Julie watched the performance of the new students in combat classes.
Only a handful caught her eyes. There seemed to be an increased number of young prodigy in this first year batch. The previous batch was also decent but still couldn't compare to the present one.
The academy would recruit new students every half a year so those who arrived earlier would be called pre-second year students and the present batch was plainly called the first year students.
Julie used to wonder before she became the vice principal why her grandfather didn't just go with the usual pattern and based it on yearly terms instead. The answer was surprisingly very simple. Just a decade ago it was indeed on annual terms however an increase in disasters and a spike in abominations influence among multitudes of worlds in the Outer Area had forced the academy to cut off a large number of worlds they had a connection with.
So now this biannual recruitment was adopted to tackle the dwindling number.
Hell, if the worlds were further cut down then the academy wouldn't have any choice but to go for a quarterly recruitment. Julie could only lament when her thoughts went there. After taking some responsibility off her grandfather's shoulder she acutely realized how tiring running this academy was.
As a Baron, her grandfather was extremely respected among the populace but in front of other nobles it was just a bare minimum ranking which secured him to not be instantly disregarded by them. Indeed, even the lofty nobles had their own pecking order.
Julie took note of some young prodigy who caught her interests as the duels finally progressed to the top hundred among the student ranking. She noticed an increased number of young prodigy who shone brilliantly. She nodded her head in satisfaction as she conversed with some teachers about those individuals.
As her mood grew more pleasant at the decent amount of talent the academy managed to unearth this time the top ten's duels finally started. She looked at the two vague figures who appeared in the highlights on the screen and the screen first focused on the far left figure.
The tenth rank was a burly guy who wielded an iron club in one hand and a mace on another.
"A Berserker class, huh. Rare grade but I am aware that the ninth rank had an unique grade class so the match is a foregone conclusion unless there is some unexpected surprise. That student also turned out to be an elemental affinity player, teacher Nicole sure profited big time."
As she mused with interest, suddenly her eyes widened a bit when the screen focused on the far right figure on the battleground.
Her breath stopped for a second when the close up on his face appeared on the screen. It wasn't just her but all the females whether teachers or students had the same reaction at that moment. Even the male audience had a raised eyebrow or an agape mouth and some secretly daydreamed to have similar looks on the day they glowed up.
Julie naturally saw his photo before as one of the highly talented students of this year but at that time she only thought he was just a very good looking guy but seeing him on the screen moving about she realized her first impression was very wrong as he could only be described as an extremely good looking young man.
Her eyes narrowed in focus as she eagerly watched the screen.
°°°°
Blue observed the tenth rank student calmly before raising his bident in a battle-ready stance.
The guy was a Berserker class, a close range combat class specializing in blunt weapons as the main. A Rare grade class that had extremely high offensive capability in exchange for decreased rationality.
The more a player decreased their rationality the more destruction they could bring forth to their opponent. Naturally there's a limit to it as anything below to the point that one couldn't even tell left from right anymore was not possible.
Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.
"A generous estimate would be four times the damage increases when at the limit. Well, it is also very easy to deal with a buffoon like this who only knows how to charge in."
He pondered as he finally heard the countdown end.
The Berserker charged at him with tremendous momentum that seemed to be able to break down a concrete wall if he rammed into it now. There were gusts of wind swirling at his feet that further increased his speed while his blunt weapons were coated in aether.
"Using movement skill and offensive skill from the get go, an idiot. Won't even probe to gauge the opponent's cards? Well, all of them are just rookies after all."
He commented inwardly as he used his skill Blight Sense to read the attack trajectory which would bring him most harm and the trajectory which would cause the opponent most harm. His pupils glowed in dark hue after he used the skill which obviously alerted the Berserker but since no attack came from him the guy's plan didn't change.
He swiftly covered the distance with his effective use of wind attribute aura on his movement skill. He then used the wind on his arm to further increase his attack speed as he initiated the first blow at his medium strength while containing half of his rationality before the limit.
Just as he swung down the mace towards the right arm which held the bident and the club at the left rib cage he was shocked to see that the previous unmoving guy only slightly moved to dodge all of his attacks as those even failed to graze him. The bident on his hand suddenly vanished as his hand thrusted at his left thigh.
The Berserker naturally understood that either a skill or the attribute had been used just now so he hastily moved his left leg away but alas, the target turned out to be his right side of the abdomen as the invisible bident thoroughly pierced it and with a jerk teared off a chunk of flesh.
"Aaarghhh!"
He screamed in pain as he hurriedly retreated while pressing the wound. All of a sudden he felt extremely sluggish as his eyes started becoming heavier and his breathing grew fainter. Then before he could think up a way he noticed that his opponent had made a throwing motion at him. He tried to dodge the incoming bident by rolling down on the ground.
But the opponent seemed to have delayed the throw as the bident firmly lodged itself in his back that was exposed a bit later. The exhaustion became even more profound and he finally couldn't help but succumb to it by fainting.
"Oh no! Are you alright?"
Shouted Blue as he swiftly approached him just at that perfect moment when the guy was about to faint. His attacks had been full of advanced tactics and firm control which showed his brilliance that was worthy of the top ten but of course as a righteous Paladin he had to keep up with the image of someone very kindhearted and doesn't like harming others if possible.
He thus took out the bident from the guy's back carefully but with an extremely hurt and apologetic expression before finally being visibly relaxed when a teacher walked in to tend to the injured student. The teacher also couldn't help but reassure the "kind" him that such things were common in a duel so he shouldn't feel down about it but focus on the upcoming duel.
Blue also made sure to tell the teacher to convey his apology to the Berserker when he woke up. His actions were naturally being observed by others outside so he had to put on a good show.
The reason why the guy couldn't help but faint from exhaustion was because of his skill Drain Touch that was added to his bident's sharp tips. As the name suggested, it drained the opponent's stamina upon contact. No, truthfully it wasn't the stamina but the vitality itself which would equate to their lifespan.
Obviously such a vicious attack was unbecoming of a Paladin and not to mention this was being broadcasted outside. Thus he degraded the attack to only draining the stamina instead. His skill proficiency was high enough to use it in any way his heart desired.
As for why his bident became invisible to Berserker's eyes it was him using his space element's speciality of imperceptibility to show off his attainments at it. He couldn't be slacking off just because he could easily toast that guy, right?
At class level 1, the skills available to a player was three which was for a combat type divided into offensive, defensive and movement skill. His Drain Touch and Blight Sense was an offensive and a movement skill respectively. The Blight Sense itself broke the norm of movement skills as it only showed him enough to minimize the mobility needed to tackle the opponent's attack.
Unique grade class wasn't just a cabbage, after all.
The Berserker guy couldn't last long enough to show off his defensive skill to the audience so now he had to make sure that the next opponent gave him enough "challenge" to use that skill at a perfect time. Actually, that defensive skill was the true reason why he could even fight at mid range.
So he waited for the eighth rank whose place would be stolen by him shortly.