"Brook against Ayrin!"
The referee spoke again, and only then did the Holy Dawn Academy students slowly start recovering from their numbness and dizziness, only then did they start believing that something huge happened inside this Dragon-Battling Arena.
"Team Divine Shield is a team that qualifies for the national tournament year in and year out, but we’re actually on the verge of beating them!"
"Ayrin already beat Charlotte and Ivan back to back, if he wins against the next two Divine Shield team members, then a legend will truly be born in the Dragon-Battling Arena!"
"Go Ayrin! Beat them!"
The national tournament was something far out of their reaches, something far beyond their school, but now it suddenly became so real. Even the usually most reserved Holy Dawn students felt their hot blood ignite completely.
Brook, the fourth contestant representing Divine Shield Academy, had an utterly unsightly expression amidst the cheers and the singing engulfing everything in the entire venue.
"No matter how strong he is, no matter how much strength he hides, he’s at most a low-level arcane master with one open arcane gate. He can’t have many arcane particles left inside him after spending so many arcane particles to invoke arcane skills like Evil Flaming Eye and Crown of Ice and Snow!"
Brooke was already keenly aware that the final victory in this match was already out of grasp for Divine Shield Academy. The only thought left in his mind was to defeat Ayrin.
Only by defeating Ayrin would their defeat be a little less humiliating, only then will some heavyweights in the stands take a fancy to him!
"Brook, his most powerful arcane skill is ‘Iron Skin,’ it belongs to the outstanding resistance and strength type."
Ayrin carefully thought back to Carter’s briefing in their pre-match meeting. He sized up this opponent with brown hair and half a head taller than him.
"I don’t have enough arcane particles left to sustain even Evil Flaming Eye. It seems I absolutely have to accumulate as many arcane particles as possible in this fight if I want to defeat the next opponent."
Ayrin took a deep breath in. He basked in the blood-boiling feeling and the atmosphere of victory, and once again roared out loud!
"Bring it! Brave Warrior!"
"I will beat you today even if I have to stake my life away!" Ayrin’s single-minded focus on fighting stimulated Brook’s bravery. His eyes turned blood-red!
"Die!"
He clenched his teeth the instant the referee declared the start of the fight. Fierce winds rolled up around him. Arcane particles spilled continuously out of his hands and adhered on his skin. His skin started to glitter with a metallic gloss.
"Bang!" "Bang!" "Bang!" "Bang!" …
In the space of a mere breath, his silhouette intertwined with Ayrin’s silhouette, their hands and feet knocking nonstop against each other.
He held the upper hand in speed and strength at once. He launched his attacks like a surging storm and continuously forged forward, while Ayrin kept retreating backward, defending with everything he had.
"Pa!"
Ayrin fell back two hundred meters in succession under the frenzy of his assault, falling back all the way to the edge of the field. His back even pounded fiercely on the black stone wall under the grandstands.
"Die!"
The already berserk Brook roared savagely the instant Ayrin’s back bumped against the wall of volcanic rocks. He bent in a lunge step, his body like a fully-drawn bow, and with a an explosive boom, the recoil from his punch caused Ayrin’s blocking arms to hit his own chest.
It was only a moment ago that Ayrin’s back broke away from the stone wall behind him. Now it once again crashed heavily on the stone wall!
His body stiffened all of a sudden. The sound of a crack came from the black stone wall. Countless minute crevices extended outward, like the weave of a spiderweb with his back as the center.
The strength of this punch completely exceeded Brook’s limits. His own body, under the recoiling effect of this one punch, fell back six or seven steps in succession, before steadying.
The instant he steadied himself, Brook saw Ayrin’s back seemingly embedded into the stone wall, his head hanging down.
"Is it over?"
Brook slightly froze, heaving and panting, such a thought emerging inside his mind.
"Ayrin has been defeated?"
"He’s finally no longer able to go on?"
The entire stands fell deathly quiet at this moment. Even the whole world seemed to still.
"This guy finally lost? Is he dead?" In the stands, Stingham saw Ayrin not moving a single finger, his head hanging down, and suddenly breathed in relief.
But at this time, Ayrin actually raised his head all of a sudden.
"Ah! A ghost!"
Stingham immediately shouted out loud in fright, almost falling down from his seat.
"What!"
Brook believed this fight was already over. Now he directly leaped several steps backward out of fright.
"Now it should be my turn."
Crack crack sounds came in quick succession from Ayrin’s back. Many tiny stones fell from within the crevices in the stone wall. Ayrin walked forward in Brook’s direction, step by step.
Brook subconsciously fell back a step once again.
"This guy, why did he droop his head if he wasn’t dead, why’s he trying to scare me!" Stingham cursed gloomily in his corner of the stands.
"Come then!"
At this time, Ayrin trailed afterimage after afterimage, his explosive punch already reaching Brook.
"Die!"
Facing Ayrin’s meteor punch, Brook also punched without even thinking. It was precisely the scene of punches violently clashing together that almost every spectator in the stands most liked to see.
"What!"
Brook’s blood-red eyes suddenly filled with an incredulous expression. A gigantic strength hit him, and he couldn’t control his body as it fell backward. His entire right arm hurt as if it were torn.
"What happened?"
Everyone in the stands saw that Brook was at first the one suppressing Ayrin, and Ayrin kept falling back, but the situation turned around now, turning into Ayrin raining blows like a fierce squall, while Brook merely resisted as if his life depended on it, falling back nonstop.
"How did it turn out like this?"
In a corner of the stands, several team members of some unknown team were at a complete loss.
"It’s his skill at exploiting his strength and also his alarming endurance."
A handsome young man with black hair, seemingly the most senior among them, explained, "This Ayrin must have gone through a special training, his instant eruptions of strength are really astounding, and the most important thing is that his endurance is too alarming. He gives me the feeling he’ll simply never become tired. There’s no change at all in his strength right now compared to his strength at the beginning of the fight."
This boy breathed in deeply after a slight pause, and added, "Brook’s natural talents are also very good, and he must be putting special emphasis on physical training to begin with with this arcane skill of his, but his strength clearly declined a lot after his stormy outburst earlier. That’s why he’s falling downwind currently instead."
"Carter, where the hell did you find such a monster!"
"Two freshman, I actually lost to two freshmen!"
The one with the most unsightly expression at this time was precisely the teacher leading team Divine Shield, Payton.
He was more clearly aware than almost everyone in the stands that, when facing Ayrin, Brook met a problem in the compatibility of their ways of fighting.
Brook’s good resistance, endurance, and other traits were entirely useless when running into Ayrin.
Because Ayrin seemed to be even more resistant than him, could withstand more pain, had even more endurance.
He originally saw this match as a match between himself and Carter, but now, with a quick comparison in the arrangement of their troops, he clearly suffered a crushing defeat.
"Now Ayrin is going to hit Brook all the way to the wall instead!"
In a mere short amount of time, everyone saw that Brook’s retreat had taken him not far away from the wall behind him.
And what was different from what many people imagined was, with a muffled bang, Ayrin’s punch viciously smashed on Brook’s chest.
The moment he ate this punch, Brook appeared as if he couldn’t even lift his hands anymore.
Three sounds immediately followed this one sound in quick succession.
The instant Brook’s body flew backward, Ayrin smashed him with three more ruthless punches.
His body once again accelerated backwards, then crashed fiercely on the ground and rolled all the way to the edge of the field before finally stopping.
Brook’s head lifted, but the following second, it dropped down again without strength.
"Victory!"
"Another victory!"
The Divine Shield students in the stands had long fallen thoroughly silent, while the Holy Dawn students felt limp and numb all over. This feeling was like a little kid who only had a single candy, then someone led him into a gigantic candy world and pointed at this world, telling him, this world is a gift for you.
"Only one left… I’m really tired…"
Ayrin rested his hands on his knees and panted heavily.
"You’ve gone too far!" a furious female voice said.
Ayrin lifted his head. He saw a girl come his way. She had a very tall stature, an oval face, and a waist that seemed especially slender; her eyes spat fire.
"Bessa against Ayrin!" the referee said at this time.
Only then did Ayrin come back to his senses. He realized this furious girl with a slender waist was the last contestant from team Divine Shield, Bessa.
"What?" Ayrin was baffled. He had no idea where he’d gone too far.
"He obviously lost already, why did you still have to rush up and keep punching him!" This slender girl said with even greater wrath.
"You’re wrong… I could feel that I had to give him several more punches, or else he would still have been able to continue fighting." Ayrin turned his head and looked at the passed out Brook being carried away. "He’ll be fine."
"…" Seeing Ayrin’s innocent appearance, Bessa’s anger suddenly vanished without a trace for some inexplicable reason.
She couldn’t see any deceit within Ayrin’s eyes. They were pure, only the instinct for victory in this match seemingly present there.
"Why on earth do you have to fight so desperately?" For some reason, she couldn’t resist asking this question.
"In order to protect."
Ayrin spoke very naturally.
His tone made this girl of Divine Shield Academy a little moved, her heart banging in her chest.
