Thump! Thump! Thump!
Consecutive, loud beating sounds reverberated within Emery's body, as he could distinctly feel his body brimming and burning with seemingly unrivalled strength.
Thanks to this, he managed to deal with the speedster Mahareth easily enough. His muscle movements and casting speed were in such synergy that he successfully trapped and captured his really fast opponent with the right settings and timing, before appearing exactly behind the other party and delivering a full-powered kick to its leg.
CRACK!!
A loud sound of bones breaking was heard through the air, as Mahareth stumbled and eventually fell to the ground. He immediately decided to voice his surrender, when he realized he could no longer feel the leg that was hit by Emery's kick. After all, he would be a literal sitting duck when his speciality was neutralized.
Emery retreated when Mahareth gestured to the referee. His eyes shifted to the latter's broken leg. Emery tries not to feel too worked up about it and says to himself that it doesn't matter as the academy had prepared the best medical team in case of emergencies like this.
Still, Emery couldn't forget what he caught a glimpse of – the terrified expression on Maharent's face. It strangely affected him in an unknown way, but he quickly tried to calm down. He still had more opponents to fight.
As expected, the next two opponents were much harder than their predecessor.
The rank 74th Dayasta and rank 73rd Cenari were both solid weapon experts. The two of them each had their own distinct style that separeted them from the rest.
Dayasta's two-handed double edge axe hid a powerful force that created a strong gust of wind with each swing. The man also had a wild ferocity aura similar to Orycon. However, the two were not comparable, as he lacked the agility and flair the latter had.
As a result, he could only watch his ax continuously hit the empty air, because Emery had decided to evade direct confrontation with him. Emery was simply too fast for him. In the end, he fell down to the ground with numerous slashing wounds on his body.
However, the man seemed to have decided not to give up so easily, as he stood up with difficulty and continued his attacks with reckless abandon. Due to that, Emery received a few of his strikes, before silence returned to the arena that was dyed red with Dayasta's blood.
The third opponent Emery had to fight in his climb to the next tier, Cenari, was even harder to fight against. His fighting style was very similar to his, but instead of swords, he wielded sabers, and instead of [Blink], the dual wielding acolyte utilized the [Phasing] spell as his means of mobility.
If that wasn't similar enough, the man also had an impressive battle art that was comparable to Emery's [Weeping Phantom].
In the end, the battle between the two of them became a two-sided cat and mouse fight, where both of them simultaneously tried their best to hit and dodge attacks the other party threw.
After a hundred fruitless clashes and relentless use of mobility spells, Cenari was finally the one to drop first due to his stamina. Again, Emery proved to everyone that he had a much better physical condition and deeper spirit pool than his peers.
This marked the end of the eighth bout Emery has gone through today. So, he made his way to the rest area and started to recuperate his body once again. He really started to appreciate the 10-minute break the rules dictated.
Realizing his natural self regeneration was no longer sufficient to recover his condition fast enough, Emery quickly sat in lotus position and cast [Nature's Blessing] on himself to fill his nearly depleted spirit pool.
At the same time, the announcement of his victory came to mind.
[Your Privilege rank increased to 73]
A few minutes later, Emery opened his eyes and saw the senior staff approaching him and once again asked him if he wanted to continue.
"Yes, I am ready."
[Rank 70 – Vegoth Sage (65)]
The next opponent Emery had to face looked quite different than usual. The man named Vegoth Sage has rather unique braided-style hair and wore many jewelries, too many in fact.
When the referee announced the match had started, his opponent started mumbling words he couldn't fathom. Fortunately, or unfortunately, his questions were soon answered, as Emery started to see glowing marks appear on the arena floor.
One… two… three pentagrams.
Right after, different kinds of arms came out from them. A fleshless bone arm, a muscular arm covered in green scales, a long arm with feathers on it. They all belonged to a skeleton with full armor, a humanoid lizard and a winged creature.
A Summoner!
Knowing the key to the battle, which was to defeat the conjurer, Emery immediately put the majority of his attention onto Vegoth. He quickly cast [Blink] and appeared beside the latter, sending a horizontal slash. However, Vegoth seemed to be ready for his attack, as he immediately blocked it.
Emery was about to initiate his next attack, when he realized the three summons were very close to him. Realizing the trade wouldn't be worth it – as he would be surrounded, while Vegoth only received a wound, Emery quickly backed off with [Blink].
The battle went on, as Emery tried different approaches, but the same thing basically happened and he finally realized what Vegoth was trying to do.
All this time, he planned to only stall him long enough for his three summons to surround him. In fact, it was almost as if he depended on Emery to do exactly that. Apparently, he understood this was the only way for him to win the match.
The situation quickly became a four against one battle, where Emery was besieged from different directions. He was also at a big disadvantage, because each of Vegoth's summons was able to stop his attacks.
As if that wasn't annoying enough, whenever Emery defeated and killed one of the summons, Vegoth would immediately start his chant and then the summon would reappear – as if nothing had happened.
Fighting the three summons controlled by Vegoth reminded Emery of the time he fought the Orc Warchief, but this time there were three of them at once. Not only did they possess at least 150 battle power, each summon fought in a different style, which was really troublesome to deal with. The skeleton showcased a short range defensive specialty with its sword and shield, middle range spearmanship for the lizard, and the unpredictable attack coming from above by the winged creature.
Clank! Clank! Clank!
Emery fought ferociously, as [Weeping Phantom] and [Chain Strike] worked in tandem, countering all attacks the three summons threw at the same time. But as time went on, he found himself gradually becoming overwhelmed.
This was to be expected though, while Emery's skillset was extremely suitable to fight against dozens of weaker opponents, the three summons he was fighting against were not even easy to deal with individually.
Knowing his raw 168 battle power and spirit force at its maximum were not enough, the thought of using his [Fey Transformation] crossed in Emery's mind. However, his hunch was telling him something out of his control would happen if he did that, which was the reason he hesitated.
In his hesitation, the lizard managed to take advantage of the gap and land its spear on Emery's right shoulder, piercing it and sending blood splattering in the air.
"Argh!" Emery cried, as the sharp pain brought him back from reverie.
The spectators were caught off guard by the unexpected development, some were actually cheering, especially one particular acolyte in golden robe.
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Written by Avans, Published exclusively by W.e.b.n.o.v..e.l,