Above, as if moving at Cynrik’s command, all ten referees split up and placed themselves in optimal vantage points, which would allow them to jump in and stop any accidents from occurring. In addition, they were able to teleport wounded students out of battle with the approval code stored inside each referee’s Watcet.
Professor Wallin hovered directly over Cynrik, as she was the highest Tiered Professor present. Her job was to deal with any potential danger presented by the unruly fellow since the others were all in various stages of Tier-3 and may not be able to stop him if necessary.
A look of surprise flashed through her eyes when she realized how easily the little Psychic Affinity girl was controlling her opponents. Within 30 seconds, the cluster of replicants covered the ground while juking and dodging projectiles.
Oddly enough, it was too precise; generally, even if someone were lucky enough to receive [Prestidigitation], at best, it would be stuck at the initial Tier-0 for years. This stunt in growth was partly due to the detail required to create lifelike constructs. The user would need to not only be highly observant of their target, but they would need a near-perfect memory.
Yet here was a little girl no older than 11, expertly creating exact replicas of her party and their equipment. And to top it all off, she was able to make them move naturally. All the while, she was on the move as she controlled all five replicas. So professor Wallin concluded that this girl Gabby Sanford, either had an expert teacher or was gifted beyond all reason.
Professor Wallin circled above as the students franticly ran through the woods, unaware of the dangers ahead.
It didn’t take long for the first member of Epsilon Chall to fall horrifically. However, this student’s demise wasn’t gentle; instead, Selene had picked off a target from the trees using Stealth. One moment the boy was running and giggling in glee at the future rewards, the next, his vision tunneled, and he felt weightless.
The last thing he remembered was a black shadow blurring past like a mirage and a searing pain from his knees down.
Selene had swooped down and used the double edge shortsword on her back to bisect both the opponent’s legs before delivering a wheel kick to the back of his neck, rendering him unconscious.
Not sticking around longer than necessary, Selene returned to the trees, leaving the unconscious and bleeding boy to the referees. Less than a second later, one of the nine refs appeared next to the downed boy and couldn’t help but stare intently at the fading image of his attacker in the distance.
‘This level of assassination skill is above and beyond what someone her age should be able to execute.’ The referee quickly pulled out a potion, unscrewed the cap, and administered first aid to stop the pitiful boy’s stumps from bleeding. Next, he picked up the boy’s legs, which had flown a few feet ahead, and put them in a small metallic cube before tapping his Watcet against the boys, sending him off to the infirmary with the cube attached to his shirt.
‘S-Rank Dark Affinity user, this is nuts; what kind of monsters did the Headmaster rope in this time.’ Shaking his head, the referee thought about the potential future competitions and sighed heavily before flashing back into the sky to monitor his zone. To him, it seemed as if the entire school would be shaken up from its foundation.
[[Shock one, moving SW.]] Selene’s bloodthirsty yet cute voice sounded off in the mind link. Using the code word Brance had taught her during the little battle tactic session on the Headmasters ship.
As it turned out, Cynrik was extremely strict regarding coms during operations. Unless he first started messing around, he preferred the coms to be clear, except for specific phrases, such as using “Shock” representing the eliminated opponent, then the number of bodies dropped. The next part of the sentence was to be used for directional coordinates. Keeping the conversations clean, short, and concise allowed Cynrik to judge the flow of battle accurately and make adjustments to his plans.
Three seconds later, the shock call from Brance came in, but unlike Selene, who was like the silent grim reaper, Brance dropped down into a segregated group of four people.
Using his Wind Affinity, Brance created an updraft strong enough to catch his shields allowing him to glide to the ground and begin his assault smoothly.
The instant his foot touched the ground, he softened the terrain underfoot into mud, tripping up the group of four, making two of them faceplant. Then, before any of them could utter a single word, Brance flashed over, raising one shield and using it as a sight to fire off a heavily concentrated [Stone Spike] into the shoulder of one of the two standing boys.
The spike cut through the student’s flesh like butter, nearly blasting off his entire right arm. Unfortunately, this wasn’t in Brance’s favor. Since the boy was still conscious and at Tier-2, he stayed on his feet and let loose a miserable howl of pain, alerting his nearby teammates, some of which continued running off, but a group of two peeled off from their wing and headed to assist.
‘Fuck, I hate it when Cyn is right; killing these guys would be so much easier, GAH,’ Brance shouted in his head as he kicked out with his right leg, delivering a stunning head kick to the wailing boy, knocking him out and moving to finish off the two on the ground with violent shield bashes.
By the time he did, the last boy, who had actually run like a coward, had returned with two more enemies.
“Fuck, he took out Carl, Owen, and Hector; get him,” one of the boys shouted, unsheathing a two-handed greatsword from his back. However, when he stepped forward, his face went pale in fear, as a big rock was just inches away from his face.
BANG
Then with the force and weight of a boulder behind it, the stone collided with the boy’s head, rocking it backword and forcing a trail of blood to erupt from his nose and mouth.
THUD
The two other boys immediately turned to flee, seeing that the strongest of them had just been one shot KO’d brutally. Still, they wouldn’t get far, as Brance had already cut them off and swiped out with the sharp edge of his shield, slashing both across the chests and knocking them to their asses with force behind his attack.
“Noo ahh, please URGH.” One boy screamed as Brance hopped over his body and soccer kicked him in the skull.
Horrified by what he had witnessed, the last boy released his bowels as he scrambled on hands and knees to get away from the dual shielded monster.
Holding his nose with one hand, thanks to the stench the boy was emitting, Brance raised his left hand and fired off a blunted [Stone Spike] and hit the kid in the back of the head.
[[Shock six, heading NE, fell behind, 30 seconds till rendezvous.]] Brance said concisely in the mind link and turned to look at the sky, where he assumed the referees were, and bowed as an apology, then flashed back into the treeline.
Fwoosh
The grass sturred soon after Brance’s departure as a female referee landed. Scanning the six unconscious bodies covered in blood and newly formed bruises, she inhaled a sharp breath.
‘Professor Wallin wasn’t kidding; the decisiveness towards brutally assaulting classmates is off the charts.’ So she thought to herself as she set about administering First aid and teleporting the wounded away.
‘Although he is brutal, I didn’t sense a lick of malice or hostility against these six when he fought them; that boy, he even bowed towards where he assumed a ref was as a sign of respect. But, on the other hand, he’s the scariest kind of person who will apologize profusely as they rip your arms off.’ Patting her chest and feeling how rapidly her heart was pounding, she thanked her lucky stars for getting placed to watch over this Björn Ragnarsson.
Jumping from tree to tree alongside his sister, Benny’s head was on a swivel; anytime he noticed Gabby appearing tired, he was right there to feed her a potion. Then, looking away from her, Benny took note of his surroundings and realized they were almost at the traps Cynrik had the party set earlier.
With a wave of his hand, he motioned for Gabby to break off from the current preplanned route and direct the replicas towards the traps.
Although never spoken aloud, Cynrik actually had the most faith in Benny when controlling the battle. This is because Cynrik realized how good Benny’s foresight was in combat from an early age. Over the years, Cynrik had taken extra time out of his day to tutor the younger boy in battle tactics and squad formation. Not only that, but Cynrik had even written a notebook filled with all the military combat strategies he and Brance knew from their time in the service.
So while Brance was good at following orders, Benny was Cynrik’s actual second in command on operations. Many of the referees were surprised by Selene and Benny’s thoughtful placement of all the traps. However, it didn’t take long for them to realize it was Benny who was giving directions from the moment they separated from the group of replicas. This level of intelligence and battle knowledge was astounding to the referees.
Acting like the hidden puppet master, Benny silently informed his sister about where to place each of the replicas and began counting down. It would only take Cynrik and the others a minute to arrive if he was correct.
BBBBBBOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMM
Fifty-five seconds later, Benny smirked as his timing was still off by five seconds, but he went into combat mode and jumped down from the trees an instant later. Cynrik had given the signal by charging up nearly half his MP into his most powerful Blóðrauðr Banamaðr: Fyrstr Form – Sun Cyclone, to date.
From that point on…the proper onesided beatdown began.
-This series is exclusively published on WebNovel if you are reading it anywhere else…You Wrong, Fam. PS Check out the discord, https://discord.gg/dcxKNJEMwg
