The Ascension Age

Back on the monitoring airship, Vaxo looked at the ranking of the teams participating in the Stellar Bubble capture mission. There were over 10000 teams participating, so the rankings changed nonstop. Of course, on the other end of the list, the number of fully disqualified teams also increased nonstop. By now, 1248 teams had been completely wiped out and were out of the mission.

Vaxo then paid attention to the top 100, watching as their numbers fluctuated. Aire's group was also there, but they were far below in the 93rd position. The first place was the 169th Dormitory, 19th Room, a team led by a girl named Luana Pascol. They had acquired a total of 112 Stellar Bubbles and still had their four members alive and well.

The second was the 153rd Dormitory, 45th Room. Its leader was Paril Liantin, with his team acquiring 106 Stellar Bubbles.

Surprisingly, the third-ranked team was from the same dormitory as Aire's group, 174th Dormitory, 28th Room. Their leader was Vrati Sue. His team had acquired the equivalent of 99 Stellar Bubbles in terms of energy.

As for Aire's team, they now reached the 52nd Bubble after defeating the last group. It was less than half the amount of Stellar Bubbles the first-ranked team had. However, it wasn't a bad result at all. First of all, Aire's starting point was much worse than the top teams, who began to collect Stellar Bubbles much earlier. Second, they still had their four members, which was already becoming a hard feat to maintain. 

"It has only been a single day, and only 23 teams in the top 100 still have their four members. As for the rest of the teams below, more than 40% of them have already lost at least one team member. What do you think, Oivy?" Vaxo asked the guy by his side.

"As always, the competition for Stellar Bubbles is very aggressive," Oivy didn't find it strange as he answered Vaxo's question. "I wonder if we will even have 10% of the teams remaining when the mission is over. From the looks of it, the top teams are already identifying their main opponents and are trying to keep themselves away from them."

Vaxo nodded as he said, "That's a smart move. There's no point in confronting other stronger teams, only to fall prey to some random group who might be lurking in the surroundings. They're also creating their own territories, showing the others that they won't retaliate as long as they don't bother their teams. Of course, this is only valid for the top teams. The average ones are still being attacked with no mercy due to the huge difference in strength."

Oivy agreed with Vaxo's words. "Indeed. We still have two more days to go, so those teams probably won't attack each other before the last few hours remain. Nevertheless, it will definitely happen."

Vaxo smiled in response to those words, looking forward to those moments. Of course, although most of the top teams were doing that, some exceptions existed. Vaxo looked at Aire and Yuvie's Teams. Yuvie, obviously, was the name of the leader of the group that attacked Aire. Aire's was positioned 93rd, while Yuvie's was 67th. He saw how Yuvie's group prepared the ambush and succeeded in it. However, he was even more impressed by how Aire turned the tables in their favor. "That boy's learning ability is simply spectacular. Not only that, but he can display a combat strength one stage above his own. He looks just like that girl Altina, who also can do the same in an even fight in terms of Riser level."

Oivy smiled. "To think that two combat geniuses would fall into the same team. It seems like the management of the school missed Aire's real potential. Otherwise, they wouldn't have put him in the same team as her."

Vaxo didn't mind, replying, "Well, a lot of the students with big backgrounds used some backdoors to be in the same teams, so it isn't exactly unfair. I'm happy to see that such a coincidence had occurred."

Vaxo then turned his attention away as two more strong groups began to fight. As surprising as Aire might be, he was far from being the only one. Vaxo, Oivy, and the others had a lot more to look at than only him. 

Sera didn't keep their team in the main Stellar Bubble area. Instead, she guided them outside it so that they could check Kymei's injuries as she asked him, "How is it, Kymei?"

Kymei touched his shoulder and couldn't help but grunt in pain. Before, the adrenaline was preventing him from feeling it too much. However, now that they finished fighting, it immediately showed that things were not so easy. "It's quite bad, but nothing that could decommission me out of combat."

Sera shook her head as she said in response, "Liar! After you came out of the swamp and started to give me support, I haven't seen even one of your predictive shots. Obviously, the pain has made it difficult for you to calculate the enemy's steps, so you could only shoot in straight lines."

Altina and Aire nodded after hearing her words. After seeing Kymei use his arc shots so many times, they knew that it was weird for him to not use those in the final stretch of the battle.

Seeing that hiding it would be meaningless, Kymei bitterly smiled as he responded, "Well, it's not that I can't use my predictive shots, but that the impact of the rifle on my body when I shoot is a lot stronger. If I force it, I might have really activated the gel on our defensive bracelets. A weak support is still better than none, so I refrained from doing it."

Kymei then looked at Aire, who understood the meaning in his eyes. However, Aire shook his head as he pointed his finger to the skies. Kymei then looked up and could see the semblance of the monitoring airship between the leaves. Obviously, they were being constantly monitored. Naturally, Aire couldn't use his power here.

However, it was then that Stella's voice appeared in Aire's mind as she told him, 'They're monitoring what their eyes can see through the monitors. Don't worry about that. I can hack the cameras and sensors, making it look like you're just patching up Kymei's shoulder. No one will notice that you used your power to fix him.' Stella smiled right after as she added, 'Don't forget, I'm here to help you.'

Aire's eyes shone in response as he soon said, 'Great! I'm counting on you, Stella!'

Stella's expression brightened like the sun when she heard that. Soon, she responded with great enthusiasm, 'Definitely!'