Chapter 446: Crown Captured
"Should we be happy that he respects us?! We can’t let him take first place!" In fact, this was even worse from his point of view
That bastard was winning even without underestimating them.
The fight exploded across the entire field.
Ethan fought with two people and slammed his elbow directly into one person’s face, while Marcus blocked another attack with his shield and pushed the second attacker back with a kick at the same time.
Selina raised a wave of water against a huge fire, and hot steam exploded across the field.
Liana raised her hand, the Silvercrest Gryphon dived from the sky, and its claws targeted one of the mages responsible for the Array.
The man had to take his hand off the ground and create a shield, and at the same time one of the Array’s lines went out.
"One!" He shouted.
"Separate the mages from the Array! We don’t need to defeat all of them!" Rindo understood immediately.
Seraphina moved and made another slash, splitting one of the Mana pillars in half.
But even with their progress, Rodrick had already created a large distance.
Very large.
For a moment, Lian looked through the chaos toward the central path.
He and Elena were now near the end of the bridge and had reached the mountain.
Rodrick was the first person to step onto the huge stairs of the upside-down mountain.
His breathing had become heavy, not because of tiredness but because of excitement, he had worked for months to build his current position.
Power.
Resources.
Connections.
The trust of the students.
The fear of his opponents.
All of it was for something more than just becoming Student Council President, he did not want to be one of the best of his generation.
He wanted to be the name people said first when they talked about the new generation.
And today was the best opportunity.
He climbed the stairs two at a time, Elena was several meters behind him, and the higher they went, the stronger the wind became.
The Crown was no longer a small point and was almost the size of a real Crown, floating several meters above a stone platform.
He reached the final step.
Only a few meters remained before he could take first place in this test, and a smile appeared on his face.
Everything had gone according to his plan, the only problem was that he had failed to get three Seals, but it did not matter....the person who has the last smile is the winner.
He had allowed them to open the Gate and bought several minutes, trapped them, and now he had arrived first.
Rodrick raised his hand and closed his fingers around the Crown.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
Golden light covered the entire peak....he had obtained the Crown.
Down the mountain, one of the last prison walls broke under the combined attack of Seraphina and Kain.
But the sound of the light explosion made almost everyone look up, the Crown was no longer floating in the air and was in Rodrick’s hand.
"He got it..." Rindo’s face changed.
"Fuck." Marcus let out a heavy breath.
"That bastard really made it!"
Kain pushed one student aside, and when he saw the Crown in Rodrick’s hand, his face tightened with anger.
"Damn it! That bastard really got the Crown!"
Among all of them, only one person showed almost no reaction.
Lian.
He grabbed one of the Mana chains with his armored hand and broke it with force.
Clack!
Then he slowly raised his head and looked at the Crown.
"Don’t worry."
Kain almost violently turned his head toward him.
"Don’t worry?! How can you be so calm?! We just let that bastard pass right in front of us and take the Crown! We’re losing to him!" He asked in disbelief.
The young Vorhelm said nothing and only looked at the Crown for several seconds, then a short memory of the academy hall appeared in his mind.
"So whoever takes the Crown wins?" A student had asked Silas.
"I said the Crown will become available." And Silas had answered.
Nothing more, he had never once said that taking the Crown was the end of the test.
"No, he only became the first person to reach the Crown." The corner of Lian’s lips rose.
"What difference does it make?" Kain looked at him with a deep frown.
"Professor Silas never said that whoever takes the Crown wins." The young Vorhelm reminded him of the point.
Kain was silent for a moment.
Rindo also suddenly looked at him, and Seraphina remembered something, their eyes narrowed slightly.
And at that exact moment, the entire realm became silent, and then the first notification appeared in front of all the participants.
[Crown captured.]
[Crown Holder: Rodrick Ashen.]
On the peak, Rodrick’s smile became deeper, but the next notification appeared.
[Final Stage has begun.]
His smile stopped for a moment.
[Crown Holder registered as the King.]
[The King’s location will be revealed to all participants.]
[Defeating the King: 500 Points.]
[Capturing the Crown from the King: Allowed.]
[Final Stage Victory Condition:]
[Keep the Crown for 30 minutes.]
[Time Remaining: 30:00.]
The red pillar of light that reached from the Crown to the sky could now be seen from almost every part of the realm.
There was no longer any need for anyone to guess where Rodrick was.
The King was standing at the highest point of the upside-down mountain, and the system was practically shouting his location to every participant.
The effect of the notifications was almost immediate.
On the distant islands, groups that had been looking for each other or for extra points from Sub-Tests only moments ago changed their paths.
Some of the stone bridges became filled with groups of five or ten people.
From another path, nearly twenty students were running toward the Central Gate, and even those who had no real chance of taking the Crown now had enough reason to join this chaos.
Five hundred Points.
For many students, even taking part in defeating Rodrick could raise their final rank by several places.
Kain saw this scene and a smile appeared on his face.
"Well then, we should go after him now, right?" He looked impatiently toward the mountain path and cracked his fists. "If we move right now, we can get up there before half the academy arrives and—"
"No." Lian said calmly.
And for a moment, he thought he had heard wrong, he turned his head toward him.
"No?"
The young Vorhelm looked at the timer.
[29:43.]
Then he looked back toward the top of the mountain, Rodrick was only a small figure beside the red light of the Crown from this distance.
"Thirty minutes is a long time, anyone who goes up there now is using Rodrick’s people’s Mana and energy without taking anything away from us."
Kain opened his mouth, but Lian continued.
"I’m not going to spend my own energy to tire out my enemy when hundreds of people are volunteering to do it."
There was silence for a few seconds.
"That sounds pretty unfair." Ethan moved his gaze between Lian and the mountain.
"Yeah, that’s why it’s a good idea." Marcus added.
"I never said it was a bad idea."