“That was unexpected. Misha are in a completely different league. I’m glad that Yv is ok. What does that skill do?” Giana asked as she leaned her head into my shoulder.

  Yeah, I never imagined encountering Shelly here. [Sasa Viridia] was inspired by her 4t mode but… what if she someday needs to be faster than she can jump? That’s what the skill is for. It abuses the fact that Yv can use nature energy because anyone hopping into those spheres will get dizzy.

  “And she uses nature energy to prevent that but… isn’t that too much of a load on her? Controlling a crazy skill like that, keeping an eye out on the opponent, attacking, using nature energy to not get nauseous and keep track of every sphere? I’m sure that I missed something.”

  Uhh maybe that’s why she just complained that it was difficult.

  I may have gone a bit overboard while creating that skill, but it might save her life one day.

  “I want to see if Yv is fine, but I don’t know if I should…”

  Trust the other Golden Angels. Yv will be fine.

  The next battle was between 2 Toxic Donkeys. One had the familiar shadow magic and poison kit. The other one had something quite rare; weapon mastery.

  Toxic Donkey is one of the few roles where someone can get away with no or poor application of mana. This guy dual wielded short swords. He better be fast, else the other Toxic Donkey will defeat him in seconds.

  The first Toxic Donkey went into stealth, the dual wielder didn’t waste time. He rushed at the location of where the other had disappeared and slashed at it. It instantly knocked the shadow user out of stealth.

  I shook my head in disappointment. Stealth doesn’t make you immune to damage. Skilled Toxic Donkeys use stealth during a diversion or after using shadow clones. The shadow user made it easy for the dual wielder.

  The dual wielder was one-sidedly pressuring the shadow user. He had to. If the shadow user gets out of his range, he might not be able to catch him. Unless he has a special trick.

  It was refreshing to see a weapon master.

  Oho, what’s this?

  The dual wielder ‘missed’ a swing. A dagger flew out of his sleeve and lodged itself into the shadow user’s shoulder.

  “Hidden weapons? How does he move so fast with all those?” The second-slowest member of team Hourai asked.

  Just dispel [Slow] from yourself and you’ll move faster.

  I got hit by a headlock.

  But… either those weapons are very light or he can use gravity magic. I’m betting on the latter. He probably made the best out of the shitty hand he has been dealt.

  “What would you do if you could only use gravity magic, Deca?”

  Probably something similar, and trap opponents in gravity wells.

  “Isn't that something we can do theoretically?”

  Uhh I don’t know if I remember this correctly but we younglings suck at spatiotemporal magic, we get way better at it when we hit 3 years old, I think.

  “That’s a long time to suck…so what do I do if you get stuck in a black hole again?”

  Uhh, do the same thing you did before or leave me there and move on.

  The ‘0 damage’ headlock turned into a ‘2 damage’ headlock.

  Oh you’ve also become stronger!

  “Why isn’t your response ‘learn spatiotemporal magic’ or something else? Why leave you there and move on?!”

  I can’t expect you to fish me out of black holes every time I pull that shit. I’m not unreasonable enough to think you won’t get tired of it.

  I go released. “Fine! I will ignore your advice and find out myself how to fish careless Deca’s out of black holes!”

  The shadow user had been turned into a porcupine as daggers were sticking out of him. He had been unable to escape the range of the weapon master. He gave up moments later as he was stuck in a downward spiral as the bloodloss had made him slow.

  I wonder if these guys know what the objective is of this assessment.

  “Isn’t it to win the tournament? Or at least do well?”

  Hmm, the Golden Angel assessments are different, right?

  “Yeah, I assume the Silver Torrent ones would be similar.”

  Huh… wait… you might be right. But what I mean is that they don’t care if you win. You can lose every match and still make it, or win everything and not make it. It was like that on my C-rank assessment. They want to see how useful and versatile you are. That’s why I made [Sasa Veridia] so flexible.

  “So why would this be a problem for those two?”

  The dual wielder is fast but…nothing he does is really special. Same with the other Toxic Donkey. Yv has been the most versatile so far and Shelly…it was her first fight I’m sure she was hiding a lot of her skill set, but that explosion… was no joke. She could end troublesome opponents in a heartbeat with that. If you want to win, dominate the field with something like that.

  “Taking the whole arena down with an explosion…how often have you hung out with her?”

  All I did was to show her how to adjust [Fireball] and some easy sequences to make fire magic more potent but… the ‘Fireball Misha’ is somewhat well known… all I did was use [Fireball]…

  “Hmm, so far it looks like only Shelly and Yv are going to get through then.”

  The other matches played off. Shelly dominated the loser’s bracket, While Yv overkilled everyone with [Sasa Veridia], probably to get more used to it. It wouldn’t take much imagination to think that she expects to fight Shelly again in the finals.

  As expected, Shelly had more tricks up her sleeve and could also use lightning proficiently. Yv showed off her mastery of wind magic and nature energy.

  I had blocked Raishin and Noelle out of my mind, as they had been noisy and cheering the whole time. They both encouraged fighters they didn't know to kill each other. They are perfect for each other and perfectly annoying.

  Greg was watching. Why does he seem so bored? Something is up with that guy.

  The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  Yv had to fight Shelly and Noelle, and Raishin became extra loud.

  Annihilate her, Yv!

  “Put her in the dirt!”

  The two shook hands before their match started and they got ready.

  Air spheres and lightning balls filled the arena at the start signal.

  Yv had become better at using [Sasa Veridia] and Shelly was attempting to snipe her out of the spheres with lightning bolts. She had abandoned fire magic as it hadn’t worked well against Yv previously.

  [Wind Blades], [Wind Rope], pink and blue petals and air blasts and strange lasers were flying around from Yv’s side and lightning balls, lightning bolts, several [Lightning Warriors] and skills similar to that one were trying to catch Yv. All purple lightning. There were 3 archers and one with a large hammer. All had 4 arms.

  4 arms means 2 bows per [Lightning Archer]. I noticed before, but those skills come close to cheating. The warrior holding the hammer was holding it with 4 arms. That sure must hurt getting hit by that.

  Shelly was slowly building an army by creating more of those. Yv wasn’t powerless, as all the petals trailing behind her shredded every warrior they passed through. Her other attacks were less effective.

  “Deca, do you think Shelly knows [Hattrick]?”

  Dunno, Yv has a big problem if that’s the case. Shelly knowing [Hattrick] would in my eyes instantly put her up to B-rank in my opinion.

  “Do you think I could ever use it like you do?”

  I don’t know… I would have to research that, which might take long.

  Yv connected a [Rabbit Kick] or so we thought, but Shelly blocked it with her hat.

  Yv followed up with another kick and sent Shelly flying before hopping into an air sphere. The hammer lightning warrior slammed his hammer down on the spot Yv had been moments ago.

  “Wow that warrior is slow!”

  I had no idea how to react to this. The pot is calling the kettle black.

  “And no Deca! Before you ask, I wouldn’t be able to evade that, but I’m talking from Yv’s perspective!”

  Ah I see. That makes sense, yeh.

  “So you were thinking I’m slow?!”

  Give me a break…

  The audience cheered loudly. Yv had stopped the hammer warrior’s slam with a kick and sent it flying.

  Whoa that’s the body of a non 9t mythical beast for you.

  “What’s so different about us 9t then?”

  Oh right! So you know how the other tailed beasts could compete with a dragon in a strength contest, right?

  “Yeah, but we can’t do that…”

  Our tails can! It’s a similar story to the Misha hats. We’re super protective about them, but they’re near invincible. It takes divine energy or chilling in a black hole for 3 months to injure them.

  “I see…Do you think I could deal damage if I punch with them?”

  Probably.

  Yv took a big hit and got sent flying. An air sphere caught her, and she kept launching herself again.

  The audience cheered again as Yv launched herself at another warrior and gave it a knee in its face. The petals were harassing Shelly while Yv was dealing with the warriors.

  “You’ve turned Yv into a monster…”

  I just gave her a tool, she already was one. So are you.

  All the lightning warriors had been dealt with. Shelly had many shallow and deep cuts from the petals, and Yv had some electrical burns. They seemed to be in a similar situation as their first fight. Both seemed low on mana and stamina.

  “Hey, Deca. Do you think that’s wise?” Giana asked as she pointed at the two, who both started charging a big skill.

  Probably not but…stopping them wouldn’t be a good idea.

  Yv’s big hand cannon laser and Shelly’s juiced up [Fireball] went off at the same time, and the barriers protecting the audience were straining again.

  What a shitty barrier.

  “I agree!” Noelle said as she stomped and fortified the barrier.

  The dust cleared and both of them seemed to be knocked out. Someone next to me stood up and flicked her hair. “I guess it’s time to do my job!”

  Huh? You were still here, Daddy’s girl?

  “What? Of course! I’ve been talking to you the whole time!”

  I looked over at Giana.

  “She was, I think you just tuned her out. I’m surprised she didn’t notice that though… But I guess it’s time.”

  Time for what?

  “A surprise!”

  I don’t know why, but these words struck fear in my heard. Giana’s eyes were glowing dangerously again.

  Daddy’s girl grabbed a microphone. “And that concludes the C-rank assessment! The results will be out soon. Hey Robert! Do your job and bring those 2 to the sickbay! Do I keep having to tell you to do your job?!”

  The Robert guy mobilized some AA workers and carried Yv and Shelly to the sickbay.

  “But dear audience, stay seated as we have a surprise! We will be now holding the S-rank assessment of the Silver Torrent!”

  Deca…you betrayed me.

  “I will make it up later to you in my room tonight.” Giana said and gave me a charm-laced kiss. “Now go show everyone how wonderful you are!”

  Well now I can’t refuse.

  “We will give him some time to prepare in the preparation room while we will explain how we conduct the S-rank assessment of the Silver Torrent role!”

  Daddy’s girl was making a spectacle out of it. Is this why we’re using the largest arena in the AA?

  Giana waved happily and with a lot of jiggle as I went to the preparation room.

  I got the details of my assessment. It was simple and had 2 parts. The first part was to survive under the attack of 5 S rank adventurers for 30 minutes, the second one was a ‘protect the president’ type of assignment. Daddy’s girl apparently had to round up 30 adventurers, of which 5 will be those same S-rank adventurers and the rest are B or C rank.

  The objective is to keep the ‘president’ safe under the assault of those 30 attackers for 30 minutes. I will get a C rank adventurer or lower to help me defend the ‘president’ who is a non-combatant or at least not allowed to attack. I can choose who the non-combatant and the C-rank adventurer, or lower, is.

  I inspected the rules for any small letters. Isn’t this easy to exploit? Not my problem, they should have written the rules better in that case. My role also includes ‘grabbing every opportunity and exploit weak spots’ this last assignment has. It seems that I can clear up something that has been eating at me for a while.