Chapter 311 Vlad vs Noah II

" Hah... hah... hah..." Aria panted, breaking into a cold sweat. If Vlad and Chloe had been even half a second later, the sword would have pierced her heart. She lost what little strength remained in her legs and collapsed to the ground.

Even with both Vlad and Chloe holding Noah’s blade, the sheer force behind the longsword dragged their feet backward. The chilling aura travelled through Chloe’s katana and Vlad’s sword, threatening to reach their hands.

Vlad drove the fist of his free arm into Noah’s gut, sending him skidding a few feet backward.

"Chloe, protect the students," Vlad ordered as he stepped forward, his fist, which had just struck Noah, now encased in ice.

"He is dangerous," Chloe stated, her eyes fixed on the wild, uncontrolled aura being released from Noah’s blade. "We should fight together."

Chloe hadn’t argued when Vlad told her that he didn’t need her help fighting hundreds of students because she knew that their combined strength wasn’t nearly enough to pose any threat to him.

But now, she could clearly sense the danger emanating from Noah’s current state. His aura had already reached the late stage of Two Star Knight and was rapidly approaching Three Star.

"Don’t worry, Chloe," Vlad reassured her in a calm voice. "I’ll ask for your help if needed. Protect the students for now."

"Mm." Chloe reluctantly nodded, stepping back.

Vlad moved towards Noah, who remained motionless in his position. The aura surrounding his blade had already grown to nearly thrice its actual size, with white mist billowing outward and freezing the ground around him.

Vlad pointed his sword at Noah and mocked him. "You know, you look better now that your face isn’t wrinkled in anger—"

Before he could finish his sentence, a sharp crescent-shaped arc shot towards him as Noah swung his blade.

Vlad ducked low, allowing the arc to whistle over his head. It was about to strike a frozen student a few metres behind him when Chloe intercepted it with her katana.

A mist of icy energy and a powerful gust of wind rippled outward from the clash.

When Vlad straightened his back, four more diagonal arcs hurtled towards him.

"How is he releasing the physical form of aura in such rapid succession?" Vlad gasped, swinging his blade at the incoming arcs.

Bam!

Bam!

Bam!

Bam!

The four arcs struck his blade in succession, each impact dragging him a foot backward.

"Agh..." Vlad groaned as his blade began freezing again under the chilling energy of the arcs. He clenched his frozen fist, shattering the ice, and grabbed his sword with both hands.

Veins bulged across his forearms as he swung his blade downward with all his strength. His sharp lightning aura finally managed to slice through the four arcs. They shot past him, tearing his sleeves and leaving shallow cuts across his skin.

The arcs dissipated half a metre behind him. Vlad’s gaze shifted to his arms, where the ice was rapidly spreading outward. The same thing was happening to his sword, its blade now completely frozen.

"So this is the power of Tempest Grade Ice," Vlad muttered, his silhouette shrouding in dark energy. "What an annoying ability..."

The Ice Element at Tempest Grade possessed the ability to freeze anything it touched. The extent to which the ice spread depended on how long it remained in contact with its target and how much control its owner had over it.

Thankfully, Noah was unconscious, so his control was extremely poor. Otherwise, Vlad would have been completely frozen by now.

The Umbra Mana enveloping Vlad prevented the ice from spreading any further across his arms, but it wasn’t powerful enough to devour the ice completely. His elemental resonance was only at Mortal Grade, after all.

However, removing the ice from his sword was an entirely different matter. With a single flick of his lightning aura, the ice shards shattered and fell to the ground. Concentrated Aura was always superior to raw elemental power, but only when the awakeners were of comparable strength and the difference between their resonance grades was no more than one.

Noah charged towards Vlad, leaving a trail of frozen ground in his wake. From the opposite direction, Vlad also rushed forward head-on, knowing that the only way to stop him was to exhaust all of his mana. If he let Noah roam freely, he might attack the other students, who were in no condition to defend themselves.

"I’m trusting you to handle the aftermath, Chloe!" Vlad’s loud voice rang out before being drowned out by the clash of their weapons.

Chloe tightened her grip around the blade. Its grey colour transformed into bright emerald as vapours emerged from its edge, stirring the air and generating powerful winds. Her aura extended only a short distance from the blade, indicating that she, too, was at the late stage of Two Star Knight.

An intense battle erupted at the center of the flower field. Thick shards of ice hurtled past Vlad, while bolts of lightning burst from his body and streaked past Noah after every exchange.

Chloe moved around the battlefield at blurring speeds, blocking any ice shards that threatened to hit the students or kicking the students themselves out of harm’s way whenever lightning bolts threatened to strike them.

"Agh... pl-please be gentle... M-Miss Chloe," a student groaned before fainting. He would have preferred being struck by lightning to enduring Chloe’s merciless kick, which sent him flying across the field like a ragdoll.

Several others suffered the same fate, and even the few students who were barely conscious soon fainted.

Meanwhile, at the centre of the battlefield, the fight didn’t seem to be going in Vlad’s favour. Although he possessed superior strength and far better swordsmanship, Noah’s aura had been growing exponentially more powerful. Each strike against that massive longsword sent shockwaves through Vlad’s arms. Not to mention, the ice seeping into his wounds was slowing his swings.

’Although it’s unstable, his aura has already reached the pressure of a Three Star Knight,’ Vlad muttered inwardly as the force of Noah’s blade dragged his feet backward. ’I can easily defeat him using Dragon Tongue, but doing so might cause him critical injuries or even leave him crippled. I’m not sure, but the professors might also be watching from the shadows. I can’t expose my abilities as a mage, or things will become far too troublesome.’

He tilted his head, narrowly dodging Noah’s blade. Its aura froze the skin along Vlad’s cheeks and shoulder.

Vlad vanished from his position, creating a distance of several feet between himself and Noah with Lightning Steps.

’The only way to stop him without causing any harm...’ Vlad muttered, tightening his grip on the hilt, ’...is to reach the Third Star myself.’