The footage for the Student Council's amazing feat was displayed on the monitor. It showed the 3 former Kings and the core members of the Student Council facing a colossal Earth Titan. It stood 15-20 meters or so in height and it had a very, very large body.
It was practically a miniature mountain. Although there were only 9 members fighting, multiple high-tiered spells flew and landed on the Earth Titan. Large explosions, tidal waves, huge tornadoes, and hill-sized boulders bombarded the Earth Titan's body. The melee fighters of the Student Council were flitting all over the top half of the Earth Titan, slashing and cutting at the face or body, sending down large slabs of earth down with each successive strike.
The footage was long. It took 15 minutes of playtime, but clearly, the fight took much longer than that considering that many parts of the video were cut off, only showing the highlights. Seeing the high-end fight on the video, the entire student body began cheering and yelling. Even members from different factions couldn't help but cheer at the high-end fight.
When the ending came and the Student Council successfully felled the Earth Titan, every student in the stadium was now on their feet cheering and applauding. Even the leaders and members of the factions who were on the podium couldn't help but turn towards the Student Council members next to them and give them an applause of appreciation.
The heroic sight of every member gallantly fighting was forever etched into everyone's minds. It was no doubt that the subjugation of the Earth Titan was a Platinum ranked quest. In fact, Cecil's group had also done such a quest to take the Earth Titan's core and fashioned some boots for Ain,. except... their fight didn't last so long...
While everyone was applauding and cheering, Cecil's party was silent.
"...that's it?" Ainz mumbled, clearly being a little smug.
"...we...we took down ours pretty quickly..." Fina softly said.
"H-How come our fight seemed boring compared to theirs?" Velicia had a disbelieving look on her face after the footage ended.
"..." Elizabeth was quiet.
She stared at her brothers who were standing on the podium. In her eyes, even though Zephyr was calmly smiling, she knew that he was in fact a little furious. Getting 2nd place wasn't in his style and he never liked being 2nd best. There was also her other brother who was leading the Draco Faction. Although he wasn't as furious as Zephyr and little bit more chill, his competitive spirit wasn't any less than the former.
"Hmph. Sorry big bros... but we're taking that spot," Elizabeth quietly muttered.
"Hmhm~" Lucia was smiling from ear-to-ear. She couldn't contain her happiness since she knew that they got 1st. It was without a doubt, since their party hadn't been announced yet and there's no way some other random party or the Research Faction could get ahead of them.
"Okay, everyone! Settle down!" The headmaster said, despite himself. Even he was applauding when the Earth Titan was felled by the Student Council.
"Next... FIRST RANK!!!" He announced powerfully.
The headmaster didn't even wait for the entire stadium to quiet down before he yelled, but with this yell alone, every student quieted down and sat back down on their seats. It was clear that everyone was wondering who it was that took first place even after the student council's amazing feat of felling an Earth Titan. First, the points began to form.
"!"
"HOLY CRAP?!"
"3-30,000?!"
32,300 points...that was how much points the first ranker accumulated. Zephyr and all the leaders' eyes on the podium widened horrifically seeing that absurd amount of points. The headmaster was also excited and involuntarily began giving a little introduction about the first placed ranker.
"This party, I must say... was a blessed and gifted group of individuals. Their feats alone were enough to awe even me, the Headmaster. Not to mention how young these talented individuals are."
Everyone immediately became surprised, the headmaster had just clearly said 'party' and not 'faction'. Unlike before, the name of the first place ranker immediately formed without suspense. Little Kings.
"Little Kings?"
"What an arrogant name!"
"Woah, woah, woah... this is only a party right? A party full of Kings?"
"But... there are only 5 King's in the academy... and every King is already standing up there on the podium!"
"Then... are these the new Kings of the academy?"
"But there was no announcement!"
Once the Little Kings' name was shown on the monitor, Ainz, Eli, Fina, Lucia, and Velicia immediately began to silently celebrate. Cecil stretched his body in his seat and stood up. His act caused everyone around him to stare.
"Let's go guys."
"Yeah!"
"Mhm!"
"Alright!"
"Hmhm~"
"Okay!"
The members of Little Kings stood up and walked down towards the podium from their seat. Ainz and Velicia were clearly excited and they were smiling proudly. Fina was holding onto pet form Silver and she was smiling adorably. Elizabeth and Lucia were excited, but they kept up a serious front.
Cecil was leading the way, he had his arm resting on the hilt of his sword and the other was in his pants pocket. He yawned lightly and led his party up onto the podium. They arrived at the podium plainly with no fanfare. The entire stadium was staring incredulously at the young party of 6. They could hardly believe that a group of first years were the ones that actually took first place away from every faction in the academy, even from the Student Council.
Zephyr couldn't believe his eyes and so couldn't the leaders of the other factions. A group of 6, a small group of young first years beat them. The members behind them were about to yell out in protest, but then the stadium darkened a little, the aqua screen expanded and on the now larger monitor the footage of Little Kings began to slowly play.
The first part was a fight with the overwhelmingly large flock of Demon Hawks. Everyone in the stadium paled when they saw the huge flock descend onto the small party of 6, but in the next instant everyone exclaimed when only 2 people stood forward to deal with the monsters. Ainz and Lucia's humongous blazing tornado soon filled the screen and the entire flock of demon hawks was incinerated into ashes.
Then the footage skipped to the Demon Hawk King battle, Cecil's Ascending Blade, which annihilated the large flock of Demon Hawks, left everyone in the stadium in awe once again. Then the coordinated attacks of the party which quickly felled the Monster King ended the first part of the footage.
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The monitor blackened and soon lit up once again, this time it showed the group's feat of destroying the Lion Pride. Lucia's Red Laser and Blue Laser widened everyone's eyes once more and Cecil's constant flickering around the battlefield with his golden spear caused everyone to liken the feat closely to the Ghost King's method of killing the wyverns.
Then the screen darkened again and lit up, this time it was the party's feat of felling an Earth Titan, just like what the Student Council did. Everyone began to anticipate this fight, but they were sorely disappointed.
The battle wasn't anything flashy like the Student Council's battle. This part of the footage started quickly and ended quickly as well. It started with the Little Kings' members incapacitating the Earth Titan by destroying each of its limbs.
Elizabeth took care of the right leg and Velicia had rended apart the Titan's left leg. Fina and Silver worked in tandem to shatter the right arm and Lucia alone melted down the Titan's left arm. After that Cecil blasted apart the Earth Titan's body using an enhanced Mana Wave attack and Flash Canon in quick succession, it was followed up by Ainz's incredible multi-elemental beam of death that blasted apart the Titan's core, quickly killing the monster.
This part of the video didn't take more than 2 minutes to finish, it was simple and cleanly done. Unlike the hard put effort from the Student Council. It looked so simple that people began to wonder if the monster that the Little Kings had faced was the same as the one the Student Council had taken down.
Finally, the last part of the video started playing. This time it wasn't about the Little Kings. The video started at a cave entrance and only two members of Little Kings were present.
Cecil widened his eyes when he saw this, he turned to look at the headmaster and saw that he was looking back at him with a mischievous smile. He turned towards Fina and saw that she too was also horrified when the last video started.
'Damn!'
Cecil began gathering his mana into his arm in order to fire a mana volley at the large monitor, but flinched at the sudden pain that coursed through it. He immediately stopped and looked on helplessly at the screen.
"Cel!"
"Cecil..."
"Tsk...Damn this headmaster."
Other than Lucia and Fina who began fretting, the rest of the party only stared up at the monitor. Wondering when they did this sort of quest together and why only Fina and Cecil were being displayed.
Suddenly the footage shifted to display what was outside of the cave and the overwhelmingly large stampede of Frost Mammoths was shown. There were short gasps of shock and exclamation coming from the students in the stadium. Frost Mammoths were A+ ranked creatures that were found in dungeons. Dungeon Frost Mammoths that gathered together in herds were rated as an S- ranked threat and the large herd of Frost Mammoths that was being shown on the monitor easily trumped a normal sized herd.
Judging by the large herd it was at least an S+ or maybe SS- ranked threat. Everyone began wondering what in the world Cecil and Fina were going to do about the large herd. How would they cope with all that? The answer was soon going to show itself, Cecil walked forward, enveloped in a large golden aura with two large golden globes of mana on both his palms. He brought his arms forward and said,
"I'll eradi–"
SCHHHLACCCKKK CRACK
The screen was abruptly cut off and the entire monitor shut down. When everyone gazed up at the monitor floating overhead, a large purple flaming spear was pierced through it. Everyone turned puzzled, but then the students began complaining at the sudden interruption of the footage.
Cecil's party was staring up in wonder at the large flaming spear. What kind of fire was in that color? The headmaster, however, was sweating bullets. In his mind he was repeating the same phrase over and over again.
'Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit, oh shit, oh shit!!!'
In the mind of the Headmaster rang a coquettish voice that had a faint trace of displeasure.
"That's a no no El~ what did I tell you about troubling my kids? Hmmm~?"
"N-No, master... I-I didn't mean to... I thought... it was just good to show th–"
"Well, you thought wrong~ looks like you'll need a little punishment~"
"NO! Please no! Master, I'm sorry! I'll immediately hand over the Urrugdrasil tea leaves and the wine created from Urrugdrasil's roots over to you as compensation!"
"Hmmm~ give me the wine, give the leaves to my children~"
"Yes, at once!"
Once Anna's voice disappeared from his mind, the headmaster wiped the cold sweat on his forehead and sighed in relief. He immediately silenced the students and said that the monitor was being overused so it suddenly shut down. The students could only stare back at the headmaster stupidly.
It was the lamest excuse ever, since the broadcast was abruptly stopped because a large purple flamed spear pierced right through the monitor, forcefully halting the video. The headmaster, however, insisted on his earlier excuse and wanted the maintenance team to quickly fix the monitor. The headmaster then continued the ranking ceremony and gave each ranker their intended prizes. Cecil's party was given free access to the library's 4th and 5th floor as well as a Mana Seed for every member.
The Mana Seed was a pill, concocted by the academy and the kingdom's best alchemists. If one was to ingest the pill, it would help raise the mana levels of the individual by 500-900 units at any stage. It was a miraculous pill that helped people breakthrough mana stages as well as helped stabilize their stage at the same time.
For everyone in the party it was an awesome pill since with more mana, they could fight longer and execute their skills or spells with mana to spare for more. The headmaster also gave Cecil's party an additional reward, the Urrugdrasil Tea Leaves, something that Lucia was familiar with. The group was very much happy at this since just like the Mana Seed Pill, the Tea Leaves could also enhance their Mana levels and there was a large amount of leaves so it could last them for quite a while if brewed into a drink.