Chapter 17: The Two Principals’ Resolve! A Desperate Gamble!

Chapter 17: Chapter 17: The Two Principals’ Resolve! A Desperate Gamble!

The bald leader stared at Nathaniel Beaumont, the mockery in his eyes completely gone. In its place was a mixture of deep apprehension and murderous intent.

"To summon monsters of this caliber on the very first day of awakening..."

The slender assassin’s fingers tightened around his twin daggers. His voice was cold enough to send a chill down one’s spine.

"This boy must not be allowed to live!"

"If we let him grow, the Lion Syndicate will never have peace again."

"We have to kill him now!"

Although Nathaniel’s Shadow Soldiers had completely changed the situation on the ground, he understood that the real battle was still taking place in the sky.

As long as the three enemy leaders, all above Level 100, remained free to act, the advantage his soldiers had gained could disappear in an instant.

Nathaniel looked upward.

The principal and vice principal were barely holding on against the combined attacks of blood mist, deadly daggers, and weakening curses.

The enormous phantom of the Holy Light Giant had been reduced to a battered, flickering silhouette. The vice principal’s flaming battleaxe had lost much of its brilliance.

Both men were covered in blood, and their auras had weakened to alarming levels.

They were reaching their limits.

They couldn’t hold out much longer.

Nathaniel took a deep breath and shouted toward the sky.

"Principal! Vice Principal!"

His voice cut through the explosions and the sounds of battle.

"Whatever it takes, restrain one of them for me! Even if you can hold him for just one second!"

His eyes locked onto the bald leader.

"I can kill him!"

For a moment, the principal and vice principal actually paused.

Their first reaction was disbelief.

Absurd.

That was the only word that came to mind.

Nathaniel had awakened less than half a day ago. Even with an SSS-Rank evaluation and the ability to summon those terrifying Shadow Soldiers, he was still a newly awakened Professional.

And who were they fighting?

The three leaders of the Lion Syndicate.

The weakest among them was already a terrifying powerhouse, while the bald leader alone had reached Level 115.

The gap between them was enormous.

Even if Nathaniel possessed an extraordinarily powerful attack, could it possibly penetrate the bald leader’s defenses?

The principal doubted it.

The vice principal nearly lost his grip on his battleaxe.

Has this boy gone mad from fear?

Above them, the three Syndicate leaders reacted very differently.

They laughed.

"Hahahaha!"

The bald leader, surrounded by swirling blood mist, continued suppressing the principal with his blood-red battle saber while laughing so hard that tears nearly formed in his eyes.

"Listen to that! Did you hear what the little ant said?"

He pointed toward Nathaniel.

"He claims he can kill me!"

The slender assassin smirked, twirling one of his daggers between his fingers.

"Has fear finally driven him insane?"

"How pitiful. When death approaches, ignorance is often the last thing standing."

They had seen countless talented youngsters over the years. Most had died before reaching their potential.

To them, Nathaniel was simply another gifted student who didn’t understand the difference between talent and actual strength.

A promising seed was still only a seed.

Without time to grow, it could be crushed just as easily as anything else.

BOOM!

While the three leaders mocked Nathaniel, the Cursed Witch seized her opportunity.

She completed another spell, sending a gray curse straight toward the vice principal.

"Curse of Aging!"

The curse struck.

The vice principal’s movements slowed almost immediately.

The bald leader’s grin widened.

"Too slow, old man!"

He drove his boot into the vice principal’s chest.

CRACK!

The sound of breaking bones rang through the air.

The vice principal was sent hurtling downward like a cannonball. He managed to stabilize himself before crashing into the ground, but blood poured from his mouth.

"Old Li!"

The principal’s eyes widened with fury.

His attention wavered for a fraction of a second.

Then Nathaniel’s voice rang out again.

"Are you going to wait until it’s too late?!"

This time, there was no panic in his voice.

Only absolute conviction.

"Trust me once! If you don’t want to die here, do exactly as I say!"

The principal looked down at the young man.

Nathaniel stood amid the chaos, his black hair moving in the turbulent air. His expression was calm, and his eyes showed no sign of fear.

There was no desperation in his face.

No uncertainty.

He looked as though he already knew the outcome.

For some reason, that confidence made the principal hesitate.

What if...

The thought appeared suddenly.

What if this boy really has a way?

The principal had spent his life protecting the younger generation. If he could save even one of these students, he would gladly pay the price.

And now, the person asking him to take a risk was the very student he had sworn to protect.

"Damn it!"

The vice principal wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth. A fierce light appeared in his eyes.

"Old Zhang! We’re probably dead either way!"

He tightened both hands around his battleaxe.

"Let’s trust the kid once. We’ve got nothing left to lose!"

The principal glanced at the battlefield below.

Teachers were falling back. Students were screaming. The Shadow Soldiers were still fighting, but the three enemy leaders remained untouched.

If nothing changed, the entire gymnasium would soon become a slaughterhouse.

The principal gritted his teeth.

"Fine!"

His gaze hardened.

"Let’s gamble!"

The next instant, the two men made a decision that surprised even their enemies.

They abandoned their defensive skills.

Completely.

The principal allowed his holy shields to fade, while the vice principal stopped maintaining the protective energy around his body.

They exposed themselves to the assassin’s daggers and the Cursed Witch’s spells.

Instead of defending themselves, both men began burning the last of their life essence.

Their auras surged violently.

They poured everything they had left into a single objective.

Restrain the bald leader.

"Shackles of Light: Divine Imprisonment!"

The principal thrust his staff forward.

Brilliant chains of holy light erupted from the surrounding air, shooting toward the bald leader from every direction.

At the same time, the vice principal roared and slammed his battleaxe toward the ground.

"Hands of the Earth: Absolute Binding!"

The gymnasium trembled.

Two enormous hands made of solid rock burst into existence around the bald leader’s legs, gripping them with crushing force.

The holy chains wrapped around his arms, chest, and shoulders.

In an instant, his movements were restricted.

"What?!"

For the first time, the bald leader’s expression changed dramatically.

He hadn’t expected the two old men to abandon their defenses completely.

They were gambling their lives on a single chance to restrain him.

"Are you two insane?!"

He roared and released a violent surge of blood energy, attempting to tear apart the chains.

But the principal and vice principal had already committed everything they had left.

Their skills tightened around him.

For one precious moment, the Level 115 Bloodthirsty Asura couldn’t move freely.

Then the enemy’s counterattack arrived.

"Pfft!"

The slender assassin appeared behind the principal, his dagger plunging into the older man’s shoulder.

At almost the same moment, the Cursed Witch’s poisonous orb exploded against the vice principal’s back.

BOOM!

Both men shuddered violently.

Blood poured from their wounds, and their auras plummeted.

The principal nearly lost consciousness. The vice principal’s knees trembled as he fought to remain in the air.

Yet neither released his skill.

Their hands continued forming the necessary gestures, desperately maintaining the restraints around the bald leader.

"Nathaniel!"

The principal’s hoarse voice rang out.

"NOW!"

The vice principal followed with a roar of his own.

"DO IT!"

They didn’t need to shout.

The instant the bald leader was restrained, Nathaniel had already moved.

He stood beneath the darkened sky, his black hair whipping around his face. His gaze locked onto the man imprisoned above him.

He slowly raised his right hand and extended his index finger.

The gesture was simple.

But the moment he made it, something changed.

The shadows around him stirred.

His expression became utterly focused.

He had been waiting for this opening.

And the two principals had given him exactly what he needed.

One second.

That was all.

The bald leader finally understood the danger.

His gaze snapped toward Nathaniel, and the disdain that had filled his eyes began to fade.

"What are you planning?"

He struggled against the holy chains and the enormous stone hands holding him in place.

Then he noticed Nathaniel’s raised finger.

The young man wasn’t casting an ordinary spell.

There was no familiar gathering of magical elements. No visible surge of battle energy.

Instead, an unfamiliar pressure began to descend upon the battlefield.

For the first time in years, the bald leader felt a chill deep in his soul.

Nathaniel’s voice rang out.

"Shadow Execution!"

A terrifying force erupted from the darkness.

The bald leader’s eyes widened.

His instincts screamed at him to escape.

But he couldn’t move.

The principal’s holy chains still bound his upper body, and the vice principal’s stone hands held his legs in an iron grip.

"Impossible!"

He released every ounce of blood energy he could muster.

A dense layer of crimson protective energy enveloped his body.

"Do you think a brat like you can kill me?!"

His voice shook the air.

"I’m a Level 115 Bloodthirsty Asura! My physical defense alone is eight thousand! Even a full-powered attack from someone at my level might not break through my protection!"

He stared down at Nathaniel, trying to hide his growing unease behind a furious grin.

"Come on, then! Show me what you’ve got!"

Nathaniel didn’t answer.

His finger remained pointed at the target.

The next instant, the shadows above him surged upward, gathering into the outline of a colossal blade.

The darkness grew denser and denser, forming a massive weapon that seemed to swallow the light around it.

The bald leader’s mocking expression froze.

He could feel it now.

The terrifying pressure wasn’t an ordinary magical attack.

It carried an overwhelming force that seemed to disregard the normal rules of defense.

His blood energy began to tremble.

For the first time since entering the gymnasium, genuine terror appeared in his eyes.

"What... is that?"

Nathaniel’s gaze remained cold.

The massive shadow blade descended.

And the bald leader, still restrained in midair, finally realized that the boy he had dismissed as an insignificant ant possessed an attack that might end his life in a single strike.