Chapter 2: Princess Filisia Goes Batshit Crazy
Internal class battles are held to check if the students are neglecting practical combat skills amidst all the theoretical learning. Hence, these battles occur every month. The winning team gets points as a reward, while the losing team has an equivalent amount deducted, which is like handing over their hard-earned points to the other teams.
Who would willingly give up points they’ve painstakingly earned? Being in Class A means being one of the best in both theoretical knowledge and practical training, a bunch of proud folks who won’t back down, not even against impossible foes.
Class 3A’s class battle commenced, with every student fully armed as they headed to the training area.
After regrouping with ‘Dillin’ from the Divine Authority Academy, the five stood in a row.
Tillysha couldn’t help but glance at Princess Filisia beside her. Normally, her massive sword would be carried on her back during practice. However, today, the giant, ground-crushing sword was gripped tightly in her single hand, her gaze lowered as she stared forward. There was no sign of any presence or aura from Princess Filisia.
Soon, the other two teams entered, all looking warily at the Brilliant Sun and Moon. The Divine Authorities of both teams glanced at each other.
They all knew they wouldn’t stand a chance going solo – the only chance they’d have against the top-notch Bright Sun and Moon team would be to unite.
Given the situation, a free-for-all would be more advantageous for their victory. So long as the Brilliant Sun and Moon team was smart, they’d understand the situation and act accordingly.
Tillysha saw through the two teams’ strategies. In fact, any competent Divine Authority would make the same judgment.
The mentor arrived and distributed the enchanted force-bearing belts to all students. These items were like tokens but unlike one-use tokens, belts were reusable, designed to cut costs, although a token was safer and had a higher damage limit than a force-bearing belt.
After urging the students to put on their belts, the observing mentor again emphasized sportsmanship above rivalry. If the belt breaks, you’re out. Priority is to prevent harm, victory comes second.
The randomly chosen commander turned out to be Wenfu leading the Brilliant Sun and Moon team.
With the sound of a gunshot, the competition began.
Just as Tillysha expected, the other two teams, it seemed, had a pre-planned strategy to attack them simultaneously.
The team positioned to the side exposed their backs to another team, clearly not expecting that team to attack them from the rear.
The two Divine Authorities didn’t resort to using the Divine Analysis Technique, the reason being simple: they’d fought against Tillysha before and knew her to be a force that didn’t play by the rules. The Divine Analysis Technique simply couldn’t detect her.
Princess Filisia and Aistride were the same; though not to the extent of backfiring like detecting Tillysha, their stats could not be accurately assessed by the Divine Analysis Technique. The only detectable one was Wenfu, whose information the opposing team had already scrutinized, thus deemed unnecessary to revisit.
Another function of the Divine Analysis Technique is detecting the spirit energy and Divine Authority moving within a living body but that requires a high grade of the technique and might still prove ineffective on Tillysha and the others.
In an instant, the mages, the ranger-like Divine Authority, and the heavy artillery from the two teams barraged the Brilliant Sun and Moon group with magic and Divine abilities.
This was a fair two-on-one.
In response, Tillysha, Dillin, and the others activated their Divine Realm Fields. The interlacing glows of a golden sun and silver moon wrapped around them, amber beams of light cutting through the field.
Wenfu and ‘Dillin’ naturally positioned themselves at the back.
Tillysha drew her wooden bow, while Aistride pulled— out her elven crescent blade.
Multiple light arrows and crescent-shaped silver flames combined, clashing with the magical and divine abilities unleashed by the other two teams, sending shockwaves toward both sides.
It was a tie.
Tillysha realized Princess Filisia hadn’t made a move, turning around, only to find her gone, disappeared from her side in the very next moment.
Princess Filisia?!?
Aistride also noticed this. When the dust from the explosions began to settle, all parties were astonished to see Princess Filisia had used the smoke as cover to rush straight into the face of the opposing team on the side!
It was sheer recklessness……
The Divine Authorities hadn’t even given the word to engage.
“Cover Princess Filisia,” Tillysha had originally planned to use the Divine Analysis Technique to assess all the information from the two teams, share it with her teammates, and then devise a tactic. However, Princess Filisia’s impulsive action had thoroughly disrupted her plan.
And now if she starts using the Divine Analysis Technique to obtain the information, by the time she’s done, they might as well be eating cold leftovers.
A stretched-out battlefield was not beneficial for supporting Princess Filisia, so Tillysha and the others could only advance together with her.
With the fight already underway, if you retreat at this point, that’s abandoning your teammates, and staying put would make even less sense — they were now in this kind of awkward predicament.
Tillysha held steady with her bow, five arrows mounted on it, sweeping across.
One towering young man clad in iron armor from the opposing side stepped forward, planting his sword and shield in the ground. A viridian wave rippled out, deflecting the incoming light arrows.
Though their attack was ineffective, the goal of covering Princess Filisia was achieved.
Seeing Princess Filisia drawing closer with her terrifyingly powerful giantsword, the mages from the side rushed to bombard her with magic.
Fireball, lightning chain, ice spear – all dazzling spells shot from their scrolls, raining down on Princess Filisia.
Both teams knew well about Princess Filisia’s frightening resistance to physical attacks and had no intention of engaging her in close combat.
But as the flashy spells hit Princess Filisia, they didn’t leave so much as a scratch. She emerged from the clouds of smoke unscathed, her normally bewitching gaze now filled with an ominous madness, pinning the enemy team in place, her knight boots shaking the training grounds with every step.
In her wake, the ground was covered in a thick layer of crystallized earth.
What—……?
Tillysha had never seen Princess Filisia employ such an odd technique before. Could it be a new Divine Authority derived from her original ones?
“Princess Filisia…” Aistride couldn’t help but furrow her brows.
Anyone could see that Princess Filisia was acting abnormally. Even the teammates were alarmed, let alone the opponents. Seeing her charge towards them like a ferocious beast, the enemies were utterly dumbfounded.
“Kekai! Hold her off!” the Divine Authority gave the order, and a stocky dwarf in full leather armor stepped forward, positioning his shield before the team. And yet, even with this heavy-set warrior in front, witnessing Princess Filisia’s charge made him break out in a sweat.
“Bang Bang Bang!” The giantsword collided with the massive shield, and Kekai was pushed back several steps, creating two cracks in the ground.
“Nice work! Mages and heavy artillery, quick, retaliate!” the Divine Authority then shouted across to the other team watching from the distance. “You too! If you don’t want to become her next target!”
Upon hearing this, the other team, under the Divine Authority’s command, all raised their weapons and directed them toward Princess Filisia who was relentlessly pressing Kekai back.
Princess Filisia, however, being in the midst of this fierce grapple, had no time to evade the densely packed Divine powers and magic. Judging from her current bloodthirsty gaze, she probably didn’t have any intention to escape at all.
At that moment, a pinkish glow enveloped Princess Filisia.
Wenfu activated her Divine Authority, lending resistance against divine powers to Princess Filisia, simultaneously enhancing her Divine offensive capabilities.
“Oh—oh?!” Just before being floored by the overwhelming force of Princess Filisia’s weapon, Kekai noticed that tiny amber crystals started budding from his body, causing his skin to crawl.
With the crystal technique pinning him in place, Princess Filisia shifted tactics, wildly pounding his shield with her giantsword. During this attack, Kekai’s crystals fell off one after another, and his force-bearing belt rang chaotically.
These teams weren’t pushovers; while they dared not approach Princess Filisia, the heavy artillery and mages’ attacks indeed landed on her back and waist, as evidenced by the yellow warning of her belt light.
If they continued this onslaught, Princess Filisia would likely be taken out before Kekai.
“Kekai, please, you must hold on! It’s all on you!” the Divine Authority encouraged, catching a glimmer of hope.
A light arrow shot across the sky like a meteor from a 45-degree angle overhead and struck Kekai right in the neck.
“What?!” The Divine Authority whipped his head around to see a golden figure elegantly landing after gracefully leaping from the air, her blonde hair glinting in the light.
Just earlier, upon seeing Princess Filisia being ganged up on by the two teams, Tillysha had exchanged a glance with Aistride. Even without any prior coordination, Aistride had understood instantly, almost like this sort of mutual understanding was innate.
Aistride set down her crescent blade, bending one knee and intertwining her hands before her.
Tillysha rushed forward with her bow, stepping on Aistride’s palms. With sudden force, Aistride hoisted Tillysha into the air.
Tillysha arched her torso backward, hanging upside-down while shooting a fatal arrow toward Kekai, thus saving Princess Filisia’s situation.
The injured Kekai, having sustained damage from the fight so far, had his belt light up in red and was sent flying by Princess Filisia’s shoulder charge.
“What?!” The bulwark Divine Authority was taken down, and the enemy’s Divine Authority was utterly shocked by this scene. However, there was no time for him to linger in shock since, without their fortress, all that awaited them was the wild rampage of an insane knight Divine Authority.
The mage was instantly slashed off the stage by Princess Filisia’s giantsword, and the remaining Divine Authority and heavy artillery tried to retreat, but Princess Filisia planted her sword into the ground, and a towering crystal wall sprang up before them. As they stared at the barbaric knight with her massive sword, flashing a sinister yet alluring smile, they felt utterly hopeless.
The other team wasn’t idle. While the Brilliant Sun and Moon battled this misfortunate team, they thought to play the spoiler and sneak attack the Bright Sun and Moon.
As the saying goes, “When the clam and the egret fight, the fisherman benefits.”
Of course, they weren’t aiming to defeat either Tillysha or Aistride. Their plan was simple: eliminate Wenfu, and the Brilliant Sun and Moon would lose automatically.
But their schemes had already been seen through by Tillysha, who had activated the Divine Analysis Technique.
A light arrow was fired, disrupting the movement of their ranger Divine Authority, while simultaneously a crescent silver flame erupted, knocking the ranger Divine Authority backward.
Even as she landed, the ranger Divine Authority was still burning with unextinguished silver flames, rolling around to try and put out the fire.
Seeing his burning subordinate, Wenfu remained silent.
It was at this moment when Aistride swung her blade. Wenfu was already enhancing it with Divine Authority, effectively doubling the power of the silver flame. Naturally, this assassin who attempted a surprise attack was scorched to half-d*ath.
Seeing Tillysha and Aistride slowly advancing towards them, the two golden and silver figures of the young women, they knew the battle was over; they had no chance left.
The result of the competition was clear to everyone, and the Brilliant Sun and Moon team naturally walked away victorious. However…
Before the mentor could announce the victory, an ear-piercing cry was heard.
“Help! m*rder! m*rder!!”
The rest turned around, everyone taken aback.
With their belts already darkened, indicating their elimination, the Divine Authority and heavy artillery Divine Authority were fleeing in sheer terror.
“We’ve already surrendered! Stop it! Stop it! We admit defeat!”
“You can’t escape~” But, despite this, Princess Filisia behind them was still relentlessly swinging her giantsword, licking — or rather, pretending to lick her lips, as if relishing some non-existent bl**d.
Tillysha caught a glimpse of the look in Princess Filisia’s eyes, tinged with red as if soaked in bl**d, and her rosy cheeks, painted with a touch of morbid charm.
“Princess Filisia! The match is over; immediately cease attacking other teams, or your entire team will be deemed the losers!” the observant mentor scolded sternly.
But Princess Filisia turned a deaf ear, continuing to chase and mercilessly slash these defeated forces, as if she were in earnest. If not for her slow action speed, these two might have already been minced meat under Princess Filisia’s giantsword.
“Ah!” The Divine Authority’s body simply couldn’t keep up with the endurance of the Divine Authority warrior. They had no more stamina left and collapsed, toppling over the Divine Authority warrior in front of them.
Looking up, they saw the towering giantsword descending, thicker even than their own bodies, and realized it was the end.
In the instant just before the blade fell, a golden figure dashed in front of them, gripping the bow with both hands to block Princess Filisia’s giantsword with her own bow.
Seemingly because this strike didn’t draw bl**d, Princess Filisia was highly dissatisfied, adding even more force while giving off an increasingly manic laughter. Her giantsword gradually began carving a gap into the wooden bow, a gap that continued to swiftly spread….
Finally, the crystallized bow was split into two by the giantsword.
The two sitting on the ground watched in terror.
The two broken wooden parts dissolved into pure wood elements, coalescing in Tillysha’s hands as her emerald eyes locked on.
The Third Divine Authority: Realm of the Collective Forest Authority…
