Every single student was under so much pressure except Michael. He was chilling by the lake with Nightmare. He even bought a black aviator from the system store and wore it while sunbathing. On top of it, he also bought one for Nightmare. The little dragon looked so cute wearing sunglasses.
”Sixty-six” a youngster in green robes approached Michael,
”Beat it fifty, I’m not gonna do anything today” Michael chased away the youngster who was about to ask some doubt related to alchemy,
They continued to bask in the warmth of the morning sun and enjoyed the lake view. Since they had no classes to attend, Michael and Nightmare decided not to do anything academics related.
While relishing their free time, Michael took a sip of freshly brewed coffee through the straw. He was receiving badass points just by chilling.
”So have you decided what to show in the talent exhibition?” Nightmare asked, looking at the crystal clear sky.
”Yeah”
”What is it? You’re gonna blow everyone out of the water, aren’t you?”
”No” Michael’s answer surprised Nightmare. The dragon turned his head to look at the relaxed face of Michael.
”You always show off” frowned Nightmare,
”Not this time. I’m gonna put together a potion that would make people float”
”Cool” Nightmare lowered the sunglasses for a moment before raising them up.
Nightmare realized the reason for his lack of commitment to creating a new potion for the talent exhibition. Ninety-nine percent of the students were working their assess off to impress Skyhall representatives and getting assigned to any of the Skyhall organizations. That leftover one percent was students who had no desire to join Skyhall, such as Michael, Victoria, and Edith.
Speaking of Victoria, she was looking at Michael and Nightmare from a distance.
”What’s he doing? And where did he find those black glasses?” Edith asked. She couldn’t help giggling at Nightmare. He was too cute.
”What does it look like, he’s taking a rest,” Victoria said showing no emotion,
Her emotionless face quickly showed some expression as she creased her brows. She noticed Diego who got his ass kicked by Ghost approaching him with a couple of his lackeys.
”You” Diego growled as Michael lowered his glasses,
”I want a rematch” Diego growled again,
”Fuck off” Michael did not even consider Diego’s request for a rematch,
Unexpectedly, Diego didn’t lose his calm. He remained, uttering no cuss words.
”This time, rematch, no restrictions. Are you man enough to accept my challenge?” Diego pointed his finger at Michael and challenged him,
”Now you’re being cliche. Go away, it’s my rest day” Michael was too lazy to even look at Diego.
”He will accept it” all of a sudden, Michael heard the cold waspish voice sound in his ears,
”Professor Lane” Diego and his lackeys quickly straightened their bodies.
As Professor Lane landed on the grass field beside Nightmare, Michael and the little dragon removed their glasses and stood up,
”Since you have so much free time, I will allow this duel to happen”
Professor Lane gave both Michael and Nightmare a death stare. However, that gaze was way better than what he gave to Diego and his lackeys,
”Monkeys have bigger brains and fashion sense than you buffoons”
Before Diego or his lackeys could respond to Lane’s comment, he flicked his wrist as a bright light enveloped all of them. The next moment, Michael noticed he was standing in the middle of the arena.
”The students need a distraction” Professor Lane exclaimed,
Michael was really pissed off by Lane. He was a Soul Refining stage level 2 cultivator whereas Diego was only at the Core Strengthening stage level 1. He wasn’t against kicking Diego’s ass but he was worried about revealing his own cultivation stage to others.
It was obvious Professor Lane was upset with Michael because he didn’t create a mind-blowing new potion or a pill. A potion that would enable someone to fly was borderline pointless.
Still, Michael went with that because he was not stupid enough to give a super-powerful potion to Skyhall which could be later used against him.
Diego had no idea about the power gap between them. He was still thinking that Michael was in the Core Formation stage. In his mind, if he could use Arch energy, he could defeat him and wash away the shame.
What surprised Michael though Lane too didn’t have a clue about his cultivation stage. If he had, he wouldn’t have permitted this duel.
Professor Lane stood between Diego and Michael until the area got filled with students. A rematch between them was too tempting for the students to ignore.
Victoria and Edith came to the arena with the rest of the Warrior House students. It was a sudden battle but surprisingly the students of each house managed to draw sign boards showing their support for each participant. Unlike the first duel they had, this time, Michael had way too many supporters from the Alchemists house.
”Sixty six”
”Sixty six”
”Sixty six”
”Sixty six”
They were cheering for Michael loudly as the scene reminded Michael of the tournament.
”Let’s get this over with” Michael sighed,
Unknown to him, a special person came to witness the battle disguised as House Runemasters students. It was none other than Rowena Winston, the Holy Maiden of Skyhall.
Just like Michael, she got bored and decided to chill. When she saw the commotion, she decided to come to the arena.
”You can go chill out” Michael patted Nightmare on the head. The dragon nodded, then, he snickered at Diego,
”I hope you have a healing potion with yourself”
Diego might seem calm outside, but inside, he was burning with rage. He wanted to rip the wings off that snarky dragon and teach it a lesson. For now, he had to deal with his master.
After everything was said and done, Professor Lane simply flicked his hand as a giant chakra flicked in the ground,
”It will keep you alive”
Professor Lane didn’t linger around. He took off into the air leaving Michael and Diego behind. Michael felt nothing but Diego could feel his arch energy returning to his body.
”I was waiting for this moment for so long” Diego cracked his knuckles,
Michael on the other hand, just like before, said nothing. He just lowered his sunglass,
”Begin”
”Ignitia”
Not even a millisecond passed by after Lane uttered the word ‘begin’ when a golden bolt of lightning shot out of Michael’s finger and penetrated through Diego’s throat.
”GRRRHHHH!” Diego clenched his throat as blood gushed out of the wound. He dropped to his knees, losing all the strength in his body. The chakra beneath him began to glow in green and soon, a light layered Diego’s body.
The students were utterly shocked. Many didn’t even see what just happened. The duel was finished as soon as it began. All the cheers resounding in the arena stopped abruptly.
Michael raised his sunglasses and looked badass doing it.
”Professor, can I leave now?” Michael looked up, asking Professor Lane.
For the first time since Michael met him, this was the first time he saw Lane shocked. Professor Lane was unable to answer Michael for a few moments. Not only him, but Rowena was also surprised.
”So he is the Ghost,” Rowena said to herself. Ever since Rowena heard Ghost saved her mother, cousin, and Sabrina, she wanted to meet Ghost in person. But due to some reasons, she was unable to do so until now.
As the Holy Maiden, she had access to all student records. Thanks to those records, she identified Michael successfully.
”Not yet” Professor Lane regained his cold demeanor. He completely ignored Diego as he landed in front of Michael,
”Here” Michael saw Professor Lane taking out a silver parchment from his space ring with a flick of his wrist,
”You’re excused from the talent exhibition. You can leave whenever you want and return after the holidays”
Everyone including Michael was surprised by the sudden gift from Professor Lane. The holidays were supposed to start three weeks after the talent exhibition.
Michael removed the sunglasses,
”Well, thank you Professor”
”It’s better you don’t show yourself in the talent exhibition than underselling yourself there”
Michael didn’t expect this from Professor Lane. To be honest, Michael was completely caught off guard by him. If he had known beating Diego again would get him an early ticket out of Akilan, he would have done it sooner.
”Thank-“
Before Michael could finish his sentence, Professor Lane vanished into thin air. The badass points notifications were going crazy in his mind. In a few minutes, he earned almost eighty thousand badass points.
He thought the rain of badass points was about to end when he turned back. He was dead wrong. Someone landed beside Diego with a loud thud, shaking the ground beneath.
”Halt”
The clear crisp voice made Michael halt his steps. Without even turning back, Michael knew who was standing behind him by the reactions of the students around him.
Just as he guessed, he turned around to see the head prefect Elliot Watson, clad in full silver armor looking at Michael. The array placed in the arena almost healed Diego back to full health.
”Not another duel” Michael was annoyed inside. Although fighting them would get him a ton of badass points, he felt bored fighting arrogant young masters. He had better things to do than wasting time on them.
He was not Noah to fight every arrogant young master in his way.
”Thank you” were the words that came out of Elliot’s mouth and completely shocked everyone in the arena. Michael wasn’t an exception.
”Huh?” Michael was confused why the heck Elliot thanked him. He was kinda expecting Elliot to challenge him for a duel so he could avenge his friend.
”You’ve given him a valuable lesson” Elliot nodded. It was a nod that kinda looked like a bow.
”Okay” Michael nodded back, hiding the confusion in his heart from showing up on his face,
After Elliot thanked Michael, he took Diego and flew into the sky. Michael didn’t linger around either. Now that Professor Lane had permitted him to leave the Akilan realm early, he needed to pack his things, inform Gaya and leave Mazeroth.
The first thing he planned to do after leaving Mazeroth is to find the vampire and get every piece of information he could on the bloodsuckers.