Ascension: Strongest Fateless Mage

"Take a five-minute break!" Melissa said as her lips curled into a charming smile, "you all fought very well, but this is the last platform, so take a break and recover. After all, only five among you will win!"

The audience cheered while the participants closed their eyes in meditation to regain their stamina and recover mana. Zevien suppressed his vampire form's power to a minimum such that it only took 1 mana per 2 seconds, and started recovering his mana to the best of his ability.

Since he had been experimented on with precious resources, his mana regain speed was higher than normal people.

All those boosted by the Magician Growth Boost were a notch above general magicians in terms of basic magical aspects like better mana control, higher mana recovery speed, higher mana perception, and physical body strengthening when killing magic beasts in the labyrinths, so they don't need to do it periodically using their mana.

However, the main aspects of being a better magician were:

The willpower.

Guts to face danger.

Various mind-related qualities can only be trained as one grows.

And...Luck: the most fickle bitch in existence.

The Magician Growth Boost was an excellent early boon, but it would matter less the more people boosted by them get stronger.

Still, this early-boosted phase was very good for a magician to get past certain hurdles and make them better. But in the end, everything depends on one's main aspects.

"Who are you betting on now? Alucard dropped to the 4th position, meaning the committee thinks he can remain in the top-five and win as this break will recover his mana."

"I lost my money on the previous platform, sigh. I bet on Alucard losing against Kronish and Naka since it was a 2v1. Alas, Alucard won."

"Hmm, I bet on Alucard since he is the only one capable of flying among them. That should count as his advantage."

"Not really. This platform is small, and lady Melissa will obviously impose a flying height rule for him to make it fair."

"I am betting on Lokken winning."

Since the betting odds changed, the audience talked about betting and other things in this five-minute break.

Naturally, contestants had nothing to do with this as they couldn't participate in the betting.

Zevien was entirely focused on recovering his mana and regaining his stamina. In the case of stamina, his vampire form helped him to regain it faster.

…

"Alright, time's up!" Melissa said as five minutes passed quickly. "I will count from ten to zero! Get ready! Oh, and Alucard, you can fly, but the limit is five meters in height. You can't go above five meters."

"Still easy," Zevien grinned. However, some tiny sweat droplets formed on the back of his neck.

He said it would be easy to put pressure on himself intentionally because he wanted to perform better than the rest! 'I must break my limits and fight even better than before!'

Taking a deep breath, Zevien calmed himself, and his eyes became serene as he remembered the best fighting state from old man Mordar: A fighting state in which you surrender your body to your instincts but still control those instincts with a serene mind. A cold gaze that observed the surroundings and a perceptive mind that helped instincts.

Melissa started counting while contestants eyed each other warily as they stood in a circular formation. After all, nobody wanted to stay at the center and get targeted by others.

When the count down hit 0, Zevien stayed calmly still and used Somatic Anger to buff his physical body and Somatic Sadness to use his Omni-Barrier. He had recovered almost 5800 mana in the last five minutes, so he consumed 2000 mana to use those two sub-spells of his awakening magic spell.

*Swooosh…*

Zevien's eyes caught a spinning dark red blade coming towards him from the girl near him, but he flew towards the blade instead of dodging directly. When he was just one meter away from the blade, he narrowly avoided it with a calm face and swiped his hand from bottom to top as a Nyxite Claw shot towards her.

*Swoosh...*

"Woah! So fast!"

Right after Zevien released a Nyxite Claw, everyone saw him quickly arriving beside the girl before throwing a punch. His speed was extraordinarily fast since he used his legs to dash explosively before flapping his wings to increase his speed.

'Wild Predator!' the girl who released the spinning blade used her awakening spell as a dark green aura enveloped her and transformed her. Her nails also increased to half a meter long with sharp edges, while some tattoos appeared on her body, raising her various physical capabilities greatly.

'A transformation-type awakening magic spell like Dan?' Zevien thought, but he didn't stop his punch as his eyes gleamed with cold light.

*Crack…*

The girl grinned and attacked Zevien's punch with her sharp nails, but his Omni-Barrier blocked her attack while Zevien's arm twisted a bit and passed by her arm before hitting her face. Naturally, it didn't hit her face since the badge barrier appeared, but…

*Boom….*

She was thrown like a kite without string and flew out of the platform.

Eliminated!

*Siii…..*

Everyone watching sucked in a breath of cold air.

"How come he didn't feel that pain? My body shivered to hear that crack."

"Screw that! I bet on her to win since she also performed greatly on the previous platforms! She was two ranks above Alucard in betting odds!"

"Hahaha, Alucard will win! Now, I am betting on him to take that 1st rank!"

Zevien straightened his right hand by using his left hand since it was slightly dislocated when he twisted it to change the trajectory of the punch.

He didn't feel pain because he had internally cast Somatic Fear that suppressed his pain and fear. The pain was not suppressed entirely but within his tolerance range.

However, he felt he could bear it easily even without using that spell since he had gone through that reckless first experiment and felt a lot of pain, unlike other people who had gone through it after him. That's why he only spent 100 mana on Somatic Fear's internal cast.

*Swoosh…*

A few meters away, a man and woman in their early twenties fighting each other stopped and eyed Zevien. They looked at each other and nodded before attacking Zevien together!