The Challenger's Return: Rebirth of the Rainbow Mage

"Julia, you\'re doing great, pay attention to your positioning."

Otto\'s orders were calm and collected, and carried the team through four successive near-crises.

The team they were facing was much stronger than the teams the kids were used to facing.

They consisted of an assassin, a knight, a swordsman, a mage, an archer, and a particularly strong magical \'supporter\' who always threw up shields and attacks at the perfect moments to block their own advance.

But even this just meant that it took a while longer for the kids to accustom themselves to being on the highest possible alert at every moment.

Oftentimes, it even seemed like Otto was able to predict their moves in advance with the precision and timing of his orders.

"Elliott, watch how I\'m timing my spells."

"And 3…2…1…release it."

An enormous wave of water smashed down on all six of their opponents.

Elliott looked on with wide eyes as he took a step back.

The timing of the wave Otto had just released…was ingenious!

With astounding control, despite the fact that his opponents were charging rapidly in many different and asynchronous directions, he caught the split second when they were somewhat clustered together to release his wave.

The wave managed to hit all six at once, giving Otto\'s team a brief reprieve from the constant attacks.

Still, the reprieve wouldn\'t last long.

The other team was already rallying, their two long range combatants (the archer and the mage) already setting up for the next rally, running behind and surrounding Otto\'s team.

Every team member took a small step back.

Their breaths came in pants.

Jeremy remarked,

"These guys are *gasp* tougher *gasp* than I expected."

Otto gazed at the boy with a twinkle in his eye.

"And? Are we planning on losing?"

Otto had not planned to show off his full strength during this match.

Because this particular exercise… wasn\'t about how strong he\'d become.

This was a team effort.

Otto wanted them to take down these elite combatants together.

"What\'s the plan, Elliott?"

"Every time we try to attack, their guy in the back blocks it with his weird magic, giving the front men free reign to attack us without consequences."

Thankfully, none of these kids were pushovers, either.

Even Mirabelle, who wasn\'t able to attack with magic, could hold her own in the physical realm.

So far, even after a full five and a half minutes of fighting, not a single person had been knocked out.

Hopefully, that was about to change.

Elliott spoke in a low voice, wary of being \'overheard,\'

"Let\'s take out their assassin first. Having Jeremy ambush the enemies without her interfering with him would be a big help to Julia in particular."

The others nodded along with Elliott\'s thoughts.

Jeremy entered stealth and slowly disappeared from behind a pillar. His action was mirrored by the assassin on the other team.

Otto\'s pupils constricted, and his words hastened. He imbued his tone with a sense of urgency.

"Jeremy, behind you. Look out."

An assassin was different from a rogue.

They had access to a few unique shadow magic abilities.

One of which was [Shadow Walk], a spell Otto regarded as the lesser version of his own spell [Connecting Shadow] combined with [Lesser Blink].

Basically, this spell allowed their assassin to teleport short distances into the shadow of another.

But Otto\'s warning was unnecessary.

Jeremy seemed to have predicted this action.

With a graceful flourish, Jeremy had already taken the opportunity to stab his own shadow with his dagger.

It was timed perfectly.

As soon as the woman materialized from Jeremy\'s shadow, his dagger was embedded directly into her stomach.

Then, a fraction of a second later, the [Wind Blade] and the [Water Bullet] Otto and Elliott had cast also arrived, and slammed into her chest.

The assassin began to disappear from the arena as her health bottomed out.

This was actually the first time any of them had landed a solid hit on her; her speed was even above Jeremy\'s.

Right before she \'died,\' shadow tendrils from below Jeremy\'s feet crept up his ankles.

They constricted around his legs and began to bind him.

The mage was already casting a powerful fire spell.

But just as he was about to be caught, a beautiful chirpy voice entered his ears. The syllables were strange and obscure, untranslatable even for the [Tower].

The words contained an unknown power.

The shadow tendrils crumbled.

Jeremy once again disappeared from his spot and escaped right before a giant arrow of fire embedded itself onto the pillar behind Jeremy\'s position seconds prior.

But Otto\'s team couldn\'t help but reveal small smirks.

One down.

Five to go…

Julia ran up to engage the man in plate armor sporting a large shield. The opposing team\'s \'knight.\'

By this point late in the fight, the knight sported cracks, dents, and even a few holes in his armor, where they could see that his body was covered in blood.

He was lucky that his health regeneration was very powerful.

So he stood strong and continued to fight.

The opposing team didn\'t have a healer, so it was up to him to stand firm even after taking a good bit of damage from Julia\'s hammer and Elliott\'s spells.

Julia looked like a war goddess as she slammed her hammer into his shield, over and over again.

In fact, it seemed as if it was her personal mission to determine if her hammer or his shield would break first.

While she was tying the knight down, the other team wasn\'t idle.

From diagonally behind her, the swordsman approached the one on one, tag-teaming her in a pincer with the knight from the side.

At the same time, the magician and the archer both fired at her back from the other end of the arena, cutting off her retreat.

Julia was blocked in at all directions from the knight in front, the swordsman diagonally behind to her left, the arrow firing directly behind, and the fireball on the diagonal right.

They wanted to kill her in one fell swoop!

But Julia was not the same person she\'d been before training.

This time, she\'d positioned herself directly in front of the knight on purpose.

When she saw the arrow flying at her, the barest hint of a smirk flashed through her gaze.

Without an iota of hesitation or fluster, Julia activated two skills in a row.

First, her hammer covered itself in energy, and attached itself firmly to the knight\'s shield.

Then, she used the [Charge] skill that came with her combat suit, carrying the hammer and the shield attached to it, and stepped around, then directly behind the knight.

The knight was shocked as his shield was ripped out of his arm by the terrifying attractive force of Julia\'s skill.

Worse, because Julia had stood directly in front of him as she fought, he was now exposed to both an arrow whistling through the air, aimed at his abdomen, and a sword slashing at his chest.

The ambush and the pincer had backfired!

And his shield couldn\'t block the attacks!

Julia wasn\'t finished.

Her eyes flashed as her gaze turned to the magic supporter in the back who so far had foiled almost every plan they\'d made so far.

Even now, he was calmly but rapidly casting his shield magic to block both the arrow and the sword from hitting the knight.

But how could she let that happen?

Fat chance.

Julia proceeded to swing the hammer/shield outward to her right. At the same time, she released the energy skill on her hammer.

The shield promptly detached itself with its built up momentum.

It whistled through the air as it spun, flying, in an arc aimed directly at the magic supporter.

He cursed and stopped casting his shield spell to dodge the sudden attack.

The knight was on his own!

His face bore a grimace as he tried to step away from the path of the arrow to leave Julia exposed once again.

But in his haste, he hadn\'t noticed that…

Suddenly, he felt a sharp pain in his head.

He reached up, only to find a dagger lodged within.

\'How…?\'

It was his last thought before he, too, \'died.\'

His body disappeared from the arena.

Mirabelle\'s bright voice filled the arena once more.

Her timing was impeccable.

Jeremy had decided to let the arrow graze his side in return for a death blow on the other team\'s knight, but before he felt any pain, the wound was already healed.

His eyes turned to the swordsman who had withdrawn his attack.

Jeremy sneered.

Two down.

Only four were left…

*****************************************************************

"Great match."

Back in the lobby, the sound of clapping was heard once the kids exited happily from the arena.

Both Ramesthes and Otto sported small smiles as they gazed with pride at the kids who had come so far.

"I limited myself quite a lot for this match, and all of you really stepped up to the plate."

"Jeremy, your predictions and combat insight were phenomenal this round. Your dagger skills also improved by a large margin."

"Mirabelle, your timing was likewise impressive. You were ready with a heal or a buff even before they knew they needed it."

"That was also thanks to you, Elliott. You really got the hang of the cooldowns and started to feel the rhythm of the fight! You finally got to rest your finger on the pulse of the battle."

Otto looked over as Ramesthes prompted,

"It felt good when you got it, right?"

Elliott nodded, smile bright.

Otto turned to Julia,

"Julia, your positioning right before Jeremy downed the knight was sheer genius. Opening him up to the arrow AND his own teammate\'s sword, while also blocking their supporter from interfering."

He shook his head.

"I couldn\'t have done it better myself."

Actually, that was a lie.

But they didn\'t have to know that.

Otto put his hands together slowly and began to clap slowly once more.

"Really excellent work. You\'ve come a long way. I hope you can keep working hard, just like this, and we\'ll make a great team by the time the fifth floor rolls around."

Otto\'s face was still filled with pride even as he returned to his mental space.

The team they\'d just faced was not made up of pushovers.

These were past challengers who ranked in the mid thousands!

Of course, Otto was aware that facing their facsimiles from a virtual reproduction would be nothing like facing the actual people in battle.

Their combat skills, battle awareness, and even their raw intuition would be leagues above what the virtual pod could reproduce.

Still, it wasn\'t an easy team to beat.

Jeremy, Julia, Elliott, and Mirabelle pulled it out regardless.

Otto couldn\'t help but grin slightly in anticipation.

How amazing could they be on the fifth floor?