Riven, who was standing on the tree, whistled. He smiled at the horrible look on Jasper’s face. Riven shook his head sadly. "You shouldn’t be distracted."
"What?" Jasper shouted.
He had committed a terrible mistake on a battlefield. Jasper forgot that he had an enemy behind him that he hadn’t finished off. His eyes widened as he turned around, his hands coming together to pull off his usual technique, but he didn’t get even an inch of a chance.
Spartacus’s fist smashed into his face. It wasn’t hard enough to trigger the death and shield, but it was hard enough to burst his nose again and send him stumbling back.
He tried to regain his footing, but another punch sent his head snapping back before Spartacus’s sword finally slashed down on his head, triggering the shield and turning him into a streak of blue light in the sky.
Riven jumped down and walked towards the remaining two. "I should take care of these two. I can’t leave everything to my summons, now can I? What type of necromancer would I be?"
His sword was held casually in his hand, but his eyes were sharp, and aura was flooding his body in gushing waves.
The two remaining students looked at each other and then tore their strips and bowed. "We surrender!"
Riven blinked. "Oh. Ehm... well, you can go, I guess."
They didn’t need to be told twice, and they hurried into the forest.
Riven sighed and ordered Spartacus to gather all the strips. He held the ten in his hand. "Well, I guess I entered the top ten rank after all.
"So minutes and I’ll have the chance to eat lunch. I’m so hungry."
☆☆▪︎▪︎☆☆
The Combat Hall was totally quiet. It was so quiet that it must have been the first ti it was that quiet since the day the building was made.
All the students and instructors stared at the projection in the sky, unblinking. They were trying to make sense of what had just happened. Still, it was hard to comprehend.
Only when they looked at the assessnt ranking and saw the ranks did the situation begin to sink into them. Only one na was in the top ten.
The others started from eleven, with Jasper in that position.
For the first ti ever, a single student got the ten strips of the top ten ranked. It was insane.
Tong, who was also looking at it, felt as if sothing spoiled was shoved down his throat. He was the strongest beside Kivara on the mountain, and he’d only ever claid three strips for himself in one assessnt ever.
How can a nobody barbarian get the top ten? Are the rank two top ten that weak? Tong shuddered. Or is Riven just that strong?
The head instructor cleared his throat as he avoided looking at Master Zandrel. "The only way in fighting isn’t just raw power and head-on. Sotis you have to be strategic in your ways so that you can win.
"Just as your student demonstrated. You are indeed lucky to have such a student. In the future, I will personally give him so pointers. Ah, I rember that I have sothing important to do. I will leave first."
The head instructor hurried away.
From the forest, other streaks of light began to land in the hall, but most of the instructors had withdrawn themselves, and most of the students too.
When Riven landed back in the hall, he raised his hand with the ten strips. "I win!"
The other students scowled at him before they quickly left the hall. Even Jasper didn’t wait. With his back hunched and head turned down, he ran out of the hall.
Master Zandrel looked around the hall with an amused smile on his face. "Well, this is the first ti I would be witnessing sothing like this."
"Yes," Kivara said flatly. "Congratulations on becoming popular. You better be able to claim the sa ten strips next month, or there won’t be any use to it."
Master Zandrel didn’t look Kivara’s way as he went forward to slap Riven on the back. "You’ve done very well this ti, Riven. Co, we are going to celebrate this. I sent people to buy food from the village down the mountain. I already knew you were going to win!"
"Or you just bought the food and alcohol because you wanted to use it to console yourself if he lost," Kivara said.
Zandrel shrugged. "Why wouldn’t he win with a Sigil like that? Co, let’s celebrate."
He dragged Riven out of the hall, together with Kivara, to his building where indeed a feast was spread out on the table. Riven’s stomach growled when he saw the different food. The sll made his mouth water.
Zandrel smiled. "It seems you are hungry indeed. Co here, let’s feed you."
Riven didn’t disagree, and he willingly went forward. He sat down in his place, but before he started to eat, he scratched his head. "Well, I want to know if there’s a reward for collecting the ten strips. I an, there should be sothing for one person collecting the whole ten!"
Zandrel blinked. "Well, I don’t know, but there should be. Besides, you will be the only one to break this record. If there’s none, then one should be created! Don’t worry, I will talk with them. They must create a reward for this! Now we eat!"
They ate. Soft chicken laps, slightly covered in honey and then fried. Seasoned vegetables. Chopped at. Soft bread wrapped around salted fish.
Riven couldn’t rember their nas when Zandrel told him, but all he knew was that they were delicious, and he enjoyed them. And the wine was the perfect complent to the food.
Before he knew it, he had cleared his part of the table and was reaching over to Kivara’s side, trying to grab a stick of her vegetable when she smacked him.
Riven blinked and looked at the empty plate in front of him in surprise. He was the one that ate all of that? He smiled sheepishly. "I guess I was hungry."
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