Fate or loki?

After waiting for another few minutes, many other students and teams started appearing in the hub. Second to finish their match was the team led by Heath Lewis. Heath followed the same method as Rio and immediately attacked the opposing team the second his countdown started. But due to the gap in strength, it took him a few minutes to deal with everyone, instead of one shotting them.

Heath Lewis, a draconian halfling. His appearance wasn't much different from normal boys of human lineage at first glance. But looking closely at his hands and neck, which has shallow marks of blue scaled skin, and ears with pointy ends similar to elves.

As he appeared in the quantum hub, he was surprised seeing that he wasn't the first one to clear the test, but after seeing the footage of Rio, he understood too. Heath was a student of class A-1, and trained personally under professor Harkin.

There were no expression on his face, he just glanced at Rio for a second and then closed his eyes and sat back in meditation pose.

Soon one by one all the other teams appeared too. As anyone can guess, all the main characters were on the winning teams.

When all the matches finished, all the students got teleported out again. All the losing teams were sent to a separate server, where they were to compete against each other until this test was going on. While all the winning team students were ruffled up again in different teams randomly. This was done to make sure not one team could stay strong, and students learn to cooperate with new people around them.

There were around 80 students left in class A-3. So 8 teams of ten students were made for the second match. Along with the number, the distance between both team's bases decreased a little. But to increase the difficulty, traps were made in between the pathways. So no one can just run around directly from here to there.

As soon as Rio opened his eyes this time he didn't even look at his team or introduce anyone, he directly used his aura and moved out. But just after taking a few steps outside he discovered the anomaly, as holes with spears or poison bombs or illusion traps appeared in his way.

But he just used his aura to boost his speed and avoided all the traps. Whatever hit him, it couldn't even touch him, so this match became another swift victory.

[Team A wins.]

[Match duration - 1 min 20 sec]

When the third match began only 40 students were left, divided in four teams. It was the same repeat, the distance between both bases had decreased and timings for a match decreased too. This time staff even added monsters and beasts in the middle, yet the results were the same.

[Match duration - 40 sec]

How did this happen, well since the distance between their bases decreased each time as difficulty to cross that distance increased. Rio didn't even move from his base. He just flew high in the sky and shot an arrow using the technique he picked from the library. The attack had used most of his mana and was further boosted by the touch of aura. - the arrow made a hole into the barrier and directly hit the purple core. Before the barrier cracked completely, the core of that team was already shattered in pieces.

'Whispering Wind'

This technique was written by an elf and was something he made after practicing all his life. There was nothing special about this art and it was just a simple technique that taught the way to merge wind element into their archery skills. It recorded no fancy moves, no strong skills, just methods about how one could use wind magic in various ways and compliment it to perfect the aim and output. In the Saisha found this technique and picked it. But now since Saisha got the technique of the protagonist, Rio could just make do with this one.

He'll just have to find a few teachers who can teach him all about archery later. Teachers, who can compete against the knowledge Apollo might give Leon.

Instead of teleporting out, like normally, all the students were still there in their base. magic

[This'll be the last match for the first stage, so there's no need to wait, You'll be directly teleported to the new location now.]

After the third match, only 20 students were left, one final match until the first stage ended and the second stage of royal rumble between all the classes started.

This was the match Rio was waiting for as now he could finally face Leon, no matter which team he ended up in. Rio opened his eyes again and hopefully looked around him. Yet he was disappointed once more as there was no Leon around him.

Looking at the side he was surprised as he found anyone who appeared in his team were the same as the one in the previous match.

'Damn doesn't that mean all the rankers and main characters are on my opposite side?' Rio thought, looking at every student who teleported near him. The other students seemed to notice this too, and started talking amongst themselves.

"Isn't this too unfair?"

"Are you sure this is random?"

"Who else was left after the last match. They're our opponents, did you see it?" One of the students asked.

"No I don't remember."

"Me either"

"Rebecca, Amelia, Valtor, Leon, Amaya, Morphius, Alaric, Edward, Pshinta, Nicole - Those are the only students who aren't here and haven't lost any matches yet." A cold voice rang out behind them and everyone turned their faces to see Katherine standing there, checking the sword in her hand.

Rio looked at her and furrowed his brows, feeling a little confused. How did she appear here? After all, if fate pulled everyone else against him in the match, so Leon can win it and shine against all the other first year classes too. Then how come it missed the second main heroine.

[She's an anomaly, host.] System's message floated on his screen, as it couldn't speak now, since it was muted.

'Well, whatever it is. If she can stay here and look after this base, I can just go and bash Leon black and blue when I find him.' Rio thought and smiled as he imagined the scene. Katherine, who saw him smile, walked over and asked "What's the plan?"

"We wait for them to come here." Rio said. Since the distance was even shorter than last time, he was sure, if he left the base, any high level spell from any of those main character could drop his base and end the match. So he planned to just stay here and kill whoever came near him. Once enough is done, he'd just destroy their base later and end the match.

"They have the advantage so they'll attack first so let's just wait."

Rio was saying something when the announcement from professor Harkin

interrupted him.

[Hello everyone, This is the final match for your first stage. Looking at your faces, it seems you aren't very happy, it seems. The team selection was random just like before, so no one can do anything. It's all machines, and well, machines make mistakes sometimes.

So to compensate you, the timing of your match has been shortened to 10 minutes. So all you have to do is just hold on for 10 minutes.]

"But then both teams would lose?" A student chimed in, hearing the professor's words.

[Well, that's true, and in case both teams loses. The selection for the next stage would be random again. From 20 of you, 10 students would be chosen and sent to compete in the next stage. So there's still a chance for you, if you can hold on.]

Rio, who heard professor Harkin's words, had another black line over his forehead. He couldn't help but think, if this was fate's failsafe plan, in case his team doesn't lose. He could guess that if that happened, then he won't be picked for that random selection of the next stage, so Leon alone can shine over the scene.

'Man this guy, is it his luck or something else helping him?' Rio thought and shook his head.

He looked at Katherine and said "forget waiting, you."

"What about the base?" Katherine asked, looking at the rest of the students, who were grouping and talking about what to do.

"Listen up, all of you will stay here and look after the base. Use all your mana and protect the core with your life."

Rio said and disappeared from his place. "Follow me" Katherine heard his voice and flew behind him too. "Don't move out."

She left a few words behind her and disappeared from everyone's sight too.

On the other hand, Leon and other students were surprised to see this scene too. After all, on their team were basically all the top powerhouses of their class, while the other side only had Rio and Katherine. They were just in this team pattern last match and they won that in less than a minute of time..

In the quantum hub, all the staff members looked at Professor Arabella. Who was the homeroom teacher for class A-5.

"Was that really necessary?" Professor Freya asked, looking at the charming lady, seeing the set up for the match.

"You were all just arguing about him. I just did this so we'll all know his limits." Arabella said, looking at Rio's figure in the projection with a subtle smile on her face and a mischievous glint in her eyes.

[Loki praises you for fulfilling his request.]