Abigail was fortunate enough to be far away from where Alex was when he unleashed his powerbomb. The entire plain shook heavily and she had to get on her knees to avoid falling over.
'What the hell?!' She exclaimed when the attack connected with the earth. The explosive power of the throw was too powerful, more than anything they had experienced.
'Was he capable of that much power all this time?' She wondered as she and the surrounding students stopped to see what was happening. It felt like a small nuke going off.
'Is that why he told me to keep my distance away from him?' She finally figured out the actual reason he didn't want her too close. At first, she thought it was Alex trying to take the pressure away from her. But it was only now that she understood. With that one attack, Alex had eliminated almost half of the remaining students!
She swallowed nervously when her thoughts reached here. She looked around cautiously, moving whenever someone was getting too close. Now, it was only a matter of staying alive till the last 5000 students.
...….
"So, all it took was to distort everyone's perception and I would be left alone?"
Alex was flabbergasted this trick worked so well. He had his thoughts because his own tests revealed its weakness. Even if one didn't have eyes to see the spectrum, they could still see something if they looked closely, as the distortion appeared slightly unnatural.
However, due to the chaos unfolding, no one was focusing on 'nothing' and tried their best to survive till the last 5000 remaining students.
He sat on the ground and crossed-legged as he regained his breath after many hours of fighting. From his spot, he could see the continuous fights in the distance, but the number of abilities flying around had decreased as most students were out of mana.
Sometime later, the fighting was forcefully stopped once the last person fell and the familiar sound of the system's voice resounded throughout the plain.
[Congratulations to the surviving students. Your perseverance and will to move forward has brought you this far, granting you the opportunity to partake in the main event!]
The students were then released from their frozen state after they were brought out of the simulation into a familiar white space.
The students cheered in delight as they exchanged smiles and hugs. Students who a moment ago were going at each other's throats were now embracing themselves in delight about their earned qualifications.
[You have two day's rest to prepare yourselves for the main event. Good luck.]
Once the message was delivered, the students began turning into light particles and exiting the VR. Alex remained behind for a moment taking everything in.
"Hehe… What was I expecting? An extremely hard-fought battle with me tethering on the edge?" He found his own words amusing and then let out a small chuckle. That one move of distorting people's perception once he unleashed that attack practically left him alone till the end of the battle royale.
What he feared the most did not happen, but he had learned a lot of valuable lessons about himself and his strength.
"But now that it's revealed, it won't be that easy again." He looked around and noticed that he was the only one left.
"I guess she'll find me…" He muttered and then exited the simulation.
...…..
Alex stepped out of the combat systems and came to a halt. Before him was a crowd of students, most of them being his classmates and in front of the crowd were Julia and Ross. He did notice something right away when he looked at Julia.
For some reason, she had a frown on her face, 'That can't be good…' he thought and then glanced at his best friend and saw the stiff smile on his face. He instantly understood he did something wrong, but before he had a chance to mull over it…
"Dude, you were awesome! That spear throw of yours was incredible. All of a sudden I want to use the spear as my main weapon.!"
"What did you expect, he's not the strongest for no reason…"
Alex heard his classmates talk about his feats in the battle royale and closed in on him, covering him from all directions. He lost sight of his friends and could only smile sluggishly.
Alex tried his best to respond to their queries, but it seemed someone had enough and made her stance clear. Everyone immediately felt a chill wash over them. Of course, students of Class 1A1 instantly knew who it was and quickly made way for the princess.
'Yeah, she's definitely pissed about something.' Alex observed as he moved towards his friends. Julia had made it clear that his Q&A session with his classmates was over and it was time he returned to her side.
"Let's return first," Julia said and turned around heading to the dorms. Alex looked at his friend and Ross turned his head to the side making his stance clear. He walked away as if he didn't know what was going on.
He could even hear the laughter of his classmates behind him. Everyone in his class already knew how possessive Julia was when it came to Alex. But no one made any attempts to make fun of her for that. She was not from a powerful family for nothing.
'Fucking traitor! You're blunt when it matters little and quiet when it comes to Julia.'
Alex took a deep breath to calm himself. There was only one way out of this situation and that was to face the music. However, dancing to the tune was going to be another matter entirely. He did nothing wrong, and he had to make that clear. He then resigned himself as he followed behind his friends.
Of course, saying and doing were two different things and he was going to find out the hard way that even with all his strength, there were fights he couldn't possibly win as there was only one winner from the get-go.