SCT-Novel Chapter 125: Preparations [4]
Chapter 125: Preparations [4]
As soon as Edwin moved into Aria’s shadow, she immediately used a water barrier.
Edwin’s dagger paused in the water. Not only that, but the water started to freeze.
Edwin pulled his hand back and took distance from Aria and Brania.
Behind them, Cael thought that Aria’s reaction speed was good, but she was lacking immediate response.
There was still a month for the Grand Summit Trials to start, so Cael decided to identify what they were lacking and train them.
As for the selections, he let out a small chuckle. He could easily carry the team.
The only real challenge was Trial 3, which was finding the imposter.
The afternoon sun streamed through the high windows, casting long golden rectangles across the stone floor.
Dust motes swirled in the light, stirred by the movement of bodies and the flow of mana. The warmth did not reach the fighters, only the silence between clashes.
On the other side, Aria released arrows at Edwin, but he was fast and elusive.
Each arrow left a trail of frost in the air, thin lines of ice that hung for a moment before shattering.
The temperature around Aria dropped noticeably. Her breath came in white puffs. She was pushing herself.
Even with Brania’s higher sub-rank, Edwin was holding his ground.
Cael noticed Brania’s weakness, which was surprisingly her lack of.... combat sense.
He was genuinely surprised. As far as he knew, Brania was smart and a thinker.
But during battle, she was not making any plans at all.
Maybe she thought plans were useless when fighting someone weaker. Whatever the reason, it was bad, really bad.
Although Edwin was fighting against them, he too lacked the ability to deliver decisive blows.
Earth mastery, water mastery, and ice mastery clashed with shadow mastery.
Gauntlet, bow, and arrows against dagger and threads.
As the battle heated up, Edwin used his skill and merged with his own shadow, gaining three times his physical stats.
His outline blurred. His movements became afterimages.
Where he stepped, darkness lingered. The shadows in the corners of the room seemed to lean toward him.
But in the end, it was one against two, and Edwin was on the losing end.
Seeing that Edwin was about to lose, Cael said,
"Are you ready?"
Brania and Aria immediately became focused, thinking Cael was about to buff Edwin.
Edwin smiled, hoping Cael’s buff would be strong.
Cael scratched his long silver hair and said,
"Alright, here we go... wait, I don’t have a buff though."
Hearing that, Edwin wanted to lash out. Brania and Aria were also dumbfounded.
Clearly, they were not expecting Cael to say that. But he finished his words before they could comment.
"So, here is a debuff for Brania and Aria."
"Battle Reaper’s Dominion."
As soon as he said those words, Brania and Aria froze in their spots.
Their ranks dropped from [Silver 2] and [Silver 1] to [Bronze 2] and [Bronze 1], respectively.
"W-what?"
Aria’s voice was thin as she felt it immediately, the sudden hollow where her mana used to be.
It was like reaching for a weapon and finding nothing. Her arrows still flew, but they had lost their bite.
Brania looked at her hands.
"What is going on?"
Edwin just stood there, staring.
Cael’s voice reached him.
"Are you not going to finish the spar?"
Only then did Edwin snap out of his thoughts.
Brania and Aria understood that this was the debuff Cael was talking about.
But only Cael knew that he did not use every function of Battle Reaper’s Dominion.
Right now, he was only using rank suppression. He could also use the fear function, but there was no need.
Brania used her skill, Gravity Zone, but it was useless against Edwin.
The skill’s effect was far weaker than before. Using shadow steps and threads, Edwin finally won.
"I win."
Cael turned off Battle Reaper’s Dominion. Brania and Aria’s ranks returned to normal.
Sweat dripped from Edwin’s forehead. Aria was breathing hard, her bow arm trembling slightly.
Even Brania, usually stoic, had a thin sheen of sweat on her brows. The spar had lasted longer than any of them expected.
Edwin grinned and said,
"Dude, that skill is so cool."
Cael smiled and nodded.
Brania also nodded and said,
"It’s not just cool, it’s amazing. Useful for crowd control, as well as for fighting rankers above you."
Cael nodded. As expected, Brania was smart.
So, what was the problem during the spar?
After that, they talked. Cael began,
"During the battle, I observed a few things."
He told them what they were lacking and what they needed to do. The other members of Team Gray listened carefully.
They all knew that Cael had good combat sense.
Even in a three-against-one spar, he could win without using any skills. Heck, he had only used wind during the spar.
Time passed. It was night.
...
The moon hung low over the Golden Scale Academy, its pale light filtering through the window of the guest dorm.
Inside the guest dorm, Cael freshened up and walked out of the room.
After putting on comfortable night clothes, he took out his mobile and saw new unread messages. Curious, he checked them.
---
Team Gray from Everbright Academy.
Your team selection test will be conducted on December 5th at 10:00 AM.
After careful discussion among the Council and the host academies, it was decided that only the top ten teams from each city would advance to the Grand Summit Trials. Best of Luck.
—Golden Scale Academy Staff
---
Today was December 3rd.
Since over ten thousand participants needed to complete the selections, and all trials were held in the virtual world, the schedule was spread across twelve days.
Different teams were assigned different dates. Team Gray was fortunate; they did not have to wait long for their turn.
But the news that only the top ten teams will be selected was unexpected.
Seraphina had said that the top twenty-five teams would move on. Clearly, there had been changes.
Now, only forty participants from each city would be selected.
The original estimate of 7000 candidates for the main event had just been cut down to 2800 candidates. That’s more than half.
But Cael wasn’t worried as he muttered,
"So, my team’s selection test is on the day after tomorrow."
________
[Author Note: Tomorrow, there will be a 10-Chapter mass release.]