Chapter 17: Damage dealers

After a moment, she retracted her gaze. She flicked her hair away from him and continued to practice her sword stance.

"That's amazing! He's able to do that at just the 1st stage? How long–"

"He just got drafted yesterday."

Zoland's jaws dropped, and so did everyone in the group who considered themselves geniuses.

Even they didn't think they could accomplish that feat when they just started out. The innate talent it took to do that was out of their grasp.

And if they found out that Atlan hadn't even used his LifeSkill to do it, they'd probably fall from shock.

"Hear that Yasmine? We have a transcendental talent over here," Zoland said out loud, purposefully egging her on. He knew that she was a competitive one who wanted to outshine everybody.

Swish swish

Just like he predicted, Yasmine increased the intensity of her sword stances.

"We gotta go now and start the competition or else she'll be having a fit." Zonald said goodbye to Neumann and the rest before going down the steps and onto the streets.

When Zonald left, Atlan asked Neumann what kind of competition they were going to have.

"It's just like the Draft. They have batches of Canzers coming at them. The more Canzers they kill, the better."

Wemby butted in. "You know the drill. You must have killed dozens of monsters in your draft, mister B class"

Atlan simply laughed and didn't answer.

Once everyone was gathered, Zonald faced the street and explained the rules of the competition.

"Okay. Each of you is assigned an area you're going to protect. Canzers are going to be swarming you. Most kills win, got it?"

Once everyone nodded their heads, Zonald signaled to everyone, "3…2…1…GO!"

Once the countdown ended, the competitors all took their spots. Some stayed on the streets and some took spots atop the buildings. They chose whichever place they could leverage their skills.

Soon enough, large insect arthropods the size of a human torso came crawling out of the sewers on the curb.

Its layered chitinous exoskeleton gleamed an azure blue color. Under its torso were three pairs of thin, spiky legs that allowed it to traverse any terrain.

The few ones stopped and waved their two antennae around, trying to sense their target.

Then, tens of these monsters spread around and chose their prey evenly. All 20 competitors faced 5 Canzers each, giving them the same difficulty.

"Those are Canzers?"

Neumann nodded. "Yes. Technically. These are the watered-down versions of the real thing. It's not that we can't capture a live specimen of Canzer, it's more that we don't want to.

It's way too dangerous to play around with. Some Operators tried to do it, but it always ended in disaster."

Atlan looked at the monsters that crawled towards the competitors like a tsunami.

"Don't underestimate them. They can still do real damage, that's why a lot of Saviors use them as practice.

Of course, it's way better to fight real Canzers, but like I said, a mission is hard to come by. Well…was hard to come by."

Despite being overwhelmed by these monsters, the competitors didn't panic. They all had their tactics to deal with the assault.

The hooded mage chose the perfect spot for his LifeSkill. He positioned himself at a choke point in the street. The monsters had to squish themselves at a very thin gap between the buildings to get to him.

With one chant: "Cone of Fiery Rage!"

A tornado made out of flames erupted from his palms and toward the group of arthropod monsters.

In just mere seconds, he was able to burn their shells black, heating their innards till death.

[You have reaped the death of simple creatures: Pseudo Canzers]x5

[You have gained 25 experience]

Atlan was surprised to see that he was able to reap the deaths of these monsters.

This Gluttonous Soul mutation is like a cheat!

It wasn't that Atlan was ungrateful, but it seemed unfair of him to benefit from their hard work.

The other competitors continued to defeat those monsters batch by batch, and Atlan gained experience from all of them.

[You have reaped the death of simple creatures: Pseudo Canzers]x20

[You have gained 100 experience]

Out of all the competitors, there was one of them who moved with grace and strength. She skillfully used her sword to cut any Canzers she saw coming towards her.

For her, this wasn't a competition. This was practice.

She let some monsters come near her, only for her to use her reflexes and skills to dodge them at the very last second before she used the tip of her sword to skewer her prey.

As the competition went underway and batch after batch of Pseudo Canzers were killed, the difficulty slowly rose.

The monsters grew wings that allowed them to lunge towards the competitors at surprising speeds. Not only that, their heads grew a sharp beetle's horn that could cut through concrete.

The sniper who used a gun to kill the monsters started having difficulty as the monsters learned how to fly. He lost his high ground.

Soon enough, he was enveloped by the monsters who threatened to skewer his body.

"I give up!" he shouted just as he was about to get hit in his stomach.

Just then, the Pseudo Canzers around him stopped in their tracks and stopped moving. The sniper was safe.

"Unlike what Wemby tried to tell you, Operators aren't that bad. Without them, we wouldn't be able to have this safe training ground.

They are the ones that created this and programmed all its functions," explained Neumann.

Wemby indignantly crossed his arms. "Hmph. Maybe just a little bit." Searᴄh the NôvelFire(.)net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

As the competition continued, more and more Saviors dropped out. Soon enough, it was just the mage and Yasmine left competing.

The arthropod monsters continued evolving each batch, with their exoskeletons getting harder and harder to penetrate.

The mage's weakness was soon discovered. They were great at dealing damage with a lot of enemies at once, but they couldn't concentrate that on a single enemy.

Unable to kill the monsters with just one casting of his skill, the mage was soon overwhelmed with angry monsters.

The smoke emitted from their burning exoskeletons sent a very frightening image to the mage.

"I quit!" he said.

The only one left standing, as expected, was the transcendent talent with the S class DPS LifeSkill.

She had no trouble piercing through the exoskeletons that the mage had trouble with.

Everyone watched with amazement as she handled these monsters with ease. Her talent in the sword was truly a sight to behold.

"What an insane talent!" praised Neumann. He looked at Atlan and said, "Do you know that she's the same age as you?"

"Really?" No wonder she looked as young as me.

"From what I heard, she was able to reach the 2nd stage of the Student Realm just two weeks after her Draft! Can you believe it?"

Just then, Atlan saw a few words pop out in front of him.

[Consolidation period over]

[You have successfully advanced your SSS class Cherubic Retribution LifeSkill to the 2nd stage of the Student Realm]

"I can't believe it…"