Chapter 71: Surprise

Translated by: Reiji

Ayrin was a critical figure in this match. If anything happened to him and prevented him from going on stage, then all his plans would be thrown out of the windows, and they would definitely lose.

“Should I alter the order I decided on?”

He hesitated in his mind.

“Teacher, are you really going to let Ayrin fight?” Gerryn and two other old members of the team saw the referee urging them for the line-up already coming their way, and they could also see Carter's worry and hesitation.

Ender anxiously watched the tunnel's exit behind them, saying to Gerryn and the others at the same time, “Gerryn, don't disturb the teacher's train of thought. Ayrin will definitely give you guys a pleasant surprise!”

“What's gotten into Ender... What happened yesterday that made his attitude toward Ayrin make such a sharp turnabout?” This thought flashed in Gerryn's and the other two's minds at the same time. They couldn't help but glance at each other.

“What, they're confused about their line-up and can't even hand out the list?”

“Haha, it seems like one of their team members vanished before the match even started. Did he take fright and run straight away to hide and cry?”

“It's really a trash team, a team member ran off in fear before the match even began.”

The stands not far behind team Holy Dawn were crowded by spectators from other academies. Some people closest to the field noticed some activity, and some of them who already didn't think much of team Holy Dawn immediately burst out in loud sarcasm and mockery.

“What they hell are you talking about! Why do your mouths stink worse than sewers?”

Gerryn and the others were old team members who already met with a lot of cutting sarcasm before, but it was a first for Moss. Hearing these people using ugly poisonous words to attack Ayrin, he suddenly felt an inexplicable anger, and he started to fling wild curses back at these people.

“Heh... Such a bad track-record, but quite the temper.”

“Exactly, if you're so amazing then go insult team Divine Shield instead.”

“He has the gall to jump out with such a crappy strength. At least Chris would have had a leg to stand on.”

“What, come up to the stands if you dare, I'll wipe the floor with you just by myself and leave you looking for your teeth all over the ground.”

“That's right, why are you cursing us from below, come, come here in the stands!”

...

“You guys!” When did Moss ever suffer such insults? He felt as if his chest was about to explode from anger, like an evil demon about to drill out from his body.

“Don't mind them...” Chris stretched her hand out, about give Moss a pat and tell him to disregard the voices in the stands. After all, people became more unbridled the more they cursed, and if he wanted to brawl because of a few words, well one man simply couldn't win against a crowd. She looked at the stands at the same time, ready to say something and make that group of people shut up.

“Roar..”

A furious snarl came at this moment however. Moss' clothes sounded as if they were about to crack open. His body enlarged rapidly; even his head became several times bigger than before.

“Giants' Multi-Sizing technique? No wonder Carter agreed to let him tag along with the school team.” Chris froze an instant all of a sudden, witnessing Moss' innate giant transformation for the first time.

“Crash.”

The spectators sitting closest to the field jumped in fright and retreated despite themselves, panicking a little. But curses flew from the stands only a second or two later, even louder than before.

“Oh I was wondering, it's only a little giant blood.”

“What, you want to frighten us merely with a Multi-Sizing like that? What's the use of going merely big, you blockhead. If you're so amazing just try to jump up here in the stands?”

“You can't scare the Divine Shield team, so you want to scare us instead? You think we're afraid of big things?”

“Haha, he looks really dumb and ugly after transforming.”

Moss trembled in anger from head to toe under these curses.

Just at that moment, the referee pressing them for the line-up halted all of a sudden, taken aback by a tremendous explosive sound. When this referee turned around, he saw that team Divine Shield, who already delivered their team composition, had walked out of the tunnel just a moment ago.

Under the sounds of every Divine Shield student hammering their own chest, and their crazy cheers, the teacher leading team Divine Shield kept going forward.

Everyone saw that the teacher leading team Divine Shield this time was an one-eyed man wearing an eye-patch, with an especially ferocious-looking face, making people think first thing of a cruel, wounded beast in the jungles at the borders.

“Payton!”

Up in the stands, some arcane masters who obviously weren't students softly exclaimed their surprise.

“It's actually you?” Carter also froze faintly when he saw this one-eyed arcane master walk to not far in front of him.

“I lost to you once before, this time you're the one leading team Holy Dawn, it's a good opportunity to earn my loss back.” The one-eyed man smiled grimly. “What, you haven't settled your team composition yet?”

...

“The red-haired giant turns out to be from clan Quinn.”

“Clan Quinn still has a little fame in a place like St. Lauren, but aren't they just a second-rate clan compared to the entire kingdom of Eiche?”

“Exactly, compared to a clan like clan Lannister, they're only fit to kneel down and lick their feet.”

“I heard this Payton is one of the strongest elite arcane masters in Divine Shield Academy, and also an authentic person from clan Lannister! With the bloodline of clan Lannister!”

“There's someone so young in clan Quinn? So that means it's the son of that wild woman of unknown origin?”

“The one who came from Wellington Forest City? So he turns out to be that woman's son, tch tch. Back then that guy from clan Quinn wanted to marry that woman, but it made quite a few waves inside clan Quinn eh. There are only hunters over there in Wellington Forrest, they don't have a permanent camp, the women there are said to be very dissolute, they casually do that with men...”

“So that's him! The son of the dissolute huntress?”

The curses kept falling from the stand unabated, becoming even louder and louder.

“Huh!”

A silhouette rushed out from the black tunnel at this moment.

“Teacher, is the match going to start soon!”

Charging excitedly out of the tunnel, Ayrin started shouting before even clearly seeing who was who.

“Hm? Finally here? This guy, he really makes people worry. We still have no idea what he was doing, I have to have a good chat with him later.”

Carter's mind quivered a little, but he didn't turn his head back. Facing provocation from this old foe of his, he couldn't help but expose the trace of a smile.

The one-eyed Payton's eyes fell on Ayrin, an ominous feeling inexplicably arising inside him.

“You guys actually dare to insult my mother!”

“You guys actually dare to use these kinds of words to talk about her!”

Just at the same moment, what everyone was unable to imagine was, Moss' voice suddenly exploded.

His voice resounded even louder than back when he used his innate sonic boom against Ayrin.

Even Ayrin's hair flew backwards, scattered, the muscles on his face quivering, distorted by the sound waves, suddenly shocked dumb. He had no idea what on earth happened with the enlarged Moss.

This explosive sound drowned all the other sounds inside the arena.

“What happened?”

Everyone couldn't help but look in Moss' direction.

“Boom!”

A circle of red light suddenly glittered around Moss' body several times the size of Ayrin. His body inflated once again a little, his head almost reaching the same height as the stands.

The stone-like muscles on his body turned blood-red, patterned lines appearing one by one on them like strips igniting flames. Small red stars glinted inside the depths of his sunken eye sockets.

“Mad Multi-Sizing?”

Carter was the first one to be startled.

The expression on the one-eyed Payton also stiffened all of a sudden.

“Impossible!”

“A giant bloodline, how could a recessive barbarian power appear in a giant bloodline?”

Many powerful arcane masters in the stands couldn't hold back their astounded cries either.

“...”

Liszt originally sat in a corner of the stands, his legs lazily crossed, but his butt suddenly slid in his seat and he almost fell down.

“A recessive barbarian bloodline? No wonder that good sir from clan Quinn fought against such a bad reputation and wanted to marry that huntress woman no matter what. It turns out it wasn't only for the sake of love and beauty...” Only after a few blank seconds did he pat his butt and shake his head with a smile. “Now it's going to be fun... This is a surprising hidden treasure. Payton's still so short on luck, he takes a loss whenever he comes across Carter. Maybe that's just his fate.”

While Liszt was still prattling away to himself, Ayrin had already jumped on Moss' body with a “Ah,” down there in the field.

“Moss, what happened to you!”

“How did you become like this, did you get food poisoning?”

“Do you still recognize me?”

“Bastard, idiot, get lost!” Moss forcibly repressed the urge to throttle Ayrin. He stretched his hand out and pointed to those speechless people, who now sported an entirely different expression on their faces. “Why don't you try your insults again! Try to curse again if you have the balls to? I'll kill you...”

“That guy was really in team Holy Dawn? But there really are issues with him.” Stingham looked at Ayrin and Moss in his corner of the stands, a sudden shiver running through him. “He actually pounced on him, he doesn't say no even to such a big giant.”

“This is really a happy surprise!”

After staring for a few seconds, the always very mild Carter couldn't resist guffawing out loud.

“Alright, the line-up order is decided! Moss, come back! You're going out first, get ready to fight against Divine Shield Academy!” He immediately fished out a pen and swoosh swoosh wrote the line-up, then handed it to the referee straight away right in front of Peyton. He firmly brandished his fist at Moss at the same time. “Use your fist to shut them up! Battle bravely, brave warrior!”

Ayrin blinked.

Moss blinked.

Every team member of team Holy Dawn also blinked.

“Me?” The very fearsome-looking Moss turned around, wondering whether his ears betrayed him.

“You fought so many times against Ayrin before, but you never won even once. Today's in all likelihood the first time you unintentionally roused this hidden power of your bloodline, so you don't understand this strength yet.” Carter walked in front of him, raised his head to look at him, and said in a soft voice, “Now go out there and try it, you'll understand then.”