“Three arcane gates? Teacher Huston, the Ferguillo from Iron Forest Academy you’re talking about, he’s already a high-level arcane master with three open arcane gates?” Ayrin’s voice rang once more. “Then isn’t he just like you, teacher Huston?”
“I just knew you wouldn’t miss an opportunity to hit my face!”
Huston madly shouted these words in his mind, resisting the urge to spit out blood. “The reason the Hegemonical Cup of Starry Skies Academy Braves is a popular throughout the entire kingdom and makes countless people crazy is precisely because this tournament can be seen as duels between the future elite arcane masters of the entire kingdom! There some figures who’ve already opened their third arcane gate in this tournament, and even, inside teams that can fight their way to the end, there might be existences with four open arcane gates, whose strength won’t be any lesser than elite arcane masters.
Or I could say that some geniuses inside a few teams will immediately become members of elite arcane teams as soon as they leave school, become characters whose mere mention will strike fear into people!”
“That powerful?”
Ayrin sucked in a mouthful of cold air. Then he immediately asked excitedly, “Teacher Huston, how do these people train then, how do they progress so fast?”
“How am I supposed to know the way they train.” Huston said with a black face, “Almost every one of these guys are strange people with unusual bloodlines. Some among these guys might have Awakened at ten years old already. They spent five or six years condensing arcane particles by the time they reach your age. Some people were born with terrifying spiritual power, and as soon as they open an arcane gate they open two of them straight away.”
“Teacher, what I said is all true!” Moss again shouted really loud at this moment. “That Stingham from Golden Lion Academy is very possibly one of these weird guys you talked about, teacher. His physical strength and arcane power are both just so much higher than usual, it’s even possible he has very high-level dragon bloodline!”
“Dragon bloodline? Do you know how many arcane masters on the whole Doraster continent have dragon bloodlines? Even people with a few percent of dragon blood already have hackles-raising talent. here aren’t many existences with dragon bloodlines even adding all the celebrities in previous years together. If he truly had dragon blood, would he go to a second-rate academy like Golden Lion?”
“It’s becoming more and more absurd, I don’t feel like talking to you anymore.”
Huston humphed after saying a couple sentences, then turned his head and walked away.
“Teacher Huston, listen to me!”
Moss stood foolishly where he was, shouting as if his life depended on it. But Huston was like a gust of wind, he simply ran as fast as he could. In a blink, even his shadow couldn’t be seen anymore.
“I…”
Moss almost passed out.
“Let’s go!” The other freshmen also felt Moss was truly a little insane, plus they were afraid to be together with Moss and Ayrin, for fear Huston would come to believe they were a band. In an instant, only the two of Ayrin and Moss were left in this clearing inside the Thinker’s Stone Forest.
Probably because it suddenly felt a little lonely, Ayrin couldn’t resist telling Moss, “Belo isn’t here either…”
“What does it have to do with me if that glass guy is here or not! It’s not like I’m friend with you guys!” Moss blew off his top all of a sudden. “Also, you. Just now you kept interrupting me while I was talking, if you have questions can’t you ask them some other time. It made Huston not believe a word of what I said!”
“Weren’t you just trying to warn Chris about Ferguillo’s and Stingham’s moves and tactics, so she can be on her guards and train for them?” Ayrin didn’t understand. He scratched his head and said, “Why do you absolutely have to make teacher Huston believe you? As long as what you said is the truth, I can also take you to see Chris.”
“What, you can see Chris?” Moss calmed down at once.
“Yeah, I saw her twice. She’s even the one who taught me the way I’m training now,” Ayrin said, as if it were entirely normal.
“What you’re saying is true?” Moss became excited all of a sudden. He pulled Ayrin’s arm. “Hurry up, take me to her.”
“Why are you so anxious?” Ayrin looked at Moss as if he were looking at a moron. “Chris is still healing from her wounds, she hasn’t resumed her training yet. Plus, I remember hearing teacher Huston say just earlier that our Holy Dawn Academy’s team has to beat Divine Shield Academy first before we can meet Iron Forest Academy or Golden Lion Academy. If you want to scout, you should scout Divine Shield Academy first.”
“Divine Shield Academy… Clan Lannister…”
Moss stared blankly. He always thought that this Ayrin guy who came from Cororin was both dumb and foolish, but Ayrin’s words made him feel that he himself seemed to be a moron right now.
Indeed, he didn’t seem his usual self after seeing Stingham and Ferguillo’s display in Iron Forest Academy. He couldn’t even manage calm rational thinking.
Was it because of his fear of monsters like Stingham and Ferguillo?
Or was it because he was unwilling to believe it was impossible for him to match up to them in the future, that he could only stand below them?
“Moss, what you said is true? Those Ferguillo and Stingham are really so strong? Can we go to other schools and watch their matches or training?” Moss stood dumbly in place, but Ayrin didn’t stop firing off his questions his way. “Is there someone as powerful as Stingham and Ferguillo in Divine Shield Academy? How about we first go to Divine Shield Academy and have a look at the guys in their team?”
Looking at Ayrin’s excited and earnest expression, hearing his continuous questions, Moss thoroughly recovered his calm.
“Ah, you.” He looked at Ayrin. “I heard someone else say that the reason you keep shouting about condensing arcane particles these days is because you want to join the academy’s team and participate in the tournament. Don’t you feel afraid at all when you hear how powerful Stingham and Ferguillo are?”
“Not afraid, there’s nothing to be afraid of.” Ayrin had a thoughtless look. “If all the opponents were weaker then you, then this tournament wouldn’t be interesting.”
“You’re quite right. If they were all worse than me, if I were only beating on people weaker than me to begin with, then what’s the point of this competition? If we just go on defeating weaker opponent along the way, then how could becoming a famous arcane master still be called a dream, what would be the meaning of it?” Moss’ eyes were thoroughly different now when looking at Ayrin. “Ayrin, I seem to remember, you were the one with the best results out of all of us in the test last time, correct?”
“Haha.” Ayrin laughed. “Probably… Weren’t we talking about Ferguillo, Stingham, and the issue about Divine Shield Academy though?”
“Since even you aren’t afraid of them, even you are shouting about joining the academy’s team, then how could I lose to you, how could even someone like you be better than me!”
Moss looked at Ayrin’s proud laughter and started to shout in a loud voice, “Come then! We’ll fight first, then after I whoop your ass, we’ll go scout Divine Shield Academy together, how about it? I can tell you that, although there isn’t anyone as famous as Ferguillo in Divine Shield’s team, they’re still regulars at the national tournament! Their team has long been publicly acknowledged as a powerful team!”
“No problem! I won’t let you beat me though!”
Ayrin’s eyes were also suddenly filled with a blazing will for war. “Come then! Brave warrior of the starry skies, let me see how strong you truly are!”
“Don’t blame me when I smack you down!”
There was only Ayrin in Moss’ vision now. He shouted loudly, then the ground at his feet suddenly shook, and he pounced on Ayrin like an arrow shooting from a bow!
“Explosive Blazing Punch!”
Boom! A ball of fire punched out.
“What!”
At this moment, when this fist burning with raging fire punched out, Moss noticed Ayrin’s every trace had already vanished from his front.
“Pop!”
A fist landed on Moss’ back from the rear. Moss shot forward four to five steps in succession before finally managing to stand firm.
“This guy’s speed actually reached such a level already?”
Moss turned around, his back in pain. He looked with disbelief at an Ayrin complacently pleased with himself.
“How is it, can you still fight, brave warrior?” Ayrin brandished a fist in his direction. “I only used half my strength.”
“You’re too full of yourself, now you’re dead for sure!”
“Storm Combo!”
A roar came from Moss’ throat. The movements of his entire body became twice as fast as they were only a moment ago. His hands and feet turned into strip after strip of flowing afterimages. In an instant, countless punches struck at Ayrin from every direction like a storm.
“Brave warrior, this isn’t enough yet eh, I’m a brave warrior who went through the trial of the ball bouncing room!”
“Brave your ass!” Moss shouted. But what made him incredulous was, Ayrin stayed free and effortless under his attack. With every one of his punches, Ayrin dodged with matchless ease, or simply slapped his fist away.
“Pa!”
A foot dragging a blur behind it ruthlessly kicked his belly.
“Ah!”
Moss hugged his belly, his whole person lift up from the ground. His two knees landed heavily on the ground. He even almost puked out everything he ate in the morning.
“Brave warrior, your spirit is admirable but your movements are too slow. You’re lacking in training.” Ayrin looked at his appearance and laughed out loud. However, he yelled at the same time, his will for war not diminishing the slightest, “How is it, can you still fight!”
“You’re dead for sure!”
Moss’ rested his hands on the ground. It seemed as if raging winds were blowing from his throat.
“What’s that?”
Ayrin suddenly stared, his eyes open wide.
He saw Moss’ body swell up rapidly. Not the empty swelling of an inflated balloon, but rather the kind of swelling where his muscles bulged continuously, becoming tougher and tougher. Ayrin even felt arcane power clearly converging from the air to the inside of Moss’ body, seemingly turning into Moss’ muscles.
Groaning, tearing sounds came from the academy uniform on Moss’ body, when it was very loose previously. His figure had fully doubled, standing up from the ground like a mountain of flesh.
Even the muscles on his face bulged like rocks. His red hair stood erect on his head. Moss’ outer appearance was now entirely different than usual.
The shadow of a giant loomed over Ayrin.