Ryn reached out and placed his hand lightly on her forearm, exactly where she had held him a moment ago.
Vwoom.
Space folded.
"!"
Mirana's eyes widened. One moment, the grey stone of the arena edge was beneath her boots. The next, without any sensation of movement or wind, reality simply snapped.
Her stomach lurched violently, a wave of intense vertigo crashing over her senses. For the first time in years, her absolute control over her own body faltered. The world spun wildly, colors bleeding into a nauseating smear. Her knees buckled, and the lightning she had been channeling sputtered and died in her palm as her concentration shattered.
BOOM!
A massive pillar of scorched stone and dust erupted at the arena's edge, vaporizing the exact spot they had occupied a fraction of a second ago.
But the heat didn't reach them.
In that same heartbeat, reality had realigned. The distant target was suddenly looming right in front of them, close enough to touch. They were dead center on the platform, deep inside the monster's guard.
"Now," Ryn whispered, letting go of her arm to let her strike.
But Mirana didn't move. She couldn't. She stumbled forward, fighting the urge to retch, her vision still swimming from the sudden displacement.
And less than two meters away, the Phase-Stalker turned its head.
Its glowing blue eye locked onto the disoriented girl, and the crystals in its chest began to hum with a high-pitched, lethal frequency.
At this range, it couldn't miss.
"Hey, tin can."
Clink.
A small, jagged rock sailed through the air and bounced harmlessly off the Phase-Stalker's metal helmet.
It was a pathetic attack. But for a machine programmed to calculate threats based on arcana levels, the sudden physical impact from a zero-threat direction caused an almost fatal processing error.
The construct's head snapped toward the source of the noise, its blue eye leaving Mirana for a split second.
That split second was all she needed.
Mirana bit her tongue, using the sharp pain to ground her spinning senses. She then thrust her palm forward.
CRACK!
A concentrated lance of blue lightning erupted from her hand.
But the Phase-Stalker was fast. Its threat sensors screamed.
Vwoom.
Just as the lightning scorched the air where its head had been, the construct vanished.
It reappeared instantly on the far side of the platform, fifty meters away. It raised its rifle again, its crystals glowing, ready to finish the job from a safe distance. Its tactical subroutine calculated that the enemy was immobile and disoriented.
'!'
However, two seconds later, the air in front of it distorted.
Space folded as Ryn deposited Mirana directly above the machine, warping himself not far away in the same heartbeat.
Mirana was already mid-swing.
"Got you," she hissed.
BOOM!
Her heel slammed into the construct with the weight of a falling mountain. The metal chassis crumpled instantly under the Force-enhanced strike, smashing into the stone floor with enough impact to crack the foundation of the platform.
Before the Phase-Stalker could even attempt a reboot, Mirana unleashed her frustration.
Crash! Zap! Whoosh!
She tore into the helpless machine with a blinding flurry of wind blades and point-blank lightning strikes. It was less of a fight and more of a demolition. Within moments, the high-level Boss was reduced to a smoking crater of twisted scrap and shattered crystals.
Mirana only stopped when she heard the notifications.
[Boss Eliminated.]
[Points Awarded.]
"..."
Ryn watched the violence unfold from a safe distance, sitting comfortably on a clean patch of rock.
"Guess it pissed her off a bit too much," he mumbled, peeling the wrapper off his fourth pancake.
He took a bite, chewing slowly as he glanced at the scoreboard.
"ᴺᵒᵐ ⁿᵒᵐ ⁿᵒᵐ(•⤙•)."
[Rank 1: Mirana Dume - 19,250 Points]
"...(•⤙•). Gulp. Whoa."
Ryn whistled low. She was now more than 13,000 points ahead of second place. Truly exceptional.
He was about to move when he noticed movement at the edge of his peripheral vision.
He looked up toward the poison moat.
Several figures, mainly top rankers, were already gliding over the tar, using spells and artifacts to cross the gap without touching the deadly surface. They were fast, silent, and coordinated.
'So they have finally chosen to show themselves...'
They have been waiting, hidden in the shadows, from the beginning. They probably were waiting for the Boss to fall, hoping to catch the exhausted winner off guard and steal the massive bounty.
Ryn smiled faintly, taking another bite of his pancake, his eyes gleaming with amusement as the unsuspecting group closed in on the silver-haired calamity.
"We have guests," Ryn decided to warn her as an 'ally'.
Mirana straightened her posture, dusting the metal shards of the Phase-Stalker off her uniform. She turned her gaze toward the newcomers.
They were ten in total, moving with the confident swagger of apex predators as they had already been discovered.
At the forefront stood Ilene Vance, her dual rapiers humming with cold starlight. Flanking her were the imposing figure of Marcus Ren, dragging a greatsword that carved deep grooves into the stone floor, and Draven Blackwood, whose silhouette seemed to flicker in and out of existence like a living shadow.
They were the heavy hitters, all sitting firmly in the Top 10.
Behind them, the rest of the squad landed on the platform. These weren't random opportunists either; every single one was a Top 50 ranker. They fanned out instantly, moving with practiced coordination to encircle Mirana and cut off any path of retreat.
"Impressive work, Dume," Draven sneered, stepping forward. "But you look a little tired. Why don't you hand over those points before you get hurt?"
"Ten against one," Ilene added with a cold smile. "Even you can't be arrogant enough to ignore these odds."
Mirana didn't answer. She didn't even look at them. It was as if they were nothing more than background noise, unworthy of her attention.
Instead, she calmly walked toward Ryn and tapped her device a few times.
Ding.
Ryn raised an eyebrow as a holographic notification popped up in front of him.
[Transfer Received: +6,000 Points] [Sender: Mirana Dume]
'!' He blinked, quickly checking the scoreboard.
[Rank 1: Mirana Dume - 13,250 Points]
[Rank 2: Ryn Dale - 8,150 Points]
She had calculated it perfectly. She kept enough to remain the undisputed first, but boosted him comfortably into second place, securing his grade.
"A generous tip," Ryn murmured, finishing his pancake. "But what's the catch?"
"...Let's do it again."