Lena moved through the underbrush without slowing.
The Greyback Wolves came in a pack, six of them, D rank, grey furred and low to the ground as they circled her. They were fast. Coordinated. The kind of beasts that had learned to work together instead of relying on individual strength.
They lunged simultaneously.
Lena sidestepped the first, rapier already moving, catching the second across its throat as she pivoted. The third came from her left and she ducked under it, drove her elbow into its ribs as it passed and finished the motion with a clean thrust. The fourth and fifth she handled back to back, footwork exactly where it needed to be, never stopping, never resetting, the whole sequence flowing from one movement into the next without a gap.
The sixth one hesitated.
She looked at it.
It ran.
She let it go.
One by one she placed her token on each body, collecting the points methodically, then swiped her wrist.
---
RANK 2 — LENA SILFORD — 1,400 pts
---
She scrolled up. Cedric still at the top, pulling ahead. Expected.
She scrolled down, looking for a specific name.
Top ten. Not there.
She kept scrolling.
Top twenty. Nothing.
Top fifty.
Top hundred.
Her brow furrowed.
"What is he doing," she muttered.
She checked again. Julian was sitting comfortably in the top ten with over a thousand points, which honestly surprised her slightly, but that wasn't what she was focused on.
Leon wasn't in the top hundred.
Lena stood in the middle of the forest surrounded by six dead wolves and stared at her leaderboard with the expression of someone trying to decide between concern and exasperation.
'Did he plan to sit this one out too?'
She dismissed the screen and moved deeper into the forest.
...
The Venomfang Cats moved fast.
Three of them, C rank, their dark spotted hides almost invisible in the dappled forest light. They were built for ambush, for closing distance before their target realized what was happening, and the poison coating their claws made even a glancing hit dangerous.
They'd picked the wrong target.
Sera dodged the first lunge without breaking her expression, sidestepped the second, and when the third came she was already moving into it instead of away from it, her sword catching the light as wind element gathered along the blade in a thin, humming layer.
She swung.
A compressed wave of wind followed the arc of her blade and swept through all three cats in a single clean motion.
They dropped.
She placed her token. Checked her wrist.
---
RANK 3 — SERA VORN — 1,100 pts
---
Still third.
She clicked her tongue.
Then turned and moved deeper into the forest without another word.
...
Cedric was a different matter entirely.
A broadcast drone had locked onto him twenty minutes ago and hadn't left. It hovered at a precise distance, tracking his every movement, feeding the footage back to the screens across the continent where every sword swing and lightning strike was being watched by millions.
Hosk's voice rose over the broadcast with barely contained excitement.
"And Prince Cedric is on the move again folks! The Lightning Prince is absolutely unstoppable right now!"
Vera leaned forward. "Look at that swordsmanship. That's the royal style right there, refined over generations."
Cedric cut through a cluster of C rank beasts without breaking stride, his sword crackling with lightning that arced between targets, finishing three of them before the first one had fully hit the ground. His footwork was immaculate. His expression hadn't changed once.
He checked his wrist as he walked.
---
RANK 1 — CEDRIC ARDEN — 3,200 pts
---
The crowds across the continent exploded.
In town squares people were on their feet. In guild halls drinks were forgotten on tables. In the broadcast booth Hosk slapped the desk.
"Over three thousand points! Three thousand! This boy is not human!"
Vera laughed despite herself. "He really is something. At this rate nobody's catching him."
Cedric heard none of it.
He was already moving toward the next target, lightning curling lazily around his fingers, the drone faithfully following three meters behind him.
The thought that had been sitting at the back of his mind since the festival started hadn't left.
'Where are you, Leonis Silford.'
Even with all the praise he didn't care,
He will show everyone how big the gap between him and the other candidates were, even the so called S rankers he was limped with. and of course,
Leonis Silford
He will show him too, the difference between an E rank and an S rank.
He will show him, the gap between heaven and earth.