All Michael had to do was advance to the 12th Star in the freshman ranking.
Unfortunately, he had to meet a few requirements before he could challenge one of the 12 Stars, otherwise, everyone in the Saphirelake Military Academy could challenge the 12 Stars all the time.
The requirements were a restriction to ensure that the 12 Stars wouldn’t have to be in the Colosseum all day to accept other students’ challenges.
First of all, Michael had to enter the top 100 in the rankings. Once that was done Michael had to win five challenges in succession before he could challenge one of the 12 Stars.
He had yet to start his thorough research of the 12 Stars and would do so while waiting for the students he challenged to arrive.
Most students were in the Origin Expanse most of the time. It could take a while before the system found someone who was free and who he could challenge in the top 500 rankings. With that in mind, Michael researched the other Stars.
‘I won’t challenge Quinn, and William seems a little bit annoying as well. Extraction probably works against his Darkness Manifestation, but I don’t want everyone to focus on Extraction yet,’ Michael thought, feeling a little bit lost.
He was not hesitant about using Extraction openly, however, he would rather focus on his other Soultraits. Michael noticed that some families took note of his combat prowess, otherwise, they wouldn’t have punished him by forcing him to participate in the Interdimensional Flag War.
The Flag War entailed participating in the Battle Exchange, where everyone could witness and record his battles to analyze his Soultraits properly. As a prerequisite, becoming part of the human representatives for the Battle Exchange required him to fight at least six battles. Six battles would be more than enough to analyze most of his Soultraits – if he exposed their full might that is.
Since he was not sure what influential families would do to him once they found out about his Soultraits – especially Extraction –, Michael hesitated a little.
Fortunately, his hesitation didn’t last long. The system found a student who readily accepted the challenge he issued to the top 500. Michael entered the first arena less than half an hour after the battle of the 10th Star and the Sun of the freshman.
After stepping inside the arena, Michael browsed through the bits of information the Colosseum provided about his opponent. 𝓝𝒪𝗏𝖊𝗅𝐍𝐄xt.𝗇𝓔t
“Silas Miller, 18 years old, and Peak Tier-1. Well…” Michael was a little surprised. He didn’t expect his opponent to be only at the Peak of the 1st Tier.
‘Am I already that spoiled?’ Michael chuckled inwardly. ‘Obviously not every reaches the 2nd Tier at the age of 18. Danny was already 20 when he reached the 2nd Tier. Not everyone is as fast as Lincoln, and the others.”
Being surrounded by heavenly prodigies such as Kaleb, Lincoln and Zeke changed Michael’s opinion of other people’s strength drastically. He actually expected everyone in the top 500 to be a Tier-2 Lord with powerful Soultraits.
However, the bitter truth pulled him back to reality. Kaleb and the others were not only prodigies with exceptionally powerful Soultraits, but they were also in possession of the best energy absorption techniques, and resources most people could only dream about.
They could hunt monsters at a higher Tier by themselves, and receive their energy influx to improve their refinement degree rapidly. To add on, they had a much larger pool of Combat Summons from the beginning. Their families supported them with Named Summoning Scrolls to ensure that their descendants would be well-protected, and that their descendant’s Summons would hunt for them, providing additional energy shares.
Combining their innate talent with the exceptional support of their family, Kaleb, Lincoln, Zeke and the others could widen the gap in their strength and ranking compared to their peers significantly. Most of them were even stronger than those who were one or two years older than them. But that was not uncommon for descendants of big families. On the contrary, it was quite normal for them to be stronger.
At the end of the day, there was also a gap between Michael and his friends. Even Kaleb’s refinement degree exceeded Michael’s at this point. But that was only natural. Michael had wasted several weeks recuperating from his injuries. He spent a good amount of time accepting his brother’s death, and getting back on his the tracks. Last but not least, Michael required a lot more origin energy to refine his War Rune than others. He was in possession of seven Soultraits at and above 4-Stars, after all!
But Michael never competed with the others with his War Rune’s refinement degree. Rather than that, Michael made the most out of the strength he possessed by fighting Kaleb and the others head-on.
Rushing to improve his refinement degree wasn’t helpful either. Michael had so many things to do, and so much to improve that he believed it would be harmful for his foundation if he were to stress himself with the advancement of his War Rune.
While Michael was lost in thoughts, Silas Miller entered the arena no less than ten minutes after he accepted the challenge.
“Hello there. I haven’t seen you in the Colosseum yet. There is no information about you on the Colosseum’s forum either. Looks like I’m your first!” Silas Miller said with a bright smile on his lips.
He manifested a Chainmail Artifact, followed by a Morningstar Weapon Artifact which he swung around proficiently. Michael merely lifted his eyebrow while pointing at the medic team that was stationed in the middle of the Colosseum. They paid attention to all battles and would rush over when a combatant had been severely injured.
By having high-ranked Awakened with strong Soultraits in the Colosseum one didn’t have to hold back too much. All one had to pay attention to while fighting was to not instantly kill someone. Other than that, everything was fine.
The medic team noticed Michael, and stepped closer. It was a common occurrence for combatants to motion to the medic team. It usually meant that someone would sustain lethal injuries in the upcoming battle.
“You’re already calling the medic team? Don’t you think you’re already shitting your pants after merely seeing my morningstar?” Silas Miller asked, but Michael ignored him.
Michael thought about summoning the Typhern Leather Armor Set, only to recall that the Artifact had been burned to crisp. Instead, he summoned the Wyverntooth Spear and changed his stance, ready for battle.
Silas lifted an eyebrow but didn’t say anything. He changed his stance as well, and the battle started with the ring of the arena’s bell.
Silas’ body expanded the moment the battle started. His hair grew longer and a monkey tail grew from his tailbone. His chainmail expanded alongside his size as he charged forward with great speed. The morningstar moved through the air like the deadly weapon it was, but Michael remained untouched.
Instead of using the Wyverntooth Spear to attack, Michael created several Qi Swords around him. They were shrouded in a white sheen that came from the three layers of Enhancement he applied to the Soultrait Symbol of Reinforced Sword Qi. After spending a few days training his Soultraits in the Origin Expanse, Michael figured out how to manifest proper Qi Swords. He couldn’t control too many simultaneously yet, but that was not important.
A bunch of them were more than enough.
Michael released the enhanced Qi Swords with a burst of energy. They turned into silver flashes and cut through the air, heading straight to Silas Miller, whose countenance changed drastically. His eyes widened in surprise, and he found himself unable to react fast enough when the Qi Swords cut through his tough skin.
A total of five Qi Swords impacted heavily upon him. Four of them focused on Silas’ limbs while the last one pierced through the heavy metal chainmail that ought to protect Silas from exactly such attacks. Sadly, the enhanced Qi Sword cut through the metal like a hot knife through butter before advancing ahead, digging deep into Silas’ chest.
The remaining Qi Swords cut deep into Silas’ limbs as well. They forcefully stopped his charge, and pushed him back. Forced to retreat, a sense of disbelief and shock washed over Silas. He didn’t even realise when his legs caved in, and when he slumped to the ground in a puddle of his own blood.
As the Qi Swords dispersed, five fountains of blood spurted out of Silas’ body. Only then did Michael react.
‘Danny told me that his Soultrait is at the peak of a 5-Star Soultrait in terms of attack power. Seems like that was true,’ Michael thought to himself, feeling certain that the Qi Swords wouldn’t have required three layers of Enhancement to deal with Silas.
Meanwhile, the medics looked at the bloody mess in front of them in stupor.
The fastest medic required two seconds before he rushed to Silas Miller, his healing-type Soultrait already fully unleashed.
“I should have challenged the Zan Twins in here…Nobody would have complained about their severed arms,” Michael cursed quietly to himself.
Challenging the Zan Twins and provoking them if they rejected his challenge would have been much more effective than dealing with them next to the watchtower.
He didn’t resent having attacked them, but Michael was not foolish enough to think that Alice and others could save him every single time.
Michael had yet to learn more about the influence and power of the strongest families. He couldn’t afford to act foolish just because everything worked in his favor once.
He would have to keep this in mind for the future. For now, Michael shook his head lightly and turned to the side.
“Referee. How about you proclaim the winner?” He asked the referee, who nodded his head slowly as he watched the medics do their job.
“Victory goes to Michael Fang. Good job,” The referee said, which was responded with a faint nod.
“Let’s continue then.”