SAINTESS [Chapter 145: Difference] (Patreon)

Time really did fly. In the blink of an eye, nearly two years had passed. Back then, they’d only just enrolled, yet in a daze they’d already been through so much.

During the entrance trial, he’d practically run the moment he saw Aesphyra. He couldn’t beat her at all.

As Winnie moved forward, the desert gradually receded. He was slowly leaving the Mars region constructed by the Trial Grounds.

No wonder this was the place where the emperor of the ancient Carillian Empire had once attained enlightenment, it was incredible. It could actually simulate the memories in an entrant’s mind, then generate scenes from those memories.

The Mars region was much smaller than he’d imagined. Or maybe he’d started at the edge. Before long, Winnie walked out of Mars and entered a forest.

It was unnervingly quiet. He had come this far without encountering a single person, and the silence felt wrong. After the chaos of the earlier fighting and the steady stream of people entering, this complete lack of activity was anything but normal.

“Whoosh, whoosh!!” Three throwing knives shot out from the shrubbery.

Winnie didn’t even bother to glance over. With several sharp clinks of metal striking metal, the jagged blades were deflected by the concealed armor beneath his clothes.

When the knives failed, a swift black shadow sprang from the bushes. Wrapped in a gust of wind, it lunged straight at Winnie.

Clang, clang! More metallic impacts. In an instant, that shadow had stabbed Winnie no fewer than five times.

Looks like a skilled assassin; quite fast hands.

The assassin froze when he realized none of it worked. He clearly hadn’t expected both his knives and his bladework to be useless, blocked by something unseen. He could only retreat, vanishing back into the forest.

Hit and run?

That left Winnie with no target to counterattack, he couldn’t even find the guy.

An ambush in the woods? If you got caught off guard here, it could only mean you lacked the strength to defend yourself or the caution to see it coming.

That guy had some skill, though. A full burst of sneak attacks, and all he did was stack strings of zeroes, yet Winnie still hadn’t even seen what he looked like.

“Impressive. Plenty of hidden dragons and crouching tigers, apparently."

Winnie quickly pieced together his strategy. He was probably using an assassin-type Soul Armament, relying on sudden, lightning-fast ambushes to take down anyone who entered the forest. If the initial attack failed, he would retreat without hesitation, clearly aware of who he could safely challenge and who was beyond his limits.

Interesting.

Winnie suspected the assassin’s Soul Armament level wasn’t high. Like Winnie, he probably struggled with learning magic, so he used this method, purely physical attacks on unlucky passersby with poor vigilance.

He’d strike a few times, and if his opponent was still standing, he’d immediately retreat. No unnecessary risks, no prolonged fights.

How should he put it? The guy was basically a one-trick specialist.

Though Winnie was still in the forest, he felt that the assassin probably wouldn’t come at him again.

Sure enough, until Winnie walked out of the small forest, he didn’t see the assassin again.

Winnie had no intention of chasing him down either. The man would be difficult to track, and wasting time searching for him wasn’t worth it. He was better off finding other opponents who were willing to face him head-on.

At the end, Winnie glanced back at the forest.

That guy had found his lane, playing to strengths, avoiding weaknesses, knowing exactly who he could bully and who he absolutely couldn’t provoke.

If you lacked the strength or talent to win outright, you could always make up for it with clever tricks and unconventional tactics. The fact that he had managed to enter Carillian Academy using that approach was proof that he had some real ability.

Winnie pressed on. Up ahead stood the ruins of a fortress that seemed strangely familiar. Yet no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t remember where he had seen it or connect it to any real place. Perhaps it was nothing more than an ordinary fortress preserved in someone’s memory.

No need to think, there were definitely going to be a lot of people here.

Just as Winnie expected, the moment he stepped into the ruins, the clash of blades rang out nonstop. At the edge of the fortress, he saw many torn black cloth bags.

Those were probably left behind by the eliminated.

It hadn’t even been that long, already this many people were out?

Winnie moved toward the center. Years of scraping along the edge of life and death had honed his danger sense; now it blared in his mind.

He twisted aside. A bolt of lightning struck where he’d just been, scorching the ground black.

He looked up. A figure was leaping along walls and beams in midair, darting through the collapsed fortress structures.

At the same time came the shriek of chains cutting through the wind.

Sensing a weapon thrust at him, Winnie raised his ice spear to block, only to find a grappling hook coiling around the spearhead.

Winnie moved his gaze upward. On the top of a toppled, broken fortress roof stood a person holding a chain. When he saw Winnie stop the hook with his weapon, he didn’t frown, he smiled like he’d gotten what he wanted.

Thinking back to the lightning aimed at him, Winnie, having seen similar tricks before, immediately understood what the other side intended.

In a blur, he drew the Sixfold Hell, spun it several times in midair, and pulled the trigger.

But he didn’t shoot the male student, he shot the chain connected to the hook.

As expected, the next instant the male student tried to electrify his hook.

Yet before he could, the hook was blown apart by a fireball launched from Winnie’s barrel.

The male student froze. He hadn’t expected his plan to be seen through completely.

He’d landed this trick on a bunch of people already. This blue-haired kid, he was seeing him for the first time, hadn’t even fought him before, so why did it feel like the kid had read his mind? Like his every move was transparent??

Seeing that Winnie had two enchanted weapons, the male student gritted his teeth, cursing under his breath, “Lucky rich kid,” and tried to replicate his old method, wall-running across the ruins.

But before he could land on the next rooftop, he exploded in midair.

Winnie raised the smoking muzzle, casually spun the gun in his hand, and blew away the smoke curling from the barrel. At that moment, a black bundle fell from above. Inside lay a puzzle piece composed of three interlocking fragments.

The guy’s behavioral logic was too easy to read. From his movements just now, Winnie could tell exactly how he was going to flee and what his path would be, so Winnie fired in advance.

Winnie didn’t rush to pick up the puzzle piece. He scanned the surroundings, then fired several shots at a section of broken wall.

Boom, boom!! The wall was blasted into powder. A black shadow was flung out from inside, its belt snapping, then it vanished.

Double kill.

Only after confirming there was no one else nearby did Winnie pick up the puzzle piece.

Three fragments, but only one overlapped with what he needed.

Not very lucky.

Winnie peeled off the piece he needed and snapped it into place, tossing the other two aside. When he looked up again, a black shadow came flying through the air toward him.

He instinctively prepared to defend, but the shadow crashed into a wall not far away, leaving behind only a black cloth bag.

"Ha!" The burly man with the massive iron hammer let out a fierce roar, swinging his fire-infused weapon and sending the trembling second-year students staggering back.

Those second-years were like speed bumps, crushed and rolled over.

As Winnie reached the central area, he noticed the man’s academy badge. His expression shifted.

Fourth year.

They hadn’t been inside long, and he’d already run into a fourth-year?

Perfect. He also wanted to know the gap between himself and the fourth-years.

“Hahahaha!” The man threw his head back and laughed as he gazed at the black cloth bags scattered around him. He took a few steps forward, only to find one lying in his path. With a contemptuous kick, he sent it flying aside, not even bothering to check what was inside.

He felt like he’d hit the jackpot. As a fourth-year, spawning in a place full of second-years was pure slaughter.

“Oh?” Just as the man thought there was no one left to eliminate, he suddenly saw a figure walking toward him at an unhurried pace.

The calm, composed look on the blue-haired gunman’s face made the burly man’s expression change slightly.

That presence, no doubt, a strong one.

Wait. Second year??

But when the man saw Winnie’s badge year, his face immediately filled with surprise.

A second-year, daring to walk up to him so openly??

“Kid, you’ve got guts,” the man said, not with disdain, but with a hint of appreciation. “You saw how your classmates got launched into the air, and you still dare stroll up to me like this?”

“Not even going to try a sneak attack?” the man snorted.

“No need.” Winnie held his ice spear.

“You’ve got some guts.” The man grinned broadly, then took out his own puzzle piece and held it up before Winnie. His set was already complete, with all the pieces fitting together perfectly.

“To be honest, this prelim is boring as hell. Too easy. Like you can see, I’ve already collected enough pieces. I could just hide somewhere and wait to clear.”

“But that’s not what I want.” The man chuckled. “Riding the battlefield, beating down more people, crushing them like dead leaves, this is the feeling I’m after!”

“Yeah, you’re only a second-year, but the second-years I beat just now were cowards. The moment they saw I was a fourth-year, they were shaking like sieves before the fight even started. Not bad, you’ve got some spine.”

“If you can beat me, this puzzle is yours.” As he spoke, the burly senior swung his hammer and smashed down at Winnie.

The enormous hammer, covered in vicious spikes and engulfed in flames, came crashing down. Its sheer presence was terrifying, and the force of the air it displaced was powerful enough to shatter a person’s bones.

No wonder it scared those second-years.

Winnie felt nothing at all. On his way here, he’d seen too much. This was nothing. The non-human monsters he’d fought came in waves.

Savage, ruthless cultists of the Demon God Pillar. Horrific Demon God Pillar kin from the abyss, devoid of humanity. Even the Demon God Pillar itself, he’d exchanged blows with it.

Compared to that, this was child’s play.

Winnie stretched out his hand, and an icy chain shot out, yanking him sideways just in time to evade the incoming attack.

However, the flaming iron ball in midair didn’t crash down along its swing path. Instead, it changed trajectory in an eerily unnatural way. Just before hitting the ground, it seemed to grow eyes and shoot toward Winnie.

Wind magic.

Winnie caught the lingering mana traces within the airflow.

This fourth-year was clearly proficient in both wind and fire, a very strong pairing, since wind fed flames.

He’d used wind magic to forcibly redirect the iron ball’s trajectory after it missed.

This was probably how he’d been one-shotting the second-years.

“It’s useless, junior. You won’t be able to dodge it.” The man grinned confidently. “This iron ball has been specially modified to channel both fire and wind magic. As long as I control the chain with my hand, I can use wind magic to manipulate and disrupt its movement. That turns it into a blazing projectile whose power and trajectory are completely under my control!”

“Junior, you dared walk straight up to me, think you’re something? If I’m not mistaken, you’re one of the best in the second-years. Top five, maybe?”

“Unfortunately, experience built over the years isn’t something you can simply overcome. You’re still too young. So today, before you graduate, your senior is going to teach you a free lesson: learn to respect your elders.”

“Running into me is your bad luck. Try again next time!”

Can’t dodge?

Winnie froze in his tracks as the enormous fireball suddenly came hurtling toward him.

Then he’d try to win with raw stats.

Yes, using raw stats to beat a fourth-year as a second-year was extremely difficult. He could only gamble that the other man’s realm was below his.

And even if he couldn’t block it, he still had a backup plan.

So Winnie poured ice into his spear.

[Frost Moon Slash]

The blade swept through like an icy comet. In that instant, the air around them seemed to congeal.

The burly man’s breath caught. The scorching air around him abruptly turned into hail, and even the air he inhaled carried dry, gritty ice shards.

Wh-what is this??

His eyes widened as he stared in shock.

This second-year… with a single strike, he’d summoned a blizzard.

Fire element had a suppressive advantage over ice, yet it was snuffed out by the miniature ice storm fanned by that spear.

The temperature of the blazing iron ball vanished in an instant, swallowed by cold. The roaring flames were extinguished, and the huge iron ball froze into a massive block of ice.

The burly senior could no longer control it. The chain-dragged ball, frozen with a thick shell of ice, crashed to the ground, sending ice cocoons on the ground flying.

After a brief moment of stunned silence, the burly young man finally realized that his opponent’s strength was on an entirely different level, leaving him completely outmatched.

How…??

He, a fourth-year, was being suppressed by a second-year??

Impossible. What realm was this kid in??

And Winnie, seeing it, was also mildly surprised.

He hadn’t expected this fourth-year senior’s strength to be so far beneath his own.