now that you all recovered fully, let me explain the final round.”