Chapter4 : King class sacred beast

*Loud cheers*

“Welcome everyone to the annual competition marking the fifty turn. The Grand Gournament.”

*cheers*

“Today the elected representatives of Astora, Astarte, Alsa and Alikh will be competing in order to prove their worth and hold their country’s flag high in honor and in good sports.”

*cheers*

“We will start with the magical track race, three participants of each country are to advance forward. The rules are simple the first to reach the finish line is the winner and will be awarded with 10 points 5 for the second and 2 for the third. Any place below that will yield no points. All type of magic and combat arts is allowed with the exception of teleportation magic or S class magic or any type of forbidden magic. ”

*cheers*

“Participants MOVE FORWARD.”

_____________________________________________________________________________________

(Asura Pov)

This is enormous. The stage is five times bigger than the school coliseum…it has a large central arena almost two 400 meter by 200 with large screen on top and a stadium that is full to the brim and can easily hold tens of thousands of spectators it had several floors with booths on multiple parts of it designed for the VIP.

There were several exits more than 100 to flush the masses.

The stage was a normal dirt field but when the announcer finished his speech hills and obstacles were created even magmatic and ice islands were created with a water lake on the side.

A holographic road was created that passed through multiple zones of the course. It even went underground.

This must be the designed road. There are several lights on each side of it I think that it is there as a checkpoint that participants need to pass by to validate their course.

This would be a great chance for me to prove my worth as the Shunpo skill will be a great asset in this race…sadly that dam woman was against me participating I tried to ask Osfor to try and convince her but he was nowhere to be found. So she chose Zeles Shiki and the Mohawk guy to start.

I would have strongly objected if she picked anyone else as I do trust Shiki to be fast enough to score the first place so I had to stand down.

The other schools have chosen their members and are now standing on the start line.

Albion’s members were wearing their newly designed tournament clothing that had the same emblem of Alsa’s legendary knight the Everlasting might.

With white colored tracksuits with blue strips

Astarte’s clothing had the same white color but with large emerald colored stripes from shoulder to boots.

Every one of the participants from Astarte had a weapon of sorts. But nothing too showy just some long swords and broad swords and one participant holding a spear.

The other participants remained in their booth so did the other from different school.

Alikh had people wearing red uniforms with black strips as for Astora they had a silver colored clothing with a big orange circle in the chest area.

None of the participants had weapons except the three from Astarte so I guess they are all magic users. How would the sword users fair against the others is something I will have to see.

The loud voice of the announcer run once more announcing the start of the race.

In a blink of the eye there was no one near the start line. Shiki was leading the race with his ever so accelerating speed. He moved like a bullet followed by Zeles that was blinking every moment from place to place. On their tail was one from Astora as he was using some kind of magical circle making him float and advance in extraordinary speed. The fourth place was shared by amazingly three of the Astarte weapon wielders as they were running in at an amazing pace. As for the rest they were struggling to keep up even with their abnormal skills and amazing speeds they still were unable to advance to the first places.

The first movements of hostilities came from the trio from Astarte. The one in the middle looked at both his allies and nodded making the one on his right slow down while the one on his left pick up his speed. He easily reached the guy using the floating Mahojin sending an arc slash toward him to disturb his balance but he still persisted.

The other guy’s objective was to slowdown and hinder anyone that attempted to advance as he was constantly harassing anyone that was trying to bypass him. The one in the middle just kept his initial pace and advanced without worry.

While Shiki and Zeles were still advancing the rest were struggling and fighting among each other. This looked very promising for Albion as the first and second place might be reserved for us.

Until this happened. When Shiki reached the glacier area he was forced to slowdown as his speed would work against him in a low friction area. Zeles however seemed unhindered with this as he was still able to blink forward bypassing Shiki. The guy who was behind Shiki finally collapsed under the constant harass of the guy from Astarte. As his lost his focus and ended up receiving an attack to his flank that KOed him.

The sword wielder kept advancing this time changing focus to Shiki who was still slowing down.

Few participants surprisingly were eliminated by the Mohawk guy as he used the same tactic of the swordsmen and held back his speed only to eliminate whoever was behind him with hard hitting attacks. As he erected stone walls in the face of some of the competitors who could do nothing but crash in them.

Laughing maniacally he advanced forward.

He was using a surfboard made of stone to move on the ground. It was slow at first but the longer he was using it the faster he became…

Another participant from Astora was taken out by the swordsman that slowed down earlier making the total participants of Astora 0.

A total elimination of the first team of Astora was received with a mixed of booing and cheers from the audience.

Three from Alsa and three from Astarte and two remained from Alikh.

Shiki was almost out of the glacial area while Zeles already did leave it and was halfway through the magmatic zone.

The swordsman was on Shiki’s tail. It was apparent that if Shiki was to leave the frozen grounds he will be back in the lead in no time so the guy tried his best in order to stop him where he was considered weakest.

Throwing several arc slashes and attacks were his way of hindering once more another competitor. But this time he was joint by his buddy that miraculously managed to close the distance when he was keeping a steady pace earlier.

The pressure was high on Shiki as he was obviously struggling to dodge and keep his pace.

Feeling the frustration Shiki unleashed a an explosive shockwave that sounded of thunder from within his body it staggered and sent one of his chasers flying leaving a crater behind him and finally leaving the glacial zone only to tremendously pickup his speed creating afterimages of him while constantly making explosive sounds each time he took a large stride.

Normally the 400 meter large platform would be only few seconds for the fast Shiki but it was magically handled to make it look ridiculously long.

Dissatisfied with his inability to cripple the advance of Shiki the guy with the spear was cursing along the way.

Behind him was a ferocious fight happening as the two guys the Mohawk guy and the broad sword wielder were at each other’s troths amusingly anyone who ever got close to them and anyone who ever tried to attack them was instantly eliminated as they both focused their attacks at them. Making whoever came close either taking a longer road or giving up.

Zeles was truly surprised as he noticed the bullet speed Shiki bypass him even though he was almost at the end of the magmatic zone it became apparent that the interval in which he blinked started to become longer although it was problematic but it will not hinder his position.

Shiki on the other hand was able to break through the magmatic zone and waltz into the final zones.

The one that had a lake in it was easily traversed by his enormous speed as he was literally running on water. Getting out of it he was met with few caves and some underground tunnels which he easily finished in seconds due to his speed. Finally reaching the finish line while hearing the loudest of cheers that came from the audience this day.

About 2 minutes it was Zeles’ turn to reach the finish line. Rewarded with another loud cheering he bowed deeply to the audience.

Finally in third place after 5 minutes of Zeles’ arrival it was the spear wielder. Normally he should have taken a longer time getting there but he used a spear dive technique that boosted his advance making him hold his spear forward with both hand and increasing his speed enormously. As soon as he got out of the glacial zone that is.

When the first three reached the finishing point, the race ended with Alsa gaining 15 points and 2 points for Astora.

Right after Shiki was satisfied with the cheers he went back to the booth where the rest of the team was in including me.

***

“Oi you bastard that was nice and I know you can be even faster why didn’t you use the sound breaker skill you used that time against the metal mage?” I asked him smacking him on the back.

I probably didn’t control my strength enough as I saw him jolt from pain. He turned to me unaffected and like always with a wide smile on his face then said.

“We don’t want all our secrets to be known on the first run do we now?”

Oh he is right…well he better keep some trump cards hidden.

Then the redhead came into view. With a rude intrudoction she said.

“That was a good race Shiki-sama. It gave us the edge right off the bat. And for your information noobi” she said while looking at my direction. “This is but the start of the games, if we show all our cards we will definitely lose. And I already know about your ability to use the instant movement skill but it consumes a lot of Mu and with your puny pool you will lose steam halfway through the race and that is why I did not pick you.”

I tried to rebuke her saying that I had other ways to handle this but I decided to keep quiet and only show what I am capable off later.

Then she said “I don’t know what the principal thinking when she picked you for the team. You are obviously not needed humph…I tell you what the next game will revolve around monster taming you can try your luck there as we already have enough points for that even if you lose miserably we can still remain on the top spot. As it is only one per team. But on the other hand you will not join in on the team fights nor the 1v1 as I am more than certain that you will not be needed.”

I had to answer saying.

“You are obviously trying to get rid of me. But alright I will have to show you how good I am with dealing with Monsters.” I said with a sinker at the end.

Clicking her tong she turned and walked away.

Happy with my little victory I noticed that it was my time getting on stage.

The announcer then shouted

“Ladies and gentlemen I would like to have your attention. For the next competition as everyone knows we will be having a magical beast taming competition. However this year things will be a bit different.

Every year we caught the same type of beasts and gave every school the right to challenge them. Making the one that tames the beast without killing it and making it obedient first the winner. This year things will be different… THIS YEAR WE WILL HAVE ONLY ONE BEAST!!!”

*Heavy chatter*

“Please may I have your attention to explain furthermore…this time the beast will be an exception, instead of the usual dumb monsters we will be providing the participants with a genuine KING class sacred beast!!!”

*loud cheers*

“Behold the magnanimous ash wyvern.”

*louder cheers.*

“Now some of you may know that the ash wyvern are of the lesser wyvern class they inhibit the northern high mountains of Astora but only being outranked by their cousins the red wyverns. However this one is special. It has managed to gain a King class rank even while being a lesser wyvern so he is truly dangerous. Its capture lead to the death of two royal knights and the injury of several others. Just so we can bring you a new level of entertainment.”

*cheers*

“So I will explain how this will work. The first school to subjugate the beast will be the winner no matter if the other schools have gotten their chance or not. The turns will be held by lottery. And worry not even if the beast was injured by a competitor and that same competitor lost. The beast will be healed and sent back to the arena to fight the next contender. Now the schools order will be chosen randomly by a program and the results will appear on the screen.”

*drum roll x)*

“Now as you can all see the order of the school is as follows: the first school to try their chance is ASTORA. Followed by ASTARTE, after them is ALIKH. And finally ALSA…I know for a fact that people will think that this is unfair for the competitors as this is based on chance. But do not be mistaken, this is a King class ash wyvern and it is STRONG. I fear that even though four competitors may join in. there is a high chance that no one will be able to make it submit.”

*Ohhhhh*

“Before we begin there is something I would like to say. This singular contest will be held without pointing system. But it will have a special reward for the winner. Just to make it clear this will have no influence over the competition at all. So GO GET IT BOYS.”

I could almost hear Vessma laughing when the only competition I was allowed to join will have no impact on the competition…what an annoying outcome.

She then said.

“It is settled then, this contest will be left for Asura-san to clear. He needs to show us what he is made of hahaha”

Everyone’s eyes were looking toward me which filled me with a bit of nervousness. But I had only one thing to say:

“I will just have to prove it then.”

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The stage was a square platform that was elevated from the ground by few meters. There were four mages wearing purple hooded robes with golden strips on its outlines. They stood at the edges of the platform and started chanting a magical spell. They held their arms forward and a white magical circle appeared in front of each of them. Suddenly enormous amounts of mana was gathering making a dome like shape that surrounded the platform. It had a murky yellow color at first then it turned transparent.

These Mages were everywhere as some of them were standing between the rows of the audience and two were near every booth. They must be here for security measures. As some of them were clearly eyeing the audience looking for any suspicious movements. The entire coliseum was surrounded by ten towers. They were very long and towered the entirety of the arena. Each one of them was producing enormous amounts of mana making a strong barrier that protected everyone.

A barrier within a barrier one for the audience and one for the participants.

The first to get on stage was an Astorian participant with his flowing black hair and tall slim frame. He strolled down the arena. He had a pretty boy’s face and had an aura similar to Shiki…the kind of guy that you would really enjoy breaking his nose…anyway as he was waltzing inside the arena sending air kisses to the audience while approaching the wyvern that was towering a good 5 meters over him dwarfing the tall guy with its enormous frame.

For a wyvern this guy is really overgrown as they are usually not this big.

When the announcer marked the game for start. The wyvern as if it was on a leach and was released howled loudly making the entire arena shake. And as if on cue the audience cheered louder in response.

It charged at the guy that flinched for a bit but still managed to retain his composure.

He used a fire based spell that covered both his hands and jumped up.

The second the wyvern chomped at the empty place where the tall guy was earlier it was met with two heavy blows on the back neck. The wyvern clearly was not affected as his scales are normally very sturdy.

He landed at his side then sent two more shots at the wyvern’s flank. However he was not left unscathed as he was rewarded by a tail swipe that threw him a few meters away.

Groggily getting back up, he once again charged both his arms with the same spell as before. Looking back at the wyvern I noticed that all the places that it was struck at were still shining dimly.

The guy used his spell once more this time as a projectile to strike at the chest of wyvern that jumped aiming to crush him. Right before the claws of the wyvern could rip the Astorian apart he rolled to the side dodging a crushing blow that made a crater on the stage.

Getting back up and this time backing away from the range of the tail the Astorian used more projectiles that latched themselves to the wyvern. They did not deal any apparent damage but this soon was changed.

As series of explosions were emitted from the wyvern’s body. As every spot that was struck erupted in a deafening sound followed by the wailing of the wyvern.

The beast suddenly dropped to the ground heaving its chest while the Astorian deactivated his spell and clearly lowered his guard as he was walking in triumph toward the fallen foe…an amateur’s mistake…

The wyvern opened his eyes that changed its color from murky yellow to a clear red. His scales started to shake. His gray colored scales gained a hint of red almost as if it was coal on fire.

It is enraged.

The wyvern balanced itself standing up while gathering air in his chest. Enormous amounts of mana was gathered into its lunges then it exhaled furiously toward the guy that was oblivious to the terror in front of him.

Black smoke was emitted from the wyvern but it clearly was not normal. The second the smoke covered the Astorian it ignited with an explosion far louder than the previous ones.

Sending the guy rolling down the platform clearly unconscious. If the protective barrier was not erected he would have surly died from the attack.

The audience was disappointed by the outcome so some started to boo and others started to laugh while a few even cheered for the defeated guy.

More mages approached the platform this time they used a magical spell that was healing the beast. He seemed to calm down a bit as his scales started turning back to their original color.

The next to get on stage was the same guy from the race earlier, the one with the spear.

He unlike the other guy this one was clearly professional. As he took a spear stance right off the bat.

The wyvern started circling the spearman who was calmly pointing the tip of his spear toward the face of the slowly approaching wyvern.

Again the wyvern jumped up widening his teethed jaw and chomping at the space where the spearman was supposed to be in. as the guy sidestepped the beast he trusted his weapon three times in rapid succession. The spear almost bended as it struck the hard scales making the spearman click his tong in annoyance. Another tail swipe by the wyvern just like before was his response to the spearman that easily jumped backwards dodging it with the minimum movements. The second the wyvern was facing him the guy jumped forward slashing diagonally with the spear head onto the wyvern’s face. No damage was dealt.

The spearman jumped backwards and raised his right hand asking surrendering from the match. A smart choice.

“Oh we have one that surrendered a smart discussion. As he understood that he was unable to deal damage. It takes courage to know when to give up.”

The audience was cheering for the guy but he clearly was dissatisfied with the fight.

The Wyvern howled in glory as he defeated one more challenger.

Next was one from Alikh. It was a beautiful girl with long flowing dark blue hair. It matched with the colors of her uniform.

She walked in with confidence as the barrier closed behind her. The wyvern as if mocking her crouched down waiting for her to make the first move as he must have realized that if all of his challengers were like the two from before he will need to do nothing as his body is strong enough to deal with their low damage.

The girl however started to run sideways making the wyvern turn his head to follow her movements.

Whenever she passed a location a small layer of fog was created leaving the beast puzzled from her erratic behavior. She circled the beast making the fog thicker. Then she suddenly pointed her hand toward the wyvern making the fog tremble slightly with her hands pulsating in a blue color.

Several water bolts struck the side of the ash wyvern as it was caught off guard from the damage that was dealt. Standing back hastily and clearly deciding to take the opponent seriously it howled making the fog clear away and giving him back vision that lasted only for few moments as the fog screen soon recovered and clouded its vision again.

Few more howls resulted in nothing but a frustrated wyvern and an ever so persisting screen.

More bolts found their way to the beast’s sides as he once again wailed in agony.

The wyvern decided to no longer play it shook his scales once again making them gain an ember color.

It spat forward its breath attack but to no avail as it did not explode nor ignite.

The beast that seemed enraged started flapping its wings. Which is something I wondered why it has not done before as it clearly had more advantage in aerial battles.

The length of its wings was magnanimous and the pressure behind them was nothing to be underestimated as it blew the fog in matter of seconds revealing the girl below.

She was not surprised by the rise of the wyvern which by the way was looking down on her with eyes filled with hatred.

This time the wyvern opened its mouth and instead of casting his smoke breath it spat forward balls made of it.

The smoke balls had a tint of red inside them which started to ignite on the way to their target that was the girl who dodged at the last minute the first two balls making them collide with the hard floor.

Normally smoke should dissipate when in contact with solid surfaces. However these balls blew up making a small crater where they landed.

Still the girl was unfazed by this as she was already casting a spell. Using both her hands she conjured a blue colored Mahojin that shot forward a highly pressurized water stream that destabilized the beast that barely held his position up in the air.

The monster had a clear gash on his flank as the damage from that spell was apparent.

Congratulated by cheers from the audience and a threatening growl from the beast the girl changed once again her position.

But as I can clearly see that spell was not something simple. Having both the water and wind element in them she almost resembled Yuna with her hybrid Elemntum. But this girl clearly had the water element to be more dominant than the wind element.

The wyvern tried to fly higher but was met with resistance from the barrier. The Mages started mumbling something between them and forced the beast to lower its flying zone as he was pushed by the barrier downward. Finding nothing in its range it focused its gaze toward the girl that caused him his pain.

Few more smoke balls missed their target as the girl nimbly dodged the beast’s attacks. While sending another pressurized attack toward the wyvern that must have learned from his mistake and decided to dodge by flapping his wings downward giving him the opportunity to dodge while ascending. Met again with the roof of the barrier the beast howled in discomfort and charged this time at the girl with his claws flung forward.

Its claws dug deep into the earth making the wyvern stuck momentarily in the ground. This gave the girl the chance to take a good shot at the beast’s head with a well-aimed pressurized water stream.

Shaking the beast to the core that attack left a gash wound on its face and cracked one of his horns.

Now this is where things should become interesting.

The beast that normally should have fainted now looked at the sky and howled loud enough to make the entire arena shake.

His amber colored scales ignited with a brighter color while steam was seeping from between his pores.

The beast coiled its wings around itself and instantly expanded them making the air blow outward even changing the shape of the transparent barrier. The mages who once again reshaped the barrier into its former structure could almost be seen sighing in relief as this was clearly unexpected.

The beast was seen as his color turned from a formally dim ember color into a blazing one. The girl was clearly not expecting this as she started to unconsciously walk backwards clearly from fear and uncertainty.

Then once again she stepped forward and struck a water bullet into the beat’s snout.

At first the water bullet made the wyvern flinch and the area that was damaged turned back to its former color but it soon reignited and changed to the blazing hot one.

Once again the girl shot multiple bullets that had the same effect as they were as effective as a drop of water inside a raging flame.

The beast this time had enough and charged forward at the girl, with unprecedented speed it head butted the girl sending her flying toward the barrier wall which she bounced back into the arena from.

The poor girl clearly unconscious never saw that coming. The thing is, she was still inside the arena and the beast placed one of his claws on her chest. It sniffed at her for a moment then howled as it opened its mouth trying to take a bite.

Fortunately it was struck by one of the mages at the side of the arena that made the beast flinch and squirm in pain. Removing its leg from the girl she was instantly teleported from under the beast.

Now it was my turn.

As I took a step forward I was stopped by a hand grabbing my shoulder.

A gentle hand that belonged to a gentle person.

It was Yuna who had a worried look on her face with a small tint of pink that was atop her cheeks.

She said

“Y-you should probably give up…I am sure if we talk to Vessma she can let you join in on the other games it does not have to be this one…this thing is really dangerous…didn’t you say that you almost died facing a wyvern this one is a king class you should probably not risk being injured…even that barrier can’t negate all the damage.”

Oh she was worried about me…hmm how adorable.

“Thank you for worrying but have no fear. And one more thing that wyvern I hunted I was told that it also was king class sacred beast. And that happened when I was 12 years old. So just relax. I got this”

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Stepping inside the arena I felt the pressure coming from the audience. And in front of me there was a flaming overgrown wyvern…it clearly was still pissed off from the fight before and his inability to satisfy himself with a snack. So I bet that I will be a good stress reliever from him...just my luck right?

“WARRIOR ARTS COMPLETE BUFF”

Ah my favorite light show.

The air around me started to become heavier and my muscles pulsated in energy my body felt lighter and my mind felt sharper. As I was already activating hyper-recognition mode I saw the beast in slow motion moving toward me with its jaws opened wide enough to gobble me up in one go.

Making a frontal flip I landed on its snout but while putting enough pressure on my legs I managed to force the beast to nose dive into the hardened soil as his mouth closed from the strength of the blow in a disgusting sound of teethes being crushed.

I landed on the left of the beast however without waiting a second after, I pulled my sword from its dimensional sheath and instantly used its second form. Coiling it around the right hand of the fallen beast I pulled it with all my strength making a dislocation sound that I was waiting for.

This will force the beast on ground.

I quickly placed the sword back into its sheet and landed an earth chattering blow at the left jaw of the wyvern the second it tried to stand back up. This sent the beast rolling on the ground a few meters while I jumped again making a frontal flip and landed on his side.

Hearing the sound of bones being crushed as his under rib side had not a lot of scales, I felt satisfied as his weaker skin was unable to stop the full brunt of my damage.

Yet this was not enough as I used again the earth shattering blow right behind his right knee joint making the beast wail in agony. It knelt back to the ground while failing to gain a proper standing. The damage dealt to his arm jaw and knee was showing.

The beast turned its head toward me and opened its jaw trying to blow me away by his fireball spell.

But I was faster as I jumped forward making an instant uppercut to the base of his lower jaw and closing his mouth the second he cast the spell making it explode within and charcoaling his mouth. The beast was flailing and squirming from pain as he was probably in the most pin he ever felt in his life.

I quickly jumped forward and grabbed one of his horns bringing the beast down whit me smashing his face once again into the stone floor.

This time it was clear as the blazing color from the wyvern scales started dimming turning into its original ash colored scales.

I looked into the beast’s eye and saw signs of a defeated monster. He had no will to fight and was waiting for its end as it saw how I easily dealt with him.

The thing with the beasts is that they do not think. They all act on instinct knowing their behaviors and weak points is a crucial point to wining against them, unlike humans who use magic and can be erratic and unexpected. The beasts are pure and simple.

The wyvern is one of such case. These monsters have weak joints and can easily be damaged if struck in a correct way. If the guys from before used their head a bit and avoided striking it on its hardened scales and tried to hit in a softer area they would have probably dealt enough damage to it to make it submit.

What is bugging me is that the announcer said that two royal knights died in an attempt to capture this thing…I fail to see how that is possible…hmmm perhaps the beast was with its family members or it was just exaggerated stories to make this more exiting…no matter this fight is my victory.

“WHAT AN AMAZING DISPLAY OF SKILL, this young man was able to single handedly subdue the wyvern, a feat that should be considered an impossibility to achieve by one as young as this man. APPLAUSE AND CHEERS FOR THE RISING HERO”

*loud cheers and applause*

Before my face turn red in embarrassment I turned my back away from the downed beast and walked in a hastened manner toward our school’s cabinet.