Scholar, Descendant of Divine Archery, vs. Orknodi, Archer of Monstrous Might
Mob’s fiery sprint rippled all the way to the front runners.
‘Those bastards are catching up faster and faster!’
‘Absurd! What in the world did they do to close the gap this quickly?!’
It was a ferocious pursuit born from the reckless, rule-breaking full sprint of a man who had staked everything, met by Orknodi’s all-out dash, deeply moved by his sacrifice. With every track cleared, the distance shrank, and the relentless urge to look back clawed at both Scholar and Live.
“Don’t look back!”
“Aren’t you curious too, Scholar?”
“It takes everything we have just to look ahead and run!”
When Orknodi had turned back to rescue her comrade, Scholar had scoffed. Rescuing an ally lagging on the battlefield was sheer foolishness, an act that needlessly endangered oneself. And so, he had resolved: even if she belatedly realized her mistake, abandoned her companion, and sprinted forward alone, he would never concede so much as second place to someone so reckless.
Live struggled to push down his mounting anxiety at Scholar’s advice.
‘The descendant of Divine Archery is matching my pace. He definitely expects something from me!’
Among the students of the 981st Cohort, not a single person shot a bow better than Scholar. That was an undeniable fact. For that very reason, Scholar’s guidance carried extraordinary weight in Ranged Weapon Mastery.
The academy’s top talent. The foremost expert was looking out for him. That meant Scholar saw him as worthy of second place—that he could even surpass the top student of Group A, the youngest genius who had outshone the illustrious frontier nobility, Orknodi herself!
Cliff Climbing
A sheer cliff face rising at a nearly ninety-degree angle. Protruding handholds and footholds were scattered across the rock, while safety harnesses linked to ropes dangling from above lined the path. While some targets could be struck from below, several were positioned in fiendishly tricky spots that could only be hit from high above.
“If it’s too much for you, use the safety gear!” Scholar called out, leaping onto the rock face without shedding a fraction of his momentum and scaling the precipice with nimble ease.
‘F-Fast!!’
Agility was a fundamental virtue for an archer, as was the grip strength to wedge one's fingers into minute crevices and bear one’s full body weight. His heart screamed at him to scale it like that too. Yet his mind warned him: You can't pull that off.
‘Damn it, those guys behind us pushed themselves past their limits just to catch up!’
Spurred by stubborn pride, Live forged ahead. Clinging to the protruding stones with his bare hands, he scrambled up the cliff face without bothering with ropes or harnesses.
And yet, he felt it. Two lanes over, an aura so searing it prickled his skin radiated toward him—a suffocating pressure as though an eight-foot giant were breathing down his neck.
Though he knew he shouldn't look back, his head instinctively snapped toward Orknodi’s Lane 5. In that exact moment, Orknodi surged past him, soaring far above.
One glance was all it took.
‘I can’t do this.’
He stood no chance. Faced with the insurmountable wall of sheer talent, Live’s hands froze on the stone. His dream of claiming second place in the group trials vanished into thin air.
Live had fallen to third place. He had surrendered, shrinking before the one who surpassed him.
Orknodi was different. She pursued Scholar—who climbed only a hair ahead of her—with terrifying ferocity.
‘Kh, so frustrating! If only my arms were just a little longer!’
Still, the gap wouldn't close. If anything, it widened by millimeters. Unlike Scholar, whose limbs were long and lanky, Orknodi possessed a perfectly proportioned yet painfully petite frame. The physical disadvantage in reach was an inescapable handicap.
“Ooooh!”
“Lane 5 is actually keeping up!”
“Lane 1, don’t let her catch you!”
“Hunt him down, Number 5!”
The cheers and shouts of the upperclassmen vanished from her mind. She wasn't running to satisfy the seniors’ point betting. She ran for the man who wished for his comrade to forge ahead—the man who had embraced every demerit to repay a debt of honor. To honor his burning resolve.
Having spent every previous playthrough running hulking, muscle-bound juggernauts, Orknodi revered such raw passion more than anyone else.
‘My body might be small, but my spirit is bigger than anyone’s!’
The moment Scholar reached the summit, he pivoted fluidly and loosed five arrows in rapid succession.
Lane 1, Course 3 Cleared!
Lane 5, Course 3 Cleared! (+00:08.61)
Reaching the crest eight seconds later, Orknodi immediately nocked an arrow. There was no glowing targeting reticle before her eyes. Nor were there convenient, automatically manifesting mana arrows. Marshalling every shred of accumulated game knowledge and honed instinct, she manually notched and fired every single shaft by hand.
◈ You conquered Course 3 in a single breath without stopping!
◈ Audacity EXP: +10
◈ Climbing EXP: +5
◈ Terrain Comprehension EXP: +2
◈ Rapid Fire EXP: +3
◈ Concentration EXP: +3
Although the gap in time had widened slightly, the sight of Course 4 brought an automatic grin to her face.
Lift Action
A descent lift slanted diagonally down from the clifftop into the forest below. Strung from cables and pulleys, the lift shockingly lacked any sort of platform—it consisted of nothing more than a bare bar meant to be grabbed by hand. Naturally, shooting a bow required both hands. The course laid down a brazen challenge: Can you hit the targets while moving without holding on with your hands? If you lack the nerve, feel free to just hang on for dear life.
“Hup!”
Leaping without hesitation, she grabbed the bar. With a heavy clank, the Lane 5 descent lift engaged.
You grabbed onto the descent lift without a single second of hesitation.
Audacity EXP +3
Clatter, rattle, whoosh!
Rattling violently like a brake-less downhill roller coaster, the lift plunged downward. Even knowing an instructor would catch her if she plummeted, her heart thudded in her chest with spine-tingling thrill. The fear lasted only a heartbeat.
Hooking her legs securely over the bar to hang upside down, she spotted Mob in the distance, limping resolutely toward the cliff face.
Mob raised a fist high into the air as if declaring, I'm watching you!
She thrust her own hand up in response.
‘If I’d known he was this cool, I would’ve paid him handsomely for that flag.’
Courage fully recharged. Scholar’s momentary hesitation had shaved down his lead, plunging them into an inverted, midair firing duel along the plummeting cables.
Fwip-fwip-fwip!
True to his reputation, Scholar unleashed a terrifying rate of fire with his magic arrows.
Twang!
Against that, Orknodi relied on pure, unadulterated muscle, drawing each heavy arrow back with brute force to unleash shattering Power Shots.
Ten airborne targets in total. Factoring in the lift's speed, there was only time for a single shot per target. A rapid-fire spammer like him could loose three arrows and only need one to hit, but as a Power Shot specialist, she had no such luxury.
Whooooosh.
‘Uh-oh.’
A violent gust of wind shook the lift. Her crosshair wavered, and the timing slipped through her fingers. Scholar, too, missed all three of his arrows in that sudden buffeting.
‘Don’t panic. Lose your rhythm once, and you’ll botch every target left.’
In the hell of high-difficulty boss fights, she had pulled off maneuvers that made this dinky cable car look like child’s play.
◈ With iron willpower, you swiftly recovered from a momentary blunder!
◈ Willpower EXP: +10
◈ Concentration EXP: +10
◈ Mobile Archery EXP: +5
◈ Acrobatic Archery EXP: +5
◈ Aerial Archery EXP: +5
Nice. Nine out of ten targets down.
Just as she drew her final arrow with that thought, an arrow streaked in from the flank and deflected hers out of the air.
“Are you insane?!”
That ruthless bastard! It was hard enough just to hit one’s own targets while dangling in midair, yet he’d found the composure to shoot down her arrow—and actually pulled it off?!
Fury flared, and she was sorely tempted to put an arrow right through his suspension cable, but she held back.
‘Mob wouldn’t want a win like that.’
Tossing her bow and quiver onto the sandbar, she rolled sideways upon impact, popped back onto her feet in one fluid motion, snatched her gear, and broke into a dead sprint toward the finish line.
Lane 1, Course 4 Cleared!
Lane 5, Course 4 Cleared! (+00:01.57)
Her arrival was slightly delayed, but her recovery from the landing was far swifter.
Full Sprint
Her legs trembled and her muscles screamed, but she ran with everything she had.
“Kh!” Scholar’s voice gasped out, fraught with the frustration of a body refusing to obey.
Without sparing a single backward glance, she sprinted toward the finish. Fifty meters out. Ten meters. One final stride.
Scholar and Orknodi crossed the threshold virtually neck and neck.
“Woooaaaah!”
“Both of them are completely insane!”
“Di~! I finished early and was watching. You were absolutely fabulous!”
“Didn't look much like an assassin... but it was pretty cool.”
“Gyahaha! You landlubbers aren't half-bad once in a while, eh?!”
Arcadia, Zhuang, Jigoku—even the students practicing other weapons had gathered to watch the spectacular showdown.
Now, it was time to announce the results.