Chapter 73: A Pecuilar Mage

Emrys had predicted that unusual attack and even timed his counter perfectly.

The blade had descended, and he bit down on it at the exact moment it reached his mouth.

But how were his teeth so strong that they could crunch through a blade like it was nothing?

BANG!

"Arrghhh!"

A loud impact followed by a groan of pain as ang out as a knee violently smashed into Caleb’s stomach, lifting him several meters into the air.

Emrys faded away once more before appearing midair, kicking directly at Caleb’s head, and sending him soaring into the distance.

"What the!?"

Juro exclaimed, quickly jumped to the side, avoiding a collision with Caleb, but his expression drastically changed when he couldn’t see Emrys anywhere in front of him.

"SHIT!"

Immediately, he threw all his tentacles behind him, predicting that was the only place Emrys could be.

BOOM!

A large cloud of dust rose into the air as wood splintered from the attack, yet when the dust cleared, Emrys was nowhere to be seen.

The only thought that appeared in Juro’s mind was that perhaps Emrys was above him.

Raising his head, all he saw was a leg rapidly enlarging in his vision.

And then...

CRUNCH!

BANG!

A sickening crack echoed through the barrier as rippling shockwaves burst from the point of impact when Emrys slammed his leg into Juro’s forehead, sending the young man crashing violently into the ground.

Blood splashed across the place but was prevented from reaching the students by the barrier.

"How predictable..." Emrys whispered as his gaze turned towards the last person, who still had the five balls of mana floating around him.

Yet his entire body was shaking as he simply stood there, unable to launch a single attack.

"So scared you can’t even move, huh?"

Emrys muttered as he slowly lifted his leg from Juro’s face before walking towards the last young man.

"I... I... Screw you!"

The young man finally regained his wits when Emrys was only three meters away, but it was already futile.

He stretched his hands forward, intending to command the balls of mana to attack, but Emrys suddenly appeared directly before him and grabbed his hands with terrifying speed, an evil smile appearing on his face.

"How did you..."

BANG!

BLERRGGGGGGH!

Shockwaves rippled outward as Rupert was lifted off his feet, followed by a punch violently slamming into his stomach and sending his body shooting backward.

Red veins squirmed all over his face, droplets of blood flying out from his clenched teeth, but that was only the beginning.

BANG!

BANG!

BANG!

BANG!

BANG!

BANG!

BANG!

The impacts rang out seven times in total before Emrys finally released Rupert’s hand.

The young man collapsed unconscious onto the ground, landing beside the pool of blood he had spat out from his mouth during the relentless beating.

Silence.

What followed was a deep, chilling silence as the entire class stared with their mouths hanging open in shock.

Three students had all been knocked unconscious by a single person at the same cultivation stage as them, and even more mind-blowing was the fact that throughout the entire fight, Emrys had never even revealed his Vorath state.

He had defeated all three of them while remaining in his basic humanoid form!

"Monster! He is a monster!"

A student roared out in shock as everyone looked towards Emrys, who slowly wiped the blood off his face.

"Aylin, can you do us a favor and take the three bodies to the school hospital?" the combat instructor, Mrs. Lillith said as the barrier surrounding the four figures slowly dissipated.

Emrys walked back to his seat, the previous light in his eyes gradually fading.

"Strange. His previous wild aura is gone now..." Arlo muttered to himself, his eyebrows creasing.

He could still remember the bloodthirsty aura that had surrounded Emrys while he fought the three boys, yet now, it had strangely disappeared without a trace.

A third girl sitting in the front row walked towards the unconscious boys before quickly lifting all three onto her shoulders and carrying them out of the class.

"So, do you still think he’s a cool guy?" Vael whispered beside him as Arlo’s eyebrows creased a little further.

"I take back my words... for now." he replied, causing Vael to grin widely.

____________

"Throughout the last week, we have talked about basic things such as arriving at my class early, yet it seems some of you still take my words as a joke."

"Since teachers disciplining students is frowned against within the school, I have no choice but to use each other as punishment instead."

"I hope another one of you comes late tomorrow..."

"With that resolved, let’s continue from where we stopped last time," Mrs. Lillith said, opening the large book before placing it on her cross-legged lap.

"Last week, we talked about the basic combat applications of a typical Vorath. The majority of you formerly believed that the combat class should focus on targeting the humans’ weaknesses and learning how to overcome them."

’Well, that makes sense, since that’s what humans also train for.’ Arlo thought to himself.

He knew that all the training Captain Ennessa had taught him involved how to get rid of the Vorath, their various weaknesses, how to exploit them, their weak points, and so on.

It wouldn’t have been strange if the Vorath combat class also involved learning how to target humanity’s weaknesses.

"Unfortunately, any Vorath focused solely on getting rid of as many humans as possible while only learning about their weaknesses is doomed to die in a war."

"The best training a Vorath can undertake is to find a way to strengthen his own special abilities."

"Hmmmm..." Arlo hummed softly, his ears perking up.

It seemed the Vorath did not follow the same conventional way of thinking as humans.

"We went over the special abilities of a Vorath that can be trained last week, so we’ll have a quick revision."

"As you all know, there are two classes of Vorath, namely warriors and mages. The warrior class focuses more on physicality, and their special combat weapons are their tentacles, claws, and fangs."

"Mages are more complicated, and the special area they have to train is their mana, specifically their control over it."

"The various moves and methods you can use to improve your natural combat abilities were all explained throughout last week, and I gave you an assignment to familiarize yourselves with your various abilities."

"I believe you have all done that, isn’t that right?" Mrs. Lillith asked, raising her head to look at them and they all quickly nodded at the same time.

"Good. That is why today, I will be seeing the results of what you spent the weekend doing."

"And the only way to do that is by using your abilities in a practical situation."

"Choose your sparring partners, and you will all come out to duel on this stage, where your strengths and weaknesses will be better assessed."

Mrs. Lillith said as everyone immediately began choosing their partners.

"You’ll be partnering with me then." Vael’s voice rang out beside Arlo who nodded with a small smile.

It would have been difficult for someone to partner with him since he was a newcomer, but thankfully, he didn’t have to go through the embarrassment of ending up paired with the combat instructor, as Vael had saved him from that.

"With your partners picked, you will all begin coming out to show your abilities in front of the entire class alongside your chosen partner."

"Your performance in this test will be recorded and graded accordingly, so I wouldn’t take this unseriously if I were you." she reminded them.

Two people soon stood up, a young man and a young woman, before walking towards the battle stage.

While Arlo expected to see some form of mummering at the young man choosing a female as his sparring partner, he could see no such expression on the faces of the various Vorath present in the room.

It seemed the Vorath did not differentiate between males and females in the same way Arlo was used to.

Once they arrived at the open space in the room, Mrs. Lillith stretched out her hands, causing a blue dome to form around the two fighters.

"Ready? Go!"

The moment she gave the command, the boy underwent a transformation.

Three tentacles burst out from behind him as his figure rapidly bulged, thick veins streaking across his body.

His skin became coated in shades of black and red, while his dark eyes flashed with an otherworldly glow.

His claws immediately enlarged before smashing against the ground, creating a powerful shockwave, and in the next instant, he had transformed into a grotesque, wolf-like monster standing on all fours.

The girl, on the other hand, had both her hands completely covered in dark mana as she lowered herself into a combat stance.

"Wow, she’s not forming a mana ball and is using her hands to fight instead?" Arlo asked in shock, staring at the girl’s strange pose.

"Not all Mage Vorath conjure objects. Some of them can coat their bodies in mana and use it to physically boost their abilities..." Vael explained as Arlo raised an eyebrow.

"You mean like a warrior does?" he asked.

Coating important parts of the body with mana wasn’t that what the warrior class also specialized in?

"Yes. Their physical capabilities are boosted by covering their bodies in mana."

"Unlike the warrior class, however, their mana is used as an external coating rather than an internal enhancement."

"Just watch. That girl is called Asher, and she is anything but a weakling. But Rhett can’t be underestimated either..."