Chapter 38: Unworthy

"Begin!" Instructor Cross’s magically amplified voice violently tore through the suffocating silence of the tower summit, dropping the dark starting fabric with a sharp, definitive snap.

The moment the flag left the proctor’s fingers, Thomas didn’t waste a single microsecond posturing. He didn’t wait for Julian to dictate the pace of the arena floor. Utilizing the full, reverse-engineered blueprints embedded in his consciousness, his long fingers twitched in a tight, fluid motion that perfectly mirrored the precise spool mechanics he had extracted from Victor. He violently slammed his bare palm flat against the black sand.

Clack-clack-clack-clack!

A massive, complex matrix of grinding stone gears and razor-sharp obsidian blades violently erupted from the earth directly beneath Julian’s boots. It was an instantaneous, high-level deployment of the copied trap talent, the mechanical rock teeth groaning as they rapidly rotated to clamp down and crush the noble’s legs before he could even process the assault.

Simultaneously, Thomas vaulted forward, his body transforming into a blur of raw kinetic momentum as he closed the twenty-meter gap across the sand. As he ran, the cold blue text of the system interface flashed directly beneath his eyes, channeling the precise compression variables he had mapped from his quarter-final match. His entire epidermis violently crystallized, his muscle fibers and skin packing together tightly to manifest the hyper-dense, reflective properties of the Diamond Skin armor. His right fist hardened into a heavy, unbreakable block of quartz as he aimed a devastating, bone-shattering straight punch directly toward Julian’s exposed chest.

It was a terrifying, dual-talent offensive combination that should have completely dismantled any standard freshman in Class 1-A.

But Julian didn’t even shift his feet. He didn’t deploy a spatial distortion, and he didn’t try to manifest the Crimson Void. He simply stood beneath the open sky, his striking ebony eyes entirely bare as his core violently surged.

BOOM—!!!

Julian unleashed a raw, catastrophic explosion of sheer, unadulterated mana output. It wasn’t a calculated spell; it was just the overwhelming, suffocating density of his Grade S reservoir violently detonating outward from his physical vessel like a kinetic shockwave. The absolute weight of the spiritual pressure instantly pulverized the rising stone gears beneath his heels, reducing the heavy trap machinery to a fine grey powder before the obsidian blades could even scratch his boots.

The expanding wall of raw mana slammed directly into Thomas mid-dash. The sheer, law-defying force of the spiritual burst completely bypassed the reflective density of his diamond skin, the invisible shockwave hitting his chest like a battering ram. The impact violently blew his diamond armor apart into fading glass shards, lifting his entire body clean off the black sand and launching him twenty meters backward across the arena. Thomas crashed heavily into the dirt, rolling violently through the sand until he skidded to a halt near the base of the massive awakening crystal, a sharp line of coppery blood trickling from his mouth.

The thousands of High-blood spectators from the Holy City erupted into a deafening, thunderous roar of manic laughter, their vicious jeers shaking the stone pillars of the stadium as they watched the lesser get effortlessly blasted across the ring without the noble even lifting a finger.Julian slowly began to take slow, measured steps toward Thomas, his white uniform completely pristine, his boots crunching rhythmically against the black grains.

"A lesser should remain a lesser and not try to raise their head," Julian said, his cold, elegant voice carrying an icy, ancient authority that cleanly sliced through the roaring noise of the stadium crowd. "You are not even worthy of being called human beings. Your potential for greatness is entirely non-existent."

Thomas pushed himself up onto his hands and knees, his breath coming in ragged, painful gasps as his internal system frantically worked to stabilize his fractured ribs beneath his linen wraps. He kept his face smooth as glass, his dark eyes locking onto the approaching noble.

"Your Grade A talent was a mere fluke," Julian continued, his gaze looking down at Thomas with supreme, absolute disgust as he stopped exactly ten paces away. "The exact same goes for every other lesser who managed to get a good talent in this academy. It was just a fluke. A lesser soul is fundamentally incapable of sustaining true, sovereign power. You are an anomaly born in the dirt, and you belong in the dirt."

High above the field, on the exclusive spectator tier, the Midnight Valkyrie sat perfectly rigid inside her terrifying ebony armor, her faceless runic helm and polished silver visor reflecting the blood-red morning light as she watched the execution unfold. Beside her, the other four Horsemen remained entirely silent, watching the ultimate final line of the freshman block get systematically redrawn.

Julian raised his right hand, his long fingers beginning to intertwine in a recursive geometric pattern as a pitch-black pocket of the Crimson Void began to bleed through the air currents directly behind Thomas’s shoulders.

"I intend to show the entire kingdom the absolute truth of our bloodlines today," Julian whispered, his striking ebony eyes flashing with a dangerous, unyielding finality. "I will strip you of your pathetic lesser hero title."

Thomas stood up slowly, his unrefined stance completely steady despite the bleeding cuts across his torso.