Dispelling her throne world, Shiro looked around at the other arenas and saw that most of them were finishing up.
Lisandra had already defeated her opponent, while Lyrica and Silvia were having a friendly spar as they were pitted against one another.
While they could fight somewhat seriously, Silvia had already decided to let Lyrica pass since Lyrica would probably have a better chance of winning the next round for some orange grade gear.
Once the last fight finished, the final ten were confirmed.
Out of the party, Lyrica, Yin and Chen Yu managed to pass along with Shiro and Lisandra.
Teleporting everyone onto the top floor, a hologram appeared on the screen.
[Stage 6: The final stage. There are 5 orange grade equipment up for grabs in this event. The 10 remaining contestants will form teams and select a captain. You will then be placed into a field with two castles.
The main goal is for you to take the other castleâs flag while defending your own. As for who gets the items, it will be dependent on your performance rather than which side wins. Of course, if you win the fight, youâll get some extra points in the final tally.
You have 5 minutes to decide on your teams, good luck.]
Reading the stage description, Shiro realised that they had just enough people on their side to form a team of five.
However, before she could call out of the party, she was approached by one of the other participants that had managed to pass.
"How about you join our team? If we split up those that are powerful, youâll get more chances to show off your strength through combat no?" The person suggested as Shiro raised an eyebrow.
"But if we finish the match quickly, would we not also get points?" She grinned.
If they finished off the fight quickly, the other team would not have many chances to demonstrate their prowess, making it so that they wouldnât need as many points.
"True, though I believe that the more points you have the better chance for you to get one of the better orange grade equipment. I doubt the organisers would allow you to finish the match that easily." The man smiled as Shiro thought about it for a bit.
"Iâm fine, Iâve already got some people in mind. But donât worry about it, I wonât be taking the other slayer." She chuckled and made her way to Lyricaâs group with Lisandra following behind her.
"Yo, since itâs the final round, why donât we team up? We got five people exactly and we might be able to get some more performance points if the teams are more balanced." Shiro called out with a smile.
"Of course. However, are you sure you donât want to go on their side âKazumiâ? I thought your main goal was to observe how much weâve improved." Lyrica chuckled as Shiro raised her eyebrows before staying silent and put a finger on her lips.
"Well letâs just say that Iâve seen quite a bit and since Iâm a rather sore loser, I wouldnât want me nor the people Iâm interested in to lose." Shiro replied with a grin.
"Since itâs been around two months, do you want to take command of the castle while Iâll be one of the chess pieces for this event I suppose." She asked Lyrica.
"No itâs fine. With your skill set and proficiencies, youâre more suited towards commanding and leading. Having someone who can scout out the entire area ordering people is better in this situation." Lyrica shook her head with a smile.
"Got it. In that case then as usual, here are some earpieces for me to send you some instructions. As weâre gunning for points, weâll try for one on one combat with my support mixed into the fight. The ones that you need to be careful of are the other slayer and the second mysterious guy who I think I have a pretty good idea on who it is. For those two, itâs best that Lyrica and Chen Yu fight them since you two are focused on speed." Shiro said with a smile. While there were earpieces provided by the organisers, Shiro would much rather use her own.
Nodding their head, the three couldnât help but feel a little nostalgic since two months was a long time, especially if youâre spending most of that in a dungeon. With Shiro back on the team, they found things to be more ânaturalâ and fitting.
It wasnât to say that Lyrica was a bad leader, it was just very hard to defeat Shiro in terms of versatility and ability to recover a situation regardless of how dire it seemed.
"Since I havenât seen everything yet, feel free to reveal around 80% of your power as this is broadcasted to the city. Iâll find good fights for you to display most of your abilities depending on the situation so make sure you keep an ear out for my orders ok?"
Seeing the four of them nod, Shiro smiled.
"In that case then letâs bag ourselves some orange grade equipment."
Walking towards the teleport circle, they were sent to the top most floor as a giant forest with a few clearings laid out before them.
Nodding their heads, everyone scattered out into the forest while Shiro readied her bow at the flag.
Activating the skill, Hawkeye, along with Analysis, Shiro scanned the forest for any enemies.
"Everyone, start making some distance between yourselves. However, make sure youâre not too far apart as we donât know where they are. There is a good chance that theyâre still bunched up so you want to be careful." Shiro called out over the mic.
"Got it."
Watching the party spread out across the forest, Shiro narrowed her eyes at distant castle and tried to see who their defender was.
Seeing that the defender was the same person who had talked to her earlier, Shiro decided to try to hit them from this far away. After all, they werenât the slayer nor the other guy so she wasnât too worried.
"I got sights on their defender. Iâll try to eliminate him now." Shiro muttered into the mic while pulling back on her bowstring.
It was also a good chance for her to give Asteriaâs Blessing skill a go.
"Piercing the galaxies, may Asteriaâs fury reach my foe." Shiro chanted the first thing that came into her mind.
Shimmering with a soft light, the bow started to draw in ambient mana. Coagulating into an arrow, Shiro created several layers of tier 4 magic circles to act as a barrel of sorts for the arrow.
*BANG!
Letting go of the string, the arrow was shot through the magic circles with each one increasing its speed exponentially.
Not only that, but due to the bowâs passive, a second version of the attack trailed behind the arrow while Illusionary stars wrapped them as it soon flickered out of sight.
Looking towards the other castle, she saw both arrows slam into the adventurerâs body.
Widening his eyes in disbelief, the adventurer felt a huge burst of force from the arrows as his body was slammed into the ground and a crater was formed near the castle.
"Enemy defender is eliminated; their flag is open for you to get." Shiro smiled.
-Holy, when the hell did you become such a powerful archer?!- Lyricaâs confused voice rang out over the mic.
"Haha, letâs just say that I was entertaining myself a little during the two months that Iâm not allowed to level up." Shiro replied.
-S- Kazumi, are you sure youâre still a mage? I donât think a mage is as diverse as you.- Chen Yu chuckled.
"Donât mind me~ Just know that after this, Iâll be asking Silvi about what youâve been up to during these two months. If you mistreat her in any way, trust that Iâll pay you back 100 times ok? Even your branch master canât save your ass if you catch my ire." Shiro grinned as Chen Yu gulped. Thankfully, he had treated Silvia as a princes- no a queen during these two months so it should be fine.
Surely Silvia wouldnât report wrongly and watch him suffer right? Right?
-Oh donât worry about that. The two of them have been a little too sweet during these two months and weâve pretty much been force fed all of their love and affection. To be honest, Iâm surprised that Yin could even eat like that after being force fed.- Lyrica laughed.
-Mn? I heard my name and food. Are you offering me food? When and where?- Yinâs curious voice rang out.
Rolling her eyes with a smile, Shiro admitted that she missed this little glutton of herâs in the last two months.
"After the event Yin. Depending on your performance, Iâll reward you with some food. Oh but youâre not allowed to blow up the forest, I can see you preparing that massive spark of dark star you know?" Shiro chuckled.
-Ehhhh, fine. Iâll control it a bit more then. But you have to promise me a banquet.- Yin complained.
"Sure. Oh would you look at that? Perfect timing. Yin, a hostile is around 700 meters away from you, kick their ass."
-URAHH!!! FOR THE BANQUET!!!!- Yin shouted out as she dashed towards them with a hungry glimmer in her eyes.
âThe f*ck? What kind of war cry is that????â