Chapter 64: The tournament’s burning atmosphere (1/2)
Chapter 64: The tournament’s burning atmosphere
“He’s indeed a monster!”
Early in the morning, inside a forest surrounded by tall stone walls, Carter looked at an excited Ayrin and couldn’t help silently mumbling these words to himself.
Ordinary arcane masters would have needed at least a dozen days before recovering from injuries like his, but Ayrin completely recovered in merely two days, looking as good as new.
Without even talking about the other special qualities Ayrin possessed, merely this astonishing recovery ability was enough to scare Carter.
This sealed-off forest located inside the academy’s Goddess Park was the secret training ground for Holy Dawn Academy arcane masters. Only teachers and battlemasters from Holy Dawn Academy who passed their exams were allowed to train inside.
After becoming a genuine battlemaster of the kingdom, especially after joining an arcane team and carrying out every kind of mission, the strength and arcane skills of many arcane masters were classified as secrets, hence they needed a secret training ground like this where no one could see them.
Because very few people came here, and because they needed to apply and enter inside at different, prearranged times, this closed-off forest with a radius of a dozen miles seemed extremely primordial.
Ayrin excitedly watched this forest brimming with a primordial atmosphere, then watched teacher Carter standing in front of him, asking in a loud voice, “Teacher Carter, is Belo also training here?”
“Belo isn’t training here, he’s following another special training program.” Carter shook his head, then his expression became slightly more solemn. “Ayrin, now answer a question of mine. You keep talking about joining the school team, is it because you want to obtain victory after victory, together with team Holy Dawn?”
“Of course!” Ayrin firmly brandished his fist and watched Carter with a very curious expression, uncertain why Carter asked him such a question. “I want to defeat every powerful opponent, and help Chris become champion in the national tournament!”
Carter looked at his burning eyes, nodding. “For the sake of this goal, do you have the courage to stake your life?”
Ayrin’s eyes burned even brighter. “Of course. Senior Rogrid and the others all have the courage to stake their lives, of course I’ll be the same as them!”
“I can guarantee I’ll do everything I can to help you guys obtain victory after victory, but I need you to promise me something.” Carter said solemnly, “I need you to promise you absolute will listen to my orders during training and during matches, can you do that?”
“Really? Teacher, what you mean is, I can go on stage and fight?” Ayrin shouted excitedly, his eyes wide open all of a sudden.
“Of course.” Carter looked at him and solemnly said, “You’re going to be a critical figure in whether we can defeat Divine Shield Academy or not, a secret weapon!”
“Secret weapon?” Ayrin blinked in surprise.
“That’s right. Because you’re not strong enough yet, but you possess some abilities that others don’t understand. You can only play a decisive role by exploiting these abilities that others don’t understand.” Carter patted his shoulder. “That’s the reason why I took you to a place like this to train in secret. What you have to promise first is, before the match with Divine Shield Academy formally starts, you absolutely absolutely can’t fight with anyone else again! You absolutely can’t expose any ability of yours!”
“I can’t fight with anyone else, I have to conceal my genuine strength?”
“Ayrin, you’ll come to understand very quickly. It’s not just the current tournament, in fact, you’ll need to be even more careful about concealing your genuine strength after becoming a real battlemaster. This way, the opponent can’t thoroughly understand you, so it’ll be more troublesome for them to face you. You have to understand something, in a battle between arcane masters, it’s nowhere near a contest of pure power between arcane skills exploding against each other, there are also battle tricks and wisdom involved.
“Outstanding arcane masters are expert in exploiting every kind of method to create a lapse or mistake in the opponent’s knowledge and judgment, to the point they’re already setting lethal traps for the opponent before the fight even begins.” Carter glanced at the pensive Ayrin and added, “Your superhuman strength, resistance to blows and outstanding momentum have surely spread out already, but your opponents don’t know yet you have such a formidable self-healing ability, and they’re even less aware that you can absorb someone else’s arcane particle and use them to invoke arcane skills!
“That’s why these two abilities will be your secret weapons! They’re precisely the crucial points that will determine whether we can defeat Divine Shield Academy or not this time!”
“I understand now…” Ayrin’s eyes lit up. “Every one of them thinks I can’t use arcane skills. When the time comes it’ll be very difficult for them to block when I suddenly strike them with one.”
Carter nodded. “Also, the more you progress in this half-month, the less of an understanding the opponent will have about you. They’ll also be mistaken in their judgment when it comes to you.”
“I’ll do my best!” Ayrin shouted excitedly, but he immediately seemed to think of something, and asked Carter, “Teacher Carter, if I expose every secret of mine in the match against Divine Shield Academy, then won’t I have no secret left for the next matches?”
“It’s not easy to understand a secret whose reason is very difficult to find.” Carter started to smile. “Also, you have to understand something, every arcane master will gather more and more secrets about themselves the further they progress. As long as you believe in me, I will give you even more secrets in the competition.”
“Teacher Carter, are you going to teach me new arcane skills?”
Ayrin saw that, while they were talking, the dazzling rays of light emitting from arcane particles were already flashing on Carter’s body.
“I’ll teach you a secret skill.” Carter nodded. “Also, I’ll seal off part of my strength and fight with you. This way, not only you’ll progress very fast, you’ll also be able to store enough arcane particles, and it’ll allow you to practice arcane skills!”
“Alright!” Ayrin’s high-spirited shout once again exploded in this thick forest brimming with a primordial atmosphere.
…
Three hundred ninety-nine, four hundred, four hundred and one…
Inside the Thinker’s Stone Forest, drenched in sweat from head to toe, panting in rough and heavy mouthfuls, Kybaver sprinted nonstop.
His body flashed in succession, again and again, like a ghost or a devil, his punches constantly carrying silver rays of light burning like lightning.
“Swish!”
When the last of his arcane particles gushed out of his fists, he already lost control of his body gone well past its limits. He crashed fiercely forward, falling headlong on the ground, bounced up, then fell once again on the ground.