Chapter 40: Ain vs. Emil

It was about to be evening, and the sun had already moved towards the horizon. Usually, classes would be over by now. But because of the competition today, the students were still in the training hall.

Round three had just ended, and the top twenty were decided, leaving only ten more matches.

The students who made it this far were either relieved at making it into the top twenty or determined to take another step forward.

Hugo’s performance had been good so far. He had used his flight advantage well, making it to the top twenty.

Right now, round four was about to begin, and the holographic screen finally displayed the new match pairings.

Ain scanned through the names and locked onto his own, alongside his opponent’s, Emil Sabala. Moreover, they would be the ones starting off round four.

He recognized the name, as he had noted it down earlier. Emil was one of the two students in the class who contracted a mechanical spirit pet. He used his spirit pet, a fire-attribute mechanical pistol, to win his matches with ease. Not only was it at Beginner Rank-1, but its firepower also exceeded its rank.

While Ain was summarizing his opponent’s information, he heard Hugo’s distressed and helpless voice beside him. “Damn it, my luck is so bad!”

Hearing this, Ain skimmed through the holographic screen until he found Hugo’s name. When he saw Hugo’s opponent, he said to Hugo with a chuckle, “What a coincidence, both our opponents have mechanical spirit pets.”

Hugo wasn’t amused at Ain’s remark. He only sighed and said, “I still had a small chance if our opponents were switched, but now…” His sentence trailed off as he looked at his opponent standing off to the side.

Ain also followed his gaze. He saw a student with white hair, standing aloof; he had an impression of this student as well.

“You’re indeed unlucky to be paired with Marius. His mechanical spirit pet is a lightning-attribute mechanical bird. Not only can it nullify your flight advantage, but its rank is also higher,” Ain said as he decided against giving Hugo false encouragement.

“Yeah, I can accept making it to the top twenty,” Hugo said while he took a deep breath.

Soon after, Teacher Turner finally announced the beginning of the fourth round. Ain and his opponent, Emil, both walked onto the arena.

As soon as they arrived, Ain heard his opponent’s voice: “Ain, those amateurs probably made you think you’re great, but don’t think that this match will be the same as those before.”

Ain glanced at Emil’s arrogant posture and ignored the provocation. His face remained impassive as he prepared to summon Nox.

Seeing no reaction, Emil snorted. He was unhappy with Ain’s limelight this past month. Now was the perfect chance to teach him a lesson.

“Begin!” At this moment, Teacher Turner announced the start of the match.

As soon as the voice fell, both sides summoned their spirit pets.

On Emil’s side, with a flash of light, a large pistol appeared in his hands. It was adorned with glowing red runes and engravings, complementing its shiny silver frame.

After summoning his spirit pet, Emil's body glowed for a brief second as he pointed the muzzle towards Ain. At the same time, he began to retreat backward, opening up the distance between them.

On the other hand, as soon as Nox appeared, it immediately rushed off towards Emil at its highest speed. Ain remained unmoved, but there were clear spirit energy fluctuations surrounding him.

Both their actions occurred simultaneously.

Buzz!

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In the next moment, a blast of blazing red spirit energy was fired from Emil’s gun. With astonishing speed, it crossed the distance between the two, targeting Ain’s chest.

But before the attack could connect, a bright-yellow membrane appeared in front of Ain, blocking the attack half a meter away from him.

“Shield!” Emil said with a stunned voice upon recognizing the spell. He had already seen Ain use Spirit Blast in the earlier matches, but now he had also learned Shield?

Ain, who was following Emil with his gaze, also recognized the spell Emil had used. ‘Invigoration, it can temporarily boost his strength and speed.’

In this short exchange, amounting to only a couple of seconds, he had already seen through Emil.

Emil had not used any spell prior to this, relying solely on his spirit pet to win. Now that he had revealed his cards, Ain didn’t feel any pressure.

No matter how much potential mechanical spirit pets possessed, it had only been a month since they had all become spirit tamers. This wasn’t enough time for the others to have a wide arsenal of spells and strategies.

He guessed that Emil’s simple plan was to finish him in one move, expecting Ain to be unable to dodge such a fast attack. Since Ain had already revealed Spirit Blast, Emil didn’t believe him to have more spells, so he didn’t take Shield into consideration.

At the same time, he used Invigoration on himself and retreated, just to add some extra assurance against Nox.

Now that his plan had failed, Emil had to improvise. He wasn’t at a disadvantage yet.

“Let’s see how long your shield can last!” Emil shouted as he continued to fire at Ain.

At this point, Ain sent some instructions to Nox. “Use Malicious Gaze.”

Nox immediately slowed down and followed Ain’s command. Spirit energy flowed around it as it stared at the two opponents.

In fact, Ain hadn’t given it clear instructions at the beginning of the match, just telling it to approach the opponent. So it naturally assumed that it was going to use Phantom Claws. Since its opponent wasn’t a bird, it had completely forgotten about its new skill.

This time, Nox’s targets were both the spirit pet and its spirit tamer.

As expected, Malicious Gaze immediately took effect, and Emil was frozen in motion, and his expression suddenly changed.

Ain was just about to step out from behind the shield to use Spirit Blast when his heart suddenly jolted. He immediately recognized the familiar sensation. ‘Premonition!’

As soon as this feeling emerged, Ain instinctively halted his footsteps.

Buzz!

At the same time, a blast of red spirit energy zipped past his shield, exactly where he was about to emerge. If he hadn’t interrupted his movements, the attack would’ve struck his face.

Seeing this, Ain felt a chill in his heart as he turned to look towards Emil.

He saw that his opponent was still in a stunned state, but the gun in his hand automatically adjusted its aim and continued to fire in his direction. Since Emil was frozen in a convenient posture, all the shots were still aimed at Ain.

Although he was astonished at this occurrence, Ain still communicated with Nox. “Go finish them.”

Nox, who was also bewildered by its skill’s ineffectiveness against the opponent’s spirit pet, quickly snapped out of it and raced towards Emil.

Since Nox was at Intermediate Rank-1, the stun lasted for a longer duration on Emil, who was only a Beginner Rank-1 Spirit Tamer.

Seeing the approaching enemy, the gun in Emil’s hand slightly turned, shifting its aim towards Nox.

The movement didn’t escape Ain’s vision. He brought his hand out from behind the shield and used Spirit Blast while quickly sending some instructions to Nox.

Buzz!

Nox received Ain's instructions and immediately complied without a thought. The blast of fire energy approached it, but instead of connecting with it, the blast passed right through Nox, which morphed its gaseous body into the shape of a deformed donut.

At the same time, the effects of Malicious Gaze wore off, and Emil regained his mobility.

"You—!"

Bang!

Just as Emil was about to say something, a blast of spirit energy came flying through the donut hole in Nox and landed squarely on his chest.

"Argh!" A pained scream sounded as Emil was blasted off his feet.

Nox quickly condensed its claws and was about to deal another blow when Teacher Turner's voice sounded. "Winner, Ain!"

Hearing this, Nox paused for a moment before dismissing its claws. It then happily flew back to Ain while reshaping its body into the usual small cloud.

From start to finish, less than fifteen seconds had passed.

Ain glanced at the fallen Emil, who was surrounded by the medics, and turned to the mechanical gun on the ground before walking off the arena.

At this moment, the students were loudly discussing the fight.

"That was so quick! I almost didn't realize what was happening."

"Hah! He actually learned both Shield and Spirit Blast in just two weeks!"

"It feels great to see that arrogant Emil finally lose."

The conversations entered Ain's ears, but he didn't care. As he was passing by Teacher Turner, the latter turned to him and said, "Not bad, you've got good instincts."

"Thank you, Teacher." Ain nodded politely. Premonition was indeed akin to an instinct.

He made his way to his previous spot and met up with Hugo, who said in a low voice, "That was awesome! You completely countered his every move."

"I just paid attention to his previous matches and kept a few cards hidden. It just worked out," Ain replied.

"By the way, do you know why Malicious Gaze didn't work on his spirit pet?" Hugo asked.

Ain raised an eyebrow before replying negatively.

Hugo continued, "I heard that skills similar to Malicious Gaze that target the opponent's mind don't work on mechanical spirit pets."

Hearing this, realization finally dawned on Ain. "No wonder."

While the two talked, Hugo's opponent, Marius, stared at Ain from afar with squinted eyes.