Chapter 537: The Grand First-Year Combat Festival: New Interest VI

Since the moment Gun Alchemy was created, and from the day it became one of the most powerful Alchemy Paths within the Alchemy system of Britannia, countless Alchemists had wanted to learn it.

That desire is understandable.

Gun Alchemy has a fixed power output for any rank, versatile, and capable of producing weapons that can change the way an Alchemist fights.

It didn’t matter whether someone had been born into a family that specialized in the Path or had discovered it much later in life. If they possessed the talent, knowledge, and determination required to walk that Path, they naturally wanted the opportunity to do so.

And no one could stop them.

Not anymore.

The Sixth Ruler of Britannia had written a Law that still remained in effect to this day, one of the unchangeable Laws of Britannia that governed the Alchemy system itself.

Law 605.

All Alchemy Paths belong to the people who are worthy of stepping onto the path of Alchemy.

Because of that Law, newly created Alchemy Paths were opened to Alchemists outside the families that had originally specialized in them.

Of course, that didn’t mean every Alchemy Path could simply be learned by anyone.

There were still limits.

There were still requirements.

And there were certain Paths that were so difficult, so dangerous, or so closely tied to the people who had created them that almost no one could truly step onto them.

Andraver’s Sun Alchemy was one such Path.

It wasn’t an Alchemy Path that just anyone could learn.

Especially because of the power that Sun Alchemy possessed.

Even before the generation of the present Kings, it had already been agreed upon that Andraver’s Sun Alchemy, along with the other Primordial Alchemy Paths created and walked by the Primordials... The First Golden Age of Alchemy, stood beyond the level of almost every other Alchemy Path that would later be created within Britannia’s Alchemy system.

Those Paths were simply different and at the present time in Britannia...

They were Lost Alchemy Paths

But for the families that specialized in specific Alchemy Paths, another problem remained.

If everyone could learn their family’s Path, how could those families maintain the advantage they had built over generations?

How could a specialized family distinguish its own Alchemists from outsiders who had learned the same Path?

The answer was simple.

They added something of their own.

A difference.

A special method, technique, or characteristic within their Alchemy that allowed people to distinguish an Alchemist from the original family from another Alchemist who had merely learned the same Path.

Nature Alchemy Paths had their own methods.

Some utilized density.

Others used mutation.

Some used elevation to strengthen their Alchemy.

Each specialized family had developed ways to push their respective Paths further.

The Combat Alchemy Paths had also found their own answer.

And that answer was also what allowed Combat Alchemists to reduce the natural advantage that Nature Alchemists possessed over them.

The process was called Overload.

It is a method that pushes a creation into a state of absolute utilization.

For Steel Alchemists, that meant the sword or spear they created could enter a state where its sharpness and hardness became far stronger than its normal condition.

The body of the weapons would overflow with Cognis, and that Cognis would take on the properties of the weapon itself, pushing its sharpness and hardness toward the highest state of use they could reach, before destroying.

As for the Gun Alchemists of the Ashenlocke family...

That answer could already be seen in front of everyone.

***

White Cognis flowed faintly from Ezra’s body.

Tiny sparks of lightning flickered through it as he pointed both hands forward.

His breathing had become heavier.

Blood had already begun to drip from his nose and eyes, but he didn’t pay attention to it.

His attention remained on the battlefield.

He knew that on both sides of his position, a barrage of crimson blood webs was already rushing toward him.

They were spreading across the platform from different directions, cutting off paths and closing the space around him.

But Ezra had already calculated the timing.

The distance.

The speed.

The moment the blood webs would reach him.

More importantly, he had calculated all of that against the moment he had activated Alchemy Overload on his firearms.

That was enough.

He didn’t need to see exactly where Willow was standing anymore.

He already knew.

His M38 SDMRs were positioned around him, and every one of them was aimed at the locations he had determined would hit the parts of Willow’s body he wanted to strike.

The rifles hovered in the air, their muzzles aligned toward the crimson web-filled battlefield.

White Cognis, carrying faint traces of lightning, suddenly rushed through all of the M38 SDMRs.

The rifles responded.

The air seemed to tighten.

At several seats belonging to the Gun Alchemists of the Evergrey family, and especially among the Ashenlockes, people’s expressions changed.

Many eyes narrowed.

Some bodies leaned forward.

A few hands stopped halfway through whatever movement they had been making.

They knew.

They understood what Ezra was doing.

But what happened next caused almost all of the High-ranking Alchemists present to react at nearly the same time.

Alister Morgan’s eyes shifted.

Duke Aldous Burnwick stared sharply toward the platform.

The Duke of Galehart straightened slightly.

The Duchess of Derlis stopped moving.

Count Everard Evergrey’s expression changed.

Elder Portia’s eyes widened.

The Duke of Bergwyn looked toward the platform with complete focus.

Even the usually bored Vera Ashenlocke opened her dull black eyes a little wider.

Maxwell’s attention sharpened.

Ravenor Burnwick stopped watching casually.

Diane Bergwyn, who had been asleep only moments before, suddenly opened her light-blue eyes.

Sybil Melody, reacted as well, with a quiet amusement.

Vice Headmaster Godwin Fraser, seated close to the Queen, flinched with an amused surprise in his eyes.

The other seven Heads of the Royal Alchemist Branches also focused on the battlefield.

Even the Professors of the Royal Academy were watching.

Patrick noticed the reaction.

He glanced toward Professor Natasha Clause.

The Professor had leaned forward slightly, her eyes completely focused on what she was seeing.

Patrick’s expression changed.

He turned back toward the platform.

His own eyes widened.

He finally understood that something unusual had happened.

But for the people who weren’t Alchemists, and even for some Low-ranking Alchemists, the reaction of the High-ranking Alchemists was confusing.

They couldn’t understand what they had seen.

Or rather...

They hadn’t seen it.

The people sitting farther away could only see Ezra, airborne among the crimson webs, white Cognis flashing around him.

Then something changed.

And when the realization finally reached the people capable of understanding what had happened, the entire meaning of the scene became clear.

Back on the Fight Platform...

Ezra finally dropped onto the platform ground.

His boots struck the platform, and his knees bent slightly to absorb the force.

At almost the exact same moment, all of the crimson blood webs around him collapsed.

One after another, they dropped onto the platform like dead flies.

The M38 SDMRs hovering around Ezra also began to disappear.

Their bodies cracked apart into countless tiny particles of light, breaking into fine starlight before fading away into the air.

The wind carried the remaining particles away.

For a moment, the battlefield became strangely quiet.

Ezra stood there, his shoulders rising and falling.

"Ah... Ah... Ah..."

His breathing was heavy.

Blood dripped from his nose.

More blood had gathered around his eyes, slowly sliding down his face.

He wiped none of it away.

His black eyes remained fixed on the person standing across from him.

Willow Derlis.

More blood was dripping across the platform.

But it wasn’t coming from Ezra.

Willow was bleeding badly.

Blood ran from her shoulders.

Her knees were wounded.

One side of her leg was bleeding.

Her arms were also covered in wounds.

The training cloth around several areas of her body had been torn, and dark red blood slowly soaked through the damaged fabric.

Her body trembled slightly.

She could still feel her muscles.

She could still move them, but every movement hurt.

Yet she remained standing.

Her crimson hair had fallen partly across her face, and a few strands stuck against her cheek because of the blood.

She raised her head.

"A... Soundless sequence of gunshots..."

Her voice was low.

Pain could be heard in it, but she remained focused.

"How is this possible?"

Willow’s eyes narrowed.

If she had heard even the smallest hint of the gunshots, she would have reacted.

She would have moved.

She would have blocked the bullets.

She would have changed her position before they reached her.

Even if her vision had been blocked by the layers of crimson blood webs, her senses should have allowed her to detect the attack.

She could sense Ezra’s movements through the flow of his blood.

That was something she had already proven throughout the fight.

She could find him through the subtle changes in his body.

She could tell where he was moving.

She could understand where his body was shifting.

But the bullets...

She could sense nothing.

It was as though they hadn’t existed until they struck her.

Like ghosts.

There had been no warning.

No obvious sound.

No movement she could follow.

She only discovered what had happened when her body began to fail her.

That realization alone made Willow’s expression become more serious.

At the Elders and High-board members of the Duke Houses’ seating section...

Several people remained completely focused on Ezra.

Elder Portia was still trying to understand what she had witnessed.

"It’s like the same thing that happened to Grace Evergrey when our Vera performed a phenomenon like this but it is completely different from this."

Her voice remained filled with disbelief.

Elder Gram nodded slowly.

"At least the gunshots could still be heard. The Child of Evergrey was simply too focused and didn’t realize when those thin needles struck her."

His eyes remained on Ezra.

"But this..."

He paused.

Even he seemed reluctant to admit what he had almost failed to notice.

"I nearly missed the sound."

Elder Fredricks expression became heavier.

"An Alchemist of a high level like me nearly missed the gunshot sound of a single Adept-rank boy."

He muttered the words more to himself than anyone else.

He was still staring at the battlefield in complete disbelief and annoyance.

"How?"

His eyes moved over the rifles he believed to be the new AK-12s that had already vanished.

"Did a lowborn brat perform Gun Overload to this extent?"

He gritted his teeth in anger.

"Hmmm...How much Cognis manipulation did he put into this Alchemy Gun Overload?"

Elder Ivanhoe asked him while he simply continued staring at Ezra.

His brain was already processing all the possible formulas and ideology that could make something like this possible for an Adept Alchemist to be able to perform.

Back on the Fight Platform...

Willow’s crimson hair remained scattered across her face as the wind moved through the arena.

Blood continued dripping down her body.

Her breathing was rough.

Her muscles screamed every time she moved.

Yet her eyes remained sharp.

"I haven’t surrendered yet, Gun Alchemist."

The words came out quietly.

Blood Adrenaline was still pushing her body beyond its normal limits.

Her heart continued pumping hard.

More blood flowed from her wounds as she forced her body to move.

At the same time, she focused on what remained of her Cognis... igniting her blood healing Alchemy into healing all her wounds.

The holes created by the bullets made the process much harder.

Her body was trying to close the wounds, but the damage was too deep and too widespread.

Still...

She hadn’t fallen.

Ezra looked at her tiredly.

"I see."

His voice was dry despite his own condition.

He had used an enormous amount of Cognis as well.

His reserves were already low.

Blood continued dripping from his nose and eyes, and his chest rose and fell with every breath.

Yet he moved.

Ezra lowered his body slightly.

His feet shifted.

His hands rose.

He took his Tai Chi stance.

Across from him, Willow did the same.

She adjusted her footing and raised her hands.

Her Fang Arts stance settled into place.

The two stood facing each other.

Neither held a firearm or a walking stick.

Neither had an active Alchemy Circle.

Neither could afford to waste much more Cognis.

If Cognis couldn’t be used...

Then martial arts would be used.

Willow’s eyes sharpened.

"AHHHHH!"

She forced her body forward.

Blood Adrenaline pushed her muscles toward their limit.

Her injured leg moved.

Her body followed.

Every step hurts.

But she continued.

Ezra moved faster.

He still had more mobility than her.

In an instant, he reached the front of her body.

Willow’s right elbow immediately moved toward him.

The strike was direct and fast.

Even injured, she had enough strength to make the elbow dangerous.

But Ezra didn’t retreat to be visible.

His right forearm moved.

Rather than blocking the elbow head-on, he guided it.

His forearm touched the path of Willow’s strike and redirected the movement further toward the direction it was already traveling.

Willow’s elbow passed beside him.

Ezra leaned backward slightly.

The tip of her elbow passed just in front of his nose.

Then his movement changed.

His right hand flowed over Willow’s swinging elbow.

There was no sudden burst of force.

No unnecessary movement.

His hand simply followed the motion, sliding along the path of her arm before reaching her face.

His fingers caught her on the face.

At the same time, Ezra’s right leg moved behind Willow’s legs.

He had already taken her balance.

Willow’s crimson eyes widened slightly.

Ezra’s right hand suddenly pushed her head downward.

His body followed the movement.

His right leg drove backward and struck Willow’s back, guiding the rest of her body toward the ground.

The movement happened so smoothly that it almost looked as if Willow had fallen by herself.

But she hadn’t.

Ezra had taken her movement, redirected it, and used the position of her body against her.

Willow’s eyes closed.

She braced herself for the impact.

She knew the platform was coming.

She knew the pain that would follow.

Boom!

The ground shook slightly.

Willow’s body crashed toward the platform.

At least...

That was what she believed.

But the solid impact she expected never came.

Instead, she felt something supporting her head.

Her body had reached the ground, but Ezra had changed the final part of the movement.

He hadn’t slammed her down.

His right hand gently held the back of her head, controlling its descent until it reached the platform.

The force that could have driven her head into the ground had been removed.

Willow’s eyes opened.

She stared upward.

Ezra was still there.

His breathing was rough.

Blood remained on his face.

His hand was still beneath her head.

He had thrown her down.

He had controlled her entire body.

But he had deliberately prevented her head from striking the platform.

For a moment, Willow simply stared at him.

Even after everything that had happened between them...

Even after the gunfire.

Even after the wounds.

Even after their two Mass Alchemies had nearly torn the battlefield apart...

Ezra had still chosen not to hurt her unnecessarily.