A few more matches occurred, and finally, it was Teddy’s turn.
“Next match, Teddy Brix vs. John Woal!” Instructor Rufus announced.
“Go for it, Teddy!” It was Luiz and Luka’s turn to cheer up for him.
Teddy smiled back at them and nodded.
He carried a sword and went up to the platform. His short yellow-dried hair that waved backward bounced as he took a step.
His tall stature and smooth white skin charmed some of his female classmates.
His yellow eyes calmly looked at his opponent.
John Woal also looked back at him with his black eyes. John was taller than Teddy, though his square-shaped face and wrinkled face were the complete opposite of Teddy.
This made him angry and jealous.
`You shiny boy! I’ll smash that beautiful face into a pulp!`
He wasn’t that amiable towards good-looking people. Although his medium-long black hair covered most of his facial features, a part of it was still visible to the public’s eyes.
“Hmph!” John snorted and angrily charged at Teddy with his war hammer.
It was smaller when compared to Vargas’s war hammer, but still posed a threat to Teddy.
John slammed the war hammer in front of Teddy.
Teddy jumped to his right.
‘Boom!’
The ground where Teddy was before cracked.
Teddy was unperturbed about this and thrusted his sword forward.
“Hmph!”
His attack lightly scratched John’s left arm.
This angered the latter and tried to swing his war hammer to the left but Teddy had already backed away.
`Same strategy with that f*cker from earlier, huh?!` John saw through Teddy’s movements.
`Very well then! I won’t move unless you do!` John remained standing still while keeping up his guard.
Instructor Rufus saw this and commended John’s decision.
`Good! He kept his cool and didn’t follow through with what Vargas did earlier!`
Teddy wasn’t surprised. His classmates weren’t that stupid, well except for Luiz.
`You think I’m just some pretty boy, huh?!` Teddy recognized the hatred hidden behind John’s expression.
He knew this feeling too well.
Teddy snorted and charged out.
`You think my speed is something you could challenge?!`
His speed was so fast that John was unable to react on time. Several sword strikes came upon him, slowly tearing his uniform apart.
`How fast!` John was shocked. He didn’t expect Teddy to be that fast.
He thought that the guy was a weakling after seeing Teddy’s match from the last round.
Amidst John’s daze, Teddy had attacked several times again.
‘Whoosh!’
Only gusts of wind and Teddy’s blurry figure could be seen.
`He’s too fast! I can’t catch up to him!` John could not defend nor run away at all.
His classmates were awed about Teddy’s performance.
“Wow, Teddy is so fast!” Luiz remarked.
“Yeah, he’s so fast, it’s ridiculous,” Luka added.
Instructor Rufus narrowed his eyes.
`John’s panicking. His mind is thinking about how to catch up against his opponent. He could’ve just swung his war hammer all around and Teddy would’ve backed off.`
On the stage, Teddy kept on attacking, while John stood there in a daze.
He looked like a dummy standing on the platform.
His injuries kept on piling and soon after, his body was drenched in blood.
He soon felt light-headedness.
`F*ck!` John kneeled.
“Stop! The winner is Teddy Brix!” Instructor Rufus announced.
Claps and shouts filled the training area.
“Whoo, Teddy! You’re awesome!” Luiz shouted while raising his fists.
“Good match! John Woal, you lost because you panicked and only thought of keeping up your speed against your opponent! This restricted your mindset and inhibited your great skills of the war hammers!” Instructor Rufus remarked.
“You should’ve just overwhelmed Teddy with your strength because speed is not your forte! You will never be able to catch up to him! Next time, take advantage of your strength, understood?!” He strictly emphasized.
“Yes sir!” John bowed at him.
Instructor Rufus waved his hands.
“Next match!” He announced.
…
The eighth match occurred and finished soon after.
“The winner is Petrea Smidt!” Instructor Rufus announced.
The students clapped their hands again.
“Next match, Lia Milelli vs. Luka Alaze!”
The students immediately turned their heads over to where Zachariel was, only to find him standing with his eyes closed. His hands were inside his pockets, and it looked like he wouldn’t be observing Lia’s match.
“His girlfriend’s having her match, and he’s just cultivating? Is he that confident about Lia or is it something else?” Luiz was dumbfounded.
`Gir-girlfriend? Zachariel and Lia are already in a relationship?` Sabrina heard Luiz and her heart worried.
`Ah, Sabrina, what are you thinking about? There’s no way he and she are in a relationship, right? It’s Luiz so he might be just saying ridiculous things!` She assured herself.
Instructor Rufus did not reprimand Zachariel for cultivating right in front of the test matches.
`He must’ve felt bored after watching the matches. Bah, who cares about what he thinks right now?! Let’s continue!` He looked back at the platform and announced the start of the match.
Meanwhile, oblivious of the gossips around, Zachariel felt a change in the quality of his dark mana essence.
`The dark mana essence seems to have grown stronger. I don’t know what I did but something joined or stuck to something when I cultivated earlier…` Zachariel was confused.
`Never mind, let’s continue.`
He gathered mana essence from his surroundings again. Every time the mana essence entered his body, it is engulfed with the green light coming from the green lines in his mana nerves.
The light that engulfed the mana essence would then slowly fade away.
After that small process, the mana essence would then continue flowing within his mana nerves to his mana core.
`This is very weird. Why is this happening? Why is it engulfing the mana essences?` Zachariel wondered.
He tried doing it with the other mana essences and the same thing also happened.
He didn’t know what those weird green lines did, but it didn’t pose any threat to him so he let go of the matter for now.
…
Meanwhile, on the platform, Lia looked at Luka.
She was handling a bow and carried a few arrows from her quiver. She didn’t mind if Zachariel observed or not.
After all, for her, Zachariel’s interest in her match wasn’t that important. Zachariel already knew her battle prowess.
What was the use for him in seeing it again today?
She would rather put the energy to focus on the current task in front of her.
Other things could be set aside for a later time.
Luka, who held a spear on the other side, was rather surprised that Lia did not even look at Zachariel for once.
`Well, there goes my mentality plan.`
He wanted to put Lia in a stressful situation, but seeing the focused expression from her oval-face, he scrapped it and made an impromptu plan.
`Closing in on her would be difficult, but if I could bait her in using propulsion and drain her mana quickly, I could have a chance of winning this match.`
He made his decision, but Lia’s move troubled him.
`She’s moving away?`
Lia stepped a few meters back while drawing an arrow. She notched it to her bow and let go of it.
`Whoosh!`
The arrow flew from the bow and went to Luka.
`It’s too slo-!` Luka thought that Lia made a mistake when suddenly…
`This is?!` Instructor Rufus’ eyes widened in shock!
`Delayed Spell Activation: Propulsion!` Lia casted on her mind.
The arrow accelerated in a weird manner that caught him off guard.
`What the-?! What is this?!`
Luka could not properly adjust in time.
`Clang!`
Although the spear shaft blocked the attack, the force behind it pushed him back, putting him in a disadvantageous position.
`What a crafty girl!` Instructor Rufus nodded in satisfaction. `This match is set in stone.`
Meanwhile, Lia had sent another arrow. She did not delay the activation of the propulsion enhancement this time.
`Again? That fast?` Luka did not expect her to be this ruthless.
`Whoosh!`
`Clang!`
The arrow was blocked again, but Luka fell to the floor.
`I can’t read her movements!`
His mind and body were in disarray.
“Stop! The winner is Lia Milelli!” Instructor Rufus stopped the match.
Luka falling to the floor immediately made him a perfect target for Lia’s barrage of arrows.
`Sh*t, I lost!` Luka closed his eyes and breathed deeply.
He stood up while sighing in dissatisfaction.
“Luka Alaze, always put your guard up when fighting. You were caught off guard because you underestimated your opponent.” Instructor Rufus remarked.
“Yes sir!” Luka bowed.
Instructor Rufus nodded and waved his hands. Luka and Lia went off the platform.
“Luka, are you okay?” He asked.
“Yeah, I was just a bit careless earlier.” Luka shrugged.
He lost, and that was it. He didn’t want to ponder on it for the rest of his life.
“Luka, don’t feel bad about it. You’ll get your chance next time.” Teddy patted Luka’s shoulder.
Teddy was rather worried because Luka was the only one who didn’t pass the second round between the three of them.
“Don’t worry, I’m not feeling bad about it,” Luka smirked.
…
Instructor Rufus turned around and faced the whole class.
“The third round will start after a few minutes. All of you should rest up.” Instructor Rufus announced.
The students formed groups and talked with one another, except for Zachariel and Sabrina. The latter curiously observed Zachariel.
`The mana essences are being rapidly absorbed around him. It’s strange.` Sabrina was amazed.
Lia looked over too.
`Wow, I wonder what cultivation technique Zachariel uses!` Lia and Sabrina surrounded Zachariel from a distance. They did not want to disturb him whatsoever.
…
“He’s so serious about cultivation man…” Luiz was dumbfounded.
Even he, who was a cultivation maniac, didn’t exert as much effort as Zachariel did right now.
“Luiz, just let him be…” Luka shook his head. There’s nothing they could do about it except giving Zachariel the space he needed.
“Let’s go over there.” Luka pointed to where Iria was.
“Uh, I have to pee! Bye-bye!” Luiz escaped and went out of the training area.
“Damn it, he escaped.” Luka’s lips twitched.
`He’s getting smarter!`
“Let’s go, Luka?” Teddy asked.
Luka replied with a nod.
They approached the girls
…
“Students, get off your asses.” Instructor Rufus announced
“The third round will start now. We’ll have 4 matches, and one of you will be lucky to immediately proceed in the next round.” Instructor Rufus took out another box.
“To those who passed the previous round, get your numbers here.”
9 students went in front of Instructor Rufus.
They picked a number from the box and rolled it out.
Lia rolled her paper.
There was an L written on it.
“Lucky!” Lia waved her hands in victory.
“Damn it! It’s her again!” The other students cursed at Lia for drawing the lucky number.
“AAAAHHHHH!!!!” Luiz shouted in agony.
He dropped to the ground and punched it.
“Why am I the first to go again?!”
The rest were dumbfounded.
“Alright, stop with that commotion! Let’s see-!” Instructor Rufus was about to continue when the training area shook and the lights flashed in and out.
‘Boom!’
‘Brrrr!’
“What’s happening?!”
The students were scared.
“Is the school under attack?”
“Everyone, calm down!” Iria shouted at them but it was no good.
Some of them had already run to the exit.
“HALT!!!” Instructor Rufus shouted at the top of his lungs.
The shaking stopped and the lights came back after a slight pause. The students also stopped running and looked back at Instructor Rufus.
Some of them still held with one another, afraid that another quake would occur.
At the same time, Instructor Rufus found the source of the quake.
He looked at a specific person among the students.
`This student…` He gulped nervously as he stared at that black and white-haired student who had their eyes closed.
Dark mana essences surrounded him.
His appearance and disposition were akin to a demon lord that was brought down upon Pandragea to wreak death and destruction.
`What a monster!!!` Instructor Rufus shouted in his mind.
