Dispelling her throne world, Shiro looked around at the other arenas and saw that most of them were finishing up.
Lisandra had already defeated her opponent, while Lyrica and Silvia were having a friendly spar as they were pitted against one another.
While they could fight somewhat seriously, Silvia had already decided to let Lyrica pass since Lyrica would probably have a better chance of winning the next round for some orange grade gear.
Once the last fight finished, the final ten were confirmed.
Out of the party, Lyrica, Yin and Chen Yu managed to pass along with Shiro and Lisandra.
Teleporting everyone onto the top floor, a hologram appeared on the screen.
[Stage 6: The final stage. There are 5 orange grade equipment up for grabs in this event. The 10 remaining contestants will form teams and select a captain. You will then be placed into a field with two castles.
The main goal is for you to take the other castle’s flag while defending your own. As for who gets the items, it will be dependent on your performance rather than which side wins. Of course, if you win the fight, you’ll get some extra points in the final tally.
You have 5 minutes to decide on your teams, good luck.]
Reading the stage description, Shiro realised that they had just enough people on their side to form a team of five.
However, before she could call out of the party, she was approached by one of the other participants that had managed to pass.
“How about you join our team? If we split up those that are powerful, you’ll get more chances to show off your strength through combat no?” The person suggested as Shiro raised an eyebrow.
“But if we finish the match quickly, would we not also get points?” She grinned.
If they finished off the fight quickly, the other team would not have many chances to demonstrate their prowess, making it so that they wouldn’t need as many points.
“True, though I believe that the more points you have the better chance for you to get one of the better orange grade equipment. I doubt the organisers would allow you to finish the match that easily.” The man smiled as Shiro thought about it for a bit.
“I’m fine, I’ve already got some people in mind. But don’t worry about it, I won’t be taking the other slayer.” She chuckled and made her way to Lyrica’s group with Lisandra following behind her.
“Yo, since it’s the final round, why don’t we team up? We got five people exactly and we might be able to get some more performance points if the teams are more balanced.” Shiro called out with a smile.
“Of course. However, are you sure you don’t want to go on their side ‘Kazumi’? I thought your main goal was to observe how much we’ve improved.” Lyrica chuckled as Shiro raised her eyebrows before staying silent and put a finger on her lips.
“Well let’s just say that I’ve seen quite a bit and since I’m a rather sore loser, I wouldn’t want me nor the people I’m interested in to lose.” Shiro replied with a grin.
“Since it’s been around two months, do you want to take command of the castle while I’ll be one of the chess pieces for this event I suppose.” She asked Lyrica.
“No it’s fine. With your skill set and proficiencies, you’re more suited towards commanding and leading. Having someone who can scout out the entire area ordering people is better in this situation.” Lyrica shook her head with a smile.
“Got it. In that case then as usual, here are some earpieces for me to send you some instructions. As we’re gunning for points, we’ll try for one on one combat with my support mixed into the fight. The ones that you need to be careful of are the other slayer and the second mysterious guy who I think I have a pretty good idea on who it is. For those two, it’s best that Lyrica and Chen Yu fight them since you two are focused on speed.” Shiro said with a smile. While there were earpieces provided by the organisers, Shiro would much rather use her own.
Nodding their head, the three couldn’t help but feel a little nostalgic since two months was a long time, especially if you’re spending most of that in a dungeon. With Shiro back on the team, they found things to be more ‘natural’ and fitting.
It wasn’t to say that Lyrica was a bad leader, it was just very hard to defeat Shiro in terms of versatility and ability to recover a situation regardless of how dire it seemed.
“Since I haven’t seen everything yet, feel free to reveal around 80% of your power as this is broadcasted to the city. I’ll find good fights for you to display most of your abilities depending on the situation so make sure you keep an ear out for my orders ok?”
Seeing the four of them nod, Shiro smiled.
“In that case then let’s bag ourselves some orange grade equipment.”
Walking towards the teleport circle, they were sent to the top most floor as a giant forest with a few clearings laid out before them.
Nodding their heads, everyone scattered out into the forest while Shiro readied her bow at the flag.
Activating the skill, Hawkeye, along with Analysis, Shiro scanned the forest for any enemies.
“Everyone, start making some distance between yourselves. However, make sure you’re not too far apart as we don’t know where they are. There is a good chance that they’re still bunched up so you want to be careful.” Shiro called out over the mic.
“Got it.”
Watching the party spread out across the forest, Shiro narrowed her eyes at distant castle and tried to see who their defender was.
Seeing that the defender was the same person who had talked to her earlier, Shiro decided to try to hit them from this far away. After all, they weren’t the slayer nor the other guy so she wasn’t too worried.
“I got sights on their defender. I’ll try to eliminate him now.” Shiro muttered into the mic while pulling back on her bowstring.
It was also a good chance for her to give Asteria’s Blessing skill a go.
“Piercing the galaxies, may Asteria’s fury reach my foe.” Shiro chanted the first thing that came into her mind.
Shimmering with a soft light, the bow started to draw in ambient mana. Coagulating into an arrow, Shiro created several layers of tier 4 magic circles to act as a barrel of sorts for the arrow.
*BANG!
Letting go of the string, the arrow was shot through the magic circles with each one increasing its speed exponentially.
Not only that, but due to the bow’s passive, a second version of the attack trailed behind the arrow while Illusionary stars wrapped them as it soon flickered out of sight.
Looking towards the other castle, she saw both arrows slam into the adventurer’s body.
Widening his eyes in disbelief, the adventurer felt a huge burst of force from the arrows as his body was slammed into the ground and a crater was formed near the castle.
“Enemy defender is eliminated; their flag is open for you to get.” Shiro smiled.
-Holy, when the hell did you become such a powerful archer?!- Lyrica’s confused voice rang out over the mic.
“Haha, let’s just say that I was entertaining myself a little during the two months that I’m not allowed to level up.” Shiro replied.
-S- Kazumi, are you sure you’re still a mage? I don’t think a mage is as diverse as you.- Chen Yu chuckled.
“Don’t mind me~ Just know that after this, I’ll be asking Silvi about what you’ve been up to during these two months. If you mistreat her in any way, trust that I’ll pay you back 100 times ok? Even your branch master can’t save your ass if you catch my ire.” Shiro grinned as Chen Yu gulped. Thankfully, he had treated Silvia as a princes- no a queen during these two months so it should be fine.
Surely Silvia wouldn’t report wrongly and watch him suffer right? Right?
-Oh don’t worry about that. The two of them have been a little too sweet during these two months and we’ve pretty much been force fed all of their love and affection. To be honest, I’m surprised that Yin could even eat like that after being force fed.- Lyrica laughed.
-Mn? I heard my name and food. Are you offering me food? When and where?- Yin’s curious voice rang out.
Rolling her eyes with a smile, Shiro admitted that she missed this little glutton of her’s in the last two months.
“After the event Yin. Depending on your performance, I’ll reward you with some food. Oh but you’re not allowed to blow up the forest, I can see you preparing that massive spark of dark star you know?” Shiro chuckled.
-Ehhhh, fine. I’ll control it a bit more then. But you have to promise me a banquet.- Yin complained.
“Sure. Oh would you look at that? Perfect timing. Yin, a hostile is around 700 meters away from you, kick their ass.”
-URAHH!!! FOR THE BANQUET!!!!- Yin shouted out as she dashed towards them with a hungry glimmer in her eyes.
‘The f*ck? What kind of war cry is that????’
