Death Mage with an SS-Rank Talent-Chapter 165

The second round of Stage Three began after an hour break. The alliance wants to see what the students are capable of. If they were too tired, then they could lose a lot of possible seeds for growth. So, sufficient recuperation time was given.

The first match to determine the top five has started, and the first match was between Aaron and Mary.

Aaron knew that Mary was a student of someone who stayed above the alliance. So, there is a chance that she has become very powerful. Since Mary is an SS-rank professional, the resources invested in her should be huge.

He could be at a disadvantage, but he wanted to make sure that he would give it all, even if that was the case. Luckily, he was not matched with Mary, making it possible for both to reach the final stage of the tournament.

When their names appeared on the board, both of them got onto the stage.

"Do I know you?" Mary asked, looking at Aaron, "I feel that I know you, but I can’t remember".

When Aaron heard those words, he didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. He was never good at establishing social connections, especially with girls. Everyone who had any connection with him, the first attempt came from the other person, not him.

"In a way, we do know each other, and we don’t", Aaron replied. frёewebnoѵēl.com

This only confused Mary even more.

Aaron continued, "Rock City, we went to the same school".

Mary took for a second before a realisation appeared on her face, "I remember you. You are the quiet kid who sits at the corner window. You got yelled by teachers a few times for watching out of the window, instead of listening to the class".

When Aaron heard those words, he really wanted to cry. Out of all things about him, she remembered those things, which are a bit embarrassing. Luckily, there were not many embarrassing moments in his school life anyway.

Even though there are only a few moments, he didn’t want her to remember those details here, where everyone could hear.

"Now that introductions are out of the way. Let’s do what we came here to do", Aaron quickly changed the topic.

"Are you both ready?" the coordinator asked.

Both Mary and Aaron nodded.

"Okay, one...two...three...start", the coordinator gave the start signal.

"Mana Shield"

"Light Shield"

Both of their instinct screamed at each other to put up shields first, which was something no one had done before in the tournament. Both attacked each other, or one attacked while the other put up their shield. This was the first time that they put up their shields at the same time, which surprised the other.

Both looked at each other with surprise at their movements. Both believed that the other would attack with immense attack skill, which made them put out a shield to protect themselves first.

The surprise didn’t last long.

Mary cast Light Arrows, while Aaron summoned his undead skeletons, which he sent all to fight Mary.

Mary had only time till the skeletons surrounded her to actually attack Aaron directly. Once they arrived, she was fully occupied with them.

Just like what he had done before, when Mary was entangled with skeletons, he summoned ghosts, but that was all done under the eyes of Mary. She had seen this trick before, fearing that she might fall for such tricks, she was prepared for the ghosts, and as expected, Aaron summoned ghosts when they were in the middle of the fight.

This was done to catch his opponents off guard, but that failed in this case.

Even though Mary saw the ghosts, she failed to protect herself. Her master gave her a protection necklace for this very purpose, but that couldn’t stand the attacks of five ghosts.

She finally experienced the pain of mind attacks, but the pain was lower than what Aiden or Viren in the academy experienced.

There was no enmity with Mary. So, he didn’t go full blast with mind attacks, and stopped that once the defence was broken and the attack landed.

"I surrender", Mary shouted, ending the match officially. She knew that Aaron had let her go, instead of attacking when her mind defence failed. So, she didn’t feel bad about surrendering.

There are two more matches to fight. It’s best to be second than fourth, as that would be her rank if she faints now and can’t fight the next two matches.

Aaron withdrew his undead once Mary surrendered.

"Aaron Skyhart wins", the coordinator declared, and the two left the stage for the next match, which was between two of the losing four.

---

"Do you know that boy?" the woman beside Mary asked. The woman was none other than Mary’s master, one of the five human gods.

"Yes and No", Mary answered, "We attended the same school, but there weren’t many interactions between us. He wasn’t much sociable with others, not even with other boys. He was the quiet boy of the class".

Hearing those words, the woman nodded and said or asked nothing more.

The woman became quite protective of Mary as time went on. She was afraid that someone might take advantage of Mary, of their relationship.

She heard the words spoken by them. She immediately pulled the file on Aaron. From that, she learned everything that she could about him.

Moreover, when she saw the match between Aaron and Mary, she was surprised. He was able to keep up with her, and in the end, he was able to defeat her.

It was mentioned in the file that he might have an Undead Talent or have a mutated skill or both, which is the reason behind his immense strength. Though she was interested to know how he was able to defeat Mary, she didn’t think to check the boy’s secret.

It was considered taboo to ask about others’ talents and skills they possess.

If not for the conditions of awakening, even the class of the awakener would have been kept a secret for as long as possible. Though that would be impossible, as once they show their skills in public, many professions can be estimated easily.

The awakening, for some reason, had to be done under open skies, or else it could go haywire.

In the beginning, when many high-ranked newly awakened were killed by enemies of humanity, the alliance tried to do the awakening separately for everyone in private, but that proved to be impossible.

The awakenings failed, and even the awakening equipment blew up a few times. The reason behind that, no one knew nor could find out the reason. Many tried to find the reason, but after spending millions on that, it was deemed worthless.

This was because, even if awakening was done in private, it was easy to guess one’s profession through their fighting styles.

If one awakens as a Fire Mage, they are sure to have a Staff or a Wand as a weapon and use Fire Skills as attack or defence. Most professionals can be easily estimated within days. So, Alliance saw no point in hiding the professions after awakening.

Instead, they improved security during and after awakenings in order to reduce the fatalities of young seeds.

Sensing that there wouldn’t be any issue from the boy, and started to watch the match that was ongoing at the moment.