Chapter 238: A Song of Arrows, Threads, and Ice

The swarm descended.

Thousands of glowing bodies filled the sky, their wings beating so rapidly that the sound became almost deafening.

BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!

Silas looked at Chloe.

"Think you can stop them?"

Chloe looked at the swarm, then at the burning streets, and back at Silas.

"I can try."

"Good enough."

Silas turned toward the others.

"Everyone else, move!"

Alpha didn’t need to be told twice.

"To the tower!"

The others immediately broke away.

Damien, Alpha, Alicia, Neil, Rihanna, Emma, and Godfrey surged forward, heading toward the enormous tower in the distance.

The students from the other academy who had temporarily allied with them did the same, but the bees noticed.

The swarm shifted. Hundreds of them suddenly peeled away from the sky and rushed toward the advancing students.

"Chloe."

"I know."

She stepped forward, and her mana surged. The temperature around them dropped instantly. Frost spread across the cracked road beneath her feet. The flames burning throughout the ruins began to flicker.

Then... they stopped. The fire didn’t disappear; it froze... literally.

Flames became suspended in enormous pillars of translucent ice, frozen in the middle of their movement, causing the approaching bees to slow; their wings became covered in frost.

Chloe raised one hand.

"Freeze."

The entire swarm stopped. Hundreds of bees hung motionless in the air. Then thousands. Ice rapidly spread across their bodies.

Silas stared upward. "That’s impressive."

Chloe gritted her teeth in frustration.

"Don’t just stand there."

Silas smiled.

"Right."

He then summoned his bow. The wooden hunter’s bow appeared in his hands. At the same time, a quiver of piercing arrows and steel-joint arrows, which he’d purchased prior to this competition, appeared directly on his back.

He reached behind him, and an arrow slid between his fingers. He drew- the string tightened. His eyes narrowed.

FWOOSH!

The arrow flew and struck a frozen bee. The creature’s body shattered, and its glowing abdomen fell. Silas immediately nocked another arrow.

FWOOSH!

Each shot found a bee that had escaped Chloe’s freezing field. The creatures exploded as they died.

BOOM!

BOOM!

BOOM!

But every explosion was immediately swallowed by Chloe’s ice. The flames expanded for only an instant before freezing solid. Silas fired again. His movements became faster; his fingers barely seemed to stop.

Arrow. Draw. Release. Arrow. Draw. Release. The bowstring continuously snapped, and the sky became a battlefield of arrows, explosions, and ice.

Chloe spread both hands, and a massive wall of frost rose behind them. When a bee slipped through Silas’s firing line and detonated near them, the explosion struck the ice wall.

The wall barely cracked.

Chloe exhaled sharply. "That one was close."

Silas glanced at her.

"You’re okay?"

"Keep shooting."

He grinned.

"Got it."

Farther ahead, the others had reached the outskirts of the tower, and the temporary alliance immediately broke apart.

There was no announcement.

One of the opposing students suddenly attacked- a blast of energy tore across the street, but Damien raised his hand and shifted gravity, causing the attack to curve downward and slam into the pavement.

Damien looked toward the opposing team. "So that’s how it’s going to be."

The other student smiled.

"We’re at the tower."

Another student rushed forward, but Alpha intercepted him. The two collided.

BOOM!

Alpha was pushed several meters backward, but he dug his feet into the ground and stopped himself.

"Not bad."

The opponent charged again; Alpha vanished and appeared beside him.

CRACK!

The punch sent the student crashing through a wall. Meanwhile, Alicia and Neil were forced into their own battle.

"Three on the left!" Neil shouted.

"I see them!" Alicia moved.

The battlefield around the tower had instantly become chaotic. Multiple academies had arrived, and every one of them had realized the same thing.

The tower wasn’t simply a landmark. It was important.

The tournament system appeared again.

[REGIONAL BATTLEFIELD UPDATE!]

Everyone’s identification devices activated. The announcement appeared above the battlefield.

[CHECKPOINT IDENTIFIED]

[BLACKRIDGE TOWER]

[REGIONAL SELECTION - STAGE ONE]

[THE TOWER IS THE CHECKPOINT FOR STAGE TWO.]

The battlefield froze for half a second. The message continued.

[PARTICIPANTS WHO SUCCESSFULLY REACH THE CHECKPOINT MAY CROSS INTO STAGE TWO.]

[CHECKPOINT ACCESS WILL BE AVAILABLE TO QUALIFIED PARTICIPANTS ONLY.]

Damien looked up.

"So that’s it."

Neil nodded.

"The tower is the checkpoint."

Godfrey smiled.

"Then we just need to get inside."

Alicia looked at the other academies surrounding them.

"Not exactly."

The opposing students were already moving.

Everyone had understood the same thing. The tower was the gateway to the next stage, and there was no guarantee that everyone would be allowed through.

Damien’s eyes hardened.

"Then we fight."

The battle exploded.

Alpha charged into another group. Damien increased the gravity around three opponents, forcing them to their knees. Rihanna launched an attack toward one of the academy’s fighters. Emma moved beside her, covering her blind spot.

Godfrey intercepted another opponent before he could reach Neil.

The street became a battlefield. Abilities collided. Concrete shattered. Shockwaves tore through the ruins. Students moved between explosions as they fought their way toward the tower.

But the tower itself remained untouched.

It was enormous, ancient, and completely silent. Its entrance was still sealed.

Then someone reached the stairs- a student from another academy. He stepped onto the first stair, but nothing happened. He ascended it, and a message appeared.

[CHECKPOINT ACCESS CONDITION]

The student stopped, and his expression changed.

"What?"

The message appeared again.

[ALL MEMBERS OF AN ACADEMY MUST REACH THE CHECKPOINT.]

Damien’s eyes widened. "Everyone?"

Neil immediately understood. "That’s why they scattered us."

The Regional Selection wasn’t simply testing whether one powerful student could reach the tower. The entire academy had to make it. That included the substitutes.

Damien looked toward his identification device.

"Then we need to find the others."

Behind them, another explosion erupted. Silas continued firing. His arrows had become a rhythm.

The bees came; Chloe froze them, and Silas eliminated the stragglers. Any bee that managed to escape the freezing field was met by an arrow. Any bee that exploded was immediately trapped inside Chloe’s ice.

The flames couldn’t spread, and the explosions couldn’t reach the others, but the swarm was enormous.

Chloe’s breathing became heavier. This was the first time she had been pushed that far, and even as an SS-Rank, she still lacked absolute control of her mana expenditure.

Silas noticed.

"How long can you keep this up?"

"Long enough."

"That’s not what I asked."

She glanced at him.

"I don’t know."

Silas looked at the swarm, then back at Chloe.

"Then we’ll make sure you don’t have to."

He drew another arrow. This time, he coated the arrow in pink threads.

Chloe noticed.

"What are you doing?"

"Making my arrows better."

Silas released.

The arrow pierced through three bees. The pink threads spread from the first impact point, caught the second, then the third. He then pulled his hand back.

The three bees were dragged together and exploded simultaneously.

BOOOOOOM!

Chloe immediately froze the explosion. Silas smiled.

"Three for one."

Chloe shook her head.

"You’re enjoying yourself again."

"A little."

"You’re impossible."

Then Chloe suddenly looked toward the sky, and her expression changed.

"Silas."

He stopped.

"What?"

"The swarm."

He looked up.

The bees weren’t attacking anymore. They were gathering. Thousands of them began forming a massive cloud above the ruined city, while their glowing abdomens became brighter.

Silas’s smile disappeared.

"How many?"

Chloe stared upward.

"Too many."

The entire sky began glowing orange.

The tournament system appeared again.

[WARNING!]

[MASS DETONATION DETECTED.]

[SURVIVAL RECOMMENDATION: SEEK COVER.]

Silas stared. "That’s not good."

Chloe looked at the tower.

"The others are still outside."

Silas looked toward the battlefield.

Damien and the others were still fighting. They hadn’t reached the checkpoint. The swarm was gathering above them. And judging by the light building inside thousands of orange bodies, every single bee was preparing to explode.

Silas tightened his grip on his bow.

"Chloe."

"Yeah?"

"We need to clear them a path."

Chloe raised both hands, and frost erupted around her. Silas pulled another arrow as the swarm descended. The entire battlefield turned orange.

And then... Silas fired.

FWOOSH!

Chloe unleashed everything.

KRAAAAAASH!

A colossal wave of ice surged across the battlefield as Silas’s arrows tore through the descending swarm.

For the first time since Stage One began, the Exploding Flame Bees met something that could actually stop them.

Ice, threads, and an archer who refused to let a single stray bee reach his teammates.