*BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BAM!
Sounds of combat rang out continuously as Lyrica ducked and dived through the attacks.
Rolling slightly, she slid on her feet and orientated herself.
*Dang!
She blocked a strike from someone else's sword.
[Han LVL 20 - Swordsman.]
Seeing that it was another level 20, Lyrica sighed slightly.
Shifting her sword, she redirected his blade to hit the guard of her sword.
Twisting the sword, she smashed Han's chin with the tip of her sword.
If the sword was a real sword, it would have been a fatal blow.
With that single attack, the armband registered the attack to be fatal and sent Han flying to the back of the current layer.
'So hitting any of the fatal area's counts as a 1 hit kill.' Lyrica thought.
She was about to continue her run when a sword light slashed towards her.
Reactive Guard.
Activating one of her skills, her arms moved to counter the skill easily.
Looking over at the person who sent the slash, Lyrica realised them to be a level 24 Sword Veteran.
Crouching low on the ground, she charged towards him.
Sword lights continuously shot towards her.
Sidestepping the few that she could, she struck down the lights she couldn't dodge.
Pivoting on her foot Lyrica narrowed her eyes and increased her momentum.
*BAM!
The two swords collided harshly.
Crouching down, Lyrica swept her leg outwards, tripping up the level 24.
Slashing at the nape of his neck, Lyrica was once again able to go for a 1 hit kill.
Quickly wiping her sweat, she looked around and saw the level 50's already occupying the top layer.
Frowning slightly, Lyrica understood that she wasn't able to earn a red ribbon with her current power. She was just a level 22 Elven Bladedancer. The levels were too far apart.
'Then I'll reach as far as I can!' She thought.
Putting power into her legs, Lyrica dashed forwards with her sword, ready to be drawn.
*PA PA!
Quickly slashing twice, she managed to 1 hit kill 2 adventurer's that weren't looking at her.
Using their body as a stepping stone, she jumped forwards.
Focusing her intent on the closest adventurer near her landing spot, she twisted her body and threw her sword.
*Bam!
The sword hit the adventurer's skull and 1 hit killed him.
Catching her sword when it bounced back, she twisted her body and kicked backwards. The kick landed on the guard of someone's blade forcing it upwards and away from her.
Continuing with her momentum, she dragged the sword upwards.
Frowning slightly at the fact that she didn't 1 hit kill him, she reached out and grabbed the person's head.
Pulling him towards her, she stabbed at his chest and eliminated him.
"Karg!" Lyrica cried out in pain as she felt a sword strike at her back.
Quickly rolling forwards, she lessened the impact on her back.
This allowed her to live barely as someone breathing on her could probably tip the damage taken over the limit.
The assailant was a level 30 Sword Veteran who had a silver glow on his weapon.
'Sword Enhancement. An aura skill which slightly increases the speed of each sword strike. On top of that, both the strength and Agility of the user would be increased as well.' Lyrica thought.
Flipping her sword in mid-air, she round-house kicked the pommel and sent it flying towards the Sword Veteran.
Quickly blocking the sword, he was surprised at the fact that Lyrica was already within close quarters combat range.
In on swift set of movements, Lyrica managed to disarm him and chop him on the neck. This caused him to stumble backwards giving Lyrica enough time to grab her sword again.
However, due to the fact that his status was much higher than her's, he was able to recover just in time to block her strike.
Pulling the sword towards him, he aimed to knee her in the stomach.
Lyrica jumped upwards and dodged his knee. Placing her hand on his knee as a support, she kicked him in the forehead. Taking this moment to land softly, Lyrica pivoted her body and slammed the level 30 into the ground. Quickly slashing him on the neck, she eliminated him.
Panting lightly, she dashed towards the layer for the top 500's.
There were a few footholds that protruded from the side of the walls to help participants get to the next level.
Narrowing her eyes, she saw people constantly getting on to the next level and people getting pushed off again.
Pausing for a moment to regain her stamina, she ran up to the footholds.
She was just about to jump when a sword slammed into the side of her torso.
Gritting her teeth from the pain, Lyrica glared at the person who had eliminated her.
[Julia LVL 35 - Dual Blade Warrior]
Her attacker had brown hair tied into a ponytail, an average face and a modest build. Seeing her uniform, Lyrica understood that she was a senior a year higher than her.
Making sure she remembered her face, Lyrica was going to make sure she had her revenge.
Landing at the bottom of the layer once more, Lyrica adjusted her grip on the blade. She wasn't going to mess around anymore and decided to use both berserk skills in her arsenal.
[Thousand Blade Aura + Willow Blade Aura]
Thousand Blade Aura was a skill that increases the attack and speed of the user. However, the Willow Blade Aura was more of a misdirection technique. It gave the feeling of blurriness and overlay into your movement to confuse the enemy.
Much like the leaves of a willow tree, your image constantly shifts around.
As the two auras activated, there seemed to be several images of Lyrica overlapping with each other.
Dashing forward, she left a slight trail of afterimages, confusing some of the participants.
Seeing 2 adventurers fight in front of her, Lyrica twirled the blade and held it in a reverse grip.
Judging the distance with her eyes, she jumped and twisted her body.
The sword struck the first guys neck before following through by slashing the other person in half. While they weren't harmed for real, their arms bands threw them back at the start.
Lyrica landed on her right foot before charging forwards again. She was too cautious last time and wasted a lot of precious opportunities. Right now, she was going to do exactly what her class was for.
Charging through like an unstoppable sword!
Leaving a trail of light and flying bodies behind her, Lyrica charged towards the next layer with ruthless efficiency.
While her movements may not be perfect just yet, it was more than enough to deal with people lower level than her. Not to mention, she was taking advantage of the time they were stunned to finish them quickly.
This naturally attracted not only the attention of the participants, but also the attention of the faction executives that came to recruit more people.
Her swordplay attracted the attention of the executives of the Sword Pavilion. They were a faction best known for their sword arts. Not to mention, their faction leader was looking for a disciple to pass on her Sword Arts as well.
"We need this girl. Her potential with the sword is one of the best I've seen in the arena so far. While some may have better power and control, she is a diamond in rough. If we can nurture her potential and talent, she'll easily surpass everyone here in the competition." A woman said as the other executives agreed.
"Not only is her body very flexible, but her judgement is also pretty top tier as well."
"But how will we get her to come of our faction? If we noticed her, it means some of 'bigger' factions also noticed her."
"Hmm, shall we be blunt with her and tell her that she has the potential to be the successor to our faction leader?"
"But tell me honestly. What do you think you'll do? Succeed a low tier faction or join a large faction as a recruit?" The woman asked rhetorically.
They all fell silent as it was true. They weren't able to compare to some of the big factions out there in terms of giving out benefits. However, it wasn't as if they didn't have any options. Just that the option was the last resort to try to attract one of the best talents in this event.
"Let's not make a decision just yet. Message the faction leader and ask her if we should try use it to recruit this youngster."
"Agreed." They nodded as this was the proper steps to take. The item itself was simply too important for them to make a decision on the stop. They would need confirmation from the leader first.
However, opposite to their thoughts, the big guilds were barely paying attention to Lyrica since they were focused on the top layer of each arena. They wanted to get the best of the best after all.
Nan Tian who was situated at the top of the skyscraper smiled seeing the performance of Lyrica.
He could tell that there were more to her. Her movements were awkward around the edges, clearly showing the signs of someone who was using a different weapon to normal.
"Huan er, bring up the information on the Student, Lyrica Valenstaine." Nan Tian said as Huan er nodded.
She hacked into the school systems and found her information easily.
Yet, when she saw the information, she had to look back at Lyrica to double-check what the information she had was right.
In the information from the school, it clearly detailed about how Lyrica failed in every class she was in. Not only was she low levelled and bad at combat, but her personality was always meek.
Yet right now she was the complete opposite.
Her level shot up within the last few weeks and even classed up to D rank. Her combat standards were clearly above her peers as she could even defeat those of a higher level than her. Not only that, but she was about as energetic as she could be.
Seeing Huan er being doubtful of the information she obtained, Nan Tian became curious as to what she read.
"Is there a problem with her information?" He asked.
"I won't necessarily say it's wrong... But rather it's unbelievable." Huan er said as she passed him the tablet.
"It's unbelievable for someone like her to change so much on such short notice. Not only was her combat style improved by miles, but her personality did a complete 180. Comparing the both of them would make anyone guess that it's 2 completely different people with the same name."
"Hmm... Indeed. It is as you say." Nan Tian nodded since the change was a little drastic, even for someone like him.
'Her weapon of preference is a custom-made weapon that looks like two swords have been connected by the handle. Not only that, this change only happened after she met little snow. Heh, seems like little snow is nurturing up someone to be her companion.' Nan Tian thought as there were several clues hidden in the records. They all point to Shiro helping Lyrica with both her combat experience and status level.
'If I get Lyrica into the Sword God Branch, perhaps I can get little snow to join the sect as well. This will also give me the chance to explain the sect to little snow. Since she doesn't like having her freedom restrained, the sect should be perfect for her.' Nan Tian thought with a happy smile.
The sect he belonged to isn't well known to the common people. However, the high levelled factions have all heard of the sect. They were amongst some of the best factions in the world and the rules were a little less restricting. They're allowed to join another faction as long as they respond to the sect's call for help in times of need.
Naturally, there were a few rules in place to stop the spreading of the sect. It was a privilege to the talented and not every Tom Dick and Harry could join the sect after all.
'If she knew about this, it would be hard for little snow to find a proper reason to reject joining the sect. It didn't restrict her freedom and neither did it place a constant watch over her.' Nan Tian thought.
"Huan er, after this event, send the clips of Lyrica to the Sword God's Branch. I want to see if she can gain their approval and receive the invitation to join the sect."
"Ok." Huan er replied simply as she knew Nan Tian never joked around with anything to do with the sect. If he wanted Lyrica to join, that means he sees something in her that will benefit the sect.
Noting down what Nan Tian wanted to do, they refocused their attention back onto the event. Most of the placements were already decided except for a few that still had the potential to attack the next layer.
In the time they had talked, Lyrica was already closing in onto the next layer, top 500.
Lyrica charged forward with her mind scanning everyone she needed to eliminate.
On her path up, 5 people were climbing to the next layer.
Planning out her way of attack, she twirled the sword and threw it to the first enemy.
The sword smashed against his head. An instant kill.
Jumping up, she grabbed the sword while making sure her foothold was in place. She stepped hard on his body and jumped towards the second victim.
Kneeing him in the ribs, she twisted her body before slashing him at the back of the nape.
'2 down.' She thought.
Tilting her head up, she narrowed her eyes on the third victim.
Compressive Power.
Lyrica used one of the skills that came with her equipment. This skill allowed her to gather the force of her body in one short burst. The backlash will cause her to freeze up for a moment but she had already planned the next steps.
*BOOM!
She jumped towards the 3rd victim with incredible momentum.
*BAM!
Her sword struck the woman's head and eliminated her easily. Her body froze up as she expected but her flight path was already determined.
Scraping the sword against the wall, she jammed it in one of the cavities and supported herself from falling. The short 2 seconds where her body was frozen felt long as she narrowed her eyes at the next 2 victims.
It seemed like they knew each other since they were protecting each other's backs.
[Sam LVL 25 – Swordsman]
[Steve LVL 26 – Swordsman]
Swinging her body onto the sword, Lyrica crouched down and jumped towards the two.
*BAM!
Sam managed to block her strike while Steve took notice and attacked her.
Twisting her body, she avoided the strike. She followed her momentum whilst kicking Steve's chin.
The caused him to recoil backwards from the force. Grabbing Steve's collar, Lyrica swung him towards Sam and slashed at them both.
Due to the fact that Steve blocked his view, Sam wasn't able to react to her strike.
Eliminating the duo, Lyrica didn't have anyone else blocking her path to the top 500's.
Crouching down, she dashed from one foothold to another.
She left a trail of afterimages since her willow blade aura was still active.
Landing softly on the second layer, she quickly bent backwards as she dodged a sword strike.
'Attacked the moment I reach this layer. Seems like this layer's fight is more desperate than the one below.' Lyrica thought.
Flipping backwards, Lyrica charged at the assailant in a zip zag manoeuvre.
*BAM!
The sword clashed with each as they came face to face.
Lyrica didn't hesitate to headbutt her enemy. The force caused both of them to recoil with pain while she threw her sword at the same moment.
Striking him in the chest, Lyrica eliminated him and sent his body flying back to the start.
"Ssss!" She breathed in sharply from the throbbing pain. Holding her head, she regretted acting impulsively.
A heavyweight seemed to have been placed on her body since both her berserk type skills wore off.
Frowning slightly, she looked around for a place she could rest for a second.
Naturally, there were none but she was looking for an area with fewer fighters.
Dashing towards the area with only 3 people fighting, Lyrica could already feel her speed drop dramatically.
While it wasn't to the point where she'll not be able to fight, it would definitely be a hard fight.
Trying to make sure her presence was as small as possible, she manoeuvred around the trio. This was to make it seem like she was fighting with them while in reality, she was resting.
However, the reality was often disappointing since they found out straight away.
One of the fighters branched off and started to attack her.
"Ku!" Blocking his heavy downwards strike with a lot of difficulty, Lyrica kneeled heavily on her right knee.
[Scott LVL 30 – Axe Warrior]
Gripping her sword with both hands, Lyrica struggled with the power behind his axe.
Glancing to the side, she released one of her hands and allowed the axe to overpower her.
Shifting her body to the right, the axe slid off to the left due to the lack of weight in her sword.
*BAM!
Having successfully redirected his slash, Lyrica attacked his torso.
*DANG!
The sword collided with the axe since Scott's stats allowed him to recover before her attack succeeded.
Quickly jumping backwards, Lyrica created some distance between her and Scott.
'The level is too far apart.' Lyrica thought with a frown. Even when her Bladedancer class gave her a huge boost compared to the normal classes, it was still hard to bridge the status gap.
When a person levels up from 1 to 20, they would get 5 points per level up to use.
The average status page for a level 20 all-rounder would be:
STR: 30
VIT: 30
INT: 20
AGI: 30
DEX: 30
DEF: 20
And then a +20 depending on what class they chose. A mage would have a +20 in INT, a warrior +10 in STR and +10 in VIT etc…
This, however, was a one-time boost.
After level 20, the average class gave 150 – 175 points for you to distribute and then automatic points depending on your second class.
Her Bladedancer class gave her an astounding 225 points per level not including the automatic status.
In addition to this, she already knew the Bladedancer class gave her incredible STR and AGI since just these two stats could be compared to people 2 levels higher than her.
Combined with her hidden proficiency, this made for a fearsome combo.
Even if the sword wasn't exactly her hidden proficiency, she was able to get into a similar rhythm.
Yet all this combined was a far cry from what a level 30 could output.
'If I threw my sword like before, there is a high chance I'll lose it. I can't fight him head-on either since he is a power-based attacker. Lyrica thought with a frown.
This left her with only the options of suppressing him with speed, which was impossible, and eliminating him in one go. A single attack to breach his defences.
However, that seemed rather impossible as well since she was recovering from her backlash.
She still had 3 more minutes to go before it wore off and 8 more minutes till she could reuse the skills.
And surviving 8 minutes against a level 30 wasn't easy.
Brandishing her sword, Lyrica panted slightly as she shifted her body to a more defensive posture.
Scott charged towards her with his axe dragging across the ground. Stepping back half a step, Lyrica stabbed her sword towards the axe so that it would glide along the blade and over her body.
*DANG!
Her plan worked slightly since the axe did indeed miss her body. But, this resulted in her feeling a lot of the resultant shock through her body.
With her muscles contracted from the pain, it was hard for her to reposition herself to fend against the following attack.
Seeing the axe chop towards her, Lyrica gritted her teeth and threw her body away from the impact zone.
*BAM!
Rolling on the ground heavily, Lyrica was glad at the fact that she was able to avoid the axe narrowly.
Scott didn't mind and jumped towards her.
He used the Axe Warrior's skill, Ground Impact. This skill would use all the force gathered from his jump and attack with an area of effect skill.
Lyrica started to sweat when she saw his aoe charge up.
Looking around quickly, she cursed at the fact that there was no cover for her.
Narrowing her eyes, Lyrica had no choice but to fight fire with fire.
Her sword shimmered with a pale pink light.
Sword Dance of the Lotus.
Sword dance of the lotus was a skill that allowed her to attack several times like the opening of a lotus flower.
She planned to try to disperse as much of the force as she can before the aoe hit so she could survive.
Using her left hand to aim, Lyrica narrowed her eyes and aimed for the perfect moment. The small interval where he is barely within her reach. The gap where she could make the most of her skill to disperse his momentum.
'Now!'
A neon pink trail of light drifted from the tip of her sword as several lights followed. The streaks of light formed the outline of a lotus and collided with the axe warrior.
*BOOOMMMM!!!!!!
A huge cloud of dust rose up from the impact, attracting the attention of the surrounding participants for a slight second. However, they looked away immediately after since it wasn't rare for clouds of dust to form in the midst of battle right now.
Lyrica's body was sent flying out of the dust. Sliding on her hands and feet, Lyrica glared at the silhouette of the axe warrior.
While she managed to survive the contact, she was left barely surviving once more.
Checking her armband's HP, she was pleasantly surprised at the fact that it was slowly regenerating.
'So this was put in place to stop people from being eliminated as easily the higher up they are.' She thought.
However, this also meant Scott's HP was regenerating by the second.
Realising she had to act fast, Lyrica decided to risk it and dashed towards him.
Dragging the sword on the ground, she flicked up a rock before hitting it towards him.
Since the dust was still present, she was able to catch him off guard.
With him being preoccupied for a moment with the rock, Lyrica dashed around him and cut towards his head.
Sensing danger, Scott quickly ducked. Narrowly avoiding the strike.
Flowing through her movements, Lyrica grabbed the back of his collar and slashed the sword across his neck.
"You!" Scott cried out as he wanted to take her down with him.
Unfortunately, or rather fortunately for Lyrica, the force of the armband was too much and he was sent back to the start.
"Fuu…." Breathing out in relief, Lyrica took a moment to relax her body for a moment.
Looking up towards the next layer, she decided against it.
'If I'm struggling with the top 500, I won't survive the top 100. They're filled with level 40's to 50's.' Lyrica thought.
'I should use this moment to hone my combat prowess with people similar level or slightly higher than me.' She concluded.
After rotating between fighting and resting, Lyrica managed to secure her spot within the top 500.
"And STOP!!!! CEASE YOUR FIGHTING!!! The first quarter of the warrior's division has finished! May the current participants leave the arena. The staff will clean up before the second quarter can enter."
Walking away from the arena, Lyrica managed to find Madison before they returned to Shiro.
"Madison!" Lyrica called out.
"Lyrica. How did you do in your arena?" She asked.
"Er I only got top 500." Lyrica replied feeling a little embarrassed for saying she'll get top 10.
"See? I told you top 10 wasn't as easy as you thought." Madison shook her head.
"Hahaha, yeah you did. Oh yeah, how did you do in your arena?" Lyrica asked.
"Urg! I only got top 1000." Madison replied. Her arsenal mostly focused on defence meaning her attack was trash.
She was able to hold her own in defence but could barely progress.
"No worries no worries. This event was more focused on the attacking aspect after all." Lyrica said as Madison nodded.
"That being said, I'm rather surprised you got top 500. Most of them are filled with level 30's after all. How did you even hold your own there?!"
"I got lucky." Lyrica laughed.
It didn't take too long for them to return to the area for the school.
She saw Shiro sitting on her chair, relaxed as always, with the guys trying to please her.
Naturally, this was limited only to giving her items and no touching allowed.
Lyrica smiled wearily seeing a few ice statues placed aside and knew what probably happened.
[Welcome back. How was it?] Shiro asked with a smile.
"I got top 500 and Madison got top 1000." Lyrica reported.
[No I don't mean rank. I mean in terms of combat experience. Since you two are still on the lower spectrum of the levels in this event, I want you to experience fighting more than ranks.] Shiro typed, shaking her head.
She expected their ranks to as such since they are basically the two sides of extremes almost. Lyrica with attack only and Madison with defence only.
With this, they won't be able to get high ranks. However, the more important aspect would be to gain the experience that comes with fighting opponents. She could experience fighting in 1 on 1 battles or 5 on 1 battles.
The options were there, they just had to take it.
"I guess I kinda did." Lyrica said since that was the truth. She had to fight tooth and nail to keep her spot in the top 500.
"Same. I was mostly focused on honing my defence." Madison admitted. Since she wanted to her a defence orientated adventurer, she focused on fighting multiple people at a time.
[Then that's all that counts. If anything, I'll knock them out for you tomorrow when it's my turn.] Shiro typed with a grin.
Lyrica shivered seeing the grin. It was one she hadn't seen in a while and one that would make her pray for the safety of her enemies tomorrow.
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