"What now?" Lone mumbled. "Will he announce the challengers? I fuckin' hope to God that he won't announce each and every one. I don't have all day."

"Rather impatient, aren't you, Young Mageling?" Vice-headmaster Milos laughed as he stroked his beard.

Lone shrugged. "I want to try summoning a fire spirit later today. I've had the skill to do it for a while now, but I've never gotten around to it. I need to contract a powerful one and ask it some questions."

"Oho? You hope to contract one capable of speech? A lofty goal, Young Mageling," the archon said with a hint of praise in his tone. 'Having a high estimation of one's own ability is certainly a good thing if he can also face reality when things don't quite go his way.'

"I don't like half-assing things," Lone replied casually. 'I'm hoping the spirit that I meet can help me better understand the soul, actually. Sophie needs a new body and she needs it fast. The sooner I can get the soul end of that problem under control, the better.'

Muradon, unaware of this conversation or serious thoughts, turned his attention to the massive armies of humans and demis that had patiently been waiting as they stood there proudly in their armour and robes, clearly trying to show their best side to the outlandishly large crowd and watching Divines and royalty.

His gaze then moved to a small collection of demihumans and it stayed on them.

"Today we have five main factions representing the challengers! Two belonging to the various demihuman species and three from the humans!" Muradon exclaimed.

"Firstly, we have Matriarch Kuu Bluetail and the entirety of the Aqua Foxkin Clan save for their ancestor who is protecting their homeland!" Many people in the crowd were displeased that Muradon had decided to start with the demis, but they couldn't rightly voice out their thoughts since two of the gathered Divines were amiable monsters which the common folk tended to lump together with your typical demihumans.

Kuu Bluetail was small in stature but her 8 massive tails that were easily 4 or 5-times larger than her own body swayed powerfully.

"I might only be an SSS-ranker, Loney Boy, but I'm wiser than my cute face might suggest, stronger too. I hope that you'll take the extra effort to point of the flaws in my family's battle tactics. All I want is for my clan's horizons to grow, you see," she said before she smiled seductively.

Soph - despite her pounding headache - growled at the woman. Lone just sighed softly. "If they don't come at me with the intent to kill, then sure, I'll tell them how much they still have left to learn as I wipe the floor with them."

"Arrogance is attractive, Loney Boy, but only if you can back it up with action. I'm excited to see how you'll handle fighting over a hundred foxkin all at once," Kuu Bluetail said as she held her arms across her lacking chest and giggled faintly. "We shall not fight until everyone else who challenged you has been defeated. I doubt you and your companions shall lose to these pathetic humans nor our fellow demihumans."

Now it was Kuu's turn to be the target of everyone's scorn - the humans in particular.

"You heard her, everyone! It's refreshing to see someone here only to learn and take advantage of a great opportunity, not to end a life. Isn't that so, esteemed Divines?" Muradon asked playfully.

"Quite refreshing indeed," Erion softly said, though, like usual, everyone could hear him somehow.

None of the other Divines replied. They were keeping themselves entertained as they patiently waited to see just how powerful the rumoured 9-tailed Golden Foxkin actually was. They didn't really care for the Muradon's theatrics nor were they really affected by his unique skill.

"Ahaha, well, onto the next and final main faction representing the demis! Introducing the Light Tigerkin Clan, led by Matriarch Rangah Whitestripes and her recently-retired father, Zeeb Whitestripes - The Agile Fang!" In response to Muradon's words, practically the entire demihuman population amongst the crowd went wild with joy while some of the higher-ups from the human kingdoms shivered in fear or clicked their tongues in annoyance.

Lone's eyebrow rose. 'That reaction... is Zeeb actually pretty famous? He's a double-X-ranker, sure, in fact, he's one of the strongest leaders of the various beastkin clans. Well, former-leader I guess... Rangah's the matriarch now, huh?'

He raised his hand and waved at her then smiled. "Soph, that's Rangah. Remember when you were curious who she was back at that old castle when we stopped the war? Well, that's her."

Soph squinted her eyes and frowned. "She's fluffy. Fluffy and cute..."

"Sure, but not as cute as you. Not by a mile," Lone replied, resulting in a small blush surfacing on Soph's face.

"Still fluffier..." Soph mumbled.

Rangah noticed Lone and her expressionless face lightened up a bit before she waved back. Her two tiger tails started wagging as well.

'Oh, she grew another tail. That's cool,' Lone noted. "By the way, Milos, do you know why there's such a wild reaction to Zeeb?"

Lone didn't really care about the humans nor who they were, so he ignored Muradon's introduction of them as he asked this question.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

Vice-headmaster Milos chuckled. "Of course I don't. Do I look like a man who cares about what happens in the outside world? He's probably a skilled war veteran or ex-assassin. Something flashy like that."

"Assassin's aren't flashy..." Breena muttered under her breath. "That's kind of the point..."

Lipsilk sighed. "You're technically the emperor of Petroleum. You should be aware of notable figures like Zeeb Whitestripes."

Vice-headmaster Milos scoffed in response to that. "There are as many 'notable figures' to you as there are stars in the sky, no doubt. It takes true talent to catch my eye."

"I'll take that as a compliment," Lone said before he glanced down at his floating friend. "So who is he, exactly, Lipsilk? Why the cheers and boos?"

Lipsilk scratched one of his wings and then made a complicated face. "He collapsed a country in a little under a week all on his own."

Eolande coughed. "Wow. That's, uh... he's not a summoned hero, is he?"

Lipsilk shook his head. "Nope, he isn't. Apparently - and mind you, this is a rumour - he has an incredibly powerful world skill. Supposedly, he gained it shortly after his daughter was born. No one really knows the details, it's just a fact that once, a country with a Divine as its leader stopped existing a mere 7-days after Zeeb Whitestripes declared it would."

Lone whistled. "If that's true, then that's a skill I wanna have. Did he kill the Divine that ruled the place, or what?"

Lipsilk shrugged. "If everything's true, yeah, he did. Divine Capture definitely died, that's for sure."

"Divine Capture? What a disgusting-sounding name," Swind said off-handedly.

"Nyehehe, you're right about that, Swind. She was known for enslaving everything she ever came into contact with. She was the only free person in her entire kingdom," Lipsilk said with a laugh, though he certainly wasn't happy.

"That makes a lot of sense," Lone stated. "Demihumans must love him while humans hate him for serving such a devastating blow against slavery."

"Yeah, more or less. He takes it in stride though. Even since that short week 11-years-ago, he's been wearing that exact same smile. That's what I've heard since I left the Eastern World Tree, anyway," Lipsilk said.

"Looks like a mask to me, not a smile," Lone noted cynically. "Thanks for the info, pal."

"It's no trouble," Lipsilk answered with a kind grin on his lips.

Vice-headmaster Milos couldn't help a snore from escaping his lips, accidentally waking himself up. "Oh? Ah, looks like he finally stoppled drabbling on. Honestly, holding my body in place with space magic is such a tedious thing to do, but I can't be dropping this little one, now can I?"

The archon was referring to Muradon the All-mage, not Lipsilk, though Lipsilk still acted like he'd been the one to get slighted as he frowned.

"Now, moving on to the rules of the contest..."

Vice-headmaster Milos let out a sorrowful groan. "Looks like I misspoke... Well, back to sleep I go. Wake me when he's done like a good disciple now would you, Young Mageling?"

"Haha, sure, just remember that you're dead if you drop her," Lone said in a serious tone as he reached over and stroked Kyuubi's head gently.

"Yes, yes. Have a bit more faith in my space magic, would you?" the old man suggested a bit bitterly before he dozed off.

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"I was expecting a brawl, to be honest. Just one side against the other until one wins," Vice-headmaster Merkel said to Headmaster Erion who was sat next to her in his private Divine booth.

"I felt it was fairer to scale it down a little bit," he answered simply.

Vice-headmaster Merkel frowned. "What do you have planned, Erion? It can't be as simple as this. Each wanderer only takes on the ones who want to fight them? What nonsense. Even with Lone taking on Sophie's burden in light of her apparent 'poor health', it shan't be an entertaining display. The Divines will be disappointed if that is all that you, that foolish archon, and your pitiful disciple have planned."

"Ah, there's no need to worry yourself, Merkel. Primals forbid you gain even more wrinkles." That comment almost made a vein burst in her head. "My disciple thought of something rather interesting for the show's finale."

"I should hope so," Vice-headmaster said with venom in her tone.

This was a perfect chance for the students of The Academy to appeal to so many powerful and influential people, plus, it was the perfect opportunity to see Lone put in his place. At least, that's what Vice-headmaster Merkel thought.

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First up on the roster was Breena against her challengers. There were only 37 people that had bothered to challenge her, five of which were demihumans.

Apparently, she wasn't a very popular choice. She didn't care, however. 'I need to make this exciting... I don't like being looked at, but Master surely wouldn't want me to end the fight immediately... S-Should I imitate him?'

Breena straightened her back the stood sideways before arrogantly motioning with her hand for her challengers to approach her. "You should all come at me at once if you want to win."

Lone almost immediately facepalmed. "First you, Soph, now Breena too... Why do you both think it's smart to act like me?"

Soph pouted. "B-Because watching you fight is usually fun... P-Past my worry that you'll get hurt, anyway..."

"Just because I toy with my prey, that doesn't mean you guys have to as well. I have a real reason to beyond it being 'fun', you guys don't," Lone sighed.

Regardless, he wasn't the only one to react to Breena's actions and words. A young girl from The Academy who was actually a fellow classmate from Breena's fire magic class stepped forward and frowned.

"We do not need to be made a fool out of by someone as weak as you! You may be an A-ranker, but everyone knows that you are awfully dreadful at magic, so having the help of a Primal skill or not, I alone am enough to defeat you!" the girl with curly blonde hair said as she held her hip with hand and her wand with the other.

"Ember Snare!" The runes on her wand lit up brightly and then three tendrils of fire shot out of the floor at Breena's feet before they coiled around her small frame and began squeezing her.

The girl scoffed in confidence. "We, Arfelia mul Destro, second daughter to Count Destro, lord of the Destro county and humble servant of King Vehell of the Nostolan Kingdom, shall show you the difference between an elite noble of the humans and a princess of the beastkin!"

Lone rolled his eyes as the crowd started going wild. 'Sheesh, what an introduction. I wonder how many of the challengers are nobles? Not many, I hope. I'll die of boredom if I have to hear many more long-winded introductions.'

Breena didn't reply to the insulting declaration. Instead, she simply... disappeared. Melding into the shadow's was her greatest power, so meld with them she did.

The Ember Snare tendrils flailed about wrathfully upon their target having vanished, which was a surprise to most spectators.

"What's this?! Breena has managed to escape the powerful magic of a 4th-year student of The Academy who has almost mastered the basics of fire magic!" Muradon excitedly said.

The next moment, Breena slinked out of Arfelia's shadow and stood behind the girl who was a little bit taller than herself. "I too, possess a snare-type skill," she said in a dark and chilling tone, but the magic of the arena allowed all of the audience to hear her. "Shadow Snare."

A dark and powerful purple hand shot out of Arfelia's chest and then tightly wound its fingers around her neck. Not a few seconds later, she had passed out.

Breena travelled through the shadows once again to create some distance between herself and her shocked challengers. "Come at me all at once," she ordered, motioning with her hand once more.