Emil was passing through the seventy fifth step at this point.

He'd already made it to the top five, in fact, he was just a couple steps behind the fourth person, Max The Dog.

Max looked on in anger and spite as Emil surpassed him, demoting him to the fifth spot.

Getting surpassed by Eric was one thing, but being left behind by the academy's number one trash in history... It was infuriating!

Despite all his anger though, all he could do was watch and crawl forward, in fear of being overtaken yet again.

Just a few steps above Max was Eric.

Emil, with all his momentum, was upon him now.

The staircase wasn't too wide but it was big enough to accommodate several people at once.

Theoretically, no one would bump into each other unless intentional.

To everyone, that seemed to be the case as Emil rammed leg first into the crawling Eric.

As he did so, his fire sword brushed against him, eliciting a groan of pain from him.

"Augh."

Rolling over, Eric clutched his hand and breathed raggedly as the combination of the attack and pressure from the gravity pinned his body down to the ground.

It would be a while before he could start climbing again, he needed to recover.

Max flashed the still down Eric an ugly smile as he surpassed him.

'Semms like the trash wasn't all that useless, how do you like that huh?'

He beamed inside, gloating at his rival's misfortune.

Emil, lost in focus and unaware of the events that just took place, kept walking up with his Fire Sword flickering in his hand.

At around eighty steps, he met and surpassed Alfred.

Alfred, just like Max, had an outraged expression on his face.

'this commoner piece of trash!'

He grit his teeth and clenched his fist. He was sure to make that commoner dog regret ever stepping into the academy when this was over.

After remembering the person at he top though, his expression loosened a little bit.

The person Emil was headed for was no other than Ricard.

Knowing that guy's character, he probably didn't need to lift a finger.

Ricard would make sure to take care of him himself, he'd take care of him well.

Hints of fear burst into Alfred's heart as he thought of Ricard. But he quickly doused them off and refocused his attention on the race.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

He had a competition to see through. and besides, he wasn't the target of Ricard's anger, he was safe.

Emil's eyes began regaining hints of focus as he neared the ninetieth step.

That back, he recognized it.

It belonged to the person he hated most in this world.

With a snap of his head, Emil looked back to see the long staircase behind him.

He'd already made it this far without even realizing!

He wasn't sure how, he only did what everyone else was doing.

But that didn't matter.

Previously, all he wanted was to get into the top ten.

Now, all he wanted was to earn the number one spot, a blow to Ricard's ego.

Finally, after ninety steps, Emil's Fire Sword flickered off as his mana core ran completely dry.

With a snap of his head, Ricard turned back to inspect the source of the disturbance behind him.

Who could've possibly caught up to him? Alfred? But he was so far behind. Max? Impossible, he wasn't nearly good enough.

Eric? Last time he remembered he was fourth place.

To begin with no one should've been able to catch up to him.

He was the best, the storngest within his peers, he had no competition!

The answer left him shell shocked.

"What the hell are you doing here you little bastard!?"

Ricard spit out through gritted teeth.

Emil didn't say a word, he only looked at him with a wide, almost evil grin, and strong flames burning in his eyes.

"I'm here for payback."

Emil uttered, his voice beaming with thirst.

His response left Ricard stunned.

Since when did that slave make such an expression? And since when did he dare rebuke him?

"Hahahahaha."

The audience, witnessing the interaction between the two, were left confused.

Why was Ricard laughing? What did Emil say to him?

"Hahahahaha, Puaahahaha."

Ricard only got louder and louder.

He was having a genuine heartfelt laugh, from the bottom of his heart.

He was laughing so hard in fact, he stopped crawling and lay on the stairs with his hands covering his belly.

After laughing so much he started panting, he finally stopped and began moving forward in silence.

Emil, who was next to him by now remained speechless as well.

They didn't need words to convey one another's feelings. Anyone present at the scene would see the sparks of hate flying between them.

More than anyone else, Alfred and Max were shocked to hear Ricard laugh, to the point where they had to pinch themselves to check if they were dreaming.

They'd never seen him laugh, not like that. That was a genuine heartfelt laughter, from that hell spawn Ricard himself.

They didn't know the reason behind it, but what they did know was that they didn't wish to hear it again.

Since more likely than not, it was out of anger, and nothing good came out of that guy being angry.

"Emil Ashdown, beating all the odds for the hundredth time in the past few hours, placed himself next to the undisputable, unparalleled winner of this match, Ricard Burton!

Will he show us one last miracle, or will he cave in next to the brightest talent of the generation?"

Everyone was at the edge of their seats, from the spectators to the judges.

Piers was mumbling something incoherent, if you could lip read you'd be able to tell.

"Go Emil, you can do this."

Annora Grimald next to him was looking on in anticipation, her hands clutching her chair's handles.

Next to her was Eydis Olbrecht. Her usual poker face was broken, a tense expression apparent on her face.

Depsite his best efforts to hide his emotions, Osric's foot was tapping the ground repeatedly, giving away his excitement.

The only one who looked calm was Gerold Nesta, the Formation Master.

He watched on with his ever cold and indifferent eyes.

"There is no way guys, that trash will not beat Ricard."

"O-Of course he won't, are you out of your mind? That's, it's just not possible."

"Why isn't possible?"

"It's just not."

"Why not, you stupid bastard?"

"..."

"He's already neck to neck with him. That trash, he might actually win..."

In another corner, a group of people were looking on strangely.

Strange, perhaps closer to fuming.

Helen's fists were clenched, and her mouth shut tight as her eyes switched between the monitor showing Eric and Emil.

the boy next to her, his muscles twitched under his clothes as he took a deep breath to ease his tense body.

Helen's sister on the other hand, was looking much more calm, more relaxed.

her eyes however, just like her companions, were glued to the screens.

they looked as still as water, but deep underneath that serene exterior, an icy-cold killing intent was setting off.