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*****
Night.
Joe opened the door to the room and entered.
He ran quickly toward Arlo who was already in his bed.
"Where have you been since morning?"
Arlo turned to look at him.
The snake coiled around Joe's neck suddenly jumped onto Joe's bed. It coiled around itself in a comfortable position and closed its eyes.
Arlo didn't answer Joe's question.
He had been training with Evangeline alone at the Training Center.
And indeed he had become stronger than he was in the morning.
His mood had greatly improved since then.
He looked at Joe and asked his question:
"How was class today?"
Joe didn't mind his attitude and instead took out a disc.
Then he sent mana into it. The formation disc lit up and then several poison bombs appeared in the room.
Arlo's eyes widened in surprise.
"Wow!"
"Kukukut!" With this, I don't need to fear anyone. I have become stronger.
Arlo ignored Joe's words and instead asked in astonishment as he looked at the formation disc.
"How does it work?"
"Here!" Joe stopped sending his mana into the disc, causing the poison bombs to disappear then he handed it to Arlo as he spoke, "You can inscribe a technique onto a disc by using your law essence. But the process isn't easy as you need to have knowledge of runes...huh? What happened to your hand?"
Joe stopped his explanation and asked in surprise when Arlo rook the disc with a bandaged hand.
"It's nothing."
"What do you mean it's nothing?"
"Nothing means nothing!"
"You need some love!" Joe jumped on Arlo, causing the latter to grumble in annoyance.
"Get off me!"
"$###@&...Where are you touching?"
The playful cries of both boys resounded in the room.
.....
It was finally the day for the second-year student's ranking war.
The principal summoned Arlo, Arianne, and Joe before taking them to the northern region of the academy.
The four of them entered an auditorium.
It seemed the ranking war was just about to start.
There was a ring at the center of the building, and at the opposite ends of the ring were two groups of ten students.
Principal Stanley brought Arlo's group to where the teachers were seated.
He exchanged greetings with other teachers and the second-year principal, before finding a seat to sit on.
Arlo's group sat beside him.
The second years watching the ranking war started murmuring as they identified Arlo's group.
"He is the one I told you about." the second-year students who visited the first year's ranking war started praising Arlo and Arianne.
"Oh!" The middle-aged woman who was the principal of the second-year students looked at Arlo with interest.
However, she soon had to shift her attention back to the ring as it seemed they were about to start.
The air around both groups of students was completely different.
One group radiated confidence and the expression on their face was indifference. A boy among the ten was especially eye-catching as he had a dark wolf beside him.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
While the atmosphere around the other group was tense as the students showed anxious looks.
A student entered the ring and spoke to the group with confident auras:
"I challenge the fifth seat to a duel."
Silence descended into the auditorium.
The student who just issued the challenge was the strongest among the students who won the battle royale.
Still, they couldn't believe that he would jump straight to the fifth seat.
It must be noted that the strength from the tenth seat upwards rises.
A girl among the ten students who radiated confidence shook her head before walking forward.
But before she could enter the ring, another student beat her to it, causing her to furrow her brows.
A dark-haired boy with an arrogant expression on his face scoffed as he looked at the student who issued the challenge.
"Aren't you overestimating yourself? You can't even beat me yet you dare to challenge those with upper ranks?"
The student who issued the challenge gritted his teeth.
Just like the first years, this was the first ranking war of the second-year students.
The ten strongest students when they were still first years retained their positions.
Jude, the student with the tenth position had never lost a fight before.
He was like a mountain blocking the students from ever rising to the top ten.
"Eh!" Jude snickered and taunted, "Don't tell me you are scared?"
Jude was an arrogant noble who loved to bully those below him.
None of the students who had challenged him ended well.
But the student who issued the challenge fell for his provocation.
No, it was better to say he had no choice.
No matter how scary Jude was, he was still the weakest among the top ten.
The fingers of the challenger turned into claws then he used his clan's ability.
He turned into a dark smoke and appeared before Jude instantly.
He slashed both of his claws at the same time, but Jude evaded them easily.
The challenger was indeed strong as he fought a melee with Jude.
However, no matter how he attacked, his attacks never landed.
As they both moved around the ring, the second-year students started whispering:
"He is still not a match for Jude."
"That is right. They are both in the mid-level master realm but the difference between them is so great."
Arlo watched the fight quietly.
He could barely follow the movement of both students.
Still, he noticed that the student Jude simply dodged and had yet to attack.
"The gap between them is too great."
The middle-aged woman who was the second-year student's principal shook her head.
The teachers silently agreed with her.
Back in the ring.
The challenger started incorporating mana into his attacks.
He jumped back and made a distance between both of them.
"Hands of darkness!"
Several huge dark hands rose from the ground before heading toward Jude.
But Jude shook his head from disappointment.
"How boring!"
He pointed a finger towards the approaching dark hands and attacked for the first time.
A dark ray of light left his finger and moved at light speed, piercing the huge dark hands before him and finally passing through the challenger's heart.
The challenger coughed blood, and a small hole formed where his heart was supposed to be, as blood leaked from it.
The huge dark hands disappeared then the challenger fell.
Even for a vampire, having their hearts destroyed was a critical wound that caused great pain and would take time to heal.
Not only that, there was dark smoke being released from the wound, interfering with his natural healing and also causing him great pain.
'Is that the essence of darkness?' Arlo thought.
Grim had told them that they were yet to understand the essence of darkness, and only when they did would they be able to display the power of the law.
'But Bon was able to use it.' Arlo still remembered his fight with Bon when he was brought to Tibu's house.
Once again, he realized that Bon and Judi were geniuses.
"Who else wants to challenge me?"
Judi spoke with an arrogant expression as he looked towards the remaining nine challengers.
They lowered their heads and didn't dare to look him in the eye.
"Losers!" Jude spat around before turning around.
"Wait!"
A sweet voice resounded in the silent auditorium.
Jude stopped, turned around, and looked in Arlo's direction.
Arianne stood up, but before she could move, Arlo grasped her hand.
Arlo wanted to persuade her but the principal beat her to it.
"What are you doing?"
Arianne didn't have a good impression of the principal, so she replied succinctly.
"I want to fight."
Principal Stanley furrowed his brows in annoyance.
"Didn't you say that with the golden ticket, we can issue a challenge?"
Before the principal could reply, she turned toward Arlo and ignored him, causing him to frown in displeasure.
"Don't worry. I don't plan to win. I only want to test my abilities." Arianne patted Arlo's hand which was holding hers and spoke in a gentle voice.
It was a stark contrast to her treatment of the principal.
After thinking about it for a moment, Arlo released his hand and said:
"Be careful!"
A warm smile lit Arianne's face, but it didn't last long as Joe's voice entered her ears.
"Go and show them how terrifying a devil can be."
She glared at him before moving toward the ring.
As she walked, she caught the murmurs of the second-year students with her excellent senses.
"Even for her, isn't this too much?"
"That is right. Challenging a second-year student from the get-go is too much."
"Does she think she can win?"
"That is impossible!"
"But didn't Stefan and Lady Evangeline accomplish it?"
"That was only at the end of their years. They had enough time to grow."
"The highest position Stefan could obtain was the fifth seat, as for teacher Evangeline, she could always win the first rank at the end of each year."
"Teacher Evangeline is so scary!"
Arianne finally walked into the ring.
She couldn't help but frown in disgust as she felt Jude's intense gaze on her.
Jude didn't mind her reaction and instead licked his lips in expectation.
While their liege had ordered Arianne's status to be relinquished, everyone knew it was a facade to prevent Arianne from receiving differential treatment and to keep her from abusing her status.
No one dared to disrespect the princess no matter how high they were.
The same was true for Jude.
However, he planned on making a good first impression.
If he, a noble blood could gain the princess's hand, he would be able to obtain great power and bring glory to his clan.
That is why the nobles detested King Nathan.
A plebian like him was able to marry their first princess.
They believed that was why Stefan was lacking in talent.
Now that there was Arianne, whose talent wasn't any bit inferior to even their liege's, the nobles were secretly planning to wed her to their clans.
It was a secret competition among the nine vampire clans.
Lost in his thoughts, Jude's eyes widened when Arianne appeared before him in an instant and threw a punch.
However, he wasn't flustered and instead of dodging like he did in the previous challenge, he caught her hand.
Feeling the soft skin within his embrace, Jude marveled and spoke with a light smile:
"Hehe, the princess's hand is..." Unfortunately, he couldn't finish his words, as Arianne's left foot connected with his face.
*Bam!*
For the first time since the start of the competition, Jude received an attack.
*****
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