Chapter 56: Army’s will

The following chaos was nearly indescribable, as in barely a few seconds a few dozen people were already walking on the crystals, staring down at them.

"Steven, are you sure about this? This doesn’t seem like a good hiding spot. ’’Merency sounded worried as she stared up at the increasing masses.

Steven shrugged at her. "Not a bit, but there is no way back now, right?å’’

But nobody moved; both sides only stared at each other, waiting for any reaction.

’’Roughly a dozen sapphires and a few dozen emeralds.’’ Steven whispered to her, not daring to set his gaze away for even a second.

The following silence was deafening until the bubble exploded.

With the first fireball only flying in their general direction, it was more than enough to break the momentary pieces.

As barrages of attacks started flying towards them, Steven grabbed Merency, pulling her with him as he jumped forward directly in their midst.

As long as they are in chaos, he can win; standing between their masses, the amount of their attacks only increased, but with each miss, a comrade was struck instead.

Letting go of Merency, he dashed forward, grabbing an emerald student by his arm and throwing him hard against a crystal.

Somebody tried kicking him from behind, but he managed to grab his leg instead, twisting it until something cracked.

’’Two down... only a hundred more to go.’’ His voice was calm, trying to hide his excitement.

Breaking somebody’s barrier, he had to hold back to not shatter his spine too. After all, even if they were fighting, this was all just a school event.

As finally the first attack pierced his barrier, leaving a small cut at his thigh. Staring at the sapphire student, a wide smile formed on his lips.

With a sudden spin, he picked up a wooden stick carved into a sword; dashing forward, he easily broke through the poor boy’s barrier, hitting his shoulder and making him collapse to the ground.

As he turned his head menacingly towards the crowd behind him, his blade was still completely clean, but he wasn’t sure if it was going to stay that way.

"It’s the bastard of hell; don’t try to fight him close up. "One of them yelled, sending a sharp rock towards him.

But Steven didn’t even evade it, instead letting it shatter on his barrier as he dashed forward, striking the person’s ribs before somebody could react.

’’Are you sure you’re able to hold me at a distance? ’’He spoke with an arrogant tone, looking down at the unconscious guy.

’’Who’s next?? You? Or maybe you?" He pointed towards random people, making them step back in fear.

Fear was a weapon necessary in war; only the weak would fall to its spell, and none of them seemed to have the courage to overcome it.

Or at least that’s what he thought until a single student stepped out of the crowd who had already stopped attacking Steven with magic.

Wearing a jade class uniform, Steven was even more impressed at the young man.

His fighting stance was bad and mana capacities even worse, but Steven still felt happy.

After all, what was power if you couldn’t use it because of yourself?

"Finally, somebody that understands it. "Steven!" yelled towards the crowd. ’’This here isn’t war or a battle to the death.’’

As he stared directly at the boy. ’’It’s the preparation for it.’’

As they took him down with just a single strike, the morale of the crowd around him commonly plummeted.

Until another courageous soul enters the field, followed by another.

Shortly after the whole group regained their focus and attacked him. Steven was satisfied with teaching them.

So it was time for a new lesson called defeat.

Breaking one after another, their will was demolished quickly just to be restored by another single person ready to lose.

He gave them time to evolve and understand but never to rest, as his sword collided with a young girl’s metal blade, shattering it into pieces, but even then she took the chance to attack his side.

As his kick collided with his ribs, nothing happened as he stood tall, watching her twitch together in pain.

Bringing her down, the group around him had become barely a challenge; only those who were still hesitating remained.

And as always, they fled, dispersing into the forest; Steven let them go.

Cleaning the blood from his wooden blade, he still saw a big group surrounding Merency.

She hadn’t managed to break their opponents’ will, so she had to fight them all at once, something she could barely manage.

Steven watched her struggle as sweat ran down her face and her eyes wandered between each enemy at once.

Summoning a light double of him, his real him made his way towards the center of the structure.

Easily finding the dark metal through the bright crystals, he quickly broke the floor, allowing him to enter the cave towards the altar once more.

Merency’s fight was in the meantime only going worse each second.

Even if she was only injured slightly, her concentration was about to fall apart, leaving her open to any attack.

With three people at once engaging her in close combat and the rest stopping her from gaining any distance to recover herself.

She was trapped, only able to bring down each skilled fighter one by one.

But each hit that landed on her body seemed to only fuel their energy as their attacks became more fierce.

Until a swing to her leg brought her down to her knees, as her vision began to spin, she tried her best to stay awake not for her own good but to protect them instead.

Slowly rising, another hit collided with her shoulder, sending her flying; she could barely breathe, not to talk about fighting.

But before her consciousness could fade away, the ground began to shake as the crystal split apart.

Everywhere they had been standing did the floor collapse.

’’What is going on? ’’She could only yell.

As a hand grabbed her from behind.