The green ray of energy that Einen’s lunge had turned into struck Tom in the chest. He doubled over, flew about fifty yards through the air, and slammed into the wall of the arena. Stone fragments fell to the ground, burying him.
“By the High Heavens…”
Hadjar didn’t think he could’ve survived Einen using that on him.
“Did he win?” Dora asked quietly.
She stared at the arena, unblinking. The spectators remained absolutely silent, hoping that they’d get to witness a miracle.
After so long, the oppressed disciples of the outer circle could finally have a real hero to look up to. One of their own, a commoner who could knock out an heir of one of the seven great clans with a single blow. An ordinary disciple that could defeat a disciple of the inner circle! It made the students’ hearts beat faster and their palms sweat with excitement.
However, had they looked at Anise, they would’ve been greatly worried. Hadjar clenched his fists, incredulous at how calm the girl was. She hadn’t even flinched when Einen had used his killing Technique.
“If he’d used an Imperial level spear-staff, he might’ve hurt my brother,” she said calmly.
The spectators heard coughing coming from the hole in the wall. Covered in white dust, Tom Dinos emerged from the debris. There was a large bruise on his chest.
“By the demons!” Hadjar slammed his fist against his knee.
A tiny smudge that had appeared on the noble’s Imperial blade rapidly disappeared. That damned brat’s sword had absorbed most of the attack.
And although Einen looked calm, his eyes widened ever so slightly. Hadjar knew that this was a sign his friend would now be fighting for his life.
Tom wiped the blood leaking from the corners of his mouth away.
“Even a pup can bite,” he said musingly.
With that, Dinos simply disappeared. A shallow crater was left behind in the sand where he’d been standing.
With a loud boom, he appeared behind Einen and attacked him from below. Standing in place and prepared to defend himself, the islander, a man who specialized in defense, failed to dodge in time.
Tom’s sword struck Einen’s back. Or rather, the plate of the ape’s rainbow armor covering it. As soon as the Imperial level blade touched it, it turned to dust.
Einen was thrown into the air, now completely helpless. Dinos disappeared again, and with another boom, appeared in the air directly above the islander. He swung his body around and slashed at the shadow ape’s chest. If he’d used the cutting edge of his sword instead of the blunt one, he would’ve cut Einen in half. The attack threw Einen to the ground. The huge ape struck like a meteor, shaking the whole arena. Einen lay in the center of a huge pit, coughing out blood. Tom landed lightly next to him.
“But no matter how hard a dog bites, it’ll never overcome a lion. ‘Thunder God’s Sword!’”
The Technique that Ian Gorr had used had only been called the ‘Thunder God’s Sword’ Technique. Hadjar was now getting a chance to see what this Heaven level Technique actually looked like when used properly by an heir of a great swordsman clan. Tom’s blade, still angled so that the blunt side would hit Einen, turned into a lightning bolt. Another slash struck the shadow ape. A single blow!
The writhing shadows and rainbow dust filling the air hadn’t even had enough time to settle before Dinos lifted the bloodied and barely breathing Einen by the scruff of his neck. The islander was still clutching his spear-staff, but he could no longer move it.
“Dora Marnil!” Tom shouted, turning toward the crowd. “Your decision?”
The elf girl shook her head furiously and bit her lip. Her blue eyes brimmed with tears.
“Either you accept my proposal, or he dies. Make your choice! I’ll give you three seconds!”
Hadjar turned to Dora, who turned to Anise:
“You promised me that he wouldn’t kill him!”
“I... I…”
Anise seemed even more shocked than Dora was. She could’ve never imagined that her brother would stoop to such a blatant, cheap trick to influence Dora’s decision!
“Two seconds!”
Dinos lifted Einen like a helpless kitten. The islander groaned in pain. It seemed like he had almost no unbroken bones left.
Dora remained silent.
“One!”
Tom grinned as he pointed the tip of his blade at Einen’s chest. Hadjar’s heart pounded so hard that he could hear nothing but the blood drumming in his ears.
Scenes from the past flashed through his mind.
“Let’s leave, brother. Together... like we planned.” Nero smiled at him.
The next memory still haunted his nightmares.
“Stop joking, my love... Get up, Nero... This isn’t funny anymore...” Serra held Nero tightly. A blade protruded from his back.
Dora still remained silent. Her eyes were closed, and tears were rolling down her cheeks.
“Time’s up.” Dinos said, and pushed his sword forward.
An inhuman, low roar pierced the air.
“NOOOO!”
Chapter 518
“If that boy,” Orune stood in the boat with his arms crossed, looking down at the arena, “the one you told me about, is as strong as this islander, we’re wasting our time.”
“Don’t forget that he’s fighting a disciple of the inner circle,” Jean said.
At that very moment, Einen, his former ward, appeared behind Dinos. “Just look at him…”
Seeing Einen’s Technique, Orune raised his eyebrows in surprise.
“River Serpent?”
“It’s still at the Earth level, but…”
“Do you see what I see?” Jean looked at the islander. “His Technique has the same potential for growth as an Imperial level one.”
“Maybe even more so.” Orune nodded. “If the boy had had a good artifact, even with such a poor performance, he would’ve killed Dinos on the spot. Interesting…”
Jean nodded thoughtfully. Imperial level Techniques were stored on the seventh floor of the Treasure Tower and were considered the foundation of the power of ‘The Holy Sky’ School.
Like Orune, Jean felt that Einen’s ‘River Serpent’ had the potential to become much more powerful than an Imperial level Technique. It could possibly become a Divine Technique!
“Where did he find such knowledge?” Jean couldn’t avoid sounding indignant.
“Many monsters wearing the skins of lambs wander this world.” Orune remembered an old saying. “Some of them leave their Inheritance behind before they die. Maybe this young man came across one such Inheritance.”
“Lucky,” Jean said with envy and contempt.
He considered himself a very unlucky man.
“But, alas, his luck ran out today.”
Dinos climbed out of the hole and used his Heaven level ‘Void Step’ Movement Technique. Tom had bought the first three volumes of it, but the fourth and fifth were kept on the seventh floor of the Treasure Tower.
“Good.” Orune nodded. “The boy is worthy of his late father’s legacy. He was considered one of the fastest swordsmen in the Empire.”
“You haven’t seen his older sister yet. Young Anise might very well surpass her father.”
“Maybe.”
Orune was engrossed in the battle. As a swordsman, he was always glad to observe another swordsman in action. Even now, Orune was looking for any clues that could aid him in his search for the ‘true path of the Sword Spirit’.
Jean, meanwhile, reflected on why the clans sent their offspring to Schools. They had their own libraries that held a variety of Techniques. However, most of them were incomplete, so they had to send their children to Schools…
Well... His Majesty wasn’t just powerful, but cunning as well. Over thousands of years, the clans had managed to cultivate their own Imperial Techniques, which had become the basis of their power. Fortunately, there were only seven such clans.
“Well, I don’t think that we�
��ll ever find out where the boy got his knowledge from,” Orune said calmly. “Was that the ‘Thunder God’ Technique? For butchering the Technique so horribly, I’d give that noble bastard a hundred different punishments at once.”
“In my opinion, it was executed rather well.”
“Rather well?” Orune mocked his friend. “If you can’t perform a Technique perfectly, you shouldn’t use it in battle at all. He dishonors the name of his ancestors and the entire Predatory Blades clan. He’s mediocre at best!”
Jean, who didn’t know much about the path of the Sword Spirit, didn’t argue with his friend. He also didn’t approve of Dinos’ behavior. Was the boy trying to blackmail Dora, the eldest heiress of the elves? That was a low blow. If the Predatory Blades clan stepped on the toes of House Marnil, Hera would stop helping humans. And she was the best healer and alchemist in the entire Empire.
“Let’s go.” Orune looked away from the arena. “It’ll be useless to try and test his abilities any time soon. If you’re right and they really are close friends, he’ll be recovering from his emotional wounds for a very long time.”
Orune and Jean knew that Dora Marnil would never accept Tom’s offer, not because of her pride, but because of the islander’s.
If she agreed to the sleazy bargain and became a victim of the islander’s defeat, Einen would never be able to become a worthy warrior. Moreover, it was unlikely that he would ever again be able to hold a weapon in his hands. Honor wasn’t just an empty word to cultivators, it was the foundation of their power. No one who had an empty heart could truly be a cultivator.
Accepting Tom’s offer would’ve saved his life, but it would’ve also killed the warrior within him. Dora couldn’t do such a thing to Einen. It was better to die with honor than to live without it…
Suddenly, Orune tensed. He sensed that, somewhere down there, in the crowd, a wild beast had just awakened. It was full of rage. It could also destroy most of those present singlehandedly. Instinctively, Orune drew his blade and whirled toward the arena. Jean did the same. The two Lords stared at the stands. They could feel a primal, unbridled rage, but they couldn’t see the beast it was emanating from.
Tom plunged his sword into his foe’s chest. In that same instant, a pillar of black energy formed on the podium.
“NOOOO!” Orune and Jean heard a roar.
“Now it gets interesting!” Orune’s eyes flashed with excitement.
Cursing, Jean sheathed his weapon. One madman had just met another of his kind. Well, he’d done his job, even if it had cost someone their life.
“Come on, boy, show me what you’ve got!” Orune shouted, brandishing his sword.
Still roaring like a wounded Lord of the Heavens, Hadjar launched a frontal attack on the veil. Shrouded in black energy, he left behind a long plume of it trailing in his wake, and it contained the outline of a dragon’s body.
“He won’t make it.” Jean shook his head. “That veil could stop even me.”
“But not me!” Orune said fiercely.
“Are you comparing yourself to this boy?”
Orune turned to his friend and flashed him a predatory smile. The same one that had made the hearts of all the Lascanian warriors simultaneously skip a beat so long ago.
“Yep!” He shouted. “This training veil wouldn’t have stopped me at his age!”
“You were a Spirit Knight at the age of sixteen, and he’s still just a Heaven Soldier.”
“There’s no point in teaching someone who’s weaker than you! If I am to take him on as my personal disciple, he must be two, no, five times stronger than me!”
“You’re a madman,” Jean replied exasperatedly.
***
Hadjar struck the veil with all his might. It buckled slightly, but withstood the blow. After activating his Call and summoning the Black Blade into the physical world, Hadjar had used everything he had. Up close and with the full force of his power behind it, this was the best Technique he had.
“Stop barking, you dog!” Dinos threw Einen’s body aside. It had a gaping hole in its chest. “Wait your turn.”
Crouching down, Tom cleaned the blood off his sword by wiping it against Einen’s traditional battle dress.
“AAAAAAH!”
Hadjar’s eyes flashed with such a bright blue light that, for a moment, it seemed as if his pupils had disappeared. The blood in his ears pounded steadily and calmly. Boom. BOOM-BOOM. Boom. BOOM-BOOM.
“General!” Hadjar heard behind him.
Then again.
“General!”
Again and again…
“General! General! General! General!”
Why hadn’t Hadjar been able to use the Black General’s attack before? Because he had been trying to do it with just his hands!
***
The spectators saw a terrifying sword slash. It was as if Hadjar was trying to cut through everything and destroy everyone in his path. It looked like he was trying to destroy not just the veil in front of him, but the entire world. Many of the weak cultivators, sensing the threat, immediately drew their weapons, but the attack wasn’t directed at them.
A ribbon of darkness that destroyed everything in its path fell on the veil. The barrier quivered and crackled, and then a small crack appeared on its surface. The plume of black fog burst through it. It crashed into the sand, making the ground beneath it explode as huge chunks of rock rained down. Then the plume exploded into an ocean of darkness. A hand wearing a black gauntlet reached out of it. It grabbed the shocked Dinos by the throat and lifted him into the sky.
The spectators saw Hadjar shout something into Tom’s face. His blue eyes smoldered with a mad fury that could burn even the Heavens themselves to the ground. Another roar shook the air.
The Black Blade bit into flesh like a fang.
Chapter 519
Tom tossed Einen’s body aside with a sigh of disappointment. Did Dora really hate him so much that she preferred this dog to him? He just couldn’t believe it.
His thoughts were suddenly interrupted by a surge of energy so powerful that he felt it even through the veil. Skin crawling with unease, he looked in the direction the oppressive feeling was coming from.
“Another dog,” he hissed through clenched teeth.
Shrouded in black energy, the commoner’s friend with the strange weapon was charging at the barrier. Anise had told him that she hadn’t been able to figure out whether that sword of his was a Spirit Weapon or an artifact. According to her, each time she and Hadjar had met, his sword had grown stronger. None of the heirs of the Predatory Blades clan, which was famous for producing master swordsmen since ancient times, had ever heard of such an artifact. Looking at the commoner attacking the veil with such unrelenting fury and ferocity, Tom wished that he had a friend like that.
You don’t need friends! He reminded himself angrily. In this world, people are either strong or weak. All relationships are nothing but stones with which one paves their way to victory.
The veil shook beneath the commoner’s savage attacks. Tom could hardly believe his eyes: a mutt like Hadjar was making a veil that could stop a Lord shudder.
However, it was all a matter of using one’s energy properly. A somewhat capable Spirit Knight would’ve been able to punch a hole in this veil with a good enough Technique. The veil served only as a ‘screen’ against the audience’s shouts and their bursts of energy. The judges were there to prevent anybody from breaking into the arena. Tom turned toward the podium but... Mentor Markin wasn’t there anymore.
“Damned geezer,” he growled.
Instinctively assuming a defensive stance, Tom’s body crackled with lightning bolts. The Thunder God’s armor, used without an artifact, looked like blue waves of electricity surging up and down his naked torso.
“What the hell…”
A moment later, a thin ribbon of darkness struck the veil. It only cut a narrow slit in it, but that was enough for the fog to pour into the arena.
Dinos saw
a black dragon rise up into the sky and then crash back down. A gauntleted hand made of fog reached out from the pool of darkness that spilled across the arena. It crushed the Thunder God’s armor as if it were made of paper and gripped Dinos’ throat tightly. The noble didn’t understand what was happening, his eyes wide with shock. He’d been lifted from the ground like an unruly child. A face appeared from the darkness. It was the commoner. In the depths of his blue, beastly eyes, Tom saw an enraged dragon.
Something hot, almost alive, stabbed him in the side. Thick, red blood spilled from Tom’s mouth and coated the commoner’s face. In addition to the sharp flash of pain, Dinos felt something hungry begin to consume his energy, searching for the crumbs of his Spirit that Tom had been able to cultivate thus far.
“Damn it!”
Tom kicked the commoner away. At such a short distance, his kick, which he’d put all his strength into, could’ve taken the life of a weak Heaven Soldier. To his surprise, Tom sensed energy belonging to a Heaven Soldier at the middle stage emanating from the enraged commoner.
Did this mutt manage to break through to the next stage?
Grimacing, Tom covered the wound with his hand and sent a lightning bolt into it. The smell of burning flesh filled the air. That weird sword struck again, but this time, his Imperial armor blocked it.
“Let’s see who’s stronger, you mutt!”
Dinos focused on his core and gathered some energy.
“Thunder God’s Sword!”
***
Dinos’ armor was like Dora’s: it glimmered with a soft, silver light in the sun, and covered him completely. His hands appeared to be gripping lightning bolts. With just one swing, Tom sent a long crescent of energy flying forward. It looked like an elongated spark, and left a trail of burning air in its wake.
Hadjar counterattacked by launching a crescent of his own. It looked smaller and narrower, less dense and saturated with energy, but the darkness greedily consumed every spark of light emitted by Dinos’ attack.
They collided in the middle of the arena. A powerful explosion turned into a multicolored vortex. Tendrils of darkness flickered out of the vortex, beating against the walls of the arena and carving deep hollows in them. Blue lightning bolts caressed the magical dome, leaving scorch marks behind.
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