Michael looked in the direction where Seron Voulge landed, but he didn’t walk over to pick it up.
Instead, his attention flicked back to James.
“You did a good job, take this,” Michael offered a healing potion, which he retrieved from his War Rune’s storage space.
He took off the lid and was about to help James drink the content when Jarg and Janus rushed into the combat ring. They were faster than the medics and arrived next to James.
“Get away with this trash!” Jarg bellowed, slapping Michael’s hand away. The potion fell to the ground and shattered.
Michael raised an eyebrow but he only shrugged before he retorted, “Sorry for being poor.”
Jarg ignored Michael’s remark and fed his brother a potion with red viscous content that sparkled golden.
James drank the content greedily and breathed in relief when the warm liquid entered his body.
He opened his eyes and looked over at Michael apologetically.
“Sorry for Jarg’s attitude. He is very protective of us,” James said weakly, but Michael gave him an understanding look.
“It’s fine. My brother would probably be worse.”
Michael didn’t think too much about Jarg’s words and actions. It was a fact that his potion was not of high quality. Nonetheless, he hoped that he would have to fight against Jarg next time. Michael’s hands were itching to beat some sense into Jarg’s head.
James was disappointed that he lost, but he did not fret a lot about it. It was not the first time he lost, though this time hurt more than usual as this was his first fight in the Academy. The medics healed James’ physical wounds quickly, and they all left the combat ring.
“You should see us fight with our combined power as triplets. Though all you’ll be able to see is the dust we leave behind!” James announced.
Michael responded with a serious nod. He could imagine the triplets were strong when they combined their power.
“By the way, you’re not too bad, Michael,” Lincoln said when everyone returned to them. “Of course, you’re still far from actually being strong!”
Michael frowned lightly, but he didn’t say anything. He looked at Lincoln, whose gaze flicked to Zeke. Zeke saw the expression on Lincoln’s face and his breath escaped in a drawn-out sigh.
“Your eyes are okayish,” He said quietly before turning his head away.
‘What strange people. That’s interesting,’ Michael mused to himself while observing the triplets and the two descendants of High Nobles.
Lincoln and Zeke’s opinions of Michael changed a little after the fight. They were more amiable than before. The two could tell that Michael was nice and kind, but that he was not afraid of fiercely smashing his friends – or the people he wanted to befriend.
Competition and friendship were two different things. Being friendly in battle would only cause trouble, possibly even lead to death. That was not good, for sure.
Furthermore, acting friendly with your opponent was disrespectful.
Nobody would feel great fighting against someone who was clearly holding back in an attempt to injure you as little as possible.
“Lincoln Piedra versus Anastasia Lilia. Please come to combat ring six!” A referee shouted loudly before a second announcement followed a few seconds later.
“Zeke Lavia versus Frederik Kolbenheim. Please come to combat ring four!”
Following the announcement, Lincoln and Zeke entered the combat rings where their opponents were already waiting for them. Anastasia Lilia was the female student, who could control blood with her Soultrait. She had defeated the student with the Dragonoid transformation Soultrait easily.
Anastasia was also the student whom both Lincoln and Zeke could defeat with one strike – according to their words.
“Just watch and observe,” Lincoln had said just before he entered the combat ring.
Michael was curious and executed Eagle Eyes before he added Lesser Enhancement to increase the strength of his eyes further. He didn’t want to miss a single detail in Lincoln’s fight against Anastasia.
The referee signaled the start of the battle a second later. Anastasia backed off while retrieving the ominous black dagger and a few black vials from her War Rune’s storage space. She reached the border of the combat ring where she cut her arms to initiate her transformation.
However, it was at this moment that she realized that something was wrong.
The gravitational force around her seemed to increase drastically. Inertia seemed to double in intensity, forcefully slowing her movements.
At this moment, Anastasia knew that she had to hasten up, otherwise, she would be defeated before she could even finish her transformation. But it was already too late. A stone fist, the size of Lincoln’s body, had condensed in front of him. Lincoln pressed his flat hand lightly against the stone fist, releasing the projectile with terrifying velocity.
The stone fist crossed a distance of 30 meters in the blink of an eye. Anastasia instinctively responded by conjuring several huge blood spears. She terminated her transformation and used the black blood within the vials to create reinforced blood spears. Using her high mental power, she willed the blood spears to rotate around their own axis rapidly before they were fired to collide with the stone fist.
Anastasia was certain that the stone fist wouldn’t be strong enough to maintain its shape against the terrific impact of ten rotating blood spears. It ought to fall apart and crumble to pieces.
Unfortunately, she watched in shock as her attack failed miserably. The stone fist’s velocity wasn’t slowed at all. The stone fist smashed the blood spears into smithereens instead.
Anastasia’s eyes further widened in horror, and a short scream escaped her lips before the stone fist smacked her hard.
The next moment, Anastasia’s bloodied body transformed into a deformed cannonball that was flung several meters through the air. Throughout most parts of the arena, the cracking sound of bones resounded. The audience’s attention instinctively moved to Anastasia, whose deformed body slammed onto the hard floor and was now writhing on the ground outside the combat ring.
“Victory, Lincoln Piedra!”
The medics rushed over to tend to Anastasia’s wounds. Meanwhile, the audience watched in stunned silence. Most students had been wondering how intense the fight between Lincoln Piedra and Anastasia Lilia would be, only to end up being utterly dumbfounded at the one-sided beating.
“One strike…just like he said,” Michael mumbled to himself.
He didn’t miss a single detail while watching Lincoln’s fight, yet Michael couldn’t understand everything. Lincoln’s Soultrait was obviously related to the earth, but Michael couldn’t tell the true extent of his Soultrait’s power.
‘Condensing projectiles out of stone, and being able to increase inertia in a small area. He didn’t even enter close combat, and I’m not sure if I can beat that…’ Michael concluded, feeling both excited and dumbfounded.
Michael wanted to talk to Lincoln and ask a few questions, but he recalled that Frederik had been called up to fight against Zeke. Frederik was only a Low Tier-1 Lord with a 3-Star Soultrait, but his control of the Soultrait was precise. Michael was sure that Frederik would give his all, and that he would be able to last longer against Zeke.
However, when his attention moved to the combat ring where Frederik and Zeke ought to fight, Michael could only see Frederik staring ahead with an empty gaze. Frederik didn’t move an inch and was frozen like a statue while Zeke strode closer to Frederik calmly.
Zeke pressed his sword’s cold blade against Frederik’s neck before looking at the referee.
“Do I have to cut his throat, or will you announce the winner?” Zeke asked coldly, causing a bead of sweat to trickle down the referee’s temple.
“Victory to Zeke Lavita!” The referee announced quickly, ending the battle.
Zeke retrieved his sword, and Frederik began to move again.
The life in his eyes returned, and he began to move wildly, manifesting tens of wind blades simultaneously.
“The battle ended with your loss. Please stop utilizing your Soultrait,” The referee ordered quietly to which Frederick only threw him a puzzled look.
The referee understood that Frederik didn’t realize what had happened, but that was only obvious. Once caught by Zeke’s Soultrait, it was hard to escape. Escaping Zeke’s Soultrait while being of a lower Tier made it even more difficult.
“What the hell are you talking about? We were in an epic battle just now?!” Frederik snapped at the referee, who could only shake his head in disappointment.
“I’m just saying this to make things easier for you. Touch your neck,” The referee said, trying to ease the situation a little.
Frederik did as told while continuing to glare at the referee. Only then did he realize that his neck stung when his flat hand rubbed across it. He looked at his hand and saw blood – his blood.
“What the…” Frederik mumbled to himself. He looked down at his body and noticed that he had only one wound on his neck while the rest of him was perfectly unscathed.
“How can that be? I was clearly cut all over my body just a moment ago…We were having an epic battle…but how…” He asked himself while his voice grew quieter by the second.
“Just come out, honey. You…lost…” Jacqueline Orlando said as quietly as possible – in hopes that only Frederik could hear her.
She had witnessed the battle from start to end and could clearly tell that Frederik had been caught in some trance or illusion. Frederik had been deceived the moment the battle started, and he had yet to realize it.
Frederik glared at Jacqueline. He grit his teeth and stormed out of the combat ring. However, instead of rushing toward Jacqueline, he followed behind Zeke.
“Oi, descendant of the Lavita! What the hell did you do to me?” Frederik bellowed as he walked toward the group of six people.
Lincoln frowned when he saw Frederik pursuing them, and he was just about to react when he saw that Michael walked past him.
Michael’s eyes gleamed brightly one moment when he looked at Zeke, who had returned to their small group, and it turned sharp as his attention moved over to Frederik.
Frederik didn’t even notice that Michael was standing with them. However, his body shook when he heard a familiar voice thundering in his ears.
“Frederik, shut your mouth and get your act together!” Michael hissed.
He grasped Frederik by the color and pulled him closer to himself. Michael – his eyes still enhanced by Eagle Eyes and Lesser Enhancement – stared deep into Frederik’s azure eyes. Taken by surprise, Frederik could barely react.
“Michael? What are you…” He could only say before Michael’s head butted down on Frederik’s.
A loud thwack resounded in the vicinity, and the triplets and Lincoln were startled by the sudden turn of events. Even Zeke couldn’t help but look at Michael in surprise.
Little did they know that even Michael was slightly astonished about his response to Frederik’s stupid behavior.