As Luciette rush towards the Orc King, Calculus who was just beside slashed viciously in a wide curve. His target was not only the Orc King but also Luciette who dared to meddle in his fight.

He shall show her, that no one can look down on him.

Furthermore, he had been waiting for the chance to take revenge on Luciette.

After Calculus returned to camp, Luciette had ordered all who have acted without orders previously to be judged in a pseudo-military trial and subsequently gave them demerits on their scores for this exam. Even Calculus himself had lost five points for being unable to properly lead his men.

Unfortunately, this is one of the abilities granted to the commander of the group and wholly undisputable.

Faced with this unexpected strike, Luciette agilely avoided it by bending backwards. Such an attack would have landed on most male practitioners, but females are far more flexible. On the other hand, the Orc King did not even need to dodge. It merely flicked it away with a finger, then sent Calculus flying with fearsome side-kick. The power behind the attack caused even the ground below to be ripped out in a line, tracing his flight path.

Unsated by the violence, its eyes glowed orange from the immense power within that sought to be released. The Orc King readied its dense iron sword then savagely carved a fearsome vertical downwards strike at Luciette. There was a tremendous force enveloping the blade that would shred a normal person just by being close.

However, Luciette evaded almost unbelievably. The weapon seemed to grant her lift like a leaf floating in the wind, and she landed lightly on top of the tip of the Orc King’s sword with a twirl.

In contrast to the loud swoosh of blades, there was silence, but a soft voice pierced the arena like a lantern in a storm.

“The leaves sway, the flowers bloom. The wind itself carried your gloom,” chanting the trademark martial incantation of her house, Luciette launched her counterattack.

Her voice was like silver bells as she slightly danced and spun on the sword’s tip. The leftover force from the Orc King’s attack is still imbued on its blade, yet the excessive energy dissipated by her gentle steps.

“When Light shines, and life glows, the White Snow will cover your tomb.”

A whirlwind of ice and light gently swirled around her as she chanted, and she launched herself elegantly from the sword towards her target. She dodged a fist thrown her way by keeping her body close to the ground, and like a silver ray of light invoked her martial arts with a final chant.

“In crimson snow red flowers bloom, the blood florets mark your doom!”

A blood red aura dyed her white dress crimson, then her figure disappeared with a flicker, before reappearing behind the young Orc King inconceivably quickly.

The others watched with wide eyes, as the tip of her rapier exited from the Orc King’s chest with a purple flower made of beast blood.

Suddenly, Luciette’s eyes widen as her face paled, and she immediately pulls her weapon out of the Orc King and jumps back.

That split-second decision saved her as she narrowly avoided an unsurmountable power released from the Orc King.

But before she escaped, it slashed downwards at her. At that moment when the blade nearly reached her flesh, several more purple blood flowers exploded from its body. They burst outwards from the destructive Ki she had left within. It was a vicious technique, however, a look of pure shock entered her eyes as the Orc King – like a true monster – closed its wounds immediately.

Even her family’s special martial art was unable to kill it, and instead, she instinctively felt the looming sense of death trying to envelop her. Without hesitation, she retreated with all the speed she could muster. But as she moved, Calculus closed up the gap between them and tried to skewer both the Orc King and her.

“She dares steal my glory?! The one to behead the beast will be me!”

Luciette dodged with a twist of her body while the Orc simply snorted, seemingly expressing its disgust at this vile creature called Calculus. Unamused by his treacherous behaviour, it threw an ordinary straight punch out at him, but that plain action created a thundering shockwave. The attack that was almost impossible to see land on Calculus’ hastily raised weapon.

He was sent sliding backwards, somehow managing to barely deflect the blow and instead, by using this force he turned his body to drift in a curve. Now in the position to attack the Orc’s blind spot, Calculus dashed through the forest undergrowth-

“HAHAHA!! This looks like great fun! Let me join in as well!”

-but his plans were crushed by a certain battle-freak who was spinning extravagantly and landed right between him and the Orc King.

While on their way here, Kairos has told Jones the Orc King’s reappearance. Though he barely recovered to 40% of his strength, how could he pass up this chance to battle such a mythical being?

Calculus’ expressions turned grim to be interrupted, but seeing who it was, he couldn’t help let a wicked smirk slip by.

“Looks like this fool got himself wounded! He is practically begging me to kill him ‘accidentally’.”

One would easily question why Calculus displayed this level of obsession towards Jones. And the reason began as early as when Jones first appeared in the Saint Cadets academy.

Back then, Calculus had already broken through the bottleneck to D rank and proven himself as a genius above his peers. But, as he fed his superiority complex by hanging out with the E rankers, Jones took merely weeks to outstrip him and took away all the glory that rightfully belonged to him!

He quickly felt his prestige as the most talented practitioner among his contemporaries, ebb away, and the attention of the elders shifted to the bloody commoner instead.

Anyone who asks him to accept this should be stabbed in the head. He was the focus in his family since he was born, and even when he entered school, everyone tried to get closer to him because of his talent or his family’s power and money.

Such is the natural order of things and the upstart that is Jones needed to be put in his place. Namely, six feet underground in a wooden box.

Unfortunately, that insignificant nobody was made heir to the Solitary Blades clan, and he couldn’t take action, until now.

The Orc King bellowed as yet another human entered. It had long ago conclude that humans are incapable of true honour. Nevertheless, another pest is hardly a problem.

It quickly enchanted its body with magic, and with a speed that seemed impossible for its race, it ignored Jones and Luciette, then went straight for Calculus.

With a roll and a flip, Calculus awkwardly dodged the attack. He was not a moment too soon as the place he was at a moment ago became a small crater, as though a mini-meteor had struck.

At the same time, Kairos and his group that came with Jones were rushing over through the intersecting branches at the treetops.

“Tsk! This guy, he isn’t even healed up and, yet he rushes headlong into battle again!”

Unlike that monstrous Jones who can simply bypass the encirclement with his superior movement techniques, the group can only travel on the thick branches after him. They crudely infuse Ki into their bodies but was barely able to keep up.

Should any other student try to do this, the Orcs who are great hunters would easily have skewered the person with throwing spears, axes and hunting bows.

Running on branches means there are limited spaces to step, and only a few directions they can dodge when attacked. If the Orcs spots you, it will be all over as you’d become an easy target.

Fortunately, Kairos and his gang could pick hidden paths without worrying about getting caught. Their Soul Perception ensured that they could reduce their noise to a minimum, and they swiftly passed the Orc Knights from above.

As the five of them landed neatly around the madden Orc King, a vicious strike came at Kairos’ neck.

*Pang*

His Swallow twirls quickly in a silvery light as he blocked off the cheap shot.

“Calculus!” Alan roared as everyone gripped their weapons tightly.

The Orc Knights also thundered out, revealing their battle lust and try to approach their King, but with a snort, the Orc King asked them to stop, again.

“This is getting interesting,” it bemused with a feral grin.

The young Orc King then turned and looked at Kairos directly. This young human boy was one that it was familiar with and full of unfathomable abilities. How could the Orc King ever forget that evening when that voice which hung in the air stilled the very mana in the entire zone?

As it placed its eyes on Kairos, it suddenly saw an incredibly surprising thing above Kairos’ head.

There are two ways for an Orc to communicate. The first method is to throw their mana-infused voice into the air and all that access the mana stream could hear the message. This method is usually accompanied by a roar or a growl to let the others know of its existence.

The second method is to throw the magic directly into the air, and this way will forcefully let all Orcs in the vicinity hear of the message and is akin to yelling in terms of speech.

At this moment Kairos threw raw soul energy into the air, copying the patterns of magic. While this is not magic, the Orc King could not help but see a barely visible message.

(:

It was a smiley face in the air.

HUUUH?!

The King of War Beasts found itself completely stumped!