Destroyer of Ice and Fire

"Rinsyi, that little guy looks particularly serious when he watches Gezny. It seems he's very interested in Gezny."

In team Golden Stag, that flirty girl with dark purple hair and black nails covered a giggle with her hand. "He's not even blinking."c

"Thinking about how to deal with him?" Rinsyi didn't turn his head back in the slightest or look at where Ayrin was. He merely said, his smile cold, "Too bad, he's wasting his energy no matter how earnestly he watches. Because if they really fought their way into the last eight and met us in a match, we'd face them with all our starters."

…

"He really used this skill again."

In the stands, Ayrin was still staring tight at Gezny.

Snow Wolf had already adopted a learning attitude. After meeting with three consecutive defeats, Sandro, the fourth member of the team to step on the field, didn't look particularly disappointed or afraid. He immediately signaled at Kleis he was ready to fight as soon as he came into the field. When Kleis announced the start of the fight, Gezny's body once again became bright red, his entire body beginning to melt into a puddle of blood.

"What's Sandro trying to do?"

Every spectator saw that, facing Gezny's attack, the fourth contestant for Snow Wolf stood where he was without moving an iota.

The ground at his feet seemed as though it started oozing blood, becoming blood-red.

"Ice Meteor!"

A crackling sound resonated in the field.

Along with his chant, a meteor of ice and snow fell at a stunning speed at the spot where Gezny had disappeared.

With a muffled "Puff," the ice splattered everywhere like a huge flower of ice suddenly blossoming on the ground.

"Wrong!"

Disappointment suddenly flashed on Sandro's face.

With a "Crack," a blood-red figure suddenly arising behind him landed a punch on his back, causing a bone-cracking sound.

His body immediately hurled forward in the air.

"So it was like this!"

"He noticed that Gezny returned to his original position every time he struck his opponent, so he suspected it was merely an illusion, that Gezny's body was standing in its original spot without moving. That's why he wanted to try and see whether he could land a blow on Gezny."

After a blank stare, many spectators in the stands immediately understood as well.

Charlotte had already given up on guessing the secret behind Gezny's skill. She merely couldn't help herself from asking Ayrin in a quiet voice, "How is it?"

"I'm getting even more of a feel for it." Ayrin quietly shouted, "I have to hold it back!"

"Hold back what?" Charlotte asked, baffled.

"I'm dying to go out immediately and give it a try," Ayrin explained, breathing loud. "But I'll definitely get even more of a feel for it if I watch it one more time, so I have to hold back, I absolutely have to hold back and finish watching this guy's next fight."

"What's going on?" Just then, Ayrin suddenly blinked again.

He saw Gezny gesture at the referee that he was forfeiting.

"It's Rinsyi's arrangement."

Charlotte looked at the edge of the field were team Golden Stag was. She said, a little depressed as well, "It must be because the next one to fight for Snow Wolf is their captain Zieg. Maybe Rinsyi feels Gezny isn't assured of a victory against him, so he's switching in someone else."

"This Rinsyi guy!"

That was a great blow for Ayrin. "No matter, let's first go out and try. Anyway, all the substitutes in team Golden Stag should be around Gezny's level. Team Snow Wolf couldn't possibly defeat all of them just by relying on their next member."

"That works." Charlotte looked at Ayrin. She was having a little troubling holding back the urge herself.

The two of them started squeezing their way out.

"Team Golden Stag against team Snow Wolf, Oeness against Zieg!"

When they'd squeezed only half their way to the exit tunnel, Ayrin and Charlotte heard referee Kleis' voice, then a tsunami of gasps fill the entire arena almost at the same time.

"This is?"

As soon as Charlotte turned around, she saw Oeness, the third contestant for team Golden Stag, in the middle of continuously launching skills.

He had his hands stretched on his chest, his posture as though he held an invisible ball. His ten fingers flicked faintly at a curious rhythm. The arcane particles sprinkling away quickly turned into black flames, then transformed into black bats half the size of a palm.

Just then, the dense cloud of bats was already rushing toward Snow Wolf's captain Zieg.

Five crystal claws floated around Zieg in a bizarre fashion, shaped somewhat like bear paws.

There were some scattered arcane particles in the air, as though they were marionette strands controlling these five crystal claws. Under Zieg's control, each slap from these five crystal claws would create huge air waves, illustrating their formidable power.

But when his crystal claws slapped the black bats rushing near him, it didn't splash or scatter them. Instead, like a black sticky gummi candy, they directly stuck to the crystal claws.

The crystal claws immediately became extremely heavy, as if they would fall at any moment.

"What kind of weird arcane skill is that now?"

Charlotte's eyes were also immediately mesmerized.

She felt that this arcane skill of Oeness' was a natural predator for her two most important skills.

"Rage of the Fire Witch!"

Seeing the situation turning against him, Zieg immediately switched to another move. Along with the glint from the dazzling brilliance of arcane particles, the red flames gushing in front of him first immediately shaped into the semblance of a red-haired witch, then condensed at an alarming speed and transformed into a huge fire lance firing in Oeness' direction.

Yet, Oeness still fired his skill nonstop as before, invoking one black bat after another.

"What!"

What made Zieg and almost every spectator in the stands stare in disbelief was, when the black bats crashed against the flames, they still stuck to them.

The long fire lance flying swiftly through the air immediately deviated from its trajectory because of the dozen bats or more sticking on it. It flew past Oeness, not far away from him.

In that instant, several black bats flew through the fire lance's previous trajectory and rushed near Zieg.

"Puff!" …

Zieg didn't have enough time left to launch another arcane skill. He shaped his hands into blades and chopped them repeatedly at the bats. However, the bats surprisingly stuck to his hands as well, one after another.

His hands shook, looking as though they were so heavy he couldn't even lift them.

An eerie smile flashed across Oeness' face.

He suddenly opened his mouth. A black beam of light shot out of his mouth, immediately striking Zieg's face.

A bloody red sprayed behind Zieg's back. Zieg shouted in pain, falling backward all of a sudden.

"That's Black Firetongue! It's a secret skill from Golden Stag Academy, a shadow master's assassination skill!"

"It's the end. He already struck through Zieg's body in one hit, there's no way he can keep fighting."

"I know this arcane skill already, but what about these strange black bats… What arcane skill was that?"

In the chaos of voices, Charlotte's hands were sweating.

The members of team Golden Stag taking to the field were actually each stranger than the last. On top of that, they were merely substitutes in Golden Stag Academy.

"Golden Stag Academy's really too strong!"

"There's no way to fight against them."

"These substitute fighters have skills so strange already, I don't understand them at all."

"Even a stronger team would probably not be a match for these substitutes. Plus, who knows if these substitutes gave their all. None of them were wounded…"

"Even if they made a team with only substitutes, they'd probably still reach the last eight."

"Let's go!" Ayrin's voice rose against her ears, mingling with these other voices.

Charlotte turned around. She saw Ayrin squeeze his way out of the crowd as fast as he could, his head down.

"If I recall correctly, there's an 'Insight Training Chamber' just in front of us."

After exiting the arena, Ayrin walked in fast strides toward the northwest corner of the arena.

When arcane masters are learning arcane skills, they'd sometimes come to a sudden understanding, or perhaps a sudden great insight. They'd want to practice, but almost every arcane master didn't want to leak their own secrets when training. That was the reason why there were "Insight Training Chambers" in every city in Eiche, open to the public free of charge.

After a few minutes, Ayrin and Charlotte were standing in one of the stone rooms in the "Insight Training Chamber" at the northwest corner of the arena.

"I'm starting!" Ayrin told Charlotte in all seriousness, looking as though he was seriously trying to remember.

"What!"

"You…?!"

Charlotte nodded. She knew it was best for now not to say anything superfluous. But as soon as Ayrin started to move, she let out an incredulous exclamation.

Because Ayrin didn't employ the same posture Gezny previously had when launching his skill. Instead, he put both his hands on his chest, as though he were holding an invisible ball!

He was instead adopting Oeness' skill-launching posture!

Arcane particles flowed out of Ayrin's fingers and sprinkled away, becoming black flames, but then immediately scattered in the air.

"Failure!" Ayrin immediately told the indescribably shocked Charlotte.

There was no dismay whatsoever on his face, however. Instead, it was filled with excitement.

"Just now, that Oeness continuously launched this skill many times. I also got a great feel for it, like I can learn it.

"It's just that he used it for a short time, so my impression isn't as deep as with Gezny. So I'm giving this arcane skill a spin first.

"I failed, but I think I'm starting to get the hang of it," Ayrin told Charlotte again.

"Don't tell me, even this skill… This is clearly a skill that's entirely different from Gezny's skill!" Charlotte started trembling slightly. She forced herself not to say anything else, or else it might disturb Ayrin.

"Failed again!"

"But it seems a bit better!"

"It should be like this!"

"I think I succeeded!"

"Success!"

After trying for a mere five or six times in succession, what made Charlotte suddenly stop breathing was, with a cheer from Ayrin, she saw black bats rushing out in front of him!

A bizarre dark arcane energy was undulating and gathering, converging inside this stone room!

"It's really possible?"

"He actually only saw someone launch the skill a few times… He just saw with his own eyes someone demonstrate and use the skill a few times in succession, and now he directly learned it?"

Even though she was seeing it with her own eyes, a numb Charlotte still felt as though she couldn't trust her own eyes at all.

"Let me first try Gezny's skill now!"

Ayrin himself was excited enough that his voice sounded a little different.

"I think I can do it too!"

"It should be like this!"

"…"

Perhaps, as Ayrin said, he had a deeper impression of Gezny's skill, so Charlotte saw Ayrin's entire body turn bright red after merely four tries, then start transforming into a puddle of blood!

"Success!"

"I get it now!"

The red light vanished. Ayrin once again stood in front of Charlotte. He started shouting, as if he'd thoroughly understood something.

"I don't get it!" Charlotte couldn't help but shout.

"Ah!"

Ayrin exhaled in pain, desperately tossing his hand. He looked at Charlotte: "Charlotte, why did you bite me?"

"I wanted to check if this was real or if this was a dream," Charlotte shouted.

"Ah?" Ayrin was struck a little dumb. "Shouldn't you bite your own hand then?"

"I don't care!" Charlotte couldn't stop herself from grabbing Ayrin's hand once again and giving it a bite. "You' really going to make me crazy."