Legacy of the Dark Sage

Two members of the Chamber of Commerce took Deo as soon as the match ended. They did not stop and chat with Styx and the others and made their way out.

Styx and the others knew Deo would be taken to Chairman Malia's quarters instead of the dome's infirmary. That had been one of the instructions given to them by the Conclave High Council Members. No matter how trivial it was, they would go to Chairman Malia's quarters, not in the infirmary when they were injured.

Rake gritted his teeth in anger as he glared at Osman in the arena. The latter had already released his flames and was on his way back to their corner. Not once had he shown remorse at what he did to Deo.

Suddenly, Rake heard grinding sounds coming to his left. He turned to look at Kyran but only found his indifferent expression. However, when he looked further to the left, Rake realized that the grinding sound had come from Styx.

Styx gripped his arms so tight that he already left finger marks on his arm bracers. It went without saying how much his killing intent had risen.

But Rake did not react. He had a feeling he was next to go up. He did not want to retire early and give free wins to their enemies (at the moment, he already viewed the army as their enemies, not opponents in a competition). Not to mention, if they wanted to get two of their people in the finals, the most likely candidate for that was him and Styx, not Kyran and Styx. Because no matter how domineering Kyran appeared in his previous matches, the truth, his magic level was his greatest disadvantage. There was also the matter of his Support-type magic. Kyran managed to fend for himself against the members of the Three Noble Families because they likely did not have any actual life and death battle experiences. However, the army officers were different. They were veterans in that regard. Their red uniform was a testament of that.

Red uniformed officers are vanguards. All of their members are offense mages. They are normally assigned in the frontlines at the empire's borders or the Forbidden Magic Control Squad. As for the green uniformed officers they are normally scouts with their members specializing in support or defense magic.

Knowing all this made Rake understand that Kyran would definitely be at a disadvantage. At the very least, he had to do a better job at securing a spot in the finals.

"Participants for the third match, Tyr of the Conclave against Royal Army's Major General Vanadin!"

Rake took a sharp intake of breath as he looked at Kyran. Tilda also looked at the latter with concern in her eyes.

Tilda had the same thoughts as Rake about Kyran's disadvantage in the competition. Forget about her and Deo having a slightly lower mage level from Rake and Styx, Kyran was only a new Master mage! Even if the army officers were High Masters, they were likely half-step to becoming a Grand Master. Some of them might even already be one.

"Dammit," Styx muttered.

Both Rake and Tilda looked at Styx. They initially thought the latter had cursed because he also worried about Kyran's situation. Upon seeing his annoyed expression however, it did not look as if he was worried. Could it be Styx was annoyed because he had been itching to fight yet ended up not going up again? Or, maybe...?

Kyran did not react to Styx. Still wearing an indifferent expression, he stood up and walked to the arena.

The Royal Army's next participant, Vanadin, jumped from their corner to the arena. He was a buffed man with short red hair and green eyes. On his back was two steel sticks with rune writings on its body.

The moment Kyran stepped into the arena, the timer above restarted to 5:10. Before it completely turned to 5:00, the female announcer raised her hand and said, "Third match, start!"

Vanadin moved at once. He took both steel sticks off his back and the rune writings glowed light brown.

Kyran, on the other hand, took out his wooden stick and unhurriedly slammed it on the ground.

"Humph," Vanadin sneered. To him, Kyran looked as if he had given up all will to fight and had openly accepted his defeat.

When the distance between the two had reached five-meters, Vanadin stomped his feet and jumped, leaving a deep angry dent on the arena's floor. The tips of his steel sticks suddenly formed into two large hammerheads. To increase the weight of his attack, Vanadin arched his back, and flexed his back and arm muscles.

It was at this moment, that the ground where Kyran's wooden stick had touched, glowed. A six-inches radius light gold array appeared on the floor. Simultaneously, a similar array appeared and hovered inches from the side of Vanadin's head.

Failing to notice the array from his peripheral view, Vanadin brought down the two steel sticks with such ferocity toward Kyran's head and shouted, "RAAA!"

BAM!

"--Gah!" Vanadin's shout turned into a surprised yelp as a wooden stick emerged at the center of the array and solidly hit his right temples.

The surprise attack disrupted his momentum, forcing his body slightly to the side and missing Kyran's head a couple of inches.

"You--! Argh!"

But Vanadin recovered at once. He twisted his wrist and hacked the steel sticks horizontally, aiming at Kyran's face. However, a light gold array appeared an inch away from Kyran's face, a wooden stick emerging at the center. It hit Vanadin squarely on his wrist, forcing him to fling his arm to the side.

"Ngh--! What in the-- GAH!

In an instant, small several light gold array appeared, surrounding . The wooden stick then randomly emerged on these arrays and hit him in different parts of his body.

BAM!

Knee.

BAM!

Hips.

BAM!

Shoulder.

BAM!

Chest.

BAM!

Back.

BAM!

Forehead.

The wooden stick's attack continued, hitting more parts of the Vanadin's body.

While it seemed that this happened for some time, the truth, it only took a few seconds. However, in that short time Vanadin had received more than fifty hits from the wooden stick!

"GAH!" Vanadin choked as the last attack

hit his throat. He was thrown a few meters backward and fell on the floor with a loud thud, unmoving.

The timer above had also stopped.

The hall had fallen into an awkward silence. Only the sounds made by the participants in the Alchemist Competition filled the hall.

The first one to recover was the acting leader of the Royal Army, Kairo. His expression distorted as he glared at Kyran.

"You went too far Disciple Tyr!" He growled.

Kyran, who had worn an indifferent expression right from the start finally smiled. However, his smile did not meet his eyes. He said, "Did I?"

He looked at the female announcer, hovering above who was looking at the arena in confusion, and said, "This is not against the rule, is it?"

The female announcer snapped out of her reverie and looked at Kyran. She, just like most of the audience failed to understand what just happened.

"T-This...."

"Major General Vanadin will resign from the competition."

Just like what happened in Deo's match, a female voice had spoken. This time, it came from the Royal Army's booth.

The audience suddenly erupted in discussion.

None of them understood what happened. They witnessed Vanadin's body suspended in the air as he screamed in agony. Then he was thrown back and fell unconcsious on the floor.

Two non-participant army officers hurried inside the arena and approached Vanadin. They were about to wake him, but stopped midway and instead let out a gasp of surprise. They looked at Kyran in anger and fright.

"Y-You! Were you trying to kill him?"

The moment one of the army officer said this, the noise in the audience doubled.

Kyran ignored the officer and frowned at the announcer.

"Oi. How long are you going to gape there stupidly? The timer had stopped, and that guy's resigning. Announce the winner."

Before the announcer could say anything, the officer on the arena stood up and continued to argue.

"Disciple Tyr had attacked Major General Vanadin with the intent to kill. This is clearly a violation of the rules!"

"Shut up and bring Vanadin to the infirmary at once!" Kairo reprimanded the officer.

The officer looked at Kairo and intended to argue but seeing the rising killing intent from the latter, the officer balked at once and shut his mouth.

Without saying anything further, the two officers took out a stretcher and very carefully lifted Vanadin off the floor using their magic sense. It was the only way they could ensure his body's trauma would not be aggravated further.

Only then did the audience notice something strange. Vanadin's body limped as if he did not have any bones! To be precise, it appeared the force of the hit he received had shattered all his bones!