Inside the SSA.
[Shadow dragon magic: Shadow field expansion!]
Ellie put her right hand on the ground and a magic circle appeared on the ground. The magic circle shined brightly and shadows started to spread everywhere. In just a few seconds the shadow field expanded far and wide.
This shadow field can suppress the enemy's senses and detection capabilities but it doesn't affect your allies. This is also the reason why Rio was unable to use detection properly when he got hit by Link earlier, Ellie's shadow field can be expanded and compressed.
Earlier it was in a compressed state and only covered her body, but now that she has expanded the shadow field Rio's detection abilities got suppressed even further.
"Die traitor!" (Link)
'Idiot! Can't you stay quiet…' (Rio)
Rio easily deflected Link's incoming punches even while the shadow field was suppressing him because Link is always loud. He shouts at the top of his lungs every time he attacks and even a slight sound is enough for Rio to predict the movements of an enemy. (Link even shouted when they were fighting Jin during that one-week training session. Ch-54)
'Let's deal with this shadow field first…' (Rio)
[Elemental Sword Arts: Thunder type: Bright pulse!]
Rio pointed his sword towards the ground and bright and golden electric currents appeared on his sword. His sword started to shine brightly like a torch and everything around him was illuminated with its brightness.
Due to the brightness, Ellie's shadow field was canceled.
[Divine spirit's blessing: Divine wrath!]
A huge magic circle appeared in the sky at Lia's chanting. As Lia ordered it, the magic circle bombarded Rio with an insane amount of divine magic. The golden beam of divine magic poured like an endless fountain directly on top of Rio.
'tsk, divine magic is the most resistant against Sword intent… But this will consume a lot of mana from her…' (Rio)
Rio pointed his sword upwards and used his sword intent to scatter that beam of magic pouring on him. The ground beneath his feet cracked from the impact of that huge impact, but Rio stayed unharmed overall. (His sword intent is just too op.)
After a few seconds, Lia's spirit magic disappeared and Rio stood there unharmed only the ground around him had been charred black, and a huge crater formed around him.
With this one attack, Lia depleted her mana reserve, now she was barely even able to stand, she was using her sword to give her support for standing. Her wings had disappeared and Kai had retreated in her consciousness back.
Yet, a smile appeared on her face.
"Hey, I kept my promise, I made him stay at one spot for ten seconds now it's your turn…" (Lia)
As she said that Liam nodded his head and looked at Ellie who also started to fade away.
"You did well…" (Liam)
Ellie smiled and disappeared.
Then Liam looked at Rio and smirked.
"It's over now, I have the high ground, Rio!" (Liam)
As Liam said that, a huge magic circle appeared on the ground, the circle covered the whole area that was covered by Ellie's shadow field before.
"You think I will just sit and let you do it?" (Rio)
[Sword Inte-]
Just when Rio was about to use his sword intent to destroy that magic circle, his sword suddenly trembled uncontrollably and lost its form.
His sword turned into liquid all of a sudden. (Like literally it turned into liquid and floated in the air.)
Rio's eyes widened in surprise. This was the first time he had encountered something like this.
Before Rio could do anything, the magic circle activated.
[Advanced Flame magic: High Explosion!]
A huge explosion took place. A huge amount of dust and rubble flew into the sky. The explosion was so powerful it changed the cloudy weather. The black clouds were pushed away by the heat and air pressure and a clear blue sky appeared again.
The explosion vaporized everything in the radius of a kilometer. This was not the end of it. A delayed shockwave spread around and laid destruction everywhere in the whole SSA.
Wherever the shockwave went it laid destruction and death. Hundreds of monsters inside the SSA were killed without them ever even knowing how. It would not be wrong to call this attack a small-scale nuclear attack.
In the center of the explosion, trees were burned away and the land turned into a charred black color.
Only destruction and ashes could be seen everywhere around.
…
[Traitors eliminated: 4/4!]
[Time over! Time over!]
[Calculating Result…]
[Winner Team 1!]
Lia and Liam both exhausted their mana and thus they were also eliminated along with the newbies.
And since Rio's sword turned into 'liquid' he was not able to defend himself on time, thus he got eliminated and teleported away.
Meng also used his sword intent to resist but since he had just recently learned Sword intent, he was not able to control it as proficiently as Rio. Thus, he also ended up getting eliminated.
In the end, everyone except Link was eliminated. Only Link was standing alone after the fight concluded. Although his clothes burnt away and his whole body was charred black, he won at least. Link coughed violently and thick smoke came out of his mouth.
When he was later escorted out of the SSA, he shouted at the top of his lungs that whoever dared to take a photo of him would be killed by him.
(How did Link survive, you ask? Don't forget that this guy is a meat shield, he can indeed tank one or two advance-level attacks, with his body alone. If he was a game character people would have said "Bro put his all stats in defense!".)
…
Outside the SSA, General's Residence, Meeting hall.
The observing officers looked at the monitor which had already gone blank. The previous explosion destroyed all the cameras in the vicinity after all.
"How did they cast an 'Advance spell' isn't Liam still a B-ranker!? He should only be able to use 'intermediate spells'!"
"It's very strange! Did he use an artifact again!?"
Hearing the officers, Raji nodded her head and said:
"Indeed, he must have used an artifact to forcefully use an Advance spell…" (Raji)
Then Raji looked at the general.
After thinking for a little while she said:
"It seems that I have already seen what I came here for, I would be off now. General Bismoil, I leave the rest to you…" (Raji)
"Understood!" (General)
As General Bismoil nodded his head, the hologram of Raji Croft disappeared and similarly the other two also disappeared after nodding at General Bismoil. (They dumped all the responsibility on him.)
"Okay it seems the match is over now! Provide proper medical care to all the students none should be left unhealed!" (General)
At General Bismoil's order, all of the officers started to get back to work.
The result of the 'group survival test' was announced to all the students and even several media channels displayed the result on TV, which boosted Link's reputation even further, also Rio became a little more famous on the internet for the first time.
Later, Rio even got recognized as Link's biggest Rival by the netizens. Rio's images appeared along with Link's on the internet. Rio became famous in just a few hours.
General Bismoil glanced at the setting sun from his window, he sighed and contemplated in his mind.
'It seems Link Rex is the winner in this whole ordeal, but that Kid Rio indeed has enough potential to rival Link, Looks like the future of humanity is in the right hands…Creating a second golden generation might not be a dream anymore perhaps…' (General)
Thinking about this a smile appeared on his old face. Soon he shook his head and went back to his work.
Thus, the group survival test came to an end, with Team 1 as the ultimate victor.
…
…
Author's Notes.
Yo! Your beloved author is here again!
Seriously it was really difficult to make Rio lose. I had to put a much-unexpected level of plot twist to make Rio lose this fight. It was not easy. I had to think very hard for a whole week… even though I am the author, it's difficult, to write a strong character like Rio losing in a fight.
Question of the day.
Which type of character would you prefer?
1.?Tank (Slow but high defense and HP. Might be able to survive even the worst attacks, Like Link.)
2.?Offense (The old saying: "If I kill it fast enough, then I don't need defense.")
3.?Agile ("Why wear armor, when I am not planning to get hit in the first place! all hail the ultimate technique 'Rolling!'")
4.?Other (I am trying to summon dark s*uls players, please tell us your preferences here.)
By the way, recently I found out that people have been pirating my novel. I request everyone that whoever is reading this novel please read it from ReadNovelFull only, otherwise, your support will not reach this poor author.