Chapter 101: Know Your Place

"Ready. Set. Fight!"

Lyanna’s signal rang through the training grounds, and everyone engaged in their fights.

Valerian and Arthur stood across from each other; neither engaged the other one.

Both had to be paired with each other, as they were so much ahead of the other students that it just wouldn’t be fair for them to fight either one of them.

And they both had fought unarmed just yesterday at the ranking tournament, and to be honest, they both didn’t really have any motivation to do the same thing again today. Well, it was mostly Arthur that had zero intention of getting beaten black and blue today again.

Valerian had had his dose of beating Arthur for some time now as well, and didn’t see a reason to hurt his best friend once more. So they both just stood in front of each other, not really knowing what to do.

"What do we do now?"

Valerian asked Arthur, who just shrugged his shoulders.

"I don’t know."

He turned to the professor, who watched the other students fight.

"Professor, I give up."

She was slightly taken aback by the sudden surrender.

"What do you mean? You don’t seem hurt."

Her eyes moved across Arthur’s completely unharmed body, not understanding why the rank 2 would just surrender.

"I’m not hurt, but there is not really a reason to fight this. I mean, I’m like 0 for 30 at this point, and I don’t feel like getting beaten to a pulp today."

Lyanna looked at Arthur with a blank face.

"Haaa, sure, it’s your decision."

She waved her hand and turned back to the other students to oversee their fights.

Not having anything to do now, Valerian and Arthur sat on the ground and looked at the other students fight. Valerian spotted a head of silver hair and elven ears in the distance, and his eyes locked onto the fight that was happening.

Arthur saw where Valerian was looking and also who he was staring at, and let out a helpless sigh.

"Man, can you make it more obvious?"

Valerian looked at Arthur.

"I don’t know what you are talking about. It’s an interesting fight."

He turned back to Seraphine’s fight.

"Yeah, yeah, only an interesting fight."

Arthur leaned back onto his hands as his eyes went over the other students’ fights. He knew Valerian, and he also knew that he wasn’t dense. But for some reason, he seems to deny that he has a crush on Seraphine.

Their interaction back at the banquet was in Arthur’s mind, and he couldn’t help but feel like his friend was self-sabotaging his chance with Seraphine. But what could he do? If Valerian doesn’t want to make any moves or denies that he feels something, then it’s his decision.

They both just continued their viewing of the other fights in comfortable silence. They haven’t known each other for too long, but their friendship was built on a shared feeling of isolation, both for very different reasons.

But this shared feeling of isolation made their friendship deeper than it would normally be.

Among the different fights, Valerian could also see Lucian as he completely dominated his opponent. Not just because he managed to break through to A-, but also because he was trained from birth, making him skilled in any kind of combat.

Lucian seemed to sense the gaze and turned in the direction the gaze was coming from, but when he saw who was watching, he turned back around, as the defeat was still fresh in his mind. Valerian could understand that and just let him deal with that himself.

Their silence was interrupted as a male student walked up to Valerian, blocking the light from the floating mana lamps.

Valerian looked up and saw the person that cast the shadow on him.

It was a human with short, black hair and black eyes. He had a somewhat handsome face, with a body that was practically made out of muscles that showed beneath the combat suit.

His black eyes were locked onto Valerian’s cosmic purple ones with fury and anger. Valerian didn’t need to ask why he was being looked at with such an angry face; it was clear that this was about his speech. Some of the students, mostly nobles, didn’t take the insult well and began to build resentment against Valerian.

"Valerian von Astrea, I, Cassian Cross, challenge you for the position of the Apex of the first years."

The declaration rang through the training hall. Everyone except Seraphine and Lilith heard it, as they were too far away and too engrossed in their fight.

Professor Lyanna heard the challenge too and walked up to the two.

"Normally, I wouldn’t allow a rank duel in class, but since it is the first fight for the Apex title, I will allow it this once."

Cassian nodded to the professor and looked down at the still-seated Valerian.

With a sigh, Valerian pushed himself up and stretched his body.

"So do we just fight here? And can we use mana, or do we have to abide by the no-mana rule?"

Lyanna looked at Valerian.

"You can use everything you have. The no-mana rule doesn’t apply to this duel."

The other students formed a ring around the two, and Arthur also stood up and joined his classmates.

The tension between the two was thick on Cassian’s side as his eyes burned with anger, but Valerian, on the other hand, stood completely relaxed in front of his opponent with a light smile on his handsome face.

The confident smile only made Cassian angrier, as it showed him that what Valerian said during the speech was true: he saw them as worthless.

"Before we start, these are the terms of the duel. If you agree to them, then say yes."

"If Cassian Cross, rank 20, wins this duel, he takes the rank position of Valerian von Astrea, rank 1."

"If Valerian von Astrea, rank 1, wins this duel, the participants will stay at their current rank."

"Do you agree to these terms?"

"Yes."

"Yes."

When both fighters agreed to the terms, Professor Lyanna began the countdown, and Cassian took out his sword from his spatial ring. It was a black straight sword with a black handle; the material seemed to suck in the light from the surroundings.

"Ready. Set. Fight!"

The second the fight started, Cassian exploded into motion as mana fueled his body. Black darkness lines appeared around his body and crawled up the blade of his sword, enhancing his body even more than with just normal mana enhancement.

But Valerian didn’t even take out Twilight or any other kind of weapon. Instead, he held out his hand with a grin.

Mana gathered in his hand, and [Law Breaker] activated. Before Cassian could even guess what was happening, the darkness that hugged his whole body tightly began to harden.

’W-what?!’

His movements felt heavier and heavier as the resistance he had to fight against became too much, and his body stood still.

The very darkness he summoned to strengthen him held him in a tight hold, leaving him unable to move.

Valerian slowly walked up to the motionless Cassian. His mana moved to his hands, and a thin blade made from [Event Horizon] appeared in his grip.

"You are talented and strong; you are on the cusp of breaking through to B+. But unfortunately for you, that won’t help you much."

Panic took over Cassian’s mind, but before he could try to say something, he felt a searing pain on his left shoulder. When he turned to look to his left, he was met with the sight of only a bleeding stump.

"AGH-"

Before he could fully scream, a piece of darkness moved over his mouth, keeping it shut.

’Sera is still fighting; I shouldn’t let this guy interrupt her.’

As the pain of the missing limb set in for Cassian, the thin darkness blade moved again, and the same pain appeared on his right shoulder.

He tried to scream again, but no words left his mouth as the darkness muffled any sound that could come through it. And with two more slices, his legs were also parted from his body.

Before he could fall to the ground, Valerian caught him by the neck and looked into his terrified eyes.

That was when he felt the familiar presence of Seraphine to the side. He turned his head and met her magenta-crimson eyes with his cold purple ones.

The look inside her eyes surprised him; it wasn’t fear or even disgust, it was... confusion?

She didn’t look at the sight of Valerian holding a mutilated student by the neck with any of the emotions someone would expect, but instead, she was confused by what was happening.

Valerian let out a quiet chuckle that seemed more than ominous, as a suffocating presence washed over his body.

Even for him, the pressure was insane, and Valerian knew that the person who used this pressure wasn’t even serious; it was only a small part of her real power.

"Student Valerian, I believe you have won, so don’t make a classmate suffer more than necessary."

Valerian wasn’t able to even say a word against Lyanna, but surprisingly, the other students around him didn’t seem to have the same problem and just stood normally.

Valerian moved the darkness blade in his hand to end the fight, but as was expected, the barrier stopped the blade before it could kill Cassian and took him away, leaving only the puddle of blood behind.

The atmosphere was thick in the training area, as the sight was still fresh in everyone’s mind. But their brooding was interrupted by the loud ringing that signaled the end of the lesson.

Not acknowledging the other students, Valerian just moved past them to the changing rooms. Arthur moved quietly behind him, and Seraphine watched his retreating back for a moment longer than the others.

’What was that feeling? It felt similar to [Reality Weaver]. I have to ask him once I get a hold of him.’

Lilith saw that Seraphine was still looking at the retreating Valerian with curiosity in her eyes.

’Hmm, interesting.’

Quickly, the other students also went to the changing rooms to prepare themselves for their next class: Elemental Mastery.