Chapter 382: Conclusion

"Sorry!"

As soon as Antonio raised his hands further, the flame surged one more time.

"..." Auric looked around, realizing two things. First, Antonio used alcohol as his trump card. Because the alcohol content was high, it was extremely effective as a weapon. The other thing he found out was this surge of flame. Antonio seemed to rely on his control to become the best.

After all, he didn’t have to care about his firepower since he could boost his power by simply drinking the alcohol.

Ever since Auric participated in the training program, he kept finding something new, such as Timothy’s body condition, the full-body transformation, or even a weapon in the form of alcohol.

There were simply a lot of things he couldn’t encounter if he just stayed quietly in Esfrata.

That was why even when he was facing this flame, Auric couldn’t help but smile. "I’m truly... glad I participated in this program."

Auric took a deep breath as the phoenix flame was overwhelming his black flame.

It looked like he had to reveal another trump card if he wanted to defeat Antonio.

"Huu..." Auric snapped his fingers.

His black flame suddenly expanded to the entire arena with so much force that it overwhelmed the phoenix flame. The phoenix flame was still winning in terms of quantity, but the black flame was still winning in quality.

And this time, Auric actually infused his wind element with the black flame. In other words, a three-element fusion.

"!!!" Antonio was shocked. The instructors were standing up as if they couldn’t believe what they were seeing.

"Did he... just combine another element?"

"A fusion of three elements?"

Elemental fusion alone was extremely rare, let alone three. Normally, it required three people, and those who could do it were usually a triplet.

However, it was different for Auric. He possessed all three elements in his body so he could fuse three elements at the same time.

What they didn’t realize was that Auric didn’t intend to stop here.

"Not enough!" Auric stomped. Plants suddenly emerged and followed the movement of the black flame, making sure they stayed inside the flames. As a result, the black flame devoured this plant as fuel and flared up.

"A four-element fusion?!"

"This is the first time I’ve seen a four-element fusion."

"Your first time? This is the world’s first time to see something like this!"

They never thought they would be able to witness such an intricate power. The black flame created the foundation and the wind and plant elements increased their quality and quantity.

Auric controlled the black flame and started overwhelming the phoenix flame.

"!!!" Antonio gritted his teeth. He was trying to hold on, but he had his limits. A four-element fusion was simply too strong, considering Auric was using his Rank 3 element as the foundation.

"Haaaa!" Antonio shouted while trying his best to control the flame, but the black flame was simply too strong. His flame was gradually being overwhelmed.

The arena that was originally filled with black and red flames gradually shifted to only contain one flame.

Antonio was fighting to the very end, but it was futile.

"Haha..." He let out a hollow laugh. "There’s no way I can win this..."

He thought he could overwhelm Auric, but it turned out Auric hadn’t even gone serious yet. Only those who had reached Rank 4 could probably defeat Auric.

Antonio gradually closed his eyes as the black flame engulfed him.

"Auric Elfe from Esfrata won!"

The referee immediately announced the end of the match. The black flame gradually subsided, showing Antonio was protected by a barrier as the referee managed to reach him at the last moment.

The stadium turned silent for a few seconds as they couldn’t comprehend what had just happened.

Then, one person cheered. It caused other people to snap out of their daze and start cheering.

"Ooohhhhh!"

"Amazing!"

"I don’t know what to say. Four-elemental fusion? He’s overwhelming a Rank 3 student. How is that possible?"

"Don’t you think Antonio is actually stronger than Ellia?"

"He must have exhausted his energy in the semifinal during the Rank 3 competition and chose to hide his trump card."

"Still, Auric managed to overwhelm him."

"Amazing. This is simply too amazing."

Antonio had shown an amazing performance. They could picture how many beasts would die if Antonio were on the battlefield. If he grew even stronger, he would truly become a strong protector.

However, Auric was simply stronger this time. His mastery over his power was impeccable.

Unlike Gloria, there didn’t seem to be any doubt about Antonio’s ability. After all, he had hailed from a famous family, and he had demonstrated his ability to an absolute degree. The reason he lost wasn’t because he was weak. Auric was simply too strong.

Everyone couldn’t help but recognize Auric’s ability.

Selena narrowed her eyes. "So, in the end, you are not only the most dazzling evolution master, but you are also an unimaginably strong fighter."

Timothy couldn’t help but smile. "Well, who is going to object to the alliance now?"

Katarina just shook her head helplessly, thinking, ’I wonder what will happen if he truly reveals all of his elements. How shocked will everyone be?’

Ellia was just smiling, as though this was the natural thing to happen. Vera stopped recording since she wanted Eric to see it.

A lot of instructors had mixed feelings. Auric was simply too strong. If he was already this powerful right now, they couldn’t imagine how powerful Auric would be after a few decades.

Auric might end up dominating everyone, and they couldn’t do anything to him.

For the UK, Merlin had seen him favorably, so there was a chance that the UK would become his ally. Besides, if Timothy continued to befriend him, his future path would be quite smooth.

In fact, Auric might be the one who helped him to reach Tier 7 in the future.

So, they didn’t feel the need to panic yet.

Dermania, on the other hand, felt like it was on fire. If Auric was a threat before, after showing his power, Auric had become a crisis.

Could they allow him to remain alive? If he got stronger, he might end up destroying their country. Even if that action was frowned upon, Auric could simply suppress them in one way or another.

Auric simply needed to die.

On the other hand, Granda and Lech-Aistia didn’t know what to do. Granda wasn’t exactly an enemy, but they were close to that.

However, Nicholas’s action and Auric’s consideration had prevented it. Hence, they needed to choose whether to appease him or eliminate him.

At the very least, they knew Dermania would do everything in its power to eliminate Auric.

Lech-Aistia didn’t like or dislike Auric. It was true that Auric had defeated Alexander, but that fight was a special case. Alexander was like a fool, since he didn’t even bother to dodge that.

Selena had tried to probe him before, but Auric tricked her and escaped. Still, it was true that they were leaning toward befriending him.

When he was in trouble because of the assault incident, they were ready to bring out some reinforcements to de-escalate the situation.

However, they still hadn’t made any efforts to show their sincerity.

"You are strong." Auric smiled and extended his hand.

Antonio looked at him before shifting his gaze to Auric’s hand. He just closed his eyes for a moment and shook Auric’s hand. "You too. I won’t lose next time."

Without wasting any time, Antonio walked away, not wanting to stay in the arena any longer.

"..." Auric just glanced at his back before the referee came to him. "Hello, Student Auric. Congratulations on your victory. You are still standing on the stage, so I wonder if you’d like to challenge other people?"

The referee couldn’t help but want Auric to challenge another person. Maybe he would reveal another trump card.

Sadly for him, Auric shook his head. "No. This will be the end of my challenge. I’ll return to my seat. Thank you."

The referee, although disappointed, announced, "Auric Elfe will not continue the challenge. We will have a five-minute break to repair the arena. Please come down after that if you want to challenge another person."

This break was useful not only to repair the arena but also to lessen their excitement. This way, people could compete again without getting too bothered by what Auric had shown.

"Congratulations!" Katarina waved her hands.

"You did well." Vera gave a thumbs-up.

"You are awesome." Ellia nodded.

"Thank you." Auric smiled. "With this, I don’t have to be afraid that someone is going to challenge me again."

"That’s true. You’ve shown enough strength and there’s nothing left to prove." Katarina agreed with him. There was no one foolish enough to challenge Auric again. Even if they challenged him, Auric could just refuse.

If they insisted on dueling Auric, they would look like a fool because people might assume Auric had used too much energy to give a proper fight. They were just trying to take advantage of it to get famous.

Auric wouldn’t receive any backlash since he had proven himself. He had defeated Alexander with overwhelming power and Antonio with a four-element fusion.

"You sure you don’t plan to challenge anyone else?" Ellia asked. "I heard you have a lot of people you want to challenge."

"Not anymore. The situation doesn’t allow me to act that freely. I never thought that I would end up suffering because of it." Auric shook his head helplessly.

"The closer you are to the top, the more restricted you will become. If you really want freedom like that, you simply need to stop listening." Ellia chuckled, understanding Auric’s position.

"I guess we will just enjoy the rest of the competition." Katarina stretched her hands as she could finally relax since Auric wasn’t going anywhere else and causing another problem.

"Yeah. About that..." Ellia suddenly stood up. It looked like the arena repair had finished. As if knowing what was going to happen next, Clarice and Ellia actually jumped on the stage at the same time.