Smiling at the message, Jason had to suppress his emotions, otherwise, he might as well cry in front of Greg, which wouldn't be pleasing for both of them.

As such, he closed the piece of paper again, before he stored it away in his storage device.

Looking at Greg, a radiant smile emerged on his face as he said 

"Are you ready to fight me?"

After he released his whole tension, Jason couldn't suppress his joy anymore because he would neither have to die if he were to reject the Drake family's offer nor accept it, being forced into submission.

If that was not something to be happy about, there was still the fact that Shane was already here and that he was about to fight against Greg.

Before that, he was still anxious if he could go all out, but now it was a completely different matter because Shane was there.

Furthermore fighting against Greg with all his might after he became stronger was something he wanted to do.

Even more so after Greg's soulbond evolved and him being able to control the inherited Berserk ability!

Hearing Jason's words, Greg couldn't help but also smile at him as both of them turned in the direction of the arena which they approached with slow, yet steady steps.

Looking back one more time, Jason was unable to find Shane, but that didn't matter anymore as they finally entered the arena that seemed to be more crowded than it initially was.

There were several thousand students with their teachers like before but now the number of citizens watching the matches increased by a large margin, which caused Jason to smile lightly as he thought that their Top 25  from the first-year students would most likely become the most exciting match to look at for the whole tournament.

Greg was also in awe, seeing that so many people would look at his fight but rather than feeling insecure, there was a confident smile on his face.

It was almost too late for them to enter the arena and a few citizens already started to complain when everyone saw the two youths laughing with each other as they entered the arena.

Seeing this, there was one simple thought in everyone's mind, souring their mood and dimming their expectations when one citizen spoke out what everyone was thinking about.

"These two youths are obviously good friends...can they even fight properly against each other? They'll most likely hold back if it looks too dangerous….how disappointing!!"

This citizen's voice was so loud, that even Greg and Jason were able to hear it, which caused them to halt their steps, only to stare at the citizen in front of them as Jason mumbled.

"This is not something an old man with a mana core rank at the master rank should say. Just focus on yourself and don't bother other people...Just look and see!"

Rolling his eyes, Jason entered the arena, not bothering that he was looked at with widened eyes, and the man who said everyone's thought out loud, slumped back on his seat, dumbfounded.

Gritting his teeth, he couldn't say anything against this youth's undeniable truth because everyone started to look at him amused….

He was incapable to compress his mana into a liquefied drop of mana even at his age, which was embarrassing.

Comparing himself to young prodigies was as if one compared trash with a raw diamond.

Forcing himself to not jump up, curse, and charge at the youth, the man was sure that the security would beat him into a pulp if he were to be noticed in a bad way one more time.

Gulping down his saliva, he remained silent, while enduring the amused gazes on him, that seemed to laugh at him.

Jason didn't mind this disruption, as he stood inside the combat arena, waiting for Greg, who also regained his senses.

Standing opposite each other at a distance of roughly forty meters, the two youths smiled as they released their fighting spirit.

Their demeanor changed almost immediately and from the viewers' perspective, it looked like both youths neither knew each other nor laughed together only a moment ago and they were solely focused on their fight, which the AI started.

Without wasting any time, Jason already ordered Scorpio to enter his mana core, creating a faint dark green-blueish layer around his mana core, enlarging it, while his physique was strengthened.

Right now, his body could barely handle the sudden amplification from the fortified soul conjunction to the 6th Expert rank in both mana core size and physical strength.

However, that was already enough for Greg to notice a major change in Jason's demeanor and mana fluctuations that seemed to ravage vigorously inside his body.

Gulping down his saliva, he also activated his Berserk ability, after the AI initiated the start of their fight.

Jason's mana fluctuations ravaged through his body, yet his outer appearance didn't change, while Greg's body enlarged with his skin turning red as his eyes turned bloodshot.

The sudden change in both youths only a quarter of a second after their match started, shocked everyone, when both exerted their movement technique to their highest capabilities, only to take out their weapons while charging at each other.

Aware that his physical strength was lower than Greg's and that he had a slight disadvantage with his weapon choice, Jason couldn't help but feel ecstatic, when he felt the mana ravaging in his body.

He never really fought against someone with the fortified soul conjunction fully utilized and it was the first time for him to feel so much mana inside him if one were to disregard the mana sphere bracelet which he could only use for external means.

It was not something he could feel within himself and with this thought, his daggers appeared inside his hands with several dozen blazing icicles manifesting around him.

Shooting all of them towards Greg, who used his brute force to shatter the icicle with black flames flickering inside, he got to feel what it meant to disregard Jason's black origin flame.

Once the icicles shattered, the black flames within erupted with searing heat burning Greg's hair and skin below when he already emerged in front of Jason to greet him with an onslaught of fast punches.

Jason's physique was lower than Greg's but he could use three affinities which should normally be enough to completely overwhelm his opponent. 

However, Greg was different, because he already knew how strong Jason's elemental attacks were with the sole exception of the poison affinity.

Evading the first few punches, Greg forced him to retreat, as Jason gritted his teeth to summon multiple icicles and fireballs which he shot towards his friend without regarding if he would sustain heavy injuries or not.

Crying out in pain, Greg suddenly lifted Jason into the air, completely ignoring the cuts he sustained from Jason's daggers when he threw him through the arena.

Being thrown through the air, Jason couldn't help to smile because his excitement overwhelmed him only to crash into the ground.

Coughing up some blood, he forced himself to stand up without wasting any time.

Barely wiping away the blood before staring at Greg who seemed to be in a worse situation than he was.

His enlarged body had multiple light cuts and holes in it which he sustained through Jason's dagger trusts and icicles, while his burned skin looked even worse.

Meanwhile, Jason sustained more internal injuries through the impact in Greg's punches, which shook his whole body and internal organs.

If he didn't know better, Jason would be sure that he had some broken ribs.

Nevertheless, the two youths smiled at each other excitedly, as if they were playing around, which caused everyone around to look at the youths in shock.

'Who the hell said that these two were good friends?! Aren't they arch-enemies in their final battle to decide who can survive and who will have to die?!'  Everyone thought and the man who complained out loud, turned even quieter than before if that was even possible as his eyes equally widened.

'What are these youths?! Monsters??' 

However, neither of the two couldn't help themselves because they didn't even realize their own injuries.

After he was thrown through the air, Jason lost grip around his daggers and they were too far away for him to reach right now when Greg started to exert his movement technique once again.

Ignoring that he didn't have a weapon left, he exerted his weightless steps technique to the limit, only to notice that he could still inject more of his mana into it, which he did without hesitation.

His mana consumption increased by a large margin and Jason knew that he wouldn't be able to supply the weightless steps technique that seemed to have advanced to the perfect mastery for longer than two minutes at most, even after his mana core size enlarged to the 6th Expert rank.

Nevertheless, two minutes would be more than enough because he doubted that Greg could sustain his berserk ability for much longer.

As such, he used everything up to his sleeves to charge  at Greg with his perfect mastery of the weightless steps technique fully utilized.

Jason's speed increased by another 15%, increasing his velocity by a total of 60%, only to emerge below Greg who was now slower by a small margin than he was.

Dealing out several punches, Jason evaded every single one of Greg's punches as Greg suddenly kicked at Jason's body which was leaned forward.

Seeing this, he twisted his body into an uncomfortable angle to barely avoid the attack.

At the same time, he manifested a compressed ice shard, shaped into a sharp blade, which he pierced into Greg's back of the knee with all his might.

Crying out in pain, Greg's leg gave in as Jason noticed something with shock which caused his eyes to quiver slightly.

Not only, turned his friend's eyes crimson red without a single trace of white left, but his whole remaining mana was instantly used up, enlarging Greg's body, when he turned his steaming, red head towards Jason.

'Damn…'