Chapter 66 - 65: Challenge On

Chapter 66: Chapter 65: Challenge On

Over the past thirty days, after being humiliated by Aegon’s barehanded slap on the first day of class, Julian had locked himself inside the Arcane Training Tower and swallowed three high-grade Flame Lotus pills sent by his father, the Duke. Now, standing at the absolute peak of the First Circle, the heat radiating from his body was three times stronger than it had been a month ago.

?"First month, first match on the Central Stage!" Julian’s arrogant voice boomed through the colosseum’s amplification runes.

?Before looking at Aegon, Julian turned his head and pointed a burning finger directly at the pale boy standing near the rear gate.

?"Before I settle my debt with Aegon Noiré and take the East Wing of the Prime Villa, I will start by cleaning up the third seat! Veera, get up here!"

?A murmur of excitement rippled through the viewing galleries.

?"Woah! Why is Julian challenging Veera for Third Place first?"

?"I say It’s a smart move! Look at the crimson mana swirling around Julian’s hands. He has reached the absolute pinnacle of the First Circle! He wants to use Veera as a stepping stone to show off his full power and intimidate Aegon Noiré!"

?Down by the edge of the stage, Aria glanced sideways at Aegon. "Julian’s fire mana has grown much denser over the past month, but Veera’s aura feels strange today. Who do you think will win?"

?Aegon looked calmly at the pale, sunken-eyed boy walking toward the stairs of the Central Stage. Even without activating ATUM, Aegon’s 22 points of Nascent Soul Power could clearly sense the foul, rotting death energy coiled like a venomous snake inside Veera’s core.

?"Julian shouldn’t have picked him for a warm-up," Aegon said mildly.

"Hah, you’re quite confident on Veera, is there a special reason Aegon?" she asked

"Not really. I just know it." he replied, shrugging.

?Up on the Central Stage, Veera walked slowly up the basalt steps and stopped twenty meters across from Julian.

?Looking at Julian’s proud, fiery posture, Veera tilted his head coldly.

?"You want to use me as a stepping stone to scare Aegon Noiré?" Veera’s hoarse voice sent an inexplicable shiver down the spines of the students sitting in the front row.

"Come on then, Julian Von Draken. Show me what a month of your Duke father’s gold coins bought you."

?"Courting death!"

?Julian’s eyes flashed with fury. When Instructor Bella waved her silver wand to signal the start of the match, Julian didn’t hold back a single drop of his power.

?HUM!

?His A-Rank Flame Wyvern Grimoire burst open in front of his chest, every page blazing with blinding scarlet runes.

?"Peak First-Circle Secret Art: Crimson Wyvern’s Roar!"

?Julian slammed both hands forward. A massive torrent of compressed crimson fire erupted from his palms, taking the shape of a twenty-meter-long horned wyvern with fangs of molten magma!

As the fiery beast hurtled across the obsidian stage toward Veera, the temperature in the colosseum spiked so high that the air above the barrier warped violently.

?"What a terrifying spell! That power is practically touching the threshold of the Second Circle!" an upperclassman in the stands gasped. "Even with a Supreme Grimoire, if Veera is still in the First Circle, he won’t be able to block that head-on!"

?Facing the roaring wyvern of molten fire, Veera didn’t dodge. He didn’t even raise his arms to guard.

?"Let them see the gap between mortals and the Abyss, kid," the ancient devil whispered gleefully inside Veera’s skull.

?"Gladly," Veera whispered.

?BOOM!

?The black-and-red Abyssal Grimoire materialized above Veera’s shoulder, and in the next instant, a suffocating pillar of pitch-black, freezing mana erupted from Veera’s body, forming two distinct, pulsing rings of dark crimson light beneath his boots!

?"Two mana rings?!"

?High up in the VIP box, Elder Vaelen shot to his feet so fast his chair toppled backward, his elderly face filled with sheer disbelief.

"The Second Circle?! We are only thirty days into the first semester! How did a first-year student already break through to the Second Circle?!"

?Even Chief Instructor Wane’s eyes widened slightly as he leaned over the enchanted stone railing.

?Down on the stage, before the roaring Flame Wyvern could touch Veera’s uniform, Veera raised a single pale, purple-veined hand.

?"Forbidden Art: Corpse-Fire Shroud. Abyssal Bone Spear."

?SIZZLE!

?A curtain of eerie, freezing black-and-red fire surged out from Veera’s pores. The moment Julian’s Crimson Wyvern collided with that sinister black flame, the proud A-Rank fire magic didn’t even explode. Instead, it was swallowed whole and extinguished like a candle dropped into a pool of foul blood!

?"What?! Impossible!" Julian’s confident smirk shattered into pure terror as his connection to his spell was violently severed.

?Before Julian could cast a defensive barrier, a jagged, three-meter-long spear condensed entirely from ghastly white bone and dark blood tore out of the black flames at blinding speed!

?CRASH!

?The Abyssal Bone Spear slammed straight into the center of Julian’s breastplate.

?With a sickening crack of shattering ribs, Julian spat out a mouthful of bright red blood and was launched thirty meters backward like a broken kite, smashing violently into the golden arena barrier before collapsing onto the obsidian floor in a unconscious heap!

?Dead silence fell over the two thousand spectators in the Grand Colosseum.

?One move.

?Julian Von Draken, the proud heir of the Flame Duchy who had reached the absolute peak of the First Circle, had been crushed in a single exchange!

?"The Second Circle... Veera actually reached the Second Circle in just one month!"

?"What kind of terrifying magic was that?! His black flames ate Julian’s wyvern alive, and the chill from that bone spear made my blood freeze even through the protective barrier!"

?In the front row by the stage, Prince Larsen Beliath’s relaxed smile vanished completely. Seeing the fight played out, his hand tightened instinctively around the hilt of his wind rapier.

Even Aria’s porcelain brow furrowed deeply as she stared at the sinister black-and-red embers clinging to Veera’s sleeves.

?"That isn’t normal elemental mana, Aegon. It smells like the rotting death energy from a dungeon graveyard. If you fight him, don’t let those black flames touch your skin."

Aegon smiled faintly

?Up on the Central Stage, two medical golems hurried out to carry the unconscious Julian away to the infirmary.

?Veera didn’t spare Julian a single glance.

?Standing in the center of the scorched obsidian ring with two dark crimson mana rings pulsing brightly beneath his boots, Veera slowly turned his head and locked his sunken, bloodshot eyes straight onto Aegon.

?<Look at him standing down there, Veera. Even if he is a Regressor from the future, a ten-year-old body bound by the Academy’s normal resources can never reach the Second Circle in thirty days! Today is the day you break his spine and take back your destiny!>

?A wide, cruel grin stretched across Veera’s corpse-pale face. Raising his right arm, he pointed a blood-stained finger directly down at Aegon in front of the entire Imperial Academy.

?"Instructor Bella, I am not stepping down," Veera’s coldvoice echoed through every corner of the silent colosseum

"I challenge First Place, Aegon Noiré, for the number one seat, the East Wing of the Prime Villa, and every single Academic Credit on his badge!"