Chapter 64: The tournament's burning atmosphere

“He's indeed a monster!”

Early in the morning, inside a forest surrounded by tall stone walls, Carter looked at an excited Ayrin and couldn't help silently mumbling these words to himself.

Ordinary arcane masters would have needed at least a dozen days before recovering from injuries like his, but Ayrin completely recovered in merely two days, looking as good as new.

Without even talking about the other special qualities Ayrin possessed, merely this astonishing recovery ability was enough to scare Carter.

This sealed-off forest located inside the academy's Goddess Park was the secret training ground for Holy Dawn Academy arcane masters. Only teachers and battlemasters from Holy Dawn Academy who passed their exams were allowed to train inside.

After becoming a genuine battlemaster of the kingdom, especially after joining an arcane team and carrying out every kind of mission, the strength and arcane skills of many arcane masters were classified as secrets, hence they needed a secret training ground like this where no one could see them.

Because very few people came here, and because they needed to apply and enter inside at different, prearranged times, this closed-off forest with a radius of a dozen miles seemed extremely primordial.

Ayrin excitedly watched this forest brimming with a primordial atmosphere, then watched teacher Carter standing in front of him, asking in a loud voice, “Teacher Carter, is Belo also training here?”

“Belo isn't training here, he's following another special training program.” Carter shook his head, then his expression became slightly more solemn. “Ayrin, now answer a question of mine. You keep talking about joining the school team, is it because you want to obtain victory after victory, together with team Holy Dawn?”

“Of course!” Ayrin firmly brandished his fist and watched Carter with a very curious expression, uncertain why Carter asked him such a question. “I want to defeat every powerful opponent, and help Chris become champion in the national tournament!”

Carter looked at his burning eyes, nodding. “For the sake of this goal, do you have the courage to stake your life?”

Ayrin's eyes burned even brighter. “Of course. Senior Rogrid and the others all have the courage to stake their lives, of course I'll be the same as them!”

“I can guarantee I'll do everything I can to help you guys obtain victory after victory, but I need you to promise me something.” Carter said solemnly, “I need you to promise you absolute will listen to my orders during training and during matches, can you do that?”

“Really? Teacher, what you mean is, I can go on stage and fight?” Ayrin shouted excitedly, his eyes wide open all of a sudden.

“Of course.” Carter looked at him and solemnly said, “You're going to be a critical figure in whether we can defeat Divine Shield Academy or not, a secret weapon!”

“Secret weapon?” Ayrin blinked in surprise.

“That's right. Because you're not strong enough yet, but you possess some abilities that others don't understand. You can only play a decisive role by exploiting these abilities that others don't understand.” Carter patted his shoulder. “That's the reason why I took you to a place like this to train in secret. What you have to promise first is, before the match with Divine Shield Academy formally starts, you absolutely absolutely can't fight with anyone else again! You absolutely can't expose any ability of yours!”

“I can't fight with anyone else, I have to conceal my genuine strength?”

“Ayrin, you'll come to understand very quickly. It's not just the current tournament, in fact, you'll need to be even more careful about concealing your genuine strength after becoming a real battlemaster. This way, the opponent can't thoroughly understand you, so it'll be more troublesome for them to face you. You have to understand something, in a battle between arcane masters, it's nowhere near a contest of pure power between arcane skills exploding against each other, there are also battle tricks and wisdom involved.

“Outstanding arcane masters are expert in exploiting every kind of method to create a lapse or mistake in the opponent's knowledge and judgment, to the point they're already setting lethal traps for the opponent before the fight even begins.” Carter glanced at the pensive Ayrin and added, “Your superhuman strength, resistance to blows and outstanding momentum have surely spread out already, but your opponents don't know yet you have such a formidable self-healing ability, and they're even less aware that you can absorb someone else's arcane particle and use them to invoke arcane skills!

“That's why these two abilities will be your secret weapons! They're precisely the crucial points that will determine whether we can defeat Divine Shield Academy or not this time!”

“I understand now...” Ayrin's eyes lit up. “Every one of them thinks I can't use arcane skills. When the time comes it'll be very difficult for them to block when I suddenly strike them with one.”

Carter nodded. “Also, the more you progress in this half-month, the less of an understanding the opponent will have about you. They'll also be mistaken in their judgment when it comes to you.”

“I'll do my best!” Ayrin shouted excitedly, but he immediately seemed to think of something, and asked Carter, “Teacher Carter, if I expose every secret of mine in the match against Divine Shield Academy, then won't I have no secret left for the next matches?”

“It's not easy to understand a secret whose reason is very difficult to find.” Carter started to smile. “Also, you have to understand something, every arcane master will gather more and more secrets about themselves the further they progress. As long as you believe in me, I will give you even more secrets in the competition.”

“Teacher Carter, are you going to teach me new arcane skills?”

Ayrin saw that, while they were talking, the dazzling rays of light emitting from arcane particles were already flashing on Carter's body.

“I'll teach you a secret skill.” Carter nodded. “Also, I'll seal off part of my strength and fight with you. This way, not only you'll progress very fast, you'll also be able to store enough arcane particles, and it'll allow you to practice arcane skills!”

“Alright!” Ayrin's high-spirited shout once again exploded in this thick forest brimming with a primordial atmosphere.

…

Three hundred ninety-nine, four hundred, four hundred and one...

Inside the Thinker's Stone Forest, drenched in sweat from head to toe, panting in rough and heavy mouthfuls, Kybaver sprinted nonstop.

His body flashed in succession, again and again, like a ghost or a devil, his punches constantly carrying silver rays of light burning like lightning.

“Swish!”

When the last of his arcane particles gushed out of his fists, he already lost control of his body gone well past its limits. He crashed fiercely forward, falling headlong on the ground, bounced up, then fell once again on the ground.

“Ah...”

Kybaver struggled to flip his body over. He lay on the ground, sprawled on his back. He didn't even have the strength to lift a single finger anymore, ventilation box-like sounds coming from his chest.

“Four times the amount of training...Bastard, no matter how hard I struggle, I can only reach three times the amount of training at most.”

“No, I have to continue!”

“I already fell behind a guy like you. Even with a monster momentum like yours, you still have to persevere with four times the amount of training. I absolutely have to surpass your fourfold training amount before I can catch up to you!”

“I don't know what kind of training you're doing now... I won't admit defeat, I definitely have to grasp 'Quicksilver Flash Kill!'”

“Next time, I absolutely have to win in the selection and become a member of the team!”

After panting heavily for a long time, Kybaver deeply shouted nonstop to himself and once again dragged his body up with everything he had, his body trembling from head to toe even as he started punching again!

One day turned into another.

This second year student of Holy Dawn Academy also constantly challenged his own limits. Every day seemed incomparably rich, filled with meaning afresh.

…

As time went by day by day, as the main qualifier of the Cup of Starry Skies Braves neared ever closer, the atmosphere in every academy became different from what it used to be. Even the air seemed to burn with a shred of scorching hot atmosphere.

This was after all a tournament the entire country, every clan, every powerful arcane team paid attention to. It was equivalent to a showdown between the future elite arcane masters of the kingdom.

Many people who distinguished themselves in it would even be immediately tasked with important tasks.

Iron Forest Academy.

In front of an iron wall, a strong and sturdy boy brandished his arm, his face filled with a desire for war. Countless hotblooded Iron Forest students were gathered in front of him.

“Our Iron Forest Academy has to win!”

“We can't become members of the team, can't fight together with captain Ferguillo, but we still have to let people from other academies see our fighting spirit, see our power!”

“Before the day of the match arrives, we're going to leave ten thousand fist imprints on this iron wall!”

“Bang!” “Bang!” “Bang!”...

Under this boy's incitement, every Iron Forest student gathered there charged toward the iron wall like madmen, and used their own fists to strike at this iron wall!

“Stop!” Once again inside the sevenfold gravity gym, every members of team Iron Forest converged around Ferguillo. Ferguillo pointed at Wilde and faintly said, “You made a mistake again with your attack just now, I already told you so many times, you have to vary your rhythm, you can't do the three successive instant movements all at the same frequency, at the same speed. This way it's very easy for the opponent to grasp the pattern. Using your flash attack will instead lead you to the underworld! Even if you can't make your first flash strike faster, you still have to pay attention and moderate it, to cause misperception for your opponent.”

Wilde rearranged the hair covering one side of his face, wiped his sweat, and solemnly said, “I understand, this is the last time I make a mistake like this.”

“There are still fifteen days left before our confrontation with Golden Lion Academy. Stingham will definitely have made giant strides forward with a bloodline like his!” Ferguillo faintly said, “But as long as none of us makes a mistake, we'll certainly fight our way to the great national tournament!”

“Do you hear the voices of these people outside?” His finger pointed outside the gym after a slight pause. “Do you have the heart to make these men outside who idolize us, who are shouting and clamoring, do you have the heart to disappoint them?”

“We have to win!”

At this instant, every members of Iron Forest's team screamed out at the top of their lungs, letting out mad roars just like wild beasts!

…

Divine Shield Academy.

A one-eyed teacher wearing an eye-patch quietly stood for a long while. Every member of team Divine Shield, Ivan and Charlotte included, all stood in front of him, straight as ramrods, just like a small army regiment waiting for inspection.

“I don't have so much patience, I won't insult and humiliate you, or provoke you, like your captain Ivan does. In a real battlefield, success and failure are determined by life and death, by the final result.”

This one-eyed teacher with a very ferocious outer appearance coldly swept his eyes over everyone standing in front of him. “That's why, if you can't even defeat a small team like Holy Dawn Academy, then Ivan and Charlotte, you'll join the army one year later than originally planned. As to the others, you might not even have the rights to come to the attention of clan Lannister!”

“What!”

Even Charlotte's face paled a little.

“Only pressure will give you the drive to move forward. There's no harm in telling you, the reason I'm so strict is because I'm old rivals with Carter, the teacher leading Holy Dawn Academy's team. Confronting him this time makes a lot of memories resurface.” This one-eyed teacher started laughing like a maniac. “Also, you definitely can't look down on him. He already had the Wise Commander nickname back in our times. Back then, when the elite teams from Holy Dawn Academy went out on missions, he was always the one leading them.”