[Synthesis Utility Card - Azure Archive activated.]

  A muted blue-covered book materialized instantly in front of Toby. The moment it appeared, its pages began flipping rapidly on their own.

  A symbol flared across one of the open pages.

  [Synthesis Defensive Card - Emergency Shield Tier-2 activated.]

  In the next second, a large transparent shield formed behind Vale’s back.

  The massive axe crashed into it.

  A heavy shockwave erupted outward, and the attacker was hurled backward by the recoil. The sword and spear strikes that followed slammed against the barrier and were immediately deflected.

  [Synthesis Defensive Card - Emergency Shield Tier-2 deactivated. Entering cooldown.]

  Without hesitation, Toby pushed Cassie’s hand toward Vale.

  “I will hold them off first. Hold onto Cassie!” he said firmly.

  “Toby! Let me fight them!” Vale shouted.

  But Toby had already shot forward.

  The floating book followed at his side, its pages continuing to turn rapidly as glowing symbols formed and dissolved across the pages.

  The three boys adjusted their positions midair, maneuvering with surprising coordination. Their weapons cut through the air in tight arcs. If Toby had not separated from Vale and Cassie, those strikes would have hit all three of them at once.

  From up close, Toby recognized one of them. The chubby boy who had insulted him earlier. The other two were clearly from the same group.

  On the other side of the sky, chaos had fully erupted.

  More participants had begun attacking each other midair. Weapons flashed. Mana burst in different colors. Some fought to steal additional blazers. Others fought simply to remove competition.

  They were literally battling in the open sky.

  Toby had heard that Eclipsion’s entrance trial was brutal.

  But not like this.

  Not to the point where it forced children into life and death scenarios while falling from the sky.

  Yes, emergency magic circles would extract anyone facing certain death. But that did not mean they were protected from injury.

  Only fatal threats triggered removal.

  Severe wounds? Those were still very much possible.

  [Synthesis Weapon Card - Channelblade Tier-2 activated.]

  A sword formed in Toby’s right hand, forged entirely from condensed mana light.

  [Channelblade Tier-2 charging skill: Azure Break.]

  [Skill Type: High-Output Mana Discharge.]

  [Charging… 12%… 27%… 34%…]

  The charge rate was faster than before.

  Almost twice as fast.

  Second Pulse was amplifying the output.

  This weapon specialized in wide range discharge attacks. Azure Break was an area strike capable of sweeping multiple targets at once. But it could only be used once per activation, and the mana consumption was heavy.

  If he could neutralize all three of them in one strike, he would gain enough additional fabric to keep the three of them airborne safely.

  The chubby boy, the one who had insulted him earlier, raised his spear.

  With his short and stocky build, he looked completely unsuited for a weapon that required mobility and precision.

  “Second Prime Card! Titanreach Spear!” the boy shouted.

  The spear instantly expanded, growing several times its original size.

  Another boy roared as well. His body began to swell. Muscles expanded violently, horns burst from his head, and the axe in his grip enlarged along with him.

  Yet at the same time, his weight dragged him downward faster.

  “Idiot,” Toby muttered. “A bull form is not meant for aerial combat.”

  He accelerated forward, Channelblade still charging in his hand.

  The third boy, the swordsman, activated something beneath his feet. Spirals of wind formed around his boots, allowing him to maneuver sharply in midair, shifting directions with frightening speed.

  “Second Prime Card! Gale Strider!” he shouted.

  This was bad.

  Very bad.

  Toby gritted his teeth.

  The chubby boy thrust his enlarged spear forward with terrifying speed. Even in midair, the force behind the strike was heavy and precise.

  Toby raised his charging blade to block.

  The impact exploded against him.

  He was thrown sideways, his body spinning as he continued to plummet downward at high speed.

  Before he could stabilize, the swordsman with Gale Strider dashed in. His wind assisted boots allowed him to cut through the air effortlessly. He swung his blade in rapid succession.

  Clang. Clang. Clang.

  You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

  Toby could only defend.

  His Channelblade, still charging, met each strike with sparks of compressed mana. The recoil rattled his arms. His body trembled under the repeated impacts.

  He needed more time.

  Everything was happening too fast.

  They were still falling. The ground below was getting closer with every second, yet the two boys kept pressing their assault without pause.

  “You stupid trash! I will kill you!” the chubby boy shouted, thrusting his spear again.

  The swordsman followed up instantly, his blade slashing toward Toby’s ribs.

  Toby forced himself to focus.

  He only had one weapon active. He could not freely switch Synthesis Cards right now. In this chaotic descent, even a slight lapse in concentration could make him lose balance entirely.

  He had to rely on the Azure Archive hovering beside him, allowing him to swap Synthesis Cards faster than normal. Without it, he would already be overwhelmed.

  Worse still, both of his attackers were Rank-2 Guardians.

  So this was the difference.

  Privileged children from powerful families really could reach Rank-2 that quickly.

  They had been fed resources since childhood. Guided through cultivation with the best instructors. Their second Prime Cards were likely chosen carefully by their clans, matching attributes with their Innate Cards perfectly. Suitable Mana Beasts hunted specifically for them.

  Every step optimized.

  Every advantage handed to them.

  Meanwhile, Toby had clawed his way here alone. And yet. He refused to fall here.

  [Channelblade Tier-2 - Azure Break charge reached 99%.]

  Toby clenched his teeth so hard his jaw trembled. The chubby boy lunged again, thrusting his spear fast from the side. Toby could not block this time. If he did, it would ruin the momentum of his attack.

  He had to dodge. He focused every bit of his concentration. And just as the spear was about to strike him from the side, he twisted his body in a sharp spin.

  The spear barely brushed past his back, missing him by the thinnest margin.

  But another boy shot forward in an instant and slashed his sword toward Toby.

  “Damn, this was really bad.”

  Toby caught the blade with his left hand. RGHHH! The impact was brutal, the force biting deep into his palm and sending pain up his arm.

  But the skill had finished charging.

  Time seemed to race as he slashed and spun his body backward in one fluid motion.

  The blade collided with the spear. The clash exploded with a loud crack that shook the entire area. The spear was cut cleanly and snapped apart.

  Toby moved even faster, spinning through the air with another slash.

  The boy holding the sword looked panicked and tried to block with his blade. But Toby’s strike was quicker. The sword split in two.

  “P-please, help me…!” the boy cried out.

  Just as Toby’s blade was about to cleave him in half, his body vanished instantly. His blazer was torn free and left trailing behind them as they plunged faster through the air.

  Without hesitation, Toby dashed again and swung at the chubby boy. Toby moved like a streak of light, and the slash nearly reached the boy’s neck.

  “You’ll regret this!” the chubby boy screamed in panic.

  A second later, he vanished as well. His blazer clothes flew off and hit Toby. Toby quickly maneuvered away, then looked up to see where Vale and Cassie were. They were already racing after him from above.

  Toby tried to grab the blazer cloth with his left hand, and only then did he realize it was soaked in blood. The blood had even splashed across his face. In a situation like this, he had not even felt the pain.

  [Synthesis Weapon Card - Channelblade Tier-2 deactivated. Entering cooldown.]

  Something suddenly gripped his left hand, and a second later his other hand caught the other end of the same blazer cloth.

  “Toby, your hand… you’re badly hurt.” Cassie said.

  How did she even notice that?

  On the other side, Vale had already tied another blazer cloth they had taken from the previous boy, and now they were using four blazers knotted together as one long line.

  Right after that, their fall noticeably slowed compared to before. Others quickly shot past them from above, dropping faster. But it was also clear that more and more participants were managing to survive in their own ways.

  Many of the others looked close to losing their grip, and quite a few had already fallen. Perhaps only half of the participants were still left from this selection alone.

  “Can you still hold on, Toby?” Vale asked.

  “Yes, it’s okay. It’s not that bad. I had to stop that sword strike,” he said, feeling how foolish it sounded.

  But that had been the only thing he could do. At least by taking it with his hand, he had managed to block the attack. At that moment, the boy’s strike had already begun to weaken, but if it had landed anywhere else, it would have been far worse.

  “They’ll heal you later. Just hang on. We’re almost at the bottom,” Vale said firmly.

  “That was seriously incredible. You blocked a Rank-2 Guardian’s slash with your bare hand, Toby,” Cassie said.

  “I think it was stupid. I messed up my hand pretty badly,” he replied.

  By this point, Cassie clearly knew far more than she should. She had been clinging close to Vale the whole time. How did she know so much?

  “Do you have an innate card that enhances your physical body? Your grip strength is too strong for a Rank-1,” Vale asked after that.

  At that moment, Toby still had not deactivated his Innate Card. It was suppressing his wound, slowing the bleeding even if only slightly. If he turned it off now, the exhaustion and lingering shock might hit him all at once. He could faint midair. He could not allow that to happen.

  They had been falling for so long. It felt endless, far too high to be real.

  Then Toby felt something shift. A faint tension, a ripple of unease that was not his own. In that instant, he knew it was coming from Cassie.

  “Cassie?” Vale called out firmly.

  “They’re sending more trials at us,” she said.

  The moment the words left her mouth, a piercing scream split the air. A deep, thunderous roar followed, shaking the sky around them. Shadows emerged from one direction, then several more.

  Massive figures with wide wings and long necks sliced through the clouds. They resembled giant flying lizards, or something close to it, but their size was overwhelming.

  “They’re called Sky Drakes,” Vale said. “They’re about to attack!”

  And just as she warned, the monsters struck.

  The Sky Drakes dove brutally through the falling participants, ramming into them, tearing through their formation, and hurling bodies away.

  Some did not even have the chance to activate their cards before they were smashed aside.

  One of the creatures folded its wings and dove straight at the three of them.

  Toby had to do something.

  But before he could react, a surge of energy burst from beside him. The air trembled. He quickly turned his head and saw it.

  Blue lightning wrapped around Vale. Her hair turned bright blue and lengthened instantly. And around her body, two purple cards were spinning in orbit.

  Two Rare-grade Prime Cards, No way!

  **

  A sharp cracking sound echoed through the chamber as a porcelain cup shattered against the floor.

  “You didn’t just drop that on purpose, did you?” one of them asked.

  “I’m only returning the gesture from earlier,” the man replied with a crooked grin.

  “One boy with a purple First Prime, fine,” another muttered. “But now there’s a second kid whose First and Second Primes are both purple?”

  “Where are these monsters even coming from?”

  “And that Toby,” someone added. “He activated two Synthesis Cards at once. Are you certain he’s only a Rank-1 Apprentice, Evelyn?”

  All eyes turned to the woman with short blonde hair seated quietly among them.

  She smiled and crossed her arms.

  “This year will be interesting,” she said. “The three of them are mine.”

  “Yours?” someone scoffed. “Since when do you get to decide that?”

  “Don’t be so sure, Evelyn,” another said evenly. “The selection isn’t over yet. I’m claiming the one named Valeria.”

  “Oh? That confident?” Evelyn replied. “Do you even specialize in lightning affinity?”

  “And what about the other girl?” a different voice cut in. “Her perception picked up the Sky Drakes before they appeared.”

  The chamber grew noisy as several of them began speaking at once. Evelyn let the argument swell for a few seconds before tapping her fingers lightly against the armrest.

  “Argue all you want,” she said calmly. “But if any of you expect me to step aside, you’re welcome to try.”