Chapter 103: Loss and blessing with a faint smile

Translated by: Reiji

For various ordinary students, this invocation speed they couldn't even clearly see, the light and shadows flashing and charging without interruption, it wasn't a simple matter of not breathing anymore for them, but a violent shock that went deep to the bones.

Was this still a duel between two academy students, and not a peak confrontation between elite masters?

On top of that, this was still the result of both of them sealing an arcane gate each!

Only an evenly matched duel like this vividly brought the fighters' formidable prowess to the fore, made them sincerely perceive just how much of a gap there was between themselves and Chris and Ferguillo.

“These two guys are actually so strong!”

An intense shock also seized the girls of team Agate Lake in the stands.

𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂

“There's simply no comparison with Ferguillo's strength and his strength last year. Chris actually also managed to maintain her astounding speed of progress! There's simply no comparison between now and back when she was caught by surprise by Shadow Dust in the match against team Southern Monsoon. With her current level, she'd probably defeat the entire Southern Monsoon team without even resorting to Dark Destruction Dragon!”

“At her level, how can she still keep progressing so fast?”

A thick layer of sweat covered Sofia's palms. Before the match, she was still very keen on finding out which one was really the strongest between Chris and herself, but now the answer seemed very obvious already.

“My word, it turns out she imperceptibly left me behind already. She's truly an Amazing Girl... That said, no matter how fast her reactions, no matter how strong her body's coordination, she's still always half a beat too slow when faced with Ferguillo's Mind Reading. She's definitely going to lose if this goes on, right?”

With a trace of dismay floating at the corner of her mouth, such a thought flashed in her mind when she witnessed Ferguillo's silhouette catching up to Chris, like a shadow.

“Both of them sealed an arcane gate each, so their arcane particle reserves will both empty very fast at this rate.”

“Ferguillo's already in an overwhelming position though. Right now, Chris is just like a bowstring pulled taut to the limit, a hairbreadth away from breaking. She doesn't even have the opportunity to mount a calm and unperturbed defense like she did earlier.”

“Ferguillo already won! Because at this rate, even if both their arcane particles are exhausted dry, Ferguillo's physical strength is still stronger than Chris'. Chris is completely suppressed, she can't mount an effective defense, she's going to lose for sure!”

In the stands, Sofia's opinion coincided with many battlemasters rich in experience.

“Rain of the Pale Moon!”

Ferguillo's deep chant rose once again without the slightest interruption.

Three balls of pale light appeared in the air along his punch, bouncing without any pattern and charging in Chris' direction.

A crescent moon-like arch of light spun and swept around Chris. It shook the three pale balls of light away in the air. But with a boom, Ferguillo's punch fiercely struck on one of her parrying arms, and the formidable impact pounded her to the ground once more. She plowed a deep trench in the hard soil.

“Her defense is already showing signs of crumbling. Chris is already paying some price every time she blocks an attack from Ferguillo.”

“The tiny harm she's paying right now will add up very fast and become an injury that'll hamper her skill invocation and body movement.”

In the stands, several Iron Forest elite masters frowned faintly and thought, could any other mishap still happen at this stage?

In the opinion of almost everyone in the venue, Chris' defeat was already set in stone.

However, while frantically attacking and suppressing her like a torrential deluge, Ferguillo started to have a different feeling.

Chris was in imminent danger, yet her actions became increasingly faster!

Of course, this change was very tiny, and only he could perceive it while fighting personally against Chris. But this change even gave birth to the impression that Chris' all-out defense earlier was merely a warm-up.

“She even can block an assault of this magnitude!” At this time, Ayrin was the only one in the arena who kept victory in sight. He watched the exchange with rapt attention.

“Since I don't have an innate talent worthy of pride, I can only grasp every single minute and train painstakingly.”

Chris' voice resonated in his mind at this moment.

He couldn't resist mumbling to himself, “You can even block such an assault. How much time did you spend drilling your defense during peaceful times?”

“Swish!”

When Ferguillo's punch was not even the width of a fist away from Chris' belly, Chris lifted a knee and stiffly knocked it away.

Everyone saw Ferguillo's fist, wrapped in light, pound on Chris' body, shaking circular ripples on her clothes.

Chris fell back more than a dozen meters, swaying on her feet. Yet she still didn't show any delay in her actions.

Many Iron Forest Academy's people felt regrets at this scene, since it was clearly because Ferguillo had almost ran out of arcane particles, so the arcane power wasn't sufficient enough. Otherwise, the mere impact from the light of this punch should have caused heavy injuries for Chris.

“It's about time!” Just at this moment, Chris actually let out a deep howl all of a sudden.

A layer of faint red flames ignited around her hands. Like two sharp thorns, they quickly stabbed forward nonstop, causing a giant red flower to suddenly bloom in front of her.

Ferguillo immediately felt pressured.

A crack in the air flitted in his line of sight. His fist thrust inside like lightning.

With an explosive “Pa,” his fist struck Chris' left shoulder.

But just at this instant, with a bang, Chris' hand also jabbed the left side of his chest.

The almost instant recoil sent both of them backwards at the same time. There was only a tearing pain in their muscles, but their bones didn't suffer any heavy damage.

“Swoosh!”

The next instant, both their silhouettes were already clashing together again. The air filled with a blur of palms and fists. Flames and lights collided nonstop. Clouds of dust exploded continuously from the ground.

The first reaction in Ferguillo's mind was, impossible.

His Mind Reading actually failed. It was entirely unable to foresee Chris' next actions.

He had been entirely suppressing Chris just moments ago, but the situation turned into Chris starting to suppress him comprehensively instead!

“What happened?”

“There's no problem at all with Ferguillo's stamina, how can Chris occupy the upper hand and go on the offensive?”

In only a few seconds, many people in the stands noticed with incomparable shock that Chris held the initiative with her attacks!

This girl that people mocked as a crazy girl had abandoned all defense. She attacked, throwing caution to the wind.

Attack!

Attack once more!

Air cracks seemed to cover the space all around her, but Ferguillo could only react passively to her assault!

Her petite body seemed like an erupting volcano at this time, blossoming with scalding flames of war. Everyone's heart trembled in their chest, and couldn't stop.

“Why's this happening!”

“Why the boss can't follow her speed now?”

The faces of all the Iron Forest students became snow-white!

“Teacher Carter, how did Chris do that?” Ayrin was also shouting, and shouting again.

“Her body already exceeded the limits of her consciousness.” Carter strangely shook his head. The scene of this dangerous and reckless attack filled him with an inexplicable shock as well. “It's also because she knew she could do it, she knew she could restrain Ferguillo, that's the reason why she was confident of her victory.”

“Her body exceeded the limits of consciousness?” Ayrin was slightly baffled. He couldn't understand.

“Usually, when it comes to any action, it's the consciousness that directs the body. We stretch out our hand only when we want to stretch out a hand,” Carter explained. “But with her current actions, it's just as if her body were directing itself, like a familiar sequence drilled into her by her training. She doesn't need to think at all. Her body is frantically operating by itself, just like the machines forged by dwarven metalsmiths. You have to go through who knows how many training sessions, become proficient to a degree hard to imagine, then force yourself to the very limit, before you can fight relying entirely on your body's reactions, without the need to think at all.

“In such a situation, Ferguillo can simply not predict her next actions. Also, when it comes to Ferguillo's defense, he has to focus his spirit to a high degree to continuously cope with her attacks. Under such a high frequency and extreme degree of focus, Ferguillo's definitely weakening faster than her. Also, since her current situation comes from her body's spontaneous actions born from the familiarity brought by her training, it's simply impossible for her to make any mistake. But Ferguillo is after all a man and not a god. No matter how formidable he is, a mistake will always end up appearing.”

“So it's like this.” Ayrin was stunned completely silly. “So it turns out the weapon she's using to deal with Ferguillo is the nonstop painstaking training she went through for so long, went through for longer than anyone else. She only has ordinary talent, yet she earned this kind of strength. She indeed repeatedly trained her physical strength and arcane power much much more than anybody else..”

“Without taking arcane particles and arcane skills into consideration, my body is still a step worse than hers!” At this time, Ferguillo also understood the underlying reason. He also felt that his consumption of stamina led Chris' movements to appear faster and faster, making his defense harder.

He was clearly aware in his mind that he still had one last choice even in these circumstances. That was to land a critical strike in the same instant Chris inflicted heavy damage on him, causing both sides to suffer.

In a struggle for life and death, with the currently tiny disparity between Chris and himself, the final result could well be both dying, or one dead and one heavily wounded.

“Bring it on!”

But just as this thought popped in his mind like a flash of lightning, he actually dropped his hands, softly saying a well-wishing blessing in his mind.

“Puff puff puff puff...”

Countless pounding sounds came from his body. Many tiny bright flames lit up on him in a split second.

“Boss!”

In the entire arena, Iron Forest students shouted loud in worry. A faint smile floated on the corner of his mouth. He snapped backwards and flew away. Fell heavily on the ground.

Even in defeat, don't leave any regrets behind.

This was the criterion he lived his life by.

In this fight, even if he lost, he didn't have any regrets, so he smiled faintly at the time of his defeat.