Chapter 101

this is a fictional story by realTensai

An icy wind flew over the snowy battlefield as if asking everyone if they were ready for this confrontation. An even colder sweat trickled down Alvis’ face, his eyes fixed on the SS-ranked calamity before them.

“We can do it, we can do it, we can do it,….”

Alvis turned his gaze to the side, hearing how Chao mumbled these words like a spell to calm his shaking body down. The same went for Nero, yet her eyes were steeled in resolve. Even Hibea’s smile didn’t seem as enthusiastic anymore. However, Alvis just took a deep breath in and out, letting the cold calm and sharp his mind.

Gilsymbato is strong, but we have the numbers. I have to come up with a plan to crush him!

Gilsymbato took one step forward.

A pressure unknown to any of them gripped their entire being, making them unable to breathe.

Gilsymbato took another step forward.

Killing intent far surpassing their brains made them shiver in fear.

Gilsymbato took another step forward.

“AHHHHHH!” Mr. Rafi shouted, as he couldn’t endure the pressure anymore. With black flames in his hands, he rushed at his enemy. Yet this was what gave everyone else the final push.

“AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”

Primal war cries echoed throughout the battlefield as everyone followed Mr. Rafi’s lead. Gilsymbato just smiled as he charged right into the army of 200.

Mr. Rafi’s black flames made their way to Gilsymbato, accompanied by even more fireballs cast by other students and teachers.

However, Gilsymbato spread his wings and in the next second, he stood next to two giants. They couldn’t even blink as Gilsymbato ripped their hearts out. The fireballs reached him, yet he grabbed the corpses of the two giants and used them as a shield to ward off the fire.

Smoke blurred out everyone’s vision, but painful cries made it clear where Gilsymbato was wreaking havoc. When the smoke cleared for a moment, they saw Gilsymbato in the center of it all, a blur of motion.

His fist shattered a giant’s ribcage, sending shards of bone flying like shrapnel. He took his enemies out in melee combat, his physical abilities enough to beat everyone.

Three sword wielding beast men simultaneously tried to cut him down, approaching him from his dead angle. However, without turning around, Gilsymbato just stomped, sending a burst of snow into their eyes. He used the second in which they couldn’t see and jumped up in one destructive motion, kicking their heads off their body. His kick was so strong that the heads flew like a cannon killing nearby people.

He landed softly, blood dripping down his face, his smile widening with every corpse that joined the growing pile. Then, as if struck by inspiration, he bent down, scooping up a handful of snow.

“Let’s have some fun.”

Gilsymbato packed the snow into a snowball and threw it. The snowball whistled through the air, moving faster than a beam shot, and struck a student square in the chest. A sickening crunch echoed as the body crumpled to the ground, lifeless.

“Hahahahhahahah!”

Gilsymbato laughed, as if he was a child that was having fun in the snow, as he began crafting more and more. Each snowball he threw shattered bodies, piercing guard and flesh alike. It was a snowfight, no doubt, only that his snowballs created a horror far beyond common sense. The battlefield erupted into chaos as students and teachers scrambled for cover, but there was no escaping the snowstorm of death.

If this goes on like this, we have no chance.

“Everyone listen,” Alvis shouted as he stepped forward, ready to engage in the battle. He released the mana from his mana core, making it flow through his body to strengthen his every move. “We don’t stand a chance if we keep fighting like this. Without a plan to utilize our numbers advantage, he will annihilate us in mere seconds. So let me create a tactic that will lead us to victory.”

“Who do you think you are, boy?” Mr. Rafi shouted, his eyes filled with rage. “I won’t listen to a mere student.”

“Your charge just now was absolutely futile,” Alvis said, staring him right into his eyes. “If you want more people to die, then sure, go on.”

“You….”

“I’m Alvis Silva, member of the student council team that successfully completed three quests yesterday. If you want to make it out of here alive, then—”

“You sure talk a lot, human boy.”

Gilsymbato stood right before Alvis, his fist about to crush his skull.

Yet Alvis just smiled.

An ice spike erupted from the ground, piercing right through Gilsymbato’s left wing, catapulting him into the air.

“I knew you would attack me,” Alvis said, his brain running at its highest capacity. “Everyone listen, if you follow my lead, I will lead you to victory!”

After seeing how Alvis overcame a sure death situation, everyone trapped in this game realized that he was the only one who could somewhat keep up with that monster. Thus they listened.

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“Everyone who can cast advanced or master rank distance spells or has a weapon that works at a distance, you will constantly attack him as long as you have mana in you. We don’t stand a chance in melee combat. Giants and beast men, you will act as the tanks and try your best to defend our attack team. Everyone else, just try to survive.”

They quickly got into formation whilst Gilsymbato was still hovering in the air. He gave them time to make their moves, as if wanting to see what they were capable of. After they finished coordinating their formation, he attacked.

“Fire!” Alvis commanded, and a surge of spells and beam shots bombarded Gilsymbato.

However, he didn’t dodge and flew right through them.

Is he insane?

Even Gilsymbato didn’t go out unharmed, as his body was covered in scratches and minor injuries. Yet this wasn’t nearly enough to defeat him. He landed on the ground, his impact creating a vast crater. Then, with one step, he was in the midst of their formation.

Did he become even faster?

“Freeze!”

An ice pillar trapped Gilsymbato as Ms. Frost cast her spell.

“Woaaaahhh!” giants and beast men shouted as they used this chance and rained their fists on the frozen Gilsymbato.

However, he immediately broke out the imprisonment and parried all their attacks with his bare hands. And with only one punch, he created a torrent so strong it ripped everyone’s body apart who stood within a radius of ten meters to him.

This strength…. He got stronger.

Once again, Gilsymbato took one step forward, yet the pressure he emitted was so strong some people almost feinted.

“Don’t hesitate. Fire your strongest attacks!”

The mana density rose as several master rank spells morphed into existence. Teachers and powerful students combined all their spells in one destructive attack that took on the shape of an all-consuming flame.

“Raahhhhh!” they shouted as they released this monster.

The attack rushed at Gilsymbato, destroying everything in its path, yet Gilsymbato didn’t move, the grin on his face not vanishing.

“BOOOOM!”

Upon hitting Gilsymbato, the attack resounded in a loud boom, making Alvis’ ears beep. A smoke pillar erupted as if a bomb had just exploded, clouding their views for several seconds.

Even Gilsymbato won’t...

The smoke layer vanished, revealing an unharmed Gilsymbato.

“You gotta be kidding me…” Mr. Rafi said, the strength in his legs vanishing as he gave in to despair.

Yet even Alvis couldn’t trust his eyes. This enormous attack didn’t even leave a scratch on Gilsymbato.

This can’t be! My ice spike damaged his wing and even the combined attack from before made him bleed. So how come our strongest attack yet did nothing? Don’t tell me he really…

“Gilsymbato gets stronger as the fight goes on,” Hibea muttered, her usual smirk gone for the first time.

Alvis froze at her words, the realization crashing over him like a cold wave. His instincts had told him something was wrong, but now, everything began to make sense.

But Hibea wasn’t done. Her face twisted into something between disbelief and horror.

“It’s worse than you think,” she said, her mismatched eyes narrowing. “Gilsymbato… doesn’t have a mana core.”

Those words struck like a physical blow.

“What?” Alvis said, his voice barely audible. “That’s… impossible.”

Hibea shook her head.

“I have special eyes. I can see ambient mana in the air. And during this fight, I’ve watched him absorb more and more of it—taking it into himself, making it part of his power.”

“How can that even happen?” Alvis asked, his mind racing. “You can’t absorb ambient mana. It would tear you apart! The body treats it like poison and rejects it.”

“That’s true for most of us,” Hibea agreed grimly. “But only because we have a mana core. If you have a mana core, you can’t absorb ambient mana, as your body would treat it as a foreign body and reject it. But Gilsymbato was born under a curse. He never had a mana core to begin with. That’s what makes him different.”

Alvis staggered back a step as memories of his own curse-laden childhood flooded his mind.

“I lived through that,” he said, voice trembling. “I know what it’s like to be born without a mana core. The pain is… unimaginable. You can’t control it. It burns you alive from the inside.”

Alvis shivered, his body recalling the pain he had tried to bury deep in his memory. Memories of mana seizures that felt like his organs were melting. The veins in his arms bursting from the sheer pressure of uncontained energy. The endless agony of his body rebelling against itself.

“I almost died from it,” he muttered. “How can he—?”

“That’s the thing,” Hibea said, cutting him off, her voice low and full of dread. “Gilsymbato didn’t just survive. He did something no one else could. He transformed his entire body into a living mana core.”

Alvis’ breath caught.

“Every part of him—every muscle, every bone, every nerve—cycles mana constantly, like blood flowing through his veins,” Hibea continued. “That’s how he’s able to handle the power and grow stronger.”

“But that’s insane,” Alvis protested. “The pain alone would be excruciating. And if he stops the cycle for even a second—”

“He’ll die,” Hibea finished. “His body would implode from the unregulated mana inside him.”

The silence between them was deafening as the weight of her words sank in.

Alvis couldn’t wrap his head around it. They shared the same condition—the same curse that had nearly broken him. But where Alvis had faltered, Gilsymbato had risen, bending the curse to his will and becoming stronger because of it.

In that moment, Alvis wasn’t sure what he felt; admiration, terror, or envy.

“He’s… incredible,” Alvis murmured, unable to suppress the thought.

However, admiration had no place here. Gilsymbato was the enemy, and they were on the brink of defeat.

And yet…

A thought sparked in Alvis’ mind, sharp and clear.

“There has to be a limit,” he said aloud, more to himself than anyone else. “No matter how much mana he absorbs, there’s a point where his body won’t be able to contain it. He’s suppressing it by constantly cycling it, but if we can push him beyond that threshold…”

Hibea’s eyes widened.

“You think we can overload him?”

Alvis nodded, determination setting in his gaze.

“It’s our only chance.”

Suddenly, their world shook and the snow field vanished, replaced by a medieval town. With the glowing crown on his head, Gilsymbato just stood there as if he was the king of this city.

“There is no use. We will all die….” a student muttered, still devastated about how their attack had failed.

Alvis scanned the crowd, their slumped shoulders and lifeless stares telling him all he needed to know. Most had already given up.

Shit.

“Chao, Nero, Hibea, listen to me carefully. I have a plan to win this battle. But you will have to…”

Alvis explained his plan.

“No, I can’t accept this. You will die. This is just suicidal!” Nero shouted after hearing what Alvis had come up with.

“This is our only chance and you know that,” Alvis said, his eyes conveying his resolve. “We don’t have time to argue. Once he attacks, it’s over.”

“B-But—”

“Just trust him, Nero,” Chao said with a smile. “Alvis will win.”

“You also have a hard job, but I trust you to get it done, Chao.”

He just nodded, and they fist bumped. After that, Alvis turned his attention to the battlefield, only for him to see that most people have fled. Yet those who stayed behind were those who couldn’t even move in fear. Gilsymbato still just stood there, as if wanting to see what they came up with.

Alvis stepped forward as his team members ran in the opposite direction.

“Everyone listen,” Alvis said as he approached Gilsymbato. “You’ve done a great job. I will take care of the rest. Just make sure to not end up in our crossfire.”

“Alvis, are you insane? Don’t tell me you’re trying to fight him on your own?” Feng shouted.

“Feng, take your team members to safety.”

“You....”

“Now!”

Feng listened and ran away together with his mates.

Gilsymbato tilted his head, the crown’s glow casting eerie shadows over his face.

“A one-on-one? You’ve got guts, I’ll give you that.”

“I’m not stupid. You probably already know that I’m only stalling time.”

Alvis looked at the timer and saw that three minutes were left.

Gilsymbato’s grin widened, his eyes glinting with cruel amusement.

“You are a fool for thinking you can survive three minutes against me.”

“Maybe I’m.”