Chapter 96: Fooled again and again

Translated by: Reiji

Both Bora and Justin fell backwards.

Just as Ferguillo explained, Bora had launched a counterattack with the third concealed sword wedged between his feet. His own body couldn't maintain its balance after that, and after landing on the ground, he retreated six or seven steps backward in succession before he finally knelt down on one knee, steadying himself.

On the other side, to prevent the blade from penetrating too deep, Justin's instantly skimmed more than a dozen feet backwards. His grabbed the light blue longsword stuck inside his belly, yet he didn't dare to forcibly pull it out.

Because this sword was stuck inside at least half the length of a palm deep.

His eyes brimmed with shock, the expression on his face extremely conflicted and confused.

He couldn't continue the fight without pulling this sword out, and couldn't seal the flow of blood from the wound either. Yet he worried the flow of blood would be even worse the moment he pulled it out, then he'd lose his ability to fight even faster.

“You both did enough. Neither of you should have any regret left in this fight.”

“Boss...” A tremble went through his entire body. He turned around, but he saw Ferguillo give him a grateful look, then nod his head and pay his respect to Bora.

Then Ferguillo started clapping his hands.

“Many people should remember your spectacular battle even many years later. Three Illusion Swords against Arms of Gods and Devils, the unwillingness to give up even with both arms broken, still pursuing victory.”

Ferguillo's voice was very soft.

Yet more and more claps descended from the stands. Almost everyone started clapping.

𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

“I concede.” Justin felt the urge to cry, but instead, with much difficulty, he managed a smile, then directly pulled out the light blue sword from his belly.

“I also concede. I'm not any threat any longer to your following team member.” Bora stood up, swaying on his feet. He walked in front of Justin. He couldn't move his arms, but he used his body and bumped against Justin.

Two arcane medical teams rushed to both their sides and surrounded them.

Ayrin clapped firmly as well, shouting excitedly at the same time, “Victory!”

“Didn't both sides suffer, both of them are totally done for, how's that a victory,” Stingham shouted gloomily. He thought that if it had been him instead, he'd definitely have knocked Justin out crisp and straightforward.

“Didn't teacher Carter say that Justin is a battle master with already two open gates? Bora is merely close to two open gates, but he hasn't genuinely opened his second gate yet. Justin's strength should be above his.” Ayrin turned his head around and told him happily, “Also, Justin was clearly trying to preserve as much arcane particles as possible even at the expense of physical injuries. He was preparing for his next fight, but now Bora eliminated him, so of course that's a victory for us.”

“Oh, right!”

The gloomy-faced Stingham seemed to think of something all of a sudden. His eyes immediately lit up, and he started to cheer up. “Ayrin, it's your turn to fight next, right?”

“Yes it is.” Ayrin waited for the field referee's announcement, his face full of expectation, saying at the same time, “You're going to cheer for me?”

“How about you hurry up and lose?” Stingham's face was also full of expectation as he looked as Ayrin. “You and Chris lose immediately, then I'll be able to make my appearance. If I overturn the tide and win against all odds, everyone will start worshiping me.”

“You, I've never seen anyone curse their own teammate to hurry up and lose!” Moss and the others suddenly had the irrepressible urge to press him on the ground and give him a beating.

“If you want to fight alone against the tide and win against all odds, then it'll definitely cause more of a sensation if you did it against that guy's team, against formidable teams like that. People will worship you even more.” However, Ayrin really seemed like he didn't know what anger was when it came to people he believed to be his friends and teammates. He said, “You'll certainly have the opportunity to shine come the national tournament.”

“What guy?” Moss and the rest followed Ayrin's gaze. A shiver ran through their bodies in spite of themselves. “Rinsyi!”

“Oh that's right, the stronger the team, the bigger the tide I have to fight against, the more people will worship me. There will certainly be countless beautiful girls taking a fancy to me. It seems I really have to wait for a stronger team in order to amaze the world with a stunning brilliant feat, that'll be more effective.” However, Stingham blinked twice, then instantly quieted down.

“It seems like Ayrin is really Stingham's natural bane.” Almost every member of team Holy Dawn looked at Ayrin and Stingham with a strange expression in their eyes. Stingham was clearly one of these most restless problem youngsters, but a guy slow on the uptake like Ayrin unexpectedly had his number.

After the medical teams completed their preliminary treatments and carried Bora and Justin respectively to team Holy Dawn and team Iron Forest's rest areas, the referee finally announced again, “Second fight, Holy Dawn Academy's Ayrin against Iron Forest Academy's Silva!”

“It's just like the last time, Ayrin's the second one to take to the field!”

“Ayrin came out!”

The entire stands instantly came to a boiling point once again.

“Ayrin, do your best!” Bora shouted when he passed him by.

“Of course!”

Ayrin directly faced the stands, and shouted with every ounce of strength in his body:

“What are we!”

The entire stands stilled, then immediately exploded in a crazed roar, like the eruption of a volcano:

“Brave warriors!”

“What do we want!” Ayrin continued to shout at the top of his lungs.

“To fight!” The entire stands again shouted like a volcanic explosion.

“Fight!” Burning all over with a desire to fight, Ayrin walked toward the center of the field.

“This guy, he's really a natural-born leader, stirring the people's emotions.” Carter couldn't help but shake his head, laughing soundlessly. “He only roused Holy Dawn Academy's stands last time, now he roused the entire arena.”

The second one to take to the field for Iron Forest Academy, Silva, shouted loudly in Ayrin's direction, “A very good atmosphere. Reckless kid, are you ready?”

This was a tall and robust muscleman close to two meters tall just like team Southern Monsoon's captain Ferdinand, and his training also seemed to have made the muscles of his face into one block after another. He still wore some black and blue bruises caused by taking beatings during training. He truly appeared fierce-looking.

Though his first teammate Justin already suffered heavy injuries and couldn't continue the match, Bora's performance and the atmosphere Ayrin stirred up still truly made Silva start to like and enjoy this match from the bottom of his heart.

“Whether I win or lose, I absolutely can't leave any regret behind,” this fierce-looking burly fellow also silently told himself.

“Bring it on, tall brave warrior!” Ayrin shouted, his blood surging, “Since you called me a reckless kid, then let us be reckless together and compare the strength of our punches, what do you say!”

“Hm?” Silva clenched his fists out of habit. He paused slightly in surprise, but Ayrin was already rushing like a madman in his direction.

“Alright, bring it then!”

Silva abruptly twisted his body around, released his strength and fired out a punch.

But just at this instant, Ayrin who appeared to have already swung his fist actually kicked out fiercely all of a sudden, kicked toward his belly.

“Bang!”

Although he moved his left arm in front of himself as a shield and protected himself in the nick of time, it still hit his own belly with a muffled sound under the strength of Ayrin's kick.

“I...”

“You clearly said punches, but you actually kicked. What a powerful strength!”

Silva felt as if seas and rivers were overturning inside his belly. He almost puked on the spot.

At the same time, he heard Ayrin's shout.

“Move like the wind and strike like thunder, directly decide the fight! Crown of Ice and Snow!”

“What!”

Even his body hair stood erect this time from his sudden shock.

Crown of Ice and Snow was an “explosive skill” of resounding fame among all the arcane skills in Holy Dawn Academy. The scene of Ivan being blasted out still played in front of his eyes. And now, after Ayrin successfully hit him with a surprise attack, he clearly was in Crown of Ice and Snow's attacking range. If he were to be blasted by it, he would certainly be directly eliminated from the match just like Ivan.

“Swish!”

His arcane particles squeezed out at a speed that exceeded his limits, spraying out from his hands and his soles.

A wild gust of wind instantly flung him up more than a dozen meters in the air.

At the same time, two overlapping fire shields more than half a meter tall appeared in front of his hands.

The inner part of these fire shields were made from a hard ruby-like substance, while fierce flames burned on the surface.

“What?!”

But when, more than a dozen meters in the air, he looked down at Ayrin on the ground, this team member fighting second for Iron Shield Academy stared with wide eyes and shouted out loud in disbelief.

On the ground, Ayrin didn't give off the slightest indication of using Crown of Ice and Snow. Instead, he showed a cautious defensive posture.

Ayrin watched the two fire shields stand erect in front of him, and heard his incredulous shout. Only then did he chuckle in Silva's direction. “Hehe, you fell for it again.”

“I heard Chris say that after you launch a materialization skill like that, you can't recover your arcane particles anymore because they already merged with arcane energy and transformed into something else. You must definitely have consumed many arcane particles to summon these two fire shields, right?”

“...”

In the stands, many Iron Forest people had difficulty swallowing their saliva. They couldn't even talk.

“He's really too sinister.” Looking at Silva in the air, Stingham felt that Silva certainly had the urge to spit out blood at this moment.

Indeed, just as Ayrin said, any materialization skill cost the consumption a great amount of arcane particles. Even solidifying two swords or an armor sticking on his body would at least have been useful to confront the enemy with. Condensing two thick shields like these now, they were inconvenient even if he kept them in front of him and protected himself with them... It wasn't as if he could lift them in his hands and swing them as weapons, right?

Landing down on the ground, Silva really had the impulse to hold the shields and swing them at Ayrin.

Only, he knew full well that with great heavy shield like these, they were too heavy to swing even if he tried to.

“What are you doing?”

Just at this moment, he suddenly saw Ayrin retreat at full speed, all the way to the edge of the field.

Ayrin watched him vigilantly, saying in a very natural tone, “I'm waiting for your two fire shields to disappear before attacking, of course. Or else you think I'm silly? Your defense is so good with these two fire shields, I'll definitely suffer if I rushed forward.”

“...” Silva suddenly had the feeling these two fire shields in front of him were totally useless trashes.

“Haha, it's too funny. Ayrin's too interesting!”

“That's perfect, Silva definitely won't be able to chase after Ayrin if he carries these two shields.”

“Even if he really caught up to him and swung these two fire shields after him, I'm dead from laughter just thinking about it.”

“What can he do, he can only ditch them first, but these two fire shields may well have cost him at least half his arcane particles, that's really too dumb.”

In the stands occupied by Agate Lake Academy, countless girls suddenly couldn't hold back their giggles.