“FIGHT!”

Woosh!

Liam disappeared from his spot and arrived in front of Lith. He hacked his sword which he had taken out of his ring in the midst of teleporting onto Lith’s neck directly.

Lith was calm throughout and he simply cast ‘Short Jump’ and teleported out of Liam’s reach. He didn’t even need to chant and his spiritual power control was so good, it didn’t even cost him 1% of his total.

Liam didn’t wait and he too casted ‘Short Jump’ once again and came at Lith and tried to slash his neck. Lith simply vanished from his spot once again.

Liam was getting annoyed. He yelled

“OI BASTARD, STOP RUNNING IF YOU GOT THE BALLS!”

Lith raised an eyebrow at his opponent’s provocation. ‘Interesting’ he thought. In all these matches no one had ever tried to trash talk to him or more correctly, they weren’t able to as Lith stopped them via ‘Slow’ spell.

He didn’t cast ‘Slow’ spell on his new opponent as he realised he had a Space affinity. Space affinity could help break the clutches of ‘Slow’ and so Lith didn’t want to stupidly waste his spell and spiritual power.

He thought that this time he should fight seriously as his opponent sure seemed to be a trash talker and he would continue to do so. Making him shut up as early as possible would be nice or it’ll only get annoying.

He once again casted ‘Short Jump’ and arrived at a certain corner of the stage. Liam got irritated but he too casted ‘Short Jump’ and arrived where Lith was. He once again hacked his sword at Lith’s face.

Lith looked at Liam with his calm gaze. He didn’t flinch when Liam’s sword was arriving at his face to cut him. He simply blocked it with his own sword which he had removed from his ring while being teleported.

Liam looked at Lith with surprised eyes. He thought

‘This shit knows swordsmanship. Tsk. It’ll be a little difficult.’

Liam got away from Lith after getting his attacked blocked. He looked at Lith and got into a defensive postion and started chanting a certain spell.

Lith didn’t wait for him to finish his spell. He took out a Spear from his ring and instantly bent backwards a little while ensuring a correct angle for the spear. His forearm muscles bulged as he held and prepared to the throw the Spear.

Lith casted the rank 1 Fire spell ‘Move’ and moved the surroundings Fire Elements onto his spear and instantly bent forward and transferred his whole energy from his body to his forearm and threw the Spear into Liam’s direction.

The Flaming Spear was very quick. Liam’s eyes widened and his unique ability [Danger Detection] instantly rang alarms in his mind and Liam in response stopped his chanting and used [10s Super Reflex] to dodge to the Spear by moving towards his left in an instant.

The Spear missed Liam but Liam soon felt [Danger Detection] in his mind and he instantly used [10s Super Reflex] to move back.

Fuuush!

A sword pierced the air at the spot where his neck previously was. Liam casted ‘Short Jump’ and teleported beyond and far from Lith’s attacking range. He was running for his life!

‘FUCK! FUCK! THIS BASTARD!’ he cursed in his mind while constantly teleporting away from Lith. He had not encountered a single opponent which was as difficult as Lith.

Lith not only had superior spell casting speed, he also could use weapons and both long and short range on top of that!

If this was not enough, his reaction time was far better than Liam.

‘If I didn’t have [Danger Detection] and [10s Super Reflexes] I would have long been dead. Fuck! It’s time to get serious and murder this scum!’

Liam stopped moving and took a deep breath. He braced himself for his next move. He clutched his sword handle tightly and his blue eyes shoned with a silver glint. He looked straight at Lith and started moving towards him. This time, he didn’t use any spells or movement ability, he was walking at a normal pace.

Lith had stopped following his opponent and he was looking at the guy walking towards him. He was a little dumbfounded.

‘Is this trash talker out of his mind?’ he thought when he saw the guy walk towards him.

He stood still and smiled. He had already considered his opponent as an idiot. He could clearly feel he had good prowess and it must be around rank 4 but the way he used it, it was simply terrible. They were better than average but terrible if compared to a genius.

Lith thought of testing the guy in front and he was interested to know, how he dodged his quick sword slash at his neck. Lith knew how fast he himself was when he casted ‘Short Jump’ after throwing the Flaming Spear at him. His timing was correct. He had teleported to Liam when he just dodged the Spear and there was no way that Liam would be able to dodge once again.

But he did and Lith couldn’t understand how. Thus, he was a little interested in this guy. He had a certain reason in his mind as to how he evaded that, but he wanted to test it out and check for himself wether the reason was correct or not.

So, he stood at a certain spot in a very domineering way. He rested both his hand on his sword’s handle, which was pointing towards the ground. He stood erect like a warrior not afraid of anything and looked at Liam coming at him with a smile.

Liam didn’t think anything about Lith’s character. He was currently using his unique ability [Zone] which let his mind be free of any useless thought and only think of things related to battle. Everything in his vision had turned dark and only Lith was visible to him.

He walked half the distance from where Lith stood and stopped. He bent his knees and his upper body forward a little and quickly dashed towards Lith. He used [Double Strength] all over his body. This unique ability let him use twice the strength he currently had. It had no time limit or how many times he could use it.

The only side effect was how long his body could handle the strength, double of his own. His body wasn’t fit to handle such strength so he had to keep that in mind and fight.

The ground started cracking a little as he dashed forward with his strong steps. He reached Lith in less than a second and thrust his sword in his neck but Lith blocked it instantly.

He didn’t stop and slashed at every vital point of Lith in all possible ways but Lith always dodged his attack. He didn’t panick nor did he worry, he was calculating his every move and what next he had to do. His unique ability [Zone] was helping him a lot.

He started using kicks while thrusting but Lith simply jumped or dodged while blocking his attack with his sword.

Lith looked at the guy in front and was bewildered. This guy didn’t seem like a trash talker to him right now but a seasoned warrior. Though he had never fought with anyone else other than his mother or big sister, he could tell from his previous opponents in this tournament, that the guy in front of him seemed well trained.

Not only this, he also could see that his eyes were fixed on his vitals and they didn’t even move to take a glance at any other thing. That, along with his increase in strength made Lith a little surprised. The increase in strength was unnatural and Lith knew spells didn’t increase one’s strength to such a degree, on top of that, he couldn’t feel any elemental fluctuations around, making him know that no spells were used. The reason he had in his mind was confirmed now.

He smiled wickedly knowing that the guy in front was a walking treasure. He felt an itch in his body to end him right there and then but he knew he couldn’t and so he controlled himself and only blocked his attacks that came at him.

No damage was done on either of them yet and time was ticking. Lith knew he had to win this round. He dropped the idea of continuing to go easy on the guy in front. He had to use a few of his ability or the stalemate would go on.

He continued blocking and at the same time willed the time elements around him and casted a ‘Time Acceleration’ spell on himself without chanting.

Everything around Lith seemed to slow down and he could see the next sword attack coming at him, aiming towards his eyes. He ducked and casted ‘Fire Spread’ on his sword. The sword’s blade became fiery and it seemed to have set on fire.

Lith cast ‘Short jump’ once again while thrusting his sword forward by using his own body weight as the additional force. He teleported behind his opponent and directly slashed him in the spine and cast ‘Short Jump’ once again and teleported far away from him.

Liam’s hair stood all over his body and [Danger Detection] was ringing alarms crazily in his mind. He used [10s Super reflex] but it it fell short. His unique ability [Instinctual Save] was activated before he could even make his another move.

Though that was the case, Lith’s power was too much of what his unique ability could bear. Lith’s fiery sword had still creeped into Liam’s spine and had damaged him quite a bit.

Half of Liam’s body paralyzed due to the nerve connections from his spine being cut off. His unique ability [Zone] was still in use and he calmly assessed on what his next move would be. He wanted to move quickly and so he calculated and what he must do to quickly heal himself. He wasn’t a Vampire who had innate regeneration and healing abilities and he needed to use spells, potions or artifacts to heal himself.

Lith obviously wouldn’t wait and let him heal. As soon as he was out of his range, he started casting the spell ‘Slow’ on his opponent.

Liam was already burdened with half of his body paralyzed and he was vulnerable to Lith’s time attack. Lith successfully casted the spell and Liam’s thoughts slowed down with his movements. The world around him seemed to move faster and faster and before he could even make a guess as to what had happened to him, he felt time run normally and a voice stating

“Lith Evure wins and advances to the next round. Congratulations Lith on successfully getting into the top 10,000.”

Liam’s eyes widened. He stopped using [Zone] and removed a healing potion from his ring and drank it. After only a few seconds, he was back to normal as if the paralysis had never occurred. He looked at his opponent and was shocked out of his mind. He yelled loudly

“HOW THE FUCK DID THIS BASTARD WIN? HE CLEARLY MUST’VE USED AN ARTIFACT DURING THE TIME HE THRUST HIS SWORD IN MY SPINE!! THERE IS NO FUCKING WAY HE DID IT THAT FAST!!!

NO FUCKING WAYYYYY!!!”

The refree looked at him and said in a discontented tone

“Candidate, mind your language and your tone. This is the academy ground and there won’t be a second warning.”

Liam looked at the refree in anger. He wanted to beat that guy up from being so biased but he controlled himself. He cursed in his mind

‘Being biased? Bastard just you wait. You along with this cheating silver haired freak is on my hunt list. Once I take care of this silver haired shit, I’ll come after you.’

Lith looked at his opponent and he said something in his direction with a wicked smile. No words came out or any sound was made but Liam heard it very loudly and clearly, the words which said

“Walk on crowded streets.”

Lith used a wind spell to transmit sound towards Liam and the refree, although felt the wind elements fluctuate, didn’t bother to investigate it as no harm was being done or any protocol was being breached by the candidate.

Liam was fuming in anger. He wanted to attack Lith there and then but he found himself sucked into the void of space and out of the arena stage. As his feet landed, he found himself in the familiar hotel bedroom.

A man with the same looks as Liam looked at him and said with an unhappy tone

“This was the surprise you were talking about? Out of the tournament by just being in the top 20,000?”

Liam looked at the guy and his anger still hadn’t subdued. He yelled “FUCKER CHEATED AND WON THE FIGHT!”

The man got up from his seat and slapped his face so hard that he flew away and smashed into the hotel room’s wall. The man said with a neutral tone this time

“If you cannot win, do not make excuses. Have the determination to learn from your mistakes and never repeat them again.

Be thankful that you are still getting admission into the academy, although you are going to be at bottom most of the classes.

Liam, you have disappointed not only father but also the whole family this time.”

The boy had a few broken teeth and he struggled but got up somehow and looked at the man who was supposed to be his father. His anger had still not died and the words of the man only made him more angry. He looked at him with angry eyes but the man looked back at him calmly and said in a flat tone

“You have let the Novius family down.”

The boy wanted to say something to retort but he held back his words. Even though he was angry, he realised, it was him who was at fault. Whatever the man said was correct and he knew it. Though he always thought of bringing justice to the world and eliminating vile people, the man in front of him was his predecessor’s father and he also had done nothing wrong to him ever since his reincarnation.

Liam calmed himself down and took a deep breath. Though he got slapped just a few seconds ago, he wasn’t angry over it and he didn’t mule over it. He looked at the man and said with a little hoarse voice

“I am sorry, father.”

Liam sat down cross legged and took out a healing potion and drank it. He closed his eyes and started healing himself and also meditating and thinking over whatever occurred.