Rishi climbed the steps one by one and finally reached the second step; everyone was surprised and curious about what Rishi would do now. Will he stop climbing or will he sit at the top?
With a smirk on his face, Rishi took the last step and sat on the throne. With his right leg on his left leg and his right hand on his right cheek, he stared at the participants as if looking at his subjects.
Many students took it as a challenge and wanted to have a duel with Rishi, but they decided to wait for other students to take their spots. A girl with enchanting blue eyes was the second one to climb the stairs. She gracefully climbed the stairs one by one before finally reaching the top.
Rishi looked at her with a mocking smile, and she looked at him for a second before turning her head and sitting on the second throne. Many students also wanted to challenge Kajal for second place, but they also needed to wait a while.
After it, many students that were confident in their skills stepped on the stair; they were confident of Nina, who stood on the fourth step, and Jay on the fifth. Even after some more time, no one has decided to stand in third place. Vinay smiled before he climbed the ladder and sat on the third throne.
Many people mocked him, saying he was just a nobody. Rishab and Kajal have at least proven themselves, but this guy just came out of nowhere and sat on the third throne. There were only three thrones on the first three steps; the rest of the participants had to stand in their places.
Bhanu had chosen the ninth ladder, while Chaya had chosen the tenth, and Lalit was the only one Rishi knew who had not chosen a place. While others have decided to focus on the competition, Lalit had different plans; he was here for revenge. He knew that it was very hard for him to defeat Chaya and Bhanu, but the same thing applied to them, too; after all he was a Tank.
His plan was simple: he would challenge them and force them to spend mana and stamina to defeat him. When they were tired, he would surrender, creating an opportunity for other challengers to defeat them.
"Everyone, we have got our ten rankers; Rishab is the one who chose first rank, Kajal chose second rank, and Vinay chose third rank. Now the second phase would start, in which all the students who want to challenge the rankers would be invited, Miss Shreya would announce the number, and the challengers who want to challenge that number would raise their hands." The commentator smiled with an excited expression on his face.
"Number 10," Shreya looked at the remaining students to find out who was raising their hands. Lalit was the first one to raise his hand, and after him, nine more students raised their hands.
"The students who want to challenge number 10, please stand before the level-ten board," said the commentator.
"Number 9" This continued until only the top three rankers were left.
"Number 3" Seven students raised their hands as they looked at Vinay with disgust—how dare he sit on the third-place throne?
"Number 2" Three students raised their hands to challenge Kajal; one was a fan who just wanted to meet Kajal, while from the remaining two, one was an arrogant girl who believed she was better than Kajal, and the last one was a guy who was just interested in the rank.
"Number 1," Shreya looked at the participants who wanted to challenge Rishab; one was Rajan, while the other was an arrogant brat from the Tiwari clan.
A playful smile appeared on Rishi's face when he saw that the second challenger was from the Tiwari clan; after Sameer had messed up his mood, he was looking for someone to relieve his anger.
"The challenges will begin after every ranker has five or fewer challengers. To decide the five challengers, there will be a battle between the challengers. First, the challengers who have decided to challenge number 10 will participate in a battle to decide the top five," announced the commentator.
The names of two random challengers were selected one by one for a fight. They all had to fight a duel to decide on a winner. Lalit's name was called first, and he stepped forward and entered the fighting ring. His opponent was an archer student, and when the members of All-STARS saw that, even they showed some pity for the unknown participant.
The battle started, and Lalit brought his shield in front of him before using 'Bull Charge' to approach the opponent. The opponent with the archer class tried to stop Lalit by firing multiple skills at him, but Lalit's charge was like a bulldozer that destroyed everything that came in his path.
When Lalit was already very close to the opponent, his opponent tried to fight him in close range using a dagger. Lalit smirked at the try of the archer before smacking him into the barrier with his giant sword; unlike standard tanks, Lalit had not only high vitality, stamina, and defense but also decent agility and high strength.
"What a wonderful battle; Lalit is a very interesting person despite having a Tank class; he is a decent fighter who has above-average strength, and his attacks pack a punch." praised the commentator.
"The participant with the archer class was really unlucky to go against someone like Lalit; his unconventional approach is what makes Lalit's fighting style interesting," commented Shreya.
Flowers started blooming in Lalit's heart when he heard Shreya's praise. Rishi saw it and wanted to smack some sense into Lalit. This girl was hiding her true self behind her charming and cute appearance; she was not a girl with red flags; she was the red flag herself. Only an idiot would approach her.
After it, many battles take place between the challengers. The last battle was between the seven students who had decided to challenge Vinay.
Vinay was also keeping an eye on this duel, as he wanted to defeat his challengers quickly, and if he could find their flaw in these duels, then it was a good situation for him.
"As there are seven challengers, the name of one challenger would be randomly selected, who will not participate in the duel, while the rest six would have to fight one time each to decide the other three participants. While the last challenger would be randomly selected from the three defeated challengers to save time and energy,"