Lera, Fatera, and Ver were all scattered in the various corners of the battlefield when the battle began, and their intertwining paths towards their designated area inevitably brought them to countless oppositions.

After defeating the various Wave users hidden within the snowy landscape, Lera then deployed her Scouting Eyes far and wide ahead of her, picking up any hints of other wave users before expertly avoiding drawing further attention from others.

There was no sense of distance from the Compass Casts, but as long as Lera stays in the game, it really doesn't matter how far away the thing actually is. The snowy mountain top towers over the battleground, and the Compass swiftly guided her to move around it instead of scaling the mountain itself.

They were told that the Winter Wars will utilize components from the various naturally occurring phenomenon within the mountain, but perhaps that's reserved for the later stages, where the battle-royale style battle transitions into a straightforward one-on-one tournament.

It wasn't long before the wind rushing past her ear was the only thing that she could hear. Then, everything suddenly became slower and slower, as the snowdrops falling right past her rapidly decelerates until they now leave behind a slow track in the air beside her. She blinked a few times, and her eyelids felt heavy and her breathing became difficult.

What the hell is going on?! She thought, forcing her neck around and looking down at the Compass Cast stuck to the control of her Car as it pulsed with light, indicating the arrival at her designated location. As she tried to look forward at the road again, she saw a massive tree trunk attached to a rope being swung in her direction as it tore through the bubble bubble of her Car with ease, sending her flying up into the air, all with ultra slow-motion.

As she slowly floated through the air like a balloon, a massive Cast that surrounded the entire slope of the mountain spanning hundreds of meters revealed itself, and the symbols of clocks over patches of the Cast spun round and round as subjective time for Lera was slowed even further.

Then, amid the stillness, a figure dressed in a massive yellow winter jacket slashed through the air towards Lera as the chariot Cast of hers dissipated away.

"YOU ARE DONE!" The figure said with a thin masculine voice as he held a stuff by his side and channeled his power through it, a blue spherical orb made with gears exploding in front of Lera, slowly tearing her skin open.

The pain was visceral, slow, yet immediately tortuous. Lera grunted painfully and tried to break out of the effect of the environmental Cast as the figure followed up yet another attack at a much closer range.

"Take...THIS...!" Lera said with great difficulty, "BLINDING LIGHT!"

Then, a flash went off from Lera's hands as a bright light whitened the entire sides of the mountain. The figure clearly didn't expect this level of resistance as he barely tilted his head to the side, though the blinding intensity of Lera's attack still completely blurred up his vision.

As he fell back down into the snow, Lera's body gradually drops down onto the ground as she pinched close the wounds over her right arm and tied it up with a thin bandage.

"Tsk! Damn it!" The figure cursed and stumbled up onto his feet. However, the only thing he could see are patches of grey without a hint of color and shapes, "YOU BITCH! WHAT DID YOU DO!"

Lera looked at the figure as she turned around with great difficulty. The prior exchange with the Wave user was enough for her to realize that there was a Cast that slows time that were set up in this environment right around the Pendant, and her enemy had been waiting for the arrival of the others ever since the very beginning.

Like a spider waiting for its net to catch its prey, he has also been waiting for his enemies that inevitably found their way here. However, when the prey turned it on the predator, this spider in front of her became far less impressive. He clearly didn't expect how effective a flashbang-style attack did within his time-slowing field, and now, he is paying the price.

"I used science." Lera said as the effect of time-slowing slowly started to fade as the figure shifted more of his Wave towards healing his internal injuries, "Light is the fastest thing in the universe, apart from causality itself. That's what he told me."

"Screw you!" The man cursed when his vision immediately returned after he stimulated the healing of his eyes through an active channeling of the Wave. However, in that one second of weakness, Lera had already set up her own Cast array with dozens of floating Wave orbs at the ready. Then, tied down by the vines, she carpet-bombed the entire region, knocking him cleanly out and securing the pendant from his remains before setting up her own Cast Array into the environment.

Holding the pendant in her hand, Lera sat back into the snow before the others that shared her designated location slowly crept up from beyond the horizon, and she ignored the flash wound over her forearm before charging forward with her Cast Array underneath her feet.

The battle was long and fierce, but by the time the final bell for the battle royale rang, Lera's legs finally collapsed underneath her weight as she fell forward onto the bodies of the other participants that she defeated. As a chariot formed over the pile of passed-out students, Lera crawled onto the chariot with the remainder of her strength before falling quickly asleep on it.

As Lera battled the countless Wave users, starting from the Time Slowing Caster and then the rest, Fatera was having the time of her life.

"TAKE THIS! TAKE THAT!" With a punch, Fatera sent a pair of Channelers flying through the trees before she spun around and slammed her foot on the ground in the same breathe, breaking apart the Cast that was embedded into the ground as a trio of manifesters dashed towards her from above and below.

"She's too much of a threat! Take her down first!" One of the Wave users said, "If we don't stop her, none of us can move on!"

"ENTERTAIN ME MORE!" Fatera laughed, deflecting the blasts with a swipe of her fists before chopping on the neck of the first Manifester, launching his face into the dirt and knocking him out. The second Manifester created a long winding blade that moved like a whip and slashed Fatera right across the torso.

She was briefly bent over by the impact, but when she straightened up again, there was not even a single scratch over her abdomen as she reached forward and pinched the body of the soft blade with her fingers. Spinning around, Fatera then yanked the second Manifester towards her before kneeing her right in the stomach and folding her opponent like a deck chair.

"You...monster..." She grunted before passing out as the third Manifester projected his voice outwards as a massive red dragon surged forward.

"WE MEET AGAIN, CRAZY LADY!" The man dressed in a fancy black jacket said with his dragon manifest hovering above him, "THIS TIME, YOU WILL BE MY WOMAN!"

Fatera looked up, and balsl of dragon flames swallowed her body whole as more follow-up attacks rained down at her location. Dozens of explosions rocked the ground and melted away the snow around her as black smoke filled the air.

The Casters and Manifesters continued attacking from range, hoping to finish up Fatera for good when suddenly, the dark outline of her figure emerged from the smoke, and with a thin layer of Wave fully covering her entire body, Fatera dashed forward with her body nearly parallel to the ground, her footsteps sending jolts of snow flying backwards.

Then, right before Fatera reached the group of ambushing Wave users, she suddenly turned her feet out and stopped her momentum on a dime with one fist cocked back behind her with a vortex of Wave spiraling out from it.

"Too fucking easy. Punchy Punch."

An explosion rocked the entire mountain before a small avalanche started rolling down from the hilltop near Fatera, and before the cumulated momentum of snow was about to swallow everything, Fatera leaped past the bodies of the defeated ambushers and stood in front of them.

This is all but a match, so they don't need to die for their little...hopeful experiment. Fatera thought as she slowed her breathing and concentrated the Wave within her body right around her palm. Then, she raised her hands out to the side at shoulder level before bringing them rapidly with her finger tips sharply cutting through the air, "Hard mode: Clappy Clap."

A deafening shockwave traveled outwards from her hands and crushed forward, clashing straight on against the unstoppable momentum of the avalanche and stopping it dead in its tracks. Then, as more and more of the snow started to pile up instead of rush down the mountain, Fatera clapped her hand together one more time.

The rocking of the entire battleground halted at last as the avalanche were stopped, and a castle of snow was built by Fatera as a monument of her ridiculous power.

"HA! Looks like we got someone crazy this year." One of the more senior students with snow-white hair and bright blue eyes watched on from afar with a pendant swirling around his wrist, "I want to meet her."

"Don't get any funny ideas." Another young man next to him with a fresh scar across his face said, kicking aside a piece of rock as it rolled forward and down a slope, "She's mine to defeat."

"She's clearly into girls, are you blind?!" Right behind them, a pale girl with her red hair roughly cut and tied to one side growled before she stomped her boot into the back of the first one, "I will kick yo ass if any of you lay your hands on her."

"Fine fine..." The first student puts his hands up, "You may have her, Yuna-sama."

"That's right, Matty boy." Yuna spun her boots in the first student's back before cleaning off the mud on it with his jacket, "I have been finding someone that can truly satisfy me for way too fucking long."

"Hey, last time we did it..." The young man with a fresh scar turned around in protest when Yuna kicked him right in the face and created yet another scar on his handsome face.

"You?! You are still five years to early to remotely make me feel good!" Yuna said, dropping her boots down, "Braka mate, you are too vanilla! Didn't I tell you before?!"

"If you wanted rough...just tell me..." Braka grunted unhappily when Yuna laughed and wrapped her arms on his shoulders as he slowly stood up straight.

Then, the final bells of the battle royale were rung, and the chariots formed around all sixty-four of the successful participants before picking them up and taking them straight to a resort halfway up the snowy mountain. However, after the avalanche caused by Fatera, the icy barren rocks were all the scenery outside of the resort windows.

The resort is a brightly lit wooden building that had a distinctive Eastern oriental style, and its doors swung open as the chariots landed one after another.

"Welcome, my battle royale victors." As the students strolled into the resort with varying levels of injuries, an angelic young man with curly brown hair and red skin dressed in a white shirt and shiny golden boots welcomed them at the door of the resort, "I am John King, and welcome to my resort."

"What...."

There were murmurs from the unknowing students, and those that were more in touch with the businesses of the elite scorned at the confusd remarks.

"Not to brag, but I am the number one ranked Wave user on the Board." John King smiled, stealing away the hearts of the girls around with it, "And I will be taking care of you until your disqualification in this tournament. Or if you win, in which case, I will be with you until the end."