Once the time hit 12pm, a deep bell toll rang out as a hologram was projected into the city.
[Stage 1: Race to the centre tower. Each of you that have completed registration will be allowed to enter a 500 meter radius of the tower. When you do, you’ll enter a barrier and should you take a certain amount of damage, you’ll be ejected out of the barrier.
The first 100 people to reach the centre room of the tower will be given admission into the next round.]
Reading the hologram, Shiro instantly jumped into the rift with Lisandra. Of course, she used Fae Illusions to disguise her rift so that people can’t tell it’s her through this skill.
In addition to this, since there were only 100 spots, she had to guarantee that her party succeeded through acting as a gatekeeper of sorts. If she can reach the centre room, she can snipe people with her bow and stop them from entering.
Plus, with so many assassin type adventurers in this event, they had the advantage of speed so she couldn’t wait around.
Reinforcing her body along with using the Takemikazuchi technique, lighting flared around her as she increased her speed even more.
Lisandra wasn’t too far behind either as she had learned how to reinforce her body as well. While she wasn’t as fast as Shiro, she wasn’t too far behind.
Upon leaving the rift, Shiro was about to enter again to increase her speed but noticed that an all out battle had already begun around her. There were people who had the philosophy of eliminating as many people as they can. Should they eliminate enough, they’ll get one of the 100 places through the lack of participants.
Though it seemed like Yin was part of that category since she was flying in the air and throwing out flickers of dark star as if they were candy.
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“Hahaha! Let me get rid of you all so it’s easier for everyone else!” Yin grinned.
One of the stray flickers was about to hit Shiro when she snapped her fingers and erased it by using her void star element.
‘Tch, damn stupid daughter of mine can’t even hold back destruction for a while. Even after a month, she’s still as brash as usual.’ Shiro thought to herself with a click of a tongue.
{Aren’t you the one who thought about eliminating a bunch of people after you reach the entrance?} Nimue raised an eyebrow.
‘At least I can wait a little before making a move.’ Shiro rolled her eyes.
{Pot calling the kettle black.} Nimue muttered while Shiro used her martial arts to eliminate a few people around her.
Looking above the current fighting area, Shiro could see a number count of all those that have passed. For the B classed participants, 25 people have already succeeded while only 10 have succeeded for the C class ones.
Despite her advantage in stats, 10 people had managed to reach the centre before her. This made Shiro frown since she knew she had to hurry up and that quite a few powerful assassins have appeared in this event.
Getting an idea on how to get a quit boost out of her situation, Shiro gestured for Lisandra to grab onto her.
Pulling back on her bow string, Shiro jumped up into the air before flipping her body and fired her bow behind her.
With her activating a mana shield which stopped the damage from sending her out of the arena, both she and Lisandra flew over the crowd of people. There were a few adventurers that had sent spells their way but Lisandra would reinforce her sword and slash at the spells, stopping them from harming the two of them.
Jumping into the rift once more, Shiro repeated this process until they were just outside of the entrance of the tower.
Looking back, she saw a rather strange decision for the party.
Getting Yin to drop Madison out in the middle of the crowd, Shiro saw Lyrica shouting out some words before Madison activated a mass taunt after Silvia buffed her chances of success.
Instantly, everyone’s attention snapped towards Madison.
‘What is she planning?’ Shiro thought curiously.
Activating her avatar, Madison blocked the attacks while the main party made a quick dash towards the tower. For those that didn’t get affected by the taunt, Chen Yu would eliminate them himself.
As they approached the tower, Aarim smiled and jumped up slightly.
Twirling her staff, a shockwave of mana pulsed outwards as Madison teleported besides her.
Everyone that was taunted lost their target and started to attack one another while the main part had almost reached the tower.
‘When did Aarim have a teleport skill?’ Shiro raised her eyes in surprise before entering the tower. Since they were this close and the number of successful participants so far were low, there was a good chance for them to be qualified.
Entering the tower, Shiro saw that it was a labyrinth of sorts. Her face was uninterested since this was nothing in front of her Rift Strider skill. All she needed to do was get an understanding of the layout before jumping into the rift.
Pressing her palms against the wall, Shiro scanned the labyrinth while Lisandra held the enemies at bay.
“Grab on.” She called out to Lisandra before jumping into the rift.
While this was all happening, the city lord was currently observing her situation with a Keiko, who was a rather surprising guest.
“You have quite a few talented adventurers this year don’t you?” Keiko smiled as the city lord chuckled.
He was a middle-aged man with dark hair and a short stubble. Currently, he wore a smart suit which made his physique seem thin but Keiko knew that he had great strength behind those muscles.
[Alvan LVL 200 Armageddon Sentinel]
“Haha, well I had done this in preparation for a certain troublemaker that was admitted into the Winter’s Grace. But seeing as though she’s not present in the event, it seems like I had prepared a little too much.” Alvan replied.
“Oh? Which troublemaker would make a city lord like you change the event just to accommodate them?” Keiko raised an eyebrow in curiosity.
“Ah it’s this girl called Shiro that’s joined Winter’s Grace as a guest elder. Her power is quite impressive for her class but she seemed quite…’volatile’ for a lack of a better word. You see, during one of the events hosted by the faction, she had challenged quite a few of the faction members before taking a portion of their resources. She is a physical based mage that has mastery over quite a few elements. Though I do wonder what she’ll be like in the future as multitasking with the class is quite a risky manoeuvre.” Alvan replied after thinking for a moment.
Upon hearing what Shiro had done, Keiko almost choked on her saliva as she couldn’t help but look at Alvan in confusion.
“Wait she robbed her own faction members of resources?!”
“Yeah. I think it was something to do with her status as a guest elder but her resources are a lot less than normal elders.” Alvan shrugged before looking back at the fight.
“Though even without her, it seems like I would have needed to prepare. Ignoring the assassin’s that are extremely speed based at the start, I can already pick out a few powerful people that we should keep our eyes on. First is that archer woman. So far, she’s only revealed three skills but I can already tell that her skill management and control are impressive. A speed boost, area of effect and a barrier.” Alvan smiled as Keiko couldn’t help but narrow her eyes slightly.
‘He’s already detected Shiro despite not knowing her real identity. Damn… cousin why do you gain attention everywhere you go?’ Keiko wondered while Alvan pointed out a few others that he was interested in.
###
Arriving in the centre room, Shiro looked around to see if there was a place that she could eliminate some other contestants.
However, noticing that there were only a centre console and tall walls, she eventually decided to sit still and wait for the other’s to arrive.
Shiro was going to make an ice platform for her to sit down on but stopped when she remembered that she was supposed to be an archer right now.
Shaking her head, she stood by the walls with Lisandra and examined the ones that arrived before her.
Noticing that all of them were assassins, Shiro couldn’t help but feel like the later rounds would be easy.
Assassins were troublesome with their agility and burst damage. However, to beat an annoying opponent, you just had to annoy them more than they do you.
Ever heard of an archer that just suddenly disappears before launching 20 powerful arrows at you? No? Well you’re about to. You’ve caught her finally? Whoops sorry~ she disappeared again.
