Chapter 72: Bizzare Emrys

Time passed quickly, and they soon finished their food.

Vael played around with his belt for a while before collapsing back into his seat, his huge tummy bouncing around.

"Ahhhh, another good day..."

His watch suddenly vibrated, and looking down at it, his eyes almost popped out.

"The next class starts in ten minutes, Arlo. We have to run or we’re doomed!"

Vael said as he bounced up from his seat, returned the trays to the chef, and immediately sprinted away.

Arlo followed after him.

"We still have ten minutes left, right? So why are we running?"

Arlo asked, catching up to Vael, who surprisingly ran pretty fast for someone the system considered a trashy weakling.

"The person who arrives late will be forced to fight Emrys by the combat instructor!"

Vael said, increasing his speed even further.

"Emrys? You mean that red-eyed guy from earlier?" Arlo asked as Vael nodded.

"He seems like a good guy to me..." Arlo said as he chased after Vael.

"He is, until it’s time for combat class. Then he becomes a psychopathic devil. He tore off a student’s hand last week during combat class..."

"What!?" Arlo asked in shock, looking at Vael and noticing that even the hair on the purple-haired boy’s arms was standing on end.

"Don’t worry, you’ll see a demonstration when we get there. We just have to make sure we don’t become the demonstration, though. So run faster!"

__________

"Phew, we’re early..." Vael said as they both arrived before a wooden door with the words Combat Class inscribed above it.

CLICK!

The sound of Vael grabbing and turning the knob echoed out as he opened the door and entered the classroom, with Arlo following closely behind.

Only now was Arlo able to see what the combat class actually looked like.

It was a large room with a wooden floor, where more than twenty students were currently gathered, all sitting cross-legged on the ground.

The entire class was deathly silent for reasons unknown, with only the faint whispers of a few bold students breaking through the silence.

Arlo was about to move towards the front to find a space when he felt a hand land on his shoulder. Turning back, he found Vael shaking his head.

"You don’t want to sit at the front. Let’s find a space at the back," he said as they both moved towards the end of the room before taking their seats.

"But why don’t you want to sit at the front? There are spaces there..." Arlo whispered, pointing towards the empty mats at the forefront of the class.

"Look at those guys sitting at the front," Vael said as Arlo looked towards the seven people seated there.

There were five boys and two girls, one of whom he recognized to be Emrys.

"Yes?"

"They are the absolute monsters of the class. Sitting beside them means you believe you’re at their level, and they are more than eager to test whether that’s true."

"In short, if you want to avoid trouble, the back seats are your best shot."

"Besides, it might enable you to hide from the prying gaze of that psychopathic wom... I mean the combat instructor, of course,"

Vael quickly corrected himself with a smile as Arlo raised an eyebrow.

Arlo’s ears suddenly perked up, and he turned towards the door.

CLENCH.

CLIIIINNNCKKK!

The sound of the knob being grabbed and slowly turned echoed through the room as the entire class immediately went quiet, leaving only the sound of the door being opened.

If not for the fact that it was daytime, the manner in which the door opened would have been enough to make someone’s heart jump out of their ribcage.

CREEAAAAK!

The door slowly creaked open.

Arlo’s eyes flashed in surprise as he looked at the figure standing there, dressed in a flowing shirt and trousers.

The person was actually a lady around the age of twenty-five, devastatingly beautiful, with snow-white skin and full red lips.

Her sleek blonde hair flowed wildly around her head, while her expression appeared perfectly normal to Arlo.

She wore a small, polite smile as she placed her book on the small table sitting on the dais before lowering herself into a cross-legged position.

"She seems pretty normal to me..." Arlo whispered to Vael, whose hair was standing on end as though he had been electrocuted.

"That was what we all thought too on our first day of seeing her. Until... until..."

"It seems there are some daring devils among you who still dared to come late even after the warning you were given last week..."

’Warning? What warning? It was a senseless beatdown!’

Vael thought to himself, even as his face held a smile, while the exact same thought, by mere coincidence, ran through the minds of every student present.

"I guess we can all wait for the last three people to arrive, can’t we?"

Mrs. Lillith said with a smile, throwing the class into silence.

They didn’t have to wait long at all.

Thirty seconds later, three figures burst through the classroom door, their heads immediately jerking towards Mrs. Lillith as horror and despair appeared on their faces.

"You three are late," she said with a heartwarming smile, yet the faces of the three boys only paled even further as they collapsed onto their knees.

"We’re very sorry, Mrs. Lillith. Please forgive us..."

The words sounded as though the three of them had practiced them countless times, with each repeating the exact same sentence in the exact same tone.

"Oh, then I will forgive you if you prove yourselves in combat"

"Spar with Emrys and defeat him. Then you will receive my forgiveness,"

Mrs. Lillith said with a sinister grin as the three young men turned towards Emrys, their faces immediately paling once more.

"Please, Mrs. Lillith. Anyone but Emrys..."

"You can begin, Emrys," Mrs. Lillith said as Emrys, the crimson-haired and crimson-eyed boy, slowly rose to his feet.

His poker-faced, bored expression disappeared, only to be replaced by a bloodthirsty smile.

Immediately, Mrs. Lillith stretched out her hands, and a transparent dome of mana appeared within the classroom, covering Emrys and the three boys.

"I’ll go easy on you," Emrys said, slowly folding his arms as he walked towards them.

The three boys immediately jumped to their feet, unknowingly stepping backward inch by inch as Emrys continued approaching them.

Soon, they were backed into a corner of the silver dome and Emrys’s beastly smile widened even further.

Slowly, he began jogging towards them, his smile widening with every passing second.

"Strange. His aura has completely changed. It’s like he’s now a completely different person,"

Arlo mused to himself as he looked at Emrys through the barrier.

Ever since the young man had stood up, he had witnessed his aura rapidly transform into something beastly and sinister, just like the aura a Vorath released upon seeing a human.

He had never known a Vorath could direct such an aura towards one of their own kind.

"You said Emrys looked like a cool guy, huh? Just watch him carefully. I wonder if you’ll still be able to say the same after this..."

Vael said as Arlo kept his full attention on the fight.

"We have to work together as one,"

Juro said to the other two beside him as his body immediately began enlarging, rapidly shifting from his humanoid form into something far more grotesque.

"ROOOOOOOOOOARRR!"

An angered roar boomed through the barrier as Juro’s tentacles grew longer and longer, rising into the air before suddenly focusing on Emrys’s figure.

And then...

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

They shot downwards at tremendous speed, lashing heavily towards Emrys, who sidestepped and dodged the tentacles, but they were unrelenting, chasing him around the barrier.

Seeing that Emrys could be held at bay, the other two immediately joined in.

One of them raised his hands as five large balls of mana appeared around him, while the other shot forward at great speed, his hands transforming into blade-like weapons and he ran after Emrys.

To Arlo, the match appeared to be nothing more than three people ganging up on a single opponent, but right before his shocked eyes, he witnessed an unbelievable scene.

"HIIIIIIIIAAAAAA!"

A loud war cry escaped Caleb as he arrived before Emrys, his blade-like hands covered in mana that no doubt made them even sharper.

He immediately slashed towards Emrys’s neck, yet an inch before the blade could slice through him, Emrys suddenly lunged forward towards Caleb, much to the young man’s surprise.

Caleb continued his slash, but right before his eyes, Emrys dispersed into nothing but a shadow as the blade cleaved through empty air.

Meanwhile, Juro’s tentacles slammed into the battle stage, leaving deep marks across the wooden floor.

GRAB!

CRUNCH!

The sound of a hand being grabbed echoed out as Caleb felt his left hand being seized from behind, and before his brain could even process what had happened, a sickening crunch rang out before terrible pain assaulted his mind.

Without flinching, Caleb sensed an opportunity and immediately raised his right hand, bringing his bladed arm directly towards Emrys’s head.

But even the class let out gasps of shock as they witnessed Emrys open his mouth and, in response to the incoming blade, bite down at the perfect moment.

CLENCH!

CRACK!

BANG!

The three sounds rang out almost at the same time as his teeth clamped down on the blade, followed by the sound of cracking as pieces of it fell to the ground.

"He... he broke the blade with his teeth!?"

Vael roared in shock and Arlo’s eyebrows furrowed.