SSS Awakening: I Can Class Change at will

Chapter 498: Moon Meets Marcus and Sarah [2]

Selene laughed.

"Work together?" She tilted her head as if hearing something genuinely confusing. "You don’t work together with my brother. You work under one of his subordinates. There’s a difference. A very large difference. I will make sure you are fired after this."

Her smile darkened as she continued.

"My brother doesn’t even know your name. You are nothing. You will amount to nothing. Don’t let me see you in this tournament again. Otherwise you will not make it to the next stage. Is that clear enough for you?"

The surrounding competitors who had been snickering now openly laughed, the humiliation rippling outward as more people caught the exchange. They didn’t fully understand the context, but it was clear that an idiot was being made fun of, and they were all for it.

Marcus heard and felt their snickers. The faces turning toward him, the smirks, the entertainment of his peers watching him get torn apart by a girl.

Something inside him snapped, he could no longer hold himself.

"You absolute son of a—" The curse left his mouth before he could stop it.

Moon’s hand shot out. "Watch your tone."

It happened so fast that no one in the surrounding area registered the movement. One moment Moon was standing calmly beside Selene, his expression unchanged. The next, his hand was streaking toward Marcus’s throat with the speed of a striking cobra.

Marcus saw it coming a fraction of a second too late.

’Shit!’

His body locked up. His reflexes screamed at him to move, but his muscles refused to respond fast enough. Moon’s hand closed the gap, fingers spread, aimed directly at his windpipe.

Then a second hand intercepted Moon’s.

The grip was firm but gentle, stopping his strike casually.

Klein appeared between them in an instant.

The Ascender had moved without any of them sensing it. One moment he had been hovering above the arena. The next, he was standing in the holding area, his hand wrapped around Moon’s wrist, his green eyes calm and amused.

"I think that’s enough now. Why don’t you resolve your issues in the next stage of the tournament? There will be plenty of opportunities, I promise." He said, smiling.

Moon’s eyes met Klein’s. The killing intent radiating from him retracted slowly, drawing back into his body until the air around him no longer felt heavy.

Moon snapped his hand back to his side, Klein releasing his wrist without resistance.

"Good." The Ascender nodded approvingly, then turned to Marcus and Sarah. His smile didn’t change, but something in his eyes did. "Why don’t you two move somewhere else? The holding area is large. There’s no need to crowd here."

Marcus opened his mouth to protest but seeing Klein’s smile, Marcus closed his mouth.

He grabbed Sarah’s arm and pulled her toward the opposite side of the holding area without another word. Sarah followed silently, her expression unreadable, her eyes lingering on Moon for a single moment before she looked forward again.

The surrounding competitors watched as they passed.

Klein turned back to Moon with that same calm smile.

"Try not to kill anyone before the next round starts, young man. The Association tends to get paperwork involved when that happens. I don’t want you leaving this tournament so early on, that will be a pity."

Then he rose back into the air, disappearing toward the center of the arena.

Moon took a deep breath.

Klein’s intervention hadn’t been without reason. The force behind that strike would have crushed Marcus’s windpipe entirely. There would have been no recovering from it. Even with the best healers in the kingdom on standby, an injury that severe to that specific part of the body usually meant some serious damage at minimum and death within minutes if untreated.

Which would lead to his removal from the tournament.

Moon hadn’t been trying to scare him. He had been trying to kill him.

The Ascender had read the situation perfectly.

Moon exhaled slowly and let the last of the killing intent drain out of his body. His shoulders loosened as his breathing steadied. The darkness behind his eyes faded away too.

He turned toward Selene.

She was looking at him with an expression that clearly said you have a lot to tell me about this later.

Moon smiled wryly before nodding his head. Although he didn’t say anything, he had appreciated her standing up for him, even if he didn’t need her to.

Kael had been watching the entire exchange in silence. Now he stepped slightly closer, his voice low enough that only the three of them could hear.

"Do you need help with him?" He asked. "I know this kid. He’s the son of the Miller family. They have some weight, but my father has more. If you want, the Glassy Group can handle them."

Moon shook his head. "Thank you for the offer, Kael. But I’ll take care of this myself."

Kael nodded calmly. "Alright. Just don’t lose your cool like that again, you could’ve gotten yourself removed from the tournament. Also, you made him piss his pants."

Moon’s eyebrows rose. He glanced back toward where Marcus and Sarah had retreated.

There was indeed a small, dark wet spot spreading across the front of Marcus’s trousers.

Moon’s lips twitched.

Beside him, Selene caught the same detail. Her hand flew to her mouth to suppress a laugh that wasn’t quite quiet enough to be hidden.

A few of the nearby competitors who had been watching the exchange noticed too. The snickering started again, this time louder. A

young man at the edge of the holding area pointed and whispered something to his friend, who immediately looked, then laughed.

Marcus stood frozen on the other side of the holding area, his arms hanging stiffly at his sides, he had clearly just noticed too.

Sarah, standing beside him, was making a deliberate effort to look at literally anything else.

Klein hovered to the centre of the arena, his voice amplifying once more to carry across the massive space, including the spectators in the stands.

"Congratulations to all two hundred qualifiers."