"Attack him together!" Lyria shouted, her silver hair whipping behind her as she kicked off the ground."Don’t let him take the initiative!"
The clearing exploded into motion.
Lyria was the first to close the distance.
True to her reputation as the fastest student in Dragon Slaying Academy, her body blurred. Seven afterimages split off from her real form as she activated her signature technique once more.
"Phantom Blitz!"
The afterimages attacked from seven different angles at the same time, dual short swords aiming for Gray’s throat, heart, ribs, and tendons.
The real Lyria herself came from behind, both blades coated in a thin layer of cutting wind.
At the same time, the rest of the group moved.
A tall boy with short brown hair and a heavy spear slammed the butt of his weapon into the ground.
"Rising Thorns!"
Dozens of sharp stone spears erupted from the forest floor, trying to restrict Gray’s footing and force him into a predictable path.
A girl with twin braids raised both hands, green wind mana swirling around her.
"Razor Tempest!"
Hundreds of thin, nearly invisible wind blades formed a rotating storm that shot toward Gray from the left flank.
Another student, a broad-shouldered youth with a large shield and a short sword, charged straight at Gray with pure physical power.
"Iron Wall Impact!"
He intended to slam into Gray and create an opening for the others.
A slender girl in the back began weaving a complex sealing formation with her fingers.
"Mana Lock Threads!"
Thin threads of glowing mana shot out from her hands, trying to wrap around Gray’s limbs and restrict his movement the same way Elias’s array had attempted earlier.
Two more students at the rear prepared mid-range support techniques, one launching a barrage of fire orbs, the other creating a field of slippery ice under Gray’s feet.
Gray calmly analyzed every attack.
Then he finally moved; his first step took him slightly to the left, just enough to avoid the center of the stone spears.
Fwip!
The tip of his rapier flicked once.
SHING!
Three of the rising stone spears were cleanly severed at the base before they could fully form. The remaining ones continued upward, but Gray was already past them.
Lyria’s afterimages reached him at that exact moment.
Gray’s free hand shot out and grabbed the wrist of one afterimage. It was the real Lyria again... he had identified her instantly.
Her eyes widened.
"How do you always?!"
Before she could finish, Gray twisted his body and used her own momentum against her. He pulled her forward while simultaneously stepping past the other afterimages.
The six false images stabbed empty air and began to dissipate.
At the same time, the wind blades from the twin-braided girl arrived.
Gray spun Lyria around and used her body as a temporary shield.
The nearly invisible wind blades slammed into her back and shoulders.
Splurt!
"Arghha!!!"
She cried out in pain as several shallow cuts opened across her arms and back, but the technique was disrupted enough that the remaining blades scattered harmlessly past Gray.
He released her immediately afterward, letting her stumble forward, then turned to face the charging shield user.
The broad-shouldered youth was already within striking distance, his heavy shield glowing with defensive mana as he prepared to slam into Gray with full force.
Gray did not dodge.
He simply raised his rapier and placed the tip against the center of the shield.
A precise pulse of sword qi traveled down the blade.
CRACK!
The defensive mana coating the shield shattered.
The physical impact that should have sent Gray flying instead rebounded completely.
The shield user was forced to a complete stop as if he had run into an invisible wall.
Before he could recover, Gray’s free hand shot forward and struck him cleanly in the solar plexus with an open palm.
THUD!
The air left the boy’s lungs in a choked gasp. His eyes rolled back as he collapsed to his knees, the shield falling from his grasp.
The sealing threads from the formation girl arrived next.
Gray flicked his wrist once.
The tip of his rapier traced a small circle in the air.
A thin ring of sword qi formed and expanded outward, slicing through every single mana thread before they could tighten around him.
The formation girl staggered backward as her technique was completely destroyed.
"My binding...!"
The fire-orb user and the ice-field user launched their attacks at the same time.
A dozen compressed fire orbs streaked toward Gray while the ground beneath his feet turned into a sheet of slick, reflective ice.
Gray stepped onto the ice without losing balance, maintaining his perfect footwork. As the fire orbs closed in, he raised his rapier and performed a series of short thrusts.
CLANG!
Each orb was pierced through its core and detonated prematurely, the explosions blooming harmlessly several meters away from him.
Lyria had recovered enough to attack again.
Her dual short swords flashed as she abandoned the afterimage technique and instead focused on pure speed, her body becoming a silver blur as she launched a relentless series of rapid thrusts and slashes.
Gray parried them one by one.
His rapier moved in small, precise arcs, meeting each of her blades at the exact angle needed to deflect them without wasting energy.
Sparks flew every time the weapons met.
CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!
Lyria’s face twisted with frustration as none of her attacks landed.
"Why... why can’t I hit you?!"
"Skill issue."
He simply stepped inside her guard after her tenth consecutive attack and tapped the flat of his rapier against her wrist.
A sharp jolt of sword qi ran up her arm, causing her grip to weaken.
Clank...!
One of her short swords fell to the ground.
Before she could retreat, Gray’s free hand grabbed her by the collar and threw her backward into the twin-braided wind mage who had been preparing another tempest.
The two girls collided and tumbled across the clearing.
The remaining students tried to regroup.
The spear user slammed his weapon into the ground again, trying to create another wave of stone spikes.
The formation girl desperately began weaving a new sealing array. Two other students charged in with dual blades and a heavy axe, respectively.
Gray moved through them like a shadow.
He stepped past the first dual-blade user and tapped the side of the boy’s neck with the pommel of his rapier.
The student collapsed instantly, unconscious.
The axe user swung downward with a roar.
Gray sidestepped the heavy blow by a hair’s breadth and drove the tip of his rapier into the ground at the exact point where the axe would land.
The weapon struck the embedded rapier and was violently redirected, the rebound sending the axe user stumbling.
Gray pulled his rapier free and swept the flat of the blade across the back of the boy’s knees. The student dropped.
The spear user’s second wave of stone spikes rose too late. Gray was already in front of him.
Fwip... clang!
A single precise thrust struck the shaft of the spear, shattering the weapon into two pieces. A follow-up palm strike to the chest sent the tall boy flying backward into a tree.
The formation girl finally completed her new array.
"Spell Binding! Absolute Restriction!"
Dozens of thicker, stronger mana chains erupted from the ground and shot toward Gray.
He simply walked forward.
"Nullification..."
Every chain that touched him dissolved on contact. When he reached the formation girl, she tried to scramble backward in panic.
[-120 Soul Points]
Gray tapped her lightly on the forehead with two fingers.
Her eyes rolled back, and she collapsed.
In less than two minutes, the majority of the group was either unconscious or too injured to continue.
Lyria forced herself back to her feet, one short sword still in her hand, blood dripping from the cuts on her arms.
Her silver eyes burned with a mixture of anger and disbelief.
"You... you’re still this strong even without the crown and the buffs...?"
Gray looked at her calmly.
"I never needed them to win against someone like you."
He raised his rapier once more.
The tip of the blade pointed loosely toward the ground, but the cold pressure in his eyes made the remaining conscious students freeze in place.
Lyria’s grip on her last short sword trembled. The few others still able to stand exchanged quick, fearful glances.
Gray’s voice remained calm and even.
"I’ll ask one more time. Hand over your tokens... or continue and get eliminated."
Silence stretched for several seconds.
Lyria’s silver eyes flickered with residual defiance, but the sight of her teammates lying unconscious or injured across the clearing finally broke through.
She clenched her teeth hard, then lowered her sword.
"...We give up."
One by one, the remaining students followed her lead.
They reached into their spatial storage and dimensional pouches, pulling out glowing clusters of tokens and tossing them onto the ground in front of Gray.
The pile grew quickly until it formed a small, shimmering mound of pure tournament currency.
Gray gave a small nod.
He crouched down, collected the tokens with a single sweep of mana, and stored them away.
Then he straightened and looked at Lyria again.
"One more thing."
The silver-haired girl tensed.
"There should be someone from Gloria Academy with a large number of tokens nearby. One of the top three holders. Where is he?"
Lyria’s expression tightened.
The other surviving students looked away, clearly reluctant.
Gray’s eyes narrowed slightly.
"I can find him myself. It will just take longer... and if I have to waste time searching, I may not be in a good enough mood to leave the rest of you conscious."
The threat was delivered in the same calm tone as everything else he had said, which somehow made it worse.
Lyria closed her eyes for a brief moment, then let out a frustrated breath.
"...Northwest. About three kilometers from here, near the ruined watchtower by the river. He’s with a mixed group from Gloria and our academy. Stronger than us. They have the second-highest token count."
One of the injured boys added quietly, still not looking at Gray,
"His name is Darius. Fourth-year. Uses dual heavy blades. He’s... not easy."
Gray memorized the information without changing expression.
"Good."
Chapter 385: Inter-Academy Tournament (XXXVII)
8 min read