Though Rio doubted the damage would severely injure him, he made sure to target directly at his chin which made the huge impact rattle his brain, forcing him to fall forward in a frozen state whilst being disorientated, Rio didn't want to go all out against this oaf as it might draw unnecessary attention.
Attention is for the strong, as soon as Rio reaches a respectable level of strength, he can then do whatever he wanted to do and nobody would be able to oppose me.
As the referee could clearly see the big oaf's state, he concluded our match giving me the win and disqualifying the oaf from the competition.
About ten minutes went by before everybody finished their matches and a hundred winners gathered in the main center ring, luckily it looked like Daniel and Lara both got through, however, Lara looked like she had a rough time getting by, but Daniel looked like it was he just finished a walk in the park.
Once everybody who was injured drank a seemingly expensive recovery potion, which put them into a near-perfect state. They repeated the token out-the-box method once again. Luckily, Rio didn't get matched up with his meat shield or Daniel, they could be useful in the secret realm, Instead, Rio got some fat slobby-looking guy who wasn't more than 5'8, however, his stats showed that books can't be judged by their cover.
[Ding!]
Name: Oakley Simmons
Class: 2nd Rank Mage
Strength: 54.6
Agility: 20.4
Endurance: 58.9
Mana: 170.0
'He even has more mana than me, but his agility is slow, I can use that against him, but it might be difficult to break through his defenses' As Rio was thinking of a way to quickly get this over with, Rio could tell that he probably has an amazing defensive art that he could use and the withering blade could be beneficial in this situation where Oakley couldn't touch Rio can only defend.
"Start!" The referee announced and as expected Oakley didn't move, instead he stood his ground in a defensive position.
'When attacking him, it would be good to be cautious to watch out for any counter-attacks' Rio thought before using the newly learned octane movement art and disappearing from his sights before reappearing and slicing him with a 'withering blade'.
However, it seems Oakley felt the danger and moved slightly making his skill slightly graze his body, however, that was enough, and as Oakley was ready to counter-attack, Rio used the octane movement art and shadow shift simultaneously, making me disappear out of Oakley's sight.
As the thick-necked Oakley looked around and couldn't seem to see Rio, he activated his defensive spell which formed a golden bell encasing him within.
However, Rio no longer needed to do anything, as the withering blade already done its job, suddenly Rio could feel an enormous pressure pressing down on him, Rio panicked but slightly relaxed when he noticed it wasn't from Oakley but from the Academy leader before it suddenly disappeared as if it never came.
It seems he didn't even mean to do it and it was just the pressure given when he looked at someone, 'such frightening power, one day I will obtain it' Rio thought
However, at this moment, Rio couldn't get distracted when an enemy is right in front of him. 'Even though he's slow, I shouldn't underestimate someone.'
As Rio thought, he felt sudden danger coming out from Oakley's direction, before the Golden bell that was encapsulating his grew five the size and charged at Rio, if he hadn't received a warning first, Rio may have been meat paste, not due to how fast it was but how big it was covering a large surface area of the ring.
It seems Oakley found out what is going on and is panicking, using his bell to attack continuously whilst using potions to help his situation, however realizing it wasn't working, a worried expression plastered on his face, his face slowly turned pale and his attacks slowly got slower before stopping and him dropping to the floor from exhaustion
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Academy Leader Section
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"This kid seems interesting" an elder sitting far from where the elder was
"Indeed, and that spell move, I haven't seen it before," another elder that was sitting next to the previous elder said
"It seems to gradually sap away a person's strength away from them," an elder who was sitting closer to the Academy leader said
It seems the rank of the elders is determined by the seating position, however, all sat below the academy leader.
"mmhm, it's called the Withering blade, it's a peak rank human Level skill, did the academy have a skill like this in the library?." the Academy leader let out a deep sigh whilst stroking his beard as if thinking of wonderous and mystical things only one could imagine
The elders listened and sent their respective people to investigate this boy's background which seemed to have intrigued the academy leader's interest.
Back at the ring where Rio walked off the ring, successfully qualifying into one of the spots to enter the secret realm, Rio saw ten people already done with their matches which also included Daniel, however, Lara seemed to still be in her match, with both her and her opponent being in bad condition.
Once ten minutes passed and all the participant finished their matches with either exhausted and joyful faces or exhausted and dejected expressions, the final fifty people were decided. Lara was one of the joyful-faced ones, luckily
In normal Competition, it would seem they would be rankings from like first place, second place, etc. However, since this was more of taking a spot, there was no ranking this time.
The Academy Leader gave the final speech, luckily it was short and everybody clapped before dispersing, whilst the fifty people who got placements followed an elder into a hall, it wasn't too big or dazzling, just an ordinary type of hall.
"Alright, since you fifty got the placements to go into the secret realm, we will give you a week to get prepared, whilst in the secret realm, help from the academy cannot be provided, so you will need to rely on yourself and each other. The secret realm will automatically close after 6 months.
However, one week will only pass here whilst you are inside, so although it might seem long in the secret realm, the time spent in the real world is far shorter, on the day you go in you will be given a jade token, which can be transmitted to each other, so finding each other should be relatively easy if activated."
The Elder continued speaking about what may happen inside the secret realm, including monsters that may appear, rare races probably none of them have seen and etc.
After he finished saying his piece, we all dispersed and left. Daniel was with Rio, however, Rio told Lara not to talk to him publicly, so she went off on her own.
"You actually managed to get into the placement, and how did you raise your cultivation so high in such a short period of time." the red-headed youth named Daniel said
"I worked hard" Rio gave a short reply
"As cold as ever, anyway, let's help each other in there, we got each other's back, don't we?" he asked
Rio simply nodded
"Good, since that is the case I will let you be, I need to get prepared for the secret realm," he said excitedly and left in a hurry.
'Finally, peace and quiet' Rio thought for some reason, talkative people are really annoying me nowadays, maybe it's because Rio was under the stress of trying to level up so much since he missed out on it for five years.
'Well, it's not like I'm going to relax anytime soon, I still need the remaining 12,000 EXP, and it would be best if I get it before entering the secret realm" Rio said before heading straight to the forest indiscriminately hunting animals and beasts.