Chapter 84: It Begins [2]

Unlike the others, Leah did not rush to the very front.

Yesterday, Evelyn had already told her that in a regional screening of this scale, running fastest at the beginning did not necessarily have any value.

After more than four hundred people entered from the same entrance, the first few minutes were actually the most chaotic stage. The truly smart approach was to leave the dense crowd as quickly as possible, then choose a route according to one’s own advantages.

So after entering the forest, she directly moved toward the east side. This direction was not within the known vague range of the three Mana Core Badges, nor was it the area richest in resources on the map, so noticeably fewer people chose it.

Five minutes later, only scattered students remained around her. Ten minutes later, even the sounds from the direction of the entrance had completely disappeared.

It was only then that Leah gradually slowed her pace.

After advancing less than three hundred meters farther, the bushes on the right suddenly shook violently. Leah quickly stopped, but she did not blindly release a skill. The next second, a blue gray figure suddenly lunged out from the bushes!

[Gale Hyena]

Its level was not high, but its speed was extremely fast. Most importantly, there was not just one. The first one had just rushed out when the sound of two more sets of footsteps came from the forest on the left.

Three!

The three Gale Hyenas quickly spread out and began circling Leah continuously, looking for a position from which they could directly attack her back.

Leah’s first reaction was to lock onto the fastest one. Silver mana had already appeared at her fingertips. But just as [Astral Chains] was about to shoot out, Evelyn’s words from yesterday suddenly rang in her mind.

Her fingers abruptly stopped in midair.

The first Gale Hyena circled rapidly around from the left, seemingly wondering why the human girl had suddenly paused.

Could it be that she was scared?

Thinking this, the hyenas became even more confident.

Above the monitoring area, Cecilia watched the image, her brows furrowed.

"What is she waiting for?"

The next second, the third Gale Hyena finally lost patience and suddenly accelerated from behind Leah.

Now!

The girl raised her right hand, and two silver chains directly stretched out between her and the other two magical beasts!

The first sealed the left.

The second sealed the right.

The three Gale Hyenas, originally trying to form a three way encirclement, were forcibly cut into different areas by the two suddenly appearing silver chains.

The third chain rose from the ground almost at the same time. The Gale Hyena that had truly launched the attack had just prepared to change direction when only one place remained for it to land.

Crack!

Following a flash of silver light, the chain directly wrapped around its hind leg. Its body, in the middle of a high speed charge, instantly lost balance.

Boom!

The entire magical beast tumbled heavily away.

This time, Leah did not pause for half a second like yesterday after successfully controlling the target.

A compressed Starfall shot out from her palm.

Bang!

The Gale Hyena’s head slammed heavily into the mud, and it lost the ability to move.

The remaining two finally launched their attacks. But the original three way kill formation had already been completely broken.

Leah retreated half a step while readjusting her chains.

The second one pounced from the right. She quickly placed one chain ahead of time at her rear flank.

The Gale Hyena that had just cut into that angle once again crashed into the controlled area.

Crack!

In the monitoring area, the corners of Victor’s mouth rose slightly.

She had learned it.

After being killed four times by Evelyn yesterday, she had finally learned the combat style best suited to her profession.

In less than three minutes, the third Gale Hyena fell.

After confirming that there were no new magical beasts around, she walked over to the corpses to collect the proof materials that could count toward her screening points.

The whole process was not very pretty. She even wasted part of her mana because of her lack of experience. But at least she had not let any speed type magical beast truly get close to her body.

Moreover, Leah felt very proud of herself at this moment.

"It seems your investment has not failed for the time being," Cecilia said with a smile.

Victor glanced at her. "I never said it would fail."

"Who was it just now who said that if she could not handle the screening, it would mean there was a problem with the investment?"

"She handled it, didn’t she?"

Cecilia actually could not find a rebuttal for a moment.

And just as Leah ended her first battle, another monitoring crystal suddenly transmitted a loud noise.

Boom!

Three students who were moving together stopped almost simultaneously. Ahead of them, a rock armored bear nearly two meters tall had just charged out from behind a slope. Its level was not low.

Its skin was even covered with large patches of natural rock armor. Several students were clearly preparing to temporarily avoid it.

But a figure had already overtaken them from behind.

"Huh, that’s Ryan. What is he planning to do?" someone whispered when they saw that familiar back.

"He is going to fight it. Can’t you see?"

Calmly ignoring the whispers, Ryan walked forward slowly, only stopping when there was about one meter between him and the beast.

Shing!

Then he gripped his sword and unsheathed it. In the same movement, he dashed forward and followed up with an attack.

Fwoosh!

The first strike chopped at the joint of the rock armored bear’s raised right claw.

Clang!

Sparks burst out. However, the attack did not break through the rock armor.

But the magical beast’s movement clearly slowed for an instant.

A fierce light flashed in Ryan’s eyes as he followed up with another strike.

There was no flair or mind blowing display. It was simply a series of precise attacks meant to dismantle the beast’s rock armor.

Slash! Slash!

Crack.

Roar!

The rock armored bear let out a painful roar when the sword finally cracked through the first layer of rock.

In fury, it pressed its entire body down.

But Ryan was as swift as a fish, already slipping past its attack range.

Bang!

The magical beast’s front claw missed him and smashed into the ground, sending fragments flying.

Dashing forward from another angle, Ryan struck again, and the previous crack widened.

When there was finally enough space, the blade pierced into the joint.

The massive body lost balance and swayed.

"He’s about to defeat it alone!" someone cried out in both shock and disbelief.

Before their very eyes, they watched as Ryan abandoned attacking the monster’s armored body and instead moved toward the weakest part of its defense, the side of its neck.

Then he struck viciously, ending the monster’s life.

The three students nearby who had originally planned to retreat all fell silent.

One of them even looked down at the weapon he had just drawn, then silently put it back.

From above, Victor also watched the entire battle. ℯℯ𝑙.

The original world protagonist.

Ryan’s current level, eighteen, was not high enough to crush all first year students, but his combat judgment was clearly far more mature than that of ordinary freshmen.

In particular, his habit of finding a weak point and then continuously attacking the same spot did not resemble those young people who were used to relying on level and high level skills to overpower enemies.

If things developed according to the original plot, this guy being able to grow step by step and eventually kill the original Victor was not entirely due to so called protagonist luck.

Luck only made it easier for him to encounter opportunities. Whether he could seize those opportunities ultimately still depended on the person himself.

But Victor currently had no interest in comparing who was stronger with Ryan.

...Because in another monitoring image, Mia had finally encountered her first interesting situation.