Parallel Memory

"Mia Frostine of the human race is the winner!"

The crowd erupted into a mix of cheers and hushed whispers. Mia's victory had been swift and astonishing, a testament to her skills and mastery of her abilities.

"What? That was it?"

"Weren't the guy from Aasimar bragging like he would win it easily?"

"Even against Rank-S, that was a humiliating defeat."

The spectator started to insult Lucian after having all their expectations down the drain. Moreover, the effect was amplified because of how arrogant Lucian initially was.

"'Tis an embarrassment!"

"How could Lucian lose so easily?"

"We told him how important this fight was." …

The other Aasimar also complained. They were not happy at all with Lucian's performance. It was like Willian's group who had embarrassed the human race.

"Seraphine, how was it? Could you defeat her?"

Gabriel asked Seraphine who had been seriously concentrating on the fight, though it ended in one move.

Seraphine shook her head.

"Mia Frostine ended the fight with haste. I cannot say for certain."

Seraphine said.

"However, judging by how quickly she dispatched Lucian, we can say that she is no weaker than I."

Seraphine analyzed. She didn't know the strength of Mia but knew pretty well about Lucian who is one step away from ascending to Rank-S. Even Seraphine didn't know whether she could defeat Lucian in one move.

Amidst all the shock, Mia Frostine walked calmly towards her seat. There was neither joy nor sadness, only the same expression she always had.

The contest continued after a huge letdown by Lucian. In the meantime, Sylvia and Lisa were also back. It seems like Sylvia wanted to observe the fights and also to cheer on her friend who has yet to make an appearance.

Zero watched the fights carefully and what caught his eyes were the fighting style of Dryads.

Their movements were as fluid as a gentle breeze rustling through leaves, and their presence seemed to blend seamlessly with the surrounding nature almost like when he uses Mana Manipulation to hide.

Their fighting style was a mesmerizing blend of illusion and plant-based skills. The Dryad could summon vines and other forms of plant that help them with their battle. With a mere thought, the Dryad could control every part of the plant that they summoned.

If they want to block the attack, they will summon a huge tree and if they want a quick attack, they summon vines which are flexible and deadly.

In addition to that, they seem to be able to cast an illusion on their opponent. Most opponents were mostly defeated without the Dryads doing anything.

They could also be imbued with an illusionary magic that played tricks on the senses with their plant based attack. Like one person had been hit by the vines and despite being just a light attack, the opponent didn't do anything suggesting he was caught in their illusion.

However, it seems that people with good mental strength can avoid being caught in their illusion. Some of their opponents were caught in illusion but broke it off in a matter of seconds.

Anyway, Zero has already seen how the Dryads catch their opponent in their illusion.

For them to be able to do so, they need to have some kind of contact with the opponent. One of which was using those plant based attacks.

However, mostly it is through the pollen. They are very small but it seemed to be imbued with mana and whenever the opponent touched it, Dryad could send them into an illusion world. Of course, the bigger the contact, the stronger the illusion.

Furthermore, whenever they summon plants, they will always summon pollen as well. That is how they caught most of their opponents in illusion without them even knowing what happened.

Though with all the battle, many might have already figured out the trick. Even so, it is tricky to fight Dryad even if one knows the secret behind their attack.

After some time, once again one of the humans was selected for the fight and this time, it was Zion. He walked towards the arena with a stern expression.

Luckily for him, his opponent was also in Rank-B +. His opponent was an Elve and the moment the referee signaled the start of the fight, the Elven fighter started to shoot arrows at Zion.

Zion took the attack head on and destroyed them. It seems that Zion wanted to win the fight with his overwhelming strength and speed.

The Elven attacked tried his best to break past Zion defense but Zion completely destroyed every one of his attacks with his spear. Moreover, Zion was also moving towards the Elve slowly.

Once the Elven lost his distance, it was certain that Zion would defeat him. After all, in close range, Spear was much more powerful than bow & arrows.

Despite both of them at the peak of Rank-B +, it seems that Zion was the stronger one. As time passed by, the Elven fighter also lost his advantage which was the distance. And he didn't have any place to run to as well because Zion had cornered him.

The Elven tried to fight back, however, when he was in the attacking range of Zion, he was immediately knocked unconscious by him.

ZIon then arrogantly returned to his seat. Despite having done a great job, Zion didn't seem to think anything of this victory.

"Zion has also grown strong! He has learned to be patient."

Mia commented on Zion's battle. She had taught Zion and others for three years. And after not seeing them for a year, they had become stronger and more mature.

As for how Mia knew that Zion had become more patient was because of how he handled his Elven opponent. If it was in the past, Zion would have tried to end this battle quickly and started to run off to attack the opponent.

But now, instead of that, he kept blocking the opponent's attack. It was better because that way not only are you exhausting your opponent mana but it is also easier to defend that way.

The match continued. On average the match lasted for 5 minutes while the fastest ended in seconds like with Mia.

Zero waited for his turn and then it finally happened.

"Zero Elea of Human race Vs Elowyn of Dryad Race!"