What if you are reborn as a demon after a funeral?.

Or perhaps he himself was using magic to enhance his body? That's why he participated in this exam.

"I don't think kicking someone when they're down is something a good person should do... You even ganged up on the weak, what a bunch of bastards! We were trading partners who trusted each other before, but now we're at each other's throats. Life is so unpredictable."

Ash seemed oblivious to their intentions and made no attempt to seize the initiative. He simply shook his head regretfully and walked towards them step by step: "To be honest, Duncan, I thought you would be smarter. I didn't expect you to make such an unwise move in the end."

"...Indeed, you were a bit too hasty. Your strength far exceeds my initial expectations, but I also have reasons not to back down." On this perilous battlefield, the squads were like frightened birds, difficult to find.

Having finally locked onto a target, and carrying the crucial Meteor Bird, how could Duncan easily give up this fleeting opportunity?

In order to gain special privileges, everyone present participated in this exam with a do-or-die mentality, an exam where the failure rate in previous years was over 50%, and there was even a possibility of total annihilation.

Therefore, in this increasingly urgent situation, facing what is perhaps his only hope, Duncan has no choice but to take on the challenge, even if...

When Ash truly considered him an enemy, even though he tried his best to maintain a distance of more than fifty meters, he could still feel an undeniable sense of oppression from that distance.

The oppressive feeling was as if an enemy had already pierced his chest with a sharp blade, pressing it against his heart, making it difficult for him to even breathe.

There is only one sentence that best describes the person in front of me: a true strongman.

The last time he felt such pressure was from his teacher, the strongest of the Seven Sages of Collapse—Golden Town Mahat.

"Enough of the small talk, please... hold on tight to the Meteorite Bird!" Fearing his fighting spirit would be extinguished, Duncan decided to stop delaying. A dozen golden crosses appeared beside him: "—Light of Judgment!!"

As the words were spoken, a burst of light shot out.

At the same time, Lichta, who had already come up behind Ash, reached out and pressed his hand to the ground while Duncan was drawing attention to him.

A surging torrent of countless rocks emerged from several meters around him, almost simultaneously with the light and with a tremendous force, crashing towards the figure at the center.

Along with the wand in Laofen's hand, it transformed into a long whip of light that reached straight into the sky and then silently and suddenly crashed down on his head.

In that instant, the encirclement was completely complete. It was not only a pincer attack from the front and rear, but also involved both physical and magical forces, and even the sky posed a threat. The three men's eyes relaxed slightly at that moment—after all, they really couldn't think of a safe way to break through this situation.

Chapter Thirty: Sweeping Away the Dark Horses, Monsters Beyond Human Limits? The Moment of Reversal Has Arrived.

Behind them was a surging tide of countless rocks, above them was a whip of light, and in front of them were countless crosses of light.

The raging tide of rocks and the cross of light were so powerful that they even blocked off the left and right sides.

Faced with such attacks from all directions, even a normal level one mage would have no way to dodge. After all, the most effective counter to defensive magic is an attack with excessive mass, such as this wave of rocks, which is clearly a counter to such attacks.

Yes, a normal level one spell has no way to dodge it, but—

"...No, I'm not!"

A smile appeared on Ash's face, and purple light gathered in his free hand.

With a sudden sweep of his hand, the purple lightning instantly crushed the earth, and even the overwhelming tide of rocks seemed to encounter unreasonable violence upon contact, collapsing in an instant.

The magic from both sides was clearly not on the same level in terms of quality; the wave of rocks was directly transformed into crushed powder.

As the wave of gravitational lightning crushed the rocks, a pale blue rhombus-shaped shield appeared around Ash, forming an all-around protective barrier.

Boom-! ! ! !

Lightning shattered rocks, and beams of light struck the shield; the combined attack created a deafening roar that echoed throughout the massive city barrier.

The fiercely swirling earth, rocks, and dust caused everyone to instinctively shield their faces with their arms. However, Lishita, who manipulated the land and altered the landscape to attack his opponent with overwhelming mass, was the first to escape being crushed by the opponent's reversed overwhelming mass. He hovered in mid-air and fled at high speed for a considerable distance, avoiding being crushed along with his rock.

Although Duncan couldn't see the situation clearly, his intuition told him that things might be much worse than he imagined.

..............................

..............................

Under the combined attack, even an ordinary level one mage cannot turn the tide, especially when the opponent does not respond in time.

However, Duncan, who was staring intently at the smoke and dust, did not see any counterattack as he had imagined after the smoke and dust exploded. The Cross of Light was still flying towards the target like raindrops.

The bombing was "calm," as if Ash had given up resistance after an initial, brief struggle.

This made him start to consider whether to stop the attack to avoid unnecessary casualties, but...

"—You've grown up too, Duncan." Ash's voice appeared out of nowhere from behind, still marveling to himself, and then corrected him: "No...you should have been taller before Mahat was sealed by the Great Barrier, right?"

"—?!"

Although the tone was casual and without the slightest hostility, the content and manner of its delivery sent a chill down Duncan's spine, as if his heart had been frozen.

"But since you started this fight, then... let me have some fun!" Before he could turn around, a bolt of purple lightning struck his back from behind, following the voice.

How could this be?! In such a dense attack, how could he still manage to seize an opening and escape? Even silently appear behind me?! Duncan's eyes widened in shock, and a defensive magical shield composed of three diamond-shaped squares appeared behind him, yet...

The lightning of gravity brought physical pressure, instantly piercing through defensive magic that was not very effective against attacks of mass.

—Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

With three consecutive shattering sounds, Duncan's body floated up and, in the instant he turned around, fled backward at top speed... in an attempt to avoid the strange lightning that would crush anyone who entered its range.

When Raofen, the last one, saw that her attack had missed and Duncan was also facing a life-threatening crisis, she unexpectedly did not run away because of the difference in their strength. Instead, she swept away the whip of light that had been transformed from the staff and was now extending and sweeping horizontally.

Trees fell to their roots along the way, and the light whip that had been cutting through the air flickered in La Orphen's hand the moment it approached Ash, causing the tip to exceed the speed of sound and emit a sharp crack.

Although this move can only be used on stationary targets, if Ash doesn't move, once the end of the swing successfully hits the target and is countered, no opponent can perfectly defend against it.

After all, the opponent's reaction time is limited. Even if they can hastily generate a shield, it's unlikely to block the significant whip-like attack. In other words...

"—Success!" A smile appeared on Laofen's face, but Duncan, who had landed awkwardly in the distance, opened his mouth as if to remind her of something.

But before he could speak, Ash strangely grabbed the end of the light whip first, and answered on his behalf with a smile:

"—Unfortunately, I don't think so."

"Ah... thinking about it carefully, it makes sense. It could even catch a meteorite bird, it would be strange if it couldn't. But this must be very hot, right?" Raofen looked at the end of the light whip that could easily split a house in two, now easily grasped in his hand, his expression undeniably complex: "...What kind of monster are you...?"

"Because I already have a protective spell cast on me, and it's obvious that your magic... can't break through my defenses."

"But you're like this... with both your hands occupied, aren't you worried?"

"What does that mean?"

"—You lost!" A victorious smile once again appeared on Raofen's face.

Meanwhile, Lishita, who had fled far away, pressed her hands to the ground and poured all her strength into activating her magic.

The surrounding forest seemed to be turned upside down by an invisible hand, instantly making Ash feel as if he were in a deep canyon.

..............................

The two semi-circular rock walls, hundreds of meters high, stand majestically on either side, and with a series of earth-shaking tremors, they are closing in on the center at an astonishing speed, "squeezing" the sky into a line.

—Boom!! Rumble!!

Amidst the deafening roar of what seemed like an ongoing demolition project, sunlight was rapidly swallowed up by the towering rock walls, and the dust and smoke kicked up were so vast that they almost engulfed the entire barrier.

If they cannot escape in time, the two will be crushed flat by this moving "canyon".

Just then, two tornadoes rose into the air from either side of the man-made canyon, mercilessly blocking all his escape routes, and...

"—Wind and Flame Magic!" Halfway through, Duncan suddenly changed the nature of the tornado's magic.

In an instant, the wild tornado was replaced by scorching flames, transforming into two firestorms that pierced the sky.

Its overwhelming momentum is truly awe-inspiring, and this situation can be described as a desperate predicament, as well as a deadly move made by the two of them working together.

"...This layout is truly grand. Are they planning to use a fire tornado to attack from both sides, then use the rock wall as a cage to compress the fire tornado? Regardless, it's undeniably magnificent—but Laofen, she's right here with me..."

Ash had just looked at Laofen, whose wand had been grabbed and who was now not far away, when he realized that she had released her grip on the wand and disappeared from her spot in an instant, as if she had teleported.

It was obvious that this was magic that allowed her to move at high speed, because Ash clearly saw that the magical traces she left behind pointed directly to a narrow crevice in the left rock wall, just wide enough for one person to pass through.

But when he looked over, the gap was now rapidly contracting... clearly this was to allow Raofen to evacuate.

"—This time, there's no way you can break through!"

The wand emitted a dazzling light, and Duncan continuously channeled his magic, conjuring a fiery tornado that blocked out all space outside the rock walls, issuing a final warning: "If you surrender now, fire the signal flare yourself! We can stop! Otherwise... we're not responsible for what happens!"

The two poured almost all their magic into this one strike, as if they were betting all their hopes and odds on it, even hoping that the other would surrender quickly.

They were also a little worried that the Iron Meteor Bird might accidentally get killed inside, but...

"...To be honest, I don't really like standing here and getting beaten up like this."

He ignored the attempts to persuade him to surrender, and simply bent his knees slightly to gather strength before his feet suddenly shattered the ground beneath his feet.

—Boom! A loud explosion followed.

The figure, enveloped in lightning, stirred up a tsunami of air and charged head-on into the fiery tornado.

Surprisingly, the rapidly spinning tornado did not cause any obstruction.

Upon contact with Ash's lightning-streaked figure, the outer wall of the rapidly spinning, scorching fire tornado was easily torn open like paper, leaving a huge gash.

Breaking through the flames' blockade, and even carrying the purple light and shadow of the shattered dense "fire dragon," the next moment after breaking through the flames, it shot into the sky like an inverted meteor... yet with an incredible arc trajectory, it roared back to the ground—slamming towards Duncan!

"Oh no...! This...it's me again??"

Duncan, who was deeply shocked to see the tornado broken through by the lightning, was completely dumbfounded in this unfortunate situation.

He quickly retreated, simultaneously casting layers of protective magic in an attempt to withstand the sudden impact.

But it all seems to be too late...

—Bang!! Bang!! Bang!! Bang!! Bang!!

The figure, crackling with lightning, tore through the shields once more, just as before, and soon... the defensive magic could no longer be generated.

boom--!!

Accompanied by countless pale blue specks of light scattering across the sky, Ash landed on the ground, causing the ground to collapse and tremble violently.

The sudden tremor of the earth caused the elderly man, whose magic had been completely exhausted in his last defensive spell, to fall uncontrollably to the ground, losing all semblance of his former dignity.

He simply stared at the meteorite that had crashed into the ground not far away, creating a crater, yet remained completely unfazed... He was still holding the little bird the whole time, and was practically spotless. Duncan couldn't help but feel a pang of bitterness in his heart.

..............................

..............................

All attempts to combat the virus failed to yield the desired results, and all these efforts ultimately amounted to nothing. Duncan, dejected, sighed and completely gave up the fight.

"I never knew there were such amazing people in this world... I've seen it for myself today..."

"Giving up like this? You haven't even started fighting back yet!"

"...Even though I'm self-aware, continuing to struggle at this level is futile. Rather, I simply can't understand why a monster like you would even take this exam?"

Under normal circumstances, he would be willing to fight even in hand-to-hand combat, but...