novelraw Chapter 251: Grand Illusion
Chapter 251: Grand Illusion
Hitachi stared at his team for some seconds, seeing their determined expressions, and nodded his head. The weight of leadership, a mantle usually borne by Mirabella, now rested squarely on his shoulders. He was realizing that true strength wasn’t just in the Celestial Eye; it was in utilizing the pieces on the board perfectly.
"Ok then... Leave Nirvana to me. Austin, you take care of Andrew... Kent, Honky is your opponent, and Rose; face their mage." He instructed, his voice ringing with absolute, tactical authority. He then turned his head to the physically weakest, but most strategically vital member of their vanguard, Carl:
"Carl, once I create the path, you run towards the finish line... Do you all understand?"
"Yes!"
The four nodded their heads, as their energies flared up in a blinding spectrum of elemental colors. The sheer density of their combined energies caused the surrounding obsidian trees to groan under the pressure.
"Are these guys really going to fight us?" Andrew asked in surprised, gesturing at the five. The Sword Academy students were notoriously arrogant, backed by the highest average levels in Galaxy Fall, and Andrew genuinely couldn’t fathom a lower-level team taking the offensive.
"You talk too much!!"
BOOOOM!!!
Austin shot forward, his boots shattering the bedrock beneath him. In mid-track, his body underwent a terrifying, primal transformation. His hair and eyes turned a blinding white, and faintly luminescent dragon scales manifested along his arms and neck as his Draconian bloodline activated, unlocking raw physical parameters that defied the world’s level constraints.
"Fuck Off!!!"
Andrew snapped, his arrogance replaced by combat instinct. He threw his fist forward, surrounding it with intense, searing flames that superheated the forest air.
BOOOOOOM!!!!
The two warriors smashed into one another, sending an apocalyptic shockwave of dust, smoke, and sheer force all over the place, forcing everyone backward.
"This?"
Everyone held their barriers and protection shields, staring through the chaotic debris at the center of the explosion. The whole cluster of ancient trees before them was burnt to ashes, instantly creating a massive, scorched open field at the center of the forest.
"Hehehehe... I thought only Mirabella and Hitachi are the strong ones in your academy, seems you’re also good." Andrew said with a smirk, his eyes filled with dancing flames, genuinely thrilled to find a worthy brawler.
The two warriors’ fists were still joined in a vicious deadlock, one filled with devastating fire, and the second filled with blinding white draconic light, the competing energies sparking like a localized thunderstorm.
BAM!!
The two separated, the recoil launching them backward. They landed gracefully, twenty meters apart from each other, carving deep trenches into the soil.
"Hahaha!! Let’s have a good fight! But first, I want to know your name!" Andrew said, lowering his stance. But before he could even blink, Austin used the momentum of his draconic aura and instantly appeared before him.
"Oh well, seems I will bring it out." He said, drawing on a deeper well of energy, and met him head-on.
BOOOOM!!!
The two collided, engaging in a furious series of high-speed attacks in seconds, their movements becoming blurs of fire and white light.
"These two are so strong!! But Austin is only Lv100, how is he holding his ground against a Lv200?!" Kent muttered in disbelief, struggling to track the rapid exchange of blows.
"They are both Mid-God level fighters, Austin used his bloodline to push his level above 100, but he won’t last long..." Rose said worriedly, already calculating the severe spirit energy drain of forced bloodline activation.
"Huh? Why?" Kent asked, confused.
"Because Andrew haven’t used his bloodline ability from the start. This guy is Andrew Sword! He is the heir of the sword family." Rose revealed to them, her words stunning Kent.
"Forget that... Let’s go!!"
"You aren’t going anywhere!" Nirvana said, her voice dropping the surrounding temperature to absolute zero, as her two glowing bangles shot out from her wrist with lethal velocity.
"Hey!! Those are weapons!!" Kent yelled in disbelief, remembering the strict rule prohibiting artifacts.
"Not quite... Those rings or bangles aren’t actually weapons, they are created with her spirit energy." Rose said, recognizing the terrifying pinnacle of magic: hyper-condensed constructs that rivaled metals in hardness. She stepped forward, channeling her own rich spirit energy into her fists.
"You are my opponent, Dear." Ophelia suddenly interrupted, weaving her hands. She sent a rapid-fire wave of invisible, razor-sharp air blades towards Rose, who expertly raised her arms, blocking everything with an earth-infused energy barrier that sparked upon impact.
"You are my opponent!!"
Feeling a massive, crushing physical presence moving towards him, Kent turned around, and instinctively crossed his heavy-plated arms in a desperate defense.
BAM!!!
Honky’s massive fist smashed into his arm with the force of a runaway siege engine, forcing him several steps backwards, his metal-reinforced boots sliding deeply into the dirt.
"You!! You are also a knight?" He asked in surprised, feeling the familiar, dense weight of a vitality-based bloodline.
Honky cracked his huge knuckles together, a smug, predatory smile on his face.
"Come on, Knight to Knight... Show me what you can do." He said, a dark aura of spirit energy swirling around his imposing frame.
’This?! He is level 200! I am only Lv90! I can’t defeat this guy.’ Kent thought with gritted teeth, the brutal reality of the bloodline and level disparity crashing down on him. A Knight’s strength scaled exponentially; a 110-level difference was an insurmountable mountain.
_
"Die!!!"
BOOOOM!!!
Everyone turned their heads to Nirvana, drawn by the massive spike in her energy. They watched as her spirit-energy bangles grew massively in size and shot towards Hitachi and Carl like twin guillotines, planning on brutally dividing them into halves to end the skirmish.
BOOM!!!!
"NOO!!"
".....?!!"
Everyone blinked in absolute disbelief, horror flashing across their faces as the devastating attack seamlessly cut off Carl and Hitachi into halves, their bodies bisected by the freezing constructs.
"Huh?"
Nirvana was stunned. Despite the brutal death, there wasn’t any blood spilled, nor a single scream of agony. She watched, paralyzed by confusion, as the two bifurcated bodies simply shattered into plumes of thick black smoke, the residue of a high-tier Celestial Eye illusion.
"Hey, Ugly Face!!!"
Carl yelled, his voice echoing not from the battlefield, but from miles away.
The taunt caused everyone to violently turn towards the location of the voice, only to see Carl and Hitachi standing safely behind the magical boundary of the finish line. A big, triumphant smile was plastered on Carl’s face, with the Dragon Academy’s majestic flag firmly plunged into the soil of the end-zone.
"This? How? How did you two get there?!!!" Nirvana yelled in disbelief, her stoic facade completely shattered. The Hitachi who had stood before her, the one coordinating the battle, had been a phantom decoy the entire time.
"They aren’t the only ones."
Everyone raised their heads to the sky as a sonic boom tore through the clouds. Eve shot down like a brilliant meteor, landing gracefully inside the zone, and plunged her team’s flag into the ground right beside them.
"This?!"
[Competition Announcement: All Teams Have Reached The Finish Line, All Current Battle should be halted.]
[You will all return to the Arena in thirty seconds.]
"This?"
All the Sword Academy’s team members were entirely flabbergasted, the systemic chimes mocking their wasted efforts. The intense battle, the carefully hoarded points, the elite blockade—everything had gone to waste. They had been outmaneuvered not by raw power, but by superior strategy. And worse, a chilling realization settled over Andrew, Honky, and Nirvana...
They knew that after this round, the anomaly—Mirabella—would join the game again, and with her back on the board, they wouldn’t even have the chance to get a single point.