Chapter 268: The Start of a New Epic
"Teacher Liszt!"
"Teacher Ciaran!"
"Teacher Carter!"
After following the vice-referee and his two assistants for quite a while, three familiar faces finally appeared within Ayrin's vision as he broke out in excitement.
"That's?"
"Alaina?"
Another academy squad stood not far from Liszt, Ciaran, and Carter. It was only upon recognizing the short hair of Alaina, River Bend's proclaimed captain, the Girl of Flames, did Ayrin realize it was one of River Bend Academy's squads.
Standing beside Alaina was a long haired girl with white pupils, Shirley, the so called "Queen of Forms," and a cute boy who seemed several years younger than Ayrin and the others, Residan, River Bend Academy's genius freshman.
"You've arrived. Where's Rui?"
"Is that not the 'Moon Echo Saber' of Abel Academy's Gucci?"
Upon seeing Gucci's sword hung over Rinloran's back and noticing that Rui was missing, Liszt, Ciaran, and Carter were all quite surprised.
"On our way over, we were beset upon by Hanson, Nielson, and Konte. During the fight, Teacher Rui suffered some pretty heavy injuries. Thus, Rui decided to remain behind in the ruins of a Black Witch which we discovered to recover while we continued forward," Ayrin quickly explained.
"Crazed Alchemist Hanson? Skin Flayer Neilson?"
Just hearing the two names caused the vice-referee who had led Ayrin's group over to suck in a breath of cold air as he suddenly saw the three before him in a different light.
"This…"
Complex emotions surged across the faces of Liszt, Ciaran, and Carter. "Then what about the sword?" Carter abruptly asked.
"Abel Academy gave it to us as a present!" Ayrin, Rinloran, and Stingham replied in unison as they flashed beaming smiles towards Carter.
"Are these fellows ignoring us?"
"It's so clear that something is wrong… Gucci isn't an idiot, why would he give his treasured saber to them?"
The students of River Bend Academy felt increasingly speechless.
"They also gave us this," Ayrin added as he stuck out his arm.
"An amplification bracelet made from Firebat Lord crystals?"
The vice-referee who led Ayrin, Rinloran, and Stingham over felt a sudden urge to faceplant into the ground.
"Even something like this was…" A golden light burst forth in Alaina's eyes.
River Bend Academy was most well known for its water type arcane skills. But like Donna, Alaina was an expert in fire skills instead. Although she had a staff embedded with a Blaze Cat Eye, it was far worse than the 'Blaze Bracelet' made of Firebat Lord crystals. In fact, she had envied the bracelet for a long time. Never did she expect for it to suddenly appear in Ayrin's possession.
How could an amplification artifact of such a level be given away?!
As black lines filled the faces of the onlookers, Stingham took something out from under his collar. With a chuckle, he said, "I also stole a… ah, I mean, I was also gifted something. A Spirit Obstruction Gem."
"Stole?"
Alaina and the others nearly went crazy.
"Teacher Liszt, we also received this amplification artifact, but we don't know what kind of skill it works with," Ayrin interrupted as he pulled out a pair of black gloves made of metal filaments and embedded with crystals and handed them over to Liszt.
"These black gloves are Tiger Chen's 'Black Dew Gloves'. After using a simple activation skill, these gloves will provide extra protection to your arms and increase the circulation speed of arcane particles in your arms. Simply put, they will increase the speed at which you can use certain skills." A trace of surprise emerged on Liszt's face as he asked, "Why do you three have Tiger Chen's gloves?"
"He attacked us alongside a team of Evil Dragon Archers and ended up being killed by us," Ayrin nonchalantly replied.
"What? Just what kind of battle power do these three have?!"
The vice-referee standing beside Ayrin felt sweat emerge over his entire body.
After encountering and surviving the assassination attempt of Hanson and Neilson, they were able to then kill off Tiger Chen. Even some arcane teams of the Office of Special Affairs couldn't accomplish this!
And they had done something with the Abel Academy team as well. The extremely strong Abel Academy team.
Liszt, Ciaran, and Carter felt just as speechless.
"I see you three have already arrived, ha ha!"
A loud and clear voice rang over as an abnormally sturdy and tall figure crashed into the ground beside them like a meteor, kicking up a ring of dust.
"Teacher Minlur?"
"Chris, Belo, Moss!" Ayrin exclaimed as he coughed from the dust.
As the dust dispersed, Chris, Belo, and Moss emerged one by one behind the boisterous Minlur.
"I never expected for both of your squads to also arrive and complete the mission."
Another seemingly exhausted voice abruptly rang over.
"Morgan, Audrey?"
As Ayrin turned his head and looked in the direction of the voice, he saw the appearance of Dragon Breath Academy's team alongside a team of four arcane masters.
The four arcane masters all wore the black robes of the Office of Special Affairs. Of the four, Ayrin immediately recognized two. One was the main referee of the national tournament, Clancy, and the other was the Cocktail Grandmaster who Ayrin had stolen 'Warlock Variation' from, Leonardo."
"It seems like those guys also encountered extremely powerful opponents."
Rinloran slightly raised his brows as he saw the bandages covering the bodies of the several Dragon Academy students. Morgan's face was pale, as if he had suffered some internal injuries.
"Eh, did you think that your Dragon Breath Academy would be the only team to have both squads succeed? You are looking down on us too much."
"Elliot!"
"Charlotte!"
As an admonishing voice berated Morgan, Ayrin and the three River Bend Academy students simultaneously cried out in excitement.
Donna and several arcane masters surrounded by terrifying auras emerged, followed by the other squad of River Bend Academy and Ferguillo, Charlotte, Ivan, and Wilde.
"It's not that. I only thought that our luck was quite good, for both squads to make it. But now that I see everyone else, it seems we had the worst luck," Morgan said with a bitter smile as he rubbed his nose.
"If you are talking about bad luck, then the unluckiest should be Abel Academy's group. It seems like neither team succeeded," Alaina said, her mouth twitching.
It was only at this time that Morgan and Audrey finally saw the 'Moon Echo Saber' hanging on Rinloran's back as they abruptly froze and wondered about what could have possibly occurred between Ayrin's group and the Abel Academy team.
"So how is it? A reunion on the battlefield, it must feel very special, right?" Wilde quietly scoffed, "Why couldn't I manage to find a girlfriend in time?"
"You, go die!" Charlotte cried out as her face became flushed. Just now, she had indeed been staring Ayrin as she tried to think of what to say.
"It seems like you all had a smooth journey as well!"
Ayrin let out several laughs of joy as he greeted Charlotte and Chris' groups. "We saw a flare pillar on our way over, and were afraid that one of you had encountered danger. But in the end, it was just Abel Academy's team."
"Abel Academy's team released a flare pillar?"
Morgan, Alaina, and the others suddenly felt as if they had figured it all out.
"We helped them out and then had a nice conversation, after which they decided to give everything to us," Stingham loudly interrupted as he quickly looked at Ayrin and indicated for Ayrin to shut up before he leaked anything else.
"Alright. I am very glad that all of you managed to complete your missions and arrive here. But as you all probably have realized, we currently have no time to just sit here and chat and rest…" Clancy abruptly said.
Boom!
At the same time, the ground violently trembled.
Everyone felt their bodies stagger as they tried to restabilize.
"What was that?"
Everyone looked up into the distant sky. Their faces suddenly became filled with shock.
They watched as a strikingly large pillar of dark purple gases shot into the sky from the midst of the several hills in the very center of the shockingly vast Fallen Shadow Valley. It was like a volcano was erupting.
A ring of white light erupted and expanded through all of the dark and heavy looking purple clouds densely gathered around the pillar.
A giant, ten meter long white dragon and a giant shadow enveloped in a gray, deathly aura appeared in the sky. The two existences collided with each other and then began falling towards the ground like two comets.
"Dark Shadow Dragon! It's the Necromancer Bishop, Oakley!"
The two comet like existences crashed into the ground with a resounding explosion as two mushroom shaped clouds of dust arose into the sky. The explosions, however, were not loud enough to mask the cold cries of Clancy, Donna, and the others.
"That was Necromancer Bishop Oakley? Who is fighting him?" Ayrin exclaimed in shock.
The epic scene just now had left a great impact on Ayrin.
"That was a Frost Dragon. It should be the House Stark's dragon knight Mandalay," Charlotte croaked. The sound of her voice had changed considerably. Even she could tell.
The dragon riding arcane masters of the Nine Great Houses were the strongest arcane masters in the Kingdom of Eiche. But the last exchange had clearly been mutual destruction.
Dragon riding arcane masters fought side by side with their dragon. Having their dragon fall did not bode well for the arcane master.
But the epic scene was just the beginning of it all.
Time seemed to stop as the two mushroom clouds continued to rise into the sky. Then, a trace of hazy yellow of light emerged atop the gigantic pillar of dark purple gas which had now expanded to an unbelievable size.
"What's that?"
Ayrin felt his breath catch in his throat as he watched the hazy yellow light within the pillar of dark purple gas amalgamate at an alarming rate, causing the pillar to suddenly look like a giant lighthouse.
The cluster of yellow light rose to the top of the pillar as it continued to glow brighter and brighter. Upon reaching the top, it slowly began to open, revealing a giant demonic looking eye.
Boom!
Countless beams of light abruptly shot out of the eye and descended upon the vast battlefield.
Each beam was composed of seemingly viscous particles which were many times larger than arcane particles!