Chapter 92 Rank UP! IV



Clang–!

The sound of my daggers grazing with Leo's scythe was filling the air.

Swoosh—!

Clang—!

The arrow shot by Enzo was parried by him too, pretty easily at that.

Clang–!

Leo parried my cross-slash dagger attack and kicked me on the side through the openings he made.

"Guh!"

Not giving me any chance to recover, he lunged at me, his scythe ready to give me a nightmare of slash attacks.

I couldn't afford to block or parry his attacks because of how much gap in strength we had, so I only dodged it with the help of my Clairvoyance skill.

Enzo, who was shooting on top of the tree got a free hit on Leo. But each of his arrows was blocked by Leo, he didn't even need to look at the arrow. His attention was fully focused on me, like a predator playing with his prey before he ate the shit out of me.

"Are you just gonna keep on dodging?" he mocked me.

Leo hacked his scythe down vertically, aiming for the top of my head.

Slightly dodging, I launched a slash to his side but was stopped by the aura barrier. We did no damage to each other.

As I tried to launch a follow-up attack, he pulled his scythe and I was trapped between him and his scythe.

The sight I got from my Clairvoyance resulted in injuries. 

There were two scenarios. If I jumped and ended up in mid-air, he would launch an aura wave. And if I was to duck and dodge to the side, he would extend his scythe and still catch me.

In that split second, I threw one of my daggers into the air and jumped. 

The dagger and my foot were covered by mana so the weight and mass would be increased, allowing me to use the dagger as a stepping stone.

Using that dagger as a support to maneuver myself in mid-air, I managed to avoid his aura wave by a thin margin.

"Tch! I hate this guy," Leo muttered, and I somehow could hear it.

Upon landing, I quickly dashed forward to catch him off-guard but that was a mistake. 

A very dumb decision for me to enter the tiger's den.

With only one dagger in my left hand, I lunged at him and tried to stab this rather harmless dagger on him.

But…

"What are you doing?"

He caught me. His palm stopped my momentum. Grabbing my face, and pushing me to the ground.

I hit the ground with a loud thud sound. Thankfully, I reinforced the back of my head before it hit the ground, or else I would have gone unconscious.

"Hah? This is it? Is this all you can do without your trick?"

I glared at him between the gap of his fingers on my face.

"What is that look? You think you could hurt me with that?"

His grip tightened, almost crushing me. But I endured it, waiting for the right moment to escape.

Then, a gust of winds began to move, swirling around Enzo's arrow tip.

Releasing the string, the Storm Arrow cut through the air, carrying a powerful gust with it.

But, when I saw it. I felt like something was different.

The wind was stronger, and fiercer than before. It was so overwhelming that I hallucinated, seeing a falcon head formed on the storm.

At this rate, if Leo didn't stop it, I would be a victim of a friendly-fire attack!

I cast a mana barrier and prepared for the worst.

Leo released me and got up, his face looked like a lunatic when he saw the storm. I used that chance to crawl, staying away from him as far as I could.

But, the impact of the Storm Arrow got me. I was blown away by the wind, hitting the tree several meters away from Leo who tried to stop the storm but instead was assaulted by the wind blade that swirl like a vortex.

Witnessing the unbelievable, my eyes widened slightly.

'No way he will lose to that, right?!' I thought.

I just leaned on the tree, my body aching from the impact, I watched Leo struggle against the storm created by Enzo's arrow.

I was dumbfounded, not believing what I just saw. It was not like I worried for Leo, instead, I was flabbergasted by Enzo. With only <E> rank

But again, the Octagram entrance exam ranking was based on potential and how well the student fared against the test.

He might have been struggling on the test because of the plain terrain of the test room. 

It's just a guess but who knows? Maybe he's just good with the forest-like terrain, considering that he was a hunter.

The wind continued to whip around, tearing at the trees and causing debris to fly through the air. I just stayed in my place, knowing that none of them would hit me.

Crash—!

A chopped tree trunk landed beside me, making the ground around me shaking.

'Whoops…'

"HAHA!!"

Leo's laugh echoed in the air.

"Fuck…!" His voice began to falter.

"Underboss!" His friend who was silent all this time shouted.

"Shut up, Benjamin!"

His friend, Benjamin, was taken aback. His intention to run toward Leo was denied immediately. 

I pitied that guy. Benjamin was Leo's loyal sidekick but was killed by the demonic human in the future.

Suppose Baek Jin was a character that served as Seo Yeong-Ha's development. Then Benjamin served as Leo's character development.

Leo fell to his knee. His eyes glared at Enzo, who was on the tree, gasping for air.

'Hoh, that must have drained a lot of his mana.'

Thud—!

Leo lay on the ground, gasping for air. A moment later, his lunatic laugh filled the air. 

He was defeated, but he was satisfied.

It was his first loss. Not by Lux, but by a side character who wasn't even in the novel.

I frowned, 'Huh, wait. What if Enzo is that guy? I mean, those people that reincarnated as an extra character but ended up as a main character in the end?'

Chuckling, I shook my head and slowly got up. 'If he is the one. What am I then?'

After that, the exam continued until time ran out. Only four teams were surviving until the time limit.

My team (Lupus-8), Leo's team (Tigris-3), Lumi's team (Lupus-20), and one team from the Serpent class (Serpent-9).

Though it didn't matter that much as the real evaluation was coming from the supervisors not the final results. Well, but, with the win, at least I got some plus points.

Still, In the end I didn't get much chance to show off my skills. On top of that, I just embarrassed myself with that one blunder.

Haa. I hope no one watching me at that moment.

…

A week later, the results came out.

After the class ended, an announcement was made through the classroom, corridor, and any speakers installed around the Lecture Halls. They also sent one via the student's contact on Nova Watch.

My classmates rushed out of the class as they heard the announcement, leaving only me, Enzo, and Ember.

Ember was busy playing with her Nova Watch, and beside me, Enzo was sleeping soundly. He really didn't care about everything.

'Just like someone fitted as an MC who hiding his power, heh.'

Operating my Nova Watch, I checked on my student profile. There must be some changes had been made such as my ranking.

===

Student ID: 30-0911-03

Name: Zio Varrez

Class: Lupus / First year

Role: Striker

Ranking: 666 / 2000

===

"..."

'I hope this not gonna bring me a bad omen…'

From 911 to 666, that meant I rose up by 245 rank. It was probably because of my writing Exam…

I did not want to be arrogant but, I was a hundred percent sure I was in first place in the ranking!

But, when I saw the results displayed on the notice board in the hall, I felt like I was betrayed by the world itself.

===

[Lupus Class Writing Exam]

1st rank: Ember Crimson 100/100

2nd rank: Zio Varrez 100/100

3rd rank: Lumi Alicia Alexa 94/100

4th rank…

5th rank…

6th rank: Enzo Ruiz 85/100

7th rank…

8th rank…

9th rank…

10th rank: Niah Hayes 80/100

===

Unbelievable!

'The first place is Ember?!'

Seeing that she was the first place in the writing exam, and not to mention that she always submit her answer faster than me. It seemed my suspicion about her was true…

She may be just like me, someone from Earth who was reincarnated into this world. The only difference was that she got to live inside the body of the War Goddess's granddaughter!

She had a better life than me…

This world is so unfair to me!

Now that my suspicion of her was increasing, I just needed to find some ways to uncover her secret.

And thus, it marked the start of my plan to get closer to her and uncover her secret. Did she truly someone who came from another world like me, or was she just that highly intelligent person?

I called this the 'Groom The Flame' operation.