The Anomaly's Path

Down on the main floor of the ruined cathedral, the frozen ground shook as waves of guardian monsters rushed the front lines.

”Out of my way, you big gargoyles!” Roan laughed wildly.

His long spear cut through the cold air, killing three frost golems in one smooth spin. He did not even use his Time power. His raw skill alone made him look like a fast blur. Right behind him, Damon kept his heavy shield planted in the stone, bracing his shoulder as sharp ice spikes fell from above.

A few yards away, a big pillar of light mana burst out.

Arthur moved with clean, perfect skill, his sword glowing like a small sun as he shattered a group of ice gargoyles into dust. Behind him, Amelia spun sharp water currents to keep the remaining beasts from surrounding them.

Up on the high stone balcony looking over the chaos, Leo leaned against the cold ledge, watching the big fight below. His breathing was slowing down, but a dull ache throbbed in his head — the tiredness from forcing his spatial sense to stretch through miles of ice.

He was not standing up there because he was too weak to join. He was watching because jumping into that big mess of small enemies was a waste of time.

They only had two hours left. Fighting those endless waves of guardian monsters would not give them enough points to win. If he wanted to win this tournament, he needed to go past this whole crowd and go straight for the main boss core behind that frozen archway.

”Let’s move,” Leo muttered to Malva, turning away from the railing to find a way down.

Clang!

A sharp, sudden shift in the air set off his Flash Instinct. A warning flared in his mind before his brain could even see the threat. He jerked his head back as a dark, sharp shadow blade cut through the air, missing his throat by a hair.

Leo spun around, grabbing his sword as his boots cracked the frozen stone. He looked at the source of the attack.

Coming out of the shadows near the balcony stairs was Riven.

His two daggers were covered in a dark, shifting mist, his eyes burning with a desperate need to prove himself. His uniform was torn, and his breathing was heavy — signs of the hard fight against the Frost Titans in the plaza below where his team had been broken up.

Right behind him, his teammate Caster slammed his heavy hammer into the stone floor, creating a defensive barrier of structured mana to lock down the path.

”You’re not slipping past everyone else to steal the credit, Leo,” Riven said with a smirk, his Shadow affinity flaring around him, making his form look blurry and unstable. ”You’re going down right here.”

”I wanted to go peacefully,” Leo said, a dark smile cutting across his face as black lightning began to crackle around his sword. ”But it doesn’t look like you’re going to let me do that, are you?”

Riven did not waste another breath. He lunged forward, his body dissolving into a dark trail that wrapped around the stone pillars. Leo swung his sword up, catching Riven’s falling daggers in a hard, grinding block that sent dark red sparks flying across the balcony floor.

The sheer force pushed him half a step back, his boots scraping against the frost. Riven spun out of the clash, his blades twisting toward Leo’s ribs in a fast follow-up strike. Leo blocked again, the ringing sound of metal echoing through the upper area.

Down on the main floor, Roan pierced a frost golem through its chest, his ears instantly catching the heavy clash of mana directly above him. He pulled his spear free, looked up, and spotted Leo’s white hair against the dark stone balcony.

”HAHAHA! Look at that! Wait, let me join!” Roan laughed loudly, his battle-maniac nature completely taking over.

Leaving his front spot without a second thought, Roan jumped up the cracked pillars like a mountain cat. He used the broken stone as steps, his long spear pointed toward the balcony as he vaulted over the railing, landing right in their view.

”Come on, Leo! Give me a real fight!” Roan grinned wide, his eyes bright with excitement as his sudden arrival forced both Leo and Riven to split apart.

”Seriously? Every single one of them?” Leo cursed under his breath.

Before Roan could even thrust his spear forward, a loud, angry shout broke the tension from the far stairs. ”Get out of my way! He’s mine!”

Alice crashed onto the balcony, having followed the loudest sounds of fighting from the lower valley path where she had jumped off the falling bridge.

Her longsword was held tight in both hands, her Reave power burning like a hungry, dark red fire around her skin. Her short temper was fully showing, her chest heaving with tiredness as her eyes locked onto Leo and Riven.

And she was not the last one to arrive. From the other side of the upper area, a cold, heavy feeling washed over the stone, slowing down the rising heat of Alice’s power.

Elisabeth walked calmly out of the dark stairwell, her Blood power pulsing faintly around her fingers. Her deep violet eyes locked onto the group with cold, sharp focus, her mind clearly working ahead of everyone else as she weighed her options.

Right behind her, the rest of Team Elisabeth moved into position to secure the balcony stairs, working separately from the other groups. Thomas Ward held his sword ready, his eyes scanning for threats, while Elena Ross let bright fire magic dance across her knuckles.

Princess Cordelia channeled sharp gusts of wind to deflect loose ice shards, and Julia activated her power, using heavy spatial pressure to slow down any wandering monsters or students trying to get in the Princess’s way.

The top students were gathering on the upper levels now, leaving the small enemies below to face each other. Every single one of them was staring at each other, weapons out, cursing under their breath as the whole balcony fell into chaos.

The sheer amount of high-level power clashing in such a small space was heavy. It was not just them anymore. The surrounding walkways were filling with leftover teams — elves from the lower areas, heavy dwarven fighters, and human fighters who had followed the big fights up the stairs.

On a cracked ledge above the chaos, Nyra moved like a ghost, her claws flashing as she tore through a frost gargoyle that had strayed too close to Amelia’s flank.

”Step aside, shadow-boy!” Alice yelled, her face twisted in anger as she ignored the danger of the situation. She swung her big longsword in a hard, flat arc. A wave of dark red Reave energy burst from her blade, hungry and strong, eating through the frost on the stone.

Riven hissed, his form blurring as he used his Shadow power to slip under the wave, appearing to her left. ”Don’t order me around, bitch! I’m taking Leo’s head!” His daggers flashed in a fast, blinding cross-slash aimed at her neck.

Alice did not even flinch. She swung her heavy blade back with raw strength, her Reave power growing hotter as it fed on the leftover mana in the air. Clang! The hit sent a violent shake through the stone, cracking the old masonry under their feet.

Taking quick advantage of their distraction, Roan did not wait. His easy smile was gone, replaced by the deadly focus of an Expert High fighter. His spear became a silver streak, stabbing straight toward Leo’s chest with fast speed.

Thwack!

Leo moved on instinct, his body reacting before his mind could even track Roan’s weapon. He ducked to the left, the cold steel of the spearhead scraping his shoulder, cutting off a layer of frost. He spun on his heel, sending a burst of black lightning into his sword as he slashed up.

Roan reacted with fast speed, twisting his spear to catch his blade.

Clang!

Dark lightning arced across Roan’s weapon, but Roan just laughed, using the force to turn and deliver a hard kick aimed at Leo’s ribs. Leo brought his left arm down to block, but the force pushed him back three steps, his boots carving lines into the icy floor.

A sharp pain suddenly throbbed behind Leo’s eyes.

The constant use of Flash Instinct, along with the low hum of his Spatial Awareness trying to track the whole balcony, was wearing him down. His vision blurred for a second, the edges turning dark with heavy tiredness.

To make things worse, the outer edge of the balcony was falling into a full chaotic fight.

Elite human fighters clashed with incoming vampire teams. Elena Ross unleashed a massive wall of fire to burn through a cluster of incoming gargoyles, while Thomas Ward cut down an elven skirmisher who tried to flank them.

Julia slammed a heavy wave of spatial pressure downward, crushing the footing of two armored dwarven vanguard stragglers who got too close to Team Elisabeth’s line.

Over on the edge of the secondary tier, Lyssaria unleashed a warm pulse of World Tree healing magic to quickly mend the gashes on her frontline’s vanguard, while Caster raised his reinforced hammer to intercept a stray explosive spell that threatened to blast their position.

Spells of fire and earth burst everywhere, breaking the stone pillars holding up the upper area.

Through the chaos, Leo saw Malva. She was cornered by three high-ranking elf scouts who had joined the fight. She moved with precision, her sword swinging in clean, flat arcs as her Void power erased an incoming blast of wind magic.

But her rank was only Elite Low, and her mana was running low after hours of fighting. Her breathing was hard, her shoulders heavy with tiredness, and her footing slipped on the frost as a heavy dwarven fighter charged her side with a raised axe.

Leo’s mind raced. If they stayed here, they would get stuck in an endless fight against the whole cast and a horde of extra students. The clock was ticking.

He parried another fast thrust from Roan, the shake jarring his teeth. ”Malva! To me!” he shouted over the loud noise of the battlefield.

Leo forced his fading will to focus. Ignoring the headache that threatened to make him black out, he pushed his Space power to its limit. He dropped his guard, stepped inside Roan’s range, and grabbed Malva by her arm just as the dwarven axe swung through the air where she had been.

”Hold on!”

He slammed Tempest into its sheath, using the last of his focus to twist the space under their feet. A dark, shimmering portal tore open on the balcony floor, its edges crackling with unstable purple energy.

Before Roan, Riven, Arthur, or Alice could lunge forward to stop them, Leo and Malva fell backward into the dark rift. The portal closed behind them with a sharp sound, leaving the loud shouts and clashing steel behind.

_

The trip through the folded space lasted only a second, but it felt like their brains were being squeezed through a hole. When the dark broke, their boots hit hard, frozen stone. Both of them fell to the floor, sliding a few feet before stopping.

”Haa... Hah...”

They lay there for a long moment, coughing and breathing hard as they tried to get air into their lungs. The mental drain of the space jump, along with Leo’s overused senses, left his vision swimming with dark spots.

A drop of cold sweat rolled down his nose, hitting the frost. His knees shook as he pushed himself up on his elbows, his chest burning from the sudden emptiness of his focus.

Beside him, Malva was leaning against a jagged rock wall. Her face was pale, her uniform covered in dirt and ice, and her sword rested loosely in her shaking grip. She did not say a word, her blank face returning through sheer will despite her tiredness.

The air here was different. The noise of the cathedral was gone, replaced by a dead, heavy silence that made the hair on their necks stand up.

Leo slowly forced his head up, wiping dirt from his forehead, and looked forward.

They had successfully bypassed the entire crowd. Directly in front of them lay a massive, old, wide-open frozen courtyard square surrounded by giant, towering blue ice pillars — the dead center of the boss territory.