The First Store System

Chapter 370 – Test

Chapter 370: Test

[Ding!]

The familiar sound of the bell rang in the arena, announcing the start of the battle.

"Whoosh!"

An arrow flew, tearing through the air, aiming to sever the head of the opponent, but before it could even touch it, it suddenly turned into ashes.

Aakesh ignored it and shot another of his arrows.

Due to the growth he had in the last two days due to the ruler of the fort, his shooting rate had seen a phenomenal increase.

If previously he could shoot around a thousand arrows every second, now that number had reached a terrifying three thousand.

Before the crowd could even take the scene of the opponent destroying the arrow, Aakesh had already shot hundreds of arrows.

The opponent seemed indifferent to the barrage of the arrows coming toward him.

He had his sword in his right hand. Whenever a shot would come, his hand would make casual moves, and the next moment, the arrow would disintegrate into ashes.

The situation continued for a while as the opponent did nothing other than destroy every shot coming at him. Aakesh also followed the same routine and maintained an average shooting rate of two thousand arrows per second.

The crowd, watching the battle, only looked at it with their jaws dropped, as their eyes followed every move, irrespective of how quick it was.

Suddenly, the air around Aakesh turned chilly. Aakesh stopped shooting, aimed his bow right next to his left ear, and released an arrow.

"Clang!"

The next moment, a sound of metallic clash rang in the area, as the arrow clashed timely with a sword and deflected it from cutting Aakesh's head in half.

It was only the start as Aakesh suddenly aimed his bow at the ground and shot another arrow.

"Clang!"

Another metallic clash rang in the area as Aakesh's arrow clasped with the opponent's sword right before it could pierce his heart.

The expressionless face Aakesh had been carrying turned cold as Aakesh decided to end this battle.

The next moment, Aakesh didn't shoot any arrow but disappeared from where he was standing.

The opponent suddenly looked to his right and deflected the arrow timely before it could cause him a life-threatening injury.

No other such arrows came after that, but instead, the sky turned darker. 

The opponent looked into the sky, only to notice that the number of arrows in the sky had exceeded the previous numbers by severalfold.

The opponent didn't have the same level of eyesight as Aakesh. If he had, he would've noticed an arrow different from the millions of arrows in the sky.

The arrow in question had almost a similar appearance to the other regular arrows, so they all looked the same at a regular glance. But if someone with eyesight like Aakesh were to look, they would find strange patterns engraved on the tip of the arrowhead.

It was the pattern of armor cracking.

The arrow in question was called 'Death Announcer'. It had the ability to pierce its opponent, no matter what defense or attack came at it, excluding the situation where the defense or attack exceeded the strength level of the archer by a large margin.

The arrow in the air was only an inferior version of it, but if it were to be taken out in reality, it could even kill Immortals, despite being shot by someone weaker than them.

It was the ability Aakesh had gained from the bow in this third round of battle.

The opponent's face turned grave. He couldn't find the 'Death Announcer', but only the pressure released by it sent chills down his spine.

The arrow wasn't called 'Death Announcer' for no reason. The opponent would always sense their death coming whenever the arrow was in the equation.

The opponent hadn't expected to fall into a life-threatening situation, only in the first third-round battle, so for a split second, he got stumped.

But since the opponent wasn't an ordinary being or had a normal level of the psyche, he turned calm right away.

Since he could feel death and there was no escaping from it in the limited space inside the arena, the opponent decided to activate his strongest attack, the ability he had gained due to the third round.

The next moment, a projection of a giant white elephant appeared above him.

The projection had sentient eyes and wasn't an ordinary creature, so it right away found the source of the danger.

The opponent followed the line of sight of the elephant and noticed an arrow very slightly different from the other arrows in the sky.

"Roar!"

The elephant roared in anger as the arrows began falling down.

"Thump!"

"Thump!"

"Thump!"

The elephant in projection jumped on the ground, and the arena began shaking in response to the weight.

The elephant didn't stop but continuously kicked the ground, which caused an earthquake in the battle arena.

Aakesh almost stumbled, but he managed to balance by pushing his feet down the ground.

Even though the elephant was kicking the ground, the sky also felt the effect.

The arrows in the sky also began getting out of control as they randomly began clashing with each other.

The elephant got its chance. The next moment, It opened its mouth.

A white energy ball began gathering on the tip and the area between the two tusks.

The 'Death Announcer' remained unaffected by the tremors as it flew, tearing through the air and approaching the opponent. 

When the energy ball had been gathered, the projection began fading.

The elephant knew it didn't have much time, so it released the energy ball at the strange arrow.

The moment the energy ball left the elephant, it entirely faded and disappeared from the battle arena.

While the energy ball and arrow fought, Aakesh and the opponent continued fighting.

Right after the elephant appeared, the opponent had activated his other two attacks, the white flash, and the sword's projection.

Aakesh, who already had millions of arrows covering the sky, decided to face the clash head-on.

The next moment, he activated the skill, 'Counter Shield'.

Soon, a transparent energy barrier surrounded the entirety of him and welcomed the combined might of the white flash and the sword's projection.

Aakesh knew if he failed to survive the clash, he would lose the battle, Aakesh had no chance of losing, but he didn't care. The reason for his decision was that he wanted to test the strength of the 'Counter Shield'. Since he would be fighting in reality in the next few days with the aim of exterminating every member of the organization Nielle without having any injury, it would be better if he knew the extent of the damage the shield could accept.

"Boom!"

An explosion rang in the area as the energy ball and the arrow clashed with each other. Similarly, the combined attack released by the opponent touched the transparent energy barrier surrounding Aakesh.

"Crack!"

The sound of fractures began ringing in the area as the energy barrier started cracking, facing the combined attack.

On the other hand, the arrow in the air passed through the explosion created by its clash with the energy ball unharmed.

When only a Cm away from piercing the heart of the opponent, the arrow suddenly stopped.

It was Aakesh's doing. If the arrow pierced the opponent's heart, Aakesh would win the battle, and he would miss the chance to see the result of his skill's clash with the opponent's attacks.

Time flew by.

"Cracks!"

The sound of barrier cracking continuously rang in the arena, while at the same time, it could be seen that the barrier was also restoring itself to fight back.

Time flew by.

Suddenly the sound of the barrier cracking stopped as the combined attack got absorbed.

"Sigh!"

The opponent sighed disappointedly, as he had lost the battle with utter humiliation just like yesterday. Now, Aakesh had two ways to kill him, either by the counterattack released by the barrier or the arrows floating only a Cm away from his heart.

"You win!" The opponent then told.

The next moment, the arrow moved and pierced the heart of the opponent and passed through it, bursting it in the end.

Before the opponent's brain could understand that the heart had exploded, the barrier surrounding Aakesh released the power it had absorbed.

The next moment, a white flash engulfed the opponent.

When the flash disappeared, the opponent also disappeared with it, and an endless pit with a width of the spot the opponent covered appeared in the arena.

The next moment, blue light out of nowhere appeared and completely engulfed the arena.

Since Aakesh hadn't faced a single injury, shallow or severe, the light had no effect on him.

Once the blue light faded, Aakesh and the crowd saw the arena as it looked before the battle started. 

The crowd's cheers got louder and louder with each passing moment as it was another crushing battle.

The next moment, a blue screen appeared out of nowhere in front of Aakesh, with a choice of whether he wanted to continue on the third round or he wanted to go back to the previous two rounds.

Aakesh ignored the blue screen. He instead looked at the crowd cheering for him.

A smile appeared on his face as he waved his hands towards them.

The crowd cheered louder in response to Aakesh's greetings. But several present in the seating arena noticed the finger Aakesh was showing. They couldn't help but curse him, as the past behavior of Aakesh toward them appeared in their memories.

"Goodbye, losers!" Aakesh then commented and disappeared from the battle arena.

***

It doesn't affect the price!

A/N: There would only be one chapter today. Tomorrow, I may take leave as I have a college reunion. If I take leave, I will make up for the loss of chapters in the next few days, including today's chapter.

Mass release alert!

There would be a mass release on the 20th of march. The least number of chapters I would upload is 5. For every extra chapter, I would need 30 GT for the book. The maximum number of chapters could be 11.

At the time of writing, the book had gotten 30 GTs, so six chapters for the mass release are fixed.

Thanks for reading and supporting the book!