77 Judgement (1)
Elias looked at his surroundings. Garuda, the Baron of Pride was standing with a nervous and astounded expression on his face, nearly falling over the ground due to his serious injuries.
The two main characters, Rain Violetstar and Lance Schultz were nearly on their deathbeds.
It was obvious that they lost.
<nulli>'Just like the novel.'
Thinking of that, Elias suddenly looked at the sky as though he was gazing at someone.
"Back off, I'll take it from here."
His words were seemingly directed at one person, but they could also apply to everyone watching on the battlefield.
Hearing his words, everyone couldn't help but fall into confusion.
Sumi, in particular, was extremely confused. Before coming to the examination, she had amassed large amounts of knowledge from the vast network of her father's guild for preparation for the academy.
Even Rain Violetstar, who eluded Lance Schultz, she recognized as the upstart talented ranker that made some uproar in the ranker community some time ago.
But she obviously didn't recognize the man in front of them.
A demon of supreme force. That Rain Violetstar, and Lance Schultz, the two most talented people she ever met couldn't defeat—
Yet, this man stated he could do so <nulli>alone?
There was a line between fine confidence and plain delusion, if Sumi didn't know any better she would've outright thought it was the latter.
But she knew <nulli>better.
Whether it was the confident powerful air emanating from the man, or perhaps from her Odin's Eye—
it all screamed that the man was serious about this.
The man was truly confident of his chances against the demon.
Sumi had lost hope in the academy staff after waiting for so long. She would latch on this illogical, strange man even if it meant she would look like a fool.
Looking over Elizabeth, Zyrish, and Roshia's faces, Sumi took a deep breath and slowly spoke.
"Everyone... do as the man says. Back away,"
As she expected, the three of them reacted quite strongly. They wore expressions of disbelief and confusion as they looked at her.
But Sumi nodded to them, expressing her seriousness about the situation.
She knew what they were thinking. This was the perfect chance to team up and take down the heavily injured demon.
But it wasn't that simple.
They needed a backup plan. Sumi learned that betting all their eggs in one basket was obviously a foolish choice.
<nulli>If—if, she's implying, if the man was not really able to beat the demon, at least they would still have mana reserves to escape from a distance.
Cowardly, and despicable—but that was the nature of man against the threat of death, "self-preservation".
Of course, they could also engage in one last battle to truly decide who can win or not... but it wasn't that optimistic of a plan.
Although baffled, Elizabeth, Zyrish and Roshia still retreated according to her instructions, which made her slightly relieved.
After a while, Garuda recovered from his shock. He realized that worrying was extremely stupid. He was a Baron of Pride, in human terms, he was a C Ranker.
His strength was miles above any child in this place.
Instead, he should commend Elias for being stupid enough to deliver himself on his doorstep at this critical moment.
If he managed to devour these prideful geniuses, then there was a chance his strength could evolve into a Marquiss.
Thinking of that, Garuda's lips curled into a terrifying smile. It was a wicked one.
"Hahahahahaha, hehe, hahahahahah!"
Seeing that, Elias was amused.
"What made you laugh like a fool all of a sudden?"
"...Do you want to know? It's you! Hahaha, hehe, hahahahahaha! An extremely sumptuous meal is delivering itself before me, how can I not laugh in joy?!"
"...Crazy bastard."
Elias smiled and shook his head. However, he thought the same for Garuda——surely as a boss antagonist, he would give good rewards?
This was the perfect scenario he had envisioned: Garuda, heavily injured and low on stamina, as though ripe for taking.
At this moment, both of them saw each other as prey and predator.
But who was the <nulli>true apex predator?
***
After having a small conversation, the battle immediately started.
Elias went for the first move, breaking the tense atmosphere. His figure turned into a slight blur as he arrived in front of Garuda quickly.
<nullb>[Silent Approach]
It was a movement technique developed by Alexus. He learned it from the detached man when he was tortured in the darkness.
Unlike other movement techniques, this one didn't give the user a speed boost nor a complicated movement series.
It only had one ability: the mana presence of the user would lower to the point that it became non-existent.
This would allow the user to be undetectable by his foes. Alexus used this a lot to kill his targets silently.
His mastery over this technique even evolved to the point he was able to use it, not only for his movements but for his attacks as well.
Elias used this same exact technique when he fought Lance. It worked the best against inexperienced rankers who only knew how to fight in close combat.
Although his mastery was not yet as great as Alexus's, he was approaching that mastery quite quickly due to Limitless and his extraordinary mana control.
Garuda seemed slightly shocked. But he already learned from his previous mistakes to never underestimate other people.
After Elias appeared in front of him, he clenched his hand tightly into a fist and punched the air.
<nulli>Boom!
But then, Garuda missed. No, not missed, more like he forgot to use mana and thus didn't generate any force from his attack.
"What—?!"
But that sounded insane.
How could he forget to use something as fundamental as mana?
It was like his mind blanked out for a moment. He looked up and saw Elias holding his fist like it was nothing while wearing a small amused smile.
Before he could even react, Garuda felt as though a metal slug hit him. A fist came crashing down his face.
<nulli>Bam!
The demon of pride staggered in a mix of shock and pain. The shock came from the fact that he was and was unable to process the damage.
09:37
After the attacks ended, Garuda staggered away. His vision returned, albeit blurry. His mouth and damaged by the seemingly ordinary fist.
A trail of blood came out of his mouth.
The fist was slow and steady. It didn't exhibit any strong and threatening air around it—but it damaged him the same.
How could that be...?!
Even if he was this weakened and low on mana reserves, he should still have enough for basic reinforcement to endure any D Rank attack.
"I can see it in your face. Confused, aren't you?"
Elias's smile became wider. He got more and more amused as he looked at Garuda's twisted expression.
"Unfortunately for you, I'm not the type to explain his abilities during a fight. Good luck and try to figure it out,"
Without hesitating anymore, he raised both of his hands and let out a barrage of never-ending punches!
Afraid of experiencing his attacks, Garuda tried to dodge almost immediately—but he couldn't react in time.
Reason? He couldn't sense the mana in the attacks.
It was obvious that Elias was imbuing the concept of <nullb>[Silent Approach] in his attacks to make it appear undetectable.
Garuda could only experience the attacks by each, due to his inferior reaction time. Perhaps if he wasn't so injured, he could've still dodged.
<nulli>Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam! Ba...
Each of the attacks brought mind-numbing nirvana to Garuda. His mind blanked out from each strike and was unable to process the damage.
After the attacks ended, Garuda staggered away. His vision returned, albeit blurry. His mouth and body were fully damaged from the attacks.
But he finally knew why he was feeling pain from those seemingly ordinary attacks.
"You..."
Garuda's eyes gazed at Elias with terror and apprehension.
"...How can you disable my use of mana?! What kind of demonic power are you using?!"
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