Chapter 372 (2/2)

And then she leapt backwards, moving out of the area covered by the flame phoenix. Some members of the crowd began to boo in jeer, in good fun, but some others because they had been knocked out in a very dispassionate manner by Alana. Then they fell silent, because after scratching her chin briefly, Alana leaned back, raised her spear, and threw it like a javelin.

The projectile streaked across the arena, so fast that Donny almost had a heart attack. If Alana’s casual throw killed this talented girl… and suddenly a new headache was dominating Donny’s attention, as he struggled to come to terms with the balance they needed to strike between putting these warriors in danger, and raising them safely. Threats like this, that could legitimately take away your life in a second, seemed a bit…

Looking bored, Alana raised her hand and pointed twice. Meanwhile, Tina finally reacted, scrambling out of the way just in time, the spear barely missing her. She stumbled, and then straightened to look at Alana, but was struck in that moment by the two Mana Bolt’s that Alana threw, while she had been distracted. They were weak, like getting hit with a snowball, but they had hit her in the gut and chin, and had caught her completely by surprise.

Although Alana’s Mana Bolts weren’t strong, Donny knew that she had focused very long and hard on making them extremely pure, so they were practically invisible, if you weren’t paying attention.

As they landed, Alana leapt forward, but this time, Tina was more on top of her game, pointing at the ground.

“Smokescreen.”

Thick, black smoke billowed upwards, cutting off vision in every direction. In a 10 meter area. But contrary to expectations, Alana simply raised her shield and ran right into the smoke. Donny’s mouth crinkled up. So, Tina, what tricks do you have left…

The smoke screened area exploded, a huge gout of flame shooting upwards. But, spoiling the image, was the sight of Tina, scrambling backwards cursing loudly, covered in soot. Alana walked smoothly after her, relatively unscathed, her armor only slightly scuffed.

“You can make a clone that’s a bomb? Interesting. But if I hear your breath running away from your body… how could I fall for it?” Alana said coolly, raising her shield.

“Get fucked,” Tina said, flicking her fingers and creating 3 Fire Grenades. Immediately afterwards, she shot out a Flamethrower, which Alana deftly deflected with a spear. Rather than stepping backwards, Alana continued forwards, and the Flame Grenades bounced harmlessly past her before exploding.

Widening her eyes, Tina scrambled backwards, raising her hands again for another attack. But nothing happened. Of everyone, Tina seemed the most surprised. Rather than paying attention to Alana, she turned around and looked towards her group. Donny followed her gaze.

The Ghosthound stood among them, his hand on the shoulder of the pigtail guy. Narrowing his eyes, Donny allowed himself a small smile. So it had been cheating… Sam had been right. Can’t trust anyone these days…

But Tina’s strength was real, even if she used some sort of supplemental Skill from someone else. Probably some sort of Mana linking, which would explain why she had access to so many spells, constantly. But that was a strength that could be reproduced in battle, even if it wasn’t very useful in single combat. Not a situation where she should forfeit her rewards, but still…

Donny tapped his chin. He had a few ideas with what she could be used for.

*****

Now that he had caught them cheating, Randidly felt no qualms about digging deeply into both of the people, his Aether Detection prodding them, feeling their classes and Skills, examining the details. The fiery haired and hotter tempered girl was interesting, but she mostly seemed to have a strange ability called Mana Syphon, which was a Spell Vamp that stole Mana from the opposing party.

He wondered if Alana had noticed, and that’s why she began to use her spells against Tina. Either way, it would make Tina that much more effective in areas where she could inflict huge amounts of damage. The Mana returns would make her unstoppable…

Meanwhile, the pigtailed man, whose named was Peggy, which didn’t end up clearing up his/her gender identity at all, had a much more interesting Class: Mana Blessed Hermit. Upon consulting Daniel, it seemed the Hermit was a know Class, possessing superior Meditation-esque Skills, as well as some basic healing, earth magic, and monster interaction Skills. Either of these three Skills could be improved relatively quickly, and they all gave Paths at Skill Lvl 25, that then rewarded another Skill, effectively specializing the Hermit.

Mana Blessed had apparently given him another Path, that allowed him to give and take Mana with willing participants. So the whole group had fueled Tina’s run. It was fascinating, because the way Aether interacted with the Mana, to provide that effect, gave Randidly some ideas about how to use the runes they had, made with Mana, to intuit how Aether would do a similar thing.

Although he had wanted a break from studying Aether, improving the success rate of the final attempt was most important, so he had Peggy use the Skill dozens of time, examining the strange series of interactions.

Satisfied, around 3 PM, Randidly finally around the tired man to stop, collapsing exhausted on the ground. It was truly a good haul for the day. Looking at the sun, Randidly judged he still had time, and began walking over towards the next Assessment.