Chapter 118: National tournament, begin! (2/2)

“…”

Walking out of the library, Liszt wiped his sweat and said to himself with a bitter face, “I came to find you to protect Ayrin, but now I still have to find someone to protect your books. Is this protecting someone or protecting some books…”

…

In the secret training area.

Just like usual, Ayrin and Rinloran were chasing each other.

But what was different from the past was, the pursuit training the two of them did right now happened inside the Iron Thorns Forest.

This was a dangerous chase.

They slipped through the cracks between the sharp thorns filling the surrounding. If they were a little careless and hit their eyes on a sharp thorn, then it wouldn’t be simply some pain.

But at this moment, the two of them weren’t merely chasing each other. They were even like former human arcane masters entering the Iron Thorns Forests surrounding the elven kingdoms and trading blows with elven masters.

The two of them were trying every mean at their disposal to attack their opponent, dodging their opponent’s attacks at the same time.

In a chase like this where the mind always had to stay on high alert, in a fight that was wholly close to a real battle, the exhaustion of body and mind was extremely fierce.

The two of them were already training for a long time.

When it was difficult to dodge, the two of them protected their weak spots and let the hard thorns prick other parts of their bodies.

That was why, the two of them had quite a few stabs and scratches on them.

Their steps looked extremely deft and graceful. Even in a forest where no road seemed to exist, filled with dense, crisscrossing long thorns, they looked as nimble as butterflies through a field of flowers.

But every time their steps fell down, sweat would splash out.

From beginning to end, Ayrin couldn’t really tie down Rinloran, to say nothing about knocking him down.

He was already extremely tired, to the point he even had the feeling he wanted to directly fall down head first and fall asleep in these woods.

“He’s really hard to cope with, it’s really a difficult fight…”

Ayrin even silently talked to himself like that. But as soon as he thought back to the fight in Windsough Canyon and remembered that it was precisely thanks to his own fighting that teacher Ciaran didn’t end up paying a grievous price, there would be a renewed vigor bubbling forth inside him, allowing him to press on.

“He’s not at his limits even like this?”

“This guy, why is he much stronger again compared to a few days ago? If we weren’t on such a terrain… In the forest of huge trees, he would have defeated me long ago!”

Rinloran’s breathing was already as heavy as the wind in a ventilation box. He clenched his teeth, unwilling to admit defeat.

“These two guys. It’s about time…”

Carter exhaled softly after secretly observing them for a long time. In a few rises and falls, his figure appeared beside the Iron Thorns Forest.

Ayrin and Rinloran both halted inside. Ayrin was the first to shout, “Teacher Carter, why did you come?”

“I came to notify you. We’re setting off for Eichemalar tomorrow in preparation for the national tournament,” Carter gently said.

“We’re leaving tomorrow already, the national tournament is starting?” Ayrin couldn’t help but jump.

With a miserable “Oh damn” scream, he careless pricked himself a few times on the thorns nearby.

Carter nodded with a smile. “Yes. We still need many days before arriving in Eichemalar. The draw for the tournament will probably happen the day after we arrive there.”

“Then…” Ayrin suddenly thought of something. He turned his head around and looked at Rinloran.

“Rinloran, come with us.” Without waiting for Ayrin to say anything, Carter already looked at Rinloran and spoke in all seriousness. “It doesn’t matter if you don’t want to join the school team. You can still help with Ayrin’s training just like before.”

“Come with us come with us!” Ayrin immediately nodded firmly at Rinloran. “I heard teacher Ciaran say that there are a great many weird and bizarre arcane masters in the national tournament. Elsewhere, you won’t see so many types of arcane masters even in a lifetime. It’ll definitely be interesting.”

“Alright then.” Rinloran nodded after some hesitation.

“Great!” Ayrin jumped again in happiness.

“Oh damn!” Screamed miserably again.

“Hasn’t he learned his lesson yet?” Seeing Ayrin get stabbed by the thorns again, Carter couldn’t resist laughing. Even the frosty Rinloran couldn’t help but puff in a laugh.