Chapter 325: Determining Victory and Defea (1/2)

t

“Sleeptalker Presley, one of the three celebrity fighters of Abel Academy,” Ayrin thought to himself upon seeing Presley step forward, his eyes immediately lighting up. “This time, there will be no tricks or artifacts, or any support from my teammates. A battle against such an opponent… it is the perfect opportunity for me to see just how far I’ve come!”

“What strong confidence… but you are only a first-year student of Holy Dawn Academy, and I… I am a third-year student of Abel Academy! Are you all not looking down on me a little too much?!” Presley thought to himself as he stepped towards the beckoning Ayrin. A tidal wave of emotions was currently crashing through his mind.

In the past, he had only relied on his natural abilities and the strong skills of Abel Academy, but now, he would have to rely on his own courage and will as well.

“The look in his eyes have changed!” Ayrin thought, his eyes becoming even brighter as he extended his arm towards Presley and shouted, “Come, brave warrior!”

“Watch out, I am about to start!” Presley replied before taking a deep breath. A tense atmosphere descended upon the sunlit plain, slowly causing Presley’s blood to boil.

“You bastard, we are the team which won runner up in last year’s national tournament, and I am one of the strongest celebrity fighters!” Presley roared to himself as his gaze sharpened and his eyes narrowed to slits.

But right at this moment, Ayrin abruptly shouted, “Wait a second!”

Presley, who had been about to make his move abruptly froze as he asked, “What is it?”

Ayrin abashedly scratched the back of his head as he replied, “I forgot that I have yet to replenish my arcane particles…”

He laughed in embarrassment as he continued, “So let me condense some arcane particles before we fight.”

“You can even forget something like this?”

“You only thought of replenishing arcane particles at this moment?”

“And here we thought you could spontaneously regenerate your arcane particles…”

The group from Abel Academy felt like slamming their heads into the ground.

“……” Presley himself was completely speechless as well. All the will to fight he had built up just now had completely disappeared at this moment.

“Alright! I’m good to go!”

A while later, Ayrin signalled to Presley that he was ready.

“Okay!”

Presley’s eyes glinted as they narrowed once more.

In the next moment, he abruptly disappeared from where he was standing opposite Ayrin. Afterimages of himself began to appear all over atop the plain.

At the same time, he quietly made an invocation under his breath.

Syllable after syllable of Draconic emerged from his mouth as a strange arcane energy fluctuation began to ripple across the plain.

“It’s Draconic Assimilation!”

“A Draconic skill! Indeed unique!”

Cries of shock emerged from Stingham and Rinloran as they exchanged bewildered looks.

As Abel Academy had been founded by Draconic Scholars, they obviously would be in the possession of many top tier Draconic skills.

Many Draconic skills had an extremely powerful ability to absorb arcane energy, so much that arcane masters joking referred to them as skills with an appetite. This was because they not only absorbed the energy of the user, but also all the arcane energy around the user, sometimes even including the opponent’s arcane energy.

Such a skill had been used by Holy Dawn Academy’s Professor Plum during the battle against Dias which destroyed the Holy City’s water tower. His ‘Sound Absorption’ made it so that any sounds created by the enemy, whether it be normal sounds or invocations, would amplify his other skills. Specifically, it absorbed energy created by vibration and assimilated it.

It was evident that Presley’s Draconic Assimilation skill worked the same way, only it drew its energy from arcane energy fluctuations instead of sound.

Although they were dozens of meters away from Presley, Stingham and Rinloran could feel some of their energy being sucked out of their bodies towards Presley following his invocation of the skill.

A skill like this only became stronger as more and more arcane masters were present.

“Ayrin… won’t use his favorite Skunk Devil Summoning again, will he?”

As the idea arose within Stingham’s mind, his face turned color and he abruptly pinched his nose.

“Eh?”

But much to his surprise, a ring of silver light suddenly erupted from Ayrin’s body.

Numerous silver seals abruptly appeared in the air above the empty plain and descended onto the dozens of images of Presley.

The sound of Presley’s chanting disappeared.

His mouth was still moving, but no sounds were coming out.

“Domain of Silence!”

“How can it be?! How can he use our skill against us?!” Lotner blurted out. He had regained consciousness just in time to see the battle unfolding before him.

“How is this possible?!”

“Did he really…”

Looks of complete shock emerged across the faces of the Abel Academy students as they all had a shocking revelation.

At the same time, Ayrin began an invocation of his own.

And it sounded exactly like Presley’s.

“This guy… he must have managed to master these two skills during our maddened rush!” Stingham inwardly exclaimed as he watched Ayrin use the exact same Draconic Assimilation which Presley had used. He could feel the energy which had been flowing towards Presley now gathering around Ayrin.

“He really managed to learn the skills of our Abel Academy?”

“He actually learned the skills he wrested from us?!”

“Just what kind of learning ability is this?!”

All the Abel Academy students felt a sense of madness welling within them.

“This kid… no wonder Minlur was so confident!” Kelly felt speechless as he finally realized just how large of an error he had made.

Not only had he misjudged the opponent’s artifacts, but he had also misjudged their speed of progress and their talent!

“He actually…!”

Presley’s body stiffened as if he had been hit by a sledgehammer.

Presley had mastered Draconic Assimilation during this past year, and it was something he took great pride in. But now, right when he had used it to try and establish an advantage for himself, Ayrin had used it as well! Ayrin had somehow mastered the technique!

And Domain of Silence as well!

His heart thumped wildly as he felt his arcane particles begin to roil within his body.

Whoosh!