Parallel Memory

"Time to get serious!"

I could barely see Lisanna's movement. The moment I lay my eyes on her, she would already be in another place.

[ "Ice Embodiment" ]

I used Ice Embodiment to increase my defense so that even if I receive her attacks, I would not be eliminated in an instant.

-SWISH! -SWISH!

Lisanna moved around me looking for the opportunity to strike at the right moment. But I was not going to wait for her.

[ "Ice Shard" ]

I thought I had hit her but it was just her afterimage.

-CRACK!

There was a clash between Lisanna's longsword and my back frozen armor. Looks like she attacked me from behind.

Fortunately, while Lisanna has great speed, her attack power was not high. However, getting hit continuously will not do any good to me.

I tried to concentrate and follow her movements.

-SWISH! -WHOOSH!

I could see multiple images of Lisanna.

"Quite a fantastic speed."

Her Art seemed to be quite a high level as well. It is really impossible to know where she is just by using your eyes.

-SSHHHHHH!

She suddenly attacked and took out a piece of my armor from the back part of my leg.

Her attacks were quite impossible to see through. I tried again to defend against her attack.

-SWISH! CLANK! -WHOOSH! - CLANK!

I didn't even manage to stop her once. But it was not that I couldn't deal with her. I just preferred if I could deal with her without using my other tricks.

-SWISH! -SWISH! -SHHHUSSH!

Quite a lot of time has passed since we started fighting. I had no idea how many students has already passed or how many remaining students were left.

The fight was taking much longer than expected. Lisanna don't seem to be giving up any time sooner and it was not like I could run away from the battle. She would be able to catch up to me with her speed in a second.

[ "Cryo Bomb" ]

I was just trying to know whether I could spot her real body and counterattack but since it seemed impossible that way, I just had to do it in another way.

I just planted Cryo Bomb around me. The moment she steps on it, her legs will be frozen and I could end her.

-SWISH! -SWISH!

Lisanna kept moving around the area. She didn't attack me recklessly. She seemed to have known something is wrong around me.

But it didn't matter. Her mana will be exhausted faster than mine. She will lose sooner or later.

She is using a huge amount of mana while using her Art while I am just standing here though keeping Ice Embodiment is taking quite a bit of my mana.

Even with her rank of C, I don't think my Mana stat will be lower than her.

After waiting for quite a bit, she started making her moves again. She moved back and forth and showed herself like she was attacking from the front but she attacked me from behind.

-CRRRKKKK!

( Yes! )

She is caught or so I thought. The moment I tried to approach the place where Cryo Bomb was activated, Lisanna was already a hundred meters away from me.

But she did get hit by Cryo Bomb and had her lower leg frozen. But before I could finish her, she was already far away from me.

She stood calmly at a distance and looked at her leg which was completely frozen.

-CRACK! -CRACK!

She used her sword to break the ice and free her leg.

I was not just going to stand and let that happen.

[ "Ice Shard" ]

I shot off multiple Ice Shards and tried to approach Lisanna. The moment she dodges the Ice Shard, I will start attacking her.

Lisanna calmly accessed the situation. She lost her speed and dodging Ice Shard was going to give an opportunity for Zero to attack her. She decided to counterattack instead of dodging.

[ "Wind Spirit: WindStorm" ]

A hurricane formed in front of Lisanna and stopped all my attacks. It also stopped me from advancing toward her.

She broke the ice on her leg while I was busy dodging her attack.

-WHOOSH! -CLANK!

She started to attack me again. However, her speed has decreased compared to before. I was at least able to tell her real position and know where she is attacking.

-CLANK! -CLANK!

This time I blocked her attack with my sword. She continued to press on and I also attacked when I saw a chance. She was no longer untrackable.

The battle continued for several minutes and we were in a stalemate. Both our mana was slowly getting exhausted and we also need to eliminate other students to qualify for selection.

*****On The Training Field*****

One hour has already passed and many people were getting out of the dungeon. The dungeon created by Staff of Illusion this time was small and lots of people were also there.

It was so that there will be no problem with students not encountering another student.

So, in less time, students were able to fulfill their task of eliminating three students as they would immediately meet other students.

The luckier ones would encounter Rank-E - students while unlucky ones were to fight with Rank-D third years.

Luckily, MC and his friend all encountered low-ranked students and were able to pass the test in under one hour.

The ones who exited the dungeon all moved to the area where students were gathered.

At first, they were confused by the quiet atmosphere. All the people were concentrated on the screen.

After a few minutes, they also became quiet and focused on watching the spectacle fight on the screen.

Unexpectedly, even when Lisanna went all out, Hiro was able to keep up with her using his Art. Students could not help but be in awe of the power displayed by Zero.

He could even manage to injure Lisanna here and there while he perfectly stayed safe behind his Ice armor. Neither seems to be winning nor losing.

Between Zion, Lisa, Sylvia, and Hiro, Hiro was the last one to exit the dungeon. He was the 80th person to qualify for selection. Only 20 more slots remained.

"What happened?"

Hiro asked his friends who were staring at the screen. He found it odd for them to be so quiet and focused on a screen.

"Oh, Hiro you have finally arrived."

Sylvia said as she saw Hiro. She was the first one to qualify among her friend and the first one to see the battle between Lisanna and Zero.

She had seen them fight for more than twenty minutes and was astonished at their strength especially Zero who was her classmate.

She felt envious of Zero's progress.

Even Hiro's power didn't make her feel so incompetent. Zero was in a class of his own.

Lisanna as expected was swift and strike at Zero vital areas. However, Zero's defense was no joke as he could withstand her attacks without any damage.

They were fighting at a level where one mistake could easily take their life. With no one taking an upper hand, they continued to battle each other.

Lisa too was surprised by the level of fight that was taking place in front of her eyes.

She became happy to take out one second-year student and thought of herself as a talented person.

She became stronger and stronger while training in Ace Academy and was happy with her progress.

But looking at Zero's strength, she felt a little frustrated. Her progress is nothing compared to Zero, from being one of the weakest students to being able to fight the strongest in just one semester.

The same classmate who appeared to look lazy and mocked by others was fighting one-on-one with the strongest students.

Zion, on the other hand, could not believe what he was seeing. Another person stronger and more talented than him appeared. And he was someone who he looked down on previously.

"What are you all watching so intently?"

Hiro asked in surprise. They were too engrossed in watching the fight that Hiro had to come really close to get their attention.

"Senior student Lisanna is fighting and she seems to be having difficulties ending the battle."

"Mrs. Lisanna? Having trouble with another student? Who is her opponent?"

Even though he didn't care about ranks, he knows that Lisanna, the first ranker in Ace Academy is the strongest student present. There was no one who could give her any trouble.

He could have a shot at winning if he used System Double Power but the percentage of winning was not that great.

At most, with System Double Power he might be able to run away.

Hiro if he has fought with Lisanna would have known that he could do everything but run away from Lisanna. But he didn't know about Lisanna's specialty.

Lisanna's speed stat was abnormally high. It was much higher than her other stat. It might have even reached Rank-B considering the speed she was displaying.

Even with System Double Power, Hiro had zero chance of escaping from Lisanna. He might be able to fight her but running away was impossible.

He also joined them and started to watch the battle that everyone was focused on.

*****In The Dungeon*****

"You have really surprised me. I didn't expect someone to push me this far."

Lisanna for the first time since the start of battle spoke. She who is considered the strongest was pushed into a corner.

She learned that Zero was not someone she could easily eliminate and leaving the fight will be a good decision. But she didn't really care about participating in the Selection and Tournament. If she can't win this battle, then she could not win the Tournament.

It was better for her to know who is better between her and Zero than to get in as a participant. Now that her mana was getting exhausted, she had to use her most powerful attack to end this battle.

She paused her step and raised her sword slowly as she gathered a huge amount of mana. Lisanna stared at her opponent as she readied herself to launch her strongest attack.

"Bring It On!"