101 Star Fall (2)

[Wave 6 - Difficulty 11 Cleared]

Isara ignored the popup alert and unleashed her magic.

Gleaming orbs zipped through the air, efficiently striking between the abyssal entities.

"……."

But the creatures rose again as if it were only natural, charging straight at Isara.

White stars floated around Isara, blocking the charging abyssal entities in their orbital paths as they flailed helplessly.

All the abyssal entities were swept up by the incoming celestial spear and vanished.

Isara stood motionless, eyes closed.

Ding~

With the alert chime, the next wave began.

Isara fired off magic mechanically without even opening her eyes.

The sound of abyssal entities exploding under the flying spear echoed. Her sharp hearing picked out two or three survivors amid most of them.

Feeling her mind pushed to the limit, Isara bit her lip.

'Even 4th level magic can't finish them off...'

For 4th level magic, the efficiency was poor. Likely because her spell proficiency wasn't high enough.

It was the curse of hastily learning high-level spells while ignoring ether proficiency.

'No choice, we talked about this with Coach.'

Steeling herself, Isara unleashed more magic at the oncoming abyssal entities.

Her mind blanked momentarily at the sight of the massive star veil painting the sky. Isara staggered, nearly collapsing, but steadied herself. Hot blood trickled from her nose.

The abyssal entities were already right in front of her.

Isara silently unleashed her magic.

Her mind plunged into darkness once more. When she opened her eyes, an abyssal entity was charging right at her.

'Next one's the last.'

She knew it instinctively. There was no way she could endure more blackouts.

Isara gathered her final strength and cast two spells simultaneously.

* Isara's struggle was shocking.

Hajieun stared at the screen, wiping tears.

"Ah.... She passed out again."

[Ahh, a star is falling.]

[Yes, the symbol of our era! It's no exaggeration to say the last five years were Isara's era—she was truly an amazing mage.]

[That great junior mage crashes into the wall of the Ranking War.]

[The highest-flying star! The brightest supernova's first Ranking War! Final rank.... 68th. Preliminaries.... eliminated.]

[Whoa! And just in, breaking news!]

Yu Eunha's box on screen lit up brightly then went dark. Elimination.

"NeeEEE?!?"

"Ah, ceiling lie..."

The most common Ranking War strategy was 'ceiling lie'—climb to the max difficulty you can handle, then hold C scores as long as possible. The catch? One slip and you die.

'Did she go higher than she could handle for C scores?'

"Still, hope she hits top 60 at least? She was top 10 earlier."

As Hajieun prayed, the bottom 80 rankings appeared.

61st—prelim out. Four of six newbies eliminated.

"Ah."

Gazing at the rankings, a sudden question made Hajieun's eyes sparkle.

"Huh! Where's Hong Jiyeon and Eunbyeol?"

Hong Jiyeon made sense as a strong mage, but Eunbyeol? As she checked the top 40 survivors, urgent caster voices rose in volume.

"Hold on, turning up the casters?"

Hajieun raised the volume, and a caster's excited shout came through.

[Two massive stars! The two mages sandwiched between Isara and Yu Eunha. Right here, right now! Shining like they were the real stars! The brightest!]

[Eunbyeol is an S-Rank Supporter, right?]

[Yes, the recent nationwide sensation! But she's no slouch as a mage! 'Move aside!' she seems to say!]

[My god, you see that? That magic linkage—even pros couldn't do better.]

[Seriously, not inferior to 1st Army mages!]

[Hong Jiyeon right now! Is that 4th level?!]

[Honestly, coldly speaking, it's miles better than Isara's 4th level earlier. Wouldn't be weird compared to 5th level.]

At that moment, Eunbyeol collapsed from exhaustion. Soon after, Hong Jiyeon fell and didn't rise.

The survivors: the 2nd Army's Triad leaders—Kang Seohee, Cheolhyeol, Daniel.

"Whoa, so Hong Jiyeon and Eunbyeol are basically on par with the Triad top 3?"

As everyone panicked over the unprecedented prelim flops, a donation popped up.

Seeing the rising troll chats, she hurriedly switched to subscriber-only chat. Fans rushing in after Yu ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Eunha's prelim out.

Hajieun swept her forehead.

Hajieun burst out laughing at that, then quickly schooled her face to serious.

"Ah! Don't make me laugh! I'm serious rn. Really worried about Yu Eunha."

Hajieun bit her lip. She didn't seem the type used to losing, and bombing the crucial Ranking War? Huge worry.

"B-but tomorrow's loser revival for mains. She can climb back? You know, makes it spicy."

As Hajieun and viewers fretted, Yu Eunha exited the stadium—calm, unlike expected.

* As soon as the Ranking War ended, I was summoned ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to the Magic Alliance hearing room.

The elderly mages I'd never seen scanned my sim scores and frowned.

"Ah."

"This."

"Heh...."

The three examiners' faces turned ashen after reviewing the full data.

"Not elim—the sim couldn't handle it and burst?"

"No way...."

"Bug! That's 7th level sim! Impossible!"