269 Chapter 269: Overkill (1/2)

The expression on Ji Xuan's face when he saw over a hundred students descend upon him and his hired Assassins was priceless.

”What in the world…?!”

The ninja dude and his Assassin subordinates fought as best as they could, but no matter how powerful they were, they were still facing elite students about seven times their number, and they were overwhelmed in short order.

”Ji Xuan!” Charles Lacroix bellowed as he descended upon him, his blue and silver sword crackling with white lightning. ”I am here today, to deliver justice upon you!”

The perpetuator's eyes bulged when he saw the Knight of Thunder plummet toward him, devastating energies crackling around him. Credit to him, he was able to pull out his spear and deflect Charles's weapon.

For only a moment, then he was hit by thunder and lightning, blown off his feet by the powerful sonic boom and deadly energies.

”Ugh!”

Even as the Assassins fell, they were not going out without a fight. As I suspected, the Assassins had been prepared for the event where Lilith and I would bring our Soul Beasts or Constellation spirits into the fight. Formation arrays activated, and the place was filled with devastating mana as extremely powerful spells were unleashed. I saw two of the students get struck by lightning and electrocuted, and another three get incinerated by fire. They didn't actually die – these were elite students with high innate magical resistance and absurd defenses – but the spells were powerful enough to incapacitate them. Several more found themselves frozen by another spirit formation, and only half of them were able to break out of the ice.

The Assassins had really ensured that they were loaded for bear when they chose to make their last stand here. Unfortunately, it wasn't Lilith's Hellfire Bear or my Ursa Major and pack of Ursa Minor that showed up but over a hundred students who were tired of being their victims.

Even they in their wildest dreams never imagined that the surviving students would all gather together and launch an attack on them in a unified coalition.

”H…how?!” Ji Xuan spat as he deflected Charles's sword with his spear. ”Why now? All this time, you refused to band together to resist my group…you ran away and dispersed yourselves among the forest without turning to the others for help…why do you only decide to unite together now to fight against me?!”

”Simple…your challenge was your undoing.” Charles smiled grimly. ”Initially, we didn't know who to trust. After all, so many of our comrades…so many of the students from the various schools who participated in the Spiritual Road turned out to be sleeper agents…Assassin trainees who have infiltrated the many academies and suddenly betrayed their schoolmates and classmates when you sent out the order. We didn't know who to trust, especially since we hardly had any interaction with anyone from the other schools. How do we know we weren't walking into a trap, and that we wouldn't be stabbed in the back by Assassins pretending to be our allies?”

The two of them sprang apart again, their mana colliding violently before they traded blows. Charles closed in on Ji Xuan, putting his weight behind his sword and driving the tyrant back.

”Then you stupidly issued that challenge, declaring that you want to finish this once and for all. You exposed yourself, even though there wasn't any real need to, and put yourself at unnecessary risk. The only reason for you to do so is because you were cornered. Not to mention, we weren't just running and hiding. We were also keeping watch on your forces, and we were aware that quite a few groups have been launching guerilla strikes and taking out your Assassin squads and patrols one at a time, which caused your numbers to diminish drastically. So I decided to take a gamble. If you were desperate enough to expose yourself to lure your target – Lilith Porter – into accepting your challenge for a final battle to settle this once and for all, then it means you could no longer afford any more losses on your part. That you were cornered with nothing more than the forces you have in this battlefield.”

He then hesitated and looked around, looking satisfied as he watched the last of the Assassins get eliminated, and their blood tokens snatched away.

”Of course, I was prepared for the scenario that you were bluffing and hiding more of your forces in the forest, that you still have several reserves concealed and waiting to unleash them once Miss Lilith takes the bait and attacked you. But it seems that you don't even have any reinforcements for your final scheme. Your gambit didn't pay off. Your spirit formations and arrays, and the Assassin trainees you've hired, are certainly impressive, but even they cannot withstand an assault from over a hundred students combing forces.”

”Fuck!” Ji Xuan howled before he charged at Charles, purplish mana coalescing at the tip of his spear. Charles parried the strike before deflecting the spear away.

”And so…your reign of terror is over. Your own arrogance proved to be your undoing.”

Lightning struck Charles's sword, imbuing him with destructive energies that left a scorched crater around him. Behind the blue and silver knight, the intangible figure of a White Tiger materialized and roared ferociously.

Ji Xuan backed away cautiously, his eyes narrowed. Charles pursued him, and he grinned triumphantly. A spirit formation activated underneath both their feet, and a tremendous amount of mana began to flow toward them in a violent maelstrom.

”You've activated my trap card!” he crowed.

”Oh, really?” Charles looked completely unimpressed as he glanced around at the purple lightning that danced violently around the edges of the spirit formation, like wailing specters desperately clawing their way into the living world. His White Tiger seemed unfazed by the hair-raising energies that crackled around it, and with a casual swipe of its paw, it dissipated a significant chunk of them.

”What?!” Ji Xuan's jaw dropped. Charles merely smiled at him before stabbing his sword into the ground, right where the spirit formation was drawn on. Silver lightning traveled from his blade and into the ground before shattering the arcane array and returning the ground to normal. Almost immediately, the purplish energies weakened tremendously, and Charles dispersed them with a swing of his electric sword. ”Impossible!”

”Not really,” Charles replied casually. ”You merely activated my counter trap card.”

”There's no such…wait, there is.” Ji Xuan paled visibly. ”…fuck.”

Then he was blasted away by white lightning.

While he was lying on the ground, convulsing helplessly from deadly electricity, Charles strolled toward him and nonchalantly relieved him of his blood token. Spitting and swearing, even as he continued to jerk and writhe from electrocution, Ji Xuan howled in rage.

”You won't get away with this!”

”Funny.” Charles snorted. ”And you think you'll get away with exploiting the system and hiring Assassin trainees to help you with dominating the Spiritual Road? Fine then. We'll settle this in court, if necessary.”

”FUCK!!!!” Ji Xuan screamed before he completely disappeared and was forcibly teleported out of the Spiritual Road.

”Good riddance.” Shaking his head, Charles turned to check on the progress of the battle behind him.

Like I said, it was overkill. With over a hundred students attacking all at once, even with the spirit formations and arrays, the Assassins were pretty much overwhelmed and defeated. The victors were taking their blood tokens and kicking them out of the Spiritual Road. I didn't even get to lift a finger, having watched all this take place from the back.

What? Did you think this was going to turn out to be some climactic boss battle where I got to square off one-against-one with Ji Xuan? Nope. Sorry to disappoint you, but this wasn't some xianxia story where I hogged all the battles to myself. Furthermore, I was better served recording the fights of everyone else. I had just obtained some vital footage of Charles and the techniques he used. That guy was going to be a formidable opponent during the tournament.

Besides, the best victories were the ones you obtained without even having to fight. Let others do the fighting for you, heh.