"Not exactly. It was when I was making the deal," He corrected himself with a bit of annoyance, then looked at the birdcage in Ubel's hands and said with a troubled tone, "Anyway, I don't have a bird right now. Could you just hand it over nicely, or at least give me a reason not to snatch it from you? Honestly, if I really have to grab it by force, I'll feel a little bad about it."
"Will Fern get mad?"
"It's just a normal exam."
"Aren't we teammates?"
"You were the ones who said you were going to make a move on me first. Now you're saying we're teammates? Isn't that a bit too late?"
Thinking about what his teammates had said earlier, he smiled and walked toward her step by step.
That made Ubel back away while desperately racking her brain, "R-Right... how about this! If you have any conditions, just name them... okay?"
"Hmm... Even if you suddenly say that, I can't think of anything I need you to do."
The moment he said that, Ubel looked offended.
"You're kidding, right? I am a pretty girl no matter how you see it! Anything you want is fine, and you don't have any plans at all? Hurry up and think of something!"
"Your personality is way too awful," Her strange insistence, probably because her pride was hurt, made him shake his head, "I do like teasing cute girls, but the type I actually like is more... normal. Preferably the mature, big-sister type. With a good figure. Yeah... something like that."
"My figure isn't good? Don't tell me you think someone like Frieren has a good figure?"
"How could that be?", Ash denied it without a second thought, "She's too old, too short, and her personality isn't that great either."
"I always thought so. You guys are really good friends," Ubel's smile was getting harder to keep up.
"Not bad. Anyway, I'll accept your proposal."
"You mean?"
"Anything is fine, right? I'll let you know when I think of something I want you to do."
After throwing out that line, he left on his own with a meaningful smile.
"Uh... he's not going to ask for something weird, is he?", Ubel felt a little uneasy.
From deeper inside the cave came hurried footsteps, followed by Fern's voice, "What's going on? I think I just heard Lord Ash's voice?"
"Hmm... what should I do~"
Ubel tapped her cheek with her fingertip, thought for a moment, then went back into the cave with a smile without saying anything. She decided not to tell them for now. She would wait and see what he wanted first before calling for backup.
After all, listening to his conditions first might even help with her own resonance.
———
The exam only lasted two days, and it would end when the sun set today. After noon, every team grew anxious. Even if they weren't confident they could catch one, they still tried to forcefully capture a Meteoric Iron Bird.
Because of that, Meteoric Iron Birds kept flying across the sky from time to time.
Their loud and dramatic flight paths made it unexpectedly easy for Ash to find a target. After sneaking over, he successfully caught one unlucky Meteoric Iron Bird.
But perhaps because this bird made too much noise, it attracted more than just him.
He had barely turned around and hadn't walked far, still thinking about how to make the bird stop struggling in his palm, when he looked up and saw Denken in the bushes, with two teammates behind him.
The way the three of them looked at him was even less friendly than last night. They were already prepared for battle. Denken stared at the bird in his hand and slowly said,
"Can you give us that bird as compensation for last night? Of course, I can pay you enough money."
"Money? Do you really think people taking this exam care about money? Maybe they do, but no one would give up the exam just because of money, right?"
The temptation of becoming a First-Class Mage was enough to make people hand over their family's secret spells or their own top-tier magic. Under the "privileges" of a First-Class Mage, money was nothing.
"I thought so. I really don't want to do this, but I don't have a choice now."
As time kept slipping away, Denken had no choice but to fight with his back against the wall. He raised his staff and pointed it at Ash, looking like he might attack at any moment.
"I know you're very strong, but I'm not weak either."
"True. Even without getting the privilege, your strength doesn't lose to an ordinary First-Class Mage. And with those two interesting partners of yours..."
"Even against Frieren the Mage who defeated the Demon King, I'm confident I could find a chance to win in a one-on-one fight. And you have to hold that Meteoric Iron Bird with one hand. That must cost you quite a bit of stamina and focus, right?"
As he spoke, Denken slowly backed away to widen the distance. He clearly wanted the Meteoric Iron Bird, which was the size of a sparrow but as strong as a dragon, to drain more of Ash's strength.
His two teammates silently spread out to both sides.
They knew Ash's physical abilities were strong. But as mages, as long as they kept their distance, they believed there was still a way to win, even against a top warrior. They just didn't know how good his magic really was.
Maybe he was already using enhancement magic on himself? Maybe that was why he joined this exam.
"I don't think kicking someone when they're down is something good people should do. And now you're even ganging up on me. That's pretty cruel. We were mutually beneficial trading partners before, and now we're pointing swords at each other. Life really is unpredictable."
Ash didn't seem to notice their intentions. He didn't try to seize the initiative. He just shook his head with regret and walked toward them step by step.
"To be honest, Denken, I thought you were smarter. I didn't expect you to end up making such an unwise choice."
"Maybe I am being too impatient. Your strength is far beyond what I first estimated. But I have reasons I can't back down."
On this battlefield full of danger, teams were like startled birds, hard to track down.
He had finally locked onto a target who was carrying a crucial Meteoric Iron Bird. How could Denken give up this fleeting chance?
To gain the privilege, everyone here had come prepared to either succeed or die. In previous years, more than half the participants died, and sometimes entire groups were wiped out.
So with time running out and probably their only hope in front of him, Denken had no choice but to challenge him, even if, the moment he truly regarded Ash as an enemy, even from over fifty meters away, he already felt an overwhelming pressure.
It was like a blade had pierced his chest and was pressing against his heart, making it hard to breathe.
There was only one way to describe the man in front of him.
A true powerhouse.
The last time he felt this kind of pressure was from his teacher, the strongest of the Seven Sages of Destruction, Macht of the Golden Land.
"Enough talk. Please... hold tight to that Meteoric Iron Bird!"
Afraid his fighting spirit would waver, Denken stopped hesitating. Dozens of golden crosses appeared around him.
"Judgment Light!"
With his shout, beams of light shot out.
At the same time, Richter, who had moved behind Ash while Denken distracted him from the front, pressed his hand to the ground.
Within several meters around Ash, countless rocks surged up like a raging tide, crashing toward him at the same time as the light.
Meanwhile, Laufen's staff turned into a whip of light that reached toward the sky, then silently smashed down toward his head.
In that instant, the encirclement was complete. It wasn't just a pincer attack from front and back. There were physical attacks and magic, and even the sky was sealed off.
For a brief moment, the three of them relaxed slightly. It was hard to imagine how anyone could break out of this.
Behind him was a raging tide of rocks. Above him was a whip of light. In front of him were countless crosses of light.
The scale of the rock tide and the crosses even blocked off the sides.
Facing attacks from all directions like this, even a normal First-Class Mage would have nowhere to run. After all, overwhelming mass was the greatest counter to defensive magic. The rock tide was clearly designed for that.
Yes, a normal First-Class Mage would have no way to dodge, but—
"I'm not one."
A smile appeared on Ash's face as purple light gathered in his free hand.
With a fierce sweep backward, purple lightning crushed the ground. The massive rock tide collapsed instantly as if it had run into unreasonable brute force.
The quality of their magic wasn't even on the same level. The rock tide was directly crushed into powder.
As the gravity lightning shattered the rocks, pale blue diamond-shaped shields appeared around Ash, forming a full defensive barrier.
BOOM!
Lightning crushed rock. Light struck the shield. The combined attacks exploded in a huge roar that echoed inside the city barrier.
Flying debris and dust made everyone instinctively shield their faces.
Richter, who controlled the land and attacked with overwhelming mass, was for the first time overwhelmed by an even greater mass from his opponent. He floated into the air and fled at high speed, putting distance between himself and his own collapsing rocks.
Denken couldn't see clearly through the dust, but his instincts told him things might be even worse than he imagined.
Under a combined ultimate attack like that, even an ordinary First-Class Mage couldn't turn things around, especially if they hadn't reacted in time.
Yet Denken, staring into the dust, saw no counterattack after the explosion. The crosses of light still rained down on the target area.
The bombardment felt strangely calm, as if Ash had struggled briefly at the start and then given up.
He even began to consider stopping to avoid unnecessary casualties, but—
"You've grown up, Denken."
Ash's voice suddenly came from behind him, casual and even nostalgic.
"No... before Macht was sealed by the Great Barrier, you were probably taller, right?"
"?"
The tone was calm, without hostility. But the content and the way it appeared sent a freezing chill through Denken's heart.
"But since you started this fight, let me have a little fun now."
Before Denken could turn around, a streak of purple lightning shot toward his back.
'How is that possible? In such dense attacks, he still found a gap to escape? And even got behind me without a sound?'
Denken's eyes widened in fear. Three diamond-shaped shields appeared behind him.
But gravity lightning carried physical pressure that defensive magic wasn't good at stopping.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
With three shattering sounds in a row, Denken's body lifted into the air. As he turned, he fled at full speed, trying to escape the strange lightning that would crush anything within its range.
Laufen, seeing her first strike miss and Denken in mortal danger, didn't run despite the gap in strength.
She swept the light whip horizontally.
Trees along the way were cut down at the roots. As the whip neared Ash, she flicked her wrist. The tip surpassed the speed of sound, creating a sharp sonic boom.
This move only worked on fixed targets. But if Ash didn't move and the tip hit and rebounded, no one could perfectly defend against it.
Even if he hurriedly formed a shield, it normally wouldn't hold against the mass carried by the whip.
"Got him!"
A smile appeared on Laufen's face.
But before Denken, who had landed awkwardly in the distance, could shout a warning, Ash suddenly grabbed the tip of the light whip first, smiling as he answered for her.
"Sorry, I don't think so."
"Ah... now that I think about it, you can even catch a Meteoric Iron Bird, so catching this wouldn't be strange. But it should be really hot, right?"
Laufen looked at the whip tip in his hand, which could easily split a house in half, and her expression was hard to describe.
"What kind of monster are you?"
"I already have protective spells on me. And obviously, your magic can't break through my defense."
"But, your hands are both occupied now. Aren't you worried?"
"What do you mean?"
"You lost!"
A victorious smile appeared on Laufen's face again.
Far away, Richter pressed both hands to the ground and poured all his magic into it.
The forest around them flipped as if turned over by an invisible hand. In an instant, Ash seemed to be inside a deep canyon.
On both sides, semicircular rock walls hundreds of meters tall rose up, trembling violently as they rushed toward the center, squeezing the sky into a thin line.
Rumble! Rumble!
The deafening roar was like nonstop demolition. Sunlight was swallowed by the towering rock walls. Dust spread so widely it almost filled the entire barrier.
If they didn't escape in time, the moving "canyon" would crush them flat.
At that moment, two tornadoes rose on both sides of the artificial canyon, sealing off every escape route.
"Wind-Flame Magic!"
Midway, Denken suddenly changed the nature of the tornadoes.
In an instant, the wild tornadoes turned into blazing firestorms that shot into the sky.
The sheer momentum was terrifying. It was a true dead end, a combined finishing move.
"What a big setup. So you want to trap me between fire tornadoes and use the rock walls as a cage to compress them? No matter what, it's really flashy. But Laufen, she's still right here with me—"
Ash looked toward Laufen, who was nearby since her staff was still in his grasp.
But before he could finish, she let go of the staff and disappeared instantly, like teleportation.
Clearly it was high-speed movement magic. Ash could see the magic traces she left behind, pointing toward a narrow crack in the left rock wall just wide enough for one person.
When he looked, the crack was already shrinking at high speed. It was obviously prepared for her escape.
"This time, there's no way you can break through!"
Denken's staff shone brightly as he kept pushing magic into the fire tornadoes, blocking all space outside the rock walls.
"This is your last warning! If you surrender now and fire a signal flare, we'll stop! Otherwise... we won't be responsible for what happens!"
The two of them had poured almost all their magic into this strike, betting everything on it. They even hoped he would surrender quickly.
They were also worried whether the Meteoric Iron Bird might accidentally die inside.
But—
"To be honest, I don't really like just standing here and taking hits."
Ignoring their warning, he bent his knees slightly to gather strength.
The next moment, his feet shattered the ground beneath him.
Boom!
With a thunderous explosion, a figure wrapped in lightning tore forward, raising a wave of air like a tsunami, charging straight into the fire tornado.
[🎉 Shoutout to DarkLost for joining p@treon. Thank you very much.🤗]
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