Descending Into A Novel

Chapter 131:Ellen’s Arts

"Raymond Vance. I’d like to challenge you for the rank of second place."

He stated at Zachary, eyes full of determination as he loudly declared his challenge to him.

Whispers filled the room, making Raymond let out an internal sigh. He had just woken up a few minutes ago, and the one day he decided to come to class. Zachary immediately chose to declare his challenge.

"Okay. I forfeit."

"..?"

His look of determination changed into a look of confusion.

"Sorry?"

"I forfeit. You win. You’re second place now. Congrats."

Ellen poked his side underneath the table, making him arch his body slightly.

"No. Why are you forfeiting?!"

"I hate fighting. What’s the point of accepting your challenge? If I win, you just challenge me again. There’s no benefit."

Ellen poked his side under the table again. Making him glare at her, before returning back to Zachary.

"I’ll give you points!"

"You think you have more points then me?"

"I’ll give you a new staff?"

"You think you can give me a better staff then the Grace Family?"

"I can give you some valuable resources?"

"You think you can give me better then the mage association?"

Zachary had nothing to offer him, even with his system goodies. There was nothing he could currently afford that could make it worth it for Raymond.

He yawned, before blocking Ellen’s hand which was about to poke him in the side again.

"But...please just accept! Let’s fight at least once! I want to fight you!"

His face crinkled.

"No."

***

Ellen sighed, tightening her boots as she thought back to Raymond.

She didn’t consider herself someone who sighed, as in. She wasn’t usually so exasperated by another’s actions to physically sigh out loud.

But ever since Raymond had barged into her life. She had now developed this habit of sighing.

Raymond did something annoying? Sigh.

Raymond did something stupid? Sigh.

Raymond was begging for ice cream? Sigh.

She unslung her Kairos Bow, closing her eyes as she did a small warm-up.

A few jumps to get the blood pumping, stretches to get the muscles prepped for the intense activity they would soon face, and most importantly. Warming up her mana.

She channeled her mana throughout her body, letting it flow through every vein and artery and saturate her body. The enhancement effect of time-attunement was seriously lacking compared to willpower-attunement, so she wasn’t as strong or as fast. But she could manage.

Her multicolored eyes glimmered briefly, dozens of blue lines appearing in her vision—each leading to a separate object in the room she was in.

With everything checked and still functioning, Ellen was ready.

She took a deep breath, steeling her nerves before walking out of the changing room and into the arena.

The academy arena used for challenges had a pretty large seating arrangement, allowing for several thousands to watch. Regular challenges usually never received much attention, even if it was between the special classes.

The most the arena ever filled with spectators was during the few times the academy opened its doors for outsiders to come in, competitions, events, celebrations and more. Then the seats would turn into a sea of people with cheering so loud, Ellen could hear it without enhancing her body despite being hundreds of meters away.

But now, the arena was nearly the same. Seats filled with students from every year. Even the fourth and fifth years who were usually busy on missions were here. Ellen herself recognized a few of the seniors herself. People who would fight alongside her, people who would die fighting alongside her.

She made eye contact with a certain Shadow who was sitting in the front row, who winked at her. Reading his lips, the corners of her mouth curled up slightly.

In front of her, standing on the other side of the arena. Zachary’s black hair was clearly visible in her eyes. His sword was missing, but a faint golden sheen enveloped him in a dome.

The academy announcer loudly counted down, his voice heard by everyone clearly.

3

2

1

FIGHT!

Zachary immediately started dashing towards her, moving in random patterns to avoid being an easy target for her. A simple strategy to could her archers.

But for someone like Ellen, it was mere child’s play.

She didn’t move, calmly drawing an arrow on her Kairos Bow. Her muscles straining as she struggled to pull back the drawstring for this bow.

Her amber mana flooded the bow and arrow, forming a mystical aura on her weapon as she quietly aimed at Zachary. Ellen’s World Crossing Bow Arts signature golden light became a darker shade.

Her World Crossing Bow Arts consisted of several different stages, each their own mini Art within the larger Art that was the World Crossing Bow Arts. In terms of Bow Arts, it was easily the number one—surpassing even Killian.

Steadying her feet and posture. She let out a deep breath, the moment her body went still.

Whoosh!

Her arrow left behind a small trail in the air, as if drawing a line.

Zachary tried to dodge to no avail, the arrow striking him precisely. If his dome shield weren’t in the way, it would have hit his heart and he would have been eliminated already.

Still, his dome shield was already starting to crack from just the one arrow. It would heal on its own but not fast enough for it to protect him from more arrows.

Seeing Zachary still moving, Ellen inhaled deeply. Notching another arrow onto her Kairos boat and repeating the same process.

This time, she charged her arrow for slightly longer.

’Lake Crossing!’

Whoooosh!

The resulting sound was much more intense then the last, the trail that had only begun to dissipate from her earlier arrow replaced by a larger and more powerful beam.

The arrow slammed into Zachary’s dome shield again, his efforts futile in trying to dodge it.

With a loud crack, the dome immediately collapsed in on itself. The arrow easily breaking through the shield and piercing him in the arm.

She had been aiming for his heart again, but breaking the shield had a expended too much of the shields energy. Causing its path to go off track.

Zachary let out a pained grunt, breathing through his teeth as he yanked the arrow out.

There was still a few more seconds before he could reach Ellen, then she would be at his mercy. A golden sheen covered his body as he ran towards her.

At this point Ellen swiftly started moving, she was already pressed against the wall of the arena. So she had to make space where she could.

She fired of a small barrage of her arrows, not using her innate power due to the strain it caused.

Zachary immediately cut through the arrows in a sine slash, all of them failing to hit him. But they served their purpose of stalling him. The golden sheen around his body flickering, before returning back to normal.

The sight of it made Ellen irritated, only slightly.

Despite actually being slightly faster then Zachary currently, in a square arena. Zachary naturally held the advantage when it came to chasing her down. So the moment she was about to enter his range was inevitable.

She fired off another small barrage of arrows, each abruptly multiplying in the air to form an inescapable grid of arrows.

Her eyes flashed, rather then the usual sigh of her innate power activating however. She was using something else instead.

A brand new Art, created entirely by her.

Creating Arts was a piece of cake for someone like her, she had decades of experience and knowledge from her past timeline.

The problem was creating an Art that was actually good or useful.

She could create a dozen Arts that all slightly increased different aspects of bowmanship at different levels. But what was the point?

Especially with her new time-attunement, she lacked the understanding necessary to currently create an Art that was actually powerful enough to be used in combat. So she settled for creating an Art that was useful in combat instead.

Her pupils turned an amber colour, wisps of mana flowing from her eyes as if it was on fire.

Raymond had a spell called False Future Sight, that let him predict the most probable outcome for events. But his had a flaw.

It only did it once.

It was meant to be used as utility outside of combat. While Raymond did have another spell that had a similar effect for combat. Ellen wanted something else.

To the outside, everyone seemed as normal but in Ellen’s view strange three dimensional images appeared of Zachary. Every second, the real Zachary would appear and replace one of the images.

Yes, it was predicting Zachary’s exact movements and showing it to Ellen in real time. Without any delay whatsoever, Ellen was able to see and guard against Zachary’s moves before Zachary himself even knew what he was doing.

This was Ellen’s version of False Future Sight!

False Future Projection Art!