章 81: Top 5

The arena fell into a hushed anticipation as #307 and #69 took their positions on the stage, their gazes locked in determination.

Lassim observed the competitors closely.

#307 was a young man with a confident stance. He brandished his elemental weapon—a rapier—with practiced ease as he stabbed out a few warm-up thrusts; checking his form. His hair was a short and neat blonde and he had a straight jawline that looked like it could cut a piece of paper. He looked like a typical heartthrob from any young girl's fairytale story. His confidence radiated outwards as he flicked his hair back and gave a smile to the crowd.

As he summoned a spherical wind being with a unique halo of leaves floating around it. Lassim noted the unique elemental manifestation, as it was clearly a wind elemental of some kind, as it moved to float directly over #307's shoulder.

クリエイターの想い
JPNovelFan

One thing I hope I'm properly conveying with these fights, is that these are still brand new cultivators basically. They are all under 20 years old or so, and are pretty much just children that were given super powers. They've spent ages 8 to 14, and a little after that, just getting used to having this power. They've pretty much only focused on their strengths in battles with their training. They've also never really been challenged in their sects or academies by others super strongly. Remember these are the Top 10, so they have some level of overwhelming strength or a decent strategy.

However, this leaves them open to their weaknesses against other above average competecy fighters. You'll see them all make simple battle tactic mistakes or just generally not know how to respond properly to other's battle strategies with anything other than the only battle arts they practice. Or, just get completely overwhelmed by unexpected power-ups and trump cards of others.

I want you as the reader to just see, while they are powerful, they still have lots of growing to do in the Spirit Growth stage of their cultivation journey. Plus, they're mainly training to defeat the Dragal, and not really other humans. They make dumb battle sense errors and that's normal at this level.

Lassim will too, which he mentioned wanting to get better battle sense in an earlier chapter, but I just hope that explains why the fights may seem short or they end somewhat anti-climactic. At the higher levels they'll obviously have more battle experience and wider skillsets in duel settings.

Anyways, back to the one chapter a day for the rest of the month. I need to prepare bonus chapters for May 1st and another 5 bonus chapters on May 12th for Webnovel's anniversary. I've signed up to do a mass release that day so I hope you all can support me and enjoy it!