Chapter 21: True bravery

“Shadow Dust, that's the secret skill of lord Black Shadow from Southern Monsoon Academy. A sinister assassination skill that can be used in advance, whose arcane power can be hidden inside the shadows for a very long time.”

“I actually looked down on that Southern Monsoon guy. He grasped not only Formless Spinning Blade, but also Shadow Dust. Now it looks like you guys aren't necessarily his match, captain Hansen. My handsome and wargod-like self is still stronger though. I'd see through even Shadow Dust, he can't beat me.”

“What should I do now, I was hoping to fight against Amazing Girl Chris. I like beautiful girls, I don't like this green-haired beast kid or that blockhead with the yellow tank top and exposed muscles...”

In an unremarkable corner of the stands, the golden-haired Stingham chattered on, very surprised. He totally didn't notice the four pairs of eyes beside him, filled with biting cold murderous aura.

Somewhere else in the stands, Ayrin had caught Belo's hand and was asking nonstop, “How's the power of this skill, is Chris heavily wounded?”

“The power's much lower than Chris' Wild Blazing Python, but every granule stabbing the body is still comparable to a steel needle piercing inside. Chris' injury's probably about the same as taking five or six punches from Zola,” Belo said very casually, as if he didn't care.

“What!”

Ayrin sighed in relief when he heard the first part of Belo's answer, but hearing the latter part, he almost spat out a mouthful of blood.

Ferdinand shouted at this time, “Chris, just give up, even if you can beat him, there's still the rest of us. You can't possibly win.”

“Bastard! Are they allowed to kick up a fuss and harass her, why isn't the referee doing anything!” Ayrin shouted loudly, depressed.

“You're the one kicking up a fuss right now.” Belo threw him a scornful glance. “Arcane masters ought not to care about the commotion of the outside world to begin with. If they have to interfere even in something like this, wouldn't the spectators in the stands also have to stay silent?”

“...”

…

“True bravery is to keep plowing on, to keep fighting, even if your whole body trembles in pain.”

Chris' voice suddenly came inside this chaos, her blue school uniform tainted by quite a few bloodstains. Her body trembled slightly, but she still lifted her head, grave and solemn.

The entire Holy Dawn Arena quieted, all of a sudden.

Above her in the sky, Zola was dropping downward.

“Sky Hammer!”

With Zola's muffled yet feverish chant, arcane particles and white streams of air gathered increasingly faster around his feet. His entire body seemed to become a giant hammer slamming its way down toward the top of Chris' head.

Yet, at the same moment, many people saw Chris suddenly vanish.

“Hiss...” A collective intake of cold air.

Everyone saw, along with the rise of a sudden tornado, Chris appear in the air on top of Zola.

Zola's blood-red eyes shrank all of a sudden.

“Pa!”

Chris' foot chopped madly down like a battle axe, crushing past his blocking arms and ferociously hacking his chest.

Zola heard the sound of his arm bones cracking.

An intense, heart-wrenching pain rushed into his mind.

“Ah!”

Even as he howled out loud however, he actually fired his intact fist at Chris' body.

This punch of his struck the air.

Chris' body twisted and turned in midair, dodging his punch. A kick once again ruthlessly stamped down on his body.

“Ah!”

Zola's body snapped back. His feet whirled up, kicking and kicking toward Chris.

But everyone saw Chris' body sway again and again in the air, turning and twisting. Zola's attacks all struck empty air one by one.

“Pa!” “Pa!” Pa!”

Explosive sounds rang in succession, all of them the sound of Chris' fist and feet landing on Zola!

Zola's body fell heavily on the ground.

Christ landed amidst the howling wind waves, her two hands resting on the ground, fiercely grasping for air.

The place she'd landed was only a short half-meter away from Zola, but Zola was already passed out when he crashed on the ground. He could no longer lift a single finger.

Ayrin's heart sank along with Chris' landing. But looking at the fighting spirit still brimming on Chris' face, an unspeakable flame ignited inside his chest.

…

The medical team that was already waiting to the side hurriedly came into the field. They lifted an unconscious Zola on the stretcher and carried him out.

Chris stood up, still panting. She faced the remaining four people from the Southern Monsoon team. “Who's next?”

The fatball Apia took a deep breath. He faced Ferdinand and Riley, the one Belo called the kid from clan Ryswell, and said, “We'll follow the original plan.” Then he slowly made his way toward Chris.

“Chris versus Apia, begin!”

Apia was walking towards the center of the field, but as soon as the voice of the referee fell, he immediately retreated, fleeing towards the edges of the field.

“Really shameless and despicable!”

Ayrin's shouted gloomily. He didn't need to ask Belo this time, he could already tell Apia only wanted to run and make Chris spend her stamina and arcane particles.

But what exceeded everyone's expectation was, Chris didn't pursue him.

She merely rested her hands on her knees, gasped a few rough mouthfuls of air.

Then she stretched her right hand out.

Dazzling magenta arcane particle emerged from her five fingers. Shining bright blue rays of light spread out from the front of her hand.

“Holy Dawn Healing!”

“She even learned secret medical skills?”

Ferdinand's and Riley's expressions made a sudden turn as soon as they saw the tip of her fingers suffused with light blue rays of light. They both yelled at the same time, “Apia, hurry up and stop her! You can't let her heal herself!”

Apia also understood very clearly that if he were to let Chris recover from her injuries, she would cause him a huge amount of trouble with her physical strength alone. Just earlier, Chris' movements in the air when she was hitting Zola seemed as easy and casual as if she were standing on flat ground. This made them clearly realize that Chris had gone through who knew how much abnormal training since the last time, and now the control she exerted over the strength of each and every muscle had simply reached the pinnacle.

“Sandstorm Burst!”

He was so fat he didn't look all that different from a ball, but Apia burst out with an agility entirely belying his figure. He reached Chris in only a few bounces. Countless arcane particles gushed out of his hands the moment his last bounce landed, instantly transforming into frightening, raging winds that rolled up gravel and sand from the ground, rushing in Chris' direction.

“Blue-Eyed Backlash!”

The sand and gravel had acquired an extremely astonishing penetrating strength inside the raging winds. They seemed about to hit Chris, but what exceeded everyone's expectations was, a gigantic blue eye suddenly appeared in front of her.

“Puff Puff Puff Puff!...”

All the sand ricocheted back and struck Apia's body instead.

“Ah!”

Apia yelled miserably, countless bloodstains blooming on his clothes. The sandstorm rolled his fat body up and flung him flying.

“What, it's not Holy Dawn Healing!”

“We've been duped!”

Almost all the students from Southern Monsoon Academy shouted out in alarm.

“Ah! Ah! Ah!” Ayrin originally didn't have the heart to watch anymore, but now he was overjoyed at the turn of the events. He pulled Belo's arm and kept exclaiming in excitement, “Belo, what's this secret skill?”

“Our Holy Dawn Academy's Blue-Eyed Backlash. It can only bounce back powers from arcane masters weaker than yourself, it's not too useful usually,” Belo said, as if he disdained to do so, but he actually humphed coldly in his mind in defiance. “She's indeed Holy Dawn Academy's ace, her fighting experience isn't something an average Joe can measure up to.”

Chris' actions didn't stop after mangling Apia with one move and sending him flying out. She followed almost right behind the sandstorm, chasing after Apia's figure.

Seeing her fist about to land on himself, realizing his resistance couldn't play any role any longer, Apia shouted miserably, “I surrender!”

“This is truly a spectacular win.”

“In the current era, arcane masters possessing the inheritance of various bloodlines seem to be especially blessed by the starry skies and stand more easily above the crowd, but oftentimes only those who train painstakingly hard and continuously surpass their limits can become genuinely powerful arcane masters. Liszt, seeing such a student in our Holy Dawn Academy, don't you feel extremely gratified?”

No one had realized that, on the highest dome of this arena, stood a row of Holy Dawn Academy teachers.

This row was entirely composed of Holy Dawn elites!

Ciaran's voice closely followed Apia's miserable shout conceding defeat. Liszt was for once devoid of his lazy appearance. He didn't answer Ciaran's words, he only said, calm and cool-headed, “I've now more or less understood the plan of these little guys from Southern Monsoon Academy. Too bad, these little Southern Monsoon guys are indeed pretty good, there's still not much hope for her to achieve the final victory.”

…

“I know now Southern Monsoon Academy's plan.”

Seeing Apia being carried away, and Riley from clan Ryswell being the next to step up instead of Ferdinand or Crewe, Belo immediately said these cold words with a frown.

Ayrin asked at once, “What plan?”

“This white-hair kid from clan Ryswell is said to be about equal with Ferdinand, but he's got more unique arcane skills. When it comes to a real fight he might be even a bit stronger than Ferdinand. Now, since he's the one to go up instead of Crewe who's much weaker than him, they must be trying to more or less deplete Chris' entire strength in this fight.” Belo threw Ayrin a glance and said, “Even if Chris manages to go through this fight, she'll be in a very poor condition, and then even Crew will become a threat to her despite his strength being a bit worse. That way, even if she flukes her way to the last fight, it'll be a piece of cake for Ferdinand.”

“No way, we have to think of a way to help her!” Ayrin became even more anxious as soon as he heard.

“I thought of a good way. Later, if that white-hair kid from clan Ryswell comes around here, you can pretend a careless fall from the stands. Then you can let him have it.” Belo became immediately excited and tried to instigate him, full of malicious intent.