Chapter 267 Aurora Volley and trash protagonist  

"You seem angry." Saisha said as she stooped the wooden arrow in front of her before it could hit her. "Is it the technique that you're using?" She said as she noticed none of her attacks landed on him yet.

"Seems good. But it's not wise to use something that has long term side effects, don't you think?"

'Can't she just shut up?' Rio thought in his heart as he looked at his system panel.

'How much longer do I need to play around? Can't you do your scans some other time. It's getting on my nerves now.' Rio said seeing no response from his system.

[She's an anomaly host. If you want to know what's wrong with her, let me do my job. Unless of course you want Gaia burying you underground the moment you step out of this VR.]

'Useless' Rio thought as he kept moving around dodging the arrows that seemed never ending.

Just before he started fighting her, his system jumped up and asked to do a scan of her to find all the changes she had compared to her counterpart. Rio agreed thinking it'll be done in the background instantly after spending some points, but this damn system nearly took all him time and was still not reliable.

"Are you stalling for time, or waiting for something else?" Saisha, who noticed Rio not doing anything, asked again. "It's already been more than a minute, you might get eliminated if you don't get the token back. Maybe all your teammates will get eliminated first too."

[Done. You can let loose now.]

Just when Rio was getting angsty again after hearing non stop chatter from her, his system informed him that it's scans were done.

'So, what did you find? Where's Gaia?' [You wanna discuss that now, cause she's getting serious it seems.] System said as it noticed Saisha who made a bow from her elemental magic and started chanting a spell to enhance it.

'Don't ever meddle in my fights like this again.' Rio said final words to his system before dashing straight at Saisha.

The traps laid before him kept getting triggered, as every step he took the ground below him turned into small pits trying to bury him, while wines wiggled over ground trying to entangle him and pull him back.

But they were all useless as his speed increased several times what he was using before, as his hands kept swishing through air leaving a blur trail behind them when he kept cutting through the wines and knocking down the arrows coming towards him.

"So you finally decided to take this match seriously." Saisha said and pulled the bowstring back till her shoulders. An arrow formed with her fingers and gleaming in a silvery glow.

Aurora Embrace

Taking a look at Rio's movements which seemed erratic and unpredictable at first glance, she released her fingers. As the arrow whizzed through the bow, while the bowstring kept shaking a few times.

Her hair moved a little following the little air hitting her face, which she pulled back behind her ears and locked them with a wooden pin. Her lips curled up in a satisfied smile as she saw the arrow hitting her mark perfectly.

Rio, who saw the glowing arrow land near his feet, had a frown on his face, as he instantly turned back and jumped high.

'I should've burned this damn book in that library.' Rio cursed in his heart, seeing Saisha perfectly using a technique made for Leon.

Aurora Embrace, was one of the skills which was written in the archery technique Aurora Volley, which Saisha picked from the library instead of Leon. and Seeing how she was already using this technique in a way which took Leon a first semester to understand, Rio could just say this protagonist was really trash.

This move was meant for defense which could erect barriers around the user was used by Saisha to trap him in place. And with her nature element, she could literally squeeze him inside.

But since he knew all of the moves of this technique, it also meant he knew ways to counter them.

Nothing serious, he just had theories about what he'd do if somehow Leon still managed to get this technique someday.

This was a thing Rio would do with Leon's every supposed art and skill written in the book. Trying to think up ways to counter them or make them better in his free time. He had a dozen methods ready to stop this technique from harming him, if he still had his mana and blessings, or hell his aura avatar too. But dealing with it with his physical body alone, that was gonna be hard.

So it's best to turn back and avoid getting trapped.

"Your senses are pretty good seeing you managed to avoid that." Saisha said as she pulled the bowstring and shot successive arrows on him continuously. 'Let's see if you can dodge them.'

Celestial Barrage

As her arrows left the bowstring they flew into the sky for some time and then turned around and started falling over Rio's head. Each arrow turned into two and then four and eight and so on and so forth.

Soon enough the entire sky over their head was filled with tiny dots which grew bigger as they came close to the ground.

For a moment the sky was turned dark and shadows of countless snakes moving around formed on the clouds. But as those arrows crossed the clouds and came into clear view, they started glowing brighter and brighter. Pushing away the previous darkness and allowing light, which was blinding just to look at.

Arrows started falling to the ground like rain drops, each piercing itself deep into the earth, leaving small cracks surrounding it. Even hitting the other members who were busy in their own fights.

Everyone had to halt their fights and turn to look for cover or move out of the range of this attack.

[Stop laughing at Leon and focus on your own match.] System said to Rio, who was standing on a tree top looking at Leon who was just about to kill Hermann but these arrows interrupted him.

'You're the one who wasted more than one minute of my time. Can't I just enjoy myself a little bit now.' Rio said as he waved his sword, cutting the tree he was standing on in two parts from the middle.

He fell straight down and Saisha lost sight of him for a second in the leaves and branches. When with a loud thud the tree trunks fell to the ground, splashing dust and smoke everywhere. Along came slashing sounds everywhere, as sparks flew into the dusty smoke. magic

Arcs of air shot through Rio's sword due to pressure and high speed and landed on the ground all around him. Creating long crater marks.

Along with the rain of arrows Saisha shot down, the originally hard and flat ground turned unrecognizable, as layers of flat pieces flew everywhere.

And in all this chaos ran a figure straight through, slashing at the only light shining still in the middle.

-clank-

The metallic sound rang through the air as Rio's sword slashed at the bow cutting it in two, as his left hand grabbed the shining arrow right before it could stab through his skin.

''Game over" He spoke for the first time to her, as he threw the sword in his hand which also shattered after impact to the ground.