Chapter 105: Eliminated

The female student whimpered in fear when Ray was practically breathing cold air next to her.

She was mid-chanting the spell, so to pause or be interrupted halfway would incur a backlash on her.

It was the equivalent of a river flowing downward and then being forced to flow upward when the current was clearly against it.

"You should have just focused on the missions." Ray shook his head and blew on her ears.

"N-N-No..." The female student’s ears twitched from the blow.

However, she still remained in the chant position, albeit clearly in a struggle.

"Hoho, let’s see if you can resist this then." His eyes glinted in a cold light as he extended his hand and began tickling her stomach.

"Hahaahha!"

Sure enough, the tickling was extremely effective.

She was laughing but also crying at the same time. The tickle had caused her chant to be disrupted, and she could sense her mana was starting to backfire.

In that split second, Ray also retreated to a distance and waved his hand.

"Bye-bye, have a great day~!" He gave his parting as a kind and refined gentleman would do.

"Y-You’re a villain." The female student cried as she received a violent backlash.

Since the spell she was casting was no small feat, her token automatically activated, and she was sent flying away.

In other words, she was eliminated from the trial.

Talk about irony, right?

"Aish, to harm others is equivalent to harming yourself. Why did you have to pick a fight with me? I practice the no violence code."

Ray shook his head and lamented.

To maintain this act of benevolence, he even clasped his hands together as a prayer.

[+10 Villain Points]

’Wow, look at that biased perspective. I’m praying for her well-being, but I get judged as a villain. Truly, there are no real heroes. Only a dumb protagonist and a pitiful shut-in person.’

He tried to squeeze out a small droplet of tears, but failed miserably.

...

Auditorium

In the meantime, the female student who was eliminated in a humiliating manner returned to the auditorium.

Her face was deathly pale, almost as if she had just lost her million-dollar ticket.

One could easily imagine how she felt right now.

It was like she was told that she won the million-dollar lottery ticket, but was suddenly told that it had expired.

The ups and downs were so drastic that one mentality could easily crumble in the spot.

And that was precisely how she reacted.

"Wahh, he’s so despicable!" She crashed out on the spot. She was definitely going to a lower class for how fast she got eliminated. It would be a miracle if she wasn’t assigned to Class F.

The nearby professors could only sigh at her outburst.

"As disappointing as it may be, she really wasn’t quite experienced in combat," Hewes commented. To cast a large-scale AoE spell without any proper protection was a rookie mistake.

But then again, usually mages would be protected by the knights to enable them to freely cast the spell without being worried about their safety.

"This is a good experience for mages to fight properly without any protection, though," Louis chimed in.

Although it was indeed a pity for a student who could cast such high-level spells as a freshman, it remained a fact that their negligence had resulted in her defeat.

"The student Raymond could have easily inflicted even heavier damage if he desired her destruction." Louis continued. The mere fact that he simply tickled and blew on her ears was considered mild in his eyes.

Margaret didn’t say anything, but her expression had already showcased her stance.

Yes, she was biased and had a little bit of hatred toward Raymond. But the credit must be given where it was due.

"Raymond lost a few points when he was snuck on up, but gained more when he managed to react in time and even utilized the window of opportunity to his advantage. The only problem is that his stamina seems to be lacking a lot." Margaret gave her insight.

She had noticed this for quite a while. His movement was nimble and fast, but there were numerous times that Ray had to pause and take a few breaths.

Of course, those breaths were done very discreetly. Without paying close attention, one wouldn’t really notice how much he was actually breathing during combat mode.

"If the female student was more patient and continued to bombard with regular low-level spells, Raymond would have been the one in trouble." She concluded.

"It can’t be helped. Student Raymond covered his weakness very well with his misdirection." Leon suddenly interrupted and clapped his hands.

"A battle involves all sorts of factors. Some might call it underhand, but if they won, then they are the victor. Losers, on the other hand, never get the chance to echo their misfortune or plight aloud."

Just at this moment, more students were being transported out from the illusion.

"Isn’t that a bit too quick?"

"How are they eliminated already?"

Some of the professors raised an eyebrow in confusion. It had only been a little bit over 10 minutes.

There shouldn’t be any real danger that spawned in the trial that could threaten the students’ lives.

"You didn’t inform the students in advance that they could steal points by eliminating another, right?" Elsa approached Margaret and asked softly.

This was something that they purposely concealed and should have been discovered near the end of the stage.

"Of course, not." Margaret twitched her mouth. "The main point of this trial was to let us see who has more potential in the long run. If they get eliminated beforehand, then it’ll become pointless."

And because she had seen how Ray managed to stay composed despite being surrounded, she intentionally gave the other student a common goal to focus him.

Yet it seemed like she had severely underestimated their selfish mindset.

Rather than trying to work together collectively, they were all focusing on themselves individually.

’How disappointing for not a single student to act chivalry?’ She lamented inwardly.