Chapter 312: The Third Star

Vlad took a deep breath, calming his nerves. Ever since he had returned from the Ascension Dungeon, he hadn’t had a chance to fight anyone and measure his growth. He hadn’t asked Chloe or Seraphina for a spar, because he had reached a level where an ordinary spar would tell him nothing, and fighting seriously might injure them.

This was the first time in a while that he had been pushed this hard. He liked this feeling.

No one could see it, but despite the frost covering parts of his skin, Vlad wore an excited smile behind the mask.

As Noah reached him again, Vlad channeled the lightning into his limbs, increasing his speed several-fold. He skillfully dodged Noah’s attacks while landing his own.

Yet he was still the one being pushed back. Even Noah’s missed attacks affected him because of the sheer amount of ice aura moving along the blade, while Vlad’s blade couldn’t land a meaningful hit through the thick ice shield covering Noah’s body.

’I need to compress my aura further,’ Vlad thought, feeling his muscles grow numb from the cold.

A crack appeared at the bottom of his mask from the swing of Noah’s blade, which nearly sliced his face.

When another strike came, Vlad blocked it head-on with his own sword.

Tang!

The clash erupted into ice mist and lightning, sending Vlad flying backward. His body hit the ground, but he immediately rose to his feet mid-fall, his sword stabbing into the ground.

Noah’s aura had now fully reached the early stage of Three Star Knight, greatly widening the gap between them.

Chloe bit her lower lip, her grip tightening on the hilt until her knuckles turned white. Unable to watch Vlad suffer any longer, she was about to step in but stopped midway as part of Vlad’s mask fell to the ground, revealing half of his mouth. The corner of his lips was curved upward in an excited smile, where a trickle of blood was leaking.

As Noah approached him again with that same indifferent expression and frost-white eyes, Vlad leapt into a front flip, passing over Noah.

His feet landed on Noah’s back, pushing him forward before Vlad touched down on the ground behind him.

Noah stumbled forward a couple of steps before regaining his balance. He turned around instantly on pure instinct, sensing something dangerous approaching.

It was Vlad’s sword, the crimson aura along the blade compressing even further. Still, it was not enough...not yet.

Noah swung his own blade, releasing another ripple of ice that pushed Vlad back.

Instead of backing down, Vlad clenched his bleeding jaw and attacked again. Noah didn’t yield either.

A barrage of rapid strikes, moving in a blur, began, tearing up the ground beneath them. Each strike split the skin on Vlad’s hands, yet he swung his sword again with even more ferocity.

The sound of their battle echoed through the forest, drawing the attention of the few conscious students.

"Th-these two are supposed to be our peers," Lorenzo muttered, holding his broken jaw where Vlad had struck him. "How could there be such a large difference between us and them? Is this what real elite students are truly capable of?"

As much as the battle between the two shocked him, the strength of the person standing before him astonished him no less.

Chloe’s back was turned to him as she rapidly swung her katana, blocking the ice shards coming Lorenzo’s way. He had been trying to protect this incredible girl? The girl who could hold her own in a battle against such monsters? She was no less a monster herself.

At that moment, Lorenzo realised a bitter truth. She was completely out of his league. He could only be her admirer, never her equal—

Bam!

His thoughts stopped mid-sentence as Chloe’s kick landed in his abdomen, sending him flying backward.

What Lorenzo saw before fainting again was Chloe moving away from her position and a lightning bolt striking the spot where he had been lying.

Meanwhile, the clash between Noah and Vlad was becoming even more intense than before. Vlad continued his rapid barrage of strikes despite the ice covering nearly half of his arms and a quarter of his torso.

However, there was one difference. The distance Vlad was pushed back after each collision was gradually decreasing, as was the leakage of lightning bolts from his sword. The rough aura on his sword was growing smoother and smoother, like an actual blade.

Vlad’s control over Sword Aura was already incredible, thanks to the five years he had spent fighting the six-armed puppet in the Ascension Dungeon. However, because of his low mana pool as a D-Ranked, he could never make it completely perfect and reach the next level. Whenever he tried to train it further, his core would be instantly emptied, pushing him to the verge of mana deviation. Such was the limit of D-Ranked talent.

That limit no longer existed. As an A-Ranked, Vlad possessed enough mana to finally perfect his sword aura. Noah, who was in the unstable Early Stage of Three Star Knight, became the perfect stepping stone.

"Aaa!!!" Vlad roared, swinging his blade with full strength. As it crashed against Noah’s sword this time, it didn’t push back.

Both of their blades held at the centre, each trying to overpower the other.

A faint smile formed on the lips of Chloe, who had now reached Max and Lisa’s side, holding the unconscious Aria by the back of her collar with one hand.

"He has made it," Chloe whispered, her flat tone carrying a mild hint of pride.

When Vlad and Noah drew back their blades and struck again, a foot dragged backward. It was Noah’s foot.

Vlad’s lower abdomen began glowing, the energy even visible through the fabric of his T-shirt. A hand-sized crimson sphere, covered in flames of darkness.

In the next clash, Noah’s blade was pushed back, blood splattering from the hands gripping the hilt.

Visible veins appeared across Vlad’s body, glowing crimson and black, spreading from his neck to his face and down his arms to his hands.

Vlad felt his mana increasing exponentially, a towering veil of dark energy covering his silhouette with crimson lightning dancing around it.

With one last clash, Vlad’s sword moved through Noah’s without resistance, slicing it cleanly.

As the broken half of Noah’s blade stabbed into the ground, a ripple of energy radiated outward from Vlad’s body, rustling the bushes and sending dust and debris flying.

Ding...

[Congratulations! The Host has become a Three Star Knight]