Chapter 88

When Vanessa arrived at the castle, it was already completely dark, with only a hazy moon hanging above the dark curtain.

As soon as Vanessa stepped into the vicinity of the castle, she noticed something was amiss.

The castle was too quiet, unnaturally quiet.

Logically speaking, those who had made it to this side of the castle were the best of the best in this entrance examination.

They represented the pinnacle of the younger generation on the entire Terraria continent.

Needless to say, their strength was formidable, and those with soul armament below three stars were virtually nonexistent here.

Vanessa glanced at the map, having already eliminated the group of people who had attempted to cross the bridge earlier.

She now possessed the complete map.

But once the arrow is shot, there is no turning back. Behind her lay an ashen area crackling with thunder and lightning.

She had no way to retreat and could only move forward toward this gloomy, abandoned castle.

There was still one night and half a day left until the end of the assessment.

The competition was nearing its conclusion, and the final match point circle had begun to take shape.

So far, there was no sign of the area around the castle being tainted by ashes, which meant that this castle was very likely one of the final circles.

Yet, despite this, there had been no movement in the finals circle, it was as quiet as if no one was there.

Wasn’t that strange?

As expected, the contestants who had made it to the finals were all top-tier players, biding their time and waiting for others to make the first move so they could reap the benefits.

But would things really go as smoothly as they imagined?

Vanessa chose not to enter through the main entrance. Walking in through the front gate at this point would be tantamount to exposing her position to everyone hiding inside.

She had already arrived late, and the “prime positions” had likely been claimed by others.

Entering through the main entrance would only reveal her location immediately.

To ensure her movements remained covert, she hung the mithril mace on her leg, climbed up a sloping stone structure on the edge of the castle, and slipped inside through a window.

Because she was wearing high-heeled boots, she had to land carefully, feeling her way along the wall to avoid making too much noise.

The cold moonlight spilled onto the ground, casting a pale glow over the dark, silent room.

Vanessa glanced around and realized she was in a very narrow space, filled with cobwebs.

It appeared to be a storage room for miscellaneous items.

She didn’t dare to step out of the room or even breathe too loudly, fearing it might give away her position.

After all, she couldn’t be sure if someone was hiding in the hall just outside.

The entire castle was now a danger zone, with countless enemies lurking in the shadows.

Whoever was discovered first would be at a disadvantage.

But how long could this go on?

Vanessa glanced at the cold moonlight outside the window.

All the candidates hiding in the castle were reluctant to fire the first shot, not wanting to be taken advantage of by others.

Would this stalemate continue until dawn, with the admission list being determined solely by points?

Would those with lower scores really remain silent?

Probably not.

After all, the points weren’t transparent. No one could be certain whether their score was high enough to secure advancement or if they were at risk of being eliminated.

It seemed inevitable that someone would eventually lose patience and spark a conflict, but a catalyst was needed.

Vanessa pulled out the map and examined the other final competition areas.

The more she looked, the more she noticed that there seemed to be more colored spots around the castle than before.

Could it be that the castle wasn’t the final round after all?

Vanessa held the map under the moonlight and confirmed that there were indeed more spots around the castle than earlier.

However, these weren’t the black spots symbolizing ashes, they were red spots!

That’s right, densely packed red dots were spread all over the castle, and if you looked closely, you’d notice that these red dots were moving.

Vanessa realized something in an instant, and the next moment, a deafening explosion erupted from outside the stone house, resonating like the toll of a massive bell that shook the heavens and earth.

The fuse had been lit.

On this final evening, all candidates would be able to see the locations of every other candidate around them.

It was also at this moment that some candidates, understanding what the map revealed, realized there were others nearby.

They couldn’t allow rivals to linger close by, so they took immediate action.

Like dominoes, it was unclear where the first battle broke out.

All that was certain was that after the initial explosion, the entire castle was engulfed in chaos.

Unlike the earlier skirmishes between novices, the scale of this battle was unprecedented.

The candidates involved were all geniuses with high magical aptitude. After a series of explosions, Vanessa watched as another tilted stone building outside collapsed.

The combatants, now locked in fierce battles, wouldn’t tolerate anyone hiding in the buildings to spectate.

They used their magic to destroy every structure that could be leveled.

This meant the tilted stone building was no longer safe, and Vanessa had to leave, quickly.

As soon as the thought crossed her mind, Vanessa felt an explosion rock the base of the stone building she was in.

The foundation crumbled, and the structure began to collapse.

Vanessa leaped out of the window just as the stone building started to fall.

Before it hit the ground, she jumped again, using a broken stone pillar as a stepping stone to land safely.

“Boom!” The stone building collapsed with a thunderous crash, sending a cloud of dust, sand, and gravel into the air.

Vanessa glanced at the map and noticed that the red dots that had been clustered around her had suddenly vanished.

Apparently, many people had been hiding in the stone building she’d just escaped.

They hadn’t made it out in time when the building collapsed and were teleported out of the secret realm by their tokens moments before being crushed.

Vanessa turned her gaze to the nearby castle, which had been eerily quiet for so long but was now alive with chaos.

She sidestepped sharply, narrowly avoiding a flying arrow.

The tilted, fragile stone buildings had crumbled, but the more stable structures remained standing, as the candidates’ current abilities weren’t enough to destroy them completely.

The cacophony of clashing weapons and magical explosions was deafening. Vanessa felt surrounded, unsure of where to go next.

“Ah!” A candidate with bloodthirsty eyes, wielding two swords, lunged at Vanessa.

The blades, each imbued with a different elemental energy, slashed toward her.

Vanessa didn’t attempt to block the attack head-on. Instead, she calmly sidestepped, evading the twin blades that sparked with elemental force.

With a swift motion, she kicked the candidate in the abdomen, sending them sprawling backward.

Judging by the flames flickering along the dual blades, this candidate’s soul armament was likely that of a [Magic Swordsman].

It seemed that only soul armament users with three stars or above remained at this point.

Vanessa’s pupils contracted sharply. A strong sense of danger prompted her to kick the magic swordsman candidate away and roll swiftly from her original position.

The next moment, a small fireball struck the spot where she had just been standing, blasting a small crater into the ground.

She knelt on one knee and immediately turned her gaze toward the source of the attack.

Under the dark, moonlit sky, a pair of fists wreathed in flames appeared particularly striking and menacing.

What is this…?

A girl wielding brass knuckles charged at Vanessa without a word, as if she were her sole target.

Her punches were so fast they were nearly impossible to track with the naked eye, she threw seven or eight punches in a single second.

Her movements were quick, but to Vanessa, they seemed almost sluggish.

Vanessa dodged and retreated with ease, her movements graceful and composed even in the midst of the chaotic battlefield.

The blazing fire fists grazed past Vanessa, leaving a searing heat in their wake.

Vanessa leaped into the air, stepping onto the girl’s shoulders and executing a flawless somersault.

The girl reacted quickly, anticipating Vanessa’s landing and aiming a punch at her.

However, Vanessa landed first. Just as the fiery fist was about to connect, the girl suddenly found her arm immobilized.

She looked up in shock to see her wrist firmly gripped by the seemingly delicate girl in front of her. No matter how hard she struggled, she couldn’t break free.

The strength she had been so proud of was utterly insignificant in the face of Vanessa’s power.

Before she could throw another punch, Vanessa delivered a spinning kick to the side of her face.

The long boot made solid contact, sending the girl flying backward.

She crashed hard to the ground, and before she could recover, Vanessa struck again, eliminating her with a decisive blow to the back of the head.

Vanessa’s movements were clean, precise, and lethal.

It was clear that surviving on the battlefield now was no easy feat. Had she been even a fraction slower, those flaming fists might have found their mark.

If I stay out in the open, more people will find me. I need to find cover.

With the mace still hanging from her leg, Vanessa sprinted toward the stone buildings at the center of the castle complex.

The central stone buildings were likely hotly contested at this point, but Vanessa had no choice.

A place with cover was far better than an exposed area where she could be taken out by an unseen area-of-effect attack.

As soon as this thought crossed her mind, several fireballs exploded near Vanessa, the force of the flames lifting the tasseled hem of her white dress.

If this had been Winnie’s body, the sheer force of the magical explosion might have injured her and sent her tumbling to the ground.

Vanessa didn’t bother to determine whether the spells had been aimed at her or were simply stray attacks.

Without looking back, she dashed toward the stone fort, her focus unwavering.

“Ugh!” As soon as Vanessa reached the entrance of the stone fortress, two young men flew backward, collapsing unconscious at the doorway, their tokens shattered.

The gate of the stone fortress had vanished, perhaps blown away by an explosion or simply destroyed.

Vanessa stepped inside. The staircase within followed the standard castle design, specifically structured to hinder right-handed invaders.

As a result, she switched the mace to her left hand.

Though not left-handed, her mastery of the mace made the transition seamless.

To her, there was no difference between wielding it with her left or right hand.

“Hah!” As she ascended to the second floor, a spear shot out from the shadows, attempting to block her path.

In such a confined space, the advantages of long weapons were evident.

The short mace in Vanessa’s hand couldn’t reach the attacker, but this posed no real challenge for her.

With her lightning-fast reflexes, Vanessa leaned back, narrowly avoiding the spear’s thrust.

In one fluid motion, she stepped forward and seized the spear’s shaft.

“Tsk!” The man hiding on the second floor grew frantic as he realized he couldn’t retract his weapon.

It seemed his mana was depleted. Despite being geniuses, the candidates’ overall mana capacity was limited. After a battle or two, their reserves were often exhausted.

Seeing his desperation to reclaim his weapon, Vanessa smirked. She had no intention of giving him the opportunity.

“It’s dangerous to do something like this at the entrance of a corridor,” she remarked, her light cherry-colored eyes glinting with a deadly allure in the dimly lit passage.

With a subtle flex of her fingers, she applied pressure, bending the spear shaft upward.

“Crack!” The spearhead snapped off in her hand. Without hesitation, she hurled the broken piece at the man, striking him in the thigh.

“Ahhh!”

Seizing the moment, Vanessa lunged forward and delivered a crushing blow to the young man’s head with her mace, eliminating him from the competition.

When she finally reached the roof, she found it in utter chaos.

The area was littered with fragments of broken tokens and scorch marks from magical explosions.

Above, thunder and flames clashed in the sky, while on the ground, candidates from various nations engaged in fierce combat.

The top of the fort was connected to another fortress by a stone suspension bridge, narrow and without guardrails, serving as the only passage between the two structures.

The candidates here were undeniably talented, but their lack of practical experience was evident.

In their eagerness to defeat their opponents quickly, many had exhausted their magical energy early on, leaving them no choice but to resort to hand-to-hand combat.

The battle on the stone bridge resembled a meat grinder.

Candidates were being knocked off the bridge left and right, their falls cushioned only by the protective tokens that saved them from certain death.

Without the tokens, they would have been crushed on the rocks below.

The sight made Vanessa frown slightly.

At least this is just a trial and assessment, she thought.

In a real war, the brutality would be far worse, something any sane person would find horrifying.

Vanessa hesitated for a moment. Using [Holy King Baptism] in such a crowded area would undoubtedly be effective, but she decided against it.

Even though no one seemed to be watching her, she didn’t want to risk exposing her divine favor unnecessarily.

Instead, she hurled the leaf mace in her hand.

The spinning mace flew through the air, striking down the candidates on the suspension bridge like a blade through grass.

It returned to her hand seamlessly, and she immediately swung it behind her, knocking away a young man who had tried to ambush her.

The commotion on the bridge soon drew attention. The remaining candidates realized that someone was approaching from behind and turned to face her.

They knew that if they allowed newcomers to take advantage of their position, they would be caught in a pincer attack and eliminated sooner or later.

Vanessa understood this as well. Many others had the same idea of capturing the stone fort.

If she continued to clear the bridge, she would inevitably be drawn into the meat grinder, trapped between two fronts.

But this wasn’t a miscalculation on her part. Close-quarters combat and chaotic skirmishes were her forte.

Magic, on the other hand, was not her strength, aside from her recovery abilities, which she couldn’t openly use without risking exposure of her divine favor.

With the mace in hand, Vanessa swung it wildly, repelling wave after wave of attackers.

Weapons clashed against her mace as she fought her way through the chaos.

Reaching the second floor of the stone fortress had placed her in the heart of the battlefield. The only way out was to fight her way through.

The mithril mace in her hands became an instrument of destruction, striking down anyone who dared to approach.

It was like the scythe of the god of death, those who touched it were crippled, and those who were struck by it were eliminated.

The howling wind generated by her swings tore through the air, striking fear into anyone who came near.