[Declan LVL 50 – Martial Artist]

  ’Martial Artist?’ Shiro thought, seeing the class. There were times where there would be a different class compared to the base systems.

  These classes are similar to hidden professions but are rather taught than discovered. Example being the martial artist class.

  Her guess was for Declan to have learned martial arts as a child and when he classed up, he chose Martial Artists as his class.

  Interested in his capabilities, Shiro crossed her legs and narrowed her eyes just ever so slightly.

  Helion, who was beside her, paused seeing this as he understood this pose. It was the pose she pulled when she observed him make the blades for her friend. A pose which tells people that she’s curious or interested.

  ’Perhaps it’s a habit of hers?’ He thought. Her aura was creepily calm and silent as she was entirely focused on the thing that interested her.

  Declan stood in the centre as his eyes were deadly focused.

  Cocking up his arms and legs for maximum explosive potential, he punched out as soon as the arrows were shot towards him.

  The first hit connected with the side of the arrow, pulling back, he hit another arrow with his elbow.

  She watched with great interest as his hits were accurate and powerful.

  Declan was similar to Lyrica, his attack domain was on the verge of forming as he was able to deal with the initial levels easily.

  However, as the arrows increased in speed, he had to compensate by guessing the directions.

  This gave him a few close calls but nothing major.

  However, to Shiro, it was like watching everything in slow motion. Her eyes were tracking everything with ease, but her body was another question.

  Seeing and reacting were two different things that were both important.

  If you can see but can’t react, you lose. If you can react but not see, you also lose. The delicate balance between sight and reaction was compulsory for any good fighter.

  This is what she was seeing in Declan right now. While his sight may not be as good, there was a balance between sight and reaction.

  As for Shiro, she was like stuffing an F1 race engine in a small family car. The engine was powerful but the body of the car can’t keep up.

  Force it and the car breaks.

  [Say Helion. When you see him fend for himself, what do you see?] Shiro asked wanting to get a third party opinion.

  "What do I see? Well…… I see that he’s struggling. The arrows are getting closer and closer to him the longer he survives for." Helion said as he was able to track the arrows quite accurately.

  [What else do you see?] Shiro asked wanting to test Helion a little.

  "What else do I see? I see the area around him shrink. I see him locking up his punches for maximum attack." Helion replied putting his hand on his chin.

  Shiro smiled hearing the answer. From what she could see from her surroundings, not many people were able to see the detail of Declan locking up his arm.

  [Can you see his mistake?] Shiro asked.

  "Mistake?"

  [He shouldn’t be locking up his arms at this stage of the defence. His task is to survive, not kill. He shouldn’t be locking up his arms for that amount of time.

  During a defence like this, the best thing to do is to try to conserve your stamina. That being said, his endurance is ridiculous.] Shiro said as the smaller the attack domain becomes, the more tenacious Declan became.

  He was sweating bullets but his eyes were energetic as ever.

  ’Hold up…… Is he developing a technique right now……’ Shiro narrowed her eyes as she observed everything.

  If his main task was to get number 1, he would be conserving stamina. But the longer he goes, the more forces he is using. He was actively pushing his limits higher and higher the more stamina he uses.

  He was forcing shut his attack domain to make it stronger the closer it got to him.

  Narrowing her eyes, Shiro had a grin as it was not often you see a person like Declan. Like an overlaying ocean current, he was making an area where the arrows couldn’t penetrate no matter the direction.

  The first layer rotated clockwise. The second anti-clockwise. For any arrow that passes the first layer, they’ll be stopped by the second.

  If it passes the second, it will break due to the colliding forces of both layers.

  [Nevermind. It wasn’t a mistake. But rather, I was looking at it from the wrong perspective. He is discovering and refining a technique to repel the attacks.]

  In a few short moments, he was able to completely secure the area with a 3/4th of a meter around him.

  Seeing that he succeeded, he couldn’t hold back a grin.

  "HAA!!!" Stamping down, he caused a shock wave to spread out as it pushed to the arrows away.

  "I got what I want. You can carry on with your event." He said simply before leaving.

  "Erm…… so it seems that Declan has forfeited. Therefore! His time shall not be recorded!" The announcer shouted out.

  Shiro and Helion looked at each other.

  [Did he just pay 30 D ranked mana stones just to have arrows fired at him?]

  "……It’s either that or he just wanted to brag and look cool." Helion replied with a huff.

  Shiro shrugged with a slight giggle hearing Helion’s jealousy.

  [Don’t worry about it. Since you make weapons, your physic is pretty good. Just strip your shirt and get the same results.] Shiro replied with a smile.

  "Then that I shall do!" Helion said as he took his shirt off. His refined physic was in view as Shiro wasn’t too surprised. But the shock factor was still there.

  His muscles had a slight bronze colour as she could tell they were powerful.

  Helion’s number was 29 as he was 3 spots in front of her.

  When it was his turn, he walked out with his muscles proud.

  His goal for this was rank 3 – C ranked materials. He wanted to work with them so he could complete one of the requirements for his class up.

  "Fuuuu……" Breathing out, Helion had fire flare up around his body as if he was a warrior of fire.

  The fire wrapped around his shoulders, arm guards and neck.

  His eyes glowed orange as he made a fire war axe. The axe had two sides while one was an axe and the other a hammer.

  "Since this is still my physical ability, it shouldn’t be against the rules, right?" Helion asked.

  "As long as it isn’t an area of effect then it is fine." The announcer nodded.

  "Then that’s good." Helion grinned.

  Slamming the pommel of the axe into the ground, more fire erupted up as it covered Helion’s body.

  What was half armour was now full armour.

  Arrows shot towards Helion as he twirled the war axe in his hands and smacked away the arrows with ease.

  Shiro raised an eyebrow seeing Helion’s actions.

  First off, what he used first was what was known as the Elemental True Armour. When a person reaches a certain proficiency with their respective elements, they gain an armour with that element.

  The armour itself takes a lot of MP per second as Shiro also had her own one with the Nano Tech.

  But the drain for the Nano Tech True Armour was ridiculous. Just wearing it for even a split second now will drain her.

  But the truest surprise for her was how early he managed to unlock the True Armour. The normal average of unlocking the Elemental True Armour was around the late 3rd class. For Helion to get it during his second class up…… Only genius could be used to describe him.

  The Elemental True Armour boosted one’s stats along with their perception. Knocking down the arrows is an easy task for Helion right now.

  Stopping at 1 minute and 50 seconds. Helion took 3rd place. Removing his armour he turned around and was about to wave to Shiro when an arrow pierced his pants and almost entered a certain hole.

  "PFFFF!!!!" Shiro laughed out loud as that arrow could have gone up his rear.

  "HAHAHAHAHAHAHAA!" Shiro was clutching her stomach as she almost fell off her chair.

  If it wasn’t for the fact that he looked so refreshed having gotten 3rd just to get his rear stabbed, Shiro wouldn’t have laughed this badly.

  "Ah Shiro. Don’t laugh." Helion said, embarrassed.

  [Im soryr itsj ust too funnu] Shiro typed out with difficulty. It was hard for her to type with her laughing so hard.

  Helion sighed as he let his guard down a little too much. Now there was a hole in his pants where the arrow struck.

  Thankfully, there was still a few more contestants before it was Shiro’s turn, giving her time to settle down.

  When it was finally her go, she managed to calm herself down.

  [Sorry about that. It was just a little unexpected.] Shiro smiled.

  "Unexpected is putting it easy." Helion sighed.

  Walking up to the stage, the audience started to mutter about Shiro.

  "An injured kid is trying this? Is she going to be ok?"

  "She even got an ice cast on her arm. Is she going to work with just 1 arm? What a waste of 30 D ranked mana stones."

  "I know. How many takeaway’s can I get with the E rank mana stone. Ha……"

  Shiro only smiled hearing the comments as it was always fun to prove them wrong.

  The rules of this survival were simple. No area of effects, no outside help and when the arrow strikes the torso, you lose.

  Naturally, this means her cold aura wasn’t allowed.

  However, she took this into account. The main reason as to why she was confident was due to the Counter Weight Phantom together with her observational abilities.

  Making an ice spear in her hand, Shiro twirled it a little as she got used to using the spear without her right arm.

  In her prime, Shiro was a master of her dagger attack domain and several other weapon domains. The staff and spear were one of them.

  Naturally, she couldn’t form a domain right now due to two reasons. First, her right arm. Without the use of her right arm, she couldn’t fully exert the power of her attack domain. The second reason was her body. Due to the different body shape, she had to figure out the best way to use her current body from scratch.

  "Little Yin, don’t poke your head out ok?" Shiro whispered as she could feel the bird respond positively.

  Giving the announcer a signal, she focused on the devices firing the arrows.

  *Click click click click

  Out of the myriad of noises blocking her senses right now, she was able to filter out the mechanisms working in the devices and guess which one fires first.

  Before it even fired, Shiro crouched low and twirling her spear.

  *Phew

  The arrow was shot right after and she caught it with her spear.

  Yin Style Phantom Arts: 3rd Phantom – Counter Weight Phantom.

  Giving the spear a light twirl, she redirected the arrow towards the second arrow that fired.

  Pivoting on her leg, she used the other end of the spear to redirect another arrow.

  Her mind was working like a machine right now as she put it to overdrive. She was listening out for the machine click, seeing the arrows, reacting and redirecting the arrows, repositioning herself before doing the same thing again.

  Little did she know, tiny circuitry patterns were showing up in her pupil and hair. However, they were barely visible.

  To the people watching, they were shocked speechless. Shiro was looked like she was in a dance.

  With only one arm, she was able to redirect every arrow coming at her from every direction.

  She didn’t do fancy flips, or anything like that. She just pivoted on the spot whilst twirling her spear.

  The ice itself left a slight blue trail behind it due to the speed she was twirling it.

  Helion sat on his chair in shock. This was the first time he saw her perform and he knew her experiences were vastly more superior than his.

  He may be a genius for unlocking the Fire Elemental True Armour, but in an even playing field with Shiro. He would, 100%, get destroyed by her.

  Mentally counting down, Shiro decided to stop at 3 minutes. Any further and her body wouldn’t be able to keep up with her, even if she did predict a few moments before the arrow was fired.

  Flicking one of the arrows up, she let it hit her torso gently. The devices stopped as Shiro blocked the remaining arrows.

  "AN AMAZING PERFORMANCE BY THE YOUNG LADY SHIRO!!!! With an astounding display of precognitive foresight and body control! Shiro was able to deflect arrows into one another! With a final score of 3 minutes and 22 seconds! She defeated the previous score by a whole minute! We still have a few more contestants till the end. So unfortunately, you are not the winner just yet." The announcer called out as Shiro nodded and walked away.

  Sitting back down, she saw Helion’s speechlessness and chuckled.

  [Are you alright?] She asked.

  "No. I’m just rethinking my life choices and the fact that I, a level 50, was outperformed by a 13 year old level 28……" Helion muttered causing Shiro to laugh slightly.

  ’If only he knew that I’m only a few weeks old.’ Shiro thought but didn’t want to break the poor man’s pride.