The students cheered as the matches went on.
There were two students currently clashing atop the platform. It was an intense match as they casted skills after skills. Sparks flashed, dust flew, and the winds surged.
One of the students drew their sword into the throat of their opponent.
“Stop! The winner is Teddy Brix!”
The students clapped their hands after witnessing a wonderful performance. Teddy Brix and his opponent clashed multiple times before a victor was determined. It was unlike the first few matches which lasted for a few seconds.
Teddy Brix held out his hand, lifting his opponent, and shook hands with one another.
“Next match! Iria Usenko vs. Kent Fisker!”
It was their class president’s turn now. All of them cheered eagerly more than ever.
Iria’s weapon was a septum polearm. It has a spearhead mounted at the tip with two projections branching out from the base of the spear.
She had the disposition of a noble warrior as her long caramel ponytailed hair fluttered in the wind. Her oval-shaped face radiated beauty as she stared at her opponent with her blue eyes.
Kent also stood there, with his medium-long blue wavy hair covering one of his eyes. His black eyes stared at Iria in a flirtatious way as he held his longsword. It was 110 cm long and 4.5 cm wide.
“Fight!”
“Iria, you know that I don’t want to hurt you.” Kent acted as if he cared about their class president. His voice was melodic and flirtatious, making him look like he was born to be a playboy.
Iria just stared at him with cold eyes.
“Very well then, you’ve forced me into this!”
Kent charged over and swung his longsword at Iria. Iria deflected the attack to her right, sending Kent’s body over as well. She thrust her polearm towards Kent.
Kent adjusted his body and blocked the attack. They continued their clash while moving around the platform.
`She should be getting tired soon!` Kent observed Iria’s movements that had started to slow down.
Iria jumped backwards and then layered her polearm with earth mana essence. She thrust her polearm towards Kent again. Kent blocked it with his longsword just like before. However, he was dumbfounded when he realized that the power behind that thrust was stronger than he had expected.
`Damn it! She must have layered her polearm with earth mana essence!`
He stumbled but Iria wouldn’t allow him to readjust his body and she kept on attacking him. Kent was continuously being pushed back as he blocked the attacks with his longsword.
`How come she’s not tired yet?!`
His hands soon began to feel the shock and his countenance fell. `Shouldn’t Iria have poor strength and stamina?!`
The people below the platform were astonished.
“Look at that! Isn’t that Weapon Layering?!”
“Our class president is so cool!”
“Go Iria!”
The students were brimming with excitement after seeing their class president layering her weapon with her mana essence and pushing Kent to a disadvantageous position. Weapon layering was something that most of the freshmen could not do, especially after just 4 days in class.
Kent could no longer take the burden and fell to the ground. He was gasping hard for air. His arms and hands were in pain from the force of their clashes earlier. Iria pointed her polearm to his neck.
“Stop! The winner is Iria Usenko!”
The students cheered for the class president.
“Iria, you could’ve dodged your opponent’s strikes and let him tire himself out. Still, it was a good performance! Congratulations!”
“As for you Kent, you deliberately toyed with your opponent even though you could have finished the match shortly with your superior strength. In the end, you were forced back into a disadvantageous position, leading to your loss. Next time, try to end the match as soon as possible. Do not ever underestimate your opponent or overestimate yourself!”
“If you do this on the battlefield, a group of demon beasts would easily surround you as you tried to toy with one of their own instead of killing it directly and leaving the area. Those demon beasts have a keen sense of hearing, so don’t be too complacent about prolonging a fight, or else they’ll catch up and join in. Understood?!”
“Yes sir!” Kent was still having a hard time regaining back his breathing. Iria left the platform, leaving Kent slumping on the ground.
Another set of matches occurred. It was finally Luka’s turn.
“Next match! Luka Alaze vs. Tony Kallsen!”
Luka went to the platform.
“Luka, win the match!” Luiz cheered for him.
Luka replied with a smile and a thumbs up.
He stood at the platform; his black undercut hair displayed his beautiful rectangular face. His brown eyes calmly looked at his opponent as he held a spear.
Tony Kallsen also looked back to Luka with his black eyes. He could be mistaken as a monk with his bald hair and muscled body. He held the long quarterstaff with his two hands.
“Fight!”
`Propulsion!`
Luka advanced to Tony, thrusting his spear towards the opponent. Tony parried the attack and retaliated with a swing from his quarterstaff.
Luka backed away immediately and resumed his thrusting attack. This time, he feigned an attack position, took a step with his right foot, gathered his wind mana essence, and casted a skill.
`Piercing Wave!`
Tony was unprepared for Luka’s piercing wave attack. He thought that the guy would charge over again and battle him out.
He was thrown into the air. Luka charged over to him now.
Tony engulfed his body with earth mana essence in order to land back quickly to the ground. He somersaulted his body and regained his balance. He then defended himself from Luka’s aggressive attacks.
Luka backed away. Tony immediately prepared himself against another incoming piercing wave from Luka.
However, he was dumbfounded when he felt that his world turned upside down. He saw Luka pointing his spear to his neck.
`He actually attacked this time?! But how?!`
He was caught out of guard again. Luka actually increased his speed to near-supersonic by gathering a lot of wind mana essence to his feet. He then kicked Tony’s legs fiercely, making him fall to the ground.
“Stop! The winner is Luka Alaze!”
The students were astonished about Luka’s speed when he attacked Tony. It was even faster than when Narek used shadow steps.
“Nice work, Luka! You’ve completely used your advantage of being able to cast Propulsion against your opponent. That feint was nicely done as well. You’ve confused your opponent into determining which move you would do next!”
“As for you, Tony, you didn’t use your earth essence to cover your entire body to defend against Luka’s attacks. Instead, you only did that when he had struck your body. Always be on guard, understand?!”
“Yes sir!”
The two of them went off the stage. The last match was held after them. The winner of that final match was a girl student.
“Good work, students! We’ll resume the next set of matches 3 days from now! I hope that those who passed would train well and improve further! Don’t be complacent or else you’ll be the one losing next time! I will reward those who would enter the top 4!”
“To those who have failed, I hope that you taught yourself a lesson from this test! It’s okay for you to fail, but don’t ever give up to become a better fighter and a student! You will be rewarded as long as you don’t give up so train well too!”
Instructor Rufus encouraged his students to become better. They had a lot of potentials and he did not want them to end up dead when the battlefield exercise commences a few months from now.
Regarding the skirmish event, he wouldn’t expect that they will win. After all, the Elden’s top students who were second only to their Prospect candidates all had grade 6 mana cores. It was equivalent to some of their Prospects and Prospect candidates. Meanwhile, the students in the Imperium only had a grade 5 mana core or so.
It would be stupid for them to force their students to win it. They could only hope that their students would gain battle experience for that category. On the other hand, their only chance was the Prospect category, but for them to win it was uncertain too.
“Class is dismissed!”
All of the students vacated the training field. Buvalu had already woken up a few matches ago.
“Who do you think will be at the top 4?”
“I think the class president, Diega, Vargas, and Luiz has the best chances right now.”
“You’re right, our class president has superb mana control and plans ahead, while Diega and Vargas have ridiculous physical strength. Luiz and Luka seem to be a match. We still haven’t seen Luiz’s true power yet, so you’re probably right.”
“We, average students could only look up to them.”
The students sighed in defeat.
“Hey, what about those two Prospect candidates in our class?”
A student pointed at Sabrina and Zachariel.
“Them? Zachariel would surely win. I bet 10 silver coins for that!”
“Hah, I bet Sabrina would win. Also, 10 silver coins for that!”
“Very well then! I’ll see how you both fare three days from now!”
The three students were Buvalu, Remko, and Tony. They were best friends, and they liked to bet on matches like this.
“Hey, Remko! Let’s spar tomorrow at the public training field. I want to improve my skills and beat that guy Luka next time!”
“Sure, Tony. I could also use this training to be able to beat that guy Luiz next time!”
For some reason, Tony and Remko would repeat some part of the message that the other talked about when they talked within themselves.
“Hey, how about you let me in on the training too?”
“Buvalu! Find someone other than us. We’re already tied up here. Hehehe.”
The two of them evilly smiled at Buvalu. Buvalu could only scratch his head. He’ll just find other opponents in the public training field tomorrow.
Sabrina went alone herself. Luka and Luiz joined Zachariel with Diega and Lia in tow.
The two boys were merrily chatting with one another. They wanted to talk to Zachariel but that busty girl was on the way.
They saw Iria in the hallway and immediately put up a “friendly smile”.
“Hey, class president! Congratulations for winning your match earlier!”
“Yes! Yes! Your performance was superb, as expected from someone designated as the class-“
Iria kicked Luiz’s balls. The latter slumped to the ground while holding his dear eggs. Iria coldly looked at him as he twitched in pain.
Luka ran and hid behind Zachariel. He didn’t want his lineage to be destroyed like Luiz.
“Class president, why? I was complimenting you with the most genuine feelings I have.”
Luiz felt great regret. He shouldn’t have done that.
“Hmph!”
Iria walked away with Kaela and Ksenia. She had actually blushed when her classmates were congratulating her, but she didn’t take it as a compliment on the outside.
“I’m sorry my brother, it looks like your future is doomed now. I could only comfort you mentally regarding this problem.”
“Then comfort me, you damn bastard! Help me up!”
Luiz was clearly infuriated against Iria when she kicked his balls. `That was a lifetime asset that I could pride myself on showing it to others! Damn it!`
He was actually talking about his children in the future.
He limped as he was walking while Luka carried him in his arms. The two groups walked beside one another. Zachariel was completely uninterested in everything around him.
Every one of them actually wanted to ask Zachariel to help them in their training, but they hesitated when they saw his expression.
`He’s probably busy training because he’s one of the representatives, right?`
Iria thought out in her mind. `I guess I could only train with the others in the following days.`
She wanted to be part of the top 20 students to represent the Imperium in the regular category. Even if she couldn’t win, she wasn’t someone who’d lose without a fight. In order to do that, she wanted to spar against someone who has a huge gap of strength against her.
Sabrina and Zachariel were the only two possible choices she could have.
They went back to their classroom.
“Hey, do you think that sleepwalking instructor would go back again?”
“I don’t know, but I wish for him to teach us something interesting again!”
“I know right?! Our instructors are boring to listen to. I wish he was part of our class instructors as well.”
The students of class W1-A were really eager to listen to Instructor Jonas and his topics. Even though his topics weren’t that helpful in their cultivation lifestyle, knowing a bit about history was something that all of them wanted to have.
Luiz and Luka approached Sabrina. They wanted to try if they could get her help for training. “Sabrina, we’d like to ask for your help. Can you be our sparring partner tomorrow at the public training field?”
“Huh? What are you talking about? I’m already busy training for the upcoming skirmish event and you want me to help you too?”
Luiz and Luka smacked their heads for being stupid. `Why didn’t we thought of that?!`
“Ah yeah! Sorry about asking for that. We didn’t notice that you and Zachariel are actually busy with training! Hehehe.”
Sabrina’s expression slightly changed, but it quickly returned to normal. However, Iria caught wind of that.
“We’ll go now! Sorry for disturbing you!”
The two of them quickly evacuated back to their seats and talked with each other again.
The door was opened. It was Instructor Jonas.
`Yes! My wish came true!`
`He’s come back!`
All of them excitedly went back to their seats and behaved themselves. They waited for Instructor Jonas to start his discussion.
Instructor Jonas carried the same appearance when he visited them for the first time.
“Good morning, today we’ll be discussing more about world essence and the Nervadellirs.”
