"I remember, you’re that teacher back at the registration." Ayrin scratched his head in embarrassment and asked, "Why are you here?"
"I just happened by and saw you training."Carter looked at Ayrin and asked, "Is it teacher Huston who asked you guys to train like this?"
Ayrin shook his head. "I only gave it a try because I heard teacher Minlur trains like this."
"This guy…"
Carter stared, his brows bunching together. He pondering for a while then nodded at Ayrin. "In that case, you might as well link it all together and consider it a practical skill, it’ll be more beneficial this way."
Ayrin stared blankly. "Practical skill?"
"A move that can be used in battle." Carter said in all seriousness, "Physical power and arcane power are both the arcane master’s weapons. In the simplest terms, you have to use means fair and foul, take advantage of everything that can be used in order to defeat your opponent. An arcane master who only knows to use arcane skills is definitely not one expert in fighting."
Ayrin seemed to understand something from his words. His head nodded firmly on its own.
"If you want to use the power of your body to bring the greatest damage to your opponent, the best way is to avoid getting hit by the opponent’s strength before you hit them yourself." Carter continued in a gentle tone, "Speed can increase the force of the impact, an abrupt change of direction can dodge the opponent’s attacks. Moreover you can rush in front of your opponent and catch them off-guard with an unexpected strike."
"Watch carefully."
After gesturing to Ayrin to make him pay attention, Carter suddenly launched himself. He sprinted at lightning speed, then suddenly threw himself forward once near that giant tree Ayrin had been hitting earlier, rolled on the ground, then bounced up with alarming speed before smashing his fist on the tree trunk.
"Pop."
The hard brown bark split into pieces, countless dense cracks appearing on the shining white wood exposed below.
This wasn’t the end of it yet. Carter crashed against it without the slightest pause. A burst of violent shakes went through the entire giant tree, together with a tremendous bang. Innumerable tree leaves fluttered down like rain.
Ayrin stood there, thoroughly dumbfounded.
Carter’s entire movement smoothly blended into one whole, fast like a bolt of lighting.
There was previously almost no trace on the tree trunk, but now there were two depressions on it, one big and one small. Looking at the tree bark split open explosively, and the strips of wood sticking out, Ayrin was certain that if he were to be hit like this, his fate wouldn’t be that much different from that guy the Ximos had sent flying.
"Sprinting at full speed is so you can increase the force of impact, the roll on the ground can dodge your opponent’s attack and also catch him unprepared." Carter quietly explained when he saw Ayrin stand in a daze. "This set of movements can train your body and also be used during actual combat. The most critical point is to make the roll and the bounce into one coherent movement. You have to use your entire strength and you can’t slow down. You also have to be careful when handling the timing of your punch. You need to use a punch to seize the initiative and shorten the distance between you and your opponent, prevent your opponent’s next action, but you can’t let this punch slow your ramming either."
"I got it! Let me try."
Ayrin nodded excitedly. He shouted, then once again charged toward that giant tree, swelling with bravery.
"Hiss…"
Carter’s eyes shrank. He couldn’t help but suck a deep breath in.
"Pa!" "Pa!" With two explosive sounds, Ayrin bounced up and landed a ferocious punch on the tree trunk, then his whole body crashed against it without the slightest pause.
"Ah!"
Another exaggerated miserable scream rose at once, but Carter’s body had become frozen, and an expression full of disbelief flooded his eyes.
Of course Ayrin couldn’t possible compare to him in speed and strength, but Ayrin’s entire movement had been extremely smooth and cohesive.
There was simply no need for repeated practice. Ayrin had fully grasped this set of movements in a single try. The difficulties he’d talked about seemed simply inexistant for him.
There was simply no need at all for him to explain things any further.
Ayrin’s movements would certainly become faster and more explosive as long as he continued this exercise.
Carter had personally taught quite a few students before, and he’d also seen some figures that could be described as geniuses, but almost none of them could compare to Ayrin when it came to learning speed and comprehension ability.
"What kind of monster is he, is it a coincidence or is that his nature?… What kind of mysterious bloodline does he actually have?" A fine layer of cold sweat emerged in Carter’s palms; his heart started to bang with uncontrollable violence.
Ayrin sat on the ground in pain. He asked, full of expectation, "Teacher Carter, is it like this?"
"Just like this." Carter composed himself. "If you’re interested, properly keep practicing by yourself."
"Thank you teacher Carter."
"No need to be polite, you continue your training."
Carter’s silhouette flashed and shot upwards, becoming a blue shadow streaking among the giant treetops.
"Really awesome. Teacher Carter, you’re definitely an elite teacher in the academy too. But I’m guessing you still can’t beat teacher Minlur or that teacher Rui."
"…" Carter was in the middle of considering whether he ought to try and teach Ayrin a few things in the future while he skimmed among the clusters of trees. He almost stepped on empty air and fell down head first from the sky when he heard Ayrin’s words.
"Ah!" "Ah!" …
Scream after miserable scream rang continuously inside the forest of giant trees.
…
…
The curtain of the night once again enveloped Holy Dawn Academy. The forest recovered its serenity under the silvery starlight.
Ayrin was still drowsy from sleep when a dark cloud suddenly appear in front of him.
Ayrin opened his eyes. He saw Belo standing immobile in front of his bed, looking at him with a very solemn look. He muttered, his brain still confused, "When did you come back yesterday? I waited for you until really late but you didn’t come back, so I went to bed first… Why are you standing there looking at me, that’s really creepy. I’m not a monster, what’s so interesting about me."
"You’re much more interesting than even the monsters inside the academy’s Beasts Enclosure. I really can’t see through you." Belo gave Ayrin a serious once-over. The lenses of his glasses flashed under the sunlight filtering through the windows, as if a layer of ice had formed on them.
"What’s interesting about me?" Ayrin wiped the drool flowing from his mouth and sat up in a daze.
"I thought I came to the wrong room when I returned yesterday." Belo gave him a glance and said, "Then I found out it was you after I had a good look, you were beaten up all swollen. I think teacher Huston wouldn’t have recognized you back then."
Ayrin smiled in embarrassment when he heard Belo. He said, "I didn’t get beaten up by anyone, I became like that training on my own."
Belo pushed his glasses and said, "Then, you take a look at the mirror now."
Ayrin stood up, looking drowsy and confused. He looked at the mirror beside the bed and immediately thought there was a problem with his eyes.
His hands and cheeks where clear and white. There were simply no visible bruise.
He couldn’t resist shouting, "What’s going on?"
"Why’re you asking me what’s going on?"
Belo snorted coldly. "You were beaten black and blue when I came back last night, even teacher Huston wouldn’t have recognized you, but you’re like brand new after a little sleep. Also, don’t you feel your clothes have gotten smaller?"
Ayrin looked at the mirror and immediately shouted, "What, our Holy Dawn Academy uniforms cost so much, yet the quality is still so shoddy, they actually shrink after wash."
"Shrink after wash?"
Belo stood up in front of Ayrin. "You carefully look again and see if they shrank? You were half a head shorter than me when you came here, now you look again."
Ayrin examined Belo up and down, then he examined himself. He became petrified on the spot.
He noticed he seemed about the same height as Belo now.
He finally came to his senses. His sleeves were clearly shorter, his clothes were clearly tighter, not because they shrank but because he’d grown much taller.
"You already grew from half a head shorter than me to around the same height in a matter of days." Belo smiled at Ayrin, very interested. "Don’t you think you’re much more intriguing compared to the creatures inside the Beast Enclosure?"
"I…"
Ayrin was at a complete loss for words.
He was certain this was the effect of old Ginns’ mysterious bloodline.
He was entirely awake now. In the places that were as painful as needle pricks whenever he touched them after his training yesterday, he could only feel a numb soreness now. That feeling of utter exhaustion was also thoroughly gone, replaced instead by thin strands of warmth.
He seemed once again brimming with energy from head to toe. On top of that, his physical power seemed to be quite a bit stronger than yesterday!
"Alright, stop staring blankly. Anyway you’re not arrogant at all, so I won’t ask protection fees from you even if you’re a bit weird." Belo casually waved his hand when he saw the stunned Ayrin. "Hurry up and get dressed, get ready to leave."
Ayrin subconsciously said, "Leave? Go where, what bad things are you going to do this time?"
Belo only showed contempt for Ayrin’s conditioned reflex-like reaction. "Did sleep make you stupid? You forgot that today’s the match between our Holy Dawn Academy and Southern Monsoon Academy?"
"The Amazing Girl? You’re right, today’s the preliminary between our Holy Dawn Academy and Southern Monsoon Academy!"
Ayrin reacted immediately. He dressed up in a flurry of hands and feet; he very quickly discovered that the outer uniform didn’t have much elasticity, and now it was so tight he couldn’t even wear it anymore.
He asked Belo, a little anxious, "What should I do?"
"You can wear my clothes for now." Belo casually threw two pieces of clothing to Ayrin. "You can just go find the dorms’ teacher and get your clothes changed."
Ayrin firmly nodded with exceptional gratitude.
After washing himself at supersonic speed, he followed Belo out like a gust of wind. They casually bought some things to eat at the nearest canteen, then they dashed even while eating to where the match took place, the Holy Dawn Arena.
"Something’s wrong."
The closer they neared the Holy Dawn Arena, the more suspicious Ayrin’s expression became. He couldn’t help but mutter to himself, a little apprehensive.
"What’s wrong?" Belo turned his head around and looked at Ayrin. "Ayrin, can’t you eat your sausage first before talking. Don’t you feel very ridiculous talking with a roasted sausage hanging on your mouth?"
"Fine."
In two or three bites, Ayrin finished the sausage he’d already gnawed halfway. Then he looked at the Holy Dawn Arena’s vast and lofty dome that was already emerging in front of them. He said, "Belo, did you remember the date of the match wrong? A confrontation like this between the strongest students of the two academies involves the honor between the two academies, it should be much more spectacular than the Beast Battling Exam, so there should be many spectators coming. Why are there so few people on the way?"
"The reason is very simple."
Belo looked at the sparse flow of people on the street ahead and said, "It’s because the battle record of our Holy Dawn Academy is really too lame. Every time, what you want to see is your own academy giving a painful beating to the guys from the other academy, and then get qualified, but what you see every time is people from your academy get painfully beaten up by other people. When something’s too disappointing and feels too much of like a loss of face, of course there will be much fewer people coming to watch. For the vast majority of students, this competition happening only once a year is the greatest affair in Eiche. Countless students and even those who’ve already graduated will come in great flocks to watch their academies’ matches, but our Holy Dawn Academy is instead almost going to completely forget about this popular competition that’s all the rage in the entire kingdom."
"The worse the battle record and the worse the strength, the more you should go to the arena and cheer for them." Ayrin said, "This way the atmosphere is more imposing, and maybe their display will be a bit better too."
"That’s your way of thinking. There aren’t many people like you who don’t know what shame is."
"But the more shamed you feel, the more you ignore this competition, the less passionately you throw yourself into this contest, then the less likely your team will defeat the other academies, isn’t it?"
"What you say is smart, you’re talking about the important point." Belo squinted his eyes. "Right now there are many guys inside Holy Dawn Academy that have a little talent like Hawthorne and managed to compact primordial arcane particles very early, becoming arcane masters. They’re all garbage who only know how to hide inside the school, acting cool and strong. What I think is, these wastes have now long forgotten the meaning of courage. I wouldn’t have come to this shameful academy if it wasn’t for Holy Dawn Academy having many formidable arcane skills you can’t find elsewhere, and its many fierce elite teachers."
"Hey, isn’t that Moss? He came to watch the match too."
Ayrin suddenly pointed his finger in front of them. Inside the sparsely populated crowd, the red-haired Moss was coming close to an entrance of the arena.
"Newer students will be more curious about the novelty of this competition, and they’re prone to be more hopeful about it. That’s why there are more first years and second years coming to watch. Isn’t it very normal for this guy to come have a look?"
"Let’s go and sit together with him?"
"Alright, we’ll sit together and beat him up!"
"…That won’t be necessary."
…
"Courage is the gateway to every dream."
At the entrance, Ayrin saw these words on every direction board in the blue Holy Dawn Arena, an arena that dwarfed him.
Looking pensive, his head lowered, he followed inside after Belo.
The sight suddenly widened in front of their eyes when they went through the tunnel. Ayrin shivered the moment daylight sprinkled down from the sky and shrouded him in it; his eyes suddenly spread wide open.
The blue stands that could accommodate several dozen thousand people seemed like a circle of waves revolving around the field below.
The circular form of this field wasn’t as smooth as the one inside the Beast Training Field though.
Scattered weeds looked lonely in it, shuddering in the slight breeze. The vast majority of the field was however covered in cracks and pits big and small!
Vestiges from the burn of flames, the crush of heavy objects, or the sharpness of cutting weapons were left everywhere behind.
Even if it was his first time coming here, Ayrin was certain these were all scars left behind by previous battles.
Perhaps the names of those who fought here were long forgotten, but the vestiges of their fights still lived on.
At this very moment, Ayrin really couldn’t understand why the Holy Dawn students could ignore his competition after witnessing the scars of these battles.
Indeed, there weren’t many Holy Dawn Academy students who came to watch.
Students of the other academies each also had their own temperaments and their own various hobbies, but the competition venues in the vast majority of academies would be bursting full when the matches were underway. However, merely half the seats were occupied in this arena.
The venue seemed a little cold and empty, but a clamor suddenly rose inside.
Ayrin looked toward the source of the noise. A big crowd of people clad in yellow came their way, and very quickly occupied a portion of the stands.
These people wore identical yellow uniforms and even carried small drums, pounding them in dong dong dong dongs. The venue previously seemed very quiet, now it instantly became exceptionally raucous.
Ayrin thought of something and turned his head around, asking Belo, "These are students of Southern Monsoon Academy? Their school uniforms are yellow with a parasol tree leaf emblem on them?"
"That’s not a parasol tree leaf, it’s a maple leaf emblem. The strongest arcane master in the history of the Southern Monsoon Academy had a secret skill called ‘Maple of Life.’ The maple leaf emblem is in remembrance of the legend and glory of this powerful arcane master." Belo pushed his glasses and said, sounding as if he were a big shot. "Look carefully at that group of students, see which ones among them are the most arrogant and the most enthusiastic."
"Why?"
"After the match ends, we’ll go beat up the noisiest and most arrogant ones."
"…"
…
Amidst all the racket suddenly brought by the big group of Southern Monsoon students, the red-haired Moss sat alone in a certain corner of the stands.
An inexplicable disquiet had gotten hold of him after chancing upon the team of five on the road. Someone like him who came from a great clan with a formidable blood lineage would naturally not have the same ambitions as those ordinary students. They’d find a steady job after graduation, drifting along and waiting for death, while his goal was to become a mighty arcane master under the starry skies that would inspire awe and reverence. So for a freshman as proud as him, the academy’s glory was something essential. He’d always thought before meeting that team of five that no matter how disastrous the academy’s past results, everything would be better once he was eligible to go to battle as a representative of Holy Dawn Academy.
However, the emergence of that team of five actually made him feel uncertain about everything.
That feeling of pressure that made him almost unable to breathe, it made him feel like he’d have no way to compete even if given a year or two.
"What?"
An extremely conflicted and somewhat confused Moss stood up all of a sudden, breathing heavily.
At this time, the teams from Holy Dawn Academy and Southern Monsoon Academy as well as the teachers in charge of them began to come inside the field. He could see with a single glance that the golden-haired boy was definitely not among the five from Southern Monsoon Academy.
"So they weren’t the student team for Southern Monsoon?"
"Then who the hell are they?!"
Moss stared blankly at Southern Monsoon’s team. Other than the golden-haired boy, he didn’t have much an impression of the other four, but he was certain right now the five from Southern Monsoon Academy were different from the five he met beforehand.
…
"Its the Amazing Girl!"
At the other end of the stands, Ayrin immediately shouted with excitement when he saw Chris among the representatives for Holy Dawn Academy.
Chris had her air bunched up today. She looked especially spirited.
Belo muttered, "What are you yelling for." His gaze full of evil intent lock onto tightly on the team of five from Southern Monsoon Academy.
"Hmm?" Very quickly, he made a strange sound.
Ayrin immediately asked, "What?"
"There’s a new guy who joined their team, looks very dangerous," Belo solemnly said.
"Which one? You know the rest of them?" Ayrin stared blankly. Everyone in the Southern Monsoon team was a boy. One of them had an especially tall figure, looking close to two meter tall, with very short hair. He didn’t wear Southern Monsoon’s outer uniform like the others, but only a yellow tank top. Thick body hair grew on his exposed skin, looking as hard as steel needles.
Among the four others, one was short fatty with a very bloated figure. He looked like a ball seen from afar. It even looked like he was chewing something in his mouth. There was small and thin person with hair of a peculiar green color. Another one had his collar pulled up, his hands shrunken inside his sleeves, his head always lowered, his pale white hair tied in a braid. There was also one with pale yellow hair, his build and facial features both very ordinary.
"I watched the Southern Monsoon team’s matches before." Belo rubbed his chin, looking as if plotting something. "That very tall guy who looks especially fierce is their team captain, Ferdinand. That fatball is Apia, the white-haired kid shrinking inside his clothes is from Clan Ryswell, the pale yellow hair kid seems to be called Crewe. That green-haired kid came out from thin air."
"What’s special about Clan Ryswell?"Ayrin looked at Belo with some resentment, "You still haven’t told me what the rules of the competition are like."
"Clan Ryswell is a clan with hybrid mutated blood."
"Hybrid mutated blood?"
"Their bloodline is especially mixed. The successive generations of the clan have a history of intermarriage with elves, giants, and beastmen bloodlines. They have a little bit of every bloodline, that’s why you can’t even tell what’s their real bloodline nowadays. The only thing that’s certain is that people from their clan have move especially nimbly, and also, their clan have secret skills exclusive to those with their clan’s blood."
Belo’s sight locked on tight on that seemingly low-key green-haired shorty, while he carried on with his explanation to Ayrin, "Now you can see the teams from both sides, both sides have five people, the rules are very simple. Both sides each send out one person, the winner can stay on the field and continue fighting. The game ends when the five on one side are all defeated."
"One versus one duel, when you win you can even keep fighting on?"
"Right, that’s why usually even if you can’t win you still have to struggle to the utmost, so you can consume the other side’s strength and create an opportunity for the teammate coming after you." Belo nodded. "That’s why many matches stop only when one side collapses entirely, unable to stand back up."
"It’s teacher Carter!" Ayrin suddenly saw a familiar face.
"He’s actually the teacher in charge of our Holy Dawn team?"
"Don’t look down on him." Belo glanced at Carter who was in the middle of saying something to the Holy Dawn five. He said with a snort, "They call him a nice teacher, but he’s also an elite teacher of the academy. They say he’s the one with the best control over "arcane particles" among all the teachers in the school. I didn’t think he’d be the one in charge of the competition this time, this is getting interesting."
"Teacher Carter is so strong?" Remembering he said right to teacher Carter’s face that he was surely not as strong as teacher Minlur, Ayrin couldn’t help but sweat a bit.
Belo lifted his head and looked at the stands occupied by the Southern Monsoon people. He ground his teeth and said, "This bunch is as annoying as crows."
Students from Holy Dawn Academy still outnumbered those from Southern Monsoon Academy in this arena, but their momentum had already been entirely overwhelmed by the noisy students from Southern Monsoon.
At this moment, Ayrin’s sight was also attracted to that green-haired shorty from Southern Monsoon.
Although this shorty seemed very low-key and stood there without saying much, the other four still seemed to gravitate around him and always say something to to him. As to the teacher in charge of the Southern Monsoon team, a middle-aged man with a seemingly very gloomy square face, the first one he spoke to was also the green-haired shorty.
Soon after, that shorty left his teammates and walked alone toward the center of the field.
"He’s the first contestant to come out for Southern Monsoon Academy?"
Ayrin only realized this when the stands occupied by the Southern Monsoon students erupted in even louder cheers and encouragements. The match was about to formally begin, and the first contestant representing Southern Monsoon Academy was precisely that newcomer Belo had never seen before.
On Holy Dawn Academy’s side, a tall male student stepped out.
This student had a very ordinary face, but his stature attracted almost everyone’s attention. He couldn’t be said to be sturdy, but the feeling he gave off was that of a body without an ounce of excess fat, the feeling that every line of his muscles was filled with strange explosiveness.
"The first one is Gerrin." Belo’s glasses seemed to once again flash with cold light.
"Holy Dawn Academy versus Southern Monsoon Academy, first round, Gerrin against Zola."
Before Ayrin could say anything, a teacher acting as referee loudly proclaimed the start of the match.
The atmosphere became suddenly solemn.
"It’s indeed Gerrin, looks like Holy Dawn Academy wants to take the first round and get momentum going." Five persons whispering among themselves in an unremarkable corner of the stands, without the slightest trace of nervousness.
Those five persons were precisely the team of five that had scared Moss witless!
"They’re all the same old faces as last time. Gerrin is the strongest one in the Holy Dawn team apart from Chris. The one called Zola from Southern Monsoon Academy looks very dangerous though." Sitting in this unremarkable corner, his hair slightly red, the tall boy called Hansen frowned. "Stingham, what do you think?"
"Ah?"
The boy was looking at a small mirror, in the middle of brushing his golden hair. He casually said, "That one from Southern Monsoon? He’s nothing, he can’t beat me."
"You!" Hansen and the others had faces immediately filled with black lines. "Can’t you take it seriously! I asked you how he compares to Gerrin, not to you!"
The golden boy called Stingham grudgingly put the mirror away and cast a glance at the center of the field. His eyes had somehow become an astonishing green, as if they were extremely pure green gems. "The levels of their arcane particles seem about the same. It doesn’t matter whether I watch or not though, there’s absolutely no way they can beat my brilliantly handsome self, haha!"
"…"
…
On the field covered with remembrances of past fighting, inside an arena filling Ayrin with a peculiar feeling, Gerrin and Zola stood face to face.
Gerrin was the oldest one in Holy Dawn Academy’s team, also the one who’d participated in the most matches, the team member with the greatest experience.
Facing this mysterious team member from Southern Monsoonn, one who’d never made an official appearance, the omen of danger suddenly rose in his heart.
"I’m very happy to fight with you."
This match had already begun, but Zola actually said a few very polite words to Gerrin first.
"I’m also very happy to fight with you," Gerrin answered with equal courtesy.
"Go go Gerrin!"
"Gerrin, you have to win!"
Holy Dawn Academy had had very disappointing results in the past few years, but of course the vast majority of Holy Dawn students present in the arena hoped Gerrin could take this one. That was why the stands still erupted with clamorous cheers when they heard Gerrin’s voice.
Amidst such cheers, the seemingly very polite, very low-key Zola faced Gerrin and said, "I’m starting."
"Ok." Gerrin nodded.
Hiss! A sudden piercing sound.
Zola stood where he was, seemingly not having moved at all. In front of him, Gerrin actually toppled backwards all of a sudden, one hand bracing on the ground, bright magenta arcane particles glittering on that hand. His body tumbled backward with alarming speed.
The stands burst into an uproar.
"What happened?"
Gerrin’s figure settled down after toppling ten meters backward. Ayrin saw a cut appear on Gerrin’s face, fresh blood flowing out continuously from the wound.
Ayrin remembered seeing the vague flash of a blade just now, and couldn’t restrain his loud shout, "Cheating! He used a hidden weapon!"
"Don’t shout randomly and embarrass yourself." Belo pushed his glasses, his eyes staring tight at Zola’s hands. "It was a wind blade, this is a skill using arcane particles."
"Wind blade? He’s wounded, the blood won’t stop flowing, hurry up and staunch the bleeding!"
"Idiot, no one will heal him." Belo looked at Ayrin with contempt. "It’s precisely because you have to keep fighting even if wounded… It’s precisely because you’ll be wounded in such matches, and even pay with your life in serious cases, that many talents dare not participate in the competition, that such a competition is called the Cup of Academy Braves. This is a competition that only braves can participate in."
Ayrin was stunned. "Pay the price with your life… Won’t teachers stop the match?"
Belo let out a cold snort. "The teachers can’t stop it in time every single time. There are some guys so strong even teachers are shocked, and there are also some people who, in order to obtain victory, will use some arcane skills that bring great harm to themselves. If you’re afraid of injuries, if you don’t have the courage to throw caution to the wind, there’s simply no way you can become a powerful battlemaster."
…
"It was a Shapeless Spinning Sword, it’s been a long time since someone from Southern Monsoon last learned this secret skill. I never imagined you actually grasped it." Fresh blood fell down from Gerrin’s face drip by drip; his expression became increasingly solemn.
"That’s right, this is indeed our Southern Monsoon Academy’s Shapeless Sword." Zola nodded, but he didn’t say anything further.
Gerrin lowered his waist, suddenly pushed explosively on his legs.
Magenta particles billowed ragingly on his feet. His body immediately became a series of blurs that were simply impossible to distinguish clearly.
At the same time, bright magenta particles suddenly gushed from Zola’s feet. He’d kept still until now, but now his body likewise became a series of blurs.
His speed seemed at first glance even a little faster than Gerrin’s. Gerrin frantically pursued behind, but he simply couldn’t reduce the distance between them.
Sss!
Another piercing sound.
Ayrin saw it clearly this time. Zola’s right palm seemed to catch fire in an instant even while he dashed forward, many magenta particles wrapping around it. It was only an instant, then these particles compressed inside his palm and disappeared, and a thin, almost transparent blade spun in his hand then flew out, chopping toward Gerrin’s figure in close pursuit behind!
"Boom!"
Gerrin’s fist punched out, his right arm crackling with eye-dazzling lightning bolts. The slender blade broke to pieces with a single strike.
Blades almost indiscernible flew out nonstop from Zola’s hands, slashing their ways toward Gerrin.
Gerrin’s threw out his punches nonstop with astounding frequency, the blurs of his fist forming a lightning shield in front of him.
Raging gusts spilled to the four sides. Each and every blade that came his way was broken.
"This is Thunder Crushing Punch."
"Gerrin actually managed to train this skill to such a level."
"He can’t go on like this. The Thunder Crushing Fist definitely consumes many more arcane particles compared to his opponent, and senior Gerrin can’t reduce the distance between them. He’ll end up dead from attrition if he goes on like this!"
Comments and surprised cries came to Ayrin’s ears one after another.
He could see that Gerrin’s and Zola’s blurs dashed all over the field, maintaining a certain distance between them all along, hence he turn around and asked Belo, "What can we do? Can we find a way to warn Gerrin?"
"What could we possibly do?" Belo said in derision, "Do you think what they say makes sense? That green-hair kid learned a powerful secret skill from Southern Monsoon Academy, but I can’t believe Gerrin’s only at this level, I won’t believe he’ll lose so easily to that kid."
Almost at the same moment Belo said these words, Gerrin suddenly shouted deeply, "You fell for it!"
His quiet shout contained unspeakable steadfastness as it rang out. His feet trampled ferociously on the ground at the same time.
Two yellow streams of energy fiercely broke into the ground like two pythons.
The ground at Zola’s feet suddenly swelled up, cracking and splitting. His figure that was forging forward like a demon suddenly staggered.
At this instant, Gerrin leaped up like a bullet.
The power of all the arcane particles he was able to call upon had clearly been gathered on that trample right now.
The lightning around his hands had vanished. Two spinning blades sliced past his body, slashing open two wounds on his chest and rib cage. His body seemed to stretch taut like a bow in the the middle of the air, and, with a hum, his fist smashed down toward the top of the unsteady Zola’s head.
"What a powerful physical strength!"
Ayrin couldn’t help but utter a cry in surprise. Ayrin could tell he simply had no time to gather any arcane particle with this strike. It relied entirely on his tyrannical physical strength.
"I see now." Belo’s hand pushed his glasses while he mumbled to himself.
In Belo’s opinion, this fight was about to reach its end, Gerrin its inevitable victor.
At this very moment, Zola’s gentle face suddenly turned sinister. He also acted with extreme simplicity, firing a punch like an arrow, ruthlessly striking at Gerrin.
"Pa!" An ear-splitting sound of flesh hitting flesh.
The two fists collided firmly together. This sound gave all the spectators a very unpleasant feeling.
Gerrin’s face suddenly stiffened.
His arm had gone entirely numb!
He felt as if his entire body had been hit by a raging bull. He had no way to resist.
"Bang!"
Another fist appeared in front of him, striking his chest.
His body flew backward straight away.
The whole arena became deathly still.
Ayrin stared in stunned silence. Belo was also petrified. His hand fell on his glasses out of habit, but he stood immobile, frozen.
Gerrin fell heavily on the ground, and the hearts of all the Holy Dawn Academy students present in the arena also seemed to fall and shatter with him. Many people leaped up from their seats.
Some female Holy Dawn students even cried out, their voices filled with tears, "How could that be?"
One person suffered such heavy damage, while the opponent didn’t sustain the slightest trace of harm at all. Everyone was certain this fight was already over.
Gerrin was still trying to prop himself up after his heavy fall, but Zola appeared behind him the very next moment.
"Sorry."
Zola told Gerrin such a thing, then, Bang! His fist landed heavily on Gerrin’s back without the slightest hesitation.
Gerrin once again flew out. Dropped heavily.
"He actually lost."
Belo’s hand finally pushed his glasses. "His physical strength surprisingly exceeds Gerrin’s. It looks like this kid has some beastman blood as well."
"Lost?"
Ayrin’s mind was a little blank while he watched Gerrin on the ground, unable to rise any longer. "Beastman blood?"
"Gerrin has some giant blood. Moreover, Gerrin isn’t a trash like Hawthorne, he hasn’t been wasting his time in Holy Dawn Academy." Belo’s eyes locked tight onto Zola below, his eyes flashing with cold light. "This guy’s strength and speed are both so good, and the harmony between arcane particles and the circulation of arcane power’s pretty good too. He must have beastman blood in part, rather than barbarian blood."
"Boom!"
A teacher acting as a referee had already announced Zola’s victory by now, and a team came into the field to carry Gerrin off. The stands occupied by the Southern Monsoon students suddenly erupted like a boiler. "Zola! Zola! Zola!" Earth-shaking cheers and drums followed each other, battering the entire venue like tsunami waves, battering the Holy Dawn students until most of them turned pallid.
"No wonder Southern Monsoon Academy is so overbearing this year and looks so ambitious, it turns out they were hiding such a secret weapon." Belo looked at that part of the stands and said, a little blandly, "I thought we could go past the preliminaries at the very least, I didn’t expect them to trounce us, it’s really too uninteresting."
Ayrin looked blankly at the heavily wounded Gerrin being carried out the field. He said subconsciously, "It’s just one fight, we still have four persons left, why are you saying Southern Monsoon beat us already?"
"Apart from Chris, there’s no one who’s a match for Zola, but Southern Monsoon still has Ferdinand and that white-haired kid from clan Ryswell." Belo squeezed his fingers and said, "Originally, Gerrin should have been able to take out one of the two, or at least exhaust one of them almost entirely. Then Chris could have had the opportunity to wreck all of them, but now that’s impossible."
Ayrin looked at Chris down in the field and said, very much not admitting defeat, "Maybe it’s still possible."
"Things don’t become possible just because you say they are." Belo snorted coldly. "I’ll eat my seat if it really happens."
Ayrin’s seethed in anger, but then he suddenly felt something was wrong. "Belo, earlier you said Zola had beastman blood as well, what does that ‘as well’ mean?"
"I just said a couple words too many alright? You just carefully watch the game." Belo waved his hand off, not even sparing Ayrin a glance.
Ayrin had no choice but to turn his sight back to the center of the field. At this moment the second contestant for Holy Dawn Academy was already coming up.
The second team member to appear on stage for Holy Dawn Academy was Ender, a thin and tall male student with short brown hair.
"This guy’s Blazing Lotus used to be many times stronger than Hawthorne’s, but now he looks so pale already. If a guy like this can block one move from Zola, I’ll eat your seat too." Belo took a single glance at Ender’s expression before coming up with his contemptuous words.
"How can you snub someone from your own academy," Ayrin shouted worriedly, as soon as he heard. "Come on senior Ender, make Belo eat a seat!"
Ayrin’s yell was very loud, but Ender didn’t hear him at all in the center of the field.
Facing him, Zola was much shorter than himself, but seemed to have transformed into a giant monster in his eyes. During the short walk from the edge of the field to the center, his top was already drenched in sweat.
Zola suddenly opened his mouth and told Ender, "I’m sorry."
"What?!"
The scene in front of Ender’s eyes seemed to blur as soon as his voice fell. Zola’s figure vanished from his sight, and at the same time, a punch already drilled its way out from his left, together with the sound of whistling wind.
Back when he was watching the duel between Zola and Gerrin on the sidelines, Ender could still barely see their every movements, but now that he was faced Zola himself, Ender discovered, his body chilled from head to toe, that he couldn’t distinguish Zola’s motions!
"Blazing Lotus!"
He could simply no longer think of any other way. He kicked, the arcane particles inside his body gushing out madly from the bottom of his foot. The arcane power merged and condensed there shaped itself into a fire lotus flower burning ablaze at the bottom of his foot.
A resounding "bang!" shook the arena.
Ender only felt an acute burst of pain at the bottom of his foot.
"Ah!"
He cried in pain. A foot ruthlessly kicked his belly before he could react.
"Boom!"
There came a sound that made the scalp tingle, like the pounding of a heavy drum.
"Ah…"
An even more heart-wrenching cry came from Ender. His entire person flew out backwards, then he still rolled and rolled on the ground even after landing.
"What happened?"
Ayrin’s cheers suddenly cut off short, shock filling his face.
He only saw Ender’s Blazing Lotus seemingly about to drown Zola in flames, but it suddenly collapsed, then Zola sent Ender flying out with a kick.
"I bet this kick almost broke his intestines." Belo said, gleeful with someone else’s disaster. He saw Ayrin beside him flushed bright red with anger, then he remembered Liszt. Only then did he spread his hands out of fear for consequences, saying, "Nothing we can do, this is the difference of strength. That guy seems to have attacked with a strong punch, but in fact he shot out Shapeless Spinning Blades. The skills from the two were about equally matched, but the other side was planning to sort him out with physical strength from the beginning. This kick was his real killer move."
"Killer move my ass, I won’t believe he can’t be beaten."
"Well, you do it then." Belo provoked him, fully excited.
"There’s no way for me to go on stage."
"Haha, just jump down and give him a beating."
…
At this time, an Ender lying unconscious on the ground was already being carried out of the field by a medical team. Zola had been keeping a low-profile so far, even after defeating two Holy Dawn team members in a row, but his eyes suddenly flashed with faint red light, leaking out a blood-thirsty glint.
"Hmm?"
Belo suddenly made a soft sound in surprise.
At this time, the third contestant for Holy Dawn Academy was already going on stage. This was a boy called Skol. He immediately dashed towards the edge of the field as soon as the fight officially began.
"Not fighting his opponent face to face, only making him spend his stamina and arcane reserves, that’s actually a pretty good tactic." Belo mumbled to himself, "I just don’t know how useful it’ll turn out to be."
"Not fighting, only running?" Ayrin saw Zola’s figure immediately become a series of blur as he chased behind, but purple arcane particles shone bright under the feet of this third Holy Dawn contestant, constantly spraying gusts of energy, pushing his body nonstop in ever-changing directions. Zola seemed unable to catch up to him even if his speed seemed higher.
"Little coward, you only know how to run!"
"People from Holy Dawn Academy don’t even dare fight face to face? Only running and not fighting, Zola might as well stop chasing after him and save up his strength."
"That’s right, everyone might as well stand there immobile and fight a war of attrition until the end of time!"
Rowdy curses and insults immediately rose from the stands occupied by Southern Monsoon Academy.
Zola’s figure suddenly halted.
The moment he stopped, his hands ferociously stuck inside the soil under his feet.
Everyone stared blankly, having no idea what he was trying to do, but at this very moment, two pieces of hard clay whistled through the air, pounding towards Skol.
Skol twisted his body, dodging the two exceptionally hard pieces of clay Zola had grabbed, but just then "Pa! Pa!" Another two pieces of hard clay smashed his body.
"Ah!"
He cried in pain. His body staggered.
Zola was at this moment crouched on the ground like a wild beast, his arms and legs pounding together on the ground, approaching him at terrifying speed.
Every time Zola’s hands landed on the ground, two pieces of hard clay would fly out and smash their way toward Skol with incomparable accuracy.
"So accurate!"
"This guy actually even had such a skill!"
Many Holy Dawn students felt their scalps go numb when they saw.
Anyone could use arcane power to send the soil flying, but the key thing was that Zola could stay so precise even while sprinting at top speed on his four limbs. This was certainly the result of long and arduous training!
"This kid, he looks just like a wild dog running like this." Belo became impetuous again when he saw this scene. He ground his teeth: "I really want to give him a bite."
"You say he looks like a dog, but now you want to bite him, what does that make you?"
Ayrin wanted to laugh, but no laughter would come out.
Skol couldn’t maintain his previous speed any longer after being hit by a deluge of hard clay. Zola rushed in front of him, under Ayrin’s helpless eyes.
"Bang!" A punch hit Skol’s belly. He flew up.
Zola’s figure sprang up even as Skol screamed miserably. A foot kicked down and landed once more on his chest.
Skol pounded the ground heavily, just like a rock.
Many Holy Dawn Academy students were sweating cold sweat all over, up there in the stands.
They might have accepted this three – nil result a little better if he’d been hit to the ground after a struggle where both went back and forth, but other than Gerrin at the beginning, the rest had been suppressed so hard they couldn’t even use the skills they usually practiced in. They’d looked just like freshmen who didn’t know any technique.
How could they still fight such a match?
"The outcome’s decided."
At this moment, Southern Monsoon’s captain Ferdinand, the tall boy Belo had described as ferocious-looking, let out a long sigh. He told his teammates around him, "This time around, St. Lauren will be our time in the limelight."
"Just drop it."
Chris had been standing without moving all that while. She shook her head at this time, and said to the only teammate left beside her, "You can’t make him consume all that many arcane particles even if you go, better if I just go myself."
There were still a few fine details Belo hadn’t told Ayrin about yet.
In the hottest thing in the entire kingdom, this Cup of Academy Braves that made countless students go crazy, the order of appearance was decided before the game started and handed to the referee. It couldn’t be changed midway.
Chris was originally meant to be the last one to go out. The teammate listed before her could only throw in the towel if he wanted to abstain.
This way, the score would become four – nil, and she would be the last team member left for Holy Dawn Academy.
The teammate beside her lowered his head. He didn’t express any objection.
He’d already lost his entire confidence after seeing Zola’s previous performances, and he knew Chris spoke the truth. Even if he had the courage to put his life on the line, he still wouldn’t be able to force Zola to digging too deep into his reserves with his current level.
"Forfeit?"
Everyone was waiting for the fourth Holy Dawn Academy contestant to come out, but they saw Chris step up instead. Many people realized what happened, after a moment of surprise. A clamor once again shook through the whole stands.
"Four – nil!"
"There’s only Chris left!"
"Don’t tell me she’ll handle the five on our side just by herself!"
Zola’s three quick and decisive victories in succession had already sent the Southern Monsoon students into a craze of excitement. Now seeing the score directly become four – nil, they became even more frenzied. Some people even yelled at the top of their lungs, "Four – nil already! Clean sweep! Clean sweep!" "Five – nil!"
"Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! …"
Ayrin was so angry he also yelled, desperately shouting his encouragements for Chris when he saw her step forward, but his voice was thoroughly drowned in Southern Monsoon’s cacophony. He thought that the Southern Monsoon students were really too arrogant.
At this moment, Ferdinand, the captain for team Southern Monsoon, gestured toward the stands.
The extraordinarily noisy stands suddenly quieted down.
"Chris, just give up. There’s no way you can defeat all five of us in succession."
Ferdinand cleared his throat as Chris walked to the center of the field, then earnestly told her such a caring sentence.
Then, before anyone could come back to their senses, before Chris could say anything, he suddenly pulled out a red rose from behind his clothes, just like a magic trick. He said to Chris in a loud voice, "Chris, I’ve admired you for a long time already. Whether it’s your beauty or your strength, they both make me infatuated. Transfer to our Southern Monsoon Academy, and come fight at my side!"
"…!"
Countless people in the stands almost fell down face first.
"Is this guy a moron?" Ayrin stared dumbstruck at Ferdinand’s face filled with deep love. The thing that made him most speechless was, Ferdinand even posed and showed off his muscles at his time, flexed his pecs a couple times.
Belo offered this pertinent evaluation: "He’s about at the same level as you."
"…" Chris never thought Ferdinand would say such a thing. She was thoroughly speechless.
"It’s forbidden to declare your flame in public once the competition is underway, otherwise your right to participation will be revoked." A referee appeared in front of Ferdinand.
"Ah? There’s even a rule for this?" Ferdinand was very depressed.
Chris threw a ferocious stare at Ferdinand, walked in front of Zola, made a beckoning gesture with her hand. "Come."
Her action was very casual, but Zola felt an inexplicable pressure.
The whole stands quieted down once again, because even people from Southern Monsoon academy knew very clearly in their inner selves that the Amazingly Crazy Girl’s reputation wasn’t for show. In a one versus one, Ferdinand and the others probably weren’t her match.
Zola nodded. He didn’t make a sound.
His body suddenly leaned down, his hands pressing on the ground. It seemed he was about to grab hard clay like earlier and send them flying at Chris, then use his four-limbed run to approach her.
But the moment his hands were about to touch the ground, they became enveloped in dazzling purple arcane particles. Two transparent spinning blades suddenly fired out, piercing toward Chris from both the left and the right.
"So treacherous!" Ayrin couldn’t help but shout out.
Many Holy Dawn students couldn’t help utter a cry of alarm either, up in the stands.
Chris made a strange movement at this time.
She merely turned around, stood still, pulling herself as if she were a door. From her posture facing Zola, she became a line facing Zola from the side.
This movement seemed simple and stiff, but just by happy chance, the two Formless Spinning Blades grazed past her, not touching her body.
"Worthy of the Amazingly Crazy Girl, such a keen judgment," Belo mumbled to himself.
"An opportunity!" Zola silently screamed inside his mind at this moment. His originally faintly red eyes became crimson.
"Rip!" Along with the sound of tearing, his pair of shoes tore open, and his body leaped from the formidable propulsion of his legs. He threw a punch in Chris’ direction.
His body flew in the air, parallel to the ground, painting a weird picture together with Chris who stood with her side facing to him.
"What?"
It seemed Chris had no time to dodge at all. What thoroughly choked the breath of many people was, Chris simply didn’t use any arcane particle. At this juncture, she merely twisted her body, shouted out loud, and likewise threw a punch out.
"Bang!"
An explosive sound!
Two fists firmly clashed against each other.
Zola’s body that was flying like the wind through the air seemed to freeze all of a sudden, stopping in the middle of the air.
Impossible…
Such a though suddenly emerged in his mind.
Suddenly, a fist wrapped in thick bandages appeared below him without the slightest warning, boring towards his face.
He only had time to lower his left arm and block.
Bang!
The punch smashed his arm away, jolting it into numbness.
Another punch came pounding, he blocked again!
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!…
The rapid concussive sounds made everyone’s heartbeat speed up something fierce.
Zola felt as if the fists appeared endlessly in front of him. He could only block them desperately. In the eyes of the spectators in the stands, Chris was so fast she seemed to have grown additional arms. She dashed forward even as she jabbed her fists and battered Zola with them. Zola’s body twisted into weird postures in the middle of the air, dropping downward.
"Chris’ physical strength is actually even higher than Zola’s?"
"Wasn’t she from an ordinary human bloodline, did she actually train her physical strength to such a tyrannical degree?"
Collective intakes of breath rang in waves inside the stands.
Everyone could see that Chris wasn’t using arcane particles at all. She was purely relying on her physical strength to attack.
Zola had been thinking of overwhelming her with physical strength. He didn’t expect her to strike back at him instead, to punch him so fast he didn’t even have the time to mobilize the arcane particles inside him.
"Boom!"
Just when Zola landed on the ground in an extremely awkward pose, simply unable to gain a firm footing, Chris sent her foot flying and struck Zola’s stomach.
Zola shot out backward like a cannonball.
Chris’s figure was even faster than him however. She jumped once more and pounded her feet on his chest.
Zola’s body flew out a full dozen meters before finally dropping fiercely on the ground in a heavy crash.
Chris stopped steadily, stood there.
In an instant, her charming, delicate figure became incomparably domineering!
"She became even stronger. I like!" Captain Ferdinand stared blankly at her, mumbling to himself. His voice was very loud.
A few black lines appeared on Chris’ forehead. "Who’s next!" she said, fuming with a little anger between gritted teeth.
"You think you can beat me just like this!" A voice rang from her side at this moment.
"You… you underestimate me…"
He’d been laying without moving a single finger after his heavy crash, but then he’d managed to slowly stand up at some point. His wiped the blood off his mouth, his body bent.
"Is this guy even human! He can stand up even after this?"
"Can he still fight?"
The stands went into an uproar. Even the team of medical arcane masters had entered into the field already. They also froze all of a sudden when they saw Zola stand up again.
A little stupefaction flashed in Chris’ eyes that brimmed with a desire for battle.
"You think this is all I can do?"
Zola slowly lifted his head. His eyes were blood-red.
His body once again trailed into a bewildering blur, charging toward Chris.
Chris stood there quietly.
For her, the opponent was the entire Southern Monsoon team, not only Zola, even if his strength had already far exceeded her expectations.
The stronger Zola was, the more careful she needed to be. She had to preserve her stamina and the arcane particle reserve inside her body as much as possible.
"Swoosh!"
Zola’s figure accelerated all of a sudden, circling behind her. A punch thrust in her direction.
Chris’ body suddenly disappeared. Reappeared on Zola’s right.
Resplendent and eye-dazzling purple arcane particles gushed out of her right arm. The sparkling particles dotted closely together seemed be catch fire, transforming into a bright red python of flames twining around her arm.
"Wild Blazing Python!" someone cried out in surprise.
Zola seemed about to be swallowed by a fire python, but at this moment, countless black particles suddenly flew out from the shadows at his feet.
Zola’s body shot out at frightening speed, like a bullet, jumping over a dozen meters in the air.
Meanwhile, those black particles pounded Chris’ body. Countless tiny drops of blood sprinkled out from her, along with a stuffy groan.
"Shadow Dust!"
Belo stood up abruptly, his expression suddenly turning gloomy and unsightly.
"Chris is wounded?"
Ayrin also bounced up from his seat all of a suddenly. He grabbed Belo, and shouted his question. "What’s Shadow Dust!"
"A secret skill from Southern Monsoon Academy very few people are able to learn." Belo’s glasses seemed to flash continuously with a cold light. "This skill can allow you to hide your own power in advance inside your shadow. In other words, even after he uses the arcane skill, the particles are all black and hide inside the shadows, so it’s very difficult to notice them. It’s even very hard to tell when he even started using it."
