Hunter Academy: Revenge of the Weakest

Chapter 836 194.1 - Path

Chapter 836 194.1 - Path

Lilia inhaled deeply, forcing her emotions down, letting the frustration settle into something sharper. Anger wouldn't help her now. No, she needed to focus.
Adrian was still pressing forward, his speed giving him the undeniable edge. The momentary interference had set her back, forcing her onto the defensive once again, while he advanced with the confidence of someone who believed he had already won.
Twack!
Another arrow shot toward her, fast and merciless. Lilia barely twisted out of the way, feeling the rush of mana as it passed just inches from her waist.
She moved, using the shifting barriers to her advantage—but Adrian was relentless.
He's not giving me space to recover.
He closed the distance between them, keeping her pinned, firing with relentless precision. His arrows carried weight—not just in power, but in strategy. He wasn't just shooting wildly. He was boxing her in, limiting her options.
She loosed an arrow, a quick retaliatory strike aimed not to hit, but to disrupt his positioning.
Adrian dodged with ease, his speed making him seem almost untouchable. And then—he struck again.
Thud!
An arrow buried itself into the barrier beside her, but it wasn't just any arrow.
Mana pulsed from it, expanding outward in a controlled burst.
Lilia's eyes widened. That's—!
The impact caused the barrier to collapse entirely, forcing her into the open.
She barely had time to react before another arrow was already flying toward her.
Lilia twisted her body, a hair's breadth from being struck, but Adrian was already preparing the next shot.
This was his domain now.
She wasn't just fighting him—she was fighting a battle of attrition.
His stamina, his speed, his raw physical advantages—they all added up.
He could keep this up.
Could she?
Her breaths came a little faster now, her body straining to keep up with his relentless onslaught.
Adrian smirked. "What's wrong, Lilia?" he called out, his voice laced with arrogance. "Getting tired?"
Lilia's breath steadied as she fully embraced the situation. She could no longer afford to fight Adrian on his terms. His speed, his stamina, his brute force—none of those were factors she could overpower. But control? That was something else entirely.
Her fingers tightened around the bowstring, mana pooling into the tip of her arrow. This wasn't like her earlier feints. This time, she was committing. She had to—because if she didn't, this fight would end in his favor.
Adrian was already closing in, his stance unwavering as he fired another shot. Lilia twisted to the side, barely avoiding the arrow as it embedded itself in the ground with a faint hum of residual energy. He was reading her reactions now, narrowing her escape routes one by one. The suffocating pressure of his assault was reaching its peak, and he knew it.
"Still holding on?" His voice was as smug as ever, but there was no arrogance in his movements. He was precise, methodical. He had no intention of making a mistake now—not when he had the upper hand.
Lilia didn't answer. Instead, she moved again, weaving between the remaining barriers. The shifting field made it difficult to rely on cover, but she wasn't using them for protection anymore. She was using them to create angles.
Her crimson eyes flickered toward the farthest barrier, measuring the distance, the openings, the flow of Adrian's attacks. He was fast, but even speed had its limitations. He still had to aim, still had to account for timing. If she could disrupt his rhythm even slightly, she could create the opening she needed.
Another arrow came—this one sharper, faster, laced with mana that crackled in the air. Lilia bent low, the wind of its passage brushing against her cheek as she slid into position. In the same motion, she raised her bow and loosed a shot of her own—not at Adrian, but at one of the moving barriers behind him.
The moment the arrow struck, the structure wobbled, shifting just enough to throw off his line of sight.
Lilia moved.
She sprinted, drawing another arrow, the glow at its tip intensifying as her mana control wove into the very core of the projectile. Piercing Bloom wasn't just a shot—it was an extension of herself, a technique designed to bend the very rules of conventional archery.
But before she could release it, the cover in front of her suddenly vanished.
Her instincts screamed at her, but it was already too late. The interference struck precisely at the moment she had committed to her attack, and Adrian was already in motion.
His arrow came like a killing blow.
She had no choice but to abandon her shot, throwing herself to the side just as the projectile slammed into the ground where she had been standing. Dust kicked up from the impact, a reminder of how close she had come to losing right then and there.
'Selene.'
The realization cut deeper than she expected. That timing—it wasn't natural. The barriers had been unpredictable before, but now? Now they were too precise. The instant she gained momentum, they collapsed. The moment Adrian needed an opening, he got it.
And as if to make it seem fair, the same thing happened to him a moment later.
One of his barriers flickered and dropped just as he prepared to reposition. Lilia saw his muscles tense, the slight falter in his movement. He had noticed it too.
But unlike her, it barely affected his standing.
He still had his shot.
She, on the other hand, had to keep moving, had to stay defensive. There was no opening for her, no moment where she could afford to return fire.
Lilia exhaled sharply, pushing herself toward another position as the weight of the manipulation pressed down on her. She wasn't just fighting Adrian—she was fighting Selene's game.
She turned her head slightly, just enough to see the woman standing at the sidelines.
Selene's expression was calm, her gaze unreadable. But there was a faint curve at the edge of her lips, a knowing satisfaction that made Lilia's blood run hot.
Her fingers curled into a fist before she forced them to relax. She had to be better than this. Letting anger dictate her next move would only feed into Selene's expectations.
Fine.
If they thought they could control her, then she would show them just how wrong they were.
Lilia darted forward, drawing another arrow. If she couldn't find an opening, then she would create one.
Lilia's movements became sharper, her mind cutting through the interference, the rigged battlefield, and the oppressive force of Selene's control. If she couldn't play by their rules, then she would play by hers.
Her fingers tightened around her bow as she channeled mana into her next arrow—not in the conventional way, not in a way that Adrian or even Selene would expect. She had been working on something, refining a technique that had yet to see battle. If Selene thought she had accounted for everything, then she was about to receive a rude awakening.
Lilia's breath steadied as she poured mana into her arrow, not just enhancing its power but weaving it into something far more intricate.
'This is still not complete but, let's test it.'
It was not like she would lose anything anyway.
This wasn't just about force or speed—it was about control.
[Phase Disruption]
The moment the name of her technique solidified in her mind, the mana surrounding her arrow shifted.
Instead of simply coating the projectile, the mana field around it expanded, distorting the air in a way that made the arrow appear slightly displaced—a ripple, a mirage within space itself. It wasn't just an illusion. The technique manipulated mana refraction and electromagnetic displacement, bending the very medium that governed magical energy.
Lilia understood the theory behind it well. Just as light bent when it passed through different densities of air or glass, mana did the same when subjected to rapid fluctuations in field strength. The key was controlled instability—forcing mana into an oscillating state so that, when fired, the arrow would shift through the battlefield unpredictably.
No more linear trajectories. No more predictable shots.
Adrian couldn't block what he couldn't track.
The moment she released the arrow, it didn't just fly forward—it vanished from normal sight for a fraction of a second. The light bent around it, the mana interference from the field barely registering it as a solid object. It was as if space itself had fragmented around her attack.
Adrian's reaction was immediate. His instincts were good, trained to dodge at the first sign of movement—but that was the problem. There was no clear movement.
His body twisted to the side, but he had no idea where the arrow actually was.
For the first time since the match started, he looked uncertain.
And Lilia pressed forward.
She wasn't just attacking—she was dismantling the very foundation of the fight.
Her movements accelerated, her presence like a shifting shadow in the battlefield as she loosed another arrow, then another, each one vanishing before reappearing inches away from its actual trajectory.
The audience gasped.
Selene's expression didn't change, but Lilia saw the smallest shift in her stance—the faintest tension in her fingers.
She had not predicted this.
Good.
Adrian struggled to adapt, his advantage in raw speed meaning nothing when he couldn't react in time. His arrows fired blindly now, his rhythm breaking as he attempted to track shots that didn't exist where they should have.
Then came the opening.
A brief, precious moment where Adrian faltered, where his footwork stuttered.
Lilia's crimson eyes gleamed.
Now.
She drew her final arrow, mana surging to its peak, the battlefield bending around her strike.
Victory was within reach.
But then—
The platform beneath her flickered.
Her stance wavered.
The very ground she had stabilized herself on collapsed.
Not a barrier. Not a piece of cover.
The battlefield itself.
And just like that, the shot that should have been her victory—
Missed.
Adrian recovered in an instant, his arrow already loosed before she could regain her footing.
Lilia twisted, tried to escape, but there was no time.
His shot struck clean.
The mana barrier flared upon impact, signaling the end.
The match was over.
Silence fell over the field.
The crowd barely processed what had happened before erupting into murmurs, shock and awe mingling in their voices. Some gasped at Lilia's near-victory, others at the impossible shift in the battlefield at the last second.
And standing at the edge of it all, her hands perfectly still, her expression calm and composed—
Selene smiled.
Lilia's fingers trembled around her bowstring, her breath steady but slow, controlled. The loss didn't sting because Adrian had won.
It stung because she had been robbed.
Because even when she had broken through Selene's predictions, her sister had still rigged the outcome in the end.
And that—
That was something she would not forget.