Chapter 13

Men and women, tall and short, large and thin, warriors and mages, all clashed in the tournament. They left behind images, scars and memories of fierce practitioners. Magic flashing through the sky, elements obliterating the ground, sword energy slicing in the indomitable air and condensed energy attack leaving behind small but deadly single marks all over the field, despite all this the plain was back to normal after each battle by the earth mages stationed nearby.

For a week, the four seeded teams never competed in the tournament. It was because the first three were already famous and powerful enough that putting them at the start was considered an insult to their prodgies. With the exception of the unknown Bluguard Academy, they managed to win the last seeded spot from a competition that happened two months prior called the ‘The Fourth Seed’.

Until today, the day the seeded teams were finally going to join in the fierce competition in order to qualify for the next round. None dared slack of, especially when by a sudden stroke of luck, the Green Hatchlings were facing off against the previous fourth seeded team, Leaf Academy.

For them to be the previous seeded team wasn’t what was scary but their history, ever since their creation some hundreds years ago. They have managed to occupy the last seeded spot more than 30 times and have twice taken the champion title. From this, one could tell just how powerful the academy really was. Although compared to the other three natural seeded teams, their achievements still paled in comparison.

And that is not all; the most surprising thing is that, the academy is an all-girls school.

The seven dragon disciples immediately stood up, and walked out on the left side door. They unhurriedly made their way down and towards the giant plain that served as a battling platform.

After they exited the resting room, everyone, regardless of whether they were strong or weak, rich or poor, princes or peasants, none dared block the dragons as their aura alone dominated any and all. Especially the dreadfulness from Kusan, it wasn’t due to his aura as he has suppressed it now, but due to the ice cold stare that was deep as the river Styx. Coupled with his half burnt face, it couldn’t help but divert the gullible men’s attention from Serenity and Kayle, to his face.

If the moment Serenity and Kayle entered the scene, it was like heavenly angel has descended down to earth. So when Kusan entered, it was as if he was the Demon Lord, killing both the angels and taking over the world. Such a contrast definitely wasn’t good for some people’s heart. Evident by how some men simply fainted.

At the same time as they entered the passage, the Imperial Prospects team were returning after just finishing a match. The Dragons’ didn’t pay any attention to them, but Imperial Prospects members all focused their gazes on them. A tall and handsome teenager, who shared some similarities with Nage, stared at Kayle. Within his eyes revealed longing but when it landed on Nage, he revealed a moment of intense hatred before it disappeared.

“Hello Marquis”

Nage looked at the man. Two meters tall, well-built body, blond hair that draped along his shoulders, and a face as white as snow yet gave people an overbearing aura, especially his eyes. They emitted incomparable overbearingness and pride, causing one to not dare to look straight into his eyes.

“Hello Prince Nage”

Nage knew Marquis Ty was in love with his wife, Kayle. Normally if someone sees a lower noble glare at the prince, the sentence for such an act would be death. Luckily for Ty, he still has use for Nage and therefore he wasn’t dead. Or else, with Dray on his side, it was simple to have him executed for treasons through various machinations.

“Hell---“

Marquis Ty abruptly stopped talking when he laid his eyes on Serenity, he couldn’t help but mumble as he had never seen such a beauty. However, he was immediately interrupted by a snort. Normally in such a daze he wouldn’t have been able to hear someone but since his ears have been trained to its utmost in being able to detect the one person’s speech no matter how chaotic the surroundings is. The person he trained his ears to pick out is Kayle.

Kayle made a low snort and gave him a reproaching gaze. Her eyes conveyed a message that he was a beast and shouldn’t even think of approaching her.  

Seeing the look, he snapped out of his stupor and tried to remedy the already bad impression he painted himself in front of Kayle. Before he could, she already moved beyond his reach and out into the passage.

*Chuckle*”Well look at what we have here?”

When the voice entered his ears, he couldn’t help but snap his head around and looked fiercely at the owner.

“Kusan”

Marquis Ty’s voice slowly said the name of owner, with each syllables increasing the killing intent from him as he tried to dominate the man with it. He couldn’t help but be angry, there was a clear difference between his anger towards Nage and Saole. Against Nage, it was because he was jealous he got Kayle, the lady of his dream.

Towards Saole however, was of a completely different kind. He was the reason he was in a bad light in Kayle’s eyes. Before Saole came along, he and Kayle were the closes of friends and possibly future lovers. Despite such intimate relations, when Saole entered, he destroyed such a great future of his. For that reason, he has always hated Saole down to the core.

As for why Saole did that, only he would know as not even Kayle or Nage knew why.

“Oh, is somebody that happy to see me?”

Saole blinked with innocent painted all over his face as he walked away.

When Marquis Ty saw this, he couldn’t help but involuntarily have his anger raised to a whole new level.

‘He dares act innocent in front of me? He!? Such bullshit this shitface has!’

Before he was about to attack behind Saole, suddenly he felt someone lay his hands on his shoulder and felt a power flow into him that instantly froze him into place. He couldn’t move and he was about to curse but found out that not only couldn’t he move his body, he also couldn’t move his mouth. He tried intensely to escape this surprise attack until a powerful and domineering voice resonated through his ears and shook his mind into a state of clarity.

“Leave it”

At the same time the voice entering his ears, the mysterious restraining power disappeared. Marquis Ty realised who it was that restrained him and no longer dare get angry. He looked down and whispered

“Sorry”

An equally tall man, plain face, with darkish green short hair, the colour of dried mucus spiked backwards. He glanced at the backs of the dragons and revealed a trace of smile before it vanished.

He forcefully pulled Marquis away, while the rest also followed but not before they gauged the actual strength of the dragons.

----

Immediately after both sides entered the ring, cheers rose like wildfire. And these cheers naturally weren’t just for the dragons. As the greatest show of this round with both sides revealing all the legendary disciples that made them outshine many others. Leaf Academy had long ago already become frequent visitors here but for the Green Hatchlings, this would be their first visit.

When the dragons entered further into the vast and wide plain, a small wind blew by, fluttering the green robes before it died down. Likewise, on the other side, a group of seven pale turquoise robed ladies appeared. Charming young ladies, who were around 15-18 years old, walked closely behind one particular lady who looked to be the youngest of them.

“Everyone beware Fay, her powers is the second strongest, a 7th ranked earth mage. Watch out for her instant trap holes”

They all nodded, they have watched the Leaf Academy for the past week.

Fay, she is proficient at controlling the flow of the battle, from the start to the end. This created headache for her opponents because whatever she did, she would disrupt the opponents attacks and destroy their plans. The best way she did this, was by using well placed instant 5 metre trap holes, small concentrated earthquakes and equally small almost undetectable obstacles.

Although her beauty was only average, if she was to be ranked amongst the sisters, she would undoubtedly be last. However, if it was in terms of battle strategy and deep wisdom, then she would definitely be number one out of them all. One cannot underestimate her ability to instantly turn the tables back to the opponent.

She had deep blackish-red short spikey hair, a chiselled face that was likened to that of a man than a lady.

When the dragons walked closer to the centre, Dray immediately spoke up as he pointed at the youngest lady and one placed in the middle. She had a black glossy hair, reaching all the way to her slender and elegant waist. Smooth wavy eyebrows and eyes full of deep wisdom.

“That lady in the middle is Tasha.

She is currently the most powerful and prodigious out of her sisters, having already reached 8th ranked mage. The power of her water magic is, according to rumours, elusive and weak yet powerful.

And the reason for this is, because she can somehow restrain people with water without much effort.”

While Dray was informing the team about each of the ladies and their respective abilities, Kusan was drawn to one person.

Kusan lightly snorted, he at first didn’t even know who she was but when he heard her name was Tasha and that her magic could restrain people. He couldn’t help but connect her with that crying little girl he encountered during one of his training sessions in the forest.

‘Oh? Is that her?’

Meanwhile, everyone else absorbed what Dray pointed out and contemplated on his words. The ladies opposite of them were also talking amongst themselves.

A skinny fragile girl that looked as if though she would be blown off the ground from just a gust of wind is Niki. She whispered when she saw the line-up of the dragons, with fear present in her eyes.

“Hey, isn’t that Nage, what do you suppose we should do against him?

Even worst is that all five of them are here, this will no doubt be a hard battle.”

Each of the ladies nodded except Fay and Tasha, both had frowns while staring deeply at the disciples. Fay was busily gauging the best possibility to overcome the powerful dragons, especially this year’s line-up with the legendary ‘Five Clawed Dragon’. Meanwhile, Tasha stared intensily at both Serenity and Kayle as she tried to gauge the real strength behind the so-called 'Twin Amazonian Dragon'.

'So this is the two beauties that has everyone talking about them. Peh, I see nothing special about them other than looking beautiful and having the same strength as me'

Tasha has always hated the two girls, not because they are more beautiful than her but because everyone always talks about them. Praising them left and right, even her family would compare her to them.

'Today is the day that your reputation about being the number one most powerful female in the continent ends, not even Kayle who is ranked second can stop your inevitable downfall from the sky Serenity'

She kept thinking about the past when she stared at Serenity, she wasn't always like this.

"What!? You broke through the 3rd rank?"

A man yelled, shock was all over him as he stared at the little girl in front of him.

"Yes Daddy"

Another man's voice echoed out, instead it was filled with joy.

"Hahaha, for your daughter to break through the 4th rank at the age of 7 is indeed something worthy of being a descendant of us."

"Right right, darling you are worthy of being my daughter."

She remembered clearly how elated she was back then, everything felt like it was heaven. People praising her, especially her father who was always cold towards her now showing a happy face to her. That small moment of happiness on her father's face was enough for her, that was all. Until someone rudely interrupted her moment.

"Patriarch! Important News!"

At that moment, her father returned back to his cold hard face and ordered the messenger to speak. Seemingly not caring about the privacy of this news leaking through his daughter.

"According to our sources, Lord Kenji's daughter broke through the 5th rank"

At that point, her glorious moment was shattered as every time she would surprise her family. Somehow or was it fate? That every time she would surprise her family countless times with many exploits of her own, a messenger would suddenly come out of nowhere and burst her bubbles because the news surrounding Kenji's daughter would overshadow hers by a large margin.

"Truly she is talented, as expected of that monstrous couple"

One time she told her father she broke through the 7th rank at 16 but the result was always the same.

"That's good Tasha"

When her father called her by her real name instead of how a father calls their daughter with nicknames, that was when she realized her father was getting further and further away from her. Combined with how he always paid special attention to how Serenity was doing and the increasingly less time spent with her, made her realise that her father no longer cared about her but another girl.

From that point onwards, she vowed to defeat Serenity in every way possible, power, influence and fame and whatever made Serenity famous.

'You stole my dad, now I am here to steal your fame and make you be erased from everyone's mind as just another fallen genius who couldn't grow any further in any aspects that could make you known.

But firstly, I will deal with Serenity first. Even if I defeat her, people will just say that she was exhausted by the time we fought one on one and that it wasn't a total victory for me.'

She stopped immersing herself in her world when she saw that Fay was now giving battle strategies to win against them.

“Ok, I will deal with Dray. Only I am a match for this genius tactician.

Niki, try to hold Saole off for four minutes.

Malita, restrain Kayle with your darkness magic, do not and I repeat do not engage in an all-out battle with her. She is superior to you in many cases so I want you to drag it out.

Serenity um…..Tasha I think you are the best---“

"YES!"

When she heard she was being assigned to deal with Tasha, she immediately yelled her agreement in fear that Fay may change her mind.

Fay was taken aback by Tasha's action but didn't dwell on it as now they must focus on their situation.

Before Tasha could hear the rest of Fay’s plan, suddenly her back raised up into spikes. She involuntarily took a step back and show a hint of fear. She turned to the source of her uneasiness and her face turned into anger.

She couldn't believe that some nobody, for a moment made her feel fear.

'How dare that fool, I will deal with you little punk when I've taken care of Serenity.'

She stared back at Kusan, not knowing that this didn't make him flinch back but instead, made him intensify his gaze.

Kusan’s gaze suddenly turned as if though a sword was released from its scabbard. After experiencing countless life and death battles in his life, and with countless experts who died by Kusan’s hand, he would naturally contained a bone-penetrating chill. With such a frightening aura, it wasn’t odd that a lady like Tasha have the hairs on her back rise up into spikes.

‘This…this fool....’

She couldn't stop herself from shivering inside and shrinking away from his stare. With each moment, even after looking away from Kusan, the intense chill grew even more powerful and without thinking, she cast three giant water balls towards Kusan.

She didn't realise what she done, but the chill was bringing up some unpleasant dreams and she didn't wish to remember them and cast magic as she hoped it would dispel the shivering cold.

When she did do it, the chill actually disappeared. However, she soon realised the consequences of her actions and turned around and tried to dispel the magic. Unfortunately, she was too slow as the three giant water balls the size of a car was almost upon Kusan.

Fay paled when she saw what Tasha did, because what she done was just sealed the deal of disqualifying them from the tournament. Fay was mentally prepared that she'll one day lose in the tournament but to lose because of breaking a rule was something she wasn't willing to accept. Seeing that she couldn't stop Tasha's surprise attack and powerless at their short lived tournament time, she gave Tasha a reproaching gaze.

Luckily, the referee who was an expert warrior reacted in time despite the spell having already zoomed passed his face. He instinctively thrust his palm at the water balls and out of nowhere, a faint green sheen appeared in front of the water balls.

With the green sheen blocking the path, the water balls collided fiercely against the green sheen, eliciting an ear piercing explosion.

BOOM[I]

The dragons, without reacting in time and just in the middle of using any spells that came across their mind to defend the surprise attack stopped as they were engulfed by the dust storm made by the explosion.

Tasha, seeing that nobody was hurt and that the referee actually reacted in time, she was bitter about this whole ordeal.

'It was all that punk's fault, not mine'

"Well, that wasn't nice now was it?'

By the time she turned around, nobody seemed to have realied that Kusan had already disappeared from his spot and swiftly appearee behind her. She revealed a shocked expression at how Kusan was already behind her.

" Ho--"

Before she could finish saying one word, she saw everything turn fuzzy before it cleared up a moment later. Surprisingly, Kusan was 15 metres away from her. She couldn't understand just how Kusan was able to appear and disappear more than twice without a sweat on his brow.

Suddenly, a powerful and fierce pain erupted from her stomach. Blood began rushing up her throat, she didn't stop it as she coughed out blood.

*cack*

Blood splattered all over her hand, she was surprised at this.

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'Siince when was I sick?'

Tasha assumed that the blood she coughed out was due to sickness. Not realizing that she was badly injured.

Kusan speed and attack was so fast and swift that Tasha didn't see or feel the pain of being hit by a compressed water ball strike in point blank.

Her sisters hastily ran next to her with two supporting her while the rest surrounded Kusan and gave him looks that could butcher just about anyone, as they hoped just their gaze could kill him just like that. Prior to the sisters about to unleash chaos on him, the referee appeared and stopped them.

“Halt!

Niki who heard this couldn’t help but retort at the outrageous interfernfe made by the referee as she pointed at the referee.

“What!? That’s bullshit, he attacked her and you didn’t stop him! Even worse yet, is that she is badly injured and you think we can just let it go just like that!?"

The referee indifferently looked at her and spoke up.

“Foolish girl! WHO WAS THE ONE WHO TOOK THE INTIATIVE TO MAKE A SURPRISE ATTACK?"

“Um…uh…but”

Niki stared and realised that the boy wasn't the one who was in the wrong as in a way, what Kusan did was self-defense. That isn’t considered a bad thing but she still couldn’t accept this.

Fay looked at Niki and knew she was about to embarrass herself even further and for that, she interrupted the conversation.

“Leave it; nothing has happened except Tasha breaking the rules”

“Exactly, you boy. Go back to your group and do not cross that lin over here again before the match or you are disqualified, do I make myself clear?”

Kusan nodded before he unhurriedly walked away, not before he gazed at Tasha as he passed her by.

As she saw the man’s back, she felt humiliated and so badly wanted to kill him. However, she did not deny his prowess as at first, she thought he was just one of them fillers but with the speed that he displayed. She no doubt saw that he was nothing short and if anything, she suspected he was actually faster than Nage who was known for his agility.

Fay started to re-evaluate the strength of his scarred teenager. The most confusing part was, how on earth has no one heard of him. With such speed h showed, she wouldn't be surprised if he was the fastest of the dragons.

‘Just who are you?’

When Kusan stood next to Serenity and Dray, he started to talk.

“Dray, Tasha’s mine”

On the side, nobody noticed Serenity’s cheeks twitching as if though they were convulsing before it stopped. She let loose a little growl as she curled her fists.

Dray was taken aback by Kusan’s assertiveness; he knew that he was normally indifferent to everything but he noticed many things happening. Tasha was obvious at glancing at Kusan, the fact that she actually made a surpise attack on him and how he ordered that she was to be his opponent. It was obvious that there was some sort of unknown relationship between them; it couldn’t be sexual relations as Kusan was known for being an extremely stoic man and that hostility Tasha showed towards him.

He decided to alter his current plan a little bit, instead of Nage; it would be Kusan who would face off against Tasha.

When the teams reached a distance of 20 metres from each other, they paused and awaited the referee to officially start the battle.

Tasha was fully healed thanks to Master Lucs, she wasn't disqualified nor the team which came as a surprise. The only reason they were allowed to continue was because of Master Luca. He wasn't a apart of the tournament committee or anything but for an opponent teacher who should be angry was instead laughing it off as children tantrums, coupled with his personal power, everyone had no complaints as it was obvious that he wanted to academy to continue to fight against his students.

The competition still hadn’t started, but both sides already stood with swords drawn and bows bent, the smell of blood thick and clear. Before, the aura the ladies directed at the dragons were of competitive nature but now, because of Kusan’s action, was something akin to a furious and unrestrained aura with traces of blood lingering within.

“Both sides salute.”

Both side cupped their fists; although the ladies were unwilling they still had to comply with procedures.

“The round will start in ten seconds!”

The referee’s announcement declared the start of the round.

“9”

“8”

Everyone started to get ready, Saole took the lead, and his arms were swelling with earth magic. Nage’s robe started to flutter as he slightly hovered over the ground with Kayle joining him, she flew back 4 metres. The most inconspicuous were Kusan, Serenity and Dray; they didn’t appear to have readied their armaments for battle.

Serenity revealed a sinister smile as she stared intensely at Tasha.

Tasha could feel the piercing gaze and turned to see a demoness drilling down into her, as if seemingly trying to find her soul to eat for a snack.

Tasha knew who the lady was but for her to be so mad at her for no reason, she felt confused.

‘Why is she angry at me?’

She tightly clutched her staff that she pulled out from her spatial ring.

This action didn’t go unnoticed by Fay, and with the situation now also changing, she had no choice but to alter it once again when she saw who Serenity, the rumoured strongest lady, is targeting Tasha as well.

‘Just what have you done Tasha?’

She really was curious about Tasha’s relation with two dragons, one unknown man and a lady of every woman’s idol.

“3”

The sisters were busily chatting as they nervously eyed the battle readied dragons, nodding every so often whenever Fay pointed at one of them.

“2”

“1! GO!”

As if a gun has gone off, both teams exploded with thunderous strikes.

Saole initiated the first attck; his muscles swelling and the magic going rampant circling around his arms as he viciously smashed the ground with a low grunt. The space around his hands didn’t crack but strangely enough, 5 metres in front of him, the ground rose like a wave in the sea as it reached 10 metres in the sky and 50 metres wide before it waved towards the sisters. This was the famous signature of Saole’s, ‘Earth Wave’.

The entire earth roared with a terrifying explosive sound as rumbles emanated outwards from his hands through the earth.

[i]RRUUUMMMMBBBLLEEE

ROOOOAAAARRR

This created an effect of a giant beast slowly emerging from within Mother Nature, as the surrounding area rumbled in accordance to this phenomenon. The emerging beast is actually just a cluster of earth rising from the ground as it gushed forward just like a tidal wave.  

As any experienced person knows, the ‘Earth Wave’ cannot be underestimated. Although it was only made of earth, the main deadliness behind it is how it acts like both as water and a swamp. Once one fell into the water, there was no way they could get out of it as they will be devoured like snack unless one has superior power, speed faster than it can come smashing down or destroying it with magic of equal proportion. If so then the second ability of the magic will activate ’Swamp’.

No matter how much strength they used, the earth will disperse into a liquidly earth form just like a swamp.  Even if they had enough power to pull themselves out, they’d end up breaking their own leg.

The best way to break away from the restrictions caused by the swamp was to slowly wiggle, move about, and then pull oneself out after having loosened the bindings. Trying to pull directly out with force alone wouldn’t work. However, in a battle, Saole will never let the opponent have that time to escape before taking them out of the competition.

Just above Saole and Dray, Nage also simultaneously unleashed his attacks, but compared to Saole’s explosive start, instead, he opted for something less flashy.

Nage aimed his hands at the two girls in the sky. With just a thought, the green coloured magic seeped out of his body and coalesced into his fingers. As they condensed into the size of a golf ball on each finger, he mentally shouted the name of the spell.

‘Tornado Shot!’

The green ball shined before turning into thin needles the size of a strand of hair.  The needles shot from the green balls without sound as it blotted out the view in front of Nage in green.

The strange thing was the green balls on each of Nage’s finger didn’t decrease in size as countless needles shot out from it.

This spell is the direct influence from Kusan clever usage of splitting magic into smaller pieces. The ‘Tornado Shot’ is actually an 8th ranked area of effect spell that could encompass a diameter of 40 metres. With such a large scale attack, this would have surely left Nage with 70% of his magic and a long winded chanting time.

Despite that, thanks to Kusan, he was able to drastically cut down the chanting time but it costed him that large and powerful effect the spell was originally supposed to possess. Instead, he opted to create small needle like attacks which could devastate just as many enemies as the original spell could.

What was even better was that he could actually control and turn around to unload his needles into the next batch of enemies.

Such a precision attacks was very deadly as it rained down onto two sisters who were in the sky.

The needles gleamed with coldness as it blinded many spectators.

Next to Nage, Kayle just hovering in the air not attacking but scrutinising the enemies movements.

Meanwhile, Dray’s body burst into flames, he stretched his arms out and as if being sucked by a mysterious suction force at his hands, the originally fierce and unrestrained fire turned into a long snake made of fire as it coiled around his arms. The snake sank into his palms and the snake rapidly lost its length until it completely disappeared inside his palms.

Thrusting his arms forward, at first nothing happened until flames condensed in the space in front of Dray and rapidly turned from a small fireball to a giant 3 metre in diameter shurikens.

Once they full took form, Dray without a moments wait, threw multitudes of 3 metre long shurikens at his enemies, all curving around Saole’s magic like living beings as it roiled atop the earth wave. This was ‘Fire Shurikens’ spell, a common spell that can be used in every element.

With the combination of both earth wave and fire shurikens dominating the ground and the green needles blotting the sky, it made the already shaking plain turn into a scene of carnage. Fire blazing behind, leaving no stone or dirt unburnt as it crossed the land, along with the earth wave that was splashing about unhindered like a great army charging. The wind needles piercing through the sky as it howled like a bunch of mad eagles.

With such an explosive start and the simultaneous attacks from different angles, this would have surely made most qualifying teams unable to react in time from every strike. As the normal way to start an attack is to test the waters first before unleashing attacks. Even so, the dragons aren’t exactly a normal team but a team of elites.

The same could be said for the Leaf’s elites, none of them were ordinary and fortunately enough, they had Fay who was well versed in predicting the flow of battles or else they would have surely been overwhelmed without putting up any resistance.

For that, this battle just revealed Fay’s legendary battle wits.

Fay swiftly slapped the ground, 10 metres from her, and a deep 10 metre ravine stretching enough to reach the same width as Saole’s ‘Earth Wave’ appeared.

A strange scene happened; the mighty ‘Earth Wave’ suddenly disappeared when it touched the ravine.

What happened was that, Fay cleverly deduced that although the ‘Earth Wave’ would normally not be stopped by a ravine trap, if enough space and distance was made, the magic would naturally disperse and fill up the gap in the ravine, this is the reason for such a wide and deep ravine she created. Another reason is that it is an area of effect spell and for that reason Saole would not control the magic once it is unleashed.

Magic is an ever draining process, to continuously control it is to equally be drained accordingly. So if it isn’t controlled, once it is stopped by a force of equal force would naturally be stopped and the magic would disperse.

Meaning no matter how smart Saole is, he wouldn’t risk the large cost of magic consumption should he decide to control it while it was in effect.

For that reason, it was easy for Fay’s ravine to stop it as once it encountered a giant gap, the magic was forced to descend down like a falling beast as it came crashing down, filling the ravine up.

Contrary to a magician reacting with surprise when their magic was suddenly defeated without much of an effort, Saole mysteriously revealed a smirk before he was swallowed by the earth.

Fay couldn’t see it since she was busy doing something else but if she did, she would no doubt have her alertness be raised to a whole new level.

Because Saole was famous for his proficiency in earth magic, so for him to merge with the earth, no doubt there was something happening.

At the same time, the two sisters in the air that were targeted by Nage, abruptly dropped down from the air, landing behind Fay before a large earthen wall protruded from the ground, protecting them from the dragons’ swift rain attack.

A small bead of sweat started to appear on Fay’s forehead, it rolled down her cheeks as she grumbled.

It was futile as the earthen wall crumbled under the bombardment, only to reveal another wall made completely of ice. The rain attack still didn’t let up nor did the power look like it has weakened one bit. Not even the ice wall could withstand it; despite that, the auras wrapped around the needles were visibly dimmer than before. Showing the effect of the ice wall had some effect on the needles.

Unsurprisingly, another wall came to greet the rain attack once again, only this time it was a pitch black wall.

crick

Unexpectedly, the black wall actually didn’t falter under the rain attack but merely cracked.  A moment later, it disintegrated.

CRACK

But that was enough time for the three sisters to escape to another location by going through tunnels made by Fay.

Nage and Kayle just stared at the tunnels; they then looked down and saw two tunnels mysteriously opened up under them. Without hesitation, both descended into the tunnels and the tunnels closed off, making it disappear as if though it never existed.

Malita, the water mage who was hastily assigned to deal with Dray, responded to Dray’s extravagant display of power by casting a water magic of equal proportion, ‘Water Shield’. Countless small 1.5 metre in diameter shields materialised in the air in front of her. This caused her to look as if though she was submerged in water, considering the shields were transparent.

BOOOWHOOOOSSSHHH

The collision between the fire and water erupted into a scorching hot steam, with no real epicentre of this steam it covered an area of 50 metres in diameter encompassing both groups and concealing their future attacks.

Malita’s face paled, she realised the real reason behind Dray’s extravagant action and immediately Fay, along with two girls appeared behind her.

“Don’t worry Malita

GIRLS! ON ME!”

“Fay just ordered a formation order, what next?”

A voice resonated in Dray’s ears but surprisingly no one is actually nearby and the voice isn’t transmitted through mind either. The reason is the little brown mud-like stone embedded inside his ear and another tiny almost undetectable by the eye small mud under his lips.

This is Saole’s powerful and secretive creation called ‘Magic Echo’.  It wasn’t powerful in terms of offences but how it could contribute to the teamwork. With the usage of this magic that was formed from earth, the piece in his ears acts as a voice receiver from the transmitter, which is the small mud located under Dray’s lips.

Each dragon had one, with the exception of Fenit as everyone just regarded him as cannon fodder and would not let him in on the secret.

For this reason, combining Saole’s ingenious earth magic with Dray’s tactical mind, it was the main driving force behind the dragons’ fearsome reputation. Even though individually, they are powerful in their own ways, fighting in teamwork is more deadly than one on one.

Every dragons knew that except Fenit, because the person who taught them how deadly teamwork was, is Master Kenji. Although there will be an occasion where someone is impetuous, like Kusan.

Before Saole could even show off his explosive power, Kusan had already acted before him as he turned into a red light. Shooting from his previous spot like lightening and before anyone could react, had already appeared in front of Tasha.

He stared at her with eyes akin to a monstrous and unfathomable beast, with his outstretched hand howling through the air like a sword as it closed in on her neck.

Serenity also didn’t lag behind as she also turned into a white light and had already crossed the halfway distance towards Tasha with the earth wave just rising behind her before Kusan re-appeared.

Seeing how Kusan was so fixated on a different woman made her even more jealous and she couldn’t help but want to kill the girl even more. With newfound strength, her speed increased even further as she closed the distance to a metre behind Kusan.

BANG

An ear piercing explosion erupted from Kusan and Tasha’s clash, at the same time a dust storm also enveloped them.

Suddenly a figure flew from the strange explosion and entered the fog that immediately encompassed the field as well as the sisters from the Leaf.

[A/N in case someone doesn’t know, sisters refer to the ladies only Leaf Academy]