Arthur stood over the unconscious and limp body of a C-Rank serpent, few of its scales appeared cracked where his strikes had landed. Its long, whip-like tail still twitched faintly, but the sigil on its neck was already fading, and the token in Arthur's hand pinged, indicating the addition of points.
+100 Points.
He glanced toward the grove it had been guarding, three slender trees with twisted black bark, each bearing three brilliant red fruits. The fruits glowed softly, Arthur had no idea what kind of fruits these were, 'Analysis' only showed that it contains a lot of attributeless mana, but based on the encounter with the cerberus earlier, he figured they were probably valuable.
"Another jackpot," he murmured, tucking the fruits into his dimensional storage.
This was the third C-Rank beast he'd encountered so far. Each had been restricted inside a barrier-sealed area, and each had been guarding unique fruits or flora. Arthur had been on a very focused mission, hunting these higher-tier beasts while also hunting the D-Rank beasts along the way.
But just as he left the barrier, preparing to go to his next destination, his expression changed. He saw two groups of ten life signatures were heading toward his position on his 'Map'.
They clearly weren't beasts, from their life signature he figured they were people.
He frowned, his eyes narrowing as he looked at the map, "…Why are they following me?" he muttered.
Arthur blurred into motion, springing up into the canopy of the nearest tree. He landed lightly on a thick branch, and hid among the dense leaves. His presence dimmed as he cloaked himself with Chi Concealment, crouching low on the branch as he waited.
A minute later, the sound of footsteps reached him, and the two groups arrived almost simultaneously. There were nearly twenty students in total.
At the front of one team was a tall girl with short red hair and a sharp, no-nonsense expression.
"Where is he?" she asked in a low and commanding voice.
A boy beside her closed his eyes, his fingers tracing patterns in the air likely casting a spell. "Boss… He was present here just a minute ago, but he seems to vanish out of thin air."
One of his teammate said, "What bulls**t are you spewing, how can a person just vanish out of thin air."
The girl raised her hand to stop him and scanned the clearing, "You can come out!" she shouted. "We know you're here!"
Arthur raised an eyebrow, he saw everything from the top of the tree and decided to check what they wanted. And jumped down from his hiding spot.
Thump.
As he landed in front of the group, all heads snapped toward him.
The other group's leader, a cocky boy with a smirk on his face, immediately sneered. "We hit the jackpot, Fiora. He seems to be alone."
Fiora nodded slowly. "I first didn't believe Orrin's detection magic would be this accurate, but…" she narrowed her eyes, "it appears he really is alone."
Arthur tilted his head, scanning each of them calmly. 'So... this really isn't a coincidence.' it seemed they were deliberately targeting him for some reason.
Fiora's lips curled into a cold smile. "Blame your luck for encountering us."
Then she raised a hand.
"Attack!"
Arthur just raised an eyebrow seeing the group of twenty students surrounding him, the students moved like a pack of wolves. Spells launched from all sides, fireballs, wind blades, mana lances, even a few mana infused arrows from those wielding bows. The entire clearing erupted in a wave of mana.
The ground shook, as dust kicked into the air and covered the place where Arthur was standing from vision.
"Stop!" Fiora ordered.
They all stopped their attacks hearing Fiora.
The dust slowly cleared…revealing nothing where they attacked.
"Where is he!?" the second team's leader shouted. "He was standing there a second ago!"
"There's no way that attack vaporized him," he muttered.
The attack had been strong enough to knock out a 3rd Circle mage but it was not so strong that the person would get obliterated so he believed Arthur must have fled.
The others were also surprised and started to look around to find Arthur, "Oh… you're looking for me?" a voice whispered beside the second team leader's ear.
He froze, sweat trickling down his neck. Arthur stood directly behind him.
The boy leapt away in panic, flinging a fireball at the spot where Arthur was.
Boom!
Everyone turned towards him, their faces taut with shock.
Fiora's brows pulled together. "What happened Darian?"
Darian trembled slightly. "H-He was behind me just now!"
Before Fiora could respond…
Whoosh!
Arthur reappeared again, this time standing in front of the group, with his hands in his pockets, completely unbothered.
"Why are you targeting me?" he asked in a calm voice.
But no one answered his question, instead spells were hurled at his direction.
Fire, ice, wind, lightning and various spells rained down on him.
Arthur sighed and again disappeared from his place. He figured they were not going to speak, until he beat some sense into them.
The attacks collided with each other, detonating midair.
BOOM!
A shockwave tore through the area, and several students stumbled back from the impact of their own attack.
When the smoke cleared Arthur was already gone.
"…Split up! He must be using teleportation magic!" someone guessed and shouted.
Darian gritted his teeth. "What!? How can a 3rd Circe mage learn teleportation magic?"
"No," Fiora growled, her eyes scanning the canopy. "That's not teleportation, that's just his speed."
They turned their backs to one another, forming a loose circle formation, trying to keep all directions covered.
Arthur's voice came from one corner of the area.
"You're not wrong."
Thud!
A student to the far left was suddenly flung through the air, crashing into a tree, groaning as he hit the dirt.
"Wha…?!"
Boom!
Another student was launched upward, flipping midair and crashing down with a thud.
Arthur's figure became a blur due to his high speed, impossible to track. He now knew how to offset friction of air, one of the perks of Chi manipulation, so his fast movements, which should be creating sonic booms, didn't create any sound.
He appeared behind one student, disarmed him, then kneed him in the gut. The student gasped and crumpled. Another rushed him from behind, but Arthur ducked, spun, and elbowed the attacker's temple, knocking him cold.
One by one, they fell. The attackers didn't even have a chance to cast any stronger spells, as they required longer chanting time.
Fiora watched in growing horror as their numbers dropped from twenty to fifteen, then thirteen…
All without Arthur taking a single hit.
Arthur stood across the field again, brushing dust from his hands. "I'll ask one more time," he said, his voice a tone sharp now. "Who sent you?"
Fiora didn't answer. Instead, she clenched her fists.
"Don't stop!" she roared. "Overwhelm him! He can't be everywhere!" And started to cast a spell to restrict Arthur's movements.
Arthur sighed again.
"You really wanna test that theory huh." saying that he disappeared from his position again.
…
The moment Arthur disappeared from view again, chaos followed.
He reappeared like a phantom behind one student, delivering a spinning back-kick that launched the boy into a nearby tree, bark splintering from the impact.
Before the others could react, he was already weaving through their formation.
A wind mage tried to cast a blast spell, Arthur chopped the back of his neck, sending him unconscious before the first word of his chant left his lips.
Another student raised a sword and lunged forward. Arthur sidestepped with fluid grace and drove his knee into the attacker's gut. As the student doubled over, Arthur followed up with a rising elbow to the chin. The attacker spun in the air and collapsed like a sack of potatoes.
"Behind you!" someone shouted.
Arthur flicked his hand mid-spin. A student lunged at him with twin daggers after her teammate warned her, was hurled away, crashing into a bush as if yanked by an invisible force.
A fireball came flying toward him from the side. Arthur raised his palm and deflected it mid-air using a gust of wind conjured due to the extreme speed of his movement. The fireball veered off course and exploded harmlessly above the treetops.
A heavy earth spell shook the ground beneath him, attempting to trap his feet with jagged spikes. Arthur leapt into the air, flipping once before landing on a student's back and vaulting off like a gymnast.
He landed on another opponent's chest with both feet, kicking the boy down with a resounding thud.
Punches, kicks, palm strikes.
The battlefield had turned into a chaotic mess. Arthur moved like a ghost, untouchable and unstoppable. His blows were precise, each one designed to incapacitate his opponents.
In under a minute, all nineteen students were downed, groaning or unconscious.
All that remained standing was Fiora.
She stood frozen, her eyes wide at the scene before her, students lying in various states of defeat, some twitching, while some completely still.
Arthur turned toward her, Fiora seeing him approach her took a step back.
"D-Don't come near me!" she screamed, panic flooding her voice. "Do you know who I am?!"
She stumbled as she tried to back away and fell flat on her back, her hands digging into the dirt as she scurried back.
Arthur walked slowly towards her.
"Wait! Stay back! I said…"
He reached down and grabbed her by the neck, lifting her effortlessly off the ground with one hand.
Fiora struggled wildly, her nails clawing at his wrist, and her boots kicking against the air. "L-Let go! Y-You can't do this to me!"
"Who sent you?" Arthur asked again, highlighting each word.
"Go to hell!" Fiora spat at his face.
But the glob of saliva froze midair.
Arthur's eyes didn't even flicker. With a casual motion, he reversed the spit's direction using telekinesis.
It splattered against Fiora's own cheek.
She gasped in stunned disbelief, her face twisted with humiliation.
"You… you'll regret that!" she shrieked. "I swear, I'll make you regret…!"
Arthur's hand tightened.
She choked mid-sentence.
"Do you think you can get away with killing me?" she gasped, voice cracking. "Y-You'll be hunted! Y-You'll…!"
Arthur leaned in, his voice cold.
"Try me."
Fiora's eyes widened. The pain, the helplessness, it all finally crashed down on her. She thought Arthur was a lunatic, he might really kill her.
Of course Arthur was not going to kill her, but to make her speak he decided to act as though he was going to kill her.
"I…I'll ta..lk!" she screamed hoarsely. "P..Ple..ase stop! P-Please!"
Arthur held for another second… then let go of her.
Fiora crumpled to the ground, coughing violently and clutching her neck, her face pale and drenched in sweat.
"I-It was Damien… Damien Raventhal…" she stammered out. "He asked us to target Velcrest Academy's students…"
Arthur's expression didn't change, but he was already pondering about the situation. If what she said was true then his team must also be targeted.
He pulled out his token, a quick glance showed their team was still ranked first. He couldn't waste more time here.
Arthur turned toward the groaning students sprawled around the clearing.
He walked over to Darian, the cocky fire mage from earlier, and yanked the spatial ring from his finger. Fiora saw this and panicked.
"W-What are you doing?!"
Arthur didn't answer. He took her ring too, easily cracking the restriction seals placed on them.
Two tokens emerged from the storage rings.
"No… No!" Fiora cried, dragging herself on the dirt. "Don't! Please! Not that!"
Arthur looked at her with a completely flat expression.
"You really thought I'd let you stay in the tournament after what you tried?"
Crack.
He crushed both the tokens.
"Nooooo!" she screamed, her voice filled with panic. "You bastard! You…!"
Arthur didn't even look at her. He turned away, already walking towards the direction where his team was.
Behind him, Fiora stared blankly at the shattered remains of her team's token.
Her voice was barely a whisper. "What have we gotten ourselves into…?"
***
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