After a couple of minutes of waiting, Azzy had a challenger step onto the field.
The opponent is a prominent elder of the Blood clan who is just a step away from the legendary realm.
And he is someone familiar to Azzy.
Arley Blood was the temporary combat instructor at the academy Azzy studied in, during the past timeline. When Izora went on a mission to save the hostage from a dark organization, he replaced her as the teacher and then disappeared without giving any intimation as soon as she returned.
Azzy wasn't much of an acquaintance with Arley; hence, he didn't feel the need to hold back against him too.
Five minutes later, the battle started.
A sphere of blood was summoned in Arley's hands before it transformed into a blood saber.
Azzy, on the other hand, continued to hold the Hourglass. Instead of summoning his other Arcana, he conjured his four Protos Spears.
Observing the spears hovering above Azzy's head, Arley furrowed his brows, "the energy I sense from them is quite similar to that slimy creature Vesryn earlier summoned. This kid might be the one who worked together with his father for the creation of that skill card. That much I can understand. But, what I don't understand is why I feel like those spears are too familiar. Maybe, it is just déjà vu?"
While Arley was in deep thinking, Azzy spoke, "Mr. Blood, if you aren't attacking, then, I will."
As Arley returned to reality and responded by going into his battle stance, Azzy threw one of the Protos Spears at his opponent.
*Swooosh*
The Protos Spear cut through the air like lightning and reached him in a matter of seconds. In response, Arley swung the blood saber and struck it.
The blood saber neutralized the attack in exchange for letting the cosmic energy corrupt it.
As the blood saber turned black in no time, Arley threw it away and summoned another sphere of blood, which transformed into a blood saber once again.
Azzy analyzed it with one look. "I see… trying to destroy it is meaningless as it is formless. If I want to kill his Arcana spirit, I would have to find its core. The core might be in his body. Let's go with plan B."
He threw the remaining Protos Spears all at the same time.
Arley Blood quickly unleashed his soul skill, creating a strong blood barrier around him, shaped like a dome.
The three Protos spears struck the blood dome and spread around to corrupt the barrier.
Arley dismissed it. The blood barrier disappeared along with the protos energy that corrupted it. "Hmpf… easy…" When the barrier is slowing disappearing, he thought that he might have overestimated his opponent too much.
However, as everything disappeared, he saw Azzy's right palm facing right instead of left. And the white sand in the hourglass slowly started to fall into the other bulb.
"Soul skill: Time Loop"
He was about to move but the soul skill has already come into effect.
His surroundings were changed. He found himself on the bed as if he has just woken up. "What the hell?"
Arley couldn't help but scream, which led the doors to open and someone in maid clothes entered the room.
She greeted him with a bow, "Good morning, Sir. Is everything alright?"
"Ms. Maren?" A look of confusion appeared on Arley's face. "Was that a dream or was this a dream?"
Meanwhile, in the outside world, everyone saw Arley standing there like a statue. Azzy, on the other hand, slowly started to walk toward his opponent while conversing with the Reaper. "Are you really sure this will work?" He asked.
This was a soul skill he received the knowledge from the Reaper, back when he was in 4-star-realm but never had the chance to use it on someone or even a beast.
It is why he was not sure about its effectiveness when facing someone like Arley.
The Reaper assured him of the success and further opinionated that this soul skill is very hard to master as it involves the willpower of the opponent, not any rank.
Arley was sent into a time loop where he would spend one day of his life over and over until he finds a way to break out or someone forcefully woke him up. Thankfully for him, his Arcana spirit was also get affected and both of them can work together to break out of the illusion.
Of course, it also means that Arley will be vulnerable during this time. This was enough for Azzy to close his distance from his opponent and knock him out with consecutive powerful punches.
Because Azzy didn't hesitate in knocking him out, Arley couldn't manage to grasp the way to get out of the illusion and went into an unconscious state.
*Azrael* Azrael* Azrael* Azrael* Azrael*
The crowd got up on their feet and cheered his name as Arley was taken away by the healers.
For the clan members, it's not important how he did it. All they know is the fact that Azzy can use the hourglass of time and can knock out veterans like Albin Ash and Arley Blood without breaking a sweat.
And that is enough for the clan members to completely acknowledge Azzy's strength and give their support.
After this battle, it also became clear to the experts that Azzy isn't just a 7-star realm expert. He had skills too. No one came forward to challenge him, fearing that they might humiliate themselves for no reason.
As the time is up, Francis Blood announced, "Everyone, give a big round of applause for the new pavilion master."
Amid the cheering, Azzy returned to the seat and Francis continued as a host, giving a finishing speech, "And that brings the closure of the awakening ceremony. I pray that this New Year may bring fortune to your lives and our clan. I also pray for our monarch's success on his next adventure and wish him luck."
He turned toward his friend and bowed his head as a way of his final greeting while suppressing his sadness for he knows how dangerous Qridus' journey is going to be.
There's a high chance that this clan head might not even return.
The other sub-clan leaders were also aware of this. Hence, they too stood up from their seats and deeply bowed in the direction of Qridus. It might be their last bow, they thought.
One after another, as everyone followed the clan leaders to bow toward the frail-looking old man, the latter let out a smile and raised his hand. "Thank you."
It was the first time the clan members heard such words from their monarch and they were overwhelmed by emotions all of a sudden. Some of them couldn't help but shed tears from their eyes…
Meanwhile, Azzy was in his own world, feeling full of excitement. With his dad controlling the entire clan, he thought he can do whatever he wants to. Not that he will do any troublesome things but he just didn't like his freedom to be restricted. That's all.
The next day morning, Qridus bid farewell to the subclan leaders and his Garcia family before leaving the clan village. Vesyrn took charge as the acting monarch of the clan. Azzy took charge as the Elder of Red Pavilion.
On his first day, he gathered everyone from Red Pavilion to get to know everyone. After the introductions, the vice-elder took him on a tour and explained everything about the pavilion that Azzy needed to know.
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